Customer Service

[hambone17]

Clay and Ian I understand you two are busy with things in real life. Would it have been so hard to post something on the board saying there is a problem and we doing XXXX to correct it in XXX time and we applogize for the problem ? There is a post from Knightly that sums it up your program is great when it is working but the two of you need to work on communication skills to make this an awsome online game.

[scotty]

Originally posted by hambone17
Clay and Ian I understand you two are busy with things in real life.


Wouldn't you say this was real life??? I mean it sure seems it to me especially when I see that money taken out of my bank account every month.

[acidburnlk]

If Clay even does respond, it will not be until the 20th or 21st because they are moving their offices back to the old location.

[hambone17]

Acid,

Im just commenting on things like Clay moving and understanding that he might be out of pocket which means Ian needs to be around more....

[Scorey1974]

I have no idea what is going on with Mogul right now...Clay is not around...I have sent emails to Ian Smith with no response nor have I seen Clay or Ian post anything anywhere about what is going on??? I think we are witnessing first hand the demise of Sports Mogul...Let's hope not...but some kind of announcement should at least be posted somewhere...errrrrrr :(

[scotty]

Originally posted by acidburnlk
If Clay even does respond, it will not be until the 20th or 21st because they are moving their offices back to the old location.

the 20th or 21st??? looks like mogul will be down a few days then

[knightly]

Scorey et al;
This is not the first time Mogul (Clay and Ian) has disapeared (are they really ever here???) and predictions of its demise has been predicted. I would not expect a response to this, they rarely respond to anything, expecially problems with the products post.

I have repeatedly tried to get them to change, an on-going effort for over a year -- a hiatus when I gave up. Many, many loyal mogul customers have been lost as a result; yet nothing has happened to remedy or improve the situation -- you can expect more of the same; more nothing!

:confused: I do not understand why they bother to put half of the effort into this -- they could make more money with a moderate amount of effort -- they give 1,000 of excuses why they can not have nay help -- all of it is BS! Apparently they make enough with no effort. I have offered to buy, help and contribute as have others -- I have posted open letters, sent pleading emails and received not a response, zero -- no communication at all, not even a "no thanks. "

Yet, admittedly I am still here -- I like the product; HATE THE CUTOMER SERVICE but eventually WILL get fed up and leave again -- wondering will things change or will Mogul even be around when I check.

[Chisox35]

Well ya know what. This wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't have to pay for the service. I should get some sort of refund for the fact that I can't log into any of my leagues for 1 day.

Out of the Park Baseball is starting to look a whole lot better now. That is a product that is so much deeper and the developers put a whole lot more time and effort into their game. The only drawback is that it is a bit slower to sim than this, but I'm thinking it may be worth it. At least you arent continually going back in time.

I've played the demo and it's great, here is the link in case noone knows what I am talking about.

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/ootp/

Oh and the price just came down to $19.99

[Scorey1974]

Originally posted by knightly
Scorey et al;
This is not the first time Mogul (Clay and Ian) has disapeared (are they really ever here???) and predictions of its demise has been predicted. I would not expect a response to this, they rarely respond to anything, expecially problems with the products post.

I have repeatedly tried to get them to change, an on-going effort for over a year -- a hiatus when I gave up. Many, many loyal mogul customers have been lost as a result; yet nothing has happened to remedy or improve the situation -- you can expect more of the same; more nothing!

1. Agreed...this has happened before.
2. The demise is under way....go look at many of the fullest leagues in BMO...they contain all the same members.
3. There will be a response if ALL of us put the heat on Clay...When you have members like Khan getting fed up things are looking bleak...If all of us who are committed to this game put the heat on...Clay will have 2 choices...improve the game and customer service...or FOLD.
4. More of the same isn't going to cut it anymore...Either the product gets better...or we all should get out...as much as I hate to say that.

[khan]

The only reason BMO is still in business is because OOTP does not have an online version of their game. I will bet anyone $100 that BMO will be crushed if/when OOTP develops an online version. Its true that OOTP takes longer to sim but at least you don't have all the headaches (stats getting erased, 19 year old players losing their skills WITHOUT injury, the World Series winner getting the best rookie in the draft, credit cards getting hacked because of an expired Verisign agreement and on and on and on...)

[boomboom]

Originally posted by khan
The only reason BMO is still in business is because OOTP does not have an online version of their game. I will bet anyone $100 that BMO will be crushed if/when OOTP develops an online version. Its true that OOTP takes longer to sim but at least you don't have all the headaches (stats getting erased, 19 year old players losing their skills WITHOUT injury, the World Series winner getting the best rookie in the draft, credit cards getting hacked because of an expired Verisign agreement and on and on and on...)

i totally agree, but when Clay is on AIM, and I ask him a question, he always responds to me....I dont know about you guys, but I really have no problem with communication when I need it...but at the same time, not everybody has his AIM handle, and not all the time he is online........but If he doesnt improve his c.service, and OOTP comes out with an online product, Sports Mogul will be doomed....and I might go and try there ootp online, if there is ever one. But as a loyal customer, and because I like the product, I dont expect too leave because of this anytime soon.:)

[knightly]

That is absurd -- can you imagine if the only way you could get support from Microsoft was to messenger Bill Gates?? There would be no Internet, no Windows and no PC's.:eek:

[boomboom]

Originally posted by knightly
That is absurd -- can you imagine if the only way you could get support from Microsoft was to messenger Bill Gates?? There would be no Internet, no Windows and no PC's.:eek:

I even got clay on today to sticky a thread in my league.....maybe he is busy....he has always responded to my e-mail's, my IM's.....I have no idea why he wouldnt anwser countless e-mails from you guys......

[Scorey1974]

We all must remember...this is not Clay's primary job anymore...BUT...if he wants this game to continue to grow and build upon the base he has...he will need to hire!!!....and advertise to get more customers to pay the new hirees....There are tons of roto sites he could probably swap advertising with for free...also putting ads in sports magazines would help!

[Scorey1974]

Originally posted by boomboom
I even got clay on today to sticky a thread in my league.....maybe he is busy....he has always responded to my e-mail's, my IM's.....I have no idea why he wouldnt anwser countless e-mails from you guys......

Bobby...I'm with you on that one...for the most part Clay does respond to IM's and such...Maybe it's the approach some members take with him that he may not respond...or perhaps he is entitled to a bad day every now and then...;)

[Hash1]

I used to get angry about the lack of customer support but then I realized it all comes down to not enough people play this game and clay has a 2nd job and a family so he doesnt have time or the money to provide customer support. I think clay has done an excellent job with bmo since its basically just him and ian. I understand that alot of you are pissed because most games that charge 15 dollars a month are CONSTANTLY updated. I will be leaving this game sometime in the future for good or for about a year just because i am bored with it. Actually i havent enjoyed this game for about 4 months but im just sticking around now because of all the cool people i have met though here. pretty much what im saying is Clay and ian dont make much money off this and i think its really cool that they havent completely given up on mogul yet. I try to recruit players whenever i can so that this game can someday get bigger. The last time i recruited someone was when every league lost there stats in one day so lets just say he decided not to sign up

[knightly]

First of all Hash, I agree there is a great community of owners that make participation fun and competititive, probably Moguls most valueable asset. However, do not make excuses for Clays and Moguls lack of Customer Service. We pay our hard earned money for participating (mny have also purchased the CD product), many of us have families and work very hard at our jobs, and to categorize this as a "job" for Clay would be an overstatment. This is a lucrative "escape" for Clay, Moguls has rarely in my experienced treated it as a job or business. I have run and participated in a Fantasy Baseball league (about as many temas and owners as Mogul), it is a hobb, run cheaply, efficiently and where customer service is valued. It does not take much to provide a minimum, reasonable, acceptable and even adequate level of customer service; mogul does not meet this.

As I said many of us have families and jobs or school and we manage to actively particpate; WE ARE NOT GETTING PAID and COMMISHES provided better customer service for FREE than Mogul management does with our payments!!!

WE, myself included consistently give Mogul the benefit of the doubt, because we enjoy the games and other owners; and this in a small part outweighs the lack and at times negative customer services. Communication is #1 to service and Moguls communication is worse than bad!!:mad:

[Hash1]

Um last i checked this would definitely be catorgized as a 'job'. SM doesnt only consist of BMO and if you havent noticed SM recently released bbm2k5 and fm2k5 and released patches for those games so its not like this isnt a 'job'. In about 99% of games out there you dont have to email or IM the president of the company for support. So yes he does have a family and 2 jobs and i can pretty much guarantee he doesnt make enough money off this game to make it worth it. ( if he did he wouldnt have 2 jobs and would be spending the money on advertising for this game). Im just saying we all know the situation in mogul that its basically clay all by himself and not enough people play this game. I do think that clays really needs to consider lowering the prices because this game is not worth the money imo. I dont want you to think that im ok with the lack of customer support but it has came to the point where I have realized we will never get much of it and its either stay here and keep paying or just leave because imo things will never change.

[Schmergman]

Im going to have to side with Clay on this one. He has always responded when i have a problem and reach him through AIM. Also, youre talking about the game not changing and such, but he just added the new peak ratings and the money values and the new scouring reports and such. It was also a new player database. I mean guys its a fun game, even if it doesnt come out with something bold every day. The engine itself runs absolutely flawless as in you can sit on the internet and tinkre with lineups and such and nothing really crashes and theirs plenty of options. That had to be hard as **** to code. Yeah its been like that for a while and hes busy, but i mean the guy did create an incredibly fun game that we love. Why do you insist on chastizing him?

[knightly]

Originally posted by Schmergman
Im going to have to side with Clay on this one. He has always responded when i have a problem and reach him through AIM. Also, youre talking about the game not changing and such, but he just added the new peak ratings and the money values and the new scouring reports and such. It was also a new player database. I mean guys its a fun game, even if it doesnt come out with something bold every day. The engine itself runs absolutely flawless as in you can sit on the internet and tinkre with lineups and such and nothing really crashes and theirs plenty of options. That had to be hard as **** to code. Yeah its been like that for a while and hes busy, but i mean the guy did create an incredibly fun game that we love. Why do you insist on chastizing him?

YOU like Mogul must have a lower expectation of customer service. As I have said elsewhere, Customer services IS NOT releasing a product and responding to emergencies eventually!!!! Yes, coding is difficult BUT AGAIN that is NOT customer service. The engine "DOES NOT RUN FLAWLESSLY" there are hiccups to many to list them all from memory and there are threads to this fact in other forums. However, examples are: Loss of stats, loss of stats, and loss of stats, internal malfunctions, random player genrations, etc.. and THIS IS NOT CUSTOMER SERVICE, this is QUALITY ASSURANCE!!!! I am tired of Mogul apologists -- I like the game, I play the game and I pay for the game -- I do expect an adequate level of customer services.

Examples:
** Responding to e-mail in a timely fashion, heck responding to e-mail and forums sometimes would be a good start.
** Commish level product support
** Communication, communication, communication

Do EVEN get me started on Marketing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I did not care, I would not post and I would quit!!!

[boomboom]

Originally posted by knightly
Examples:
** Responding to e-mail in a timely fashion, heck responding to e-mail and forums sometimes would be a good start.
** Commish level product support
** Communication, communication, communication

Do EVEN get me started on Marketing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I did not care, I would not post and I would quit!!!

I agree with you 100% knightly, I believe that commissioners of are the reason why some people still stay here, gives it a false impression of customer service even thou they are not employeed by Sports Mogul, and just like the fun of running leagues.

[jookster]

I am with you Knightly.

I just recently returned to BBMO after being away for over a year. Most of the complaints being stated in this thread now were also being stated back then and that fact alone shows that the customer service is piss-poor at best. Too many outstanding GMs and commishs' have left the game for various reasons when I guarantee that by simply responding to the repeated posts, Clay and Ian could have kept many of them here. Someone in this thread said that there were all these improvements made to the game. The only 2 noticeable differences I've seen are the number-based ratings rather than the letter-based, and the offensive numbers aren't ridiculous anymore. When I left the game before there were guys hitting 90+ homeruns a season for crissakes. Someone also said that Clay doesn't make enough money off of this game to make it worth his while to invest any time into improving it. What kind of hogwash is that??? Does this person not see the enormous money-making potential of this game? Clay should be dedicating all of his work-related time to this game. If they would improve the problems with the game and add the features that my fellow mogulers and I have been requesting since day one, people would stop leaving. Old GMs who did leave would return, and heaven-forbid they may even attract new customers!!! Unlike BBM for CD-ROM, this is not a one-time only payment game. You pay every month to play. If they managed to reach the 1000 player mark, which this game easily could to with minimal effort by the creators, they would make anywhere between $5000-$15000 a month! Tell me that's not worth a little extra effort to improve your product. So stop making excuses for our absent facilitaters and keep harassing the **** out of them and maybe we will finally see some results.