Small is beautiful

[Jarhead0331]

This is not a matter of big bad evil mega corp. vs. angelic good wholesome indie. It is a simple matter of economics. As companies grow larger their priorities change and the ones in charge are usually forced to focus on things other than customer care. When you have millions of customers in literally hundreds of countries around the world, customer service becomes more generalized and impersonal by necessity. Doing it any other way just isn't practical.

Also, for the little guys, kissing customer ass is more of a necessity. Park doing the right thing by you has resulted in you coming here and writing a glowing review of his benevolence, which hopefully, for him, will translate into more business.

I'm not saying that generalized and inadequate customer service is a good thing, but I don't think a company like sega deserves to be attacked over it. At the same time, by doing the right thing, I don't think a company like Arcen necessarily deserves accolades and praise. In fact, think about this Boggit...now that you have written this post here at GH, millions of our devoted fans will read this and start buying Arcen games. Chris park will become a billionaire as a result. He will expand the company, and by 2018, his gross profits will exceed those of sega. As a result, of this growth, he will have to set up a customer support system capable of catering to millions of customers, which will be based on the model created by sega and EA....and WHY? All because you started this thread.

I think you should re-read what I actually wrote before letting rip.

I mentioned 3 Indies who all gave outstanding service promptly, and compared it to an enquiry with a big company, which after 6 months is still no further towards finding an answer to a simple, non-controversial issue. I have given the Indie's credit for their response, although they have a fragment of the resources available for customer services.

Put yourself in my shoes as a customer. Who do you think is providing the better service? Unlike you, I don't see any problem in praising good service, and if Chris Park and all the other Indie's who do that make a fortune because of good customer service, then I say good luck to them! If SEGA had bothered to address my query in a reasonable manner, or even in a timely manner that would have been good, but they didn't, and the impression I formed - not surprisingly - after waiting over 6 months on a non-controversial enquiry is that they don't care about their customer. I never said that they were evil, nor that all Indies are angelic. All I did was contrast the actions taken between three different Indies and one huge publisher. The huge publisher came up short. I just don't understand why you seem to have a problem with the Indie's getting some praise, yet defending the failure of the extremely well resourced mega corporation to reply to a simple question.

Perhaps we are both reading in between the lines? Only difference is, you're doing it incorrectly.

...oh, and I'm sorry the humor in the last paragraph went completely over your head.

[Boggit]

Perhaps we are both reading in between the lines?

Always a possibility. :) A curse of our professional training no doubt. ;)

Only difference is, you're doing it incorrectly.

Based on the above premise, possibly. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. At first blush I'd disagree, but you'll see why I say that in my final paragraph to this post.

...oh, and I'm sorry the humor in the last paragraph went completely over your head.

No, I got that. ;D The response was more to do with the tone of the rest of it. I didn't think "the little guys" as you put it, were "kissing customer ass", but acting very professionally. Does acting professionally equate to "kissing ass"? I hope, no I'm sure that's not what you really think. I was impressed with the excellent service from all three, so why not say so?

The whole point of the thread was more to do with the fact that 3 Indie's with comparitively few resources all managed better customer service than a big publisher that has a whole department (actually several - initially Steam pushed me to SEGA North America, who in turn pushed my enquiry to SEGA Europe [who have just sat on the issue]) to do that for them. Sure the link between customer and business is closer because of the direct business interest with the small companies, but for the same reason they seem more passionate about supporting their games, than someone on a 9-5 setup that doesn't have either a stake in the business, nor perhaps any interest in the games they sell. At least that was the lasting, and contrasting impression I formed from the attitude shown by SEGA Europe. I may have misinterpreted your response, but it came across that you were defending SEGA, who had nothing to be proud about in the matter mentioned, while dissing the Indie's. If I'm mistaken in my interpretation I apologise, but that is the way it came across at the time of my response.