Postscript: Demiurge's response to Heavy Metal tinykitty

reckless442

As many of you recall, on Friday, when the servers crashed, it resulted in some of us having our shields expire. That led to us being exposed to attack by the players who could access the game. I was at 1300 and leading my bracket, but lost 115 points. Beee, whose shield expired before mine, lost 220. I think it would have been worse, but it seems like players on this forum who were aware of the problem refrained from attacking, which was greatly appreciated.

I wrote to customer service before my shield expired to ask that they extend the shield. Longshot, I know, but if the ticket got to the right person, maybe it was something that could be done quickly. When that didn't happen, I wrote back later and asked that I be compensated for the cost of boosts and shields that I needed to buy to get back to 1300.

Here is the reply I received. It also refers to my writing a follow-up when I received no response after four days and to an unrelated cheater report I made:

We are truly sorry for the inconvenience that our delayed response may have caused.
Unfortunately, we were experiencing some server issues. While server crashes are rare but when they happen it affects all players.
Also, thank you for submitting a cheater report and helping us make the game fun and fair for all players.
We will investigate this right away and take any appropriate actions.
Unfortunately we are unable to compensate in this case.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and we hope for your understanding in this matter.
I am hoping that now everything is back to normal in the game, if not please contact us back for further support.

Thank you.

D3Publisher Support Team

Seriously? Are they really that clueless? Do they have no idea of what happened last Friday? The server crash did not affect "all players." If it did, Beee and I (and so many others) would not have lost points to people who were playing the game when we were unable to. If the server crash affected "all players," emeryt would not have been able to post our reduced scores in this forum while we were unable to access the game.

Unknown

I feel for you reckless. Exact same response I got on the bugged Falcon covers and the Herioc: OSCORP points change.

I feel certain that there have been some things that CS have been able to take care of for me quickly and efficiently, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were. There seems to be a pretty serious disconnect between CS and the developers. I strongly suspect that CS is a contracted offshore company. The typical response is, "Thanks for your feedback! Sorry, we can't do anything! Bye!"

Unknown

reckless442 wrote:

If the server crash affected "all players," emeryt would not have been able to post our reduced scores in this forum while we were unable to access the game.

Not to mention I wouldn't be able to hit Bee, when I was unaware of the problem.

Did You reply to them? I think You should.

EDIT: btw. do You (and Bugpop) still put money in this **** of a game?

reckless442

Maye that's it. As I've said in response to your posts about Falcon, I can understand why they have not given out other covers. Here, what's so bizarre is that the explanation they gave for the problem is so demonstrably false.

I wrote back explaining that the server crash did not affect all players, and even provided a link to the page from the Heavy Metal thread that showed some people could play while others were locked out and losing points. Perhaps when I get a response next week, they will at least acknowledge that the problem did not affect everyone equally.

Unknown

Sadly, I think that's going to be the end of the line for you with CS. I went back and forth with them about four times on the Falcon covers, and basically got the same response each time.

reckless442

Emeryt wrote:

reckless442 wrote:

If the server crash affected "all players," emeryt would not have been able to post our reduced scores in this forum while we were unable to access the game.

Not to mention I wouldn't be able to hit Bee, when I was unaware of the problem.

Did You reply to them? I think You should.

EDIT: btw. do You (and Bugpop) still put money in this **** of a game?

I can't speak for Bugpop, but I haven't added any real money to my account since the crash and don't plan to. I'm trying to change my play-style to not use HP-using boosts and minimal shields, i.e., enough so that I earn enough to cover what I spend from individual and alliance winnings. I don't plan to shield-hop to 1300 anymore. I have a bank of about 10000 HP that I will save. I won't buy extra covers for Sentry; I'll see what She-Hulk and 3* Storm look like.

If there is a sale on HP or ISO, I might buy some with some iTunes gift cards that I bought at a discount (15% off), but, otherwise, until things change, I am not going to give the developers more money.

Unknown

Well, what's the use of struggling so much when D3P does not care about the competition itself ?

They create Season rankings, Alliances, and then give no support to Hard Core Players ? Weird.

The result : Where is X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D, 5D ? Reading Johnnypunch's post, I am not surprised. You struggle hard and invest money for a competition, and as a thank you, you get a nice slap in the face ? (must be the red ability from Hulk they are using...)

CS is not offshore. I called them. They are real americans.

Unknown

I think you asked for too much when you asked to be compensated for your HP for boosts/shield costs to get back to 1300.

You should've just asked for HP compensation for the shields up to the point of the crash.

Twysta

The more I hear about their CS department makes me think of this incident with Verizon CS.

mohio

not to derail this post, but it seems connected so here's my (really my alliance-mate's) CS story.

So my alliance-mate, who as far as I know hasn't spent more on the game than maybe expanding some cover slots early on like most people, was one of the lucky few who got their daken rewards on the early side, before the server/Heavy Metal fiasco went down. He must have been in the last group to get them or something cause every subsequent time the server rebooted and came back up (before going down again and again), he got his PvE awards, including the Daken covers, HP and iso, as well as any gifts he received from his FB friends. Since this happened again and again, he essentially got a "free" maxed out Daken (well, without the alliance reward, so not fully maxed) as well as many thousands in iso and probably several hundred HP. So as not to drag the story out any longer, someone flagged him, or a dev somehow noticed a guy who doesn't spend money all-of-a-sudden has a near max new character, and he got sandboxed. He's now gone back and forth with CS several times stating that this was THEIR mistake and caused by the server mess, but they just say that the decision is final and there's no way he can have his account restored to the real world, even after he asks them to take away the extra Daken covers and iso/HP he got.

Seems like CS has a long way to go before they live up to the "support" part of their title.

Spoit

I know I said I'd be irate if there actually were people who got doubled dakens, but...that really sucks man

Unknown

mohio wrote:

not to derail this post, but it seems connected so here's my (really my alliance-mate's) CS story.

So my alliance-mate, who as far as I know hasn't spent more on the game than maybe expanding some cover slots early on like most people, was one of the lucky few who got their daken rewards on the early side, before the server/Heavy Metal fiasco went down. He must have been in the last group to get them or something cause every subsequent time the server rebooted and came back up (before going down again and again), he got his PvE awards, including the Daken covers, HP and iso, as well as any gifts he received from his FB friends. Since this happened again and again, he essentially got a "free" maxed out Daken (well, without the alliance reward, so not fully maxed) as well as many thousands in iso and probably several hundred HP. So as not to drag the story out any longer, someone flagged him, or a dev somehow noticed a guy who doesn't spend money all-of-a-sudden has a near max new character, and he got sandboxed. He's now gone back and forth with CS several times stating that this was THEIR mistake and caused by the server mess, but they just say that the decision is final and there's no way he can have his account restored to the real world, even after he asks them to take away the extra Daken covers and iso/HP he got.

Seems like CS has a long way to go before they live up to the "support" part of their title.

I'm actually not sure which is more likely: 1) CS literally has no way to "undelete" an account because the code and/or data backups do not allow for that case; or 2) CS is absolutely, adamantly unwilling to admit to or correct an error on their part. Both are rather staggering, in a sort of "can you *really* be that bad at your job?!?" way, but I'd consider either to be more likely than your alliance-mate cheating in that situation. He might be lying, but that story sounds believable to me.

Unknown

mohio wrote:

not to derail this post, but it seems connected so here's my (really my alliance-mate's) CS story.

So my alliance-mate, who as far as I know hasn't spent more on the game than maybe expanding some cover slots early on like most people, was one of the lucky few who got their daken rewards on the early side, before the server/Heavy Metal fiasco went down. He must have been in the last group to get them or something cause every subsequent time the server rebooted and came back up (before going down again and again), he got his PvE awards, including the Daken covers, HP and iso, as well as any gifts he received from his FB friends. Since this happened again and again, he essentially got a "free" maxed out Daken (well, without the alliance reward, so not fully maxed) as well as many thousands in iso and probably several hundred HP. So as not to drag the story out any longer, someone flagged him, or a dev somehow noticed a guy who doesn't spend money all-of-a-sudden has a near max new character, and he got sandboxed. He's now gone back and forth with CS several times stating that this was THEIR mistake and caused by the server mess, but they just say that the decision is final and there's no way he can have his account restored to the real world, even after he asks them to take away the extra Daken covers and iso/HP he got.

Seems like CS has a long way to go before they live up to the "support" part of their title.

WOW, that is really something. The whole company should be sandboxed for good.


(btw the same root cause of not handling the account on server but drive it through client "claim" tech to add the reward rather than just acknowledge it... this mess should not be able to happen at all in the first place.)

Unknown

I've never got anything other than a 'sorry, it won't happen again' type response after raising tickets for issues that have resulted in me spending ££ on shields for nothing.

Still, it could be worse - the guys over at cygames (who run Rage of Bahamut) actually have customer services who make things worse. Nearly every event was borked and in one instance there was a reward 'card' that had a the wrong description for the power (the power was useful, but the description of the power made it seem terrible) but when I reported it to them, they decided to nerf the power to uselessness rather than amend the description to what it should have been. Genius.

Twysta

mohio wrote:

not to derail this post, but it seems connected so here's my (really my alliance-mate's) CS story.

So my alliance-mate, who as far as I know hasn't spent more on the game than maybe expanding some cover slots early on like most people, was one of the lucky few who got their daken rewards on the early side, before the server/Heavy Metal fiasco went down. He must have been in the last group to get them or something cause every subsequent time the server rebooted and came back up (before going down again and again), he got his PvE awards, including the Daken covers, HP and iso, as well as any gifts he received from his FB friends. Since this happened again and again, he essentially got a "free" maxed out Daken (well, without the alliance reward, so not fully maxed) as well as many thousands in iso and probably several hundred HP. So as not to drag the story out any longer, someone flagged him, or a dev somehow noticed a guy who doesn't spend money all-of-a-sudden has a near max new character, and he got sandboxed. He's now gone back and forth with CS several times stating that this was THEIR mistake and caused by the server mess, but they just say that the decision is final and there's no way he can have his account restored to the real world, even after he asks them to take away the extra Daken covers and iso/HP he got.

Seems like CS has a long way to go before they live up to the "support" part of their title.

That's horrific. I hope they get unsandboxed.
That's one of the most ridiculous incidents ever. I'll even sign a petition to get them back in.
...unless they're lying!

ZeiramMR

It sucks that your alliance-mate got sandboxed, but to be fair, he did take advantage of numerous erroneous rewards. But I guess there was a precedent of sorts with that tournament giving out Falcons to 1st place a month ago. The way the extra Dakens showed up may have been indistinguishable from cheating on the Dev/CS side of things. If it were me, I would have reported the mistake when it occurred and waited for a response (not that I could do anything for ISO/HP besides not spend it)

Unknown

So I decided to try alternatives to this game. Xmen battle of atom showed promise from reading then the in game graphics killed it. Avengers alliance showed promise it felt to slow. Yea looks like I am stuck with this game for a while. Just hoping dc comics team up with bejeweled

Unknown

well, i had the server eat my red/yellow patch rewards (and 100 hp) from the last top gun pvp (1424 score) and all i've gotten so far (14 days and 3 tickets so far, only 1 response to ticket #2) was their records show i got them.

i also will not be spending a dollar on this game till they fix their mistake. and i'll keep bringing it up, cause i'm still annoyed by the whole thing.

Unknown

mohio wrote:

not to derail this post, but it seems connected so here's my (really my alliance-mate's) CS story.

So my alliance-mate, who as far as I know hasn't spent more on the game than maybe expanding some cover slots early on like most people, was one of the lucky few who got their daken rewards on the early side, before the server/Heavy Metal fiasco went down. He must have been in the last group to get them or something cause every subsequent time the server rebooted and came back up (before going down again and again), he got his PvE awards, including the Daken covers, HP and iso, as well as any gifts he received from his FB friends. Since this happened again and again, he essentially got a "free" maxed out Daken (well, without the alliance reward, so not fully maxed) as well as many thousands in iso and probably several hundred HP. So as not to drag the story out any longer, someone flagged him, or a dev somehow noticed a guy who doesn't spend money all-of-a-sudden has a near max new character, and he got sandboxed. He's now gone back and forth with CS several times stating that this was THEIR mistake and caused by the server mess, but they just say that the decision is final and there's no way he can have his account restored to the real world, even after he asks them to take away the extra Daken covers and iso/HP he got.

Seems like CS has a long way to go before they live up to the "support" part of their title.

Not a derailment at all. I think the more we fill this thread with CS woe, the more we'll understand that HELP IS NEVER COMING! We're just stuck here, marooned on forum island...

Unknown

bloodwars wrote:

well, i had the server eat my red/yellow patch rewards (and 100 hp) from the last top gun pvp (1424 score) and all i've gotten so far (14 days and 3 tickets so far, only 1 response to ticket #2) was their records show i got them.

i also will not be spending a dollar on this game till they fix their mistake. and i'll keep bringing it up, cause i'm still annoyed by the whole thing.

I had the same issue and same response with a bunch of Lazy Cap covers that never arrived nearly 6 weeks ago.

By now it's clear that this game is what it is, and D3/Demiurge are what they are. Ron White knows it can't be fixed.

Unknown

This entire thread is more evidence that their customer service is awful.