Since I cannot solve this issue having with your support, but since there is no survey about support quality I can only make some pressure here.
I got several Moogs and got a Grandmother lately.
1. Every time I had to wait for months until the firmware/software/driver was making it possible to have the synth working as actually promised when I bought it. Moog is actually regularly putting out all products not working fully as promised yet when you buy them. Every time I got to contact support since there is NO ARCHIVE of librarian versions nor firmware.
2. Then support takes days to send you something (instead of one click on a download link) and is complaining to be a small team, having hence no time. Well, then maybe upload whatever you got into an archive on your homepage and you will have more time to address real issues and not just distribute firmware/USB drivers/librarian versions. An accessible archive of previous firmware/software etc. is never a bad thing for your customers.
But besides that general constructive criticism, back to the case:
Latest issue: after an obviously slow (the case goes for over 2 month by now without an estimated solution) and bad support (support apologized some weeks ago) I am merely ignored by now.
It is an issue about the Grandmothers PB-wheel, which turned out to be a firmware error at the end. It was denied at first and handled with little interest. When I had to send back my GM and the new one did the same after the firmware update (and one month of testing around), it came out to be a massive firmware problem your support did not know about and has yet to be fixed by your engineers.
Despite having a faulty product I never got an answer to when this problem might actually be solved and if I can have a notification about the new firmware solution please. Well, no answer whatsoever from your support at all...
Some moments from the mails starting beginning of April:
Me:
Me:"... thanks for your quick and detailed reply.
- Just to note: I did a note calibration, when I got the synth
- I followed the procedure of the note calibration again, after that the Pot min, max and centre calibrations, including the master tune.
The results for the MOD wheel: problem solved, as expected. The synth (pots) behave better alltogether.
But the PB wheel still has similar issues, as before - though it came close to how it should be.
Me:"... any news concerning my problem? My time runs out, and if the problem persists I will have to send the grandma back to the distributor."
Moog:"..., why am I not getting an answer? Please drop a line at least, if I can hope for a solution."
Me:"Apologies for the delay in response to your emails. ...
... The Grandmother is meant to behave more like a purely analog synth and is thus calibrated as such. This means that it may not always achieve the most accurate settings that a hybrid or digital synth could achieve. The additional MIDI implementation is a nice feature to have, but some discrepancies will be present due to the calibrations and the nature of the synth.
Me:"... unfortunately you only answered one part of the problem. What about the issue, that when I pitch up or down, the scale is shifted down I land a half semitone too low despite the pot calibration? That is something I can not use to pitchben properly beacuse I can HEAR that it is off. ..."
Moog:"I am merely disappointed in your support. After 18 days I still did not get all answers though clearly not everything works as it should. Any musician I show the PB problem can hear, that the pitching sounds rather wrong. I invested a lot of time and love, to figure out, what is going on, analyze etc. and to avoid sending back the synth.
I got 3 of your synths and every time I bought one I had to write you and there was always some stuff I could not access right away as a proper customer. (Calibration stuff, unavailable librarian/firmware versions etc.) Every time it took me weeks to get the synth working properly, but this time it is a month already and it still does not work as described in your manual.
1. The GLOBAL SETTINGS /PB range settings are not as described in your manual. It goes from F0-D2 0-12 instead of F0-C2 1-12 st, why?
2. The intervals are consequently just off, at max more than half a semitone, where everybody can hear, it is clearly not an octave pitch for your ear. Why do you not take this as a problem?"
"My apologies once again for the lack of consistency in response. We are a small service team of 5 people with hundreds of customers we assist daily so sometimes we cannot address issues in as timely of a manner as we would like. As for the issues you are encountering with your Grandmother, I do agree that they are less than ideal for a new synth. Some of the issues would be better solved once we release new firmware for the Grandmother, while other issues are just the nature of the beast I'm afraid. If the calibrations did not resolve the pitch wheel issue, and you are still experiencing inconsistencies with the full pitch bend range settings, it is possible that something is wrong with the pitch wheel mechanism. Unfortunately, this would not be something that could be addressed through firmware or calibration, and would require having a tech perform more in depth testing and repair as needed.
The manual could also use some updates and further clarification on specific settings. I can certainly pass your notes and concerns along to our marketing team for future consideration."
One month gone, I had to send back my GM and get a new one. Since the problem turned up again after updating the firmware, I wrote again...
Moog:
"My apologies for the previous support you received. I've since discussed the pitch bend issue with our engineers and they have confirmed a firmware bug is at fault for the pitch bend range issue. Interesting to know that this issue was not present in previous versions of the firmware. I can certainly pass along v1.0.0 firmware for the Grandmother. I've copied a link to a dropbox page below where you can download the sysex file for the firmware."
Me:
Moog:thank you for the firmware. Unfortunately it did not fix the problem at all... Now I am really starting to get confused about what is going on.
1. v1.0.0 Sounds like the first one and probably on the units off factory. But if 1.0.0 is also broke, then it seems to be an inherited problem and unlikely, that other versions in between work. However that would mean, it never worked and they don't right off your factory. But I witnessed - and recorded - one working at least... so it seems to happen. So you might have an even older firmware on those. (I suspect that all GMs worked, when I got them, but I always update firmware on my synths but I left one untouched - the one was working, before I updated it too to check, it is actually really the firmware).
2. Or there is the possibility of the firmware 1.0.2 causing some irreversible fault? Or is it the updating process itself? Both quite unlikely, right?
You mentioned, that you don't really know, if it worked in earlier firmware versions? But you do have to have units that are working or worked properly, don't you? Which firmware version do you have on those? Or How do you ship them, with which version? The problem is, I don't know enough background information to be able to narrow down the cause.
I can certainly pass along an older version of the firmware. I've attached v1.0.0 to this email.
(No answer to any of my questions besides getting the same firmware again.)
Me:
Moog:you sent me 1.0.0 already, that was the one confusing me, since it did not revert the PB-wheel problem that came with the firmware-update.
1. Do you ship them with 1.0.0? Or which version?
2. Can you send me any older version, if one exists? Or just all versions you got?
3. And to sum it up, you can comfort me, that the hardware is fine and a firmware update will help soon, right?
Me:I do have a beta version of the firmware, rev 0.7.7, that I can send you, please see attached. Given that this is a beta version of the firmware, this may not allow your Grandmother to operate fully as intended, other than the pitch bend issue that is already occurring. And yes, I can confirm after testing several Grandmothers that the pitch bend issue is a firmware bug, and not a physical problem with the device itself.
Let me know if you have any additional questions or trouble and I will be glad to help.
"0_7_7 beta also did not revert the problem.
There are more and more people turning out to have the same issue. I could also test one more unit in a shop with out-of-the-box firmware and the PB was working fine.
I will have to wait for a fix at he end I guess. Is it possible to send me a notification, when the fixed firmware is available, please?"
No answer whatsoever for some weeks again. It turned out to be a banal firmware bug - as mostly - instead of being "just the nature of the beast"...
Me:
"is that it? No more answers, despite me asking a question in my last e-mail? No more firmwares to test? Not the slightest apology for the product/software being faulty or thanking for my patience that I had and needed to come through and prove that there really is an issue you did not realize? No answer what so ever to inform your loyal customers when actually they will be able to use their product as it is supposed to work? After around two month of hassle and after already apologizing for the previous support quality? And after this happens - not this extreme tough - every time I buy a Moog synth (I already mentioned this fact to you)?
A bad taste in my mouth, when I hear, how great Moog is and how much you are a family and an employee owned company. Somehow that does not go together... I still do not really feel you or your companies empathy at all. Please take care about that for the future besides he new firmware for the grandmother."
No answer of course at all.... does this look like a good and adequate support to anyone? To me this is absolutely unacceptable and offending in this case.
Just a counter example, how OTHER supports close similar cases like this:
"... I'm deeply sorry that we could not sort out those issues and would like to apologies for the time consuming tests and troubleshooting,
Please consider that I remain at your entire service if you came to need any further help"