OK, I have been hooked on City of Heroes for about 3 months now. I had quite a bit of trouble with playNC, the parent company, when I first tried to start up the game but for the most part I have been happy with the game once it finally got around to installing/working.
So my time expires....no big deal, I figured I'd just get a new gamecard. I don't like issuing my credit card numbers to game sites, and I use a pre-paid card you can buy at Best Buy.....$30 for 60 days.
I buy a card today at Best Buy, and I come home to load it. I logged on to the playNC site, as instruted, and hit the reactivate button.
I enter all of the 20 digit code...which is in very small print at the bottom of the card, under a seal that had to be scratched off....to percent tampering. I'm sure. All is good to that point.
Then I hit enter.
The damn playNC site sends me a message that "this is not a valid playNC pre-paid #. Please check the number and try again.".
So I do.
24 times.
I tried every combination I could think of....two of the letters could be either a N or an M....so I try all combinations, with the same results.
So I e-mail support.....2 hours ago. No response at all...
I am beyond pissed off. This damn company has been very difficult to deal with. I have had several tech issues and they dragged their feet fixing them.
Now this.
Don't ever buy their games, or support them in any way. I plan on raising hell, and getting my way.....I did every possible thing to comply with their damn rules, and this is how I get repayed? I should have let it lapse, and to hell with them.
I am going to give BB a ration of grief about this too....after all I bought it there, and they have some responsibility to their customers. I have spent over $2500 there in the last 6 months, and they know me.
At this point I don't even want to play anymore...I just want my damn money back.
Kwea
[ August 04, 2004, 09:20 PM: Message edited by: Kwea ]
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
It just sounds like Best Buy didn't activate the card. Not PlayNC's fault at all.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I might have to take care of that tommorrow...
I have the recipt, and it shows the price I payed (in cash) and that it was a CoH ptime/sbuscript.... How do they activate it, if they do it right? I thought that ringing it activated it automatically.....
[ August 05, 2004, 12:10 AM: Message edited by: Kwea ]
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
At blockbuster we certainly can't sell cards of those sorts without activating them . . . perhaps there was a glitch in BB's system (or PlayNC's) leading to it being sold without activation . . .
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I think I am going to get a lot of crap from them when I go there tommorrow. I think everyone will pass the buck, and I'll be screwed.....BB will say they sold it so it must be activated, but plaync will say it wasn't activated so they can't do anything for me.
Any ideas?
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
Kwea, don't ever wait on email customer support. Sometimes you have to call or just go to live chat.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I would, but I can't find any place to call.
I hate support networks, but it is all I have at this point.....and they really screwed up this time.
Even if I get this resloved, I will never buy anything they sell again. It is obvious to me that they simply don't give a shit about their customers.
Kwea
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Best Buy is nigh infamous for that. Although a friend got a pretty fast response when he emailed their corporate customer support address.
Take the card back and ask if the store has to activate it from the register or not.
Good luck.
-Trevor
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Thanks, I'll do that.
Well, if it is BB's fault then I was a bit harsh with playNC, but it isn't the first time I have had a problem with them either.
Kwea
[ August 05, 2004, 01:49 AM: Message edited by: Kwea ]
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I took the damn card back to BB, and they refunded the money right away, no questions asked.
After I made sure I spoke to someone I have delt with before. And I had reminded him that I have spent over $2000 there within the last 6 months on home theatre stuff and computer stuff.
I got home to a really obnoxious e-mail from playNC....so I let them have it with both barrels....
And it felt great.
So now I need a new game to play, and I will NEVER have anything to do with playNC again.
Any ideas? I love RPG's............
Kwea
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Man, am I glad you're not MY customer.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Why? I was nice to the guys at BB because they were very polite to me and they understood where I was coming from with this.
They sold me a product that didn't work as advertised....so I wanted my money back.
I have spent 12 years in various CS positions so I know what should happen in situations like these.
I said hi the the guy I bought most of that stuff from, and made sure he remembered me (which he did....I go in there 4-5 time a week on my lunch hour to play video games and check out stuff), which he did right away. then I politely asked him for assistance. He took me over to the return desk and explained the situation, and mentioned that I was a regular customer.
I also took a printout of the playNC message I was receiving so that they could be sure I wasn't making it all up, as I know some people do. They verified the numbers were the same on the printout and the card I had, and checked the reciept....then they came back with my money.
Compare that with PlayNC....I sent a file with a scanned copy of the card, the card numbers, and my BB receipt to them 4-5 days ago. So far they haven't helped at all. As a matter of fact the first 3 messages they sent accused me of entering the numbers wrong. Then, they said that it was the stores fault, which BTW it wasn't.
Pass the buck all you want, it won't help you.
I want the things I buy to be good quality and to do what I bought them to do. If they don't work I will try to work with the company to resolve any issues.
But if the company refuses to accept any responsibility for their shitty equipment/service, then I have no more time to waste on them....ever.
Don't lie to me, and don't make excuses...just fix the damn problem or give me my money back.
That doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.
Kwea
Posted by Meruhesae (Member # 6698) on :
Wow...and I've heard great things about this game too.
For MMORPG goodness though, I can reccomend Final Fantasy XI, with a few warnings. First off, they are going to require a credit card number, and its going to cost a pretty penny just to get the game. Monthly fees are about $13 for your first character, and an extra $1 for every extra character.
I've also heard good things about Ragnarok Online, but I don't know much. *shrug* It looks pretty interesting though.
Hope this helps.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
The game itself is very good...when you aren't being killed by mapserver disconnects.
They tried to tell me that my brand new computer was at fault, but after I spent 3 hours doing everything they suggested via repeated e-mails, they said" well I guess that wasn't the problem after all".
I understand that things break, or refuse to work sometimes.
What I couldn't stand was their piss-poor customer service.
Too bad, I really liked the game.
I think I'll stay away for MMORPG for a while. This has really soured me on them. I think I'll so with a regular game that doen't involve monthly fees.
Any suggestions on that front?
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
Call of Duty
Posted by Meruhesae (Member # 6698) on :
I know alot of people who like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights- I tried Baldur's gate and couldn't handle the interface.
However, I'm not a big computer RPG player- until I got Final Fantasy XI, I played console RPG's.
If you have a PS2 though, get Kingdom Hearts. I refused to play it for a long time because of the Disney thing until a friend practially forced me to try her copy. I was blown away. The graphics, music, story, and controls are all good. The camera can be pretty evil sometimes, but not fatal.
Can't really reccomend anything for the Gamecube yet, the Zelda game was pretty weak.
And if you're into something older, get Final Fantasy 7. The graphics are horribly dated, but I love it.
I know that they also sell some of the older Final Fantasy's for the computer on the Square-Enix website .
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
Final Fantasy isn't an RPG.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I played FFVII, and I liked it a lot, but that was years ago.
I bought a brand new sparkiling computer, adn I want to use it. But I am a little wary of any type of monthly charge right now.
I have a PS2, and I think I am going to buy Sipder Man 2. I tried it at BB today and really liked it. The graphics are very cool, and the game seems fun to play.
But I still am interested in games for the computer. I have never owned a good computer before this one, so while I have played a lot of games with friends I am relativly new to computer gaming in general.
I learn pretty quick, though.
I played Balders Gate, and finished it pretty quickly. I also have Age of Mythology, which I finished fairly quickly as well.
I am not real fond of FPS, but I like some of them. They just aren't usually my first choice, thats all I am saying.
I loved the old Civilization game, so I think I might pick up a copy of the new(er) version. I heard it rocked.
And I have heard good things about Stracraft, but I don't know much about it.
Same thing about SW:KOR; I heard it's good, but I am not sure about any Star Wars game.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)