In a message dated 10/21/03 11:28:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
kirkspeer@yahoo.com writes:
I would be interested in what happened as well.
A member of my 2950 team had a recent problem with an
older version of auto-magic and was told, too bad,
you're mainly stuck with the results even though it
was a program error and not player error. He is going
to continue playing the current game he is in, but has
confided to me because of the poor customer service
from this event, he may never play Mepbm again.Folks, remember we are your customers, we are paying
for a service to experience a fair and fun game. If a
technical problem occurs when a turn is run, please do
your utmost to rectify the situation. Otherwise,
people who enjoy 99% of the aspects of Mepbm, will not
continue to be customers of this fine service.Respectfully,
Kirk Speer
I do not presently, nor have I ever, played a game ran by the folks at
Middle-earth Games. I have been giving consideration to playing the game
again, though, having played it several years ago, when it was run by GSI.
I don't know the facts of the above matter, and cannot speak to it,
accordingly. With regards to customer service deficiencies in the PBM arena,
though, I recently made a decision to end my play of Hyborian War, run by Reality
Simulations, Inc.. I had played that game, on and off, for 17 years - almost
two decades.
I liked that game a lot. However, I do not regret quitting that game,
because I quit for what I felt were the right reasons, which is what any
player must ultimately do. Will I ever return to Hyborian War? That is very, very
doubtful.
My point is this: However difficult it may seem to PBM companies to
attract new players to their games, once the damage is done, in terms of
customer service deficiencies, undoing the impact that damage has on even long-term
players can become, in some instances, insurmountable.
At what point did I draw the line? At the point that RSI's staff told
me that no one at the company was in charge of customer service. In hindsight,
this actually made a lot of sense, looking back on errors and inconsistencies
in service.
I do not agree with the individual who suggested that they would
necessarily regret quitting. The truth and the fact of the matter is that there are
more games available to choose from today, where the entire gaming industry
is concerned, than ever before. Even where the core PBM industry is concerned,
while many of the older, more well known games have faded into the past, if
one bothers to search, they will likely find as many PBM games up and running as
ever. This without even taking into account the PBEM games or World Wide Web
games.
For the players, ultimately, it is just a game. For the companies who
run them for profit, it is their livelihood. In the 17 years I have played PBM
games, the one thing, more than any other, that I have seen turn people away
from the industry is substandard approaches to service and interaction with
their customer base.
Whatever else may be said, I do know this much. Companies that ignore
such problems and complaints ultimately end up losing more than just the
customer immediately affected.
One bad experience can sour a customer forever. This is true in any
business.
For whatever it is worth. . .
- Charles -
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
In all seriousness I know errors annoy players, we try to minimise them and we have drastically cut them down by the use of AM.