M-Audio Fails

I have about had it with the constant failures by M-Audio.  Their products all seem to be at about dollar store quality, and when you try to get any support to fix them, they basically tell you to go fuck yourself.  I have two M-Audio midi controllers, one which is decent, and one that all but disintegrates when you pick it up. 

Another product that I have purchased from M-Audio is the Firewire 410 audio interface.  Its basically a way to connect your computer to everything else.  Speakers, keyboards, mics, etc.  It has been a pretty decent little trooper for me for the past year or so. 

The M-Audio Firewire 410

Lately it has been starting to give me trouble.  Sound goes out randomly.  I cannot tell if its something with my computer (because these companies can never seem to keep up with apple updates) or if its a problem with actual piece of hardware. 

So, i did what most people who know how to use the internet do, contacted customer support.  Well, M-Audio doesn’t have customer support any longer.  They now do their customer support through another company.  I have started to learn that this is becoming more and more common.  Its not that they outsource their support services, they just don’t do it at all. 

So I head over to Avid, who now handles support.  I sent a nice message through their contact form, explaining the problem, and filled out their form with all my computer and hardware specs.  I sent this on August 3rd.  That same day, I got an electronic response, saying my message has been received.  I got a response back on August 6th, a form response, which read:

“Most customers that have this problem have solved it trying these procedures.”  It then gives a link to their generic help page, which not only has no solutions to my problem, but doesn’t even list a problem similar to mine to begin with. 

We then go back and forth, I tell them that my problem is not solved, and I get another form response.  After my 4th form response, I get a message from Jaimark Ordana asking me about my computer and hardware specs.  After listing this information again, and waiting another couple of days, he sends me the same form response I got from my initial message. 

It is now August 20th, 17 full days after my first message, and I still have not resolved this problem.  I haven’t been able to have a dialogue with a real person, and I have not been able to find any solutions on the internet.  So I finally track down a general support page for Avid.  I notice there is a telephone support section.  I think I have just found the holy grail of customer support.  But before I do a celebration dance, i read this line:

“You may purchase Avid Support Codes for per incident support…”

Did I just read that correct?  I may purchase support?  Before I throw my piece of shit M-Audio product out the window out of pure frustration, I decide to just check on how much these support codes cost. 

I shit you not, you can purchase some phone time with people such as Jaimark Ordana for anywhere from $9.99 to $499.99. 

Are you serious?  500 US Dollars to get some customer support?  I am not lying, there link to the purchase page is right here. 

So, I don’t know what I am going to do.  I can purchase some phone time with someone who may or may not be able to fix my problem, or I can throw this p.o.s. out the window and buy an interface from another brand (which I cannot afford), or I can keep on using this product that only works about half the time, keeping my fingers crossed that eventually M-Audio and Avid will stop telling me to go fuck myself.
Stay tuned.  I might be posting a YouTube video in the near future, documenting the results of what happens when you empty a clip of 9mm bullets into one of the many fine products M-Audio has to offer.