Discussion: Featured Items at the Paragon Market - 2/21/12

GPBunny - for the record, I don't monitor that thread daily although I hop in every once in a while to catch up. I'm not the point person on Paragon Points, but I do know that Zwil, Doc Delilah and others have pushed for answers from our Billing Team. At first, we just delivered the information as we got it..., but then when it turned out the information we gave wasn't exactly jiving with reality with some customers, there was a decision to withhold giving updates to avoid causing even more customer angst and confusion.

At the Player Summit, I believe I even said at the Paragon Market panel that we were just as frustrated (if not more) than you in the award dates of Paragon Points and Paragon Reward Tokens.

Lately, I've been sorely tempted to post in that thread, but anything that I posted would be from anecdotal experience, and not from a position of "I've-got-all-the-answers".

I have 3 accounts (non-work - personal/play accounts) with billing dates spread throughout the month. I get my Paragon Point stipends inconsistently like you all, but they are always awarded in the month. I have never had an experience where my points were not awarded.

Please note, and I'm saying this to manage your expectations of what type of support you can and should expect to receive from the forums: As a general rule, NCsoft and Paragon Studios do not resolve customer billing issues on the forums. We *always* direct customers to file tickets so that those tickets can be tracked and assigned to an NCsoft Billing Rep or another appropriate person for investigation and resolution. Paragon Studio employees (and that includes our Community Team) have zero abilities to provide Paragon Point Support because we do not have access to those support systems (No developer should ever have access to a customer's billing information. Period. I mean, to use an example, should an Apple iPad engineer have access to a customers iTunes account? Answer: No.). So when customers post problems on the forums, our Community Team gathers that information and rolls it into a summary for our Support Teams. If a customer provided a ticket or ticket number, the Community Team can include that for specific examples.

Our Community, Development, Biz/Dev and Marketing Teams are not in Billing Support (the Billing Team handles Paragon Point awarding). We can and *have* escalated those issues when we could, but if customers don't fill out a ticket, the Billing Support department can't investigate or assist you.

Also, no one has to hurt my feelings for a response. I monitor some threads, but not all threads. I respond to PMs when I can. I also get pointed to certain threads via PMs. I respond openly when I can. The post I made the other day was made at ~2:00 in the morning Pacific.... My takeaways were:
1) never respond to a thread at 2 in the morning ,
2) never respond to a thread at 2 in the morning on an iPad that doesn't have a bluetooth keyboard , and
3) typos by tablet stink

(...and can you please cut me some slack on the post since obviously I was paying attention at 2 in the morning during the middle of the week? I could have just ignored the whole thread, but then if I had, then players would have missed out on using me as a punching bag for a couple of days, and where would the fun have been in that? .)

PS: Please be kind to the new Assistant Community Manager. He's still kind of new, and you have more than enough time to break him and have him curled up in the corner crying for mercy.

PPS: That was not a challenge.

Seriously though, i do appreciate all the work you and everyone else at PS do on our behalf. Also, the far greater grace and tolerance for intractable self-centered posterior headgarments. While i do occasionally have to exercise similar discretion, i would not be able to do it while dealing with as many people as you do.

I think as a rite of passage, in order to deal with the community one of the trials that newblood must complete...

....is one trip through the Twisted Burrow with no assistance.

We’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.

Yeah, that is why I've taken to documenting my billing screen monthly...

May I recommend that they be locked in a room until this situation gets fixed?

Seriously though, they should be told to award all the perks on the first day of the month. The server transfer tokens work, unlike the stipend or reward tokens.

Thanks for your brief overview here.

Apparently that also applies to in-game GMs and the first level outside GMs as well.

I fully agree.

About those super packs... Not just upset with you... I'm upset with everyone involved with making them.

Sure, but that would likely entail seeing the Elemental Order costume set outside the packs.

Isn't that part of the unwritten job description?

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

"We" as in you and your fleas?

Or "we" as in you are speaking for yourself?

because you are NOT speaking for me.

I suspect "human beings." Motorcycle-riding rabbits may or may not be exempt.

"People"

As in the old saying "A person is smart, a people are stupid"

Apparently the odds were not ever in my favor.

While I agree that no one outside of billing needs to know my account details, doesn't the Billing Team answer to Biz/Dev? In other words, can't the Development, Marketing, and Biz/Dev team direct the Billing Team that they should give up on the overly complex scheme they are trying to use and simplify the awarding process to a single date? Either on the billing day of the month or the first of the month?

This does not require anyone but the Billing Team to know player's account information, and fixes the problem players are facing: Uncertainty as to when the VIP perks arrive.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Might I suggest GF, that something, ANYTHING be posted in the thread actually talking about the Points/Tokens. It took GPBunny posting in there directing us to this thread. That should not happen.

The last redname post in that thread was, iirc, back in October. Nothing since then leads one to the conclusion that it is not anywhere near a priority that people get what the stuff that should be given to them. Reading the thread is fine, but if nothing is done about or said about it to the players, then we have no way of knowing if our concerns are nothing more than circular filed. It doesn't take daily updates on the problem, but a weekly or monthly update would be appropriate.

As for the Billing Department...might I suggest that they all be fired and replaced with people that actually want to fix the problem? The managers as well for letting the problem stretch out to this point. They have no problem with taking our money on time, every time, but seem to have a massive disconnect in the second part of the equation. Namely giving us the stuff.

I am sure I could break him in for you... or you could just pass on the dolls to him.

O yes it was!!!!!.....