Comments on Steinberg support

Steinberg Lounge
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I’ve had occasion just now to scroll through ten pages of unread posts, and it was shocking and embarrassing to see how many pained posters there were starting threads with titles crying out for responses from Steinberg support, including via the mysteinberg route.

I can see a newbie being quite confused about how to get support. Helga, I’m not even sure what the answer is …

I absolutely “+1” shanabit’s main point in this thread, typical of many, Steinberg Forums , in that it often does seem like it’s a waste of time and effort sending a query to Steinberg tech support for Cubase and a few other products listed in this forum.

I do have some other thoughts, I actually wrote them out as a response in this older thread, Computer für Audioanwendungen - WaveLab - Steinberg Forums , but the moderator deleted my reply there and locked the thread, saying he took issue with that thread having been started a few years ago. He kindly allowed members to comment further by starting a new thread (hence, this one :slight_smile: ).

Since my moderator-deleted response in that thread gets my main points across, I’ll just paste my response from there rather than retype everything (trying to edit for clarity):
(Note: in the quoted thread below, the moderator is addressing another member’s post from that locked thread).

So - I definitely can see people asking for technical support and thinking the responses they get are confusing and inconsistent.

For example, when they ask on the forum but don’t get the support they need, haven’t moderators posted things like, “You know, the forum is not official support, for that you must go through the proper channels …”.

And, conversely, when they do go through mysteinberg for that, and it in turn results in no response from Steinberg at all (or it is delayed for weeks or months) … and then they return to report all that here … the moderators (as above) acknowledge the obvious that Steinberg’s business model doesn’t include enough support to even answer each paid customer’s request for technical assistance … and then suggest using the forum for relief :slight_smile:.

(But because Steinberg is still “viable in the business world” … actually, I’m not exactly sure what the moderator’s take home message in his last paragraph was supposed to be there. Is it that because they are still in business we shouldn’t ask for better technical support?)

It really doesn’t have to be this way, so difficult and frustrating …

Some examples: I have contacted three other companies over the years for technical support in DAW world: UAD, Toontrack, and Syncroarts. Each one of them gives excellent technical support, as a result of live phone support or tech people being active on the forum and answering questions within 1-2 business days. They are “still viable in the business world” as well, last time I looked :wink: .

So why can’t Steinberg follow business models like those companies, and give good customer technical support? Come on, please make us happy and allocate more resources to technical support for your paying (and very frequently repeat/returning, many times over) customers. I would think the goodwill and word of mouth publicity you’d get as a result would more than pay for the few extra hours of manpower that would take.

Finally, I don’t think any discussion of Steinberg support (or at least this one) would be complete without acknowledging and thanking the technical experts who rarely do come on the forum, reportedly out of the goodness of their heart, to help us out … Thank you :slight_smile: !

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You quote me, and take my words out of context, and don’t actually address me, but I’ll address you.

As most people on the forum realize, I represent only myself, not SB, and come here as a volunteer. I help folks out to the extent I can, because it’s fun and gratifying. I also have the pleasure of moderating, and some people think I’m doing an okay job. I would guess that you are not one of those.

But you can post whatever you like as long as it is within the rules. I will ask you to not quote me out of context though, and to not add your own emphasis to my words, as you’ve done above.


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I didn’t mean to quote you out of context, and don’t believe I actually did. The multiple “…” s I included I thought were the standard way of indicating I deleted some parts of your post. As I wrote, the edits I made to your post were with the goal of clarifying - I believe the parts I deleted were not germane to the conversation. And just to minimize the chance of any confusion and miscommunication with anyone who read my post, for complete clarity and disclosure I did include a link to your original post, so anyone can review it in its entirety if they wished.

In any case, I would have done it differently, and included your complete post, if I’d known it would help.

Re: your next point - it didn’t occur to me that anyone would mistake my emphasis of parts of your quote for yours. I see now that may be a bad assumption, so: for the record, all coloring and italics in -steve-'s quote are mine, not his.

I apologize for both of these things, and I’ll make sure to the best of my ability that I’m not as unclear in the future.

You have mentioned some things I did in posting that bothered you, please allow me to do the same for a moment: I think it was disrespectful/wrong for you to delete my post entirely without leaving an editorial/moderating note explaining that you did so. I think the better way for a moderator to delete would be as is done on GS and other forums: including a statement like, “Post by member xyz deleted for running counter to the following forum guidelines: …”.

Finally, regarding your comments about volunteering and helping others on the forum: most of us old timers do exactly that for members who have technical and other questions, according to our ability. And since you say you volunteer your time even above and beyond that, to moderate without any recompense, well special gratitude is due you for that as well - thank you :slight_smile: .

Now, I hope we can get this thread back on track :slight_smile:

Best -

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A detail that was mentioned above:

In clarification for future posts, the way to indicate the deletion of a part of a cited text is; (…)
Which obviously could be used several times on the same text, showing where the edition was made.,

Don’t forget the brackets, they are an integral part of the edition sign.

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Well back to the question…

I have never not had SB support (US) not respond to a query sent via My Steinberg. I’d like to qualify this by saying that I think my questions / requests are clear, comprehensive and mostly include a result that I think is reasonable and achievable.

Occasionally I’ve been referred to the mothership in Germany too. Again very helpful.

But let’s talk about ‘helpful’. Are software fixes instantly applied? Is the product revised to account for my lack of knowledge? Does the company change direction to meet my goals? Of course not. However I have had (one ) hardware issue promptly dealt with and many questions addressed when they were actually connected to the product.

They might not ( be able ) to respond like Apple … to every comment… but they are there.

My 2c