DarkStar wrote:Please contact
Sales/Account Support, via here. You will be able to search the FAQs first, but if they do not resolve your issue, there is a link at the top of the Search FAQs page to a Support form.
Say clearly that you wish to buy AT5 MAX at the introductory price, using Gear Credits, but the Custom Shop is not letting you.
Sales Support can look at your Account and see what's going on. Response time normally is within 2 working days (US (East Coast) Business hours, generally), but in the current circumstances please allow some more time. Administrators and Moderators here cannot access your Account.
Thank you for your reply. I have already sent a similar message to what I posted yesterday to IK support using a contact form accessed via the receipt I received from my recent Gear Credits purchase. I used the help topic "Sales (Pre/Post)." Will that get my message to the correct department? (I do not see an option to send a message to contact "Sales/Account Support," as you recommend.)
The only thing among the FAQ information that might be relevant to my situation is the distinction between a crossgrade and an upgrade. I do not currently have a version of Amplitube Max, so I do not technically qualify for an upgrade. I’m not sure about crossgrading. I do have an Axe I/O. That’s an IK product of high value, I would think.
The only price that clearly presented to me on the website is $299--same as the the upgrade/crossgrade price. When I log into the IK website-->click the little red person-head-->click Crossgrade/Upgrade, I see that I am offered Amplitube 5 MAX for $299. I see the same price if I find Amplitube 5 MAX via “Products.”
At the same time, the Custom Shop offered me the Amplitube 5 MAX upgrade for 300 gear credits or $299. (Every product in the Custom Shop, as far as I can tell, is offered at a very-close-to 1:1 ratio between dollars and gear credits.)
So, I did what a sensible IK consumer would do: Not having enough gear credits available, I used whatever JamPoints I had to buy more gear credits at a discount rate, and I went back to the Custom Shop to buy the Amplitube 5 MAX upgrade at the displayed gear-credit price.
But, as I said previously, when I clicked “Add to cart,” I found myself kicked over to the IK website, where gear credits are not accepted. This is obviously a bummer, because I just paid at this site, in order to be able to use the Custom Shop.
This is pretty much all I find among the FAQs regarding gear credits and the Custom Shop:
"Are JamPoints and Custom Shop Gear Credits the same thing? . . .
No. JamPoints are reward points earned from qualifying products that are registered to your IK Multimedia account.
You can then use JamPoints to discount future purchases made in the IK webstore or in the Custom Shop. . . . .
Custom Shop Gear Credits are the currency of the Custom Shop. They can be purchased either in the IK webstore or in the Custom Shop and used to pay up to $0.5 per credit (see more below).
With the Gear Credits in your Custom Shop account, you can use those towards purchases of a-la-carte gear in the Custom Shop or towards Collections that appear in the Custom Shop. . . . .
You can also use JamPoints towards a purchase of a Gear Credit pack to increase savings, which will discount your total. For steps on how to purchase Gear Credits using your JamPoints, please click here.
FAQ ID: 1082"
I tried to use the Custom Shop, gear credits, and JamPoints in a way that is promoted by IK. So, I'm very surprised that I'm running into any problem. Right now, I’m caught in a maze in which I’ve paid IK in a way that does not allow me to buy by the means and at the price that were offered to me.
I’ve messed around further with the Custom Shop, and I’ve found that it will accept my gear credits for other products, including Amplitube 5 Upgrade and Amplitube Joe Satriani. (And, I now see the little, red “remove” button that wasn’t easily visible to my tired eyes last night.) So, it will accept my gear credits for some products, but not for the Amplitube 5 MAX upgrade. Why not? Because I don’t have an existing Amplitube MAX license? Nothing in the Custom Shop indicates that I must previously have an Amplitube MAX license in order to qualify for the offered gear-credit price, and it offers me the product for $299 or 300 gear credits, at the same time that the website offers me only the $299 choice.
Should I have assumed that the posted gear-credit price was not for me? I don’t think so. It’s clear that the Custom Shop app is integrated with the same database as the website, because gear credits bought on the website show up near-instantly in the Custom Shop app. And, the shared database clearly includes what gear I have and don’t have. So, it’s reasonable to think that, in the absence of any indicated restrictions, I can make the choice that best suits me among those offered. Why even show a customer an offer that doesn’t exist for that customer? A little database logic could have shown $299 and no gear-credit option, if that is what the company has in mind.
Let’s say I want to buy Amplitube 5 Max with a credit card through the IK website. I can find no visible indication while shopping online that I would be choosing a new product and not an upgrade of an existing license. If it’s the intention is that I’d be buying a new product that’s in a different class than anything I currently own, then it doesn’t make sense that I see Amplitube 5 Max when clicking “Crossgrade/Upgrade,” because I don’t own anything to crossgrade to (Axe I/O aside, perhaps) or upgrade from. If I am shown Amplitube 5 MAX under “Crossgrade/Upgrade” in spite of not qualifying, it would make sense for there would be indication that, if I bought that product, I’d be buying something new and not actually crossgrading or upgrading, if that “upsell” is what IK has in mind.
It seems that IK is using the term “upgrade” with two different meanings at the same time: 1) paid acquisition of an improved, higher class version of an existing product--MAX, and 2) paid acquisition of a new, better, different product—a numbered version of Amplitube. But, even this doesn’t entirely untangle the snafu, because MAX and numbered versions of Amplitube aren’t distinct, in the specific case of Amplitube 5 MAX. It seems that, in effect, “upgrade” means something different on the website than it does in the Custom Shop; I am considered eligible to buy under the “upgrade” heading on website, but I am not considered eligible to buy an upgrade in the Custom Shop.
(Maybe a receipt that follows a website purchase of Amplitube 5 MAX would show something the company considers wholly new, I don’t know. But, if so, that’s awkward: customers should always know exactly what they’re buying, and I see no distinction on the website between a wholly new Amplitube 5 MAX purchase and an upgrade from something else to Amplitube 5 MAX.)
A question: If someone bought gear credits at an undiscounted rate, would the Custom Shop not have accepted them for the offered 300-credit Amplitube 5 MAX upgrade? That is, if one paid straight $299 for one's gear credits, would or wouldn’t one have been able to buy the Amplitube 5 MAX upgrade using those credits in the Custom Shop? If the latter, then there is a scenario in which the highest-priced offered buying option would not be accepted. That would be weird. If the gear credits bought at full price were accepted in the Custom Shop, then the actual price for a customer who is shown Amplitube 5 MAX upgrade in the Custom Shop and who bought discounted gear credits, would be different than the offered Custom Shop price, with no indication of that discrepancy before the purchase of credits. That’s weird, too—and that is what I’m faced with now. Maybe IK didn't intend a gear-credit option for me, but, if so, why show one?
After many years as an IK customer, I’m assuming good faith on the part of IK, although I am unhappy at the difficulty of this transaction and at not presently having the product it looked like it would be so easy to buy. It’s not OK to take a customer’s money first and then reveal that the money can’t buy a product the price tag said it can, even accidentally. I’ll also send this to the customer-service contact address, but I would very much appreciate if moderators and representatives who interact on this forum could also contact someone higher up the chain to speed resolution. Whatever help you can offer is much appreciated. I can’t be the only one in this boat.
Apologies, if necessary, for the length of this post. There are many things I would rather do than write stuff like the above, but I want to be clear about why I expected what I expected and why my expectation is reasonable.
And, now, off to play some guitar on this socially distanced New Year’s Eve, when I would otherwise be out at a live-music show. Happy New Year!
