Galactic Civilizations and Stardock - Bad Customer Service

[TheAuldGrump]

Last week I purchased Galactic Civilizations Deluxe, went to install Galactic Civilizations (a slow install) and entered the supplied CD key.

It did not work.

I tried agan, and again, and again - leaving out dashes, using spaces instead of dashes, with and without capital letters - none of them worked. I have several programs that use CD keys, this is the first time that I have received one that did not work.

I sent off an email to the Customer Service at Stardock, and three days later received an e-mail that they know about the problem, that the company put the CD key for the expansion instead of the main game, and that I should register the expansion ant a link that they provided. Now they know the problem exists, they know that I have a legitimate copy - they have the CD key that they provided right in front of them, yet they tell me to register the expansion then send the exact same complaint to them again.

So, I click the link provided.

That does not work either. The page does not exist.

Galactic Civilizations may be a great game, but the customer service stinks. I have sent another email to their customer 'service' and if it is not remedied by Tuesday then on Wednesday the program goes back to the store along with copies of the email from Stardock customer service.

The Auld Grump

 

[Joshua Randall]

That's odd, because Stardock has a great reputation for being responsive. Have you tried a phone call instead of e-mail? In my experience, phone calls are much more effective for this sort of thing.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I had massive problems with Stardock Central (basically everytime I ran it, it would corrupt my desktop and force me to reboot). I never even got an answer.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

That's odd, because Stardock has a great reputation for being responsive. Have you tried a phone call instead of e-mail? In my experience, phone calls are much more effective for this sort of thing.

I sent them an e-mail about the bad link that they provided.

They sent the exact same e-mail and link back.

Here is the email in its entirety:
The publisher for the Galactic Civilizations “Deluxe” Edition (Strategy First) made some errors. The serial numbers will work for "The Altarian Prophecy", but not "Galactic Civilizations".

In instances like this, we ask that you register "The Altarian Prophecy" with us at http://www.stardock.com/sdnet_login.asp. Once done, please email us back and we will add a serial number for “Galactic Civilizations” to your account.
--------------------
Nick / OrbitJuice - Technical Advisor
[Stardock Technical Support]

Stardock - A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner

15090 Beck Road
Suite 300
Plymouth, MI 48170
United States

They know there is a problem, and ask me to send them the complaint again after I register at a link that does not work...

Craptastic! The program goes back tomorrow, I will not deal with that level of incompetence.

By contrast my dealings with Corel have been stellar, receiving a reply with the answer before the reply telling me that a tech would look at the problem did. (The tech beat the auto answer! That is what I call fast!) Corel earned a customer, Stardock did not.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* And with perfect irony, after not working for four days, clicking it now works... roll eyes where art thou?

*EDIT 2* Except that that won't let me register either... so far I am very unimpressed.

 

[Vigilance]

Here's the solution to your problem Grump, quoted from an Amazon review of GC. Note that this doesn't excuse the ass backwards way they have dealt with the issue, but its an easy fix if you havent already returned it.

But fortunately (and this is what should be in the FAQ), my friend found that all I had to do was change two letters in one of the verification codes. Both were in the form "42-03-AP1-5423." I just had to change one AP1 (for Altarian Prophecy expansion) into GC1 (for Galactic Civilizations). The dumbest thing about all this is once you go through this huge hassle based on them treating their customers like potential priates, the game does not require the CD to play. So you can still give it away to your friends and it doesn't prevent piracy at all.

 

[Neo]

http://www.stardock.com/sdnet_login.asp

That link opens a page just fine for me

 

[TheAuldGrump]

That link opens a page just fine for me

Yes, now - after four days of clicking. At a guess they had problems with their page that have now ended. But I am still annoyed enough with the standard form letter reply that it has gone back to the store, and I have posted a complaint on the store's web page (they have a consumer warning page. Mine was not the first post about this game, wish that I had seen the page before making my purchase.)

The Auld Grump

 

[Griogre]

That's a shame because it's a good game.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

That's a shame because it's a good game.

Yeah, so I have heard, that is why I picked it up.

But there is no way that I can support customer service that is that bad.

So, I will wait until I hear a bit more about Civ 4, procrastinate a while, then buy it.

When I have had problems with Firaxis games in the past (SMAC had some real problems on my machine) they were a. courteous b. quick and c. accurate - the fix they gave actually worked! So they will get more of my business.

The Auld Grump

 

[Griogre]

*shrug* That's the way it should be, customer service does matter.

The stardock model is a important one, but they haven't worked out all the bugs yet, I guess. It is a way to let small niche developer's publish their games without having to go through standard distribution (which they can't afford) and still make enough money to live on. Instead of having to sell a few hundred thousand copies of a title you can go back to selling 20-30k with no CD and PDF manual maybe even 10k.