Brutal Bug with Vendors...

[Vaen Swiftar]

Cross posted from another forum...

This morning I popped into Luna to buy a Conjurer's Trinket that I saw on sale for 10Mil. Although I purchased the item, it never came to my pack.

An initial GM support message was unhelpful to say the least. So I called EA. I have to say that my support experience for UO from EA has been very good so far. This was my second call. Special thanks therefore, for taking the time to look into my support call and being supportive go to the EA support staff I called.

The EA rep confirmed to me that the transaction took place, they found the record of my 10Mil purchase. Ea told me the item did not exist however and that therefore nothing was delivered to my pack. I don't really understand how this could happen. I was given a 20$ coupon and two legacy tokens in compensation. They explained that they cannot replace things in game.

I have to stress that this hits at the core of an economy. If you can't trust that an item will be delivered once purchased, you can't trust any vendor.

The support person encouraged me to post on EA forums as well as send an email to highlight the importance of this issue to UO developers. I will do so, but started here with my role play friends.

For the record, it was this vendor in Luna (Atlantic):

 

[LordDrago]

Very Interesting.......
Never heard of this happening before. I hope that this is not a new exploit, and if it is a bug, that it is a 1 in a billion event.

On the + side. Nice to see a customer service rep who actually cares about the players and took care of you!!!!

 

[Aurelius]

Hmm... just out of curiosity, do you know how close to your carrying capacity limit you were at the time, both in weight and number of items?

 

[Mapper]

A very worrying bug, However it is indeed very nice to see customer services helping out.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the EC client?

 

[a slave girl]

I have purchased an item that I could not hold due to weight limitations and that item fell to the ground beneath me.

Also is it possible that the item went into the buyer's bank?

I find it more disturbing that the GM message states ..."as players ourselves...".

Made me wonder if this happened on a free shard because it sounds very unprofessional.

I don't like being reminded that another 'player' may have power over my accounts.

A simple "We can not replace lost items," should suffice in this situation.

 

[Mapper]

I quite like the personal touch to the message, and I'd rather all GMs played the game rather than they just 'work' for the game.

 

[Black Sun]

I find it more disturbing that the GM message states ..."as players ourselves...".

Made me wonder if this happened on a free shard because it sounds very unprofessional.

I don't like being reminded that another 'player' may have power over my accounts.

A simple "We can not replace lost items," should suffice in this situation.

The post states it was on Atlantic. Why would a GM saying "as players ourselves" be cause for concern? or make you suspect a free shard? I'm sure a lot of GM's (for UO as well as other games) are or were players of MMO's in general. Frankly I'd rather the GM's were MMO players, at least then we know they have some experience with the issues that may crop up in the normal course of play.

 

[Coldren]

Quick Thought:

In EC, I still have an issue where items "disappear" from my backpack..

Did you log out and back in? Scroll to the bottom (If you are in grid form)?

On a hotbar, I have a runebook and my ethy mount next to each other, and when I click on my mount from the hotbar, the runebook right next to it disappears from my backpack and the hotbar slot greys out. I sign out and in, and then it's back.

Just a thought.

 

[Kandorian Demons]

You were given a $20 coupon and TWO Legacy Tokens?!?!?!?!?

We're sorry we cannot replace your lost item but here is $60 worth of FREE crap to replace the $5 worth of gold you lost?

WTF???

Anyone else seeing a trend of EA Mythic NOT following their own rules lately??

 

[Guido_LS]

You were given a $20 coupon and TWO Legacy Tokens?!?!?!?!?

We're sorry we cannot replace your lost item but here is $60 worth of FREE crap to replace the $5 worth of gold you lost?

WTF???

Anyone else seeing a trend of EA Mythic NOT following their own rules lately??

Legacy Tokens are < $10 each - that's $40, not $60. And it is nice to see EA/Mythic trending away from their old habits, which were, in a nutshell, too bad, you're out of luck, thanks for your sub fee.


I saw no mention of how long the OP had to sit on the phone waiting to just get through the queue, but on the occasions I had to do the same, the issue was NEVER resolved in less than 45 minutes, including hold time. So a little compensation for the time may well have been involved.

Personally, I dunno, and I don't really care. And it's actually nice to read a post where EA has done something *RIGHT* by the customer for a change.

 

[Black Sun]

it's actually nice to read a post where EA has done something *RIGHT* by the customer for a change.

Agreed.

 

[Kandorian Demons]

Fair enough, I had honestly not thought of it in that light. I just hope that they will try and be consistent with this new policy!

 

[gjohnson5]

Agreed.

X2
They given me free promotional codes as well for issues
Atleast they are trying which is a step up from not having support at all

 

[Mook Chessy]

I bet it was just the OP's mistake, nothing against him, but if the owner is/was smart enough to figure out how to do this, why waste it on a 10 mil item...100 mil FTW.

If in fact it is legit, wow...can you say total breakdown.

Time will tell, go figure it happened on Atl, talk about all your rotten eggs in one basket, lol.

 

[Guido_LS]

If in fact it is legit, wow...can you say total breakdown.

The EA rep confirmed to me that the transaction took place, they found the record of my 10Mil purchase. Ea told me the item did not exist however and that therefore nothing was delivered to my pack.

If we take the OP at his word, then this is the icing on the genuine cake.

 

[Derium of ls]

Cross posted from another forum...

Um... that's MY vendor!!

I've been buying and selling a lot, but I keep records so I have the ICQ of the person who sold me the batch of stuff that trinket was in, so I'll try to watch and see if any of her other items have problems, for now I'm going to buy them all with my second account and see if maybe I was sold some fake (somewhow?) items (again, why do it with low costing items, unless of course it's to fly under that radar).

regardless, even though you were comped by EA I will still offer you a full refund because of the hassle of all of this. And I can confirm your 10mil is sitting in the vendors purse.

To retrace the steps, I received all the items, took them to my house and sorted them out. had them put into chests and left there, when it comes time to restock I just go back and grab some more. so nothing "special" was done with the item by any means.

Since it was my vendor think there is any point in me calling EA as well?

 

[lucitus]

A very worrying bug, However it is indeed very nice to see customer services helping out.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the EC client?

Hehe think not i have bought exactly this item with the EC yesterday without problems. But this is of course possible, a bug, a problem in connection, dont know.

Maybe the friendly vendor owner is giving you the item, if he / she checks and gold is in?

 

[Bullseye_of_Atl]

Um... that's MY vendor!!

I've been buying and selling a lot, but I keep records so I have the ICQ of the person who sold me the batch of stuff that trinket was in, so I'll try to watch and see if any of her other items have problems, for now I'm going to buy them all with my second account and see if maybe I was sold some fake (somewhow?) items (again, why do it with low costing items, unless of course it's to fly under that radar).

regardless, even though you were comped by EA I will still offer you a full refund because of the hassle of all of this. And I can confirm your 10mil is sitting in the vendors purse.

To retrace the steps, I received all the items, took them to my house and sorted them out. had them put into chests and left there, when it comes time to restock I just go back and grab some more. so nothing "special" was done with the item by any means.

Since it was my vendor think there is any point in me calling EA as well?

I find it pretty admirable of you to offer the guy a refund, cool even.

GM's have the ability to see whats in players accounts, and they said the item does not exist, therefore, it's not the buyers fault. As said, it may have been a one in a quadrillion fluke. When I first started, I was at minoc bank, and my character couldn't hold a certain amount of gold. I searched bankbox, on the ground, my backpack......nothing. Weird thing though, another player from a distance kept wanting to come to where I was standing.....as if they could see the gold and I couldn't.

This was like 7 years ago.

 

[Vaen Swiftar]

Couple things:

1) I'm not the person this happened to, it was just someone in the RP community that I'm in.

2) As pointed out, it wasn't his mistake. But I'll post another screenshot just to show the purchase was done.

3) Derium you're a stand up guy. I forwarded your ICQ to the guy. Much thanks.

 

[Derium of ls]

It has nothing to do with being a stand up guy, it's just that if my vendor bugs out, it's my responsibility as the owner. It just blew me away to see that screenshot of my vendor!

as a side note, I bought the items off of it with my other account, all went well. it's restocked now, if there is any other issue let me know, I'll drop the entire vendor and replace it just to make 100% sure.

 

[retrorider]

It has nothing to do with being a stand up guy, it's just that if my vendor bugs out, it's my responsibility as the owner...

Actually, it does.

Being responsible especially AFTER you already have the gold and Customer Service has quelled the problem is exactly how being "a stand up guy" in modern UO should be defined.

Add my Kudos to those below. Nice job. Class act. More players like this, please.

I find it pretty admirable of you to offer the guy a refund, cool even...

...
3) Derium you're a stand up guy. I forwarded your ICQ to the guy. Much thanks.

Also, Kudos goes to UO Customer Support for handling this correctly. Thank god. I hope this is a trend that gains momentum.

 

[Flutter]

It has nothing to do with being a stand up guy.

Sure it does. You are still out the item. Kudos.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I'm sorry, but I have questions.
There's no GM name on that page. In my experience that's always included so that you can send in feedback to GM reviews.
Nor have I ever seen a page that says 'as players ourselves'. If I'm wrong, I apologise, but something doesn't feel right here.

 

[Der Rock]

Cross posted from another forum...

in EC sometimes item are invisible, log completly out and in helps,but sometimes items still invisible,so try again



for petra: look at the slider, the message is not at the end,maybe GM name is further down
but it is also true that not always GM names show up at the end of messages M

 

[Derium of ls]

Actually, it does.

Being responsible especially AFTER you already have the gold and Customer Service has quelled the problem is exactly how being "a stand up guy" in modern UO should be defined.

I will admit it does in fact feel good to know you guys/girls feel I'm doing the right thing here. I'd like to think so.

My answer to this is that even though I may be out of an item and the gold, to me what matters it making it right to the customer. I would MUCH rather have a customer had a loss of 0% and me take whatever loss is needed for that to happen. Than to have someone walk away from shopping on my vendor with a negative memory of it.

Doing business always has risks (albeit this was unexpected), and again "the customer is always right" simply means keep them happy. I ran the costs/risks of owning a vendor, a customer had a bad experience, so logic to me says make it up to them.

So again, as much as I do like the kudos from you all I'm simply trying to run a UO business the way it should be ran, to the best of my ability

 

[Flutter]

I'm sorry, but I have questions.
There's no GM name on that page. In my experience that's always included so that you can send in feedback to GM reviews.
Nor have I ever seen a page that says 'as players ourselves'. If I'm wrong, I apologise, but something doesn't feel right here.

I have gotten the "as players ourselves" response.
Also, if you notice the block of text goes all the way down the page, if he scrolls down (notice to the right there is a slidebar) I am sure the GM's name and the rest of the information is there.

 

[Surgeries]

It has nothing to do with being a stand up guy, it's just that if my vendor bugs out, it's my responsibility as the owner. It just blew me away to see that screenshot of my vendor!

as a side note, I bought the items off of it with my other account, all went well. it's restocked now, if there is any other issue let me know, I'll drop the entire vendor and replace it just to make 100% sure.

Yes it does, IMO. It has everything to do with it.

"Stand Up" People have a quality not able to be purchased for all the gold and trinkets in any game.

You have Integrity...and that is a very rare commodity in the world in general...much less so in a game where anonymity would have let you easily get away with such a thing.

But, not the case with you, at least.

And that, my friend, makes you a Stand Up Guy With Integrity!!

Glad to have you in our MMO!!

Thanks!!!