Wizard101

I have a confession to make. I am an adult and I love Wizard101. I am totally addicted and spend many(too many) hours playing the game. My sweetheart and I have 3 accounts and play numerous characters. Normally, I don't have many problems with the game but twice I've had to contact support. One was for a billing issue which I am still convinced was their doing. Their first response to me stated"Yes, your credit card information was updated, unfortunately it occurred a few hours after the subaccount "removed for privacy" had renewed on 1/13."

The problem with this is it wasn't due to be charged until the 17th so I thought 6 days notice for a change would have been long enough. It obviously wasn't and I was charged bank fees that my bank told me could only be reversed if Wizard101 contacted them directly. They refused to contact my bank although they did change the billing. I responded with this information along with the remark, "Please reconsider your decision in this matter so we both may continue to enjoy wizard101. Thank you."

Their response to this was, "We do assure you that we value your business. If you still wish to cancel your accounts we can take care of that matter for you."

Not once did I threaten to cancel our accounts or stop playing the game. Although this angered me to no end, I chose not to respond further to it. I felt I was being threatened with losing my accounts if I continued that conversation. I paid my own bank fee and continued to pay for and play the game.

Yesterday, I submitted a bug report. It was fairly straight forward. This is a copy of what I said in the report.

"I was playing Jade Oni and won a statue of Koto but I didn't get it because Mr Lincoln popped up and said my bank and my backpack are completely full and so my items disappeared. I immediately went to my bank and I discovered neither my backpack nor my bank nor even my shared bank were full. I am including a screenshot of my bank and backpack amount.
My account is *&^%$% and the wizard I played for this is )*&^%^&. This is very upsetting since I am trying to win The Staff of the Hopper and am now afraid if I do win it I won't get it."

Although I can't post the screenshot here, it shows plenty of room in both my bank and my backpack and even room in my shared bank. Simple and straight forward. The report clearly states the bug was getting the pop up being told my item disappeared.

Here is the response I was just given, "Greetings,

If your backpack is full, the items you receive will be automatically sent to your bank! Please go check the bank in your Dorm in Ravenwood, and see if the item is there! If your bank is full, I am sorry to say that the item is lost! Please make sure to clear up room in your backpack!

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln
Ravenwood School of Magical Arts

P.S. There's a host of information in our knowledge base. To access it just go to www.wizard101.com, log in & click on "Help"."

They totally missed the mark, again! I understand using canned responses for some things, but customer service/tech help really need to make sure they address the problem being reported! This response has absolutely nothing to do with the bug report I made.

I love Wizard101. I think its a fabulous game and has so much potential for outlasting many MMORPGs out there, but the first thing to kill a business is poor customer service. If they don't find support personnel that know how to read and comprehend the issues, or at least ask questions to find out exactly what is being said, then sadly the game won't last.

I have worked as a customer service expert/tech support representative for the online community since 1998. My first customer service job was actually many years before when I was 14 years old. Any job dealing with the public is a customer service job. Even as a 14 year old, I realized the customer ultimately pays my wages. I sincerely hope that the upper management of KingsIsle, Inc. quickly discovers the problem in their company with the customer support reps and either retrains them properly or replaces them with more intelligent, trained individuals. Otherwise, its just a matter of time before they accrue such a bad reputation for their customer service and it may be too late by then.

I do recommend the game Wizard101 for old and young alike. There are so many great things about the game that I can overlook the bad customer service reps they employ. For now. If you'd like to check out the game, go to http://www.wizard101.com/friend and enter the code 35809-15125-15788-90673 You can check it out for free but if you decide you like it enough to continue playing it, you will receive 1250 crowns if you purchase $10 in crowns or a subscription for at least one month.

Introduction

I suppose it would be a good idea for me to introduce myself. I am a lesbian woman who is tired of being quiet. I am tired of being told don't say that, don't do that, don't wear that, don't eat that, etc. My entire life someone has been telling me "Don't do that!". Enough, I say. Nobody is going to tell me what to do or how to be anymore. I am my own person and I am going to shout it from the rooftops! Well, at least through this blog.

I lived most of my life in denial. I denied the part of me that said, "Hey, you like girls!" I was afraid of being deemed by society something less than the rest. It wasn't until I was in my 40's when I realized society did deem me less than the rest already so I may as well stop the denial and Come Out! That's exactly what I did. I came out to my mother first then my children(who were grown already). It felt so good and liberating to admit it out loud! I swore then I'd never be forced back into the closet. Wrong!

I met a truly wonderful woman on the internet and after months and months of speaking on the phone, we decided it was time to meet in person. It was decided that I would go visit her first. It was the most amazing two weeks of my life! Needless to say, we decided to live together. There really wasn't a discussion of who would go where since she had a full time job and was purchasing a house and I only worked part time and already owned a house. I moved to the south USA.

Being lesbian or gay in the south doesn't allow for that freedom I felt when I came out. I found myself pushed partially back into the closet. Most of society here does not accept our lifestyle. Okay, so maybe I can't be free in the south, but surely I can be free on the internet right? Wrong again.

I am an avid game player. Yes, its true! Not quite a month ago I discovered Wizard101. What a fun game it is! My sweetie and I play it together. She hasn't really even booted up her computer in the nearly two years we've been physically together but wizards and dragons is something that really interests her so she agreed to give it a try. She loves it also.

I began reading the forums and noticed there was a group called Wizard101Central that also had a forum and so much more. The forum also allows for groups or clans to be created by players. Fantastic! Maybe there was a clan for me! I searched 52 pages worth of clans. Nope, no gay or lesbian clan. Okay so, its player created. I know! I'll make one! So I spent hours creating the clan page, and making an icon for it and the whole 9 yards. I didn't want children to stumble across anything they shouldn't so I made all of the posts private. That means, you have to join the clan to see any of the posts we make. I would personally screen applicants to join to make sure there were no children. Better safe than sorry you know!

Well, I waited a couple of days. No response to the clan. Hmm..perhaps there just aren't any other gay or lesbians that play this game. But, come on, out of 5 million accounts, I couldn't be the ONLY lesbian/gay person playing it. The third day, I got a private message from someone on that forum. My clan was removed. Wow! Total censorship! But, that forum is not owned(as far as I know) by the owners of the game Wizard101 so I will not hold Wizard101 responsible. Its a fun game. Kids and adults alike play it. Its more of a mind game than a coordination game, which is really appealing to me. If you haven't heard of it or checked it out yourself, there's no time like the present. Take a look around the Wizard101 website.

Having a place to express myself is very liberating and helps maintain my sanity. Thank you, blogger.com for allowing me to have my voice.

More to come soon.