Please tell me I’m just missing something.
You’re just missing something.
EDIT: Oh wait…my apologies…you’re right. This is really odd…they say at the top of that page
An important part of any support offer is the contact via email and telephone.
But then say
How to contact support
Steinberg North America provides free email support.
&
Phone calls and Remote Desktop sessions will be set up by appointment and call back only!
Errr!!!
Yeah, this is enough for me not to recommend Cubase to friends, since many of them who are DAW shopping aren’t super computer savvy and may need to be talked through a few things here and there. No phone support is ridiculous.
This has been announced about 7 months ago already, in the old forum. And obviously it´s not that there is no phone support at all…
No other country ever got it.
It was a promotion, now it’s finished.
Be thankful you still have remote support since other countries don’t even have a support form.
Well, according to that link I cited, you’re completely wrong. The following countries have the option of phone support (at least according to Steinberg):
PHONE SUPPORT
Steinberg support assistants are on hand to answer your queries by telephone.
BeNeLux
Canada
France
Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Italy
Spain
Scandinavia
United Kingdom and Ireland
It wasn’t a “promotion”. The US had free phone support for years. Please refrain from commenting on things you apparently know nothing about.
“Obviously”?
If phone support in the US still exists as you claim, they’re doing a good job of hiding it or at least making it difficult to find. Please provide me the phone number, if it’s so “obvious” that phone support still exists.
If it still exists, that’s good news. My point is that Steinberg should, y’know, actually provide the phone number on their “contact support” page, like they do for other countries.
Maybe they should get rid of ph. support for those guys as well, since if a form cannot be implemented even as a basic for EVERYONE then what’s the point of supporting anyone at all, since even if you wanted to arrange a remote session and/or phone call, if you don’t have a form you don’t have communication since emails can be ignored or repudiated.
This forum is better than any phone support so no big loss, IMHO.
I’ve never really argued against PH. support for any country or individual, it is that in todays’ world, particularly since our registrations are tied to our logins, it might be better to outline any problems in the forum and then refer to them in emails etc, which is the reason why I am suggesting that it is best to have one form for all, rather than ad hoc and fragmented support methods around the world.
FWIW
I’ve used the new support system with really good results. I’ll admit at first I was skeptical too (it struck me as an unorthidox approach).
But I sent an e-mail with the details of my problem; and I had an e-mail solution in very short order! (less time than one typically waits on hold with the average help desk I felt). The next day I also got a call just to verify we were up and running again.
The next time it took a little longer on the reply ( a couple hours maybe?) but the first suggestion (again) fixed it.
I rather got the impression that this method let Steinberg go do a bit of research first and then come back with a plan? Or maybe it let them route the issue to someone who specialized in that area?
Regardless, It felt like the problem was resolved in fewer steps this way.
I’d recommend you give a shot before writing it off. It has sure worked well for me anyway.
Cheers.
I also don’t see it as a problem, but I was plenty mad when I found out about it. As it turns out, it’s the same people as before, the results are about the same, but less hassle with waiting on hold. there was even a remote session at some point regarding track presets I could not see.
It is way better to have someone call you back, as a result of an email or form submission since unless you are in serious trouble you can pay for “gold level” support via the distributor in your country of origin.
Otherwise come to this place and get often even more immediate responses.
It has worked for me on the old forum so much so that I don’t personally care for any form of “official” support other than making the program work on my system (updates, fixes etc) but of course I’d rather Steinberg implement a universal Web Form in order to follow up unanswered forum posts or problems with dongles etc since emails can be blocked, blacklisted etc
Basically what we as end users need to do is step back from the process a bit and put ourselves in steinbergs shoes for a moment.
Think about the past for a second with the old forum. How much time would that have taken the mods/admins to root out pirates and hackers?
Many of my emails to info @ steinberg dot de have been answered by the very same people who administer this forum and I can tell you, all I need to know is that they are listening and no more since the very existence of a forum means that eventually somewhere along the line you will get the information you need whether it is via official or non-official lines.