I don't know if anyone else has had this issue or if it was just me. I used to own a PS3 and then I sold it. I then later on co-owned a PS3 with a really good friend of mine.
I had all my personal information on there and while I did buy PS3 stuff I didn't buy alot. (I'm poor and have other more important things to spend my money on, like rent, food, etc.) Like alot of you I heard about the PSN crisis through The Escapist and heard not a peep through e-mail by Sony.
I was pretty angry with Sony and I was a bit irritated about the Welcome Back program but free stuff is free stuff, right? What I didn't know was that there was an expiration date for this program.
Now before I continue I'd just like to explain that the idea of a Welcome Back program to me seems like a "Hey, we screwed up but to make it up to you have some free stuff." not "Hey, we screwed up and if you log in within this amount of time you can have some free stuff but if not then it's your fault and your loss."
So I try to log in and I get a resounding nothing. I'm a bit confused and think maybe I did something wrong so I call into the support phone line and I'm told. "Yeah, well it's expired and since we weren't working on your machine during that timeframe we can't make an exception.
We aren't willing to bend the rules because your friend who co-owns the machine lives on the other end of the province or because we never sent you a single e-mail about this entire smurfed up scenario or because we genuinely care (because we don't).
I understand at the end of the day to most people this probably isn't a big deal. To me this is insult to injury. I have my information swiped and I'm in a panic that I might have my somewhat lame identity stolen.
Sony doesn't tell me squat. I call in to find out that I'm 'too late.' Plus I work at a call center and the last thing I want to do with my free time is deal with tech support/customer service in one form or another.
So whats my point? I'm going to deal with Microsoft from now on. At least when their stuff breaks/things go bad they actually let you know whats going on and give you compensation that doesn't expire. (At least from my experience.)
Tl;dr: Sony won't make an exception to keep a customer even when it doesn't cost them anything.
I had all my personal information on there and while I did buy PS3 stuff I didn't buy alot. (I'm poor and have other more important things to spend my money on, like rent, food, etc.) Like alot of you I heard about the PSN crisis through The Escapist and heard not a peep through e-mail by Sony.
I was pretty angry with Sony and I was a bit irritated about the Welcome Back program but free stuff is free stuff, right? What I didn't know was that there was an expiration date for this program.
Now before I continue I'd just like to explain that the idea of a Welcome Back program to me seems like a "Hey, we screwed up but to make it up to you have some free stuff." not "Hey, we screwed up and if you log in within this amount of time you can have some free stuff but if not then it's your fault and your loss."
So I try to log in and I get a resounding nothing. I'm a bit confused and think maybe I did something wrong so I call into the support phone line and I'm told. "Yeah, well it's expired and since we weren't working on your machine during that timeframe we can't make an exception.
We aren't willing to bend the rules because your friend who co-owns the machine lives on the other end of the province or because we never sent you a single e-mail about this entire smurfed up scenario or because we genuinely care (because we don't).
I understand at the end of the day to most people this probably isn't a big deal. To me this is insult to injury. I have my information swiped and I'm in a panic that I might have my somewhat lame identity stolen.
Sony doesn't tell me squat. I call in to find out that I'm 'too late.' Plus I work at a call center and the last thing I want to do with my free time is deal with tech support/customer service in one form or another.
So whats my point? I'm going to deal with Microsoft from now on. At least when their stuff breaks/things go bad they actually let you know whats going on and give you compensation that doesn't expire. (At least from my experience.)
Tl;dr: Sony won't make an exception to keep a customer even when it doesn't cost them anything.