bitman
Got an email this morning that they are hiring support reps.
 
Coders too btw.

let's hope they're additional employees, and not just replacements!

andertonSo if multiple support people reach the end of their shelf life at the same time and bail ("I'm leaving, I got a much better job - catching rabid dogs"), you have to find replacements quickly. However then they have to be trained.

bbach...at a time that the parent company is having a financial downgrade...

 
I guess you missed my reply the last time you posted that. In any event, the success of the 2016 guitars notwithstanding (which did not factor into the Moody's report), Cakewalk is a separate division that's responsible for its own finances. 
 

The "off the hook" surge in sales will be short lived if this situation is not resolved satisfactorily in short order.

 
As I already pointed out, more support people and developers are being hired. Hiring more support people seems like a logical way to address the need for hiring more support people.
 

I guess the people who are getting fairly prompt help are just not posting.

 
This is an internet forum; few people post about things that are working properly. As to "Most people seeking tech support are not abusive, even when extremely frustrated." I would agree that most people are not abusive, but the significant number of ones who are poison the process as much as abusive posters poison forums. Just look at the mean-spirited comments here when people are upset about something, and about how Cakewalk's developers don't know what they're doing,the company knows nothing about quality control, there will never be any fixes to staff view, they don't know how to run a business, they're going to promise monthly updates but just take everyone's money and not deliver anything, they're going to change SONAR's name next year so they won't have to do any more liftetime updates, etc. Then imagine those people talking on the phone...and imagine support people trying to reason with them.
 
That hasn't changed in all the years I've worked with support people and seen what they go through, going back to the days of Passport Designs and Master Tracks Pro. The Gibson support team keeps recordings of their interactions. I've often thought of starting a thread on Harmony Central with transcripts of some of the greatest hits. You wouldn't believe it. My favorite for today was the customer yelling at one of the guys in support because Guitar Center shipped him a Fender guitar instead of the Gibson he ordered. He couldn't quite grasp the concept that it really wasn't Gibson's responsibility to check up on whether Guitar Center was shipping the right guitars. Because it was a Gibson guitar he didn't get, it was clearly and obviously Gibson's fault, and it was up to the Gibson customer service person to make it right. 
 
If I wasn't about to go home I'd post the mother of all tech support stories, which happened to Passport Designs. Maybe I'll find time later on.

If the issue is that Technical Support has a high turnover due to the stress of unpleasant customers as has been intimated previously, perhaps higher compensation or other retention strategies should be considered.
 
In my case, I am beginning to care less about Technical Support and more about Accounting, whom I hope will promptly process the refund for Rapture Pro that I will request when my patience is soon exhausted. In my 34 years as a Cakewalk user, this is the first time I have been in a situation like this.

I am having a similar issue.  I used to be able to call in and talk to someone.  Now you you have schedule a call back and every time I attempt to schedule a time, there are no time slots.   I understand people are being hired and trained but this isn't working.  There should be some type of option if all the slots are filled.  I've used cakewalk products since the beginning and one of the best things about it was the access to technical support.  Not having tech support readily available and with this flawed scheduling system, that is very disappointing.
 
Joe
 

This terrifies me. I am on X3 Producer about to upgrade to the Platinum lifetime. I have 3 big [for me] projects coming up the back half of this year. I wanted to upgrade and use it for the projects but the lack of support should I run into a problem gives me pause. What would be the point of paying to upgrade if I wont be using the upgrade to do these projects or if issues and lack of support will put me behind in my time frame on these projects.

stm113cw
This terrifies me. I am on X3 Producer about to upgrade to the Platinum lifetime. I have 3 big [for me] projects coming up the back half of this year. I wanted to upgrade and use it for the projects but the lack of support should I run into a problem gives me pause. What would be the point of paying to upgrade if I wont be using the upgrade to do these projects or if issues and lack of support will put me behind in my time frame on these projects.

you have no support for X3 either. im not sure I understand your argument.
support already expired for X3, so what do you do now ? use the forums.
I understand your concern but X3 and platinum have a lot of similarity's.
we will be here

Had I known there was no phone support I would not have renewed my $99 annual subscription. This is really starting to feel like a rip off. I have a 2-month old unresolved issue that was supposedly elevated to a higher level tech-support. I have heard nothing since. Cakewalk's CEO should send an email to its subscribers explaining what is going on. That would be the right thing to do. I almost upgraded to platinum. Glad that I didn't. At least Studio One returned my phone calls and emails.

easyjoey
I'm very frustrated as well.  i would rather pay the yearly upgrade fee and have phone support instead of the run-around we are getting.   Again, I love the product but this lack of tech-support is nonsense.  I have tried for a couple weeks to schedule a call and no times are available.  Emailing cakewalk is a waste of time.   I hope someone is listening.  Cakewalk has come so far but this issue could undo all of that.
 
Joe

im not tech support, but is there anything I can help you with ?
Start a new thread, i'll be the first one there.

RVR64
Rendering to an MP3 used to work, however, since the last SPLAT update, it no longer does. Can't seem to call support nor get an email answer... any suggestions other than changing platforms?
 
Had pro audio 9 but disc and serial number for that got accidently discarded.
 
John

Hi. I use the mp3 patch made by Aaron. It can be found here
All the best.
Edit: Directd download https://app.box.com/s/op4w4so2u3orjkv2hh9ix3hryg3y23sd//
 

I don't think he has a legit copy of a product to get support. He references Pro Audio 9.

bigfrog
On the other hand technical support does appear to be dead.

"Oh no! All of our agents are booked!"

rworkman
My thoughts exactly. The first time a ran TH3, all was fine. The next session, NONE of the components were available. It prompted me to authorize. I clicked the authorize button, and of course it asked for a serial, so I canceled, and clicked the run as demo, which gave me 15 days. I ran till that until it expired, and had to do it again, while I still wait for a response from cake.

In TH3 make sure that you are using the Cakewalk presets. Uncheck the "see all " in the upper left hand "banks" section box and you will only see the banks that come with the version of TH3 that Sonar comes with. They include many banks that you must purchase or upgrade to use. When you try to use the banks that don't come free with Sonar then you will get activation messages. Don't know why it seems to default to "see all" when you can't use all. This is very confusing!

I didn't even bother calling as I recognize my issue probably would not be resolved via the phone...
 
I submitted a ticket 3 weeks ago and all I got was a link to the online help, when I said that did not help (I was more than aware of the help and the level of detail in my ticket should have tipped them off to that) I did not hear anything for a week.  Then I followed up and got an email reply telling me to try again after the latest Sonar update, when I said that did not help I did not hear anything for a week.  Then I followed up and got an email reply telling me that my ticket was escalated to so-and-so.  I replied thanks and I did not hear anything for a week, then I followed up and that was 3 days ago and still have not heard anything.
 
At this point I just want the $200 I spent six weeks back for the Platinum upgrade as its incompatible with some of my hardware.

Tenfoot - The fact that i can't get 64-bit Sonar to run on my 16-bit OS is driving me nuts!!!   ;)

Coming back to original subject post re support - I have been having all sorts of difficulties with me upgrade to SONAR Platinum since I grabbed the life-time support option. Had Sonar Pro before this.  I am not a 'heavy' user this being more a pastime where I spend sometime doodling around with all the gear that I have.
 
I too could not schedule a "call", email support did respond within 3 days of my initial request, and I give them credit for that.  They did continue to respond a bit following that, then the support person I was dealing with said he had to pass on my problem to someone else, maybe it went beyond his level of expertise.  After that, no news, nothing in the mail, no support!
 
Surely the team at SONAR has tested the s/ware in all or most conventional conceivable setups - and I can imagine there are a gazillion such hardware configurations out there.  Having a system where Professional worked well enough that I never had to complain for the relatively simple work I started off with, I was completely surprised and upset when the upgrade failed so miserably!  BSOD every time I attempt to fire up Platinum. After that I even reinstalled Pro but that refuses to work now as well!