Customer Support

[DBZ-GOKU-]

I really hate it when companies don\'t respond to your emails about their game, it gets me really frustrated. The first time you ask them, you ask them nice, but they don\'t respond. THen you ask them in a harsh way and they flip out at you saying \"how do think your going to get help if you sit their and get mad at us!\" It drives me crazy. The people that do that the most thoughh is the stupid PDA Treasures.

That is another reason I love Astrware so much, great customer support and lots of detailed information to help you.

Anyways, I just thought I would express my hate towards that company nad get it off my back.

[threephi]

I agree, DBZ, poor customer service can be intensely frustrating. But you might give people a little more slack than one shot at a nice request before going for the jugular! No offense, but I don\'t think taking a harsh tone at any stage is a good tactic to get CS personnel to take your request seriously. It just gives them an excuse to label you a crank and ignore your e-mail. I always try to keep it cordial, brief, and precise, especially if it\'s the fifth or sixth etc. e-mail about something. Besides, the people responding to CS are of course people, most likely overworked people with a largely thankless job, and make mistakes or get confused just like anyone. It doesn\'t mean they don\'t want to help.

Unless of course it does ;) There definitely have been times when I thought I was talking to a brick wall.

Case in point is The Sims. I own all the Sims titles since I like the game a lot, but each and every edition contains the same bug that I\'ve been e-mailing them about since it first came out three years ago. And none of my e-mails, some dozen in all, have ever gotten anything except an automated response--one that promises a personal response within three days that never appears. Meanwhile what appears to be a fairly simple problem that adversely affects gameplay continues to go unfixed.

The prime exemplar of great customer service is of course Astraware :) But another company that stands out in recent memory is Handmark. I reported a bug in the \"Magic Dogs\" card games that came bundled with the Tungsten-T, and received a personal response acknowledging the bug the same day. Within a week they had fixed it and forwarded the new version to me.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

But you might give people a little more slack than one shot at a nice request before going for the jugular! No offense, but I don\'t think taking a harsh tone at any stage is a good tactic to get CS personnel to take your request seriously...

I guess you are right about this part, but it still makes me extremyl mad when they don\'t answer it the first two or three times.

Unless of course it does ;) There definitely have been times when I thought I was talking to a brick wall.

LOL! :)

Case in point is The Sims. I own all the Sims titles since I like the game a lot, but each and every edition contains the same bug that I\'ve been e-mailing them about since it first came out three years ago. And none of my e-mails, some dozen in all, have ever gotten anything except an automated response--one that promises a personal response within three days that never appears. Meanwhile what appears to be a fairly simple problem that adversely affects gameplay continues to go unfixed.

Yeah, I know. I do not have The Sims, but I have amny other EA games (All C&C games, MOH:AA, MOH:AAS, B1942, etc). EA just has horrible customer support, except in teh west wood division. You have to post your problems (can\'t email, which also bugs me about EA) and they respond within the next day or two. But, the long awaited title I ahve been waiting for from EA is C&C Generals. it looks really cool (off the subject).

[rx_shorty]

They want to make every good game.
There is no competition anymore (well not that much)

EA is trying to take over the gaming world.
An no way that's is going to happen....

:(

[DBZ-GOKU-]

It could. Quite afew of their titles aren't really their titles, like 1503 A.D., Battlefield 1942, etc. (and all of those games sell very well). EA is getting bigger everyday.

[rx_shorty]

You know that golf game?

It freezes all the time, so for the ones who are planning to buy it, don't!

And it cost money, and if you say something about it or want a fixed version they say: "Sorry can't help you about that"

[xcool]

Hi all,

I had one with Handmark as well. I complained about the registration screen of the Midway Arcade Classics games giving a fatal exception. I know its their fault cause the registration system was implemented by them and not Astraware. :p

Guess what, the support personnel redirected me to download another version a very old build, version 1.0 instead of the current version 1.2, and it is labeled PocketExpress. I replied to them telling that they are not supposed to to this cause this bug affect not only me, but all users. Sending an older version is not a solution. They should fix it. And I never heard from him anymore. :(

And I thought their customer service was good. Sigh... Astraware had the best, especially when Had comes into the picture. I had a question about discounts for PopCap Games Pack and guess what, Had actually replied to me. Talk about CEO doing support! That puts a nifty touch to it! Really appreciate it!

By the way, Had if you are reading this, can we beta testers get discounts to previously offered games? I'm looking to complete my collection of Astraware games. :)

Thanks!

[Howard]

Thanks for the comments :) Since I could walk & talk, I've worked for my father in his shop and on a market stall, and 20+ years of *actually* selling (not just learning about it in a business course) and providing customer support really did leave an impression on me :)

I'm very proud of our customer support team - I wouldn't be satisfied until they would do the job at least as well as I would (assuming I could do 80+ hours of customer support work per week, that is ;) )


I've asked Rosie to put together something with discounts for beta testers for our older games they might not have joined in time to help with.

I'll post that up in the "General" beta area shortly :)

( Anyone interested in becoming a beta tester ? ;) )


I'll also be working in a way later this year to provide hefty "upsell" discounts on some of our older games when you buy one of our newer games, which should be a nice way of providing discounts to all of our customers.

( You may have seen the discount we did on Atomica in our last email mailshot which everyone seemed to like! )

Howard.

[xcool]

Hi all,

( You may have seen the discount we did on Atomica in our last email mailshot which everyone seemed to like! )

Hmmm.. weird... I've not received any email from Astraware since, I don't know when! :( Its been quite some time already. Anyhow, I made sure that http://board.astraware.com is always on one of the tabs in my Mozilla Firebird :p That way, I'm always updated to the things happening in Astraware :)

Cheers!

[Cheryl]

I don't remember seeing that mailing...must've missed it somehow?

But I have to chime in and thank you for the superb customer service that AW provides. You really are second to none! :)

[DBZ-GOKU-]

I saw it. Yes, it was quite while ago, I think some time around Dynamite or something like that. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I have never had any problems with any Handmark games or their support, they always help me out.

[Kieren]

All I can say is thanks for the compliments :)

I know I speak for the whole customer support team when I say that it is nice to hear that people think we are doing a good job, makes you feel better knowing your efforts really are appreciated by someone out there.

On a side note - rx_shorty, you mentioned an EA golf game for the Palm. This wouldn't be Tiger Woods Golf would it by any chance? I err...could you forward me the emails from EA about this particular product if it was?

Whitehorse used to have a hand in Tiger Woods Golf, and although it was discontinued some years back (October 2001 to be precise), we still get the occasional email via the Whitehorse email route regarding it. It would be nice to have a little more information about and availability/problems for when we do get questions about it!

Thanks again!
Kieren

[TennMan]

Kieren, I think rx_shorty may have been talking about Zio Golf. It doesn't work at all on OS5 devices and it doesn't look like they plan to update it any time soon.

On another note, you mentioned receiving e-mail about the Tiger Woods golf (from Whitehorse) via the Whitehorse e-mail route. I have this game but it doesn't work on OS5 devices either. Got any additional information? I would really like to see a good golf game for the PalmOS (that works on OS5 devices of course!) :D

[Kieren]

Hi TennMan,

I'm afriad that I don't have any more information than that above!

It was discontinued in October 2001, at which point Whitehorse stopped doing anything directly with it, and were directing people to contact EA directly about it.

I don't even know if they have/plan to do any updates for compatibility!

Sorry :(
Kieren

[meangrasshopper]

Customer support ...
I have been trying to contact customer support, but to no avail. I really don't want to lay out the problem here since it can be easily resolved. Are there ways other than e-mail to contact customer support? Ideas please??

[Kieren]

Hiya,

Well, normally you would just need to email support@astraware.com, although if you are having trouble getting through there try my own address, kieren@astraware.com

Failing that, you could give us a call on 011 44 1782 667 825 (anytime before 3pm Eastern will be fine) and we can try and sort it out then!

And if *that* doesn't work, then let me know here and we can try various other methods, including ICQ (my ICQ number is 83312827). If you do use ICQ, you will need to request authorisation to my contact list (it only reduces spam, not stops it), so could you please put some text in to explain your authorisation request? Otherwise I'm liable to reject it out of hand due to ignorance (Sorry)

Warmest regards,
Kieren

[meangrasshopper]

WHAMO!

Problem solved. Due to a communication error, I was unable to receive e-mails from customer service. Now just a few hours later ... Problem solved.

Way to go Astraware!