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Hey I don't know if it helps but I only got two codes. I wasn't planning on buying more station cash anyway, so I'm not upset, but only two of the codes were sent out to me. I didn't get the third. I figure more information we give the faster you can figure out what happened when.

This promotion was a disaster. I have four accounts. I took the time to make sure the email box was checked on all four accounts well before the cut-off date.

Then the "promotion" began but only two of my accounts got emails. It was obvious, by the second day, that two accounts (both needing SC) weren't going to get it.

So I did the next best thing. I bought SC with the two accounts that got emails and then tried to gift the items, I wanted, to toons on the accounts that didn't get emails. Turns out you can only gift two items per day and they count it down to the second. What a crock.

So two accounts, that badly needed money, don't have any and two accounts that were already flush with money, are now even richer but are having to dribble presents to toons on my other accounts.

I thought the Thanksgiving promotions were terrible but I think this one surpassed Black Friday/Cyber Monday. At least I was able to send presents every few hours during the Thanksgiving promotion.

I love EQ II but SOE is like the gang that can't shoot straight. They have good intentions but they just don't think things through very well. As a result, we have continuing disasters like these promotions and DM nerfs.

There doesn't seem to be anyone studying their player base and advising them on which features will increase players and which ones will likely lose players. Their long-range plans seem dubious, at best.

Testing seems to be a joke (and I say this as a player on Test), so content is always going live that is half-baked. And every update seems to screw up as much as it fixes.

I don't claim to know what is the cause of all of this. Sony seems to be making some really bad business decisions lately so maybe that lack of business sense is trickling down.

Whatever the cause, I hope SOE will sit down and try to come up with some coherent plan for the future that will increase the player base and retain the player base that is left. With all its faults, EQ II is still the best game on the market. It's a darn shame that it doesn't get the love it deserves.

I did not experience any issues with this promotion from a technical aspect. I have only one account that I actively play and had made sure was opted in, and it received the e-mails.

However, I do have some feedback that I would offer regarding this.

Firstly, I really did not appreciate the whole "guess your discount" approach. I purchased $85 worth of SC on Black Friday and would not have hesitated to do so instantly again had this been double or triple, especially if it applied for more than a single day. Since it did not, I had to actively chase the codes. My first code was for 50%. My second code was for double station cash - but, I didn't buy any - because I wanted to see if I got a triple cash code on Sunday. My code on Sunday was for 25%. I bought nothing.

I do not have a degree in Marketing - but I do not personally think this really is having the intended effect that you think it is or should be. If I had bought station cash at the double rate and then received a code for triple the next day - I would have been angry, and not purchased more; not likely to impulse buy more of it. Since I didn't get a triple cash code the next day, I am merely slightly disappointed, but I still have my $85 and you do not.

I believe the goal of this type of promotion is to make the money move from the customer's pocket into yours, while making them feel like they made a worthwhile investment and/or that they are happy to give you the money. It needs to be win/win, so to speak, or it doesn't work. There wasn't any win here.

My last tidbit would also be in regards to the timing of the codes. If you don't have a way to automate this better, don't ever do this again. I know that one sounds harsh - but to say that you are offering a "three day promotion" with three "one day codes"... but then sending the codes out with less than 14 hours of actual time to use them is... something I can't write without getting in trouble.

The codes should have been going out at midnight EST or PST worst case and should have been valid until 11:59PM the same day in the corresponding time zone. If that isn't feasible for you to do, then you need to come up with an alternate system and make them time-delayed from the point they are first revealed after you enter the code, not from when you send the e-mail, and not expire them by single days. For example, if you e-mailed the code to me on Friday afternoon, and I entered it at 6pm, then I would have until 5:59pm on Saturday in my time zone to use it.

It's almost like you guys forgot that people are traveling and preparing for the holidays and being able to hop onto a website on a specific given day is something we should all just be slotting into our calendars along with the gift wrapping and such.

You want us saying this and being happy about it: <insert Futurama picture here>

Making it almost intentionally difficult to do so seems both counter-intuitive and counterproductive. While I understand the intention and necessity to keep it limited, the nature of this limited it too much and potentially alienated people who were willing to spend.

Although I am loathe to suggest it, I would almost prefer some sort of "preferred" club or something where we are rewarded over time permanently based on our level of accumulated lifetime Station Cash purchased per account. That wouldn't necessarily be to the exclusion of special sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday... but once someone has spent thousands - maybe a permanent 10% off all SC direct purchases isn't out of the question? Especially if you (are willing to) factor in the ongoing spend of all-access itself into the equation. Sort of like Loyalty in RIFT, but a bit different, and it would have to be platform wide, since membership is.

Edited to add:

Since it was mentioned above, I will also mention it. I actually liked the Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal, but would have preferred that it have gone on for the whole weekend. Limiting the double SC to a single day would have been fine and I would have understood... but having the All-Access sale go the whole weekend would have been really great. This was the second time there was an All-Access sale (maybe it was the previous Cyber Monday?) and I don't remember what the duration was, but I know I spent during it.

I thought the simple mechanics of this are what made it work best - everything you already get a discount on (which is pretty much everything that I know of), you get an additional discount. If you get 10%, now you get 25%. Every item, period.

I think some people were disappointed by not having flash sales on certain types of items... but overall, I spent way more with the flat increase, personally.

3IC8HXM5

I appreciate you taking the time to respond - I think a lot of the anger here is the lack of response from SOE. What bothers me is that your response sounds like they are working to fix it for future promotions, but will do nothing for those affected by the problems. It worked for me, but my husband got no emails even though he was opted in and plays regularly so he meets all of the criteria. And yes he checked spam. He put in a support ticket and got a generic reply that it's being looked into days ago and now nothing more.

I think what would be a better response from SOE is some indication that the people affected, once this is fixed, will get another chance at THIS promotion, not a future promotion.

Felt like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory promotion.

• You're lucky if you can get Wonka Bar. (Get an email, let alone 3 days in a row).
• Even luckier if a "Golden Ticket" is in the Wonka Bar. (Code works).
• Luckiest if the "Golden Ticket" gets you the grand prize! (Triple SC Points).

Why don't you just increase drops in zones or do something for everyone potions status? guide shiney collection? A golden ticket hunt? hummmm
we are really easy to please sometimes... it is christmas

I still have received codes for my main account and one other account. All accounts were signed up for the emails and I play virtually everyday. I am so bummed out. I spend thousands on this game and get crap service.

I have one account and I received an email the first two days of the three day event, so I can't complain.

While I don't necessarily disagree with you, in this case it's "user said" vs "SOE who has some kind of electronic records said." Something is no doubt wrong with their opt-in system and records thereof, but proving so just comes down to hearsay, and we'd lose.

The nice thing to do would have been to send everyone who claimed to be opted in a code, but that also opens up a nasty precedent. There's just no good solution once the initial problem has occurred.

The real solution would be to finally admit that the opt-in system is badly flawed (and has been for some time) and dedicate some resources to buying and installing a better system.

smh.... can we go back to the simple days when a weekend around a holiday got time for everyone to get bonus deals on buying SC? I mean, really, is that too much to ask....

You're correct Calthine but this is also one of the biggest problems with this company and it has gotten worse over the last couple of years. If something is going wrong their first response tends to it being the players fault. That is never how good customer service is handled. Even if it is the customer's fault it should be about finding solutions, not stating that there is nothing they can do.

I know there is already a lot of feedback on this, but I'll pipe in with mine.
I didn't like the promotion and ended up buying no SC because of it. I got 25% the first day 50% the second and didn't get an email the third day for some reason. I might have purchased if I would have received double station cash, but maybe not knowing that there was a triple SC deal out there.

The promotion was frustrating on a couple levels. First I only got two codes. Second, it felt like such a gimmick. I have a lot to do during the holidays and I don't need anyone playing games with sales. Offer a good sale for a reasonable time period and I'll take advantage of it. If not, then I'll spend my money elsewhere which is what I did. I spent my money on Steam sales and some game cash for other MMOs.

I've found your marketing frustrating lately: The way you sold the xpac, the price asked for it for what it included, to the way you've sold SC deals.

I feel like the promotions for purchasing points as of late are counter-productive at best. As an All Access member I think the extra discounts and special savings events are fine and dandy.

The SC sales should be:

1. Set to a Friday-Monday window (some of us don't get to log in Saturday and Sunday because of job schedule).
2. Offer one discount rate and be available to everyone, F2P included.
3. Limited to the direct purchases only. Many people can't get those Game Stop, Best Buy and Walmart SC cards since few stock them to begin with.

If the idea is to reward players by getting them to spend money when a discount is offered, this promotion failed. Many of those that opted in received sporadic and in some cases no codes at all. They say that the F2P crowd also supports the game financially and that's why we have F2P; so why exclude them?

They took a Holiday time when many are short on time and money, added in a frustration and time consuming way to receive a reward coupled with filling out petitions with resolves, if any, coming after the promotion was over. I'm fairly certain that many who got the 25% one held out for a 50% or better one. Then if they missed the codes, did not get a better discount or did not get more codes, they gave up. Many would have been just as happy if the promotion was 50% for the duration of the promotion, no gimmicks.

It's the Holiday. F2P got nothing. All Access got nothing if they failed to opt in, and in many cases, nothing but aggravation if they did. I'm pretty sure that SoE got less than expected in revenue and I know that the poor CS people swamped with petitions could not have been over joyed either.

Listen to the players and your staff that love this game and stop listening to the bean counters who see the bottom line, but not the long term picture. You dumped a lot of extra work on your employees and a lot of aggravation on your loyal players that are subscribers for what could have been a simple promotion that made both sides walk away feeling like they got a real gift this Holiday season.

Agree completely, My email promotios also sporadic. The holiday and work schedule and I just gave up.

The first day I got a code for 25%. It was not worth my time, IMO.
The second day I got no code at all.
The third day I was sicker than a dog and did not log in at all, but I did find on Monday that I did receive a code. Have no clue what that code was worth because it was already expired.
So SOE got $0 from me. Now to be fair, the only way they would have gotten anything from me was with a 3x code, and even then they would not have gotten much as I stocked up my SC on Black Friday.

I was also turned off by the need to enter / select payment information before I could see what the code was actually worth. When we enter a code we should be shown what it is worth BEFORE deciding whether we want to continue further.

Poor sequence:
Customer: Hey, I have got this code. What's it worth?
SOE: I will tell you that, but first I need your CC* information.
Customer: WTH! I just want to know what the code is worth. Why the hell do you need my CC information for that?
SOE: Um...I can't tell you that until you provide your CC* information.
Customer: WTH!...Just forget it! <slams down phone>
* Credit card, PayPal, etc.

Proper sequence:
Customer: Hey, I have got this code. What's it worth?
SOE: That code is worth 25%/50%/2x/3x. Would you like to redeem this code today?
Customer: Sure! Here is my CC* information!
SOE: <verifies information> Ok, you now have until midnight PT to benefit from this discount. Enjoy shopping and have a nice day!
Customer: Thank you!

I thought the big hype around signing up for an additional email would result in a (free of charge) little Christmas present, free of charge to emphasize the Christmas spirit, but receiving an email being asked to spend further money on EQ2 was quite a disappointment. I would have been thrilled to see a small and unique house item or a piece of appearance gear - it didn't have to be a big deal, but receiving a request to pull out my credit card and pay yet more, certainly had the opposite effect on me. A marketing ploy gone bad, as my SO phrases it.

Will there be any more extra station cash deals for new years?

I agree with you, but if it makes you feel any better, at least you got a "present"-some of us didn't even get the chance to take advantage of the sale/present-and when i petitioned about it, was told, "sorry for the mess up, but there's no way to flag your account now". What a letdown.

Ack. I just re-read my last post and realized I left out a word or two. I didn't get emails for two of my accounts including the main account. All are played everyday and I went back and made sure the correct box was checked for emails on all accounts. The two accounts that didn't need SC got codes. The two accounts in sad need of SC got no love from SOE.