EA & SimCity

Saw this comment by alwayswinning on recent Ars thread, direct link http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/ea-offers-free-catalog-game-to-apologize-for-simcity-server-woes/?comments=1&post=24040939#comment-24040939, cutting and pasting whole thing because it includes tweet posts about problems with the BETA Sim City

IMHO this single post, along with linked Tweets, shows EA had to know there were problems even with Beta.

Below is direct cut and paste of alwayswinning's comment, all bold & etc is from original:

Lucy Bradshaw says, "a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta."

This, of course, is total baloney. The servers didn't work during the Beta either! I couldn't connect to a server and neither could any of my friends. EA had to know that this was going to happen because they had major server issues for the entire Beta weekend.

For proof, here are some of our Tweets from the Beta weekend:
https://twitter.com/Telly2Putts/status/ ... 7765583872
https://twitter.com/AlwaysWinning1/stat ... 3136871424
https://twitter.com/AlwaysWinning1/stat ... 5324963841

If my friends and I realized that there would be major issues on March 2nd, EA certainly should have:
https://twitter.com/AlwaysWinning1/stat ... 4873097216
https://twitter.com/ManginiNaBottle/sta ... 3788877824 (obvious sarcasm)

I can't believe EA thinks that they can lie their way out of this. This is the definition of bad PR. They're destroying their long-term value by treating customers, and the media, like dullards. I'm not an EA or Maxis "hater" by any stretch, I'm just trying to set the record straight: they're totally full of it.

Last edited by alwayswinning on Sat Mar 09, 2013 12:47 am

Nerd News: EA not altering return policy for SimCity buyers

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/ea-not-altering-return-policy-for-furious-simcity-buyers/

I can understand why they don't want to refund digital purchases, but think if that is their stand, then they really should be offering something to make up for the frustration.

Call it Customer Service or Public Relations,  also what I have done many times myself in Customer Service situations.

Also had the pleasure of receiving that level of customer service a few times, tend to stick with businesses that provide that level of service, since they usually don't mess up very often (ie they are reliable) and if something goes wrong, I know they will take care of me.