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Refer a Friend Issues - What is going on

STAR WARS: The Old Republic > English > Customer Service (Read-Only)
Refer a Friend Issues - What is going on
 
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CrazyMcGee's Avatar


CrazyMcGee
09.17.2013 , 02:00 AM | #121
Quote: Originally Posted by Lecto View Post
Well, I just finished filing with the BBB...so we'll see where that goes. My ticket is still open, & I haven't herd anything form CS since the last round of robo-calls. As everyone else has said...I'd be cool with it so long as they just dropped by and let us know what was going on from time to time.
Yeah, it's the part where they start telling people it's fixed or that we don't qualify that makes me see red.

You have a problem, say you have a problem, say you'll fix it. This is basic customer service.

CrazyMcGee's Avatar


CrazyMcGee
09.17.2013 , 03:09 AM | #122
Just got another Customer Service mail saying I don't qualify. I honestly don't know what CS thinks is going on. Do you think we are all lying??

I'm so depressed by this, I honestly feel really upset. I don't understand why they are acting this way. Why would we all be making it up?

And for all they say it is fixed and I am wrong, I can't even get it to work now with new referrals! I try a new e-mail address and it doesn't appear in my account under Refer a Friend. I got 3 of these to work, I am not confused about the idea.

It just really upsets me that they won't listen to us. After all the money I have put into this game and now they think I am stupid or a liar. Why won't they accept it is not us??

Lecto's Avatar


Lecto
09.17.2013 , 12:12 PM | #123
I got the "it's your fault E-mail" today. I have been writing game web sites as a result, here is a copy of what I have sent out.

To whom it may concern,
I have no clue who to contact about this; however, I was hoping you guys could help us out. Below I have included links to the SWTOR forums where a bunch of us have been complaining after having been denied rewards we were promised for referring friends. Long story short, EA/Bioware has bugs in their coding that do not allow for some referrals to be counted; moreover, the referrals show up in their system...but not with a link to whom they were referred to.

I personally have refereed two people (following the method they laid out), & have not received credit for either. I waited two months for EA to "research" the issue, only to get a letter today saying they would not be looking into it any further & that it was probably an issue on my end or my referrals. The issue with this statement is that they've already admitted to this issue existing, & that it was a known bug on their end. My point is that they are guilty of false advertising & shady business practices at this point. I called them today (which was the 3ed time during this process), & they told me they know about the problem, they may or may not look into it, & that there was nothing they could do.


In summation, we have no voice & no power. We were hoping that one, if not all of you guys could help us out. We hope that some bad press for EA/Bioware might force their hand. I would be willing to provide any E-mails or documentation you guys would require. I know this isn't breaking news, but it is a decent scoop. Would you be willing to help some fellow gamers? Any kind of influence or articles you guys/gals could drum up would help.


Thank you for your time,
~Lecto
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return". ~ Moulin Rouge
Join "Tao Covenant" today!
Twitter: @Lecto10

Lecto's Avatar


Lecto
09.17.2013 , 12:34 PM | #124
Okay guys, here's the down low. EA/Bioware have abandoned us, & the only way we are going to get them to care is by causing them enough trouble to do so. So my advise is this, cause as much trouble for them as you possible can till they are forced to acknowledge us!

Rally behind my banner! I have personally written several gaming web sites, contacted Marcus Beer/Kyle Bossmen of GameTrailers.com via Twitter, filed complaints with both the BBB & am in the process of filing with the FTC. I would urge you all to do the same.

Thanks for your time,
Please post here with your personal efforts.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return". ~ Moulin Rouge
Join "Tao Covenant" today!
Twitter: @Lecto10

TheSeventhJedi's Avatar


TheSeventhJedi
09.17.2013 , 05:30 PM | #125
Back to the front page with you! Serve your customers, or at least have the decency to fire all your customer service agents so that everyone can just accept that you don't intend to serve us.
Click for free things, please:

http://www.swtor.com/r/GlscnB


(It's a referral link - whether you're a new or returning member,
you'll get all sorts of goodies!)

Pyscron's Avatar


Pyscron
09.17.2013 , 05:33 PM | #126
I also got the email saying they could not help me due to the fact the referral process wasn't correctly completed. here is the deal I refered the game to myself creating a second account to play on and then subscribed that account so I know it was properly completed. my main account shows the second one was indeed completed correctly however its saying the second account never subscribed. if it never subscribed then why was I charged and where the hell is my rewards?

CrazyMcGee's Avatar


CrazyMcGee
09.17.2013 , 11:06 PM | #127
Quote: Originally Posted by Lecto View Post
Okay guys, here's the down low. EA/Bioware have abandoned us, & the only way we are going to get them to care is by causing them enough trouble to do so. So my advise is this, cause as much trouble for them as you possible can till they are forced to acknowledge us!

Rally behind my banner! I have personally written several gaming web sites, contacted Marcus Beer/Kyle Bossmen of GameTrailers.com via Twitter, filed complaints with both the BBB & am in the process of filing with the FTC. I would urge you all to do the same.

Thanks for your time,
Please post here with your personal efforts.
I totally agree. I have written to Penny Arcade. I know they have helped people with problems like this before and I can only hope even Bioware wouldn't be crazy or foolish enough to ignore them! And if BW do, maybe they'll make a comic about it

Spoiler

GalinHalcyon's Avatar


GalinHalcyon
09.18.2013 , 12:37 AM | #128
I received the "It's your fault" e-mail today as well. This is the exact text of the e-mail I received.

Quote:
Greetings Michael,

My name is Dave and I am part of the Star Wars ™: The Old Republic™ Customer Service team. I am contacting you today as you had submitted a ticket previously concerning issues with our Friends of Star Wars ™: The Old Republic™ referral program. At that time you were informed that we were looking into your report and that we would be back in touch with you as soon as we had an update for you. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay caused by the volume of inquiries we had regarding this program.

After investigation, it has been determined that the referral process has unfortunately not been correctly completed in this case, and as such we are unable to grant your referral rewards.

In order for a referral to be valid, please check the following:

1 – The person being referred must be either a former subscriber who has been unsubscribed for 90 days or longer OR someone who has never registered for an account using the email address referred (regardless if the game was later played or not).

2 – For a previous subscriber, ensure that they have opted in for email communications from Star Wars: The Old Republic prior to using the link. A newly created account will have this enabled by default.

3 – The referred player should use the personal referral link (accessed through your My Account "Friends of SWTOR Rewards Tracker" page here: https://account.swtor.com/user/refer ).

Using this link should be the first step in creating a brand new account (if they are a new player), or logging back in to an existing account (if they are a former Subscriber).

By clicking through the link to create an account or log in, they will be registered as your Referral.

4 – The referred player must become a subscriber (pay for a recurring subscription or redeem a Pre-Paid Game Time Code) within 14 days of receiving the referral in order for the referring account to receive all their rewards.


If any of these steps are not carried out properly, the referral will not be valid, and rewards will not be received.

Full details of these and other information can be found on our website, here:
http://www.swtor.com/info/friends
Answers to common questions concerning the program can be found FAQs here:
http://www.swtor.com/support/helpcenter/7318
We appreciate your patience and understanding and we would like to apologize for the length of time this investigation has taken.

Best Regards,

Dave
Star Wars ™: The Old Republic™ Customer Service
This was my response to the e-mail:

Quote:
Dave,

Your system is showing my referred friend in the incorrect status. She has been a paying subscriber for many many months and you can see that in my cartel coin grant history. She has confirmed that she has paid her subscription the last two months, which are the two months I am now missing my grant from. There is obviously something wrong in your system, as many many people are having this exact same issue.

My referred friend's e-mail on record is **********@yahoo.com. If you will check her account, you will show that she has paid her subscription consistently since she joined SWTOR and that I am owed my referral cartel coins for the months of August and now September. Again, my referred subscriber is valid. She has been a member for over a year, and has never missed paying a month for her subscription.

May I also add that I waited on the phone for 3 hours in order to talk to your accounts and billing, only to be disconnected. I have also waited a month now for a resolution to this issue. It is unfair for you to finally respond to me by saying the friend I referred is not a valid subscriber, when she clearly is.

Sincerely,
Michael ******

CrazyMcGee's Avatar


CrazyMcGee
09.18.2013 , 12:51 AM | #129
I find it so hard to understand how BW can be pretending it's our fault. Surely the sheer number of people reporting the problem would suggest it's a bug? Why would they think they have so many customers who are either lying or complete idiots??

Eric has said that only 5% of players use the forums. Look at the number of unique accounts that have complained about this issue, multiply it by 20 and that's a hell of a lot of people! How can BW think we are all crazy?

We just have to keep complaining until they listen to us. If you use Paypal, open a dispute now - BW still have 20 days to respond to it before escalation. If you have a favourite gaming website or magazine, e-mail them and tell them what's going on. They won't all reply and they may ignore us, but if we're all doing it, they'll start paying attention. Complain to whoever in your country oversees transactions like this - there will be a public authority who looks at complaints like this. And we'll keep complaining here and we'll keep putting in tickets. If BW have to spend time and money looking into complaints, there will come a time when it is worth it to them to sort this out, whether it's because Paypal give us refunds, CS reps have to spend time replying to tickets or because of bad publicity.

I've also sent a PM to Eric about this and I'd encourage everyone else to do the same. Please be polite and respectful - I don't even know if Customer Service comes under his remit! But he is the community manager and the community is really unhappy. If he sees how many of us this affects and how incredibly frustrated we are by the response, I'm hoping he will be able to get this sorted for us.

So yep, let's try and stay calm, let's try and stay polite (I'm talking to myself here!), but let's make sure we complain to everyone we can think of. This is not right and BW should not get away with this. We're gamers - we are an incredibly dedicated group of people when we want to be. If we can spend hours grinding away at dailies, we can sure as hell spend some time writing complaints!

Sir-Marty's Avatar


Sir-Marty
09.18.2013 , 08:01 AM | #130
So this is a much bigger problem than what I originally thought.

Guess it's time to send a strongly worded letter to BioWare about this. I've already contacted both the BBB and FTC on this, and they will have no choice but to grant us all the rewards.