Dont even think about buying from avid store

[markyker]

Right, so I heard Pro Tools 9 was out so came home in a fluster ready to buy it. Went to the Avid Store and bought from there.... said my payment was declined. How annoying, money is in the bank.

So, tried a few more times, came back declines. Spoke to bank... 1st payment went through!! So they've taken my money and not given me anything for it.

Tried calling sales, they said to email Arvato. Ha! Here is where the fun begins.

Emailed them, they responded saying no record of the payment, that I needed to send a copy of my bank statement, etc, before they could even look at it. I even gave them the authorisation code for the payment that my bank gave me. I also sent my card number for them to check.

None of this seemed to even be acknowledged by the guy at Arvato. He didn't even confirm if they'd checked. I thought it was a bit out of order, to be honest.

So, I put more money in the account, tried again. Payment failed, but no money taken this time.

Emailed the guy again, he said that they would get someone to call me. Surprisingly... no one did.

So I emailed him again, saying this, with no reply. Emailed him again, to ask if I could maybe arrange to pay over the phone. No reply. Emailed again, to see why he wasn't replying. No reply. Emailed again, to tell him that I just want to buy a product. No reply, again. I even called bloody Germany to see if I could speak to someone (their customer service lies there) and was on the phone for 20 mins, before I gave up because no one answered.

Needless to say, I'm pretty unimpressed. Had to cancel my card so the transaction that originally went through will get cancelled and I could get the money they'd taken off me and not acknowledged, then just went to Sweetwater and bought it off them, for like £60 cheaper than Avid were selling it in the UK anyway. They, on the other hand, were EXTREMELY helpful as they emailed me in 15 mins after purchasing to say THEY were experiencing a problem with THEIR system, and then about 15 mins after that, I got an email with the authorisation code, link to download, etc etc. It's downloading now. I'm looking forward to using it.

So, just a quick note to people, and to Avid, that their store is poorly ran, their customer service is some of the worst I've ever had to deal with, don't bother. Avid, sort it out, it's a joke.

I'm off to use my easily purchased product now... shame it was such a nightmare to begin with................

[Dism]

Originally Posted by markyker

Right, so I heard Pro Tools 9 was out so came home in a fluster ready to buy it. Went to the Avid Store and bought from there.... said my payment was declined. How annoying, money is in the bank.

So, tried a few more times, came back declines. Spoke to bank... 1st payment went through!! So they've taken my money and not given me anything for it.

Tried calling sales, they said to email Arvato. Ha! Here is where the fun begins.

Emailed them, they responded saying no record of the payment, that I needed to send a copy of my bank statement, etc, before they could even look at it. I even gave them the authorisation code for the payment that my bank gave me. I also sent my card number for them to check.

None of this seemed to even be acknowledged by the guy at Arvato. He didn't even confirm if they'd checked. I thought it was a bit out of order, to be honest.

So, I put more money in the account, tried again. Payment failed, but no money taken this time.

Emailed the guy again, he said that they would get someone to call me. Surprisingly... no one did.

So I emailed him again, saying this, with no reply. Emailed him again, to ask if I could maybe arrange to pay over the phone. No reply. Emailed again, to see why he wasn't replying. No reply. Emailed again, to tell him that I just want to buy a product. No reply, again. I even called bloody Germany to see if I could speak to someone (their customer service lies there) and was on the phone for 20 mins, before I gave up because no one answered.

Needless to say, I'm pretty unimpressed. Had to cancel my card so the transaction that originally went through will get cancelled and I could get the money they'd taken off me and not acknowledged, then just went to Sweetwater and bought it off them, for like £60 cheaper than Avid were selling it in the UK anyway. They, on the other hand, were EXTREMELY helpful as they emailed me in 15 mins after purchasing to say THEY were experiencing a problem with THEIR system, and then about 15 mins after that, I got an email with the authorisation code, link to download, etc etc. It's downloading now. I'm looking forward to using it.

So, just a quick note to people, and to Avid, that their store is poorly ran, their customer service is some of the worst I've ever had to deal with, don't bother. Avid, sort it out, it's a joke.

I'm off to use my easily purchased product now... shame it was such a nightmare to begin with................

Sorry to hear about your experience. A shame you were treated so poorly by customer service.

I did not encounter any such problems, however. Paid. Downloaded. Installed. No dramas whatsoever.

Hopefully Avid is paying attention so more issues like this don't arise!

[markyker]

I know not everyone would have this problem, but it's annoying because I feel that such a small minority of people struggling should receive such poor service. There can't be that many of us!

Anyway, still not had a reply from them. Shame really, I love Pro Tools and am pretty loyal as far as Avid/Digidesign go. Hopefully it's a blip and will be fine in the future.

Here's to hoping!

[Park Seward]

I don't follow. Was this a credit card order?

Was the payment declined?

Did you try to buy PT from the U.S. Avid store?

Who is Arvato?

Put more money into the account? What?

[Keybeeetsss]

Originally Posted by Park Seward

Who is Arvato?

Arvato is actually who u pay when u buy on the Avid store.. maybe its Avid's cousin but thatz who gets the money...

Sorry to hear about that Mark... Very unfortunate situation...

[Oblivion777]

I saw that a lot of the people have problems purchasing from the on-line store (myself included). Every time I get the infamous »Payment failed. Please try again or contact customer service.« displayed. I tried with 3 different computers from 3 different locations using 3 different web browsers (IE8, Chrome and Safari) - no luck. Written a couple of e-mails to Arvato, no luck as well. I would gladly crossgrade from my PT8LE to PT9 ... but cannot.

[Keybeeetsss]

If ur overseas, most of the time it is ur bank that is declining thinking its a possible fraud so u may wanna check with them & let them kno, plus the fact that ur card may now be froze

[markyker]

Originally Posted by Park Seward

I don't follow. Was this a credit card order?

Was the payment declined?

Did you try to buy PT from the U.S. Avid store?

Who is Arvato?

Put more money into the account? What?

It was a credit card order yes. The payment came up as declined on their site but was authorised by my bank.

Arvato are the people who take your money and don't bother following up on emails.

I put money in my account to pay as it came out originally due to the payment going through but showing as declined by Avid.

They've tried calling me today after I sent them an email saying I'd bought it off someone else.

Funny that....

[markyker]

Originally Posted by Keybeeetsss

If ur overseas, most of the time it is ur bank that is declining thinking its a possible fraud so u may wanna check with them & let them kno, plus the fact that ur card may now be froze

No mate, I called my bank and they said it was authorised, I froze my card intentionally to stop the originally transaction from completing as they weren't checking my details to tell me whether a payment had been received by them. This was after 3 days of waiting for them to call me to sort it out. Poor...

[danander11]

I have to say, I had no problems whatsoever.. with anything I've bought from Avids store..

Even downloaded faster than Key.. (and for us here in Oz that's saying something!)