Requesting a free month. Please?

[Kyuuen]

Very little will likely happen, unfortunately.

MMO's are lagging behind when it comes to customer care and public relations. Last month I ordered some items from a luxury supermarket so I could host a dinner party. A couple of the items were not in stock and the terms of service stated that they would be replaced with something equivalent to their value and as similar as possible to the original product. When I went to the store to pick up my order they had replaced things sufficiently, yet they apologised and also threw in a free bottle of wine and a box of chocolates as compensation. They didn't need to do it, yet it was a pleasant gesture.

As far as FFXIV is concerned...service has been interrupted for a great many players. Plans have been disrupted. Progress has been lost. Compensation isn't owed due to the wording of the terms of service but it would be a lovely gesture for an in-game item to be sent to every player as a little 'thank you' for sticking with the game even during turbulent times. It'd do wonders for PR if nothing else.

The only argument I'll pose against that, is that what you presented was a singular case. What is being requested is blanketed compensation for everyone, and not everyone has been affected the same, and more importantly is too costly to do. So does that mean those who were affected most should receive more compensation? Then that creates the problem of people claiming to have been affected, but weren't. Therefore they'd have to investigate every claim of disrupted service, which would be too costly and take too much time in figuring out who's entitled to what. Which brings us right back to the blanket compensation, which as previously stated is too costly to give up.

Some things can't be guaranteed in digital services due to acts of god and even those that would purposefully disrupt service. It's why as much is stated in the ToS.