This is so Steinberg...

Steinberg Lounge
#1

Well, I read the posts about delayed shipping in the US and decided to wait until folks were actually getting their boxes before I placed my C6 order. Things looked good yesterday so I ordered away. No email reply.
Asknet just informed me they were out of C6 and were waiting for another shipment from Steinberg. Seems SB underestimated how much product they would need. In the meantime they’re collecting interest on my (and a host of other customer’s) money.
Dang. I feel like such an idiot for jumping at this. I could probably cancel my order but it would take longer to get a refund than it will to just wait for the product to arrive.

There REALLY should be some kind of real-time stock info available when placing an order. If Sweetwater can do it, surely SB can.

They just make everythig so, well, just hard.

-Rich

#2

yeah, I ordered on the 20th and still haven’t been shipped a product.

#3

What do you mean that is so Steinberg? Have you never ordered anything online before, because that’s how it works everywhere… every time. When you order, preorder, backorder, etc… they’ll confirm the order and hold your money. What you’re doing is reserving your place in queue to receive a copy. Steinberg themselves have said on these forums that they’ve had much larger demand than expected. That stuff happens.

You can cancel your order if you wish, but then others who’re ordering will get their copy processed and shipped sooner if the next shipment doesn’t satisfy demand again. Just the normal way of the world.

#4

That isn’t true at all. I almost completely have converted to buying off the internet. I rarely get billed before something ships.

#5

:question:
That’s not my experience. When I purchase/preorder from a large store like Best Buy or something they take the money immediately, and if there’s a problem with the order then they’ll refund the money. If I order PC parts from a smaller store, they do the same thing. If I preorder a game on Steam, they take the money immediately, even if the game isn’t coming out for a couple months still. I haven’t encountered it working differently anywhere.

#6

Not my experience either. In fact, I order off the web ALL the time and in nearly every case there’s product availability info on the web. All I can say is that I’ve used SB products for many. many years, and my experience is that they often struggle with things other companies do not struggle with. I’m not a SB basher, but c’mon, man. It’s a new release. Given their customer base how hard can it be to get an initial product shipment correct?

Again, I should have known better.

-Rich

#7

Well…few weeks ago I went to amphouse in Hamburg (Feldstrasse) to do some “window shopping” and they had C6 and all the possible upgrades on the shelves. Didn’t take it yet as I first have to find something wrong in my current version to justify the upgrade :stuck_out_tongue:

braunie

#8

The “so Steinberg” quality, to me, is that it’s a really small but almost inexplicable annoyance. It’s a kind of a long discussion, this peculiar Steinberg quality, but I agree that the present shipping situation is a perfect example.

This situation is so minor in the scope of things it’s barely worth discussing, but nonetheless: like a lot of us, I spend virtually all my discretionary money online, and I have never made a purchase from any other vendor ever – not once ever – where the seller didn’t have the product and gave no notice that it wasn’t in stock. If Steinberg was an ebay seller I’d file with paypal and leave them hideous feedback. Because it’s Steinberg, I’m confident the order will ship sooner or later, so naturally I’m not going to cancel or file a complaint, but if it was a natural person or ebay store I’d be more than worried. As to the question of being charged – again, who cares really? – absolutely all reputable shops do not charge a credit card until the product a back-ordered product has shipped. And that after clearly alerting you that the product was in fact back-ordered and not on hand.

As to the claim that they underestimated demand, that rings a little hollow, yeah? The fact that the first orders shipped so long after the “now shipping” flag went up puts the lie to the claim. And it’s a silly lie; now on top of being a company that can’t deliver within weeks of claiming its product is shipping, they want us to also believe that they have no idea how much demand there is for their product. This isn’t Etsy. They should know within 10% or so how many units they’ll sell out of the gate, I don’t accept that they’re winging it with no business plan and no market research.

To repeat, it’s so small a matter that it barely merits mention, I’m not looking to hire Steinberg to handle order fulfillment, I just like the software they write. But it is, quite rightly, “so Steinberg.”

#9

This just simply isn’t true, in fact, the opposite is. I spend a lot of money online, and I don’t know where you guys get that perspective from. I gave some examples of places where your card is charge the moment you place an order, not the moment an item is shipped, and I could give more, a lot more, because that’s the normal way of things. In fact, it is impossible for a vendor to not charge you before you item ships, because otherwise how could they have known that the request for funds from your account would even be approved? As if they’d ship it and then charge your account after.

I agree, though, that Steinberg should notify at the time of order placement if the product is not currently in stock.

#10

If they’d just provide a download option, we could have it immediately, plus they wouldn’t “run out” of inventory. They keep talking about doing this… WTF is the problem, Steinberg? Many of your competitors have this option? It’s fairly easy to set up, and it might save you on production costs. Look to the future, Steiny

I DO note that on the order page, there IS a “download” option but it’s greyed out… so maybe next time

#11

The following two examples have always been my experience with reputable dealers. The first is B&H Photo, my preference to Sweetwater. Better prices and similar catalogue. You’ll find they don’t even list it for sale yet (it wasn’t in the list of results at all).

The next plainly lists that Cubase is preordered, and your card will not be charged until shipped… and that it could take a WHILE!

I’ve always felt that the 1st method is more reputable. Just don’t sell it until you have it. But either way you should be informed… and if you aren’t, don’t deal with that dealer for any future purchases!

#12

This post sums it up. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just a $150 upgrade to a piece of software. And I was hesitant to even come here and complain. And I’m not even discounting Delicieuxz’s point of view. I take him at his word. But regardless of those experiences, what business logic is there in decalring a product for sale and then not being able to actually ship it for an extended period of time? None, in my book.
I just wish that at the ordering site, there was real-time info on product availability. Then, I could have made an informed choice. And either way, I’d have no room to complain.
But when it comes to handling customers, SB just makes things hard.

-Rich

#13

So, I ordered C6 on the 20th via the web site/asknet and received my confirmation on the 21st.

I received my invoice last night AFTER I received my shipping notice.

#14

Some online shops charge ahead and some don’t, depends on the software they use. Asknet sends the customers details to the retailer and holds the money for both the customer and the retailer. I paid via Paypal but I don’t think the money moved until the order was confirmed.
One recent mistake by me I had to get a refund and it was pretty quickly refunded by Asknet.
Shipping details have been known to be sent after receipt of goods by me so don’t worry too much about that.

BTW The topic heading sounds so schoolgirl… :mrgreen:

#15

Agreed. All this bashing is so repetitive, hard to read through.

I think the sooner that downloads are available, this b1tching will cease. (assuming proper bandwidth is applied to the process).

#16

Assuming Cubase is roughly a 300 MB file, and uncompressed, that would tale my machine about 1 minute to download. I’d have bought it the day it was announced

Get with it Steinberg, there’s really NO excuse

#17

I purchased it online on the 14th, shipped on the 28th and only received the package on the 31st (next business day). So I imagine you may be waiting a couple weeks for it if their delays are proportional.

#18

This makes a lot of sense to me. Choice to download would remove the sting from people’s waiting time for solids to drop through their letterbox. Once a person has had their order accepted, something could still be shipped, additionally, however, they’d have a link to download - one which is useless unless they are already registered with the previous version and have been accepted for upgrade. Waiting for the box might still be a pain, and there would be justified expressions of upset from those who have slow or unreliable internet connection, but it would have dealt with the majority of the upset.


I’ll declare that I reckon Bobby Yarrow’s post is a great one. I’ve read it four times as I have, during the last few days, returned to this thread to track the topic’s progress.

I’ll add my own perspective on ‘So Steinberg.’ Part of it is about the combination of Needful and Needless, or of Justifiable and Unjustifiable. This issue of delayed delivery does have points which can make sense. By ‘Can,’ I mean we might judge Steinberg ought to have foreseen things we consider to be obvious, but that the ‘things’ are real factors to be considered. Similarly, The removal of transparent lanes, at firs, ‘couldn’t’ and ‘didn’t’ make sense until Christian explained the deep-code requirements which made it a necessary stepping stone. We and, indeed, Steinberg will agree that transparent lanes is an important feature to bring back online ASAP, yet we ‘can’ make sense of it’s removal at this time. However, Version 5.5x’s removal of ‘mix’ when Reverence’ is used on group channel, is something which ‘can’t’ make sense. And that has been ‘repaired’ in V6. Holding back choice as to whether to fix Pool ‘on top’ IMO ‘can’t’ make sense - Reasons ‘can’ be provided why to do it one way, but not why to remove from the user choice to do it the other way, either in terms of potential relevance to workflow or difficulty in adding it to the product.

In another thread, I drew attention to V1 and 2 for Atari, with reference to the manuals use of the word ‘Intuitive’, and the product’s Fulfilling the Prophecy. Part of the claim to being intuitive was, in the manual, expressed in delighted ejaculations regarding how the user could ‘do it’ in more than one way … there were lots of mouse and keyboard options to perform identical functions. Additionally, list edit was retained and my old pro-12 reflexes were not cut off at the spinal chord. The Ethic was that more choices of ‘how’ would render the program more transparent to whatever workflow the individual user may wish to adopt. It makes sense for a company to want to think hard to discern ‘best ways’ of doing stuff, it makes even more sense to discern what other ‘ways’ are possible with minimal expense in terms of coding time or probability of glitches, and then to let those happen if they are not already there, and to let them remain if they already are.

I urge Steinberg: Refresh your connection with that seminal spirit: Choice to download fits this spirit.

Add choice and preserve choice -
Cry “Download!” And let slip the Dogs of DAW!

#19

That’s a Pink Floyd tune no? :wink: :astonished: :laughing:

#20

I thought it was Shakespear from Julius Caesar …