Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
Who is top of the escalation chain? I asked to escalate, and feel the person I am speaking with just does not get what I am saying.
I bought the $100 offer for 2 yar and got 2 more Yar in the 10 packs
I bought the $25 "double your offer" for an additional Yar
I won a Yar in the event
I bought a second $25 "double your offer" for a 7th Yar
I am asking for a $50 refund for the two extra copies of Yar. But, the person I am speaking with is stuck on taking away my $100 offer, and everything within the packs. Maybe fresh eyes on the ticket would help, and you can clear this up
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
I closed my ticket because CS said they could not refund dil or swap Yar for a character that has similar advertised ship abilities. Also no compensation for leveling Yar for the skirmish event. I also understood from the forums that escalation was not an option in this case.
Like a lot of the others in this thread, I have reached a stage where I no longer have the energy to argue with CS. And frankly, I feel for CS since they are helpless in this regard without instructions from above. It is just easier and less frustrating to move on and not waste as much time or money on STT.
Has any of the above changed and I should reopen a new ticket? Or will there be another round of running around with no real results!!!
Y'all,
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
The proper procedure of escalating through customer service is time-consuming and emotionally exhausting. Much easier to just stop spending money.
This is exactly it. It's so much time and so much effort to fight with CS for anything and everything that's it's not worth it. I'd rather deal with my cable company, rated worst communications company in America for 17 years in a row.
It's just not worth the risk of a purchase if I might have to fight with CS.
It's just not worth the time for reparations if I might have to fight with CS.
It's just not worth the time to open up the app and play if I might have to fight with CS.
Because CS is always (A.L.W.A.Y.S.) a fight, I'm less involved, unhappy, return only for my fleet, and wave off newcomers. It costs nothing (saves money in hourly wages in fact) for CS to act like other CS and make the situation right. Instead it costs you additional sales and good will for CS to cause me trouble.
Telling us to escalate isn't good enough. You miss the soft costs of more than just what I list above, and it takes multiple escalations.
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
Can we have some sort of insight as to the improvements that are coming really soon ?
Because.. we've been here before and in those situations, improvements were on the way but never specified.. and here we are. (Again)
What can you tell us (?) that we'll be able to see happen and go "ahh, they are following thru with what was said to help / help prevent those things from happening again"
Because with out something like that this really doesn't feel any different then the "our team is going to sit down and review what went wrong Monday morning" dance.
I disagree with others that CS is bad. They've always treated me well. However, communication is not great. Most of this Yar problem would have been avoided if they had communicated that Yar would be changed. If they had decided to make the change during the event and promptly sent out a notice to that effect, some would have kept after her, but a bunch of us could have stopped and not lost so many resources.
If something big and new is about to go down that will affect game play, let us know as soon as possible what it is about so we know how to allocate resources or where to save for later. That would be appreciated.
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
I understand that sometimes crew has to be changed if they might cause too much of an imbalance to the game, I really do.
It is good to see that it was not something taken lightly when it was decided, but was discussed thoroughly within the dev team.
However, if it was a decision that was not taken lightly, it was discussed, code had to be changed, etc…
How can you possibly justify not communicating the change when you were still selling the packs?
I assume it was not meant to deliberately rip people off, but it certainly comes across like you decided to get as much money in as possible before making the change.
You let people buy those packs, even though you knew full well that what they were buying was going to get massively changed.
That is really the part that baffles and annoys me to no small end, because that just comes across as deliberate deception.
Telling people to raise a ticket with CS and escalate if they have an issue with it just adds insult to injury, IMHO.
I'm not sure why I should have to reopen a closed ticket to request an escalation just to get the same answer that apparently others were already given. That's absolutely insane, especially since CS is quoting "consistency" in the boilerplate I and a few others got, while others had their boosts restored.
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
At what point can we expect to see actions instead of words? We've been here for 2 years and every time there is a screw up, it's "we're sorry, we made a mistake, we're putting procedures in place so it doesn't happen again." Then 6 months later when the same type of issue occurs, we get the same response.
Is 2.5 years enough for those procedures to be in place and be effective? Do we need to wait for 3 years? 4?
The QA and game-balance testing has been a problem from day 1. What procedures are being put in place? At this point the claim that you're putting procedures in place is meaningless because whatever procedures those are never seem to be enough.
I was told by CS i got nothing unless i bought event packs.
There is always issues like this .... and of course the lack of communication as usual.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
That’s very true, and they are nowhere to be found. I have been very dissapointed with STT/Db for the last one plus year. Have been on and off this game, but now i am really thinking about retirement and never look back again.
They give us hopes and then bam! Crush it! Rinse and repeat.
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
Shan there are other actions, that you (the collective DB you) can do to make this sting a whole lot less.
One of these that has been said again and again, is to make Yar similar to Killy. Don't undo the nerf, but soften it up a bunch.
The nerf hammer landed so hard and so quickly as packs were closing up, that it's hard not for some folks to imagine foul intent even if there was none present.
Make Yar usable with a Killy level upgrade and maybe win a little good will back. Or stand y'alls ground and be stubborn about it, and start losing more revenue.
Your choice.
Cause frankly, dealing with CS to resolve something y'all created non-accidentally is punishment above insult at this point. With the inconsistent results I can only assume it is your bosses intent to make sure any compensation is hard enough to get as to discourage folks from pursuing it.
I purchased a couple of event packs and got a Yar. I went all in on the event and won a second one as a rank reward. I didn't ask for a refund, I asked for my Yar character to be made useful again in some way. They offered a dilithium refund (plus all pack content and bonuses) to take one of the stars away which would have further nerfed her stats. I escalated the ticket and got the same answer. I just closed the ticket and didn't bother.
All I wanted was for my Yar to be useful again in some other way. Instead, she is occupying a very expensive crew slot and not being very useful.
Shan's message indicates that tickets should be opened AND escalation is possible, she even stated that those still dissatisfied SHOULD escalate.
I did escalate and got the same answer. When I told them to close my ticket because they were missing the point of my argument, the ticket said the problem was solved. I emailed back and told them it wasn't solved, it was closed with an unsatisfactory result. Not sure if anyone even read my reply.
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
At what point can we expect to see actions instead of words? We've been here for 2 years and every time there is a screw up, it's "we're sorry, we made a mistake, we're putting procedures in place so it doesn't happen again." Then 6 months later when the same type of issue occurs, we get the same response.
The thing is, a very similar issue happened ~7 months ago - and it was resolved promptly and just about correctly. Disruptor Beam's actions resulted in many players ending up with a useless Legendary. It took three days to solve: contact CS and request that Legendary be exchanged for 50K Honor. It was that simple.
Shan, why are you making this problem so complicated? It's not quite as simple, but it's close:
People who are not happy with their useless Polywater Yar can contact support and exchange each one for 50K honor. Simple.
Any exchanged Polywater Yars at level 100 also need the CS agent to provide 1500 Chronitons to the player to replace wasted resources. Simple.
As for the dilithium packs... they cost 650 Dilithium each, and there were three 'guaranteed' prizes - except one of them turned out to be impossible to win. So just refund 200 dilithium per pack. Simple. (I would hope DB was responsible enough to do this automatically across all 650-dil packs bought, but it would be acceptable to do it by having us contact support.)
What is the problem here, Shan? If you want to treat customers equally, why do people who were given a free useless Legendary get to exchange it for 50K honor, while people who worked for and ended up with a useless Legendary get told to [politeness filter]go away[/politeness filter]?
What is the problem here, Shan? If you want to treat customers equally, why do people who were given a free useless Legendary get to exchange it for 50K honor, while people who worked for and ended up with a free useless Legendary get told to [politeness filter]go away[/politeness filter]?
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
At what point can we expect to see actions instead of words? We've been here for 2 years and every time there is a screw up, it's "we're sorry, we made a mistake, we're putting procedures in place so it doesn't happen again." Then 6 months later when the same type of issue occurs, we get the same response.
The thing is, a very similar issue happened ~7 months ago - and it was resolved promptly and just about correctly. Disruptor Beam's actions resulted in many players ending up with a useless Legendary. It took three days to solve: contact CS and request that Legendary be exchanged for 50K Honor. It was that simple.
Shan, why are you making this problem so complicated? It's not quite as simple, but it's close:
People who are not happy with their useless Polywater Yar can contact support and exchange each one for 50K honor. Simple.
Any exchanged Polywater Yars at level 100 also need the CS agent to provide 1500 Chronitons to the player to replace wasted resources. Simple.
As for the dilithium packs... they cost 650 Dilithium each, and there were three 'guaranteed' prizes - except one of them turned out to be impossible to win. So just refund 200 dilithium per pack. Simple. (I would hope DB was responsible enough to do this automatically across all 650-dil packs bought, but it would be acceptable to do it by having us contact support.)
What is the problem here, Shan? If you want to treat customers equally, why do people who were given a free useless Legendary get to exchange it for 50K honor, while people who worked for and ended up with a free useless Legendary get told to [politeness filter]go away[/politeness filter]?
Exactly this. And without such clarity, what is the point of escalating/reopening tickets and then getting the run around by CS!!
We need a decision from DB so that CS knows what to do. This is exactly what happened with Picard. I actually waited 3 days before putting in my ticket - hoping that CS will get clear intructions. Unfortunately looks like no one was home or DB just decided to say .... to customers.
I do think something needs to be done about this. I think simple refunds for those who want them, for those who paid money or dil, or a citation swap offer for those who won Yar without spending.
This could have been avoided by proper communication with the players in a timely fashion though, and that's probably where we should be headed.
Well thank goodness my ticket was reopened so that I could receive EXACTLY THE SAME PREFORMED RESPONSE that I had received 3 days ago.
Come join our fleet! We're a great social group that helps each other. You play the way you want to, participate as much as you want and if you want to be competitive, you can be! Check out our fleet ad:
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
Shan, I am one of your biggest fans on this forum, I genuinely like you and feel you push that extra mile for us players. I understand you are speaking for the team so please, feed any comments you feel are appropriate back to the team.
1. I like lists, sorry
2. I am without a doubt the most naive person I know, srsly, my OH chokes on disbelief at the good I 'see' in people, business, the world etc. But. Even I question the timing that the nerf had. I'm not sure 'why it had to be like that' and as a player sure I felt disappointment at the nerf, but, looking at the majority of views and comments made I get the nerf had to happen. What's made the difference is the timing. Ms. Naive over here feels it very much looks like DB milked its players for every penny they could and then took away the very thing we gave you money for. and saying we 'misinterpreted' was the slap across the face after you threw my drink at me.
3. Now, in saying that, its been 3 weeks or whatever. I'm not angry any more. I'm not really disappointed either. As I told CS in my ticket, I don't want Polywater Yar removed, she is very distracting to my other officers with her scantily clad bosom but I keep her as a reminder to not spend money on anything other than the monthly card (I know, I know, I'm ducking out a little, I'm not going 'full hard core boycott' which I totally justify by telling myself that £4 per month is a lot less than the previous amount I spent when really I just want to be able to save my forgotten voyages)
4. I genuinely hope you guys are learning from previous mistakes. Often, when my kids have messed up, they tell me exactly what I want to hear in the hopes I'll shut up and stop talking to them. I am totally sure DB is different.
5. Every time I press return on the keypad it starts another number so I feel I have to make another point even though I am running out now.
6. Finally (yeyyy, you say) its trust you've eroded (and when I say you, I mean DB, not Shan). I cannot trust that a card wont be changed in the future. I'm too new to 'know' or 'expect' a nerf to happen because I should be able to see that a card is overpowered. I am, at this minute, running shuttle's back to back because I would really like Sato, based entirely on her base DIP stats. I'm hoping its not nerfed after the event, but even if she is, at least i can console myself by wrapping £5 notes around me in a kind of money hug.
OK I am going to preface this by saying that I am sure many of you will think I am wrong but this is the way I feel.
I had a card that was going to be useable ever day in the Arena now I have a card that is not so useable for anything other then events that feature Yar. DB is not going to give me another copy of her so I can try to make her useable for voyages or shuttles or a citation so I can try to make another guy useable. I feel like I have taken a loss but that's OK, I am not going to escalate or fight with CS over this. It not worth a battle and I doubt I can get them to see it from my POV in any event. I rank my cards by how much I use them... the good cards are the ones I use every day for something i.e. that my crew is earning their pay lol. I certainly have a lot of other cards that I never use for anything so Yar can just join the crowd.
I understand that the issue for most people is that DB apparently continued to offer her for sale even after they may have known that they were going to have to nerf her. I don't think that is right if that is what happened but it is really not so much my issue. My issue is simply that I lost a card that was going to be useable everyday and instead have a card that is going to do little for me.
I certainly have a lot of other cards that I never use for anything so Yar can just join the crowd.
My issue is simply that I lost a card that was going to be useable everyday and instead have a card that is going to do little for me.
Did you win a copy, or did you pay Dilithium or Cash for a copy? I'll end up with a 5/5 Yar that I paid $100 to "join the crowd". So, I'm a little more upset.
As many others in this thread, i will throw in the towel. i wont be sending in anymore tickets or asking for escalation. enough is enough, my spending is permanently stopped and i severely regret spending at all. as many others here i will stay for my fleet, but enjoyment in this game has slowly turned into pure disgust for the developer.
I certainly have a lot of other cards that I never use for anything so Yar can just join the crowd.
My issue is simply that I lost a card that was going to be useable everyday and instead have a card that is going to do little for me.
Did you win a copy, or did you pay Dilithium or Cash for a copy? I'll end up with a 5/5 Yar that I paid $100 to "join the crowd". So, I'm a little more upset.
I won one from the event (plus time boost purchase) and got one from a 10$ draw so my loss is not substantial.... I am in for about 15$ and while money is important.... if I am being truthful, I would have spent that anyways.... like I said, it's more about the loss of usability for me.
I won one from the event (plus time boost purchase) and got one from a 10$ draw so my loss is not substantial.... I am in for about 15$ and while money is important.... if I am being truthful, I would have spent that anyways.... like I said, it's more about the loss of usability for me.
Well said. It is, for me, fundamentally about the loss of usability and dubious sale timing. Do I want to be refunded for my PolyYar? No. Do I expect DB to make good on their unfair treatment? Yes.
I was dissatisfied with the response I got from CS. I asked for my purchases to be refunded and was denied, and like others, was only offered Dil for the packs that had Yar. No resources back that I used to level her. Nothing for the other packs I wouldn’t have bought without Yar being a possibility. I sent about 15 emails back and forth with CS over a week with no response.
So I initiated a refund request via Apple.
I was refunded and posted about my experience here. That account was then promptly banned.
So I lost access to hundreds of dollars of purchased content and can no longer log into my main account. I’ve totally quit playing over this experience and just happened to stop back today to see if any of this was resolved for others (lolol)
I know this is is going to sound like sour grapes because I was banned for refunding via Apple on another account, but DB very clearly doesn’t care about users and is trying to maximize cash flow.
Whatever you do, never admit to getting a refund from Apple or google here. They have no way of knowing unless you admit to it. Hard lesson to learn.
But at least I have more free time to start getting through my backlog of Nintendo Switch games.
I was dissatisfied with the response I got from CS. I asked for my purchases to be refunded and was denied, and like others, was only offered Dil for the packs that had Yar. No resources back that I used to level her. Nothing for the other packs I wouldn’t have bought without Yar being a possibility. I sent about 15 emails back and forth with CS over a week with no response.
So I initiated a refund request via Apple.
I was refunded and posted about my experience here. That account was then promptly banned.
So I lost access to hundreds of dollars of purchased content and can no longer log into my main account. I’ve totally quit playing over this experience and just happened to stop back today to see if any of this was resolved for others (lolol)
I know this is is going to sound like sour grapes because I was banned for refunding via Apple on another account, but DB very clearly doesn’t care about users and is trying to maximize cash flow.
Whatever you do, never admit to getting a refund from Apple or google here. They have no way of knowing unless you admit to it. Hard lesson to learn.
But at least I have more free time to start getting through my backlog of Nintendo Switch games.
So DB profits from a bait and switch, refuses to make it right, then bans players who seek refunds from Apple or Google. I really don’t understand how DB can possibly believe that this is a sustainable business model. They could’ve just issued a legendary citation in exchange for each copy of Yar, to players who requested it, and EVERYONE would’ve been cool with it. And they wouldn’t have to lose a SINGLE player, paying or otherwise.
This is just my opinion, but it IS my opinion... that all these CS problems are a top down problem, ie. extremely poor, short sighted, and morally corrupt decisions made by whoever is calling the shots at DB HQ. Personally, I’ve heard the “we’re gonna do better now” empty promise song and dance way too many times now to put ANY stock in it. It’s not going to get better. At least not until heads roll in upper management. Frankly, at this point, it’s insulting that they even continue to make promises to that effect when they clearly don’t have the capability and/or the inclination to do so.
I was dissatisfied with the response I got from CS. I asked for my purchases to be refunded and was denied, and like others, was only offered Dil for the packs that had Yar. No resources back that I used to level her. Nothing for the other packs I wouldn’t have bought without Yar being a possibility. I sent about 15 emails back and forth with CS over a week with no response.
So I initiated a refund request via Apple.
I was refunded and posted about my experience here. That account was then promptly banned.
So I lost access to hundreds of dollars of purchased content and can no longer log into my main account. I’ve totally quit playing over this experience and just happened to stop back today to see if any of this was resolved for others (lolol)
I know this is is going to sound like sour grapes because I was banned for refunding via Apple on another account, but DB very clearly doesn’t care about users and is trying to maximize cash flow.
Whatever you do, never admit to getting a refund from Apple or google here. They have no way of knowing unless you admit to it. Hard lesson to learn.
But at least I have more free time to start getting through my backlog of Nintendo Switch games.
They ban the in game account for posting something in the forum? That’s ridiculous!!
As many others in this thread, i will throw in the towel. i wont be sending in anymore tickets or asking for escalation. enough is enough, my spending is permanently stopped and i severely regret spending at all. as many others here i will stay for my fleet, but enjoyment in this game has slowly turned into pure disgust for the developer.
I am almost done and won’t be back again...
I’ll enjoy few last few events with my fleetmates and warp10 from STT (This time I’ll delete the app for sure so I won’t log back in and get tempted again....)
I've batted back and forth with CS, and seem close to a resolution now, so no need for me to trigger the nuclear option and wave good bye to the game. As for spending, well, my monthly card hasn't been renewed and I'd normally get the 1x offer in Faction events, but they're easy passes now.
I get the disappointment regarding this issue, I do.
So does the team. The change for Polywater Yar was not an easy decision to make but it had to happen when it did. And yes the timing of it all was unfortunate, we realize that.
This is not a situation we want either ourselves or our players to be in again, it has surfaced points of failure in the Design and QA processes regarding crew, and steps are being taken to address them.
Likewise for other issues like what happened for the Skirmish Events.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
Now for those of you with tickets regarding Polywater Yar, if you are not satisfied with the solution offered to you, please follow the proper procedure and request an escalation. Thank you!
I hope you enjoyed your holiday, we didn't!
It can be reasonably argued the nerf was needed, doing it the moment the card was no longer on sale without prior warning? And with no direction to CS for the entirely predictable response?
I'm almost at a resolution, not one I'm happy with, but content enough (so far, awaiting a query) to not go through the palaver of escalation. It's been enough like pulling teeth as it is.
It should have been simple:
Got a Yar? Want rid now? First step is to offer a replacement (not give in to demands like 'gimme X or Y 5*', but offer a selection of equivalent cards), or a refund and DB takes back all 4* and 5* gained from sales, or equivalent honour.
Tried for a Yar, but missed? Get what resources you spent back.
DB loses out on time and maybe a small amount of revenue ongoing, but retains paying customers and quickly resolves a problem, and really, DB's bad, DB should take some of the pain.
But no. It has to be an Herculean effort, absolutely guaranteed to rub salt in wounds.
You've lost at least one paying customer, which probably isn't much of a concern, but the reasons for it should be. At some point the old canard of "lessons learned" won't be enough, and DB will see a real dent in their sales when, rather than a dolphin like me going back to F2P, it's one of the whales.
You (and by you I mean the company and not necessarily you as an individual) seem to fail to realize the problems with Apparently-Bait-And-Switch Yar. I didn’t get Yar. I tied really hard and did better than I have done before in a faction event, but I didn’t get her. With minutes to spare, I sent out two final missions with over 85% chance of success and 5* time reducers and then recalled them with precious dilithium. One failed. (I know that happens and I don’t blame DB for that). I ended rank 1008.
Then you made Yar into a card that has no use to the vast majority of people. Her stats were mediocre and her art was atrocious. But she had great arena abilities.
I had been stockpiling boosts for months just waiting for a card I really wanted. I decided to use them for Yar due ONLY to her arena ability.
When you neutered (not the right word, but the right sentiment) Yar, you devalued the effort everyone put into the event. It did not just affect those who won her. If you had provided a reasonable change to her stats or had offered a rational or reasonable compensation to those who won her, then only those who had Yar would have reason to complain. I waited for nearly three weeks before putting in a support ticket to complain. I waited to see if there was a reasonable solution put forth. There was not. Therefor, I have a right to complain and seek compensation as this directly affects me, too.
The resources I used in the effort to get Yar were not insignificant to me. Besides untold merits, I used boosts on every shuttle, many of them were 4 or 5 star boosts saved over nearly a year of playing. More detrimental to future success were the time reducer boosts I used. I used probably two dozen (so I requested 20) 3* boosts beyond what I would have had I known you would ruin Yar. I also used two 5* boosts and the dilithium to recall them. Had Yar been unchanged, or even if she had been altered only a little, then my efforts would have been reasonable to attempt to win her. It would have been, “Well, you tried.”
And DB cannot, CANNOT, argue that it was a reasonable change. Especually concerning the timing. In order to make the change happen the literal second the sale was over, DB had to have made the choice to change her during the event. And DB made no attempt to communicate what they were about to do. This lack of communication means that I wasted resources to no benefit (I had the ranked reward immortalized and had absolutely no reason to go beyond threshold) and DB knew—They KNEW—what was about to happen and could have prevented it. I lost dilithium and boosts that could have been prevented. What other conclusion can be made except it was greed?
Now I’m in a massive fight for the new Sato card. I love the character and so fight for the card. However, I am now doing it at a disadvantage because my resources were depleted on a card that DB knew was about to be useless. Had Yar been left alone, I would have no cause for complaint. She was not. Instead, my resources were cheated out of me.
This cheat has the potential to keep me from winning Sato. Thus your (and I again mean the company, not necessarily you as an individual) cheating everyone in the Yar event might be the cause of people failing in the Sato event, too.
I don’t spend a lot of money, but I did spend some. I spent far more than I could reasonably justify, but I like the game. I am VIP 12.
On the forums we were told to seek compensation if we felt we were due. We were also told to escalate the issue if we feel it is due. I asked for relatively little and was told nothing at all can be done.
Very well. You can do as you wish. But know that many of us players feel very cheated by this. The fact that my complaint amounts to a few boosts and a small about of dilithium (rather than the hundreds and thousands others feel they deserve) does not mean it is a small thing to me. You KNEW changes were coming and made a choice to not communicate it. Intentional or not, this cheated people. I hate feeling cheated.
The response to my customer service appeal amounted to: This is a “regular game balances” and that nothing can be done. It closes with “Thank you for understanding.” Well I don’t understand. Something most certainly can be done. If you are incapable of compensating everyone who lost from the Yar event, then you must make Yar useful so no complaint is justified. My pitiful complaints are only justified because Yar was made useless with no real compensation to those who have her. Thus any attempt to get her should be compensated.
This whole issue is bad PR and makes DB seem like a bunch of greedy cheaters. You need to understand that this affected way more people than you might have thought. You need to understand that your response had been horrible. You need to understand that I (and many, many with whom I’ve communicated) feel a huge decrease in confidence and trust in the company.
Comments
Who is top of the escalation chain? I asked to escalate, and feel the person I am speaking with just does not get what I am saying.
I bought the $100 offer for 2 yar and got 2 more Yar in the 10 packs
I bought the $25 "double your offer" for an additional Yar
I won a Yar in the event
I bought a second $25 "double your offer" for a 7th Yar
I am asking for a $50 refund for the two extra copies of Yar. But, the person I am speaking with is stuck on taking away my $100 offer, and everything within the packs. Maybe fresh eyes on the ticket would help, and you can clear this up
Request #451873
Polywater Yar Change
I closed my ticket because CS said they could not refund dil or swap Yar for a character that has similar advertised ship abilities. Also no compensation for leveling Yar for the skirmish event. I also understood from the forums that escalation was not an option in this case.
Like a lot of the others in this thread, I have reached a stage where I no longer have the energy to argue with CS. And frankly, I feel for CS since they are helpless in this regard without instructions from above. It is just easier and less frustrating to move on and not waste as much time or money on STT.
Has any of the above changed and I should reopen a new ticket? Or will there be another round of running around with no real results!!!
This is exactly it. It's so much time and so much effort to fight with CS for anything and everything that's it's not worth it. I'd rather deal with my cable company, rated worst communications company in America for 17 years in a row.
It's just not worth the risk of a purchase if I might have to fight with CS.
It's just not worth the time for reparations if I might have to fight with CS.
It's just not worth the time to open up the app and play if I might have to fight with CS.
Because CS is always (A.L.W.A.Y.S.) a fight, I'm less involved, unhappy, return only for my fleet, and wave off newcomers. It costs nothing (saves money in hourly wages in fact) for CS to act like other CS and make the situation right. Instead it costs you additional sales and good will for CS to cause me trouble.
Telling us to escalate isn't good enough. You miss the soft costs of more than just what I list above, and it takes multiple escalations.
Can we have some sort of insight as to the improvements that are coming really soon ?
Because.. we've been here before and in those situations, improvements were on the way but never specified.. and here we are. (Again)
What can you tell us (?) that we'll be able to see happen and go "ahh, they are following thru with what was said to help / help prevent those things from happening again"
Because with out something like that this really doesn't feel any different then the "our team is going to sit down and review what went wrong Monday morning" dance.
How will this time be different ?
I disagree with others that CS is bad. They've always treated me well. However, communication is not great. Most of this Yar problem would have been avoided if they had communicated that Yar would be changed. If they had decided to make the change during the event and promptly sent out a notice to that effect, some would have kept after her, but a bunch of us could have stopped and not lost so many resources.
If something big and new is about to go down that will affect game play, let us know as soon as possible what it is about so we know how to allocate resources or where to save for later. That would be appreciated.
I understand that sometimes crew has to be changed if they might cause too much of an imbalance to the game, I really do.
It is good to see that it was not something taken lightly when it was decided, but was discussed thoroughly within the dev team.
However, if it was a decision that was not taken lightly, it was discussed, code had to be changed, etc…
How can you possibly justify not communicating the change when you were still selling the packs?
I assume it was not meant to deliberately rip people off, but it certainly comes across like you decided to get as much money in as possible before making the change.
You let people buy those packs, even though you knew full well that what they were buying was going to get massively changed.
That is really the part that baffles and annoys me to no small end, because that just comes across as deliberate deception.
Telling people to raise a ticket with CS and escalate if they have an issue with it just adds insult to injury, IMHO.
Proud Former Officer of The Gluten Empire
Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
At what point can we expect to see actions instead of words? We've been here for 2 years and every time there is a screw up, it's "we're sorry, we made a mistake, we're putting procedures in place so it doesn't happen again." Then 6 months later when the same type of issue occurs, we get the same response.
Is 2.5 years enough for those procedures to be in place and be effective? Do we need to wait for 3 years? 4?
The QA and game-balance testing has been a problem from day 1. What procedures are being put in place? At this point the claim that you're putting procedures in place is meaningless because whatever procedures those are never seem to be enough.
There is always issues like this .... and of course the lack of communication as usual.
Of course actions do speak louder than words and I hope that improvements in the coming weeks will do just that.
That’s very true, and they are nowhere to be found. I have been very dissapointed with STT/Db for the last one plus year. Have been on and off this game, but now i am really thinking about retirement and never look back again.
They give us hopes and then bam! Crush it! Rinse and repeat.
I purchased a couple of event packs and got a Yar. I went all in on the event and won a second one as a rank reward. I didn't ask for a refund, I asked for my Yar character to be made useful again in some way. They offered a dilithium refund (plus all pack content and bonuses) to take one of the stars away which would have further nerfed her stats. I escalated the ticket and got the same answer. I just closed the ticket and didn't bother.
All I wanted was for my Yar to be useful again in some other way. Instead, she is occupying a very expensive crew slot and not being very useful.
I did escalate and got the same answer. When I told them to close my ticket because they were missing the point of my argument, the ticket said the problem was solved. I emailed back and told them it wasn't solved, it was closed with an unsatisfactory result. Not sure if anyone even read my reply.
The thing is, a very similar issue happened ~7 months ago - and it was resolved promptly and just about correctly. Disruptor Beam's actions resulted in many players ending up with a useless Legendary. It took three days to solve: contact CS and request that Legendary be exchanged for 50K Honor. It was that simple.
Shan, why are you making this problem so complicated? It's not quite as simple, but it's close:
People who are not happy with their useless Polywater Yar can contact support and exchange each one for 50K honor. Simple.
Any exchanged Polywater Yars at level 100 also need the CS agent to provide 1500 Chronitons to the player to replace wasted resources. Simple.
As for the dilithium packs... they cost 650 Dilithium each, and there were three 'guaranteed' prizes - except one of them turned out to be impossible to win. So just refund 200 dilithium per pack. Simple.
(I would hope DB was responsible enough to do this automatically across all 650-dil packs bought, but it would be acceptable to do it by having us contact support.)
What is the problem here, Shan? If you want to treat customers equally, why do people who were given a free useless Legendary get to exchange it for 50K honor, while people who worked for and ended up with a useless Legendary get told to [politeness filter]go away[/politeness filter]?
Agree! Simple
Exactly this. And without such clarity, what is the point of escalating/reopening tickets and then getting the run around by CS!!
We need a decision from DB so that CS knows what to do. This is exactly what happened with Picard. I actually waited 3 days before putting in my ticket - hoping that CS will get clear intructions. Unfortunately looks like no one was home or DB just decided to say .... to customers.
This could have been avoided by proper communication with the players in a timely fashion though, and that's probably where we should be headed.
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https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/5023/qh-the-oldest-fleet-in-timelines-l91-starbase-daily-targets-met
Shan, I am one of your biggest fans on this forum, I genuinely like you and feel you push that extra mile for us players. I understand you are speaking for the team so please, feed any comments you feel are appropriate back to the team.
1. I like lists, sorry
2. I am without a doubt the most naive person I know, srsly, my OH chokes on disbelief at the good I 'see' in people, business, the world etc. But. Even I question the timing that the nerf had. I'm not sure 'why it had to be like that' and as a player sure I felt disappointment at the nerf, but, looking at the majority of views and comments made I get the nerf had to happen. What's made the difference is the timing. Ms. Naive over here feels it very much looks like DB milked its players for every penny they could and then took away the very thing we gave you money for. and saying we 'misinterpreted' was the slap across the face after you threw my drink at me.
3. Now, in saying that, its been 3 weeks or whatever. I'm not angry any more. I'm not really disappointed either. As I told CS in my ticket, I don't want Polywater Yar removed, she is very distracting to my other officers with her scantily clad bosom but I keep her as a reminder to not spend money on anything other than the monthly card (I know, I know, I'm ducking out a little, I'm not going 'full hard core boycott' which I totally justify by telling myself that £4 per month is a lot less than the previous amount I spent when really I just want to be able to save my forgotten voyages)
4. I genuinely hope you guys are learning from previous mistakes. Often, when my kids have messed up, they tell me exactly what I want to hear in the hopes I'll shut up and stop talking to them. I am totally sure DB is different.
5. Every time I press return on the keypad it starts another number so I feel I have to make another point even though I am running out now.
6. Finally (yeyyy, you say) its trust you've eroded (and when I say you, I mean DB, not Shan). I cannot trust that a card wont be changed in the future. I'm too new to 'know' or 'expect' a nerf to happen because I should be able to see that a card is overpowered. I am, at this minute, running shuttle's back to back because I would really like Sato, based entirely on her base DIP stats. I'm hoping its not nerfed after the event, but even if she is, at least i can console myself by wrapping £5 notes around me in a kind of money hug.
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I had a card that was going to be useable ever day in the Arena now I have a card that is not so useable for anything other then events that feature Yar. DB is not going to give me another copy of her so I can try to make her useable for voyages or shuttles or a citation so I can try to make another guy useable. I feel like I have taken a loss but that's OK, I am not going to escalate or fight with CS over this. It not worth a battle and I doubt I can get them to see it from my POV in any event. I rank my cards by how much I use them... the good cards are the ones I use every day for something i.e. that my crew is earning their pay lol. I certainly have a lot of other cards that I never use for anything so Yar can just join the crowd.
I understand that the issue for most people is that DB apparently continued to offer her for sale even after they may have known that they were going to have to nerf her. I don't think that is right if that is what happened but it is really not so much my issue. My issue is simply that I lost a card that was going to be useable everyday and instead have a card that is going to do little for me.
Did you win a copy, or did you pay Dilithium or Cash for a copy? I'll end up with a 5/5 Yar that I paid $100 to "join the crowd". So, I'm a little more upset.
I won one from the event (plus time boost purchase) and got one from a 10$ draw so my loss is not substantial.... I am in for about 15$ and while money is important.... if I am being truthful, I would have spent that anyways.... like I said, it's more about the loss of usability for me.
Well said. It is, for me, fundamentally about the loss of usability and dubious sale timing. Do I want to be refunded for my PolyYar? No. Do I expect DB to make good on their unfair treatment? Yes.
So I initiated a refund request via Apple.
I was refunded and posted about my experience here. That account was then promptly banned.
So I lost access to hundreds of dollars of purchased content and can no longer log into my main account. I’ve totally quit playing over this experience and just happened to stop back today to see if any of this was resolved for others (lolol)
I know this is is going to sound like sour grapes because I was banned for refunding via Apple on another account, but DB very clearly doesn’t care about users and is trying to maximize cash flow.
Whatever you do, never admit to getting a refund from Apple or google here. They have no way of knowing unless you admit to it. Hard lesson to learn.
But at least I have more free time to start getting through my backlog of Nintendo Switch games.
So DB profits from a bait and switch, refuses to make it right, then bans players who seek refunds from Apple or Google. I really don’t understand how DB can possibly believe that this is a sustainable business model. They could’ve just issued a legendary citation in exchange for each copy of Yar, to players who requested it, and EVERYONE would’ve been cool with it. And they wouldn’t have to lose a SINGLE player, paying or otherwise.
This is just my opinion, but it IS my opinion... that all these CS problems are a top down problem, ie. extremely poor, short sighted, and morally corrupt decisions made by whoever is calling the shots at DB HQ. Personally, I’ve heard the “we’re gonna do better now” empty promise song and dance way too many times now to put ANY stock in it. It’s not going to get better. At least not until heads roll in upper management. Frankly, at this point, it’s insulting that they even continue to make promises to that effect when they clearly don’t have the capability and/or the inclination to do so.
They ban the in game account for posting something in the forum? That’s ridiculous!!
I am almost done and won’t be back again...
I’ll enjoy few last few events with my fleetmates and warp10 from STT (This time I’ll delete the app for sure so I won’t log back in and get tempted again....)
I hope you enjoyed your holiday, we didn't!
It can be reasonably argued the nerf was needed, doing it the moment the card was no longer on sale without prior warning? And with no direction to CS for the entirely predictable response?
I'm almost at a resolution, not one I'm happy with, but content enough (so far, awaiting a query) to not go through the palaver of escalation. It's been enough like pulling teeth as it is.
It should have been simple:
Got a Yar? Want rid now? First step is to offer a replacement (not give in to demands like 'gimme X or Y 5*', but offer a selection of equivalent cards), or a refund and DB takes back all 4* and 5* gained from sales, or equivalent honour.
Tried for a Yar, but missed? Get what resources you spent back.
DB loses out on time and maybe a small amount of revenue ongoing, but retains paying customers and quickly resolves a problem, and really, DB's bad, DB should take some of the pain.
But no. It has to be an Herculean effort, absolutely guaranteed to rub salt in wounds.
You've lost at least one paying customer, which probably isn't much of a concern, but the reasons for it should be. At some point the old canard of "lessons learned" won't be enough, and DB will see a real dent in their sales when, rather than a dolphin like me going back to F2P, it's one of the whales.
You (and by you I mean the company and not necessarily you as an individual) seem to fail to realize the problems with Apparently-Bait-And-Switch Yar. I didn’t get Yar. I tied really hard and did better than I have done before in a faction event, but I didn’t get her. With minutes to spare, I sent out two final missions with over 85% chance of success and 5* time reducers and then recalled them with precious dilithium. One failed. (I know that happens and I don’t blame DB for that). I ended rank 1008.
Then you made Yar into a card that has no use to the vast majority of people. Her stats were mediocre and her art was atrocious. But she had great arena abilities.
I had been stockpiling boosts for months just waiting for a card I really wanted. I decided to use them for Yar due ONLY to her arena ability.
When you neutered (not the right word, but the right sentiment) Yar, you devalued the effort everyone put into the event. It did not just affect those who won her. If you had provided a reasonable change to her stats or had offered a rational or reasonable compensation to those who won her, then only those who had Yar would have reason to complain. I waited for nearly three weeks before putting in a support ticket to complain. I waited to see if there was a reasonable solution put forth. There was not. Therefor, I have a right to complain and seek compensation as this directly affects me, too.
The resources I used in the effort to get Yar were not insignificant to me. Besides untold merits, I used boosts on every shuttle, many of them were 4 or 5 star boosts saved over nearly a year of playing. More detrimental to future success were the time reducer boosts I used. I used probably two dozen (so I requested 20) 3* boosts beyond what I would have had I known you would ruin Yar. I also used two 5* boosts and the dilithium to recall them. Had Yar been unchanged, or even if she had been altered only a little, then my efforts would have been reasonable to attempt to win her. It would have been, “Well, you tried.”
And DB cannot, CANNOT, argue that it was a reasonable change. Especually concerning the timing. In order to make the change happen the literal second the sale was over, DB had to have made the choice to change her during the event. And DB made no attempt to communicate what they were about to do. This lack of communication means that I wasted resources to no benefit (I had the ranked reward immortalized and had absolutely no reason to go beyond threshold) and DB knew—They KNEW—what was about to happen and could have prevented it. I lost dilithium and boosts that could have been prevented. What other conclusion can be made except it was greed?
Now I’m in a massive fight for the new Sato card. I love the character and so fight for the card. However, I am now doing it at a disadvantage because my resources were depleted on a card that DB knew was about to be useless. Had Yar been left alone, I would have no cause for complaint. She was not. Instead, my resources were cheated out of me.
This cheat has the potential to keep me from winning Sato. Thus your (and I again mean the company, not necessarily you as an individual) cheating everyone in the Yar event might be the cause of people failing in the Sato event, too.
I don’t spend a lot of money, but I did spend some. I spent far more than I could reasonably justify, but I like the game. I am VIP 12.
On the forums we were told to seek compensation if we felt we were due. We were also told to escalate the issue if we feel it is due. I asked for relatively little and was told nothing at all can be done.
Very well. You can do as you wish. But know that many of us players feel very cheated by this. The fact that my complaint amounts to a few boosts and a small about of dilithium (rather than the hundreds and thousands others feel they deserve) does not mean it is a small thing to me. You KNEW changes were coming and made a choice to not communicate it. Intentional or not, this cheated people. I hate feeling cheated.
The response to my customer service appeal amounted to: This is a “regular game balances” and that nothing can be done. It closes with “Thank you for understanding.” Well I don’t understand. Something most certainly can be done. If you are incapable of compensating everyone who lost from the Yar event, then you must make Yar useful so no complaint is justified. My pitiful complaints are only justified because Yar was made useless with no real compensation to those who have her. Thus any attempt to get her should be compensated.
This whole issue is bad PR and makes DB seem like a bunch of greedy cheaters. You need to understand that this affected way more people than you might have thought. You need to understand that your response had been horrible. You need to understand that I (and many, many with whom I’ve communicated) feel a huge decrease in confidence and trust in the company.
David