Atardecer wrote: Are MOTU tech support the guys that also make this gear? Are they qualified? Do they refer to the technicians regarding problems? Do they keep a database of customers problems and add to it whenever problems are solved? these are not unreasonable questions to ask.
I worked for MOTU support in the late 90s. These answers are from my experience back then. It doesn't sound like things have changed all that much - if at all - which is partly comical but also rather tragic. And yes I know - "MOTU tech support had some problems in the past but we've really focused on improving and we provide a much much better service now. blah, blah, blah. etc." We were saying that in the 90s too.
MOTU tech support does not make the gear. I doubt this has changed. Training consisted of "Here's the manual!" We were not allowed to discuss matters with the actual product engineers. There was practically a brick wall between engineering and support. Inexplicably, there was no centralized database nor something like a daily or weekly email of new known issues. Instead, each tech just had to know the answers. Or they could try putting the caller on hold and waltzing around the office trying to find somebody who might know something. There was no queuing system - "We don't want our customers to be charged by their phone company for their hold times" - nor could calls be escalated or forwarded. If a caller was unlucky enough to get a new tech, and the tech didn't know the answer, that caller was SOL. Unfair for the tech, unfair for the caller. I really really hope they've changed this. Anyone know?
Tech support was very good at getting out new discs to people. That was the easiest way to handle calls, send them another copy. Seemed like people from NYC caught on to that quick and were always asking for another copy. Besides sending out discs, tech support was good at answering the basic questions (e.g. "Why am I not getting any audio through my MIDI cable?", etc.) When you hear people say they had a good experience with MOTU tech support it was usally one of those two cases.
Pros generally didn't waste their time with support. Either they knew of a MOTU guru locally or either knew a higher up person at MOTU or knew somebody (like a salesperson) who knew a higher up person at MOTU to get their problems resolved. When a pro would call, first thing out of their mouths was often "Don't waste my time. If you don't know the answer, just say you don't know." Not done in a rude fashion, usually just a friendly matter-of-fact tone. The MOTU "hold" button was just a mute. Don't know if this has changed, but I'd refrain from swearing when you're put on "hold" to be safe.
I like helping people, I love music tech - but this was the worst job I've ever had. MOTU support was essentially left to hang out in the wind with little training and little backing. Even as my first real job I could tell support was horribly and haphazardly mismanaged. The guy running tech support was a good guy but wholly incompetent and in way over his head when it came to running support. In my mind, it still serves as the model of how to not run a support group. The pay was 18k/yr.
No idea if MOTU has ever hired a professional Customer Service manager to run the place or even consult for six months, but judging from the comments on this board I somehow doubt it. If that's the case its an incredibly myopic and financially foolish decision. MOTU didn't need more techs, they needed to be professionally structured and run.
I hope that negative comments about support don't dissuade anyone from buying MOTU. Support almost everywhere pretty much blows. Message boards like this are much more helpful then most tech support lines.
On a positive note, MOTU software is very, very cool. They've got some brilliant people designing their products. I only talked with the CEO briefly but he instantly won my respect. Jim Cooper, the head of marketing, is The Man and possibly the coolest mofo you could ever possibly hope to meet. Extremely intelligent. Extremely cool. SuperDave is great too. He knows his stuff and is an all around good guy.
