WTF is going on???????????

[[CoMiX]VaMp]

what the hell is going on with the servers ?????????
i come back from hoiliday and pop on th the AQ sels server to be greeted by a 150-2000 ping on isdn! all the others were lagging ping like roller coasters!
so i poped to B/W all was ok ..
i poped to f9 all ok ..
i poped to W/P AQ2 and the ping again 150+
can someone please tell me WTF is happening ?
im not the only one with this probblem!

ps
just for a change can we have someone from G/P to suggest something ?

[[CoMiX]VaMp]

top
greate costomer care guys

[Kick]

Its the same with the CS Open servers... packetloss everywhere, making WP totally unplayable during the day.

[Sar]

The Concert netfeed was b0rked apparantly.

:{

[mr_grumpy_man]

There are 'issues' with the Concert netfeed at the mo. WP suggest using the old IP addresses, using the old netfeed instead. Odds are someone on IRC/ICQ can give you a better idea.

[Terra99]

I play UT on wireplay 3 and get no packet loss whatsoever.

In saying that 2 nights ago it kept kicking me out every 20 - 30 mins for no aparrant reason.

Played last night and all seemed fine again. Nice pings of 60-80.

[Sar]

Heh

:)

[mr_grumpy_man]

Great minds think alike, eh Sar? :cheese:

[Sar]

Well if your minds anything like mine:

You poor perverted *******.

;)

[mr_grumpy_man]

I bet I can be more of a pervert than you... watch this...

There. Beat that! :cheese:

[Sar]

I....think I'm........gonna.......:barf:





:P

[mr_grumpy_man]

Oh yeah baby - I'm sickest of all of joo!!!

[[CoMiX]VaMp]

Wow i'm amazed by all the replies from the game/play customer care staff (I know your there)
Why do you lot have to keep so quiet?
why do we have to find this info out from second hand Sources.
We are supposed to be customers here and you are the ones providing a service! (Be it a crap one @ the mo).
I've worked over 12 years in Customer care and never seen a service that has the ball's to selectively ignore what they want .
To not reply to emails .
To not give information that is basically needed to help your customers out!.
To bluntly lie to the faces of your customers.
Obviously you all have a good sideline job?.
Cos the way this service is running there will be no players left soon!.
Is it a case of no staff to fit the need?.
Is it too little time too much work?.
Is you cant be arsed?.
Please do tell?.
Lets see if a C/S manager can give a reply then?.

[BBW]

Heh, way to get a reply Vamp dood!

[Teppic]

Hehe, yeah, how dare you ask questions of WP ;)

[[CoMiX]VaMp]

Originally posted by Teppic
Hehe, yeah, how dare you ask questions of WP ;)


silence is GOLDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OtherSide]

There are alot of things you dont know about gameplay m8, alot of things. So keep a sippa shut :)

[[ELE]Dr. Dre]

lol, try going into a shop, and saying, i want to know this, its ****, as usual, why is this, and can i have some bloody service. they'd kick u out, wouldnt they? why should gameplay staff ahve to put up with it?

i think the last sentence of ur initial post may prove the reason why u have had no reply, or maybe its the fact taht its yet another post moaning about the poor quality of a free service

****ing ppl, they piss me off

[FlyinBrick]

Originally posted by [ELE]Dr. Dre
lol, try going into a shop, and saying, i want to know this, its ****, as usual, why is this, and can i have some bloody service. they'd kick u out, wouldnt they? why should gameplay staff ahve to put up with it?


****ing ppl, they piss me off


No, they'd say that you sound like an ignorant oik...and that no one can understand a friggin word you are saying!
Try learning to spell before you slag others off!

****ing idiots, they piss me off!

[Edited by FlyinBrick on 24-10-2000 at 01:03 AM]

[Terra99]

and of course we all noticed that flyin*rick had to edit his post..wonder why that was flyin hehehe..spelling error maybe?.

here here Dr. Dre <applaudes>

[Lionheart]

Ah, customer service. We see that word all the time.

Let me give you an example -

I mail the WP tech support to find out when WP3 would be out and if I would be able to connect via my ISP using WP3 ( granted, this was a while ago ).

Their eventual reply, try the forums because we can't be bothered to help!
So I mailed the webmaster. No reply. I mailed him again pretending to be from an online news site suggesting that WP was closing due to lack of customer commitment. Instant reply advising me of everything ( well nearly ) I needed to know.

Now the above seems a little harsh, and to be honest it is.
I've found the moderators and WP personel on the forums very helpful, but the lesson here is -


Keep your customers informed. Customers can deal with bad things happening IF they are kept up to speed on why and what's being done about it. It's really that simple.
I've already asked for some sort of running thread advising customers of the latest issues, which has been taken on board, but I am uncertain if it will ever come to pass.

Anyone who says ' let them get on with fixing it' is wrong.
I work at the leading edge on this type of service and the message is - 'we would rather know what's going on and have it fixed 1 hour later, because we can plan around the problem if we know what's going on'.

After all, would you rather be trying to get onto WP all evening, or, be told the service won't be back until 23:00.
You could then go down the pub!

[Luke Warmwater]

I couldn't agree more Lionheart.

My biggest gripe with GP and WP is lack of information and feedback to customers, closely followed by a lack of listening to what the customer wants.

Over on the AA forums, some recent complaints eventually got a response along the lines of "We're doing our best here, and it's quite upsetting when you lot all have ago at us. We may as well not bother."

I couldn't believe it!

TOUGH LUCK PEEPS!! Wake up and see the real world!. You are supposed to be a professional company offering a professional service. Whining because someone has been nasty to you, makes you look like a bunch of clowns playing at being grown-ups.

Well it happens. And when it does, YOU have to put it right! That's the way the world works. That's your job. You put yourselves up there when you joined the company, so expect to get shot at when things go wrong. If you don't like it, go and play in a different playground!

[FlyinBrick]

Originally posted by Terra99
and of course we all noticed that flyin*rick had to edit his post..wonder why that was flyin hehehe..spelling error maybe?.

here here Dr. Dre <applaudes>


Flyin*rick? <---Wow, never heard that one before!!! Did you ask Mommy for some help?

The reason I edited it was because it was a bit harsher than I had originally meant, so I toned it down a bit.
Even if I did have to edit it due to spelling mistakes, it at least meant I recognised said mistakes and was able to correct them. (just like this one :) )

The point I was trying to make, (rather crudely I admit..) was that if you're going to slag people off, then at least try not to look a bigger fool in the process.

[Edited by FlyinBrick on 24-10-2000 at 10:20 AM]

[Luke Warmwater]

LOL FB
;)

...and what's more, I don't agree with the point that Dr. Dre made.

I don't think they would kick you out. In my experience, if you kick up a stink in a shop, you get sorted out VERY quickly, because they're embarrassed in front of other customers, and want you to be quiet and go away.

True, they may not like you, but then, they're not selling popularity, and you're not paying with it, so it's pretty irrelevant.

GP seem to prefer the "WAH!!! Don't be nasty to me" approach, and whilst it gains them a few sympathy votes, I think it only serves to damage their professional credibility.

[Terra99]

Hmm If you want a FREE service then DO NOT expect a premium customer care level.

You only get what you pay for in this world. Wireplay is free , nothing , nada , zip and so as with any free service you dont get a huge huge intricate support level.

But compare wireplay to the likes of the other FREE services. Show me any where near the kind of support that you get at wireplay for a free service and ill eat my hat.

Flyin*rick , Typing an error in your reply doesnt matter a damn. If you want that type of perfection goto http://www.literacyexperts.com im sure youll have fun there.
If you are gonna flame someone expect to be flamed back.

Lion heart and Luke have both put forward valid points without flaming anyone ...give it a try, go on.

Lion heart most of what you said has good points apart from this.

Their eventual reply, try the forums because we can't be bothered to help!

I just DO NOT believe that wireplay would reply in this way.

Apart from that some good points..but rem its a FREE service.

Luke you siad in post above that you dont think they would kick you out of a shop.

I think you missed the point that its the swearing part that its aimed at. You go into any shop and swear at the staff and they will call security. The point being that some people need to learn how to ask for help from wireplay or ask questions to wireplay without the need for swearing or cursing or saying "YER ****e , fix it" type posts.

Flyin*rick sonly a bit of fun with yer name ffs chill out ;)

[FlyinBrick]

Terra, Wireplay is a free service now! It wasn't originally. It was people like me that paid 2.5p a minute from day one that launched the service!
The strange thing is, it actually worked then! (Well more than it does now) Not only that, but we were pretty much free of the cretins that populate the servers now, you know, those that teamkill, and racially abuse everybody.

So, in a way, some of have paid for it! We're just pissed of because the service that used to work fine, has been tampered to death and is full of idiots.

To make matters worse, when people complain, we get told we're a bunch of moaners and to shut up!

I think GP must have the same PR people that Railtrack has!

[Custodian]

;(

[Luke Warmwater]

Terra: re- the swearing in the shop, you could be right. I guess it would depend on the degree, the reason and the exact circumstances. At the end of a long frustrating exchange which was continuously proving fruitless for teh customer, I think that the shop would have a hard time justifying it.

I have to agree with FB. I was quite happy paying my 2.5p per minute, and would be again, if it meant that I got the service back.

From a customer's point of view, I had good service that I paid for, GP arrived and opened it up, dropping the charges and customer support level (customer perception, I know they will deny it) of their own volition. I didn't ask for it. They just did it. But now I and the other users have to "suffer" it.

I feel that we have a right to complain, when a perfectly good service, that we happily paid for, has been taken away from us and replaced with a free service that, quite frankly, needs to be free, because no paying customer would use it!

[Terra]

I couldnt agree more with what you both have said..i too paid the premium 2.5p a min and the service was second to none and as FB said ..no Cretins online.

Im not saying "dont complain" but there are ways to complain, dont you think?.

For example what do you think would get a quicker response from yourself.

1) Oi Luke you havent got a clue what your doing, im sick of your stupid excuses and i want this fixed now. Yer useless and crap at what you do. Get this problem fixed now FOOL.

OR

2) Hey Luke , im having a major problem and you have said you will fix it. I have now been waiting 3 weeks and still you have done nothing to fix the problem. Why havent you fixed the problem or if you have, why is it still not working. Please reply ASAP.

Ok so you get what i mean..complain by all means , moan by all means, get angry by all means...but be polite ffs.

You brought up the point that you were quite happy paying for wireplay as it worked when you did. But how many others would want this. A good point top debate in my opinion. so lets debate it.

[[ELE]Dr. Dre]

the point i was trying to make is, if u received something free, and it wasnt of highly satisfactory quality, and u went in being an arsehole, theyd tell u where to get off.

ok, so maybe GP doesnt keep us best informed, but then, IMO, the service they offer is 95% of the time decent, and better than that of their rivals.

also, theres no need to speak to ppl the way some ppl do, as has been sed already, a nice, politely put question will get an answer it deserves.

oh, and picking on a fu(king typo m8, u must have a strong argument.

[[ELE]Dr. Dre]

and ****, i wish i had read the last 2 posts now:)

no, i would simple give up playing on WP if they put a charge on the service, and i got say a 20better ping, and there was not as much downtime. and, i think the majority of ppl would agree, as WP currently offers a decent service (sick of saying that now) and there is alternatives that are free

[Luke Warmwater]

Terra.

In general I agree, the second option may get a better response. However, if you have been complaining in that manner for 3 months and it worked, you wouldn't need to do it again. But when you've complained in that manner for 3 months, and nothing has happened, then what are you left with.

Many people feel that they've tried the polite approach and it didn't work. Having tried it unsuccessfully so many times, I can fully understand how they then get frustrated and vent their feelings. And so what if it doesn't get them the response they originally wanted; being nice didn't either, so they've got nothing to lose apart from pent up stress.

As regards paying for it; I'm a firm believer in having to pay if you want quality. Yes, I will take freebies if they are offered and they come up to standard, but if the choice is "Pay for quality or get crap free", well free crap is no use to me.

Dr. Dre, did you used to play when it was a charged service? If so, you can't honestly say that the present service compares favourably with the old service can you?

------

A lot of this is a little bit off the track. If you offer a service, you should provide it. To offer a service FOC, and when you receive complaints, to say "Ah well, its free, what do you expect?" is abismal!

Gameplay and the people who work there have set themselves up as providers of a service. Their employees are all paid. No one press ganged them into working there. NONE of them are doing for OUR good (and I'm talking about employees, not LM's, mods and CC's etc). So please, spare us the bleeding hearts. You have offered a service, and your customers have said "Yes please, I would like that service". So supply it! This customer would be quite happy to pay for it.

[[ELE]Dr. Dre]

i pottered in and out of WP when it was a pay to play service, and, like the majority, decided i would rather just play on the many free servers available. Demon servers in any game seem to be always busy, and while not the best server for any game, offer a certain standard of service - thus i find myself heading straight to a demon server on any new online game.

[zsally]

if a shop provided the same level of service as wireplay

then it wouldnt be a shop anymore it would be a flat :)

[Luke Warmwater]

Here's a nice case study. Lets see how this well mannered complaint does (although GP can't really ignore it now...can they??)

http://forums.gameplay.com/showthread.php?threadid=189305

[Dave B]

Hmmmm, well Ive quit playing on GP, I can play my favourite game (Air Attack) on Gamechannel.de My recent outburst on the Air Attack forum made me realise how frustrating being a GP player really is. I (and every one else) have had endless nights of constantly being booted of the servers. I get the excuse that we could use the 2.3 servers, but guess what? they have been down also.

The simple facts are that 1. I and many others on here have been playing on these servers since they were owned by BT. At that time they were some of the best servers around for online play.

2. Since the takover by Gameplay, I have watched this service go down hill rapidly with no signs of improvememnt despite the rants and promises of GP and its minions.

And now I see this forum where some of you think that because its for free, nobody should moan about this abismal service.

Tell me if your local Dixons were giving away free PC's and you got one, you set it up, you plug it in and it does not work, would you be happy? If you phoned them and they said 'stop moaning it was a freebie' would that appease you?

Think about the people who buy SW from GP, 'whoo look I can play this on Gp' yes of course you can, but dont bother us if you cant get it to work! its not us, its not WP3 or our servers, its your ISP,MODEM,PC. yeah you know the script!

Dave B

[Terra]

dave b..are you the same dave b that used to frequent the gamepro chatrooms in wp2??

[Dave B]

^^^^^ Nope!

[2bad4u]

Hold on what if...
1) Someone buys loads of games from the gamplay shop (e.g. Q3A etc.)
2) Sets them up to play online (possibly using the WP game browser/client thingy)
3) Logs into the WP servers

...and is not satisfied with the service?

Are they not entitled to complain?

[Champ]

hi guys,

tbh the best place for any problems you encounter (eg netfeed borked again) is the helpdesk forum.

then we can escalate to the correct people and hopefully get you a response (or even on the odd occasion solve a problem ourselves :) )

the helpdesk forum gets checked on about an hourly basis between the hours of 10 am and 10pm by the helpdesk staff, and thus wireplay problems will receive more attention.

champ.

[Edited by UT_Champ!! on 26-10-2000 at 01:10 PM]

[Terra]

2bad4u...I dont think you got my point.

EVERYONE is entiteled to complain, no matter how small it may seem to the service provider the customer views there "small" complaint as if its the biggest problem in the world. this is a perception that every customer in the world has with any complaint.

What I have been saying is that , yes complain, moan etc but do it constructivley.

I work in the Customer services industry. It is my job to appease customers and help solve there issues. If a customer calls me on the telephone and starts cursing and swearing..then i will warn them once to please stop using foul or abusive language. If they dont stop i WILL disconnect them.
And this is the case for all my Employees as well..i WILL NOT allow customers to subject them to abuse at there place of work. The world is a stressfull enough place without people causing more of it.

Sorry rambled a bit there, anyway, my point being is that i will not stand back and allow anyone to curse , swear or be abusive to anyone ,anywhere. Its not needed and most people <EVEN LUKE WARMWATER ;)> dont resort to it at any time. But they still get the info that is needed most of the time.

It is far to easy for <what word shall i use hmm idiots yeah> idiots to post complaints or general gripes with the sole intention of getting all the CRONIES to follow suit.
What makes me laugh is that some people have the audacity to complain about wireplay 3 on these forums when they HAVENT EVEN TRIED IT. How the hell can someone complain about something without trying it.
Please dont even think about comparing it to the past as we all know that is a generalisation.

EG No way am i going to Cuba for my holidays..they kidnap you and kill you , as they have done in the past.

The above people i have categorised now as "idiots" are not the same people who post constructive and genuine gripes, complaints and moans. These people are mature, sensible and constructive people. Who , by complaining , help out the community in more ways than they can imagine.

to summarise then.

Complaining is not the issue being discussed here.

Swearing and being abusive while complaining is being discussed and in my opinion is the wrong way to go about it.

I would also like to add that these are MY opinions and because i help out with wireplay doesnt mean i think they are 100% right 100% of the time. I have been here a long long time and think that i have a right , as anyone else does, to post there OWN opinions on the board.

you will notice i have 2 names terra & terra99 this is to distinguish between offical and me as an individual.

Carry on , nice points being brought up.

[Lionheart]

Hi terra99.

They didn't actually say to me what I quoted, that was just the impression I got. Sorry if that was misleading.

IMHO, trying to say that it's free, so we get what we pay for, isn't entirely correct.

Yes, it's free, but ask yourself this - Why would a business spend a lot of money on a product they are not charging for?
Does that make sound business? No, it doesn't if you look at it in isolation.
But, WP is owned by GP. Gameplay sell games/products.
What better way to advertise and obtain customer loyalty than to offer the WP service! It makes them a household name. That would cost millions in traditional advertising.

If they charged for the service, they'd loose 90% of WP customers immediately. So charging is no longer an option IMO.

So, the product maybe free, but if it was deemed not to be providing the indirect income to justify the cost, the plug would be pulled tomorrow.
That is a certainty. They are not a charity. So, I believe we don't OWE WP any charity either.

That's not to say we should not be polite in our complaints/service improvement ideas. And we all should be treated as valuable customers. An all in all, WP is excellent most of the time.

If they introduced what I have already suggested, I'm sure we would all be happier bunnies!

[[CoMiX]VaMp]

Originally posted by OtherSide
There are alot of things you dont know about gameplay m8, alot of things. So keep a sippa shut :)

tell me what i need to know then ???
come on im waiting ?

Originally posted by Terra
.

Complaining is not the issue being discussed here.

Swearing and being abusive while complaining is being discussed and in my opinion is the wrong way to go about it.

I would also like to add that these are MY opinions and because i help out with wireplay doesnt mean i think they are 100% right 100% of the time. I have been here a long long time and think that i have a right , as anyone else does, to post there OWN opinions on the board.

you will notice i have 2 names terra & terra99 this is to distinguish between offical and me as an individual.

Carry on , nice points being brought up.


no i started the thred to find out what the hell was going on with the servers and still havent had a reply!
to this or to my email's
the tone of the post was harsh but after comming back from a nice relaxing holiday to 50+ email and god knows how many icq's asking what was wrong you can probbloy see why!
i have and am building a comunity back up that was left to rot and the last thing i want is ppl going to other servers

as for ppl still saying that g/p are the best servers around ?
i have a ping of 114+ on the servers @ the mo it was worth me buying isdn for that.
have you tryed barries world ?
a free service
a free service that actully replys to emails and to issues brought up on the boards......
and with pings of 60+

Originally posted by [CoMiX]VaMp

Lets see if a C/S manager can give a reply then?.


we got one but he pointed me to the help desk
but IMO this is also the forum to air this as its gameplay stuff...if im wrong why didnt the mod move it ?

you leave stuff like this it festers it blows up
if some one would have just replyed @ the begining telling the problem {that is STILL there} this would have died ages ago.......

the reason imo the we [ i complain ]is that i like the w/p community and would like to see it keep going but the way the service is @ the mo whole clans are leaveing not just a few ppl.
take for instance [VFC] q2/q3 clan 16+ members left w/p because there prize was not paid to them for winning the q3wpl now they play bw/savage and others
the clans that have left for the net are to many to mention
and its happening as we speak and thats just from q2/q3/aq2

mostly IMHO the games that get the service are the new games .
the intersting game that the w/p ppl are playing
they notice the problems and kick off to get em fixed

Originally posted by Terra
You brought up the point that you were quite happy paying for wireplay as it worked when you did. But how many others would want this. A good point top debate in my opinion. so lets debate it.

i my self have paid since the start of wp all the way through to the first day of free g/p
and would gladly pay again if it ment a bit of nice game play
a ping of 60+ on srever that dont just kick you for joining a game[cos you lagg and bwadmin has a fit!]

ps i dont care about my spelling :E

[Luke Warmwater]

Originally posted by Terra
...curse , swear or be abusive to anyone ,anywhere. Its not needed and most people <EVEN LUKE WARMWATER ;)> dont resort to it at any time.


I should like to make an official complaint...I blummin' well do swear, by golly!!
:)

Drat...let me try again...I flippin' well do swear!! Oh bother...lets have another go...I blinkin' well do...

Oh sod this...
...WAHEY!!!!
:)

[Terra]

hehe luke :)

sorry Vamp we hijacked your thread and started another topic entirley.


I think thats why it didnt get answered.

Regarding your internal problems with the clans i strogly suggest you speak with your Community Liason Officer.

If someone is due prizes then the CL is the man that can get this sorted.


Soz for the hijack.

Oh i think my tone was fine in my posts.

[[CoMiX]VaMp]

m8 that was just an example with the prizes
everyone has been contected messages have been posted email sent and no prizes :(
just an example of the poor service from some ppl
as for the tone m8 it was my tone i was saying was a bit harsh
but like ive said b4 there are a few ppl in g/p that are top ppl that do everything they can
and then there are the others.....................

[Cacker]

Hi,

I've seen a couple of posts about evening interruptions. I was on call all this week and was the one having to sort the problems. So I posted a new thread about evening interruptions.

http://forums.gameplay.com/showthread.php?threadid=194651

In my opinion it is better to post an explanatory thread rather than post individually to each forum that was affected by the problem. I would prefer to answer each user's query, but it'd take just too long.

As for that DAMN packet loss experienced Friday (not sure it happened thursday), at 1pm I encountered this problem in a CS server and noted that all and sundry were experiencing this. After a little looking about, it wasn't the CS 1.0 patch because UT and Half-Life were also having he same problem and it was independant of connection type.

We contacted our network guys who have been rooting around trying to find the problem. BT has also been put on the case, since it has been happening, from what we can see, only on servers on the Concert feed.

I haven't heard anything yet and hence didn't post which was wrong, we should have acknowledged the problem first and updated you with what was happening.

I apologize for this.

The concert feed has been down, as I mentioned in the 'Evening interruptions' post twice this week and still seems to be problematic.

Chairs,

/Cacker

[DJScully]

ok...WP3 is new...yup there WILL be bugs and it is annoying,
but as the saying goes gud things come to those who wait!
since WP3 1st showed its face there has been changes and fixes for the better.. look at WINDOze 98! thats a few yrs old now and it still doesnt work properly!!but we still use it, and we pay for that!as for the 2.5p a min for WP2 ..not every one could afford that..over a period of time that 2.5p gains a few zeros on the end..the bottom line is WP3 is a NEW & FREE games service which will take time to sort out...so until then we just gotta wait:) and ChIlL OuT :smokin:

[2bad4u]

Are u an archaeologist or just bored? :z