7 Days Free - Usual Shoddy Practices

[Louisa Bannon]

So we all know that a promotion went out for 7 days game time. I checked for it earlier, saw it, was thinking about when I might apply it. Logged out, went about my day. Hey, free is free, why not play it out?

I go back just now and its gone. I can't find it anywhere in my account as before.

Cleared cache on browser, did a few routine sensible things when results are other than expected. I can't see that there's any easy way to contact Blizz via the account interface about it. Most of their Customer Support options end in ways that are intended to be automated and not actually cost them any human time.

It's irksome because the promotion is apparently random. There's no real accountability about the buggy release of the promotion. And I had actually bothered myself to install updates, and now to no purpose.

Thanks for wasting my time Blizzard, again!

Quality...

[Chrotesque]

https://battle.net/support/en/help/

From there you'll be able to contact them, I'd say wait for the Live Chat option to open if you want this resolved quickly. Should the options you click not offer Live Chat as an option, choose something else.

[Stormkhan]

Its working for everyone else. It's probably an error on your part, which is of course hard to accept. Remember, in retail it is easy to find customers who act like a-holes when the fault, in the end, lies with them.

If I am wrong then I am sorry for the above possible-'rant' and I do wish you luck that Blizzard helps you out. In my personal experience they help out within 24 hours unless its the 1st month of an expansion release.

[Wilian]

Its working for everyone else. It's probably an error on your part, which is of course hard to accept. Remember, in retail it is easy to find customers who act like a-holes when the fault, in the end, lies with them.

If I am wrong then I am sorry for the above possible-'rant' and I do wish you luck that Blizzard helps you out. In my personal experience they help out within 24 hours unless its the 1st month of an expansion release.

For something that "works for everyone else" there's quite large amount of issues shown up. Maybe the problem lies with you, going with the typical assumption that just because something works for you the issue must not exist?

[endersblade]

Works for me on all three accounts. Have logged in and out about 10 times today.

[KrazyK923]

Worked fine for me.

[Stormkhan]

For something that "works for everyone else" there's quite large amount of issues shown up. Maybe the problem lies with you, going with the typical assumption that just because something works for you the issue must not exist?

That is indeed true. I did not take that into consideration over ~40%, while it could be an issue 100%.

I merely commented on the fact that Blizzard has very few technical account issues when it is related to payment and item not found (google statistics, can source if need be). And if there are issues, they usually refund, reimburse or aid very generously and quickly and fastidiously.

I still feel happy that you made me realize there was a further tier which I have to add to my thinking-process. Thank you.

[Illiterate]

user error

[DarkArchon]

So we all know that a promotion went out for 7 days game time. I checked for it earlier, saw it, was thinking about when I might apply it. Logged out, went about my day. Hey, free is free, why not play it out?

I go back just now and its gone. I can't find it anywhere in my account as before.

Cleared cache on browser, did a few routine sensible things when results are other than expected. I can't see that there's any easy way to contact Blizz via the account interface about it. Most of their Customer Support options end in ways that are intended to be automated and not actually cost them any human time.

It's irksome because the promotion is apparently random. There's no real accountability about the buggy release of the promotion. And I had actually bothered myself to install updates, and now to no purpose.

Thanks for wasting my time Blizzard, again!

Quality...

Speaking of quality, this is a quality post. Good job on making a ass out of yourself. This is definitely a user error so you can stop preaching.

[Louisa Bannon]

I appreciate the helpful replies.

To those that insist this is a user error problem:

I was using Firefox earlier when I saw the promotional icon under Referrals & Rewards in my WoW acct. I was still using Firefox when I went back to my acct only to discover that the icon was now missing. This is all on the same bloody computer. How is that my fault as a user?

As to the Customer Service UI, its one of the worst I have ever seen. If the customer, who is more than likely already annoyed by some issue they are experiencing, has to spend a lot of time in the acct UI trying to figure out which category allows them to explain their problem in order to obtain a hopefully satisfactory resolution then that UI is basically broken. It's also worth noting that my screen resolution is 1920x1080 and I still had to scroll down to see the full UI. Meanwhile, there's crap all over the screen that has nothing to do with my acct management.

Yes, I'm sure it's all my fault...

[Lochton]

Works fine for me, having a blast seeing my old US characters... missed them a bit.. can't believe I have this much gold..

[Deleted]

1 - try something
2 - post outraged instead of finding a solution when 1 does not work

[Bayuriel]

Yea, mine worked fine, I'm thinking PEBKAC.

[ophion1990]

There's a blue post on the front page stating that not everyone was eligible for the 7 free days. Maybe you've been inactive too long or w/e and weren't selected for the promotion.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/3...motion-emails/

[xanzul]

So we all know that a promotion went out for 7 days game time. I checked for it earlier, saw it, was thinking about when I might apply it. Logged out, went about my day. Hey, free is free, why not play it out?

I go back just now and its gone. I can't find it anywhere in my account as before.

Cleared cache on browser, did a few routine sensible things when results are other than expected. I can't see that there's any easy way to contact Blizz via the account interface about it. Most of their Customer Support options end in ways that are intended to be automated and not actually cost them any human time.

It's irksome because the promotion is apparently random. There's no real accountability about the buggy release of the promotion. And I had actually bothered myself to install updates, and now to no purpose.

Thanks for wasting my time Blizzard, again!

Quality...

That would be because this goes under the purview of billing and not customer support or GMs. GMs can not and will not grant game time so there is no reason for the ticket system to have that as a reason to open a ticket. Contact billing or use webchat and ask if they can grant you the 7 days of game time. It is very, very common for them to grant these requests.

Oh and as far as Blizzard cutting costs in support to save money, No. Just no. In fact their changes to their ticket and support system were done specifically to make sure players were routed to the correct departments which in turn lowers ticket times and call wait times which results in customers being helped faster and more efficiently and more accurately Only on these forums would someone bitch about that.

- - - Updated - - -

For something that "works for everyone else" there's quite large amount of issues shown up. Maybe the problem lies with you, going with the typical assumption that just because something works for you the issue must not exist?

I'm not seeing many threads about this being an issue for players and typically when something like this happens and it affects a large number of people the forums are flooded with complaints. It just isn't happening.

- - - Updated - - -

I appreciate the helpful replies.

To those that insist this is a user error problem:

I was using Firefox earlier when I saw the promotional icon under Referrals & Rewards in my WoW acct. I was still using Firefox when I went back to my acct only to discover that the icon was now missing. This is all on the same bloody computer. How is that my fault as a user?

As to the Customer Service UI, its one of the worst I have ever seen. If the customer, who is more than likely already annoyed by some issue they are experiencing, has to spend a lot of time in the acct UI trying to figure out which category allows them to explain their problem in order to obtain a hopefully satisfactory resolution then that UI is basically broken. It's also worth noting that my screen resolution is 1920x1080 and I still had to scroll down to see the full UI. Meanwhile, there's crap all over the screen that has nothing to do with my acct management.

Yes, I'm sure it's all my fault...

I spend a significant amount of time on the customer support forums and issues like this pop up all the time with the player claiming it isn't on their end only for it to turn out it was in fact on their end and not Blizzard's.

[Louisa Bannon]

In what way is seeing the little gift icon in the afternoon and then not seeing it later on the same night a user error when I am using the same browser on the same machine, etc? Do some of you ever think about what you post before you post it for even one tiny moment? There is zero way this is a user error. I have no control over what they choose to make appear or then disappear under the UI in acct manager. It's just bloody idiotic to suggest that. I could sit here and enumerate my computer sophistication but ain't nobody got time for that nor the trollish replies it might incite.

Kinda done. Respond, don't respond. Don't bloody care.

Thanks for the tiny fraction of useful replies.

The rest of you fanboy morons can get bent.

[Louisa Bannon]

In fairness to Blizzard and in view of my harsh words about what happened to me in this process I thought an update would be fair.

It took them 4 days to get back to me, but they did resolve the issue and gave me the 7 days free game time.

All in all, kind of a hamfisted attempt to lure me back I suppose. They are too big and too successful for this amateur hour crap when handing out free game time. The last thing a returning player wants is an immediate problem. I'm not going to take back anything I said about their customer support UI, the missing game time icon, or anything like that. I have no idea what the problem was or how they resolved internally, I was basically given the time and my acct. was active the moment I logged in to see what needed to be done.

They did act honorably in the end.

Make of it what you will.