Foutje van Zynga zet vreemde ongewild op klantendienst
Voor een bedrijf is de relatie met klanten belangrijk, en dus zou je denken dat een goed werkende klantendienst een prioriteit is. Jammer genoeg lijkt dat niet altijd het geval en in het geval van Zynga maakt een bizarre fout het er niet meteen beter op.
Tot voor kort gaf Zynga spelers van het spel Coasterville de opdracht om te mailen naar [gecensureerd]@themepark.com indien zich een internal server error had voorgedaan. De persoon in kwestie zou de server administrator zijn, maar dat blijkt helemaal niet te kloppen. Themepark.com behoort namelijk toe aan een zekere Eric Mueller, die zich weliswaar met web design bezighoudt maar niets met Zynga te maken heeft. Hij heeft er zelfs nog nooit een game van gespeeld.
Mueller contacteerde Zynga om de fout aan te kaarten, maar hij kreeg geen antwoord en mensen bleven hem mails doorsturen met hun klachten over Coasterville. Omdat Mueller niets hoorde van Zynga besloot hij om dan maar effectief de rol van klantendienst op zich te nemen en mensen te "helpen". Dat "helpen" is echter relatief, want Mueller raadde spelers de meest absurde zaken aan om hun problemen te verhelpen. Zo raadde hij mensen aan om hun cursor heel erg traag te bewegen of om de zin "I love brown bears, folding chairs and little curly hairs!" op het profiel van minstens vijf vrienden te posten.
Zynga is inmiddels wel op de hoogte van de situatie en heeft het foute e-mailadres al verwijderd, maar mogelijk hebben heel wat mensen nu wel een wat vreemd beeld van de klantendienst. Hieronder trouwens enkele integrale antwoorden die Mueller verstuurde.
I know that For Canada Day, the engineering department wraps the ".ca" servers in Canadian flags, and then sets a plate of poutine on top. This sometimes can cause the server to overheat, and sometimes even get gravy into the login/logout module. I thought that might be what was going on, but I checked with the Canadian server techs and they are telling me that Canada Day passed without incident and the servers all enjoyed their break and are back to running fine. However, I told them that wasn't the case and explained the problems you are having with the game, so they suggested another fix specifically for Canadian players. Here's what they said to try: do you have a hockey jersey? If so, you should lay it across your keyboard, and then try to enter the game. If that doesn't work, put the jersey on and then give it another shot. ——- Regarding the golden treasure chest, I see what you mean; I don't have any record here that shows you clicked "show me" to open the chest. Can you try clicking it five times, very slowly? Usually that sets it to definitely recognize that it has been opened. Click, pause for a few seconds, and repeat that 4 more times. Regarding the dino skull, it's the same situation. Try the slow clicks. Finally, regarding the Majestic Castle landmark bonus, that's a tricky one. You can try the slow-click technique for that but I'm not sure it'll work. I talked to the engineers and they suggested holding down the M, E, and H keys, and while you have all three keys held down, try clicking the button then. This is a cheat code that can "force" the button to activate. ——- Can you tell me if you are on Mac or Windows? And, would you say you move the cursor (mouse) slowly, or quickly? Sometimes it helps to move the cursor more slowly on Facebook as you are going into the game. I would see if that makes a difference. It can also make a difference if you put the cursor in all four corners of the screen before clicking into the game. Please let me know if this does not resolve the issue. ——- This is actually a known issue with the Coasterville server, and I have a solution from our engineering team. It is a little bit strange, but here's how it works. You need to go to 5 of your Facebook friends and post this message on their wall: "I love brown bears, folding chairs and little curly hairs!" I know that seems odd :-) but the engineers have assured me that by connecting that message with your friends on their Facebook walls, then the game will see the message and it will cause it to avoid the problems that you've had. It has something to do with how the server was set up, and posting that message triggers special key words that are embedded in the game and assure the game's integrity. When the game sees those key words, it will know the server is configured properly and should be able to proceed without any other errors. (As a side effect, I am also being told that can also help the games load faster, too.) It doesn't matter which five friends you pick, and they don't need to be playing any of our games. The system just needs to see those keywords on five walls. |