test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Illogical Customer Service, Business Practice
sunnlex
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
I recently started playing this game, love star trek, and really like the game, think it needs some help, like being clearer, and stopping accidental loss of items, credits, etc.
.
I got a Wal-Mart card, they send you a new card after a short period, the original is temporary, most places take it, this is one of them, I subbed with it, I had some things on exchange for several million, they were bought, and I did not receive the credits, I had exactly 10 million credits, my friends said check your sub. Sure enough it was cancelled, resubbed, no credits, checked email, the warning didnt come till well after it locked my credits. According to customer service I am SOL.
This was not made clear to me, is very poor service, and not a good way to keep customers.
I am sure many people spend a lot of money on this game, based on how much I have spent, they have helped me in the past, but here, I am SOL they say, I find that very bad, leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, it is clear I am honest here, they see the transactions. This with the many instances of vague stuff, easily sold, and lost items you buy with what essentially is real money, most mmos will have a are you sure check before you do something irreversible, like sell, or use an item. That is standard, also standard is making very clear if you sub, you will lose all things if your sub is ended, and I think that is very poor service, and very bad business practice.
I am sure like many trekkies, we all love trek, a lot of us have stories of trek.
My Dad, R.I.P., used to tell me stories of how Leonard Nimoy held me as a baby, and did the Vulcan mind link, unlike WoW, or even star wars, star trek is special to me, and any underhanded, slick, or dishonest behavior, is very, very upsetting, when it comes to someone representing star trek, I overlook somethings, my friend says it is pay to win, I say they have to make money .but at all cost .Illogical
I got a Wal-Mart card, they send you a new card after a short period, the original is temporary, most places take it, this is one of them, I subbed with it, I had some things on exchange for several million, they were bought, and I did not receive the credits, I had exactly 10 million credits, my friends said check your sub. Sure enough it was cancelled, resubbed, no credits, checked email, the warning didnt come till well after it locked my credits. According to customer service I am SOL.
This was not made clear to me, is very poor service, and not a good way to keep customers.
I am sure many people spend a lot of money on this game, based on how much I have spent, they have helped me in the past, but here, I am SOL they say, I find that very bad, leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, it is clear I am honest here, they see the transactions. This with the many instances of vague stuff, easily sold, and lost items you buy with what essentially is real money, most mmos will have a are you sure check before you do something irreversible, like sell, or use an item. That is standard, also standard is making very clear if you sub, you will lose all things if your sub is ended, and I think that is very poor service, and very bad business practice.
I am sure like many trekkies, we all love trek, a lot of us have stories of trek.
My Dad, R.I.P., used to tell me stories of how Leonard Nimoy held me as a baby, and did the Vulcan mind link, unlike WoW, or even star wars, star trek is special to me, and any underhanded, slick, or dishonest behavior, is very, very upsetting, when it comes to someone representing star trek, I overlook somethings, my friend says it is pay to win, I say they have to make money .but at all cost .Illogical
Post edited by sunnlex on
0
Comments
Even as a paying sub (or Lifetime), there is a 1 Billion (yes billion with a "B") cap. You go over that, you are SOL.
Best advice I can offer is to prevent this in the future, purchase the EC unlock (which I have done on my 4th and 5th accounts which are not Lifetime and I sub every so often). Also, when you do sub, keep in mind your monthly (3, 6, 12, etc) renewal date to make sure there is a not a problem with the funds not getting to Cryptic.
Again, I do sympathize but calling their Customer Service Illogical for this is "not logical."
Find us at CovenantofHonor.com. My Twitter handle; @jmattmiracle
It's reasoning like this that turned me away from ever working with the public again.
You sir are sadly not the first in 5 years for something like this and you wont be the last. There was a post a couple months back were someone didn't notice they were less than 60 million from the Billion mark and pulled in over 300 million from the Exchange. That person didn't get his refunded either BTW.
Try looking at it from their side too. How many times do you think this happens. They can't just "willy nelly" give you X amount of EC. At the time you were a silver player and you had not purchased the EC cap increase. From their point of view, the system did its job and there is nothing they can do about because that will open the flood gates for others who will want to "potentially"cheat the system.
Again, I do sympathize but this is not illogical from a 3rd party perspective. It sucks but there is nothing wrong with the system. You just got caught without a sub and no EC unlock when you cashed in your items from the Exchange.
Also, your analogy about the drinks is off now since most restaurants charge the same amount if you are ordering a Mtn Dew vs a Dr. Pepper.
Have you corrected the underlying issue (getting back on sub or purchasing the EC cap increase)?
Find us at CovenantofHonor.com. My Twitter handle; @jmattmiracle
^^ This. In its entirety.
Its sucks, but don't let it ruin your love for the game and Star Trek
I also discovered that you can't buy the EC cap increase while your Gold status is still active. It's greyed out since you technically have it while you are Gold.
Like mattmiracle said, get the ec unlock. Its totally worth the zen.
whilst I do sympathize with the OP, there are more than enough people willing to help and explain these things in game, if one takes the time to ask. Also managing a clients subscription status is down to the individual player. Mine was a rolling three month one, but I'd always check to make sure that it was still active and then double check that it had been processed.
I usually hate them Cryptic apologists. But, in this case, honestly, it's really the players' responsibility to keep their subscription going.
Sorry, but as much as I sympathise with you here, it's always the customer's responsibility to ensure their account is up to date, irrespective of the service being purchased...
Your lost EC was not as a result of Cryptic making a mistake, and had they reduced your account to Silver mistakenly without then restoring your lost EC I would agree with you, as you would not have lost it had they not made the mistake...
However, it was you who made the mistake, not Cryptic, so they are not obligated to restore what you have lost as a result of your failure to ensure your subscription remained valid...
It is unfortunate, but that is just how these things work and it would be no different for any other service you had failed to renew - I've heard of cases where people, who have been a paying customer to a particular company for years, have lost all their long-term benefits because they missed a single payment...
Please... Spare us... This is just absolute rot... Please don't tell me this was a petty attempt at guilting Cryptic into action, or at the very least to get the simple-minded amongst the community on board with you...
I guess I should stop telling people to sub for a month for the unlocks and then cancel.
Yeah, this. I never paid to unlock it, I subbed then I let the sub go, came back to the game and the unlock was there. Also the extra ship and boff space and that lovely account bank.
Did they change this recently?
Only the EC cap unlock is removed when you cancel your sub.
ok, that has changed from when I unsubbed, but it has been a while
OP, look at your walmart cards. There will probably be something different on the cards. When cryptic went to renew your sub, what they had on file did not match up with reality, so they couldn't go through with it.
It's your responsibility to keep your information up to date. They don't know when you got a replacement charge card. You're supposed to tell them.
I had a similar problem once, card my sub was on expired, new secuirty code didn't match up, sub was not renewed. Did I come crying to the forums? No, I fixed it...
What's my position?
That people should know what they're screaming about!
(paraphrased from "The Newsroom)
They've never hidden the fact that Silver does not equal Gold, nor that there is a cap on EC for Silver accounts. If you accidentally go Silver, there is nothing they can do to recover the lost EC. This is really not much different from someone posting an item on the Exchange and accidentally dropping one or more zeros -- you ended up selling for less than you intended to, except in this case nobody got lucky.
There is a convenient EC Cap increase that anyone can buy, that insures their account will have the higher cap no matter what their subscription status is. I bought it for peace of mind and never had to think about it twice. I barely even need it, my balance is so low, but I have it.
Think of it as insurance. Someday, hopefully, I'll need it. But it's better than expecting a windfall and having that "D'oh" moment where you have nothing to show for it.
I feel for you. It's bad luck, for sure. But it's not a ripoff, and they are not being unreasonable.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
This isnt a monthly sub game, so its not like they attempted to renew the subscription and failed due to it being linked to a temp card lastly, your account has not been deleted, nor has the EC or the items you had associated with it. If you can show a receipt of purchase for the sub you are talking about (I can only imagine this is a gold member/lifer purchase?) then they should have no qualms in assisting you only NOT ON THE FORUMS.
This has to through customer service, as it sounds like youve already attempted. There is nothing anyone can do here on the forums other than give you advice and the only thing I can think of to resolve this issue is to show your proof of purchase to Cryptic and ask for a detailed explanation as to why your account was denied.
Is it possible you violated the EULA somehow and have been banned? If so, thats not their fault
Sure but an overflow would be nice for situations like this.
I respectfully disagree with you. There is NOTHING about your situation that screams they are sucking money out of you.
Silver players are a FREE players. As a free player, there are certain limits and gates that are put into place. Gold (aka paying subscribers) players have these caps removed or made so that it is not an issue.
As an independent, 3rd party observer it sounds like the system is working as intended (as I have stated before).
You were Gold before.
You had some number of EC under 10 million.
Your card for subscription was declined for whatever reason.
Your account was moved to Silver status due to the subscription renewal failing.
After your account was at Silver, you opened Exchange items which put you over the cap.
Since you were over the EC cap, you lost the EC above the cap.
Again, as I and other have said, this is working as intended. It sucks but it is BY ABSOLUTE NO MEANS sucking the money out of you (or anyone else).
Well, look at it another way. What would happen if they DID give you back the EC? Then to "be fair" about it, they would have to go back and spend time and money going through the records looking at everyone who "went over" the limit and giving them the EC back. This would create EC inflation at an Exponential level. So, that new ship you were wanting at 100 million EC just became 500 million.
That sir is your prerogative however, it doesn't make your position correct. We have several comments from others here in this forum and I haven't read a single one in support of your position. Mistakes happen all the time but it is what we learn when making mistakes that define us.
Dude, no one in this forum thread has been trolling you. If you feel that someone has been, please contact a member of the Community Managers (Smirk, Bluegeek, Askray) and file a complaint.
What I would like for you to do is to take a step back and think about this from Cryptic PoV. Take yourself out of the picture and look at it objectively and Logically. If you still think that the customer service is "illogical" then nothing any one else can say on this thread that will change it.
LLAP
Find us at CovenantofHonor.com. My Twitter handle; @jmattmiracle
Selling in a capitalist country (and all the ideas that that entails)
And being defended by the latter - has always stuck me as quite amusing
Seems somebody is having a laugh
This is about the most probable scenario yet. In fact, looking back at the OP I'd say MM hit the nail pretty much on the head.
And a proposed EC Overflow Bag would immediately be taken advantage of/abused by people, as a means to postpone the renewal of their subscription.
You get what you pay for; and if you don't pay, you don't get the subscription. Sometimes the world is really that simple.
Ahh... the wonderful and unforgiving world of the repo men...
I crave it!
I much rewatch the film!
I hear it is capitalism at its best!
If ppl wouldn't always, and immediately, take advantage, Cryptic might even consider a grace period. As is stands, they're still letting everyone use the game for free! Repo man didn't let you keep your liver for free, now, did he?! What they take back, though, to stay with the analogy, are some unlocked caps, priority queuing, etc. You know, things you actually have to pay for.
I don't really disagree with you to be honest, I just enjoy playing devils advocate. People should pay for what they want. But where do you get the idea people always and immediately take advantage?
Just out of interest.
Well, in an MMO ppl certainly always do. Whatever bug there is to exploit, ppl always do it, even when they know full-well the mechanism wasn't really intended for that. People siimply like to find the edges -- especially when they can do so with impunity, and there's no real (visible) victim. So, yeah, if ppl heard about a way to have their cookie (= unlocked EC cap) and eat it (= not having to pay for it), I'm sure they'd do it.