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Geek Culture / Customer service from 'Game Creating' companies

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Scraggle
Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 10th Jul 2003
Location: Yorkshire
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 22:08 Edited at: 30th Oct 2006 22:27
OK, most people here here buy products from companies to enhance there game making. It may be models, textures, map editors etc. The fact is we buy stuff and sometimes we get great service, other times we don't.
I have used two companies recently that fit in exactly opposite ends of the scale with regards to customer service. So, I decided to share my thoughts with you, so that you can then make an informed decision as to whether or not to buy from them.
Have a read and then maybe list your own experiences with either the same companies or add some others.

Firstly the good:
3DRT.com. I bought the Naval Pack and the Sci Fi Forces pack from them. The models are fantastic! They are low poly, so perfect for games but the best bit is the UV mapping. They utilise the texture to its full potential, using and re-using parts across the model. Even sharing the texture with several models to cut down on memory usage.
The service I got from them was fabulous. I dowloaded the models and saw a few things that I thought could be changed. So, I emailed them with a request (not really expecting a reply) but the next day I got a reply ... including a download for all the changes I requested. I asked for bump maps ... I got them. I asked for limbs adding ... I got them. In all I sent them about 30 emails and they were happy to oblige every whim. They even supplied me with updates to models that I recieved free on the cover of 3D World Magazine!
All in all an absolutely fantastic company that I whole heartedly recommend!

Now the bad:
Arteria Games. I bought five packs from them before I had seen any of the products ... a BIG mistake. There were textures missing on some objects. Others wouldn't load and the entire dungeon pack wouldn't work at all!
I emailed them and was told "They work for me, so I can't help!".
For the dungeon pack I was told that he would work on them when he had time and they should be ready in about 2 weeks. 2 weeks passed, then I was told "I have lot's of custom work to do, I don't have time for your stuff". After that a lot of my messages were igrnored. I did eventually get a refund for the Dungeon pack but not without an enormous amount of hassle. Still no joy for the others. There are about 30 models from the other packs that don't work and I don't expect they ever will.
If you want to buy from Arteria Games then be my guest but you have been warned.

OK. That's my good and bad experiences. If you agree with them, that's great, if you have had different results then do share but let's not get carried away. Stick to the facts so that people can make informed purchases


Seppuku Arts
Moderator
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Aug 2004
Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 22:22
Ah, yes, I like a good customer service,

Maxon UK (Cinema4D/Bodypaint 3D dudes) - Top notch service, closed on weekends though, all ways happy to answer question clearly and quickly reply, they also try to do good business, I can't remember what I mentioned but they offered Cinema 4D CE + for £20 as opposed to £80 (To upgrade from my CE6) shame I had no money at the time to accept the offer and they offer the best advice they can, they even sent me an information pack. Because of that I feel guilty about taking an interest in lightwave. What's better is I make frequent visits to Bedford where Maxon UK is located, wonder why I never dropped in to say hi.

Newtek Europe (Lightwave dudes)- Fairly good service (more average really), answered questions very quickly and helpfully, providing extra information that may be relevant and although it took me a week to get my reply, but that's because I didn't receive it, but they did send it as I found out almost immediately after I sent the second email the Friday after the original was sent. Lets hope they can deliver the demo quickly and efficiently as well

As for bad, I haven't had any, I don't buy much online that requires customer services.

David R
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 9th Sep 2003
Location: 3.14
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 22:36 Edited at: 31st Oct 2006 13:32
Good:
Amazon. These guys were really good at communicating between themselves and the manufacturer of the product, which in this case was NetGear, for the router I recently bought. A lead was missing from the box, and although it took a while to sort out over the phone, they (surprisingly) gave me a full refund and sent the lead through the post, after conferring with NetGear! I was quite literally amazed

Bad:
TalkTalk technical support, on behalf of my stupid Aunt/Uncle. These people are awful. They don't know the difference between a router and a modem, and anything that goes wrong, a 'new cd' sent through the post is the solution. The connection problem with my Uncle's PC still hasn't been resolved after 3 or 4 weeks now, and I need to get back on the phone and fry them for their ill-information as a solution to a modem router problem ("You need to keep your modem router on all the time. Never switch it off even when the PC is turned off")


EDIT: Yes I did forget that you said 'game creating' companies

Robin
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 22nd Feb 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 22:45
BAD:
eclipse-computers.com
Ordered a WLAN PCMCIA card a fortnight ago, money came out of my account two days later. gave them a call the other day to see what was going on, turns out they ran out of stock and hadn't bothered to contact me to let me know. Cancelled the order straight away after wasting two weeks

BAD:
ebuyer.com
Ordered a USB CD Drive once, when it arrived it was completely smashed into pieces lol. Took ages to get my money back too.

GOOD:
amazon.co.uk
I seem to buy evereything off amazon these days.

[center]
Dell XPS M1210 12.1" | 2Ghz Duo Core | 2GB DDR2 Ram | 100GB HD | 256MB Geforce Go 7400
Philip
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 15th Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 22:51
I think TGC do a great job in their customer support.

A lot of people like to knock Rich Davey and his colleague(s) but when you think about what they do given their limited manpower, its pretty impressive. Really I wonder how much time they get to see their families.

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
"I highly recommend Philip" (Philip)
Chris K
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 7th Oct 2003
Location: Lake Hylia
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 22:56
TGC is one big family

-= Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals =-
BatVink
Moderator
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 4th Apr 2003
Location: Gods own County, UK
Posted: 30th Oct 2006 23:05
Good:
TGC
Serif - fantastic service!

Bad:
Argos

Really Bad:
Comet - have to quote the legalities just to get "normal" service

Really Atrocious
JJB Sports - had to take 'em to court to get my money back.



Van B
Moderator
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 31st Oct 2006 15:45
Good:
Micro Direct
UK based supplier for all things IT - very good prices (e.g. 17'' TFT for £82.99), but the speed and professionalism of the service is great.

Bad:
Dell
For IT supply, like buying business PC's they are absolutely diabolical. They don't read required specs correctly, they don't keep upto date with what's on their own website, and if your Dell order advisor is on holiday you won't get anything done. They're convenient, but that's about it.

''Stick that in your text and scroll it!.''

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