Jan 27, 2008

I don’t understand Sony.  How can a company that is so big, be so stupid and be so successful even though they are so stupid?

I like to play video games.  I specifically like Pirate games, because Sid Meier hooked me on his game Pirates! years ago when I was playing games on an Apple IIgs.  Now, even after a re-release and update of that awesome game, and many other ones in between, I’m still quite a sucker for launching a broadside of grape shot and grappling my way into some fancy swashbuckling.  I just can’t help it.  Some people have Gin or Poker, I have Pirate video games…  But, enough about me.

Have you heard of Pirates of the Burning Sea ?  It is an MORPG centered around privateering, piracy and naval battles during the height of caribbean mayhem.  I’d tell you to check it out, but hear out my story first.

It is a very cool game.  I spent some Christmas money ($50) on buying the game, and was ready to pony up my $15 a month after that to play this bad boy (I know, I’m nuts, but see paragraph 2 of this post) but there has been one major glitch.  Flying Studio makes Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS), and they are a pretty neat game studio.  Unfortunately, they have partnered up with Sony Station and Sony Online Entertainment (of Everquest infamy) to “distribute” the game and to do all the monthly billing.

Lets just say, that’s not going well.  The game went live, and I can’t log in.  I click on the Support link in PotBS and I’m taken to Flying Lab.  I submit a question and within an hour or so they tell me that they can’t help me, that it is a Sony issue.  Well, being the forward thinking person that I am , I had already submitted a question to Sony Station asking them the same question.  I’ve given them my CC, I’ve tried to subscribe, etc.  It tells me I have until February 25 to play, but yet says my subscription is closed.  Who knows, its a screw up, but they’ll fix it right?  Well, wrong so far…

I wait and wait and they never contact me.  2,4,6,8, 10 hours go by and still no contact.  Thinking that maybe because I classified it as a billing question that it wouldn’t get handled until Monday, I tried to log a different technical support question just to see if I could nudge some action.  Well, their system told me “Your question has NOT been submitted” and then continued to tell me that I’m not allowed to log a second issue until my first one is fixed.  Excuse me?  WTF is that?  Nothing like making me feel taken care of…

So, that pissed me off.  I then looked further into how to contact technical support and I found a page telling me that technical support is only available Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm so I was basically S.O.L until Monday.

Now, OK - maybe you are thinking “What’s the big deal?  Its a weekend and their support is closed, what’s so crazy about that?”  Well - think about it - these people host ONLINE GAMES!  When the hell do people play online games?!  At night and on weekends, yet these idiots are only open during the day on weekdays.  Typical Sony bullshit - totally focused on themselves, and not on their customers.  For a company that is supposedly focused on entertainment, they sure know how to ruin a good time. 

They’ve screwed up their PC hardware (just ask my brother about his laptop), they screwed up by abandoning the Clie, they still stubbornly insist on putting Memory Stick on everything they make, and they have pissed people off for years with their Station online gaming.  And yet they survive.

There was a “Rate our Answer” button on the page telling me that Technical Support wasn’t available on weekends, and I couldn’t resist, so I sent them the letter below.  Maybe I’m screwed in the head, but this crap pisses me off.   I only get so many free hours in a week, and lately whenever I try to spend a few of them blowing off some steam with a game, I end up in a tech support nightmare.  Anyway, drop me a line and let me know what you think… Am I over reacting, or is Sony as clueless as they appear?

This feedback is about:
http://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_faqid=10404.

What can we do to make the answer to this question better?

It could say that technical support is available on the weekend.

Let me spell it out.

When do people play games? In their free time. When do people have the most free time? During the weekend. So, when do people play the most? On the weekend. And, when is technical support needed the most? When people are playing the most, which as we already know, is on the weekend.

Yet, Sony Station technical support isn’t available on the weekend. That’s completely stupid. And, typical Sony. How your company prospers in spite of itself is an enigma for the ages.

Now, the real question is, am I actually enough of a pirate whore that I’ll still pay these people to play the game?

Well, and now you know how Sony is still afloat - idiots like me.

Sony Station, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Sony Sucks