I had the crashing thing at Christmas, which locked the game out for about four hours each day, and since then I've had Bart screens for about an hour or two on a few separate occasions. But overall the game has been connecting and running fine the rest of the time, and I've still been able to make progress in the event.
I do ensure I force-quit the game each time, which I think helps a bit. Otherwise, just keep trying at different times of the day and you should get in.
So a couple weeks ago my car was making funny noises. I took it to the shop and they found the problem and said it was all fixed. I drove away and there was a horrible high squealing noise when I accelerated. So I took it back the next day and complained that something hadn't been fixed properly. Was it "entitled" of me to do so?
I think the difference here is that in your case, you paid money for a specific service and that service was not performed adequately.
Ah, but you missed the second part of the story. My car was fine, so actually the service I paid for was performed adequately. But they fixed the annoyance anyway, because that's how you gain loyal customers.
I would still maintain that there is a difference in that we don't pay to access the game, whereas you did pay to have your car fixed. But I see your point. It would be nice fit EA to hand out a few donuts to say sorry and make us feel better, but no big deal if they don't as far as I'm concerned. The game is still fun even if I have to put down the phone and do something else for a few hours!
From a business perspective, they offer access for free to induce us to pay money for premium whatever. If we can't access it, there's no reason for us to give them money. If we can't access it long enough, people give up. Frustration sets in especially when they offer limited time stuff that people can't get to because they can't log in. If they don't do something to apologize, they lose players who otherwise would have given them money. It's good business to keep the players happy. It's bad business to keep players in the dark while everything goes to hell, and then not offer anything as an apology.
I don't feel entitled to free donuts or anything, but I do think they should improve communication so we know that they know, and that they're fixing it. If they want to toss some donuts our way, that would be nice, but not required on my part. But then, while I was locked out for a while, I wasn't affected quite as bad as some others.
+++1 very well said. It's still a product and regardless of how or what items are specifically purchased, it would be nice to be treated as customers who are paying for this product. I pay far less for other games/entertainment products and receive much higher quality, less frustration and have a much lower burden of troubleshooting the device/game to get it to work. I really like this game and really enjoy building a town but I do question why I'm putting so much $$ into this game when I get more for less elsewhere. If I received some type of communication or knew EA was working to ensure quality would improve I'd really appreciate that. However, it's disappointing when many issues are never even acknowledged or addressed. Feds for example, I cringe when I accidentally tap my police station now, please don't ever bring them back or at least fix the base code/server issues. That being said, I was still very far ahead with all the missing feds but it would have been nice to not have had this frustration. I get this game is complex and has to support many platforms and a large amount of concurrent access, but I'd be happy with a simple release note or even a sorry we can't get this one fixed before the event ends but we're working on it for the next one.
I know EA reads this forum. Maybe they should use this to post known problems, updates to problems, ETAs, etc. That would be easy and free. Just an idea to help keep people calm.
I think that most people have impossibly high standards and a sense of entitlement. I mean, c'mon folks, the power flickers on and off, the cable or satellite may be out for a little while, stores have long lines sometimes....who wastes their time to call and ask for a credit of an hour or 2? Not me, that's for sure. I have many better things to do. I can't even think of something more boring. Go clean out a closet or something while the game is down. Everything can't be perfect all of the time.
Further, could all of these glitches be device driven? I read this forum a good bit and I read where people have these glitches that affect their game play to the point that they can't complete the events. Most of the time, I have no idea what glitches people are even talking about and I have yet to fail to complete an event, even the one which shall remain nameless. I have an iPad 4 that's almost 2 years old with very few added apps, and I don't think I experience all this mess, at least not to the extreme like others seem to be experiencing. So could it be that you inadvertently create your own issues by having an outdated or overloaded device? I'm not being sarcastic - I'm really asking.
c'mon folks, the power flickers on and off, the cable or satellite may be out for a little while, stores have long lines sometimes....who wastes their time to call and ask for a credit of an hour or 2?
I'm guessing you never worked in customer service. A great many people call to complain about these things. (I literally had someone call and complain to my boss because I asked her to put the name of the right store on her check when she came through my till.)
c'mon folks, the power flickers on and off, the cable or satellite may be out for a little while, stores have long lines sometimes....who wastes their time to call and ask for a credit of an hour or 2?
I'm guessing you never worked in customer service. A great many people call to complain about these things. (I literally had someone call and complain to my boss because I asked her to put the name of the right store on her check when she came through my till.)
Not directly, but I did work for a cable company once, and I realize people do actually call for ridiculous reasons, including requesting a credit for a 1 hour outage. I couldnt imagine having so much time on my hands that I'd give a crap about an hours worth of cable expense. Nothing operates at 100% for 100% of the time even if you pay for it. That was my point.
c'mon folks, the power flickers on and off, the cable or satellite may be out for a little while, stores have long lines sometimes....who wastes their time to call and ask for a credit of an hour or 2?
I'm guessing you never worked in customer service. A great many people call to complain about these things. (I literally had someone call and complain to my boss because I asked her to put the name of the right store on her check when she came through my till.)
Having worked in a technical support position at a major telecommunications company and several customer service positions YES!
Oh my, people get crazy, internet drops for half a second for the first time ever and suddenly it gets really full on.
The customer service stories only begin with those similar to neuro's.
The right of entitlement is just beyond scary at times.
I admit my call centre could have had much better hold music, even I get frustrated calling that company now.
c'mon folks, the power flickers on and off, the cable or satellite may be out for a little while, stores have long lines sometimes....who wastes their time to call and ask for a credit of an hour or 2?
I'm guessing you never worked in customer service. A great many people call to complain about these things. (I literally had someone call and complain to my boss because I asked her to put the name of the right store on her check when she came through my till.)
I had a problem some years back with a series 2 civic hybrid I bought. Complained time and again to the service department who said they would investigate. Finally I wrote to the general manager of the dealer I bought the car from demanding a full refund. Suddenly there was action, and whilst they were at it they identified several other minor faults and fixed them to.
The general managers comment was that only 20% of people with faults actually complained. Guess he learnt I was a complainer because ever after I received actual service every time I went in as opposed to the usual "We are here to service you car not service you."
Will never use Live Chat after the numerous hospital glitch ones in April & the last time where the screen said it would be 5 minutes the entire 50 minutes it took for somebody. Someone posted about the new support center in Austin, TX staffed with players of TSTO. Though my issue was solved by the call, it was great to actually talk with someone. I did share some of the issues others had shared on the forum at the time, and he shared a possible land solution that was being looked at was with each higher level one would have the choice of expansion.
If money was spent, then one does deserve service. While the hospital glitch one wasn't fun, in the end EA provided great service. The last one was escalated & took an email to clear up the errors that were communicated from what the Live Chat said was the problem, yet end with an email back adding donuts to the account.
As far as EA reading this forum, they may. It is a players forum. Bugs & Glitches section makes sense for them to check regularly, and read some have heard from EA that their ideas were used. With this section, find it hard to believe that they would read this section regularly now. Been coming to the forum regularly since March and have found the repeating of threads in the last couple of months crazy. Prior to the epidemic of duplicate threads, I could see them going through this section every couple of days or so.
If one wants EA to know something, contacting them on their site is the best way. When dealing with anyone, get more flies with honey then with vinegar. Coming from a positive place with patience, understanding & kindness will get one just about anything.
I just want to add that it's not necessarily entitlement but expectations that need to be managed. EA does not do this, and for those that have come from a customer service oriented environment know that this is one the first things you're taught to do. We all have varying expectations, varying issues and of course a variance in the real dollars we are putting into this game. I enjoy deciphering the vague hints about the game play but clear communication still needs to occur. This is the only way to manage the wide range of user expectations. Currently, the bulk of my information comes from other users and from us collaboratively conducting end user testing to find workarounds and determine if we've encountered bugs. Would be awesome if EA communicated and confirmed these workarounds and made this information easy to locate. For the missing donut purchase issue, I managed to find my way around that with the help of other users and get my donuts, but it was a widespread issue with many users unclear about who they should contact and not getting the results they were looking for. A simple message with directions on what to do would have resolved that. Even better would have been an email to those that tried to make a purchase but failed and offering a way to still get the deal. That's a missed sales opportunity, so no idea why they wouldn't acknowledge or address that issue. Missing zutroy?, do this... and so on.
Could have but I'm known for not being concise at times... Here's a side bar though: If I'm criticizing a company for not communicating clearly should I leave out what I want and why and still expect them to deliver?
Where to start.............................
We all need to realize or remember that all great things come to a end at some point, so anyone throwing money wether it's dollars or thousands of dollars, prepare yourself. Here is a suggestion. Go to a strip club and throw down some $. That gut wrenching feeling you get when you leave and realize how much you spent on something you can't touch but only see, well that my friend is the enevidivle feeling... <snip>
"Inevitable". Just in case you want to use it again somewhere.
I recall players being compensated in the past when the game went a bit wobbly, though I think this is one of those occasions when free donuts are offered and the servers are swamped with people trying to get online to get theirs and the system can't cope. :twisted:
So a couple weeks ago my car was making funny noises. I took it to the shop and they found the problem and said it was all fixed. I drove away and there was a horrible high squealing noise when I accelerated. So I took it back the next day and complained that something hadn't been fixed properly. Was it "entitled" of me to do so?
your car is a vital piece of your life.
a free F***ing cellphone telephone game, not so much.
Replies
I do ensure I force-quit the game each time, which I think helps a bit. Otherwise, just keep trying at different times of the day and you should get in.
+++1 very well said. It's still a product and regardless of how or what items are specifically purchased, it would be nice to be treated as customers who are paying for this product. I pay far less for other games/entertainment products and receive much higher quality, less frustration and have a much lower burden of troubleshooting the device/game to get it to work. I really like this game and really enjoy building a town but I do question why I'm putting so much $$ into this game when I get more for less elsewhere. If I received some type of communication or knew EA was working to ensure quality would improve I'd really appreciate that. However, it's disappointing when many issues are never even acknowledged or addressed. Feds for example, I cringe when I accidentally tap my police station now, please don't ever bring them back or at least fix the base code/server issues. That being said, I was still very far ahead with all the missing feds but it would have been nice to not have had this frustration. I get this game is complex and has to support many platforms and a large amount of concurrent access, but I'd be happy with a simple release note or even a sorry we can't get this one fixed before the event ends but we're working on it for the next one.
I think that most people have impossibly high standards and a sense of entitlement. I mean, c'mon folks, the power flickers on and off, the cable or satellite may be out for a little while, stores have long lines sometimes....who wastes their time to call and ask for a credit of an hour or 2? Not me, that's for sure. I have many better things to do. I can't even think of something more boring. Go clean out a closet or something while the game is down. Everything can't be perfect all of the time.
Further, could all of these glitches be device driven? I read this forum a good bit and I read where people have these glitches that affect their game play to the point that they can't complete the events. Most of the time, I have no idea what glitches people are even talking about and I have yet to fail to complete an event, even the one which shall remain nameless. I have an iPad 4 that's almost 2 years old with very few added apps, and I don't think I experience all this mess, at least not to the extreme like others seem to be experiencing. So could it be that you inadvertently create your own issues by having an outdated or overloaded device? I'm not being sarcastic - I'm really asking.
Not directly, but I did work for a cable company once, and I realize people do actually call for ridiculous reasons, including requesting a credit for a 1 hour outage. I couldnt imagine having so much time on my hands that I'd give a crap about an hours worth of cable expense. Nothing operates at 100% for 100% of the time even if you pay for it. That was my point.
Having worked in a technical support position at a major telecommunications company and several customer service positions YES!
Oh my, people get crazy, internet drops for half a second for the first time ever and suddenly it gets really full on.
The customer service stories only begin with those similar to neuro's.
The right of entitlement is just beyond scary at times.
I admit my call centre could have had much better hold music, even I get frustrated calling that company now.
The general managers comment was that only 20% of people with faults actually complained. Guess he learnt I was a complainer because ever after I received actual service every time I went in as opposed to the usual "We are here to service you car not service you."
If money was spent, then one does deserve service. While the hospital glitch one wasn't fun, in the end EA provided great service. The last one was escalated & took an email to clear up the errors that were communicated from what the Live Chat said was the problem, yet end with an email back adding donuts to the account.
As far as EA reading this forum, they may. It is a players forum. Bugs & Glitches section makes sense for them to check regularly, and read some have heard from EA that their ideas were used. With this section, find it hard to believe that they would read this section regularly now. Been coming to the forum regularly since March and have found the repeating of threads in the last couple of months crazy. Prior to the epidemic of duplicate threads, I could see them going through this section every couple of days or so.
If one wants EA to know something, contacting them on their site is the best way. When dealing with anyone, get more flies with honey then with vinegar. Coming from a positive place with patience, understanding & kindness will get one just about anything.
You could have left it at that really.
Could have but I'm known for not being concise at times... Here's a side bar though: If I'm criticizing a company for not communicating clearly should I leave out what I want and why and still expect them to deliver?
your car is a vital piece of your life.
a free F***ing cellphone telephone game, not so much.
apples are not oranges.