This stuff is terrible

For Christmas, my kids bought me this company’s iRig BlueBoard (foot pedal), iRig Midi Interface and iRig Microphone together with a suite of relevant software (AmpliTube, etc.) Nothing worked. And, perhaps I should explain that for 40 years I was a professor of mathematics and cognitive science at Northwestern, UMass, Purdue, and Indiana Universities - as well as being a software developer and experienced user of computer-based technologies. I’ve now retired and play a harmonica in several local bands (blues, country, rock, bluegrass). I mention this only to make it clear that I’m not an inexperienced user of these kinds of technologies.

When I first experienced problems with IK Multimedia’s gadgets and software, I contacted their tech support people, and all they did was to tell me to read their manuals. I did this. And, to prove that I read the manuals thoroughly, I went though one of the manuals and make line-by-line editorial comments pointing out how nearly every sentence was either: (1) unhelpful, (2) completely unclear, (3) incomplete, or (4) completely wrong (in the sense that what was said simply wasn’t accurate).

Then, I once again simplified my questions and contacted IK’s tech support people. This time, I did get a few suggestions about possible solutions to my problems. But, once again, virtually every sentence in this message was either: (1) completely unclear, (2) incomplete, or (3) completely wrong (in the sense that what was said simply wasn’t accurate). Also, the tech support person stated that some of the problems that I confronted could only be solved by purchasing more equipment that performed functions that IK Multimedia’s web site claims that their products are intended to do.

Next, I tried going to IK Multimedia’s web site to see if there were other ways to get technical support. The contact numbers that were given reported that “the tech support lines were down.” And now, three days later, “the lines are still down."

I’ve now seem to have no options except to ask for my money back on these purchases. … If you want to get a quick verification of what I’ve said, try downloading the things that are called “users manuals” for IK Multimedia’s products. The shortcomings will be obvious. These “users manuals” are not really users manuals at all. The simply describe what the products claim to do, but they give almost no information about how you (the user) could actually do any of these things. Also, these “users guides” contain a bunch of nearly identical photographs which contribute almost nothing to the meaningfulness of the text. … In more than 40 years of using a lot of computer-based tools, I’ve never encountered anything this bad in terms of overstated claims, completely useless “users guides”, and dismal tech support.

Dick Lesh about AmpliTube Fender™