Paragon Points, When?

We have all seen numerous posts about when do X points get awarded for monthly sub, or w/e.

I currently work as an accounting manager in addition to my other duties, which unfortunately include dealing with customers, customer perception, etc. I worked as a teller and new accounts supervisor at a bank for almost a decade. I tell you all this so you know I am in utmost seriousness when I ask the following question.

Are the people who run the marketing department for selling Paragon Points to their customer base (((edited for public consumption))) Who is in charge of implementing the entire new business strategy for the next few years? Why are they so poor at implementing a business strategy? Seriously.

I have sat back and not said anything about the obvious creaky rollout of Paragon Points system. I have seen fumble, after stumble, with the followup bumble. Enough.

I love the concept of the Paragon Points system. I hope it is making the game "Sky High Stacks Yo." But somebody needs to pull out and put on their little managers hat and do something. There is great confusion when anybody gets their points. There is great confusion with a lot of the program. When people are buying something from you (and the more "imaginary" or "perceived value" a thing you are selling the more this is true) you need to make them happy, and their perception and expectation needs to match the transaction. Reread the last sentence. Now reread it again. That's the whole point of this post.

From what I have seen nobody truly understood (with the exception of people with exceptionally long geek fangs) how many tokens they were supposed to have at transfer. Nobody (except...) seems to know when they get their monthly points. I just tried to help my wife put Paragon Points on her Premium account (A new customer yeah!) and that was a horrid two-day transaction.

Why cannot the people on the money/marketing end of this do the most basic customer communication and customer satisfaction steps? The job market is down, scrape up a middle manager with a thick resume for a third what they were making 5 years ago and put the skills to use.

One - I found it fairly simple on how many tokens I was supposed to have at the transfer, but, YMMV.

Second, are you talking Paragon POINTS or Paragon REWARDS TOKENS?

points, after the Transfer from the old reward system to the new reward system the Reward Tokens are pretty simple. 1 for every $15.00, one a month. I haven't had any problems receiving tokens personally. Unless of course you count having to completely log out of the game and back in for a token to show up, every single time. Okay, yeah, you are right, tokens get included in the problem. Great example, thank you for reminding me.

If you tell somebody "Hey spend $15.00 and you get X Paragon Points and a token." Guess what? When they spend $15.00 give them X Paragon Points and a token. I was confused for quite a while the first time I did the transaction. And everybody is confused. See the problem? The customer service / marketing department seems to have a default policy of "Let the customer be confused, we already got the cash...." Just about the worst kind of business strategy you can have without outright insulting your customers before they buy something from you.

Paragon Points - The things you buy stuff in the Paragon Market with. Other than the initial issue with the Lump Grant in September and the delay it caused for some people (which should be completely gone now) in the first week and a half of the month, they seem to be awarding fine, aside from case-specific glitches, for VIPs. Never had any issue with them

Transfer Tokens - Tokens that let you transfer to another server. VIPs get one on the first of the month, I don't think anyone has had any issues witht hem

Rewards Tokens - the ones that get you things like costume sets and other bonuses, awarded at the end of the month for VIP subs when working right, and every 1200 points (NOT every $15 dollars, although it can frequently match up) - the ones for buy points seem to show up fine (requiring at most a log in/out or a couple minutes wait for the server to refresh) it's only the sub ones that have issues. And that's because of the legacy systems in the account system and NCSoft not rushing in and making crazy changes to it.

yes, I typed "after the transfer tokens were simple" when I meant "after the transfer" the "reward tokens were simple". great catch thanks.

Paragon Points - Awarded one business day after your billing date or renewal, or the day you signed up under a plan.

Paragon Rewards - Depending on when your billing date is issued, it can be at the start of the month or the tail end.

Since mine is on the 19th, that means Paragon Points will be awarded on the 20th, and Paragon Rewards sometime Januray 27-29th of the month.

Personally, I haven't been confused by or had a problem with my points.

They made it clear that after the first few months (while they sorted out some problems they were having with the system) our monthly paragon points should be rewarded based on our start date. My date is the 4th, and the last couple of months I've been getting my points on about that date (I admit I haven't always logged every 4th and checked my points right away, so I can't be possitive if my points were awarded on that date or a day or so later, but I'm patient enough that I wouldn't really care anyway).

What is truly sad about this is the many ways that the franchise is losing money. That's right. Sky high stacks yo.

Lets visualize a very organized operation. For arguments sake, lets say the model is to award everyone their monthly points on the exact same day. And release a few must haves (or really desirable) stuff that same week onto the market, sponging those points right back up. Then, about two weeks later, release a couple more bright shineys. Or a couple more sale items. Since your customer base just spent their "free" points earlier, they will be digging into their wallets for another 5-15 dollars. A million here, a million there, pretty soon you're starting to talk about real money.

There are dozens of organized and documented (and taught) tricks like this.