"Let's go fishing" was what Zippora said the other day, licking her Neko lips in anticipation of some tasty catch. "Sure", I replied, having done some fishing a year ago (Elusyve Jewell is to blame for that) and actually became quite hooked. For a week or so.So I put on some, ahem, "typical" fishing gear (hats in SL suck) and teleported to the Straylight sim which has a rather nice fishing spot. I teleported Zippora in and rezzed my "(7S) Casual Fishing Rod". Zippora meanwhile paid the vendor to get her own rod.
I cast the rod, but the fish slipped away. I cast it again - no catch. I cast it for a third time, and then the rod told me it is outdated and I can't use it here and I should please update it. Right enough an update package got sent to me upon rezzing, so I sighed and rezzed the updated rod. Meanwhile Zippora waited for her delivery.
The updated rod (version 3.4) went through a rather chatty startup sequence, saying I need to contact the folks of 7Seas if I want my experience and bait parameters updated, but since I deliberately chose the casual rod and did never acquire experience or bait points, I ignored it. And tried to cast the rod. Without success. Meanwhile Zippora waited for her delivery.
A bit frustrated, I unrezzed the rod again, and rerezzed it. It went through the chatty startup sequence again, and this time I read more carefully. It claims I updated from a very old rod (uhm... hello?), and therefore I need to contact their service rep (and ONLY their service rep - never, ever the creator) to get my XP and bait settings updated. Well, I do not WANT my XP and bait settings updated, I want casual fishing! Clicking, casting, chat-commands - nothing worked. I checked the profile of the service rep, who was not online. Meanwhile Zippora waited for her delivery.
I finally read through the mass of notecards coming along with the update pack, and finally found a note saying I need to contact the service rep (and ONLY their service rep - never, ever the creator) and ask to be cleared as casual fisherman in their database, only then will my rod function. Of course the service rep was still not online. Meanwhile Zippora waited for her delivery.
Frustrated and disappointed we gave up and did a few stops of the Neko hunt instead (Peter: "OK, lets go hunting nekos instead." Zippora: "I don't like the way you say this."). We had quite some fun, and when it was time to say goodnight I remembered the rod she tried to buy and asked her if it has arrived in the meantime - which it did not.
Time spent in frustration: 30 minutes (multiplied by 2 persons)
Money spent: 100 L$ for a rod that never got delivered
Problems resolved: Zero - neither did the rod arrive, nor did the service rep get back to me so far
Well done, 7Seas!
Update: of course 3 minutes after I posted this rant, the service rep got back to me:
[2:49] 7Seas Sass: I just set up your account as starting. Since this is a free upgrade, please delete your older rod versions to avoid confusion. Your new ones (the 3.4 upgrade pack which it sounds like you have) should work now. They are copy-OK and interchangeable, so you can make backups, color variants, or whatever... they'll all know your XP and bait level. They also have a nice new auto-decline feature under the Configure menu.... Also, if you haven't been there in a while, you might want to check out http://7seasfishing.com ... lots of info there, lists of 1,500 new community-built fish you can catch, new forums too. :)
5 comments:
Concerning my rod 7Seas is not to blame: I used the quick pay option on the vendor, but checking my transactions just learned me that I didn't actually pay.
Meanwhile I'm considering a game "fisherman hunting" *grins*
Aww, that's a pity that you had such trouble. I don't think the service account is ever online unless they have stuff to do inworld. But the IMs should go to email, I assume, perhaps they even reply by mail.
When my rod secretly decided to delete all its script content - no idea why or how - they sent me a replacement within a day and checked back later if everything was ok then.
As a customer service rep myself, Peter, that's not a bad accounting. And be glad the creator of the rods has taken the trouble to hire service reps to handle inquiries. I may yet blog about a particular creator who continues to fail to get back to me on a very old complaint because she is too busy creating. We service reps aren't always online but we are generally the first line of service, sparing our employers for only the bigger actual bug/glitch concerns. And if we respond within 24 hours, isn't that pretty good, all things considered?
My point is:
- they have automatically detected my old rod is outdated
- they have automatically sent me a new rod
- they have automatically detected I am upgrading a rather old rod
- they have automatically detected that I intend to use the rod
- they have automatically detected that I have no XP and bait parameters saved
Why can't they automatically adjust the record in their database so I could start fishing right away? Why the human proxy in between?
Haha! This was a very funny post. I do really enjoy your writing.
Post a Comment