Plugin Alliance Reviews 152

Decent software offerings from PA are marred by horrible customer service and a pattern of unethical business practices. Outright refused to refund an auto-renewed $250 subscription a year after signing up for the "1-year MEGA Bundle Package" (says 1-year in the name). I contacted them within 24 hours of the charge expecting quick action and satisfaction, but received neither.

Stunned to basically be told by PA "service" staff that they refuse to refund my $250 that was auto-charged; then rudely close my "ticket" as if customer service was adequately rendered. Universal Audio will be getting my business for plug-in purchases going forward as their business model isn't built on an unethical non-refundable auto-renewal revenue scheme.

I am honestly disappointed because PA does have some good plug-ins that I liked, but so do a lot of other companies that operate ethically who will be getting my business instead. If PA would've simply honored a refund they could've kept a loyal customer for life, but instead they decided it was worth the short term financial gain to lose a potential lifelong customer. Now I come to this site and see reviews that this is a practice by PA to scam folks out of money, and not just a one-off occurrence in my case. Bad form, PA, bad form.

Plugin Alliance have incredibly unsatisfactory customer support, who continue to dismiss you, and close your support tickets. Their subscriptions utilise highly unethical business practices, including neglecting to notify in advance to to $200 annual renewals, as well as hiding their “clear” refund policies well out of sight from the consumer.

As someone who is an industry professional who has worked with many audio software businesses, I’ve never been treated so unprofessionally or poorly by any company until now.

Avoid at all costs.

After an infinite nonsense series of mistakes from Amanda (from the support team), I still haven't been able to have the invoice with my correct business info on it. I'm sick, their system didn't work properly and after updating the business info on my account the invoice was still showing the old info. It was saved properly on my end, that's the first thing I've checked after receiving the wrong invoice. Then Amanda tried to assist me unsuccessfully for 3 times. It's really silly to not being able to copy-paste the correct info on the invoice for 3 times in a row. The first time nothing changed on the invoice, the second time the address was wrong, now the VAT ID has an "o" instead of a "0". And she replies to me with an arrogant tone, saying that I'm wrong when clearly I'm not and threatening me to close my account because I got frustrated and angry at her. The silliest customer experience ever.

I wanted to buy the Shadow Hills Class A compressor and was presented with a bundle offer for 10.00 a month as an alternative. I signed up for the bundle and then two months later the license for the shadow hills expired and I was informed the compressor wasn't included in the bundle. WHY PRESENT THAT AS A PURCHASE OPTION?? So now I spent 20 extra dollars beause I will still have to buy the plugin. When I asked for store credit I was refused and they stopped answering my emails. DISHONEST ADVERTISING.

Seriously bad practices in customer service, to keep it brief...

A manager (Jonathan Shell) ignorantly closed my tickets with no replies because he ignored my request for a refund even though the plugin was bugged and not working. When I made another ticket to speak to another manager he replied within 5 mins giving refund and closing ticket again. I then opened another ticket still wanting a manger to report his actions in which he then jumped through hoops marking our ticket as resolved and closing more tickets of me requesting a specific manager. he also then blocked my account from making tickets at all ( they would immediately close )

Being creative with finding alternative methods of contact I finally got this other manager, They looked over the case and was obviously more concerned about sticking up for their colleague than doing the right thing.

Will not be buying again. Go to Acustica Audio, plugins are much higher quality in sound and great service.

My annual subscription with Plugin Alliance ticked over, and I emailed them the next day to say I didn't want it - please refund. They hadn't sent me any reminder emails ahead of the renewal, which is unlawful in the UK, and specifically called out as 'unfair business practise' in the Consumer Rights Act.

Plugin Alliance were completely unhelpful. As far as they were concerned, they had my money and they were keeping it. I was a happy customer and purchased several plugins from them, but you can be sure I'll never spend another penny with them.

If you do buy an annual subscription - CANCEL IT STRAIGHT AWAY, you don't want it to auto-renew!

This is my top choice for audio software developers. They make great plugins and have a great license-authorization system which is very simple and generous. They give at least 2 licenses for each plugins they sell to you and you can assign those plugins to machine IDs of your choice.

I purchased their plug-ins with a 250/yr subscription. Sent an email to get some customer support, and it's been 4 days with no response. I sent another email asking for a refund. I'm not even sure there's a pulse on the other side.

Censoring reviews, dishonest service and shady practices.

There is a lot of posts on reddit about this. And anywhere else on the internet. People finally catch up and understand that plugin alliance is literally not allowing reviews in which there is something written that might possibly be too negative for a reader to influence them not to buy the plugin. Funny thing is this applies to 4 star reviews where most of the text is saying positive things about the plugin. It's very dishonest towards any possible customer.

Their support is also non-existant and they pretty much try to keep people away from them as far as possible if they come with problems on their website or things that don't instantly make them earn cash.

Now i dont know how much the devs get from sales but i imagine PA keeps a decent cut for themselves. I highly suggest using another website or buying from the developers themselves. plugin alliance has been doing this for years and finally people begin to see. pretty bad look and shouldn't end good good for plugin botique.

If you are still able to read this review this means they havent tried to manually and falsely claim this. If there's ONLY 5 star reviews everywhere you should probably be suspicious.

Great plugins! I hope one day they will make Alesis Andromeda vst

Terrible service from an unscrupulous plugin company. Be careful signing up for their subscription.

Utterly appalled at service ,took my money ,plug ins then ceased to work loosing me so far days work,as plug ins were intergral part of tracks ,sent many requests for password reset so far unanswered,and many now also sent telling them the plug ins not working ,tried another email and made new account and when tried asking for password reset was instantaneous leading me to believe they are blocking my messages from first account ..BEWARE!!!!!!! Can’t even get into account to cancel credit card subscription as they won’t send me a reset ,guess next step if official complaint to authorities

This is the best of the best, both in terms of sound quality (which easily rivals and in a lot of cases outperforms UA) and value for money, especially now that they started the monthly bundle. Their SSL emulations are mind blowing especially the 900J, and changed my workflow completely

I've been using these plugins for a few months now so I'm getting really familiar with them now, and I must say I'm just blowing away!!
I also use a buch of other plugins and these are are My favorite. And the selection is crazy You get like 140 plugins or something, and there all incredible and useful.
The Neve Chanel strip is mind blowing.

I started using PA several months back, don't remember the first plugin I bought but I do remember it changed the quality of my mixes. Since that first experience I have almost exclusively continued to use their plug ins. Why, they sound amazing ...the TM technology they employ works...period.
If you are looking for amazing value for the money check them out...I just bought the Focusrite console plug in and I am hooked...Check this stuff out...they also let you download and test drive the plug in which is nice...
Tim in Texas

Plugin-Alliance has some of the best plugins available today. I am blown away by the Focusrite Studio Console emulation. I use this on every session. The EQ on the high end is beautiful and clean. Brightens without getting peaky. The VCA compressor is one of the best plugin compressors I have ever used, and I have them all. Not for adding color, but for controlling level in a smooth and natural way. So many features, it is just awesome. Dirk and team really nailed it with this one. 11 out of 10.
As for the company’s support team, I had an issue, but they did not stop helping me until it was resolved. Trevor was very professional and we solved the problem together. When the Mega Bundle was announced, I signed up right away. There are so many highly useable plugins at my disposal, I am not sure how I could live without them. Just do the math, it is a great deal. Keep up the good work and looking forward to new plugins added to the bundle at no additional charge.

I love this site. Some of the best software money can buy. Many of my go to VSTs I bought or rent to own from here. Great run the now too.

Great experience so far. Some good offers online and plugins that you might not find elsewhere.

Fast, easy and well designed webshop and friendly top-notch customer service (if needed). One of my favorite places to buy digital audio "equipment"!