This is why people hate kabam

Let me start by saying I've been playing this game for over 2 years now. I'm a casual player, but I log in daily and actually enjoy the gaming experience. Also I apologize in advance for how long this is, but I feel like it's important for people to see.

I'm a father of 3 and ever since I started playing this I have let them open my crystals. What 6 year old to 11 year old boy wouldn't like to see their favorite super heroes burst out of shiny crystals. Well, yesterday, one of my children opened up a 4* crystal for me. He pulled a Phoenix which I thought was cool. Who wouldnt want more PI right? He hands me back my phone and I quickly take her to rank two...then I notice 1400 units are missing. Well it turned out my son accidentally bought the rank up offer after opening the crystal (total ripoff, but not the point of this thread).

Next, I put in a support ticket explaining what happened.

So, at this point I'm thinking, sweet all I have to do is turn in the stuff and bam, units are back. After all she did say all the items were in my reserve right? But oh no, I ranked up Phoenix before I realized what happened. How she missed this originally I dont know. After looking in my inventory it turns out I had everything covered except 2 cosmic tier 2 cats.

So I email back again explaining what happened. Offering to grind them back at the next cosmic quest or even rank Phoenix down to recover the materials, I mean how hard can that be right? unacceptable.

Basically a nice way of saying sorry, f u, lucky I dont ban you for violating TOS. What the hell is that?!

Now don't get me wrong, I realize in hindsight that this is all my fault. However with that being said, how hard would it have really been to make this right and keep a happy customer. This is the **** that continues to drive people away. I'm seriously contemplating quitting. I've already notified my alliance that I'm taking a couple days off to think things over. I truly enjoyed playing this game over the last couple years despite all the other bs that has occurred.

I hope you find a solution to this problem before it's too late.

Comments

Eb0ny-O-M4w

I'm surprised that they offered you the opportunity to reverse the transaction. I never thought thay they would do that.
However is still your fault. You should be more careful when you give your phone to people that don't know how the game works.

1nfinity24

Although I agree with you now after going through this, I also know I'm not the only one that does this. So if I can't fix the customer service, I guess at least let it be a warning to others that let their kids open their crystals.

I mean really...2 tier 2 cosmic cats.

GroundedWisdom

They do offer reversals, but what was stated is true. The full amount has to be unused. I'm sorry you lost your Units. In terms of Account Sharing, that has been commented on in the old Forum. Taking turns on the same device does not constitute that. At the same time, we are responsible for our Accounts. I understand it was an accident. Children don't realize the difference. However, I can see where they are coming from in stating that. Who we allow to use our device is our responsibility. It's not allowed to post about Support conversations, but there is the possibility that one of the Mods can look into it. I'm just not certain that anything can be done because Resources were used.

1nfinity24

I expect this to be taken down eventually . I know the rules and like I said, I know it's my fault and a mistake was made. I just think it's a simple mistake to correct and these are the things that would go a long way toward making customers happy. Even if this customer did share his account with 3 children by letting them open crystals.

GroundedWisdom

1nfinity24 wrote: »

I expect this to be taken down eventually . I know the rules and like I said, I know it's my fault and a mistake was made. I just think it's a simple mistake to correct and these are the things that would go a long way toward making customers happy. Even if this customer did share his account with 3 children by letting them open crystals.

I'm not sure that was the real issue. There's just not a great deal they can do if it's been used. The same issue has come up for accidental Crystal purchases. Once they are opened, there's nothing that can be done.

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1nfinity24

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

I'm not sure that was the real issue. There's just not a great deal they can do if it's been used. The same issue has come up for accidental Crystal purchases. Once they are opened, there's nothing that can be done.

But here's the thing, If I would have waited until after the cosmic daily quest and got the 2 cosmic tier 2 cats, there would have never even been an issue. I used some of the other materials when ranking up Phoenix too, but I happened to have the same ones already in my inventory. They don't know where the materials came from, just that I was short the 2 cats. Why couldn't they let me farm them and then turn the materials back in? I seriously doubt ranking down Phoenix would have been that hard either.

1nfinity24

ArmandStar wrote: »

i know it's too late now but here's some advice:

i'm the only one who uses my phone, and yet i have it set up so that it asks me for my password every time i want to buy something. yes it is bothersome at times and there are time when i consider undoing that setting, but situations like yours remind me why i set it up in the first place.

I do have that set up on my phone if it's a monetary purchase, but since it was just an in game offer for units that I already had, there was no need for a password.

chunkyb

It's a simple and straightforward problem to solve. Seems like something a company that appreciates their customers would knock out pretty quickly. Rank down ticket, reclaim rank up items, refund units, life goes on as normal, happy customer continues support of appreciative and easy to work with company. Or roll back the account to a certain time. It should never be this difficult to work with support.

GroundedWisdom

chunkyb wrote: »

It's a simple and straightforward problem to solve. Seems like something a company that appreciates their customers would knock out pretty quickly. Rank down ticket, reclaim rank up items, refund units, life goes on as normal, happy customer continues support of appreciative and easy to work with company. Or roll back the account to a certain time. It should never be this difficult to work with support.

Support doesn't have RDT's available to them.

King_Cobra735

I'm just shocked they actually read ur complaint, I always get same copy/paste responses that little or nothing to do with my issues and never once has a single issue been corrected by them.

chunkyb

I've read that many times.

It's either incorrect and they just refuse to be helpful in cases that deserve real help. I mean, it's not like they have to place an online order and wait to get the rdt's delivered.

Or it's correct and they've intentionally hamstrung their abilities to react to and solve issues.

In the end, if you're used to dealing with support... You know they excel at "not being able to do anything at this time". That should be seen as a problem and resolved. If it needs supervisor review and approval, great. Get it done.

1nfinity24

King_Cobra735 wrote: »

I'm just shocked they actually read ur complaint, I always get same copy/paste responses that little or nothing to do with my issues and never once has a single issue been corrected by them.

I will say, I was actually shocked as well. And pleasantly surprised by how fast they responded. Things were going well until they slapped me in the face.

GroundedWisdom

chunkyb wrote: »

I've read that many times.

It's either incorrect and they just refuse to be helpful in cases that deserve real help. I mean, it's not like they have to place an online order and wait to get the rdt's delivered.

Or it's correct and they've intentionally hamstrung their abilities to react to and solve issues.

In the end, if you're used to dealing with support... You know they excel at "not being able to do anything at this time". That should be seen as a problem and resolved. If it needs supervisor review and approval, great. Get it done.

RDT'S were not intended for that. They were for major changes to Champs. Therefore, a limited number was made available. Ranking is still up to our discretion.

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1nfinity24

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

RDT'S were not intended for that. They were for major changes to Champs. Therefore, a limited number were made available. Ranking is still up to our discretion.

That seems very odd to me. That would be such a simple solution to a simple problem. Then again, maybe this problem doesn't arise that often. Or maybe, as someone said earlier, it's intended to make it easier for them to say no. I would think the best thing for a support team would be to have all the tools necessary to keep their customers happy.

chunkyb

This is a digital item that does a task. They weren't mined from the moon. The intention behind their creation doesn't matter in the least. The usefulness of the item is what matters. Especially when there are legitimate issues and support's only answer is "we're sorry. We understand and we wish there was something we could do". The availability of rdt's used as a support tool would fulfill their wishes.

To grant them some weirdly assumed rarity is a bad basis for an argument.

Stara99

I accidentally bought a gold crystal and they reversed it for me since I did have 35 million and knew it was a mistake.

X_Scott

I don't agree with what happened, but it also reminded me of this lol

1nfinity24

Lol. Thanks for that.

LocoMotives

I don't fault you for letting your kid open crystals (a lot do that) or for ranking the champ. The problem is that you expect them to go above and beyond and make concessions for your mistakes. If you would have waited until you could get the cats again and THEN replied to the email, you're still 100% covered for items. I'm really not sure what you expected when they told you to have all in inventory and not used.

While I'm not saying they couldn't fix or go above and beyond for their customers, there's a long track record that shows you shouldn't expect that. They were willing to correct it if you had the items, the initial and end mistake were both yours. Tough luck man, I know the quick damage our kids can do in a short amount of time with the phone.

K1lltastic

After reading the post, I'll just say this:

I've had purchases reversed due to game glitches (screen taps while my phone is on a table, not being touched). Kabam is usually willing to fix things like this. Your problem arose when you told them you were allowing your children to use your account to open the crystals. In my opinion, the customer service rep who gave you that warning about one person using the account did you a favour by not banning your account, for you admitting to breaking their blatant ToC. You agree to the terms that you'll be the only person using your account on sign up, so, there's that...

DNA3000

1nfinity24 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

RDT'S were not intended for that. They were for major changes to Champs. Therefore, a limited number were made available. Ranking is still up to our discretion.

That seems very odd to me. That would be such a simple solution to a simple problem. Then again, maybe this problem doesn't arise that often. Or maybe, as someone said earlier, it's intended to make it easier for them to say no. I would think the best thing for a support team would be to have all the tools necessary to keep their customers happy.

I'm unaware of a support desk anywhere in the world where their job is to "keep their customers happy" by doing whatever they ask. Every customer support desk I have any familiarity with has very specific and mostly rigid limits to what they are allowed to do to satisfy customer requests, explicitly to prevent getting into quagmires negotiating with customers.

And Kabam's customer base probably did a lot of damage to the process by both executing and encouraging other players to execute all manner of customer support requests over time, from demanding refunds to reversing account charges.

We know they get a lot of requests from players to reverse mistakes and things players claim are mistakes because they specifically locked players out of selling tier 4 cats, explicitly due to the fact that their help desk was getting tons of requests to reverse those decisions. They don't want their support desk in a position to constantly arbitrate reversing player errors, because it is too easy to abuse and because it takes too much time to do.

Although I'm not directly familiar with the mechanics of how MCOC does database maintenance, I am familiar with other MMOs where neither the developers nor the customer support people have direct access to make internal game changes like modifying transactions or gameplay choices. Those changes require multiple people to take multiple actions. That's specifically to prevent internal abuses where a single person can do things like sell items on the black market, help their friends by stuffing their accounts, and other stuff. There are usually strong Chinese walls between development, support, and game operations.

1nfinity24

DNA3000 wrote: »

1nfinity24 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

RDT'S were not intended for that. They were for major changes to Champs. Therefore, a limited number were made available. Ranking is still up to our discretion.

That seems very odd to me. That would be such a simple solution to a simple problem. Then again, maybe this problem doesn't arise that often. Or maybe, as someone said earlier, it's intended to make it easier for them to say no. I would think the best thing for a support team would be to have all the tools necessary to keep their customers happy.

I'm unaware of a support desk anywhere in the world where their job is to "keep their customers happy" by doing whatever they ask. Every customer support desk I have any familiarity with has very specific and mostly rigid limits to what they are allowed to do to satisfy customer requests, explicitly to prevent getting into quagmires negotiating with customers.

And Kabam's customer base probably did a lot of damage to the process by both executing and encouraging other players to execute all manner of customer support requests over time, from demanding refunds to reversing account charges.

We know they get a lot of requests from players to reverse mistakes and things players claim are mistakes because they specifically locked players out of selling tier 4 cats, explicitly due to the fact that their help desk was getting tons of requests to reverse those decisions. They don't want their support desk in a position to constantly arbitrate reversing player errors, because it is too easy to abuse and because it takes too much time to do.

Although I'm not directly familiar with the mechanics of how MCOC does database maintenance, I am familiar with other MMOs where neither the developers nor the customer support people have direct access to make internal game changes like modifying transactions or gameplay choices. Those changes require multiple people to take multiple actions. That's specifically to prevent internal abuses where a single person can do things like sell items on the black market, help their friends by stuffing their accounts, and other stuff. There are usually strong Chinese walls between development, support, and game operations.

This is a good point and one I can respect. It is sad to me though that the old saying "the customer is always right" doesn't exist anymore.

Thank you all for participating in what I feel was a good discussion. I still don't agree with how this was handled, but I can see now why the rep may have responded the way they did. I know ultimately it was my mistake and in a really messed up way I maybe violated the TOS. I do feel improvements in kabam's customer service can be made though. Clearly others in this discussion feel the same way.

Piviot

So you allowed your kid to open crystals(not big deal imo)

And your kid bought package for units which you said customer support would reimburse you if you had items

Then you rank so called champ so don't have the items anymore.

Why are you complaining

You only have yourself to blame for ranking champ

Man so much entitled stuff is stupid

unknown

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Eos_Nano_X

eXtripa69 wrote: »

I'm surprised that they offered you the opportunity to reverse the transaction. I never thought thay they would do that.
However is still your fault. You should be more careful when you give your phone to people that don't know how the game works.

Im sorry, you clearly dont have friends that randomly tap your phone or better yet, you yourself must not be a parent. After all, turn your head for a second and things can be done.
Also this persons kids are between 6 and 11 if you bothered to read, NOT breaking the rules with account sharing.

Anyway,
Its unfortunate that they couldnt just give you a rank down ticket to remove the rank from your Phoenix and reimburse your units.
Ive been there before and i wasnt even lucky enough for them to say 'oh okay we will take a look'.
Keep pushing them and see if they budge, thats just not on and Kabam can AND should do better for thier customers.

DarkestDestroyer

How can you moan? All you had to do was follow the instructions, you went and used some of the items claimed lol

Kabam Spice

@1nfinity24 It is against forum rules to share private conversations you have with our Support Department, Moderators, or other players.

Closing this thread down.