Avid Technology Reviews 200

i am a full time producer and engineer. i paid for the pro tools update and support plan. i encountered issues with the cloud service (for which i also pay). i have clients awaiting a resolution of this issue in order to complete their projects.
i submitted a support ticket almost 2 weeks ago. i followed up daily to see if anyone could assist. the first tech i was able to contact simply concluded "i guess it doesn't work so well." he was unable to run pro tools on his system to troubleshoot. the next 2 techs i was able to get in touch with were also unable to run pro tools on their systems. no one has followed up on my support ticket. i have only gotten in touch with someone by re-calling and going through the process all over again... the response is always "you reached someone not in the pro tools department; i'll pass your info along to a pro tools technician."
this is beyond "bad customer service." this is theft.

I have recently found out that I'm unable to use ProTools because the subscription I'm paying for has expired. Yes, that's right...the subscription I'm paying for has expired according to them; I have been charged for a product I cannot use and will continue to be charged for it until they fix the problem. Thats assuming I can even get in touch with them.

I'm extremely angry as I can't even make a case or chat with a human. This is made extremely difficult by their confusing website that leaves you going round in circles for hours on end.

AVID=AVOID

Absolutely terrible service with no avenues of help without having to pay for it.
Their subscription system is so broken (at this stage I assume purely for them to rake in more money) getting even the most basic information is impossible.
Simply wanting to change from an educational licence to a full one is impossible via the site and if not done within 30 days, requires (I get the impression anyway) repurchasing the software. Unfortunately there is no way to contact avid to clarify this process without paying as they offer absolutely no support for free.
Avid do not care one bit about their customers, and they make it very clear.

Worst customer service I have ever received they have deceived me and I had to contact them 5 different times to hear a response. It took them 3 weeks to respond and they were 0 help. They took unauthorised purchases even though I pay for a full license.

One of the worst companies for customer service. Ethically unviable. Their customer service is almost none existent, they are slow and difficult to access. They put most of the labour onto the customer which is incredibly selfish. If the board and CEO of avid go home with any sense of pride then they are clearly deluded, sad individuals.

If the audio industry had any moral compass at all they would actively denounce Avid.

Utterly slow and ineffective user support.

Pro tools is not even an top tier DAW.

Pathetic.

Bought a new desktop pc with windows 10 and enough memory and ram to speed up my recording process on protools. I've used protools 10 for many years without a problem. The last 24 hours have been a nightmare. Can't use my protools on my new computer. Tried reaching out to AVID customer support, and they have an automated message that continuously goes on and on with no real solutions. Tried going online and accessing support by logging into my avid account, but their website keeps saying cookies are blocked and I would need to allow them in order to proceed. So I click the area on their site to enable cookies, and the site just refreshes and here we go all over again. The overall experience has been enough for me to not even want to use protools any longer.

I've been held on customer support line all day today. It's 5:30 and still only recording.

I bought the ticket and this is what you get.. nothing. No answer. When you absolutely need it.

update

After the day, about 8pm I received an email from the support that they will help me by remote accessing my desktop.
The technician was actually brilliant, quick and knowledgeable and professional.
I had to delay some things and did after hours work but my deadline was somehow met.
It might be good for your health of your mind that they will respond eventually and once they did, their support technician is really good.
They started to put some note on the account page about support phone is having issues.
But from this experience, I am not expecting much for their phone support anymore. It's better for my health that their phone support does not exist.

So thanks to the support technician I updated my rating to 3 stars instead of 1 when I wrote it while I was waiting.

So please be careful when you start using them, make sure you have plenty of time to test it out.

I was just helped by Avid customer care. They did a take over of my screen, because I could not get my license accepted through their normal instructions, after I updated my Sibelius program. It took me a lot of work to try out many different ways of solving the problem, while being in email dialogue with the Avid support. After ten days of trying different ways to make it work, we made an agreement to have one of the people (Ned) on their support team to do a take over my computer. After 30 minutes he fixed the problem (and answered 3 other questions I had according to Avid and Sibelius). Their installation processes is way too complicated. But their support team has been very helpful, professional and supportive. Though the process was quite too complicated, but it does not seem to be the fault of the people in the support, more in the system of Avid.

HORRIBLY MISLEADING. "Get one year of Pro Tools for just $39 CDN" --- Billed monthly. NOWHERE at any time of purchase did it say this meant a total a $468 A YEAR. AND YOU CAN'T REVOKE IT. ONCE THEY'VE GOTCHU THEY GOT YOU!

They're just not interested in supporting or helping customers. Pro Tools appears to be expensive rubbish.
Avoid at all costs!

Absolutely awful. These programs aren't cheap and when I contact customer support (and absolutely arduous task) I don't expect to simply be refused any hep. Pathetic!

There is no support for imac protools duet for mac catalina. I had a one year subscription Pro Tools but I can not use it any more because drivers are not available for above. Avid technoligy contact center does not care. They only say downgrade your macbook os ... almost impossible..
I had to buy an other interface.

Now my subscription has ended and I like to buy one month more (my son is studying pro tools and needs one month to complete his study) i made a mistake by buying a annual year subscription (monthly paying) instead of one only month.
Avid is a company that does not care how they make money, they will not cancel my mistaken subscription, so I have to pay euro 34 each month for a year.

They get 1 star because you have to give them one. They have no one to talk to to cancel anything. You have to do it online, and they NEVER answer your online comments. WORST SHAME COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH!

No costumer service at all, they cancel all of your cases when you have a problem. They make it seems like they have a monthly subscription plan but it's a whole year subscription and you end up having to pay for the whole year when you only needed a month. Product doesn't work on any computers I've tried. For like the 10000 times i've tried to open a chat with them and it's been cancel because "no agents are present to talk"

Just hire people for God's sake. And please offer a decent customer service.

Very difficult to navigate. Extremely complicated and unclear. I am paying monthly for Siblelius but I can't currently access it because of the excessive hoops to jump through - the system is glitched and taking me round in circles. If I'm paying for Sibelius, why should I be denied the access to Sibelius because of Avid's loopholes? They make it nearly impossible for me to achieve access to Sibelius or to ask for my money back, as contacting them requires hours and days of dedication and waiting. Really poor service. I don't understand why this is a business. I just want to use Sibelius.

Wow! I've never encountered worse service, but even more fundamentally a very flawed product (Pro Tools)

I've now successfully download another DAW (Audacity). It was so easy to download and run than Pro Tools (which is a nightmare)

Bob Dozor

Although COVID19 means everything is shutting down - it does not excuse this company from disabling ALL possible access of contacting them! I am having problems with unregistering Sibelius from on an old laptop, and the same problem registering it on the new laptop (with a licenced product that I purchased a few years ago) - I can't contact them via phone and there is no email support. The only online support available is for users who have the latest version (Sibelius 8) which discounts myself (I have Sibelius 6), unless I pay £30 for a one-time support call.

There customer service is literally non-existance. Sort it out Avid!

From a very unhappy customer.

Avid customer service is simply horrendous!!!
I have been a customer for 7 years. Whenever an issue comes up, getting it resolved is a real challenge. Avid has been double-charging me since November: I renewed my subscription, paid a whole year up front, but realized last month that they are also charging me a monthly fee. Now trying to get them to refund... They are pretty much playing dead.
A matter like this would be resolved instantly if dealt with ANY COMPANY, specially in the field.
Avid is a joke! The only reason I stick to them, is that I have NO CHOICE: my job requires me to use it.
Needless to say, I do not use PT outside of my job requirements.

Updated to OS Catalina, and of course pro tools doesn’t work with it. Tried every possible way to get in contact for some support, of course nothing. They actually charge you to file a query and then don’t respond anyway! Laughable! Have never known a company to be so disinterested in their customers. They don’t even pretend to have any customer service. Will be using other software from now on, hopefully Avid falls away into irrelevance as more people experience their incompetence.

The reviews say it all.

Avid are a collection of failed techs, clowns and muppets. Greed and incompetence is the only thing they excel at. After more than 40 years in the music industry, both recording and producing, I can assure you that 90+% of all musicians, engineers and producers I have come into contact in major studios and the 'network' detest the very name of Avid.

According to the grape-vine, they are currently in massive debt. So the sooner this band of charlatans are bought out by – 'anyone' – the better. Maybe then they can bring their software within a light-year of virtually every other DAW.

Still, they're good for a laugh: New 2019 update: you can now 'name' your tracks! Laughed so hard I nearly bought the next round!