Greetings Friends,
 
We're excited to share with you a new change to how we offer phone support that we'll be rolling out on April 11th.
 
No more waiting on hold.
 
If you have a support issue for a currently supported product starting on April 11th you will be able to schedule a day and time for your favorite support rep to call you.
 
Mini-FAQ
What is happening to the existing support phone number?
It's going away. You'll still be able to call it but instead of a human (or hold music) you'll get a greeting informing you to visit http://www.cakewalk.com/support
 
Why are you doing this?
Customer feedback has told us that:
 a] Waiting on hold sucks
 b] It is impossible to get a genre of hold music that makes everybody happy
 c] Our availability is sub-optimal*
 d] Waiting on hold sucks even more if the rep can't spend quality time with you because there are 35 other people on hold
 
* Starting on the 11th we don't have plans to change available call times just yet however this change does make it possible for us to do that in the future. Staffing support queues is hard to get right - one day we might get 30 calls the next day 300. This change lets us forecast support demand and allows support reps to assist folks over the phone at different times of the day without having to 'open the floodgates' of a queue. 
 
Is there any limit to how many calls I can schedule?
Yes, you can only schedule one (1) call at a time. If the problem you're experiencing is more complex or requires additional details we'll happily follow-up with either another phone call or over email if we need to collect files from you or send over troubleshooting steps or instructions.
 
What products are supported over the phone?
As of today (April 1st, 2016) the following products currently get phone support: 

• SONAR Platinum with an active membership
• SONAR Professional with an active membership
• SONAR Artist with an active membership
• Music Creator 7
• Dimension Pro
• Rapture Pro
• Z3TA+ 2

Historically we have supported the most recent versions of SONAR and current instruments over the phone. With that in mind, the phone support windows for Z3TA+ 2 and Dimension Pro are sunsetting quickly and will probably not be offered much longer. Both of these will continue to be supported via email.
 
Along with the update for this change your product list on http://www.cakewalk.com/My-Account/Products will include new iconography to indicate which products qualify for phone and email support.
 
Let us know what you think or if you have any questions. Myself and Dean will be watching this thread and I'll try to keep the mini-faq updated.

is this US only? or do you also call back to the old world?

FreeFlyBertl
is this US only? or do you also call back to the old world?

At this time we aren't explicitly preventing international numbers, that is however subject to change. Outside of the US, Cakewalk Support is typically provided by the distributor.
 
Our availability will still be based on US Eastern Time so that might mean staying up late or getting up early depending on how you party if you'd still prefer to work with Cakewalk rather than your local distributor.

I  would be willing to bet I will still get many answers here faster. Not complaining at ALL, just a kudo to the forum..

Being able to call support and work with a tech is a Big Plus for Cakewalk and the Customer.
 
When I call Support it is because I need to speak with someone Now. I have never been on hold for over a few minutes and I don't mind the little piano background ditty/music while I'm waiting. It gives me time to arrange my data and formulate my questions prior to speaking with the tech.
 
Many times the tech can help me solve my issue or provide a workaround to keep me working. Other times they will have to elevate it which is when I rarely receive an answer or fix.
 
The important thing to me is knowing, when I call, I will get to speak with someone within a few minutes and they will either confirm the issue or let me know I need to do more research on my end. I am concerned about this Call Back program as it will catch me off guard and the issue will no longer be foremost in my mind, my system will probably already be turned off and I will be engaged with some other project.
 
Also, I do Not answer phone calls from unknown numbers unless a voice mail is left stating who's calling, why they are calling, and a phone number is left for me to call them back and there would most likely be other Customers that have this same policy. This now turns your Customers need for tech support into a game of phone tag... 
 
I have not experienced any of the issues listed above from your Customer feedback so I personally struggle with the 'Why' this is happening. I do know that other software vendors that have removed phone support no longer get any of my money or very little of it. I guess I have a general concern that several things have been changing with Cakewalk that just do not feel right so this would just be one more broken straw for me.
 
Hopefully a little more thought can be put into this process prior to its implementation.
 
Kind regards,
Rick Tucker

charlyg
I  would be willing to bet I will still get many answers here faster. Not complaining at ALL, just a kudo to the forum..

I agree there is a wealth of information on this forum. The first thing I do after breakfast is to check the forum and usually pick up some tidbit or if I have a problem with something with Sonar, I ask and I receive.
 
I've called Cakewalk support once and that was to do with an account problem and that was quickly addressed.
 
Walt

rtucker55, I *think* that the intent of this is you get to schedule your support call - say 10 am on Friday.  So if you know that they will call at 10 am you can plan on answering and have your stuff prepped.
 
Nothing beats instant gratification, and it sounds like you have had extremely good experiences with Cake support, but I think this flexibility is going to make Cake support more efficient and effective.

I'm going to offer 24/7 support via phone for free*
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*shipping and handling per call will be $1,749.83.
 
"I cannot say fairer than that" ~Jonbouy

1) I've never had a problem getting through.
 
2) I've never felt like the support personnel were rushing to get me off the line. Quite the opposite on some occasions (nice guys).
 
3) I seriously hope you guys aren't going to completely deny help to those who's memberships have lapsed (within reason).
 
4) If you guys stayed on top of emails more efficiently there would be far less call volume.
 
So yeah, this is a good idea IF you still continued to take calls as well.
 
The suggestion being, keep things as is BUT allow the user to access this callback service if they want. Something like "We are experiencing a high volume of calls at the moment. Press (X) to set up a time for a support representative to call you back."
 
Removing direct phone support would be yet another move in the wrong direction IMO. I have always relied on phone support due to the fact emails seem far less effective at getting a response. I don't call often but when I do it's important and as mentioned above by rtucker I have all my info ready to go and the problem at the forefront of my mind. Waiting on a callback would not work nearly as well especially considering I usually can't get to the phone very quickly (because I'm a gimp) and generally let it go to voicemail.
 
Please consider these issues.
 
Thank you.
 
PS: ...and I don't like giving out my phone number willy nilly.

dwardzala
rtucker55, I *think* that the intent of this is you get to schedule your support call - say 10 am on Friday.  So if you know that they will call at 10 am you can plan on answering and have your stuff prepped.
 
Nothing beats instant gratification, and it sounds like you have had extremely good experiences with Cake support, but I think this flexibility is going to make Cake support more efficient and effective.

I guess I did not see the part about being able to schedule a call at some relatively exact time. I don't think it would work that way if Customers are scheduling the tech guy/s to call them as they could all be asking for a call - say 10 am on Friday. I appreciate your positive reply Dave but it is highly unlikely that it will work that way.