UCS-5024 Not Resolved

[Imoq]

have to remember it is only SE's 2nd business day since the error came up guys. It happened during a scripted process over the weekend. It's now 6PM Tuesday night for them. Try getting something done about your cable tv billing on a Saturday afternoon--not gonna get anyone on the phone to talk about it until Monday.

Would you please stop trying to talk in behalf of SE? YOU need to remember it's Wednesday morning already in Japan.

Yes, I -AM- aware you can't do a lot of billing-related procedures over a weekend, but once a very big, affecting paying customers problem has been detected then you start working nonstop (weekends, night time) until you fix the issue.

Also, you don't leave your loyal paying customers in the dark with an almost-two-days-old message telling them "oh, we are fixing this, please be patient, just keep trying to log in" without any further messages at all.

Seriously...

[Liberata]

Agreed, Imoq. It's not so much the problem -- although I'm sort of shocked by the lack of professionalism at them NOT pulling a couple of guys in over the weekend to deal with it -- as the lack of communication/transparency. Problems happen, and are completely understandable, but the make or break is how you deal with them. SE's commitment to leaving its paying customers in the dark about the causes of this problem and what is being done to address it (and the apparent randomness of how they are reactivating accounts) is bad business.

[RAIST]

Would you please stop trying to talk in behalf of SE? YOU need to remember it's Wednesday morning already in Japan.

Not trying to speak on behalf of SE.. it's just that there have been over 400 posts on this issue in multiple threads. It's not like they aren't aware of the urgency of the issue. These things don't take a simple fix. I have had to do this kind of work for credit card processing internet apps that have had miscaclulations (specifically, a Java rounding error).

What you have to understand is that tracking just who got affected and fixing them each individually takes a lot of time. This isn't something they can just run a script to fix it. They have to find someone with a null id, check their payment history to see if they should be active, whether they qualify for waiver or should be billed, and either restore from a backup (which is painstakingly slow to restore just one object when it comes to databases) or otherwise track down the content ID and manually update the records. This has to be done on a case-by-case basis, and just simply takes time.

[Siiri]

Yes, personally its working now for a lot of us, and I wasn't overly concerned and my posts were attempts to be helpful. I still wouldn't be upset EXCEPT for what Imoq says, a little communication and updates go a long way. Most of us like to consider ourselves mature adults and understand this was a huge error and they are trying to rectify. SE has made noticeable improvements in their attempts to communicate with the player base, but their updates are far too infrequent in this issue. I work in IT for a medical company that works with hospitals, and this lack of updates and communications would not be acceptable business practice for me.

[Javelin]

ditto, been trying to log all weekend, nothing was fixed for me, i dont know if this makes a diff and i dont troll posts to research the matter really, but on the SE account management website FFXI is not listed as an option that is automatically continued, don't know if that's even a change really, but i think that ffxi was on there before, just a thought, maybe something related to the jacked up SE payment system and the reg server maintenance and the error code, or could all be a coincidence i suppose.

[Sacher]

What you probably do not know is that it is not difficult to identify which accounts are affected when you actually call them as I did on yesterday. Granted, tech support is in cali, but they looked at my account and said there was nothing wrong with it, LOL. So I ask you, how difficult is it to identify accounts if you call them and report the problem? Guess the call center is a waste of money too. If SE wants me to stop calling them and posting then why don't they just come out and tell us they will not bill us for services we cannot use? If you are happy paying for something you cannot use PLEASE let me know and I will gladly set you up with some awesome services where you pay and never get anything in return! As a customer I should not pay for something I cannot use! Then again, this month was supposed to be free and look what that gets you..NOTHING!

[Niklz]

sooo, should we call in to customer support or is it just a waiting game

[Imoq]

@RAIST:

You really write like if you knew what are you talking about, but it seems you do not.

Are you in the same boat as us and can't enter? Good, wait quietly.
Aren't you in the same boat as us and can enter? STFU please.

It's annoying how we can't even vent our anger and frustration at not getting a single hint from SE. You seem to lose the point over and over again, so, I'll write in caps to emphasize it:

IT'S NOT ONLY THE FACT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FIVE DAYS NOW, BUT THE FACT THIS COMPANY IS VERY VAGUE AND SECRETIVE ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO FIX IT AND AN ESTIMATE ON WHEN PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO USE THE SERVICE THEY PAYED FOR.

Better? I hope you get it now.

[renasci]

So, has anyone actually gotten past the 'reactivate account' part, or if that pops up you know you're account is still screwed?
Or alternatively, has SE's advice of 'try again later' actually worked for anyone?

[RAIST]

@RAIST:

You really write like if you knew what are you talking about, but it seems you do not.

Are you in the same boat as us and can't enter? Good, wait quietly.
Aren't you in the same boat as us and can enter? STFU please.

It's annoying how we can't even vent our anger and frustration at not getting a single hint from SE. You seem to lose the point over and over again, so, I'll write in caps to emphasize it:

IT'S NOT ONLY THE FACT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FIVE DAYS NOW, BUT THE FACT THIS COMPANY IS VERY VAGUE AND SECRETIVE ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO FIX IT AND AN ESTIMATE ON WHEN PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO USE THE SERVICE THEY PAYED FOR.

Better? I hope you get it now.

While I don't know the exact particulars of what they are going through, I do have a general idea as I have had to manually sift through databases to identify errant data and manually make the adjustments after a payment process went awry, or an import during a lenghty conversion process tanked because of malformed records. I have had to work on MS-SQL/MySQL,MS-Access, and AS400/LANSA databases that were linked to java applications and had to pinpoint and correct errors in applications that I did not write, sometimes did not even have access to the source code and had to work with developers to come up with ways to trap the exceptions and inject workarounds to prevent future errors, then go back and run queries to locate the errors and manually update them one record at a time as it wasn't always something that could simply be scripted to fix it. I have also been involved on projects handling an entire county's real property appraisal data and had to spend days and even weeks massaging data trying to get it converted so it could be posted online. So, yes...I do have some familiarity with the processes that may be involved, and thus have a more unique perspective on this.

Regardless of whether I can get online or not (which, now I can), is a mute point. The point is this is problem that will simply take time to fix. I have some professional experience with similar events to back that point of view. I'm sorry it isn't what you want to hear...but it simply is going to take time for them to find and fix everyone's data. 600 some-odd posts on this forum griping about it will do nothing to alter that fact. SE knows of the problem, they have identified it, they know how to fix it, and they are going about fixing it--it is just going to take time to fix everyone's account.

Flaming SE here won't do anything to resolve your situation--this is not the channel that puts you in direct touch with the billing and other support departments. This forum is not here for one-on-one support issues. At best, it is a means to let SE know of an issue with the game so they can look into it--the moderators are just a go between to gather data and forward it to the appropriate channels. This was done, and they have responded and are working to resolve the issue for everyone. If you need/want personal assistance, you need to contact them directly. If you are able to get through to support via phone or chat so you can direct them to your account, then it will likely move you up the queue--otherwise, you will just have to wait your turn just like everyone else had to before you, and others will after you.