I have a problem.
In August of 2007, I started renting a voice server from Game Daemons. The price was right, and they even had a hosting site in my neck of the woods. Things were fine for a while. In October, I decided that I wanted to switch from a monthly payment plan to a four month payment plan. There was no easy way to do this through the website, so I ended up with a second account. I figured I would just cancel the first account and keep using the second. Over the course of the holidays, I kept receiving overdue invoices which didn’t matter since I had another account…until the server stopped working. Somehow the accounts got confused, but after a little puzzlement Game Daemons was able to correct the situation, or so I thought.
Around the end of May, I got an invoice which I figured would be covered by the automatic payment, and it was about time to pay for my next four months. Mind you, at this time I had just moved houses, and trying to get things settled in my voice server hosting was really low on my priorities. At the end of June, I received another invoice. The automatic payment went through, and suddenly I began to think, “Haven’t I already paid?” A quick look at my account turned up that I had been billed $17.82 every month since February. With the automatic payment cycle, I hadn’t really thought about it until now.
Obviously, this was just a clerical error. Somehow, when moving things around in my account in February, a wire must have been crossed so that I was paying the rate for a four month rental every month, a little more than their monthly rate of $.95 for a 15 slot voice server. Okay, no problem. I’ll contact support, explain the situation, and we’ll get it straightened out. Besides, now that my internet connection was a little more stable, I decided I could host my own voice server. On July 25th, I submitted a ticket to support and received a response the next day that it would be escalated to billing. It was Friday when I submitted the ticket, so I didn’t expect to hear anything until Monday.
On Tuesday, July 29th, I tried giving the billing department a call. I literally left my phone on speaker from approximately 4:30pm to 6:30pm on hold waiting until I had to hang up. On Wednesday, July 30th, I decided to check on the status of the ticket. When I had logged into my control panel, I discovered the ticket was no longer there. Thankfully, I had a copy in my email, so I submitted another ticket. I admitted my frustration in an email to support; no, I wasn’t rude, but I provided multiple ways to contact me as well as a .pdf of all my documentation on the issue.
I got a response from Support on Thursday, July 31st. They apologized for the inconvenience and agreed with my summarization that I was owed $71.28 for overpayment on my account. Cool. I was told the ticket would be escalated to billing. August 5th I sent support another email for a status check and received word on the 6th that they hoped to have an answer to me later that morning. I didn’t hear back from anyone.
Now, I’m trying to remain reasonable. Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s not the support guys’ fault my account got messed up, and it’s been about a week and still no word of a resolution. I worked a support desk once and know what it’s like to be the “face” of the company with whom the customer interacts. I also knew that the squeaky wheel gets the grease so I decided to find someone higher on the totem pole. I already knew Game Daemons was bought by Speakeasy, but a little further digging uncovered the name of the General Manager of Game Daemons. I tried calling the billing department a couple more times over the next few days. At least the hold music is okay; I heard a lot of it. Finally, on August 12th, I tried another crack at the support system. No response.
August 14th I left a voice mail on the phone of one Mr. Michael Ming. According to what I could find, he is the GM for Game Daemons. I feel that the message I left was cordial. I didn’t shout or make demands, I simply explained my situation as calmly as I could, left my contact information, and asked to be contacted by someone who could resolve the issue. I did the same again on Friday the 15th. I really am trying to keep my cool, using persistence rather than letting my anger and frustration to net my refund.
On Tuesday the 18th, I ring through to Mr. Ming himself! He promises that he has looked at the issue and has escalated to his senior engineer and that they will be in touch with me soon. I felt a small victory at that point, thinking the end of my wait is over and my persistence has paid off. No word from anyone the day after. I leave another voicemail with my contact information just in case. It is now August 22nd, a little over three weeks since I submitted my original ticket. I decided to call again while I have a free moment at work, but the toll free number is busy. I tried emailing Mr. Ming using the email address given by his voice mailbox, and the email bounced back with a permanent failure. Perhaps I typed it wrong and perhaps it is a coincidence. It seems certain though, that I will have to seek restitution at a higher level. After some more digging, I am not really any better off, but I did find some information I had not known before. Speakeasy was purchased by Best Buy a little over a year ago.
This makes my job a little harder. I now have to slog through what seems like an endless miasma of corporate bureaucracy in order to get my answer. However, it might make this easier, too. I am hoping that you, dear reader, will pass this story along and raise some awareness. The only way I feel that I can get the attention necessary to resolve this is by spreading the story in a very public way. Perhaps if you use Game Daemons as a host for any of your game server needs, this might serve as a timely warning to you. I’m not saying that all their customers are treated this way, but it certainly would make me think twice about going to any company after receiving this level of service. It reflects poorly on their division, and the company all the way up the ladder. It’s not my intention to start a flame war or say that Game Daemons has been discourteous, but I feel I have been repeatedly ignored and avoided. It should not take this long to process a payment of $71.28. I realize it seems a paltry sum, and it probably is to their company, but it’s still my money for services I am not receiving. I intend to update this as the situation progresses.
Edit: This did all get sorted out eventually. I got my refund but it was a huge pain that would probably have gone unresolved had I not pestered them.
