General Discussion

I have gotten a taste of the poor customer service that businesses offer in other countries when I had dish network installed when i moved in .. Man was that a mistake.  They installed the wrong box , I wanted hd boxes only and they gave me some old piece of @#&%! .. well I wasn;t even moved in yet it was 2 weeks prior to move in and so when I moved in and noticed what they had done, I tried calling customer service.. well first the sent me to some guy that barely could speaka english in the middleeast.. and He was telling me that I was going to have to pay for their mistake by purchasing a new box , that was supposed to be included with the original installation.. well I told him where he could put that box and their service basically.  I wrote a letter to their corporate office letting them know why I had cancelled and the poor treatment I received.  I also posted my expierance at my home owners association website letting all of my neighbors know exactly how I was treated by that company.Then I get these calls from"american" reps that are trying to give me 2 years free subscriptions and fix the box free.. but by then I had made up my mind already and told them " No Thanks" I already had another service installed.  I finally had to write a noterized letter to them stating to take my name off their call lists because I was going to sue them for harrassment if they didn;t stop calling me trying to get me to come back.  That is how americans deal with companies,  so if they do not offer proper customer service, they lose our business and gain a bad reputation hindering new business.

Its probably because it takes too long to recode a game with the correct language for each region. Setizans expect that type of thing ....

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Originally posted by deviliscious
I have gotten a taste of the poor customer service that businesses offer in other countries when I had dish network installed when i moved in .. Man was that a mistake. They installed the wrong box , I wanted hd boxes only and they gave me some old piece of @#&%! .. well I wasn;t even moved in yet it was 2 weeks prior to move in and so when I moved in and noticed what they had done, I tried calling customer service.. well first the sent me to some guy that barely could speaka english in the middleeast.. and He was telling me that I was going to have to pay for their mistake by purchasing a new box , that was supposed to be included with the original installation.. well I told him where he could put that box and their service basically. I wrote a letter to their corporate office letting them know why I had cancelled and the poor treatment I received. I also posted my expierance at my home owners association website letting all of my neighbors know exactly how I was treated by that company.Then I get these calls from"american" reps that are trying to give me 2 years free subscriptions and fix the box free.. but by then I had made up my mind already and told them " No Thanks" I already had another service installed. I finally had to write a noterized letter to them stating to take my name off their call lists because I was going to sue them for harrassment if they didn;t stop calling me trying to get me to come back. That is how americans deal with companies, so if they do not offer proper customer service, they lose our business and gain a bad reputation hindering new business.

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you will get the same in the UK really. just that they will try as hard as possible not to admit be the one that made the mistake ...and it takes a while to get results fro the stubborn bastards :p

Originally posted by Housam

 

 

you will get the same in the UK really. just that they will try as hard as possible not to admit be the one that made the mistake ...and it takes a while to get results fro the stubborn bastards :p

It didn't take them long to admit they were in error... as soon as my cancelation crossed their desks, they were calling me begging me to reconsider. But what I considered was would I be sent to  the same guy I talked to the first time everytime I have a problem with my service? No thanks, I don't need headaches ty.  So yes, I turned down 2 years free service, and their apologies and they even went so far as to say that they had me as a " select customer"  so that I would be guaranteed an american rep everytime I called in. But  dealing with a company that would give that bad of customer service to anyone is not  a company I care to deal with. See when i call customer service i expect them to be friendly and truely help resolve the problem, if they cannot do that then I take my business to someone who will.

Originally posted by Housam

 

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Originally posted by Kyleran
Its just easier to roll out a MMO to the North American market, hence companies tend to focus on it first.
As others have pointed out, less hassle dealing with various languages, fewer local laws/regulations to keep track of, tax issues such as the VAT.
Heck, Funcom is a European developer, and they launched in the US first. And notice, regardless who develops the code, a majority of publishing houses are US based, so of course local favoritism comes into play a bit.
Besides, we whine better here in the states.

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still...does not explain why in general the US has better customer service...

For english language version of games, the service centres will most likely be where the bulk of the english speaking population lives.  That is, it will be somewhere in the USA /Canada area.

The pricing in Australia seems extremely expensive compared to US prices.  Someone in the supply chain is making a killing.

As an example, I just did a quick comparison of Age of Conan prices:

• EbGames US  www.ebgames.com :  $49.99 US
• EbGames Australia www.ebgames.com.au  $79.95 AUD ($77.02 USD)
• On Tuesday 20 May my local Australian Ebgames outlet had the pre-order price as $99.99 AUD ($96.37 USD).

The Ebgames prices are competitive locally and typical of Australian stores.

It is simple, we are first because we dropped the big bombs 2 times. That trickles down to the way we are viewed, just like how British pound is always higher then any othe currency, why ? Cause they used own almost the entire world at one point . These historical events are mirrors of how a country is precieved in the light of the rest of the world. 

Amercan economy might not be as strong right now, but since we are the only country to drop big bombs (Atom bombs) we will always be viewed as the leader of the world, and in that arrogance we will have a big fight on our hands soon. Russia had the bombs but they aren't committed to use them , like we are.First thing out of every americans mouth after 9/11 was "nukem"

Originally posted by thorwood

For english language version of games, the service centres will most likely be where the bulk of the english speaking population lives.  That is, it will be somewhere in the USA /Canada area.

The pricing in Australia seems extremely expensive compared to US prices.  Someone in the supply chain is making a killing.

As an example, I just did a quick comparison of Age of Conan prices:

• EbGames US  www.ebgames.com :  $49.99 US
• EbGames Australia www.ebgames.com.au  $79.95 AUD ($77.02 USD)
• On Tuesday 20 May my local Australian Ebgames outlet had the pre-order price as $99.99 AUD ($96.37 USD).

The Ebgames prices are competitive locally and typical of Australian stores.

what is Australia's job wages like ? It could be parallel to your cost of living ? Here in the U.S. the minimuim wage is like $7.15 an hour...

Originally posted by deviliscious

Originally posted by Housam

 

 

you will get the same in the UK really. just that they will try as hard as possible not to admit be the one that made the mistake ...and it takes a while to get results fro the stubborn bastards :p

It didn't take them long to admit they were in error... as soon as my cancelation crossed their desks, they were calling me begging me to reconsider. But what I considered was would I be sent to  the same guy I talked to the first time everytime I have a problem with my service? No thanks, I don't need headaches ty.  So yes, I turned down 2 years free service, and their apologies and they even went so far as to say that they had me as a " select customer"  so that I would be guaranteed an american rep everytime I called in. But  dealing with a company that would give that bad of customer service to anyone is not  a company I care to deal with. See when i call customer service i expect them to be friendly and truely help resolve the problem, if they cannot do that then I take my business to someone who will.

That's why I will never buy another Netgear product... Outsourced tech support that knows less than the customer, after you muddle through the rough accent.