Downtime Compensation Discussion

[Kuvia 2]

Dear Team and Users, thanks for taking the time to read.

(I'm not sure if other servers are experiencing this (besides Xanadu) so I posted this in Independence)

 

I want to start by saying that I've been in customer service, website administration, developer side etc so this post is intended to be as fair and kind as possible.

 

There have been two restarts today 7/22 on Independence and quite a few in the mornings around 8-9am EST recently. I've got the dates/times logged to an extent (emails between myself and my partner).

 

While I absolutely understand this is vital and fixes need to be made, and often cannot be prevented, disruptions do cause some emotional distress when you finally get on and have to keep logging out.

(This is especially true for people like my friend who consistently logs on during a maintenance time window).

 

I am hoping that the developers / game runners / will consider some form of compensation.

There are many ways to do this without costing the company any money, and it can be seen as a way to retain your paid players even better than not addressing it (or better than deciding it's not enough of a disruption to merit compensation).

 

I understand sometimes sleep bonus is awarded (And I realise some of the longest down times get a response from the team BEFORE the shutdowns happen, so I applaud you).

 

I'm sure there are other ways.

 

Please take my request into your kind consideration,

 

Thank you,

Kuvia.

[Skatyna 439]

whats the point of that useless sleep bonus relax, its been just a few restarts. You didnt experience what desertions players experienced for over a month thru March-April this year due to server being basically unplayable due to lag, that reached up to 20 seconds until it got moved finally into hetzner. We were promised compensations and all, but everything went under the rug. We are in the end of July now, yet still waiting for some sort of compensation for about 6 weeks time basically wasted that cost ppl money for premiums, upkeeps etc. Dont hold your breath over a few restarts a day mate

[Kuvia 2]

1 minute ago, Skatyna said:

whats the point of that useless sleep bonus relax, its been just a few restarts. You didnt experience what desertions players experienced for over a month thru March-April this year due to server being basically unplayable due to lag, that reached up to 20 seconds until it got moved finally into hetzner. We were promised compensations and all, but everything went under the rug. We are in the end of July now, yet still waiting for some sort of compensation for about 6 weeks time basically wasted that cost ppl money for premiums, upkeeps etc. Dont hold your breath over a few restarts a day mate

 

Thanks Skatyna but I don't agree with your logic.

"You only stubbed your toe so get over it, someone else lost their legs"

 

I think i articulated my point in a professional nice way.

[Skatyna 439]

yes you did, so did i back then. however, its a game, gaming industry has no "consumer rights" agencies you can complain to. The only complain you can express is to the game owners themselves that most often just dont care. Might be different with steam, as you can dispute a lot more directly thru steam and wurm team would have to follow steam orders.

[Beanbag 239]

Your concern should be handled privately with the company if you feel you have a legitimate complaint. 

 

Per the terms of service we all agree to, they are not obligated to provide any compensation for downtime. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Beanbag

[neopherus 257]

Moved to Suggestions & Ideas

[Platyna 521]

I see here a politely stated suggestion to the game administration not a complaint and I fail to notice any demands here, also I think game owners/management are able to express what they think about user feedback themselves, no need to post long college shots about what they think or what they care about, also EULA states that Code Club does not offer refunds of service windows (which is of course correct) BUT can at their discretion offer Sleep Bonus, which is what@Kuviaasked for. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Platyna

[Retrograde 12,013]

In terms of significant downtime we will award compensation per sleep bonus. 

 

We don't offer it if we encounter two restarts in a short period, our maintenance periods are incredibly small on the overall scale (30 minutes vs several hours for most mmo's) so if it requires an extra one to address a bug we will do so. 

 

this does not qualify for significant downtime or service disruption so we won't be giving any compensation here.

 

When there is significant downtime warranting it we announce it in city hall of the date it will be given. 

[Kuvia 2]

I wasn't going to reply here because I'm sure someone will say I'm whining but you know what? I'm going to because that's  a terrible customer service response and someone should say it.

 

First of all my post  did say that I am not just talking about one day

and quite a few in the mornings around 8-9am EST recently. I've got the dates/times logged to an extent (emails between myself and my partner).

 

Second of all, this morning, again?

 

Status	Servers are Offline
Uptime	1 Day, 17 Hr., and 29 Min.

 

Yes, I understand it's 30 minutes. Yes I understand it's less than "most mmo's" but this isn't the way you speak to customers.

You know what? Most restaurants have several hours wait time in this area and are super over priced, but we only have 30 minutes wait time every 1-2 days sometimes 2 times a day, which is way less! Also we're just a little over priced. You should be honored you can even eat here!

 

If I didn't already pay for 1 year, I would take some time off (sunk cost fallacy sucks).

 

Anyway.

You wasted a perfectly good opportunity to build good will for FREE by saying something like "30 minutes.... several hours... thanks for acknowledging that we do compensate for longer down times.. I will see if there is anything we can do"

 

You know why it's a wasted opportunity ? Simple: it is FREE to offer various forms of good will to your customers, old and new alike who may be thinking similar things but not have the care to post because some troll is going to reply and complain about my complaning

(P.S it won't  bug me one bit, because I'm honestly correct in my assertions)

 

They will say look, by the time you clicked "submit reply" the server is back up!