I had an extra two cents here on my desk, so I thought I would throw it in.  Consider the fact that if someone clicked that "apply now" button on the Careers page Ryan linked to right this minute, even if they were the ideal candidate and they lived within commuting distance of CW, it would be at least 6 weeks and probably two months before they walked in the door on their first day of employment.  Before anybody would want them on the phone it would probably require at least another 6 - 8 weeks of intense training.  They would have to know not only how to drive Sonar, but also how to figure out why things aren't working for any particular person.  They could probably start on e-mailed issues, but the last thing you want as a customer is to finally reach someone in support on the telephone and quickly realize that you know more than they do.  So, even in the best of situations it's a four month process from when you start looking for a support person to when that person is making a noticeable difference. And people who are qualified for this kind of work are not all that easy to find and attract.
 
I have worked for hardware and software providers to the television broadcast industry for my career.  These are products that are crucial elements in the air chain, 24 x 7, where even a 10 second interruption costs the broadcaster thousands of dollars.  I have never seen any of these companies correctly anticipate the need for and ramp up technical support before it was actually required.  So, as frustrating as it is for us users, try to make use of resources like the good folks here on the forum while the good folks at Cakewalk paddle furiously to catch up with the demand.

Why doesn't Cakewalk pay some of the guys on here for doing support?

Ryan Munnis [Cakewalk]
The problem is quite simple. Demand is by far greater than supply at the moment.
 
We have been and still are hiring and training. http://www.cakewalk.com/Careers/Gigs
 
Convoluting what's going on internally at Cakewalk beyond that is purely conjecture. Support is extremely important and there's nobody at Cakewalk trying to argue with that. As far as internal operations, we cannot disclose information beyond what I've stated here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Cakewalk-Support-Update-m3428520.aspx
 
I realize this post was created back in June, but that doesn't mean it's not honest and forthcoming. Steps have been and still are being taken to turn the situation around.
 
 

If this is your way of apologizing to your user base for a huge shortcoming... you need to hire a PR person.

Anderton

PilotGav

Anderton
 
Last time I asked, the biggest support bottleneck is new hires and training of same. I'm pretty sure Cakewalk underestimated how many new users there would be as a result of the lifetime updates offer, so now they have to scramble to deal with it. 

If your going to answer, I'd really appreciate a response without defensiveness. Asking a company to provide Technical support for a mission critical product isn't wrong. It's time for Cakewalk to take this issue seriously.

I have no idea how you could possibly infer from my response that I said asking a company to provide technical support is wrong, but since you did...
 
You didn't quote the primary reason for my post, which was to address the theory that Cakewalk was spending their money on a Mac port instead of support. That is not true.
 
So if that isn't the cause, I assumed people might want to know what the bottleneck is about, which is why I mentioned that it's about hiring and training more people. I don't see how that could be interpreted as blowing off the need for support or being defensive.
 
As to "it's time for Cakewalk to take this issue seriously," I think hiring more people for support shows that they are. But you just can't post "looking for support people" and a month later, someone's taking phone calls. Technical support requires a specialized skill set and the finding, hiring, and training processes take time. As to hiring people from the forums part-time, the paperwork alone regarding employment - even part-time - is significant. For example, just bringing over the editors at Harmony Central from Guitar Center to Gibson took two months, and we didn't even have to find or train them. It all involved accounting, employment paperwork, Federal and State requirements, dealing with two people who didn't live in Tennessee, salary negotiations, getting formal approvals after the interview processes were complete, determining insurance and benefits plans, etc. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sigh. Another Craig defensive post. I think I'll go through the forums, copy and paste them all, and make a book.
 
;-)

With modern technology a link to the call support database and an IP phone support can be anywhere these days. You have three levels. 3rd level guys can be based in Boston. I am sure most of the issues can be answered by the 1st and 2nd level people.They are employed by  cakewalk and sign the normal no-disclosure documents. Remember we were promised free support but that is no good if no one  is available to  answer the phone. All companies need a good support team. Have people in different countries to  allow for the different time zones. Even if they cannot  fix the problem at least the customer will get a feel good factor that someone  will call him back and someone is trying to get an answer to the problem. Getting no reply will be not work and will only damage the company in the long therm.

PilotGav

Anderton
 
Last time I asked, the biggest support bottleneck is new hires and training of same. I'm pretty sure Cakewalk underestimated how many new users there would be as a result of the lifetime updates offer, so now they have to scramble to deal with it. 

If your going to answer, I'd really appreciate a response without defensiveness. Asking a company to provide Technical support for a mission critical product isn't wrong.

 
I still don't see how anything I said could be represented as saying that I think it's wrong to ask a company to provide technical support for a mission critical product. This is the second time I've asked. If you're going to answer, I would appreciate...an answer  
 
Furthermore, to say Cakewalk underestimated the need for support, so now they have to scramble to deal with it, sure sounds like a critique to me...as it probably did to most people who took what I said at face value.
 

Sigh. Another Craig defensive post. I think I'll go through the forums, copy and paste them all, and make a book.

 
Good idea, I'll give you a cut you of the royalties . It would help some people understand what goes on behind the scenes at companies, and the reasons why particular decisions and tradeoffs are made. 
 
I think most people appreciate (or at least understand) that my posts on this subject are fact-based, and intended to be educational. I tried to explain how a process works that apparently most people have not encountered, and therefore don't know what's involved. Obviously someone like RonCaird does, but I assume he's in the minority.
 
For the record: I think all companies should have the goal of providing wonderful and timely tech support, including Cakewalk. I also know what can interfere with that goal. Explaining those facts doesn't negate that the goal is desirable, nor does it provide a reason why companies should not continue to strive for that goal.
 
 

fitzj
Why doesn't Cakewalk pay some of the guys on here for doing support?

 
There are excellent reasons not to do so, but so that no one can get on my case about being "defensive," I'll PM you with the answer.
 
 
 

RonCaird
I had an extra two cents here on my desk, so I thought I would throw it in.  Consider the fact that if someone clicked that "apply now" button on the Careers page Ryan linked to right this minute, even if they were the ideal candidate and they lived within commuting distance of CW, it would be at least 6 weeks and probably two months before they walked in the door on their first day of employment.  Before anybody would want them on the phone it would probably require at least another 6 - 8 weeks of intense training.  They would have to know not only how to drive Sonar, but also how to figure out why things aren't working for any particular person.  They could probably start on e-mailed issues, but the last thing you want as a customer is to finally reach someone in support on the telephone and quickly realize that you know more than they do.  So, even in the best of situations it's a four month process from when you start looking for a support person to when that person is making a noticeable difference. And people who are qualified for this kind of work are not all that easy to find and attract.
 
I have worked for hardware and software providers to the television broadcast industry for my career.  These are products that are crucial elements in the air chain, 24 x 7, where even a 10 second interruption costs the broadcaster thousands of dollars.  I have never seen any of these companies correctly anticipate the need for and ramp up technical support before it was actually required.  So, as frustrating as it is for us users, try to make use of resources like the good folks here on the forum while the good folks at Cakewalk paddle furiously to catch up with the demand.

This is a pretty accurate assessment. Ryan mentioned this earlier but we had support staff moving on to other opportunities, some even outside the country. While this in itself is normal (support is not typically a long term role in most companies) this happened in a very short space of time leading to the queue getting backlogged. To resolve this backlog, in addition to seeking to hire permanent replacement staff we have contracted out some e-mail support to load balance. Additionally, Gibson will now be assisting with some support issues directly from the corporate office. 
 
While these steps should suffice, all of these initiatives take time, training and draw resources from our existing support staff as well. As a result it is taking some time to get to a point of normalcy. Once the backlog is cleared and new staff is in place and fully trained, things should return to normal. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused but this situation was out of our control. Fortunately this forum is a great resource and many if not most problems can be resolved by peer support until things normalize.
 
 

Don't forget about the FAQs and the Knowledgebase. They cover a lot of common issue, and can expose a solution faster than waiting for someone in the forum to respond, or even contacting tech support directly.

How many telephone tech support cases were responded to today?
Not too long ago you could get a support person on the line in less than an hour. Now it takes approximately three months. So, a conservative estimate of demand outstripping supply of tech support would suggest that Sonar has increased it's sales by a factor of 90. That's pretty impressive. I guess Gibson will easily make its 36 million dollar payment in December and have no problem coming up with double that next year. Way to go!