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Post by Drew @ UA on Dec 10, 2020 13:59:35 GMT -6
So you're good to go? So what is the actual issue then? What resolution are you seeking? Why am I here? Did you see my next post? And the smiley face? BTW, one of the best actors of our generation.
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Post by phantom on Dec 10, 2020 14:22:40 GMT -6
James Franco - one of the best actors of our generation
Someone is super sarcastic today.
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Post by Drew @ UA on Dec 10, 2020 15:03:01 GMT -6
James Franco - one of the best actors of our generation Someone is super sarcastic today.
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Post by wiz on Dec 12, 2020 19:32:26 GMT -6
The replacement interface is installed and (touch wood) is sounding and running great. This has been not the best of times, but hopefully it is over. To celebrate, here is a tune done on the Apollo x8.... I love the sound and workflow of the Apollo, and it is by far the best sounding interface I have had... Here's to many years of flawless performance eh? 8) To celebrate the return ... I thought I would share a song done on the Apollo X. It just seems right to me, to share this one.... Its one of my favourite songs I have ever written/recorded. www.dropbox.com/s/1vd6httcj3usbq6/Save%20Me%20From%20Me%20-%20knight_peter%40dodo.com.au.wav?dl=0This is the song "Save me from me" ... it is an extremely personal song and one of the few completely autobiographical songs, most I write have some artistic license but this one is all intensely true. I had a complete nervous breakdown a couple of years back, and got as a present out of it, anxiety.... which is no fun. I found a female psychiatrist , who literally "Saved me from me". I placed my complete trust in her and the process and overcame it, and though I still live with it, I cope and function and have a different outlook on life. If anyone of you guys suffer from anxiety and or depression, I encourage you to seek professional help and know that you can always reach out to me as one who has been through it and has a great deal of empathy for your situation... Cheers Wiz
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 12, 2020 22:55:51 GMT -6
A simple but deep performance and production, sparse but melodic, and engaging.
Thank you for posting and sharing, Peter, I hope you draw strength from that. I much prefer the vulnerability of a real song over modern day drivel about essentially nothing of substance or weight, unlike your song.
So glad, your Apollo is back and running, so you can focus on recording not problems!
Matt
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Post by Martin John Butler on Dec 12, 2020 23:39:28 GMT -6
UAD customer service used to be good. You had to push a little, but they usually got on with it and helped out. Intermittent issues are a drag, but if you sent a video showing the issue, there should be no discussion. They either know what it is and fix it, fast, or send you a new one. I'm sorry to hear this Peter. I have one interface too, the Apollo X6, if it had an issue, I couldn't afford a replacement.
I'm glad it finally worked out.
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Post by ChaseUTB on Dec 13, 2020 1:57:43 GMT -6
Good news that you are up & running w/ replacement Apollo. Happy to hear!
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Post by wiz on Dec 15, 2020 18:39:17 GMT -6
Had posted earlier that I was receiving A replacement unit before you started asking me to contact support. I thought you might of been asking me to contact support because universal audio wanted to follow up the problems I had and fix the support chain but I guess that’s not the case Sorry, I missed that. I thought your issue was unresolved. No, it very much is the case, me escalating it will bring it to the attention of the needed people. Thanks for tagging me in the thread. Well, I contacted UA support, and explained that you had asked me to contact them on the ticket number you gave me....so I could help with my experience, and perhaps help improve UA's support chain.... The reply I got was .... Sorry you feel you got subpar support from UA. Thanks for the feedback. Let me know if you have any more questions. ............... No interest whatsoever in what happened, when , who , why... nada bupkis. All along, I have tried to be mindful, helpful, patient... UA has no interest in trying to resolve ANY of the issues I had or faced during the MONTHS of the issue. Even after Drew getting involved. With the possible exception of an Australian Microphone Manufacturer, this is THE WORST customer service I have had in the Pro Audio industry. No matter what I try to do , to help, I am brick walled. Wiz
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Post by jampa on Dec 15, 2020 20:21:53 GMT -6
Well, I contacted UA support, and explained that you had asked me to contact them on the ticket number you gave me....so I could help with my experience, and perhaps help improve UA's support chain.... The reply I got was .... Sorry you feel you got subpar support from UA. Thanks for the feedback. Let me know if you have any more questions. ............... No interest whatsoever in what happened, when , who , why... nada bupkis. All along, I have tried to be mindful, helpful, patient... UA has no interest in trying to resolve ANY of the issues I had or faced during the MONTHS of the issue. Even after Drew getting involved. With the possible exception of an Australian Microphone Manufacturer, this is THE WORST customer service I have had in the Pro Audio industry. No matter what I try to do , to help, I am brick walled. Wiz I hate that eh. Happy to take your money. Won't take any responsibility. Sorry that happened Wiz Has put me off UA. Was looking to convert over but yea nah
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Post by ChaseUTB on Dec 15, 2020 21:20:24 GMT -6
Yikes 😳 that’s rude. Guess UAD CS has changed. Maybe I’m wrong cuz of written text on a forum but the UA guy Drew seemed very sarcastic in a few replies.
Replying “ so what is the problem “ after multiple months of UAD & dealer dodging Wiz. Wiz explaining his issues 3+ times posting all his CS ticket #s.
After all that I would feel like UAD is antagonizing me when I have been a loyal advocating supporting UAD customer & provided proof of defect.
Drew insisting Wiz to reply to CS ticket to report it “ up the chain “ after Wiz has let it go only makes the awkward / rude response back to Wiz worse.
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 16, 2020 5:39:21 GMT -6
Hmm, with respect obviously Peter’s service should have been much better and given how young his unit was, I think they should have replaced it immediately: a much simpler client focussed decision.
I think Drew has indicated here he missed that Peter had received a replacement unit, ( I had as well), and that Drew was just trying to clarify what next. Drew, I believe is a New Yorker, so given to being pretty straightforward, which may not come across well at all times on the net.
In terms of UA responsiveness to a larger OZ systemic service improvement discussion, perhaps the lower level direct CS person is not the right person for that discussion and someone above them would be as, for sure they have a manager?
Given, Peter’s working background and this recent support experience, he could certainly provide some valuable insights into how not to treat a customer and suggestions about alternative approaches to improved Customer service in OZ and faster more efficient resolution..
Wonder, if we can get Peter hooked up with a more senior CS systems/ process manager?
Not as an excuse, but sort of the perfect storm perspective, this has culminated over the last while, as UA was scrambling to get it’s Big Sur drivers in place for intel and m1 machines and M1 compliance in general. CS should still do its job, but perhaps UA Mgt has been a little preoccupied and we also have NAMM coming up.
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Post by Drew @ UA on Dec 16, 2020 6:26:01 GMT -6
Hey guys, 1. I was never sarcastic, sorry if you took it that way. Light hearted, trying to add levity to a situation, yes, sarcastic, no. 2. The reply you got from the agent is a simple acknowledgment of your reply. 3. I did speak with the appropriate people and the situation was noted and acknowledged. Should anyone need any assistance regarding UA, please come over to our forum, www.uadforum.com
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Post by phantom on Dec 16, 2020 7:47:01 GMT -6
I thought the issue was already solved.
Don't you have a new unit up and running?
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Post by Mister Chase on Dec 16, 2020 9:40:38 GMT -6
Thankfully, I have never had a major issue to resolve with UA but I did contact support once about a plugin and I'm not at all surprised at this. I know I'm pretty much on my own when it comes to my Apollo. It's sadly a roll of the dice.
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Post by wiz on Dec 16, 2020 19:47:09 GMT -6
I thought the issue was already solved. Don't you have a new unit up and running? Yes... have a re read of the thread
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Post by wiz on Dec 16, 2020 21:40:00 GMT -6
Hey guys, 1. I was never sarcastic, sorry if you took it that way. Light hearted, trying to add levity to a situation, yes, sarcastic, no. 2. The reply you got from the agent is a simple acknowledgment of your reply. 3. I did speak with the appropriate people and the situation was noted and acknowledged. Should anyone need any assistance regarding UA, please come over to our forum, www.uadforum.com Great, so I can expect a follow up from support?
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Post by rowmat on Dec 16, 2020 22:41:32 GMT -6
Hey guys, 1. I was never sarcastic, sorry if you took it that way. Light hearted, trying to add levity to a situation, yes, sarcastic, no. 2. The reply you got from the agent is a simple acknowledgment of your reply. 3. I did speak with the appropriate people and the situation was noted and acknowledged. Should anyone need any assistance regarding UA, please come over to our forum, www.uadforum.com Great, so I can expect a follow up from support?
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Post by phantom on Dec 17, 2020 5:42:45 GMT -6
Hmm, with respect obviously Peter’s service should have been much better and given how young his unit was, I think they should have replaced it immediately: a much simpler client focussed decision. I think Drew has indicated here he missed that Peter had received a replacement unit, ( I had as well), and that Drew was just trying to clarify what next. Drew, I believe is a New Yorker, so given to being pretty straightforward, which may not come across well at all times on the net. In terms of UA responsiveness to a larger OZ systemic service improvement discussion, perhaps the lower level direct CS person is not the right person for that discussion and someone above them would be as, for sure they have a manager? Given, Peter’s working background and this recent support experience, he could certainly provide some valuable insights into how not to treat a customer and suggestions about alternative approaches to improved Customer service in OZ and faster more efficient resolution.. Wonder, if we can get Peter hooked up with a more senior CS systems/ process manager? Not as an excuse, but sort of the perfect storm perspective, this has culminated over the last while, as UA was scrambling to get it’s Big Sur drivers in place for intel and m1 machines and M1 compliance in general. CS should still do its job, but perhaps UA Mgt has been a little preoccupied and we also have NAMM coming up. This might be the most excuses per second I have ever seen. The funniest part was "Drew is a New Yorker, so..." Lol. Man, I have seen this same excuse for every nationality in the world. "The company is British, so they might be a little harsh". "They are Italians, it's their culture". "Oh, don't bother, that's the German way".
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Dec 17, 2020 6:39:49 GMT -6
No need to be patronizing, whether you appreciate it or not, I, like you, have a right to my opinion and see this situation somewhat differently and simply expressed that.
I think Peter makes a good point about wanting to have a constructive conversation about improving UA after sales service in OZ, trying to hook him up with the right UA staff member is the opportunity here.
Perhaps, Drew can assist with that as he was likely using back channels already, best to try to capitalize on that.
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Post by phantom on Dec 17, 2020 8:16:47 GMT -6
No need to be patronizing, whether you appreciate it or not, I, like you, have a right to my opinion and see this situation somewhat differently and simply expressed that. I think Peter makes a good point about wanting to have a constructive conversation about improving UA after sales service in OZ, trying to hook him up with the right UA staff member is the opportunity here. Perhaps, Drew can assist with that as he was likely using back channels already, best to try to capitalize on that. Oh, sorry, I keep forgetting that you do not work for UA. But "New Yorker", "Apple M1", "Big Sur" and "NAMM" has nothing to do with Customer Support and sounds like lame excuses. And it's not even coming from UA itself, so I see no point in this argument.
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Post by Drew @ UA on Dec 17, 2020 9:17:25 GMT -6
Hey guys, 1. I was never sarcastic, sorry if you took it that way. Light hearted, trying to add levity to a situation, yes, sarcastic, no. 2. The reply you got from the agent is a simple acknowledgment of your reply. 3. I did speak with the appropriate people and the situation was noted and acknowledged. Should anyone need any assistance regarding UA, please come over to our forum, www.uadforum.com Great, so I can expect a follow up from support? No, I got it from here, thanks.
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Post by Drew @ UA on Dec 17, 2020 9:19:00 GMT -6
Hmm, with respect obviously Peter’s service should have been much better and given how young his unit was, I think they should have replaced it immediately: a much simpler client focussed decision. I think Drew has indicated here he missed that Peter had received a replacement unit, ( I had as well), and that Drew was just trying to clarify what next. Drew, I believe is a New Yorker, so given to being pretty straightforward, which may not come across well at all times on the net. In terms of UA responsiveness to a larger OZ systemic service improvement discussion, perhaps the lower level direct CS person is not the right person for that discussion and someone above them would be as, for sure they have a manager? Given, Peter’s working background and this recent support experience, he could certainly provide some valuable insights into how not to treat a customer and suggestions about alternative approaches to improved Customer service in OZ and faster more efficient resolution.. Wonder, if we can get Peter hooked up with a more senior CS systems/ process manager? Not as an excuse, but sort of the perfect storm perspective, this has culminated over the last while, as UA was scrambling to get it’s Big Sur drivers in place for intel and m1 machines and M1 compliance in general. CS should still do its job, but perhaps UA Mgt has been a little preoccupied and we also have NAMM coming up. This might be the most excuses per second I have ever seen. The funniest part was "Drew is a New Yorker, so..." Lol. Man, I have seen this same excuse for every nationality in the world. "The company is British, so they might be a little harsh". "They are Italians, it's their culture". "Oh, don't bother, that's the German way". There is no excuse for bad customer support. But we're all human and we can all improve and my goal is to help facilitate this.
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Post by svart on Dec 17, 2020 9:44:56 GMT -6
Not going to make excuses for anyone or any company here, but having done tech support for a while back in college, I don't think it works like you might believe.
The folks doing the support are just people. After a few calls/emails you kind of go into "work mode" and while you see/hear names and problems, you just follow the protocol and do your job and turn it off at the end of the day. One name and/or problem becomes the same as the next and you just try to get through the day meeting your quota and not being angry or sad.
Not that they don't want to fix your issue, but it's just the separation of work vs. life happening especially if your work puts you at the front line of unhappy people.
As someone who would take a hundred angry calls/emails a shift, I couldn't help but to harden up a little. People who can't emotionally separate these things burn out really quick and those that can, tend to become stoic and robotic and seem unhelpful or uncaring, or sometimes condescending. MOST of the time they aren't trying to be any of those things, but a lot of times the customers want to over-explain things in an effort to "convince" the tech person of the problem. It's very very common and does nothing but confuse the situation further. Not saying that happened here either, but sometimes it's very hard to determine what's important and what's not in a description.
Also, as someone who's taken calls where people threaten your life/health/property or threaten legal action, etc, angry folks tend to over-compensate their anger via email/calls towards what they feel is a "representative of the company" as if being overly angry gets faster or better results. I'm certainly not saying that's happening here, but I'm sure they take their share of these calls/emails which only creates a sense of "every email/call is an overreaction", and unfortunately, a less enthusiastic effort in the cases that have real issues at hand.
I also know the compartmentalization of work between vendors too. You'd think that a company would be more gracious with another company but often times they have the same reactions between companies as they do to the public, if not even less friendly! I would often need to transfer work to other companies for them to take care of, and a lot of times that was THEIR requirement of us, but it didn't change the fact that they took their time and didn't bother to do these things in timely manners because they weren't the "face" that had to handle the angry customers. It becomes even more unforgiving when they're angry at you for pushing them and the customer is angry at you for not doing things fast enough. BTW, as mentioned above, quotas are real and they're usually difficult to meet when people aren't happy. Even if you fix their issues, they might claim you didn't, or give you a bad review simply because they are still angry and want the "company" to know.
It's crazy.
It's a hard job and I'm glad to have moved on, but I'm also glad I went through few years of this because it really opened my eyes to how humans react when stressed and it's helped me be effective in some very high stress situations for myself and others.
Anyway, I agree that this seemed completely bungled and it should serve as good information for streamlining the process. I also know all too well how companies try to streamline the employees rather than the policies and it sounds like the UA policies have big holes when transferring work between affiliates.
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Post by Johnkenn on Dec 17, 2020 13:55:28 GMT -6
Not going to make excuses for anyone or any company here, but having done tech support for a while back in college, I don't think it works like you might believe. The folks doing the support are just people. After a few calls/emails you kind of go into "work mode" and while you see/hear names and problems, you just follow the protocol and do your job and turn it off at the end of the day. One name and/or problem becomes the same as the next and you just try to get through the day meeting your quota and not being angry or sad. Not that they don't want to fix your issue, but it's just the separation of work vs. life happening especially if your work puts you at the front line of unhappy people. As someone who would take a hundred angry calls/emails a shift, I couldn't help but to harden up a little. People who can't emotionally separate these things burn out really quick and those that can, tend to become stoic and robotic and seem unhelpful or uncaring, or sometimes condescending. MOST of the time they aren't trying to be any of those things, but a lot of times the customers want to over-explain things in an effort to "convince" the tech person of the problem. It's very very common and does nothing but confuse the situation further. Not saying that happened here either, but sometimes it's very hard to determine what's important and what's not in a description. Also, as someone who's taken calls where people threaten your life/health/property or threaten legal action, etc, angry folks tend to over-compensate their anger via email/calls towards what they feel is a "representative of the company" as if being overly angry gets faster or better results. I'm certainly not saying that's happening here, but I'm sure they take their share of these calls/emails which only creates a sense of "every email/call is an overreaction", and unfortunately, a less enthusiastic effort in the cases that have real issues at hand. I also know the compartmentalization of work between vendors too. You'd think that a company would be more gracious with another company but often times they have the same reactions between companies as they do to the public, if not even less friendly! I would often need to transfer work to other companies for them to take care of, and a lot of times that was THEIR requirement of us, but it didn't change the fact that they took their time and didn't bother to do these things in timely manners because they weren't the "face" that had to handle the angry customers. It becomes even more unforgiving when they're angry at you for pushing them and the customer is angry at you for not doing things fast enough. BTW, as mentioned above, quotas are real and they're usually difficult to meet when people aren't happy. Even if you fix their issues, they might claim you didn't, or give you a bad review simply because they are still angry and want the "company" to know. It's crazy. It's a hard job and I'm glad to have moved on, but I'm also glad I went through few years of this because it really opened my eyes to how humans react when stressed and it's helped me be effective in some very high stress situations for myself and others. Anyway, I agree that this seemed completely bungled and it should serve as good information for streamlining the process. I also know all too well how companies try to streamline the employees rather than the policies and it sounds like the UA policies have big holes when transferring work between affiliates. Yeah...I worked call desk on several jobs. People are dicks. All I ask from my support person is a little empathy and not to be a moron. There’s nothing worse than calling in and you know more about the situation/product than the person you’re talking to. And this is not xenophobic - but I prefer when I’m discussing technical issues - that English be the first language of the person I’m talking to. I have zero doubt that a Spanish person wouldn’t want me struggling to speak to them. Language barriers add yet another level of frustration. I also despise when they have a script. Hate it.
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Post by Guitar on Dec 17, 2020 18:33:10 GMT -6
Not sure what to say buy my sympathy for Wiz having to go through this ordeal, and I liked the song, it gave me a strong feeling. I can relate to the lyrics, and it's very timely for other reasons, with what I had to deal with today. Compassion is harder than kindness.
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