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Originally Posted by quincyg
I believe apple is working on switching the program over to a u.s. operation.
Nope. The German crew is with us to stay, in Germany. Apple Germany is an official, permanent Apple facility, in what was previously Emagic in Rellingen, Germany.
Quote:
oh yeah it is pretty lame to have to pay for tech support.
I agree, I'd prefer nobody ever charge for tech support, that it's free with the license (purchase) of the software, for the life of the software.
Sadly, few do it that way.
For the record, Apple's policy isn't as draconian as "$200 no matter what per call." I believe you get 90-days of free calling. After that, if you call for tech support, your call will be free if:
1) You are calling about a verifiable and reproducable bug in the software
2) they can't help you with your problem
Otherwise, you'll be charged $200 for the call.
If a user sees themselves needing more help, they can buy AppleCare Pro Audio support for $399. This covers unlimited calls, 7 days a week, and I believe connects directly to the Expert Support Team (at least in the USA and Germany), and a significant number of these guys are still from the old Emagic support team, so they know they're stuff (unlike the general help line people, as others have noted).
Again, I'd rather it be free than $399, but as professional support packages go, its certainly worth considering if you are making money professionally from Logic and make three or more support calls per year. Hell, if you make 10 calls after the free 90 days, that's $40 a call. I'd
still prefer free, but that's certainly not a forturne.
Plus, lets face it--there are
a ton of resources on Logic out there! Obviously, as a Logic author, I'm a big fan of books.

I wrote a couple, the Logic Training Guides are good books, and I believe Stephen Bennet now has one that I've not seen yet, but knowing him its bound to be very good (and probably more readily available in the UK).
But there are very active Internet groups such as the YahooGroup called the Logic Users Group (LUG) of which I'm a co-moderator (home page at
http://www.logic-users.org). There's also a German forum, Apple's own (free) discussion forum for Logic, and this very board.
Finally, Apple has been taking a
very welcome and active role in supporting in-person user groups around the USA. Los Angeles and New York have very active LUGs, and the other week was the first meeting of the Orange County Logic Pro Users Group (Costa Mesa, California), and Apple sent not only a box of goodies to give away, but Bill Burgess, Apple Logic Marketing Manager and VIP Support was one of the speakers.
If there is not a user group in your area yet,
start one! Write to Apple and let them know you're interested, and keep going from there. At the OC meeting, we had 50+ people, from seasoned studios pros to a pro pianist who bought her first Mac and Logic. I know that one is starting soon in Seattle. It's a great way to meet other Logic users, get on Apple's radar (we were told by Bill that bugs/requests from groups are always taken more seriously than isolated reports), and to build an in-person support network for when you need help or just want to hang out with other Logic users. And its free.
I don't mean to sound like a shill for Apple--as I said, I also think support should be free, and I have complained directly to Apple employees and managers up the chain. But its not as bad as some would make it out to be, and there are free options for support--that can be fun, to boot.
Orren