Worst Service

[tdm]

About a month ago, I purchased Best Service's Peking Opera Percussion. I also purchased Independence so that I could tweak the sounds.

While using it, I noticed problems with three of the samples. Two of them had too much dead space (~100.ms) at the beginning of the samples creating a noticeable delay. I wasn't thrilled to find such sloppy programming in a 5 year old sound library from a company with such a good reputation, but these were easy to fix, so no big deal. However, I can't fix the third sample problem, as it is in the sample data. The attack on one of the lower velocity Bian Zhong bell samples fades in, and its tone doesn't match its neighbors; it's too ambient.

So, on April 9th, I contacted support concerning this problem, but heard nothing back from them. I then sent a followup email on April 14 asking them what was going on. I received a reply two days later stating that they hadn't received the initial email and that they were forwarding this second email to their support team. I then received an email on April 21 stating that "this will take some time. I´ll let you know as soon everything is corrected." No indication of when it will be resolved, and no apology for the problem.

I then sent them an email on April 21 asking if they were acknowledging that there was a problem with the library, and whether it would be fixed . . . and when. I've received no reply.

When things go well, almost all companies appear to be great. You only find out what kind of company you're dealing with when there is a problem. So, based upon this experience, my opinion is that Best Service is a terrible company.

[murnau]

Best Service is a joke of a company, would never buy from them again.

[DrumAddict]

Best Service is a joke of a company, would never buy from them again.

cary to explain ? or is it just something you are forced to comment as you comment so many things when it comes to such and other things here on kvr ?

personal i never had any problems with Best Service myselves , they even answered Questions on Sundays .

[tatanka]

tdm: I dont know if its possible for you to make a phone call to germany (number is on their site) ? I have the luck (in this case....) to be from germany, I had some trouble with email support to but I could clear it evry time with a phone call. They only have phone support at two days (tuesday and friday if I remember right) and only for a few hours but if its possible for you might be a way, at least for me it worked and you dont get some call center support but the people who are in devellopment.

Last call I did this friday cause mail from wedndesday was not answered (and is not till today....) in case of a bug with their best service engine. Guy I was talking too was exactly knowing what I was talking about, gladly for me bug was cleared with latest engine update from this week.

[murnau]

Best Service is a joke of a company, would never buy from them again.

cary to explain ? or is it just something you are forced to comment as you comment so many things when it comes to such and other things here on kvr ?

personal i never had any problems with Best Service myselves , they even answered Questions on Sundays .

Same experience no answer from support, i thought this was clear because it was a straight comment to the OP.

There are enough devs i praise on regulary basis because they deserve it without going into details as well. Wonder where you was then asking for details.

Also i can comment whenever and whatever i will without asking you for permission. You seem to be forced to read and comment my comments? See how stupid your argument are?

[tdm]

tdm: I dont know if its possible for you to make a phone call to germany (number is on their site) ? I have the luck (in this case....) to be from germany, I had some trouble with email support to but I could clear it evry time with a phone call. They only have phone support at two days (tuesday and friday if I remember right) and only for a few hours but if its possible for you might be a way, at least for me it worked and you dont get some call center support but the people who are in devellopment.

Hello, tatanka. Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know anything about making cost effective phone calls to Germany; I'm sure there's a way. However, only offering two, 4 hour days of phone support per week isn't exactly what I would call a viable system. Besides, I send technical support questions to other companies (Soniccouture, Sonokinetic, UVI, etc.) via email all the time, and it works very well. Most companies like email support, especially when it starts with an online form where you supply info concerning your computer, OS, and DAW. So, I don't really want to jump through hoops for a company that can't simply reply to an email. I understand that some answers aren't available right away, but the minimal reply I got, followed by dead air, was not helpful.

That said, I would love nothing better than to have Best Service show me that they do in fact have the best service. I'm sure pretty sure they monitor this forum, so come on folks, strap on a pair and reply to me. Explain what is going on here.

[tatanka]

tdm: absolutely agree, even from germany I would prefer an (helpful...) email answer in a reasonable time. Dont know if its kind of "german specific" or "big german companies" specific but if you would "like" even worse (does that exist in english language, "worse", think you know what I mean) go to magix, thats really the worst I have ever seen (and they dont even have a phone to call....).

It was just meant as kind of a workaround if nothing else helps.

What makes me is that so many one-man companies really help you 24 hours with all their heartblood and the ones who really could effort just dont seem to care anymore....

Wish you all the best, if nothing helps I may make a phone call for you next friday (thats strange, the people you get on the phone ARE really nice and helpful, dont know WHERE the problem really is in their support org) but maybe you would have to explain me the problem more in detail, I am just a hobby musician not so deep into samples and that kind of stuff

[tdm]

tdm: absolutely agree, even from germany I would prefer an (helpful...) email answer in a reasonable time. Dont know if its kind of "german specific" or "big german companies" specific but if you would "like" even worse (does that exist in english language, "worse", think you know what I mean) go to magix, thats really the worst I have ever seen (and they dont even have a phone to call....).

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope I don't have any questions with their Independence application that I just purchased.

What makes me is that so many one-man companies really help you 24 hours with all their heartblood and the ones who really could effort just dont seem to care anymore....

I agree with you. I've had great customer service experiences with several small companies; Wobblophones, Rhythmic Robot, QuikQuak, Plogue, Virharmonic, Realsamples, Loops de la Creme, Atom Hub, Bolder Sounds, Embertone, RealiTone, and Madrona Labs, come to mind. All great little companies run by nice people who care about their customers.

Wish you all the best, if nothing helps I may make a phone call for you next friday (thats strange, the people you get on the phone ARE really nice and helpful, dont know WHERE the problem really is in their support org) but maybe you would have to explain me the problem more in detail, I am just a hobby musician not so deep into samples and that kind of stuff

That is a very nice offer, but I don't want to drag you into this. (I'm sure you have better things to do with your time.) My hope is that if they see this, maybe they'll get the hint. Some people have very strange ideas as to how to run a business.

Thanks again, tatanka.

[JonSolo]

A few thoughts-

Personally I have always found Best Service to be fast and responsive. The few issues I have had, however, were limited to upgrades appearing in my purchased section or some other technical difficulty...not an issue with a library.

With regard to library issues (such as a sharp note that appears in Chris Hein Orch. Brass, 1st French Horn, Dynamic Expression long, dynamic set to X-fade, D5 is sharp, heh) this falls under the dev of the library and answers will be much slower, or in some cases non existent. Even libraries that are branded as Best Service usually have some external dev involved that can be slow about responding.

What I find interesting is that THIS forum is linked as their "official" forum. I have always felt that help should come from the company directly, but if they list and link to an official forum, they should ALSO provide help and answers there as well. Just today I believe someone from Best Service responded (or maybe just a dev for Engine) in another thread, but no response was left here (edit- maybe he is working his way here). It was his first response since November.

Personally that is the part I find appalling. If you have a forum, you should have reps, and those reps should visit at least weekly and address issues raised by their community.

In that area, they definitely score an F.

[NoSoniX]

Hi @ all,

at first about this forum... it´s more an area for users to discuss their issues/problems/thoughts instead of an official support forum. Most of the posts here are unanswered, because they got answered directly by e-Mail. Many users send an E-Mail at the support and also post here, so it´s mostly not necessary to answer here too.

About the main issue of TDM. I´m very sorry about it and i apologize for the inconveniences you have. The issues you have weren´t reported before, and our team is trying to get rid of them asap. I´ll try to speed up things at the beginning of the week, but due the fact that also the developer of the library is involved, this needs time.

We´ll get back to you, as already promised, as soon we have a solution for you!

Best Regards

[tdm]

About the main issue of TDM. I´m very sorry about it and i apologize for the inconveniences you have. The issues you have weren´t reported before, and our team is trying to get rid of them asap. I´ll try to speed up things at the beginning of the week, but due the fact that also the developer of the library is involved, this needs time.

Well, that's a much better reply than "This will take some time. I´ll let you know as soon everything is corrected." which was the original reply I received.

The big question is how much time? If we are talking weeks, I'm OK with that. If we are talking months, or completely unknown, that a different story. Can you provide an estimate? Also, have you contacted the outside developer yet? As it's been two weeks since your original reply, I would assume you've done that. Is that true?

If you want to take this offline and respond to me via email, I'm OK with that. I only did this as a last resort due to you ignoring my emails.

[tdm]

This is an update on my ridiculous situation with Best Service.

On May 7th NoSoniX wrote:

About the main issue of TDM. I´m very sorry about it and i apologize for the inconveniences you have . . . I´ll try to speed up things at the beginning of the week, but due the fact that also the developer of the library is involved, this needs time.

So, four days after my last post (May 7th), I received the layer with the corrected sample from Best Service. That was fine, but in the same email they said:

For the sample start errors, please allow another week because we have found quite a few errors that need to be addressed. We will send you the updated layers asap.

OK, that sounded reasonable, and one week later, a rar file appeared in my email. Here's where everything starts to go south. The layers contained in the rar file wouldn't work in the latest version of Independence. So I contact Best Service and was told:

"It was made for the latest version of Engine which is actually newer than the Independence version. Don´t you have also installed the latest version of Engine? I´ve to talk to my colleague on monday if there are any news about the release of a newer version of independence from magix."

I find it necessary to tweak sound libraries quite often, and the editing limitations of Engine prompted me to spend the $50 to get Independence. I felt comfortable doing this due to the following section from the Engine manual:

Engine is entirely based on the well-engineered Magix sampler technology “Independence” and contains the identical, multi-awarded audio engine.

However Engine is by far more than just a sample player! It was specially designed as a platform for many high quality instrument and sound libraries of different developers, united in one creative software that offers both the intuitive and quick access to the instruments and limitless editing possibilities even for the smallest details. Furthermore you can even load any Engine instrument directly into the Magix sampler “Independence” including all special features - and thus expand your sound libraries continuously.

So, I sent the quote shown above, from their own Engine manual, to Best Service and received the following reply:

Engine libraries are made in independence. Our programmer updates Engine as soon a new library is in the making and we release a new version with every library so if a new engine library comes out it will work in engine, BUT if magix didn´t decide to release their version of independence at the same time it won´t work in independence as long they have released it.

Then don't tell people it will work. If they sold this repaired version of this library to someone today who also wanted to use it with Independence, that new customer would have the same problem I'm having.
He continues:

We have nothing to do with magix, its not our company and we don´t have much influence what they do and when the will release their software.

Then don't make unambiguous statements that it will work with it, as a selling point.
He continues:

About your problem.... it seems that my colleague which has fixed the space before the samples has used a beta/new version of independence which is not released yet. That´s the reason why you can´t load it and what i want to clarify on monday as i told you before.

So, they made the corrections using a beta version of Independence that regular folks like me don't have access to. Are you kidding me?
I was then told:

my colleague is saving the files again today with an earlier version of independence and you´ll get the files today/tomorrow. Everything should be fixed then.

And then later that day:

it´s more difficult and time consumpting as through to save it again with the older version of independence so we´ve decided to send you the most recent version of independence tomorrow. I think this is also a better solution for you.

Really? You have nothing to do with Magix, but you're going to send me a beta copy of their software.
I replied that "I'm not a beta tester; just fix your library."

And finally, today, I receive a reply from a different guy. He says:

What we did was fixing the wrong sample in the Bian Zhong Patch and reworking the startpoints of ALL samples. This wasn’t the most relaxing process, so it should be clear that the hussle was also on our side, as you are the only one (of thousands of users) that found any problems with the library.

I'm so sorry that work wasn't relaxing for you? Poor baby. I apologize for finding and reporting errors in YOUR product. How heartless of me.
He continues:

Magix is owning Independence (not ENGINE), so updating the downloads on their website is not our job. The manual says that its compatible with Independence, which it does - with the original patches. But at the end, this is an ENGINE Library, and as you probably already found out, the new reworked patches work perfectly with the newest ENGINE version.

So . . . you're lying to people when you state that it works with Independence.
He continues:

So – the only thing i can do now is refixing the sample in the patch, while maintaining the old filesystem (so it will work in your independence version), as you wrote, you can tweak start times and other parameters by yourself.

So, after all of the lies and wasted time, I'm back to fixing the delayed samples myself. Six weeks to fix one sample; great job Best Service. Thanks for nothing.

[tdm]

So, after all of the lies and wasted time, I'm back to fixing the delayed samples myself. Six weeks to fix one sample; great job Best Service. Thanks for nothing.

Not quite . . . this morning I received an email from Best Service for a full refund. This wasn't the outcome I was looking for (I just wanted the library fixed), but I thank them for that.