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Oh hmmm let's see so yeah got to experience a super crappy event with Mechwarrior Online. See they charge 1,000 MC for premium color's. And so if you get a color you usually are very specific in your choices. And I have bought a few color's, so I have a decent variety of them. Darks, lights, brights, and specific shades of certain color's right. Well, I also happened to purchase a camo scheme on a mech, and it was the Phranken Camo design. Which is a premium camo scheme, and that's fine. Now, I only bought the actual scheme for the mech and used my own already purchased color's to color said scheme. Now, here's where it get's annoying and frustrating.
Every time you enter to adjust the color choices on a mech that has this Phranken camo scheme, it has 3 channels with a primary and secondary color option in each channel. So you have a primary channel which has two colors you can alternate with, and a secondary and a tertiary channel each also with it's two listed color palette choices.
So, the primary channel affects certain parts of the mech and when you paint it, all parts associated with that channel turn that chosen color. Now, same thing applies for secondary and tertiary colors. The bug of this situation is that for each channel there's the current color's chosen for the mech as you've got it painted, and then in each channel it's secondary color choice keep's defaulting back to the base premium colors associated with the Premium camo spec for the Phranken color choice.
So apparently when I was changing one of the color's for my mech, and did a few others, and then settled on only changing one of the colors, (mind you I only was switching back and forth between color's I owned), at some point it defaulted one of the color's to the Phranken Black. Instead of my actual PC Gamer Black that I already own. And are only off by a mere few shades. And I didn't deliberately choose this mind you.. I didn't want a lighter black, and would NEVER willingly buy this lighter black when I already have a black that looks much better. But apparently when I hit yes and I accept the changes, which mind you was from one light neon green to a brighter green, that I own, and paid for.. I somehow missed the fact that this bug that keeps displaying the color's you didn't buy, and keep sitting up there waiting for you to accidentally click yes I accept this change, and thus pay real money for a color I would never want.
So.. you think, hey I found out about this accident after a patch when looking at my profile and seeing myself down 1,000 MC from my total. You think, okay no big, just contact customer service and let them know, about the problem.
Guess what... oh you know already? They refused to refund this because there supposedly is enough safeguards in place for a game that is in Beta, that they feel that this mistake was mine. And don't make a habit to fix things like this.
Really? So, because of a bug associated with your game, occurs, and you don't specifically say, when confirming the change, that you will be charged 1,000 MC or whatever value being incurred, right in the same place as your confirmation, that you shouldn't just do a simple refund of the MC, and remove the color from the account.
No, instead, you have any costs down in the bottom right of the client, which when you think your choosing between color's you own, and are careful about not choosing other color's because you KNOW they will charge you for it. And yet, because of this bug, and the fact that the value you are charged is off of view, and the pop up box you have to confirm every time you make an adjustment on your mech, happens. You miss, this change... and you get charged for it.
It is really frustrating. A simple GUI fix for this would be to make it so that when you are confirming anything that may cost you any form of currency, and making a specific change to a mech, it should do the confirmation pop up including the cost's of any changes you are going to make, in BOLD Specific notes.
Example...
You are about to make a change to this mech.
This change will Cost you: 1,000 MC, 625,000 C-Bill's.
Do you wish to continue with this change at these Cost's.
[Yes] or [No]
Once you click yes, again it should pop up and say.
Before this confirmation is final.
You are being CHARGED to your account.
1,000 MC, 625,000 C-Bills.
Final Confirmation, do you AGREE.
[Yes] or [No]
This would be a sufficient, clarification. Putting it right in the confirmation pop up the costs if any associated with clicking yes. I would in no way have a complaint if this was in place. Why? Cause I would of seen it saying I would have to pay more than 0 MC.
Now, the reality of this 1,000 MC is that buying it at the $29.95 level, it works out to about $4.61 or so in real world dollars. And for most things, a $5 mistake isn't the end of the world. Let's just be honest here. But, the fact that this game is in beta, they are making some frustrating choices, and their response to their customer's amounts to a polite screw you.
You can see where this would be aggravating.
It's a beta, mistakes can happen, for customer's and the company itself, in any case you fix them and learn from the mistakes to reduce any further issues from happening. Was that the case here? No, they said no. Functionally it was like being told You've given us the money, and now because we didn't clearly indicate right in front of you that you are being charged for something you didn't want, (cause if I did, I would of bought it already, thank you.) or don't want. Tough.
That's a bad example of customer service, and truthfully, it completely caught me off guard. I thought they would fix it right away, as I was indicating to them, hey, found this happened, and while I'm internet angry, it's more that this represents a bug/mistake that could be fixed, and instead of working to make the customer happy, they just said no. This sadly doesn't matter if it's a polite no, it's still a no. I found out about the charge, two days later, because I played on a Monday, and didn't check again until a Wednesday after the Patch Update.
Now, I've been playing Battletech since I was a kid and played it the first time in 1986. And have been playing various incarnation's of this since then, either on the tabletop or online in some capacity be it the 3025 MPBT on AOL, or over on Gamestorm, or the first Mechwarrior, all the way up to this newest incarnation and interpretation. So you can say I'm a distinct fan of the game and love it. And while I won't get all internet ragey and say something stupid like I'll quit.. and I won't. But I'm disappointed in the customer serve aspect of PGI, and their response to this. A game, that's in beta. They can do better than this, and should. Because companies renowned for customer service, often endear themselves and make lifetime customer's. And that's what I feel is missing here. The GM who reviewed it was pleasant, and I think he's just following the instruction's of the company. But this company can do better. And it should do better. And we should expect better, and expect them to hold to a higher standard.
I really enjoy this game and it's full potential, and while it's got issues here and there, and we're all waiting patiently for the community warfare angle, and ECM addressing.. the fact remains were beta-testing a product for a company. And while there may be bugs, and things they can learn from this, it is important that they do.
Now, I don't expect them to give me any of my MC back on this. That's not the point of this post. My point now, is focusing on them fixing the problems and how they happened, and providing solutions to make it harder for other mistakes like this to happen to customer's.
Edited by Gorstagg, 12 March 2013 - 11:47 PM.
