STILL No Character Builder Update?

[Scribble]

Apparently, they are not giving everyone a refund. I have sent four e-mails to customer service requesting a refund. I have gotten four automated responses but no refund. Not even a followup e-mail asking for my account info to process the refund. I even called customer service which directed me back to the website, where ,of course, you contact them by e-mail. This is very poor, practically non-existant customer service.

Let me ask you out of curiosity?

What did you say in your email?
What was the title?
How far apart were these emails sent?

Forgive me... but you don't seem to be the most patient person out there.

 

[Theroc]

Apparently, they are not giving everyone a refund. I have sent four e-mails to customer service requesting a refund. I have gotten four automated responses but no refund. Not even a followup e-mail asking for my account info to process the refund. I even called customer service which directed me back to the website, where ,of course, you contact them by e-mail. This is very poor, practically non-existant customer service.

That's... well... odd. I got an automated message saying my request would possibly take a week to process, but I got my refund within 48 hours... maybe it's because I was already in prior contact with custserv about getting my CB working to begin with?

 

[mudbunny]

Apparently, they are not giving everyone a refund. I have sent four e-mails to customer service requesting a refund. I have gotten four automated responses but no refund. Not even a followup e-mail asking for my account info to process the refund. I even called customer service which directed me back to the website, where ,of course, you contact them by e-mail. This is very poor, practically non-existant customer service.

I have heard no indication that they are not giving out refunds anymore, but I will poke WotC again about this. If you don't mind, PM me your account name and, if you have them, the support ticket numbers from your requests.

Also, a couple of questions. (Not meant to be patronizing)

1 - When did you make your request?
2 - If it was recently, did you specify that you were looking for a refund for the september update?
3 - What settings in the drop-down menus did you use?? The proper one to use for minimum delay is Online Gaming > D&D Insider > D&D Insider Account. Other ones will add a couple of days onto the processing time.

 

[Shazman]

I finally did get a response to my last e-mail basically saying they are working on it. At least that's something.

 

[CovertOps]

When you are surrounded by people who will pounce on every statement you make and tear it apart -- witness the comments about WotC_Trevor's "announcement of an announcement" -- maybe saying nothing at all is the best policy.

My opinion is that they will announce the CB update when they are sure it is ready to go, and not before.

Said by myself and several others. If we get more than a day or two (business days so weekends don't count) I'll be shocked.

I don't think anyone is complaining to you.

Let's get this straight: I think this thread in particular is a bit over-zealous. I said that on page 2. I think complaining that the October update isn't out on October 1st is kind of silly.

However, I don't see anything wrong with people going to a public forum and expressing their concerns politely and respectfully and seeing if other people are like-minded and share their concerns.

Let me turn the question back on you though. What good does complaining about the complainers do?

Edit: Ninja'd.

Complaining Whining has no purpose other than to serve as a malicious attempt to "get even". "That so-and-so evil company screwed me out of something and I'm gonna screw them right back and try to take away as many of their customers as possible." It's like bitching to your best friend about your wife or girlfriend...your best friend might commiserate with you or might frankly not even care, but nothing really happens AND the person who should know you're upset more than anyone else doesn't.

On the other hand...if you complained to said business and they tried to resolve your problem, but you weren't satisfied with the solution then you vote with your dollars and start telling all your friends how unreasonable said company was and why. That said we don't have any of that kind of complaint. What we do have is complaints about inconvenience and that's just bitching for the sake of bitching.

 

[P1NBACK]

It's like bitching to your best friend about your wife or girlfriend...your best friend might commiserate with you or might frankly not even care, but nothing really happens AND the person who should know you're upset more than anyone else doesn't.

Yeah. I don't see it like that at all.

I'd say it's more like two people who are members of the same swimming pool bitching to each other about them not cleaning the pool as regularly as they used to.

Yeah, we're still going to have to go through the formal channels by notifying the pool of our complaints (which, they are probably legally protected by our membership - "We don't have to clean our pools..."). However, we know that we aren't the only ones who are members of the pool who want the pool cleaned regularly.

If the guy next to us overhears us talking, he can chime in and say, "Yeah. That's whack. I want the pool cleaned too!" or "Whatever... We can still swim!"

The point is, we're a community subscribing to the same product. We're not subscribing to unique products (our wives?) and bitching individually about each product.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Update on the 12th Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

Hey all. We are currently in the process of developing a new web-based tools system for D&D Insider which has factored into recent content update delays. We will continue to provide D&D Insider members with additional information as our progress develops. In the meantime, we are back on schedule to provide members with our regular content updates.

No DS or Essentials in the CB, but at least we find out that they are working on web based tools.

 

[ourchair]

The problem with many of the comments above is the failure to understand that WotC is not the name of a person, but the name of a company. Making a product like 4e is a cooperative effort, and there are many things that can go wrong as a result.

You can plan, you can schedule, you can direct, and you can order.

But if the key person in an update gets another job, gets sick, loses a spouse to cancer, has anti-depression meds that suddenly seem to stop working, etc., everything goes haywire. You build in a margin of error, but more than a little and the executives higher up get fussy.

Then there are the miscommunication issues. One of the developers makes an assumption that turns out to be mistaken, and an entire software module has to be rewritten. One of the managers asks how long it will take to implement X feature, but uses the wrong term for it and gets an answer that only accounts for a small fraction of the feature. Etc.

I'm already getting bored coming up with scenarios that could explain the delays, but I've just barely started. Development of good products is hard. Throw in a schedule and customers who get irate when the schedule blows up and it gets worse.

Exactly.

It gets to me that people refer to WotC as a collective without taking into consideration to moving parts (people) that make up that collective.

Now, I'm still upset that the Dark Sun and Essentials stuff won't be in the Builder update, and regardless of that is that the Builder update is already late to begin with, but it's not exactly difficult to see that the disjunct between promises and output isn't a matter of incompetence but a matter of one hand not knowing how to coordinate with the other.

If you consider all the things that need to be done to maintain a product line, produce a major motion picture, develop a video game, and all the people needed to do it, it's something of a minor miracle that these things get done at all.

So when these things happen, it's because Marketing makes promises about the Software team incorporating material into tools on a monthly basis, and the Designers producing more material than the Software team can manage. It's not always about The Companies trying to screw us over because they are thoughtless, inconsiderate Money Grubbing Whores.

 

[Obryn]

Ahh, 12th! I can deal with that.

Now that there's some real communication, I am a happy customer once again!

-O