Just FYI - this is an old thread. The new tech support people have now been at Cakewalk for a while, the backlog of support tickets has been reduced by about 80%, the flood of new users are getting up to speed, and support is functional again. Although there are still tweaks that need to be made for optimizing support in the future, at this point the main issues are in the rear-view mirror.  

Anderton
Just FYI - this is an old thread. The new tech support people have now been at Cakewalk for a while, the backlog of support tickets has been reduced by about 80%, the flood of new users are getting up to speed, and support is functional again. Although there are still tweaks that need to be made for optimizing support in the future, at this point the main issues are in the rear-view mirror.  

Are you serious, man? There are still NO PHONE SLOTS, and it's been like that going on 6 months now.
 
I'm sure I'm about to get chewed up by the wolf pack, but this fluff is beyond the pale.

telecharge

Anderton
Just FYI - this is an old thread. The new tech support people have now been at Cakewalk for a while, the backlog of support tickets has been reduced by about 80%, the flood of new users are getting up to speed, and support is functional again. Although there are still tweaks that need to be made for optimizing support in the future, at this point the main issues are in the rear-view mirror.  

Are you serious, man? There are still NO PHONE SLOTS, and it's been like that going on 6 months now.
 
I'm sure I'm about to get chewed up by the wolf pack, but this fluff is beyond the pale.

Are you serious this is "fluff"? These are facts. Do the math. I said the backlog has been reduced by 80%. That means 20% are still outstanding so of course, there will still be waiting times until the ENTIRE backlog is gone. But the 80% of high-priority cases have been resolved. Furthermore, you're seeing few, if any, complaint posts about unresolved issues, and recently there have been posts praising the speed of support. 
 
I said "there are still tweaks that need to be made for optimizing support in the future" - do you disagree with that?
 
I also said "at this point the main issues are in the rear-view mirror." Because they are. The main issues were a huge backlog and a lack of support people. The backlog continues to be whittled away, and the support people have been hired. Furthermore additional support people were contracted to work on the backlog.
 
Fluff? I think not.

Anderton
 
Fluff? I think not.

Then answer me this since your posts are written in your "personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cakewalk Inc. or Gibson Brands Inc." How should a potential/existing Cakewalk customer evaluate Cakewalk's support?

Never had a problem with Cake support.  If they're getting hit hard lets cut them some slack.  Besides the forum is such a great resource.  Give us a try.

telecharge

Anderton
 
Fluff? I think not.

Then answer me this since your posts are written in your "personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cakewalk Inc. or Gibson Brands Inc." How should a potential/existing Cakewalk customer evaluate Cakewalk's support?

Since you didn't dispute any of my facts, I'll move on to your next question.
 
The answer depends if that potential/existing user wants to look at the company's history, or the past few months. It also depends on whether they view the forum (which has participation from Cakewalk staff) as a viable support option, whether they take advantage of the FAQs before deciding they absolutely HAVE to have a phone call, or do a search on help. Think of all the posts here on basic issues that are answered in the FAQs or the documentation. If people don't read them, is that Cakewalk's fault?
 
I hardly ever use support in general because over the years, my support experience with almost all companies (Waves, PC Audio Labs, and Sweetwater are notable exceptions) has been sufficiently discouraging that I don't even bother. Also many of the options are costly. I haven't had any issue with any software or hardware in the past several years that couldn't be resolved by asking the internet.

konradh
If it helps, reading about the US Presidential election might make this seem less serious.

Now that is funny and true...

Anderton

Since you didn't dispute any of my facts, I'll move on to your next question.

 
Since you don't speak in an official capacity, how do we know they're facts?
 

Anderton
The answer depends if that potential/existing user wants to look at the company's history, or the past few months. It also depends on whether they view the forum (which has participation from Cakewalk staff) as a viable support option

 
That is a matter of opinion and cannot be argued objectively. There are not nearly enough dedicated, official Cakewalk staff here, in my opinion.
 
I'm going to bail on this thread for now.
 
I have nothing but respect and appreciation for your technical prowess, but I hope you can understand how difficult it is to determine whether you're speaking in an official capacity or not.

Not sure why some people are having trouble getting a response from Cakewalk support, but I can report that my own recent contact with Cakewalk support, on 09/19/16, was answered and resolved rather quickly by Cakewalks support staff.  Luckily, my issue, which had to do with the greyed out "Insert Synth" button, was addressed in the next patch.  It did however, take a few emails back and forth, to get to point of the problem.  All of which  were responded to in a timely manner.  
 
Just a thought, but maybe the new monthly update model, has put a temporary strain on the number of Cakewalks support staff, available to respond to emails and phone support.  It's probably easy for Cakewalk to hire someone to reply to support emails, and take phone calls, but they still need to go to the "code gurus" to get the actual answers to the problems.  Those guys are all busy on getting the next update out, which may be the reason for the slower response times.  If this is the case, then support should only get better, as more support staff learn the ropes at Cakewalk.  

Personally I have never found the need to contact Cakewalk support as the forum has been very helpful in answering any questions I needed. I don't agree with any call to boycott Cakewalk products. Just my 2 bits worth.