When I filed a ticket, it took nearly a week before I got an "answer". The response I got was
"Some people got paid three or four months worth of Zen back in April and as such, those people will not recieve anything again this month (June)"
Thats all fine and dandy except I didnt get anything extra back then. As I pointed out to PWE had I have been given extra, I'd of spent it on stuff for my Romulan character as opposed to then buying the two thousand of so points I bought later on in May upon release of LoR.
Its now been a month since I pointed that out and I havent recieved a single response, nor do I expect to. Its my word against theirs and we as a player base have no means of evidence to support our case.
I am a huge fan of Cryptic as a dev team and this game in particular (as are we all, thus the LTS in the first place) but this issue is getting a tad out of hand
That sounds basically like the generic answer I got to my ticket. The problem? I subscribed for the FIRST TIME in mid-June.... and still have not gotten my 500 point stipend. It's now been a week since I replied back to that response, and so far nothing. I'm really loving the game, and I even bought some Zen to buy a ship, but this is ridiculous. Does their system really not have a way of seeing that June was my first month subscribed?
My guess is that those delayed payments a few months ago resulted in the ZEN delivery date permanently getting shifted back by about 5 days. So everyone's delivery date is a week later or so than it used to be.
..... and still a deafening silence on what the status of our zen stipend is in this "official" thread.
What deafening silence? Branflakes reposted a reply in this thread just 2 days ago stating clearly that only billing can deal with people's Stipend issues. That no one on the forum can help you as billing is outside of Cryptic's hands. You know, that post that said:
Unfortunately, no one on the forums is able to look into your account; only the billing team can do that.
If there are any outstanding questions or concerns, please reach out to our billing team at http://support.perfectworld.com ('Contact Us' tab, 'Billing' for the category drop down). If you are not able to reach the support site, please email directly to customerservice@perfectworld.com and put "billing" in the subject line and as many details in the message as possible. Filing a ticket is always the preferred method to contact us as you can ensure your ticket is in the right queue via the category dropdown.
Please note that tickets are answered in the order received, and as fast as possible.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
What deafening silence? Branflakes reposted a reply in this thread just 2 days ago stating clearly that only billing can deal with people's Stipend issues. That no one on the forum can help you as billing is outside of Cryptic's hands. You know, that post that said:
I always love the white knights that jump to the corporations defense. What a hero you are.
Branflakes doesn't need to look into my issue specifically, but he does need realize that having a thread that all is fixed is hurting cryptic and PWE. It is pretty embarrassing to have your community PR guy release a thread that this issue is fixed. It clearly is NOT!
As for contacting Cryptic...
Done that and am waiting. This thread is being used to voice our concerns. A gathering point for all that are being ignored, swept aside, and overlooked by PWE and Cryptic. Branflakes is the community liaison that needs to hear how disgruntled we are by the handling of this issue. As for the actual work being done to resolve it. We know Branflakes does not have that power. But he can relay to the PWE overlords we are not happy with the actions of their company thus far. It is his job after all to know the pulse of the community.
Right now I am having a hard time not taking my dollars elsewhere. Star Wars The Old Republic just gave me 500 cartel coins and I am not even subscribed. Cryptic owes me months worth of Zen and can't be bothered to even respond for weeks on end. Hell, I can't even spend Lobi in game. Why would I spend money here anymore? This community needs this thread to keep going. It is our last and only voice in this matter.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Help rebuild the Romulan Star Empire to glory. Click the banner to join today.
Yeah I can agree with many viewpoints I have with the game they would have to concede with a lot of my personal demands before they would get anything out of me ever again.
My guess is that those delayed payments a few months ago resulted in the ZEN delivery date permanently getting shifted back by about 5 days. So everyone's delivery date is a week later or so than it used to be.
..my july-one did show up the normal day, like pre-lor. did not received stipends before and am quite not sure if there's anything outstanding... now i hope it will be fluent again ^^.
if you guys messed up and someone got an extra stipend they should be able to keep it... just look at how many players you guys have kept from getting their stipends for however long a period of time. Sure it may be fixed now, but you guys are the ones who messed up not us, and we are the ones who have had to wait to get our monthly stipend, you guys sure got your money on time.
What deafening silence? Branflakes reposted a reply in this thread just 2 days ago stating clearly that only billing can deal with people's Stipend issues. That no one on the forum can help you as billing is outside of Cryptic's hands. You know, that post that said:
The deafening silence is the status on June stipends for current subscribers and lifers. Billing's own response to me showed they were 8 days late with the june stipend and didn't address it at all! Now it's July 8th and I've yet to receive my June stipend. There are many of us that have not gotten a June stipend. They're is a systemic issue that this official thread has still not addressed at all since it isn't a multi-stipend issue or a subscription charging issue.
Probably would have been a good idea to post this as an announcement or email people. I only found this now, months after the issue because of Google and I'm still having problems with missing stipends.
Join date is wrong, I've actually been around since STO Beta.
True alters don't have a "main". Account wide unlocks for all unique event rewards!!
I could be wrong but I think this whole problem with the Stipends seemed to come up around the same time that Cryptic removed the option to buy or look at the Z-Store from the website.
I think the thing that really rubs me the wrong way with this issue is that this was a problem that was created by systems error with Cryptic and there was no effort made to alert or contact the players that might have been affected by the error from Cryptic.
Zen is the equivalent of real cash in STO and this problem should have been handled much better than what Cryptic is currently doing.
A mass email should have been sent out the second that the system error was discovered and a message explaining the occurrence should have been stickyed at the Top of Every section of the STO website to make all that might have been affected by the error aware of it.
We has players should not of had to go to the forums to ask if there were problems with our Stipends.
If we had been informed upfront when this error was discovered I doubt that there would be has many of us so upset about this issue now.
If I had received an Email or had the option to read a notice highlighted in the high traffic sections of this site I would have made an effort to check my Stipend balance so I would have some idea if I was affected by the problem or not as I'm sure many others would have has well.
This don't as don't tell approach that was used is not a sign of good Customer Service.
We've been told that some of us received extra Stipends but were not provided any proof to support this claim, I'm not saying it's not true but for players like me that up until recently only used Zen once in a while, it can be hard to verify without proof.
Strangely I have been using more Zen since I've stopped receiving my Stipend nearly 4 months ago then I have back when I was getting my Stipend.
Ultimately I feel like I'm being made to pay for and error that I had nothing to do with and the way the issue is being handled is quite upsetting.
I want a system added to STO that allows us to check and verify when we receive or do not receive our Stipends because I no longer trust Cryptic to do it for me.
^^ +1 well put sir!
I hav'nt received my june stipend either as a gold subscriber along with this and lots of bugs and a severe lack of support in these matters, i am now thinking of canceling my subscription and using that money to buy the added inventory slots and all the other things i need and continue as a f2p user! as least this way i will get what i am paying for. :mad:
As another one who hasn't received a stipend in May or June I can say I was less than satisfied with the response to my ticket.
In regards to this issue some players may have been credited more than once meaning they may have received more than the allotted monthly allowance. In order to correct this we have skipped this month's stipend for the player who did receive double last month's stipend to balance out the allowance, this will also apply if you received triple and would mean you will not get another month's stipend
My issue here with this canned response is there is no evidence provided to support the claim that MY account was one which had double or triple the Zen applied to it. I'm sure some accounts somewhere may have been, but it's MY account that is being shorted and without record or evidence I believe the burden of proof should be on their shoulders to show they did in fact have triple zen applied to my account rather than me trying to come up with proof that I didn't...
As of now all I have is a zero zen balance... and I haven't bought anything in the C-Store since the Assault Cruiser Refit came out... other than that it's been converting zen to Dilithium and I sure don't believe I converted 1500 Zen into Dilithium...
I strongly urge Cryptic to reconsider putting absolute trust in the system that screwed up and caused the problem in the first place... it may have SAID I received that but perhaps some fact checking is in order.
I have a question about the monthly stipend. Where will I have to look for the monthly stipend once it is delivered. Will it be delivered in-game - like getting ZEN from the Dilithium Exchange - or will it be delivered on my account page - like the way ZEN is delivered when doing a survey or buying one of Pre-paid cards that RWE has for sell at stores like 7-Eleven / Walmart / GameSTOP ?
I only ask because I just became a Gold Member this month and I was wondering where I need to look when it hits.
Membership Details
Free to play - March 2013 Monthly Subscription - July 2013 Lifetime Member - Oct 2014
_________________________________________________ [Kluless][Kold][Steel Heels][Snagtooth] [Louis Cipher][Outta Gum][Thysa Kymbo][Spanner][Frakk] [D'Mented][D'Licious]
Joined October 2009. READ BEFORE POSTING
edit: oops. wasn't aware of any private information in that reply, may except dates. though thx for editing bran! it at least shows, beside that u r doin your job (thx for that!) u r still around and watching it here .
I bought a 6 months subscription in February 2012 and a Lifetime subscription in June 2012. I have never received a monthly stipend of 500 zen. This was brought to my attention by a friend and I would appreciated it if someone could rectify the situation, credit my account with the 9000 zen I am owed and ensure that I receive the monthly stipend in future!:mad:
I raised the matter with them and received this reply:-
"As you may already be aware we experienced a technical issue with stipends in the month of April, again we apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for bearing with us. In regards to this issue some players may have been credited more than once meaning they may have received more than the allotted monthly allowance. In order to correct this we have skipped this month's stipend for the player who did receive double last month's stipend to balance out the allowance, this will also apply if you received triple and would mean you will not get another month's stipend. To simply clarify if you got 1500 stipend In April, you get no stipend this month and last month."
Do they not understand English? They have ignored the question I asked and sent me a stock reply. Also they now seem to think I am talking about "NeverWinter" and it is impossible to access the question through the support site, my browser just states "too many redirects"
What type of setup is this, they have clearly never heard of the importance of customer service.
I have just received another response from PW Support which is a repeat of the above - can you believe it??? I have stated very clearly that I have never received any Stipends on my account since joining in February 2012 and want to know when they will credit my account with the missing Zen. OK I should have raised the matter long ago but to be fair it should have happened automatically. It would appear that their attitude to their customers is one of contempt and they are obviously hoping I will let the matter drop.
Maybe "Brandon" could ask support what is happening here as I can get no sense out of them.
The saga continues, support have now closed a ticket and marked it solved!!!!! One problem seems to be that it is impossible to access the ticket once it has been created and I have tried every method from using the links to going direct to the support site and trying to display outstanding tickets, nothing works - maybe this is intentional? So I reply by email and the system raises another ticket and we go round in a circle.
This has become a matter of principle now, does anyone have the email for Perfect Worlds C.E.O as I would like to lodge a formal complaint.
Just received my first ever 'stipend' of 500 zen to my 'Holodeck' account, someone has set the flag presumably, it coincides with the date I bought my 'Lifetime Subscription.' Still no official news on the overdue balance, just a payment this month. Progress is progress though and at least it confirms that they agree I should have been getting them.
Another response from PW Support:-
"This appears to be a duplicate of a ticket already in our system (130709-001294). Please refer to that ticket for updates.
We ask that you please avoid sending us multiple tickets regarding the same issue. This only increases the delay in receiving a response from us.
This ticket will now be removed from our system and no response from you is necessary. Your primary ticket regarding this issue will be unaffected.
Thank you for your patience and understanding."
The only problem is that this is the ticket which explained that for some unknown reason I am unable to access my Tickets in the support site and can therefore only respond by email!!!!! I have tried multiple browsers, multiple settings and different computers the result is the same "Too Many Redirects" perhaps they could address this issue as it is pointless telling me to refer to a previous ticket when I have no way of accessing it!!! Reading the forums a number of members have the same problem so I suspect it is security related.
"WHAT A PITY SUPPORT DO NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU TELL THEM OR RESPOND IN A MEANINGFUL WAY - THIS JUST MAKES CUSTOMERS MORE FRUSTRATED - SOMEBODY IN PW MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO LOOK INTO THIS!"
So I got my response the other day. It told me that there had never at any point been an issue with the stipend on my account although it apparently came two weeks late in April.
They showed me March April and May but admitted that June and July were missing because apparently adding the collectors edition was something I shouldn't have done!? (This was a surprising insta-reply.)
Ironically they had already told me that I had received triple in April (which by their own records they didn't do) and that was why I had received no stipend in June. I also pay my subscription in advance and quarterly, so there was no question that I had not paid and Brandon suggests in his updated original post.
They then said to me that they had gone ahead and awarded me the missing Zen, but when I checked my account the only Zen that was there was the stuff I had bought from the Dilithium Exchange.
I've yet to receive a reply about this from Customer service and I do feel like I've been robbed and given my own money back as a "refund". These are shady business practices at best.
They showed me March April and May but admitted that June and July were missing because apparently adding the collectors edition was something I shouldn't have done!? (This was a surprising insta-reply.)
OK, this is interesting. I still haven't received my stipen for May or June (I never received extra on April). I have a life time account which I pre-ordered along with my collectors edition. My friend, who purchased a life-time at the same time, has been getting his stipen. The only difference? He purchased a regular copy of STO, not the collectors edition.
Is it possible that our "Collectors Edition" is what is blocking us from our stipen?
Quite possibly related to this. Some people are reporting that this is an issue outside of that, though; whether or not that's accurate is a question you'd need to ask Billing about.
Edit: Hm, thread merge. Guess that link above is kinda redundant now....
Comments
That sounds basically like the generic answer I got to my ticket. The problem? I subscribed for the FIRST TIME in mid-June.... and still have not gotten my 500 point stipend. It's now been a week since I replied back to that response, and so far nothing. I'm really loving the game, and I even bought some Zen to buy a ship, but this is ridiculous. Does their system really not have a way of seeing that June was my first month subscribed?
I WOULD LOVE A RESPONSE, SUPPORT!
My guess is that those delayed payments a few months ago resulted in the ZEN delivery date permanently getting shifted back by about 5 days. So everyone's delivery date is a week later or so than it used to be.
I always love the white knights that jump to the corporations defense. What a hero you are.
Branflakes doesn't need to look into my issue specifically, but he does need realize that having a thread that all is fixed is hurting cryptic and PWE. It is pretty embarrassing to have your community PR guy release a thread that this issue is fixed. It clearly is NOT!
As for contacting Cryptic...
Done that and am waiting. This thread is being used to voice our concerns. A gathering point for all that are being ignored, swept aside, and overlooked by PWE and Cryptic. Branflakes is the community liaison that needs to hear how disgruntled we are by the handling of this issue. As for the actual work being done to resolve it. We know Branflakes does not have that power. But he can relay to the PWE overlords we are not happy with the actions of their company thus far. It is his job after all to know the pulse of the community.
Right now I am having a hard time not taking my dollars elsewhere. Star Wars The Old Republic just gave me 500 cartel coins and I am not even subscribed. Cryptic owes me months worth of Zen and can't be bothered to even respond for weeks on end. Hell, I can't even spend Lobi in game. Why would I spend money here anymore? This community needs this thread to keep going. It is our last and only voice in this matter.
Help rebuild the Romulan Star Empire to glory. Click the banner to join today.
..my july-one did show up the normal day, like pre-lor. did not received stipends before and am quite not sure if there's anything outstanding... now i hope it will be fluent again ^^.
MAKE STIPENDS TRACKABLE PLZ
The deafening silence is the status on June stipends for current subscribers and lifers. Billing's own response to me showed they were 8 days late with the june stipend and didn't address it at all! Now it's July 8th and I've yet to receive my June stipend. There are many of us that have not gotten a June stipend. They're is a systemic issue that this official thread has still not addressed at all since it isn't a multi-stipend issue or a subscription charging issue.
I knew it! Damnit Quark is working for PWE! That is the only logical explanation for the missing stipends.
I think the thing that really rubs me the wrong way with this issue is that this was a problem that was created by systems error with Cryptic and there was no effort made to alert or contact the players that might have been affected by the error from Cryptic.
Zen is the equivalent of real cash in STO and this problem should have been handled much better than what Cryptic is currently doing.
A mass email should have been sent out the second that the system error was discovered and a message explaining the occurrence should have been stickyed at the Top of Every section of the STO website to make all that might have been affected by the error aware of it.
We has players should not of had to go to the forums to ask if there were problems with our Stipends.
If we had been informed upfront when this error was discovered I doubt that there would be has many of us so upset about this issue now.
If I had received an Email or had the option to read a notice highlighted in the high traffic sections of this site I would have made an effort to check my Stipend balance so I would have some idea if I was affected by the problem or not as I'm sure many others would have has well.
This don't as don't tell approach that was used is not a sign of good Customer Service.
We've been told that some of us received extra Stipends but were not provided any proof to support this claim, I'm not saying it's not true but for players like me that up until recently only used Zen once in a while, it can be hard to verify without proof.
Strangely I have been using more Zen since I've stopped receiving my Stipend nearly 4 months ago then I have back when I was getting my Stipend.
Ultimately I feel like I'm being made to pay for and error that I had nothing to do with and the way the issue is being handled is quite upsetting.
I want a system added to STO that allows us to check and verify when we receive or do not receive our Stipends because I no longer trust Cryptic to do it for me.
I hav'nt received my june stipend either as a gold subscriber along with this and lots of bugs and a severe lack of support in these matters, i am now thinking of canceling my subscription and using that money to buy the added inventory slots and all the other things i need and continue as a f2p user! as least this way i will get what i am paying for. :mad:
My issue here with this canned response is there is no evidence provided to support the claim that MY account was one which had double or triple the Zen applied to it. I'm sure some accounts somewhere may have been, but it's MY account that is being shorted and without record or evidence I believe the burden of proof should be on their shoulders to show they did in fact have triple zen applied to my account rather than me trying to come up with proof that I didn't...
As of now all I have is a zero zen balance... and I haven't bought anything in the C-Store since the Assault Cruiser Refit came out... other than that it's been converting zen to Dilithium and I sure don't believe I converted 1500 Zen into Dilithium...
I strongly urge Cryptic to reconsider putting absolute trust in the system that screwed up and caused the problem in the first place... it may have SAID I received that but perhaps some fact checking is in order.
Captain Ariel Trueheart Department of Temporal Investigations
U.S.S. Valkyrie - NCC 991701
=/\= ================================= =/\=
I have a question about the monthly stipend. Where will I have to look for the monthly stipend once it is delivered. Will it be delivered in-game - like getting ZEN from the Dilithium Exchange - or will it be delivered on my account page - like the way ZEN is delivered when doing a survey or buying one of Pre-paid cards that RWE has for sell at stores like 7-Eleven / Walmart / GameSTOP ?
I only ask because I just became a Gold Member this month and I was wondering where I need to look when it hits.
Free to play - March 2013
Monthly Subscription - July 2013
Lifetime Member - Oct 2014
[Kluless][Kold][Steel Heels][Snagtooth]
[Louis Cipher][Outta Gum][Thysa Kymbo][Spanner][Frakk]
[D'Mented][D'Licious]
Joined October 2009. READ BEFORE POSTING
((Private correspondence removed -- stated the dates stipend was granted and that all was balanced))
thx for that info. would make u much less trouble if this was trackable for every subscriber/lts'er i guess
This post has been edited to remove content which violates the Perfect World Entertainment Community Rules and Policies . ~BranFlakes
edit: oops. wasn't aware of any private information in that reply, may except dates. though thx for editing bran! it at least shows, beside that u r doin your job (thx for that!) u r still around and watching it here
I raised the matter with them and received this reply:-
"As you may already be aware we experienced a technical issue with stipends in the month of April, again we apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for bearing with us. In regards to this issue some players may have been credited more than once meaning they may have received more than the allotted monthly allowance. In order to correct this we have skipped this month's stipend for the player who did receive double last month's stipend to balance out the allowance, this will also apply if you received triple and would mean you will not get another month's stipend. To simply clarify if you got 1500 stipend In April, you get no stipend this month and last month."
Do they not understand English? They have ignored the question I asked and sent me a stock reply. Also they now seem to think I am talking about "NeverWinter" and it is impossible to access the question through the support site, my browser just states "too many redirects"
What type of setup is this, they have clearly never heard of the importance of customer service.
I have just received another response from PW Support which is a repeat of the above - can you believe it??? I have stated very clearly that I have never received any Stipends on my account since joining in February 2012 and want to know when they will credit my account with the missing Zen. OK I should have raised the matter long ago but to be fair it should have happened automatically. It would appear that their attitude to their customers is one of contempt and they are obviously hoping I will let the matter drop.
Maybe "Brandon" could ask support what is happening here as I can get no sense out of them.
The saga continues, support have now closed a ticket and marked it solved!!!!! One problem seems to be that it is impossible to access the ticket once it has been created and I have tried every method from using the links to going direct to the support site and trying to display outstanding tickets, nothing works - maybe this is intentional? So I reply by email and the system raises another ticket and we go round in a circle.
This has become a matter of principle now, does anyone have the email for Perfect Worlds C.E.O as I would like to lodge a formal complaint.
Just received my first ever 'stipend' of 500 zen to my 'Holodeck' account, someone has set the flag presumably, it coincides with the date I bought my 'Lifetime Subscription.' Still no official news on the overdue balance, just a payment this month. Progress is progress though and at least it confirms that they agree I should have been getting them.
Another response from PW Support:-
"This appears to be a duplicate of a ticket already in our system (130709-001294). Please refer to that ticket for updates.
We ask that you please avoid sending us multiple tickets regarding the same issue. This only increases the delay in receiving a response from us.
This ticket will now be removed from our system and no response from you is necessary. Your primary ticket regarding this issue will be unaffected.
Thank you for your patience and understanding."
The only problem is that this is the ticket which explained that for some unknown reason I am unable to access my Tickets in the support site and can therefore only respond by email!!!!! I have tried multiple browsers, multiple settings and different computers the result is the same "Too Many Redirects" perhaps they could address this issue as it is pointless telling me to refer to a previous ticket when I have no way of accessing it!!! Reading the forums a number of members have the same problem so I suspect it is security related.
"WHAT A PITY SUPPORT DO NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU TELL THEM OR RESPOND IN A MEANINGFUL WAY - THIS JUST MAKES CUSTOMERS MORE FRUSTRATED - SOMEBODY IN PW MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO LOOK INTO THIS!"
They showed me March April and May but admitted that June and July were missing because apparently adding the collectors edition was something I shouldn't have done!? (This was a surprising insta-reply.)
Ironically they had already told me that I had received triple in April (which by their own records they didn't do) and that was why I had received no stipend in June. I also pay my subscription in advance and quarterly, so there was no question that I had not paid and Brandon suggests in his updated original post.
They then said to me that they had gone ahead and awarded me the missing Zen, but when I checked my account the only Zen that was there was the stuff I had bought from the Dilithium Exchange.
I've yet to receive a reply about this from Customer service and I do feel like I've been robbed and given my own money back as a "refund". These are shady business practices at best.
is here anyone else with the same issue?
what shall I do?
Is it possible that our "Collectors Edition" is what is blocking us from our stipen?
Is the problem a known one?
Edit: Hm, thread merge. Guess that link above is kinda redundant now....