Email sent to Sony Europe

Espy · May 28, 2014

I got tired of their games, so I sent the following email to help@uk.playstation.com (for lack of a more specific address, but hopefully it will be forwarded to the correct address). I'd encourage others to follow suit.

Hello,

I am writing partially to complain, but also to hopefully gain some insight into an issue that has been affecting the PS3 version of The Pinball Arcade for three weeks now. Since the latest patch has gone live, users need to download an updated version of every table pack they own. They are prompted to do this when selecting a table from that pack. However, a number of users have found that there are certain packs that, no matter how many times the "new version" is downloaded, do not work, and the user is caught in a loop of being told their table is outdated, downloading, and it having no effect. This locks out the table, making it unplayable. This is not just affecting me, I am a member of the Pinball Arcade Fans forum, and you only need to go to their PS3 section to see how many (generally angry) people it is affecting.

The tables that various users are reporting broken are as follows:

PS3

Table Pack 1
Table Pack 8
Table Pack 10
Table Pack 11
Table Pack 15
Table Pack 19
Table Pack 20

PS Vita

Table Pack 1

Keep in mind that this is over a third of the available table packs. Content that we have paid for is not working at all. We have spoken with Farsight, the game's developer, about this, and they have said that the fault lies at your end. While as a user I don't assume to knowing the whole story, it sounds like the new versions of these table packs have not been uploaded correctly or at all. Also, as some people are affected by certain table packs and others aren't, our suspicion is that only the Pro version (which has bonus features) of each of the above table packs is affected.

Also, we have been waiting months now for Table Packs 21 and 22 to be released. Farsight claim they have submitted the tables to you at the same time they were submitted to the American store, which have now had the packs out for a very long time. I don't know who is at fault here, but could you please look into getting these released?

Please investigate these issues with top priority. If you had broken a third of the latest Call of Duty game, I know you would be sure to fix it as soon as possible. However, it has now been three weeks since breaking the game, and I have to wonder why this is taking so long, and if you are just ignoring the issue because it's a smaller game from a smaller developer. But there are a number of your users that can't play their favourite game because of this.

Yours sincerely,

Sandy Nisbet

BBIAJ · May 28, 2014

Bravo my man!

Mind if I send a C+P of that, changing the obvious details like my name, to them?

The more people that effectively petition Sony this way, the more chance we might see a change, or get an answer.

shutyertrap · May 28, 2014

Nicely written. A perfect example of communicating without coming off like a needy twat. I encourage all you European players affected to copy and send to Sony.

Rudy hates me · May 28, 2014

Done. Even my patience has finally run out. I've added the PS4 delay to my complaint.

sukmytoe2 · May 28, 2014

My EMail to them reads -

What is it with PSN Europe and Pinball Arcade? The US PSN released add on table packs 21 and 22 more than a month ago however you at PSN Euro elect that you maybe don't feel like it or it isn't important enough Farsight not being a mainstream developer? I'm a PSN customer, I bought a Playstation 3 and have supported many games through the Store. The fact that I love Pinball and am ranked no 7 in the world shouldn't be a concern to you but it is to me and the fact that you don't release the tables in line with the US means that I don't get the same amount of practice on the tables before the competitions.

I am a PSN Euro customer and unfortunately for you you don't dictate to your customers in business - it works the other way round in fact.

Can you do something about this - and I don't mean for next Wednesday's store update - I mean like tomorrow? My next mail will go to Yoshida.

Dave Pope

Espy · May 28, 2014

Nice to have started something. Feel free to copy and paste. Sony will undoubtedly notice it's the same but even just a few complaints should be enough for them to realise something is wrong. My assumption is Sony are only hearing from Farsight and not realising the gravity of the issue. I hope some angry (but respectful!) fans will help them realise what's up.

Lykaion23 · May 29, 2014

I don't think so, wrote sony europe an Email for the beginning of may, but don't got a response that the even read it only, or got a real answer.

Espy · May 29, 2014

Lykaion23 said:
I don't think so, wrote sony europe an Email for the beginning of may, but don't got a response that the even read it only, or got a real answer.

I suppose that's precisely why we need numbers behind this. If they refuse to acknowledge there's a problem, at least with the broken patch, then they're just twisted, to be honest.

Out of interest, what did you email about specifically? I'm hoping that my tone will make them more likely to respond.

mpad · May 29, 2014

The help desk is likely some outsourced company in romania who besides sony also cover some more important things like the latest teleshopping kitchen equipment or stuff.

Espy · May 29, 2014

mpad said:
The help desk is likely some outsourced company in romania who besides sony also cover some more important things like the latest teleshopping kitchen equipment or stuff.

They will still surely forward the email to the relevant parties. Bad customer service otherwise.

wolfson · May 29, 2014

maybe Europe psn is a one man or woman office who has regular siestas !!!!

Espy · May 30, 2014

Words escape me...

Hi Sandy,

Thanks for your e-mail about your Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) account.

I can see from your e-mail that you're having some problems with your SEN account. As we take the security of SEN accounts very seriously, we are unable to provide support on this matter by e-mail as we will need you to answer some security questions before we can investigate this further.

Therefore I would appreciate it if you could please contact PlayStation Support using the contact details below.

Thank you,

Jaben
PlayStation Support

Rudy hates me · May 30, 2014

Espy said:
Words escape me...

If this is an example of one of the monkeys at the controls, we've got no chance.

Biff · May 31, 2014

Maybe you want to contact Shahid ... don't know if it helps ....

Espy · May 31, 2014

Biff said:
Maybe you want to contact Shahid ... don't know if it helps ....

Did so. At least we'll get a human reply ths time.

Also sent Help an unappreciative reply.

Buzz1126 · May 31, 2014

Good luck with your efforts, I hope you have better luck dealing with Sony UK than I did trying to resolve an issue with Apple. They stopped pre-sales of tables for FS, even though other pinball apps were allowed to do it. Their final response to me was, "we feel we have answered your question, and any further emails will go unanswered". They didn't like having their errors pointed out to them.

Espy · Jun 1, 2014

Buzz1126 said:
Good luck with your efforts, I hope you have better luck dealing with Sony UK than I did trying to resolve an issue with Apple. They stopped pre-sales of tables for FS, even though other pinball apps were allowed to do it. Their final response to me was, "we feel we have answered your question, and any further emails will go unanswered". They didn't like having their errors pointed out to them.

Hopefully they'll take claims that the game is not working more seriously than some business decision.

Shaneus · Jun 3, 2014

Biff said:
Maybe you want to contact Shahid ... don't know if it helps ....

Can I just say, that's amaaaaazing. Shahid is honestly the one shining light (as far as I can tell) in Sony Europe, spearheading the charge for (I think?) indie developers on Vita and PS4 (although it might just be Vita) and enticing devs to bring games like Hotline Miami and TxK to the Sony platforms.

In his hands, you can rest assured something *will* get done.

Espy · Jun 3, 2014

Second response from Help. This one actually had "(FREEHAND)" in the title of the email, as if a response that isn't copied and pasted is abnormal. Heh. And it definitely is freehand because there are typos in it!

Hi Sandy,

Thank you for your recent contact with PlayStation Support.

Firstly please accept our apologies for the last response from us.

From your email I understand the problems people are experiencing with the latest update fro Pinball Arcade. Please advice anyone you know with this issue to contact us so we can escalate their case to our network team.

I hope this helps, If you have any further queries please contact us on the details below or simply reply to this email.

Thanks

Scott
PlayStation Support

Well, they finally got the message... but from the other topics it sounds like the issue is already fixed anyway. Whether our barrage of complaints actually had an affect, we'll never know. But if anyone is still having the problem, get in contact with them is the message they're putting out.

Buzz1126 · Jun 4, 2014

Espy said:
Hopefully they'll take claims that the game is not working more seriously than some business decision.

Oh, call me crazy, but my decades in the customer relations business tells me a) there are no small problems, only small people and b) never never ever ever tell the customer you won't get back to him. That's a decision the pay grade above you makes. That's why he's a pay grade above you.

Email sent to Sony Europe

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