Too Many Issues For Christmas?

[ThrowAway]

I'm sorry to be a downer, but I sure hope the rumors that HMX is off until the week after Christmas are false. On Dec. 25th, children around the country will open copies of Rock Band. Some of them may have been on these forums in the past. They will likely open the box to find a broken guitar. After using their parents' credit card to order a replacement, they will likely play the drums a lot. It is highly likely that in the feverish passion of a child, the drum pedal will break. They will be upset and come to these forums to learn that their password doesn't work and they may or may not be able to link their wonderful singing career scores to the site. Now you have an unhappy child, which leads to a pissed off parent and a potential Guitar Hero player.

For me, the site issues weren't that big of a deal (though clearly showed a lack of testing). That is because I figured it would give me some time to work on my solo drum career this weekend. That is until in the midst of Sabotage my bass pedal broke. Being the good forum goer I am, I came online and immediately ordered an "express" shipped replacement. I was bummed, so I decided to log on to the forums to check out where that guy was selling the steel plates since I wanted to pop one on the replacement. I tried to log in to my old account, forgot it wasn't working. I sweat, I wanted to punch somebody. I was pissed and I knew about these issues and how to handle them. Imagine the Dad who has no clue.

[SSPWOLF]

Your argument is entirely subjective.

"likely" is patently false, as the MAJORITY of all equipment works perfectly fine.

It's also another fine example of ridiculous American consumer "me me me me me!" crap that you think that people don't deserve any time off for the holidays just because they work for an entertainment company.

[terRize]

It's also another fine example of ridiculous American consumer "me me me me me!" crap that you think that people don't deserve any time off for the holidays just because they work for an entertainment company.

You mean they shouldn't be chained to their desks and forced to work as we bring them bread and water until every last consumer suggestion and complaint has been fixed?

I don't think I like your attitude :(

/sarcasm

Seriously though. These people have families like all of us and deserve to celebrate the holidays just like everyone else. It's also why I'm not upset the PS3 won't get the DLC next week. I'm glad they (PSN) get that whole week off and then we'll get a double dose of DLC the following week.

[Tarzanman]

As much as I hate to admit it, the OP has a point. Back in the days before the internet and the ability of a company to (relatively) cheaply put out the word on a mass warranty/recall effort... defects of the percentage/magintude that the Rock Band bundle has seen (10%-15% by my estimates based on board postings) would have to go through the retailer... which would make customers *and* retailers upset.

The decision to knowingly go head with selling the fault-prone guitars wasn't really in the consumers' best interests.... and if that wasn't bad enough, the manufacturer is all-but forcing the customers to handle warranty/defect issues directly with the manufacturer which is:
1. Less convenient (have to package and ship it instead of driving to Walmart)
2. More costly ($125 hold? thats almost the cost of the entire bundle!)
3. Slower (3-4 week lead time, anyone?)
than it would be to replace defective bundles at the point of sale. All in the name of trying to sell more bundles.

I know that lots of us have warm fuzzies about HMX and Rock band, but you have to admit that if another company pulled these same shenanigans then we would be crying foul.

Sorry... EA and HMX knowingly dropped the ball. Make excuses if you want, but facts are facts. By what reason do you give them a free pass and not another company?

[SSPWOLF]

Well, to be subjective, I don't give them a free pass. Everything works perfectly for me so there's nothing for me to complain about. The only people who would be upset are the ones with problems who are in the minority.

To be objective, they are making money hand over fist so obviously they have had a good year. They deserve time off as much as the next person.

To be honest, you can't expect them to cater to "the needs of the few". They are humans too.

[adamtheshredder]

read this topic:
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16926&page=2

its very helpful

[That_One_Dude]

Guitar broke yesterday.
Bass Pedal broke today.

Putting it all back in my the box and returning to Wal-Mart.

I figure I'll just save time on having to get that 3rd or 4th pedal like my good 'ole friend Jimmy and being dicked when the 90 days i up and get some other games I do want.

I'll head over to Best Buy since they have a sale on a bunch of 360 games.

You can get Bioshock for $45, Call of Juarez for $8, All-Pro Football 2k8 for $10, and Soldier of Fortune for $45

$108 for 4 more games and I'll still have lunch money left :D!

[Ventura]

Your argument is entirely subjective.

"likely" is patently false, as the MAJORITY of all equipment works perfectly fine.

While what he said was probably a bit of a reach, you can no more state that the majority works ok any more than he can state the majority is faulty.

Assuming your own hardware works fine, you're just being subjective too.


It's also another fine example of ridiculous American consumer "me me me me me!" crap that you think that people don't deserve any time off for the holidays just because they work for an entertainment company.

Well, the job has to be complete, you know. I don't quite work in the entertainment industry, but I don't leave the job until my job's done.

Look at how much these companies make. You've got companies like Activision and Blizzard merging; read up on the numbers they're throwing into their new venture. Everyone at Harmonix must be filthy rich right about now, because of how much MTV paid to buy them.

These buggers make a bucketload of money, and you're gonna call him out for being selfish about hardware issues? Seriously, if anything I think consumers should be more proactive when it comes to issuing complaints.

[Senkoy]

I've gone through 4 guitars, all of them garbage. Yup, majority of these pieces of junk work just fine.

They ****ed up. Hard. A lot of kids chrismases are going to be ruined because they arent going to be able to play a game they've been highly anticipating and they parents payed good money for. Hell no they dont deserve to take these days off. They have to make up for all of this ****. It's been a month and i've yet to have a fully functional guitar. Wtf **** is that?

[Rock_Starman]

I'll head over to Best Buy since they have a sale on a bunch of 360 games.

You can get Bioshock for $45, Call of Juarez for $8, All-Pro Football 2k8 for $10, and Soldier of Fortune for $45


DO NOT GET CALL OF JUAREZ. It's not rock,**** it's not even country. Game over for throwing a beer bottle at someone,game over for hitting a horse,game over for throwing a chair at someone,game over when the idiot you're playing as refuses to hit the guy that has a gun pulled on him,what the hell is that crap? I was expecting wild west and that stuff is tamer than the Disney channel,that sound you hear is John Wayne rollin over in his grave.

Back on main topic...

I somewhat agree with the original post however the people at Harmonix can take the week off since I'm pretty sure they're not responsible for the faulty equipment,getting it fixed or any of this Canada mess wich should've been done with but isn't since half the places are missing bundles and pre-orders. That's all EA/MTV. Harmonix can take a break since I think they're just doing DLC stuff now.

[Conner_Malvecino]

I'm just going to chaulk this release as 1.0 which it is.

Microsoft Windows wasn't perfect and heck every new big OS release of Microsoft has has it's faults...I'm on my 3rd pedal myself but I know the value I'm getting in return from this game is invaluable, time with my kids, my wife while doing something I love...music AND video games. I know the broken hardware is a major setback, but we can only hope that Harmonix will learn from this experience. They've been around for awhile, they have super smart leaders in the company...they're not just taking our money and run.

What's nice to know is that kids who are receiving this for Christmas are NOT on average as strong or as heavy as us post 21+ genre who are the ones who are really doing the stress testing. I shake my head though that these faulty items were caught in beta-testing.

[SSPWOLF]

While what he said was probably a bit of a reach, you can no more state that the majority works ok any more than he can state the majority is faulty.

Assuming your own hardware works fine, you're just being subjective too.



Well, the job has to be complete, you know. I don't quite work in the entertainment industry, but I don't leave the job until my job's done.

Look at how much these companies make. You've got companies like Activision and Blizzard merging; read up on the numbers they're throwing into their new venture. Everyone at Harmonix must be filthy rich right about now, because of how much MTV paid to buy them.

These buggers make a bucketload of money, and you're gonna call him out for being selfish about hardware issues? Seriously, if anything I think consumers should be more proactive when it comes to issuing complaints.


While I"m not particularly interested in researching it...

With Rockband being one of the hottest selling video games of the year, It's a forgone conclusion that the "majority" of the hardware doesn't have issues.

I completely agree that the consumer has a right to be satisfied.

However, my point is that YES I am subjective: My stuff works.

To be OBJECTIVE: The percentage of people who have stuff that doesn't work will be dissatisfied.

I'm not suggesting that the OP is being greedy.

I'm suggesting he's being insensitive. I understand that this is a product... but the bottom line is that I think it's morally bankrupt to suggest that these people be deprived of thier holiday because there's issues with thier product.

"Sorry Bob, another 12,000 guitars got returned broken. We're going to take your Christmas away now."


We're not talking about the soldiers in Iraq here, we're talking about the employees of a video game company.

[Ventura]

With Rockband being one of the hottest selling video games of the year, It's a forgone conclusion that the "majority" of the hardware doesn't have issues.

I don't believe the majority of hardware does have issues. I think I've just heard the cop out line that "everyone whose hardware works fine is just off playing the game" once too often.

It's all too easy to say that, but then again, you don't know just how many people will contact EA straight away for replacements and never step foot in this forum.

Realistically, only EA could really know where the failure rate is actually at.


I think it's morally bankrupt to suggest that these people be deprived of thier holiday because there's issues with thier product.

We're not talking about the soldiers in Iraq here, we're talking about the employees of a video game company.

Yeah no argument there, and you're right, it is Christmas. The reason I went off on a rant a bit was because I believe consumers have become far too forgiving in general, especially when you consider how much money these companies make.

[SSPWOLF]

Yeah no argument there, and you're right, it is Christmas. The reason I went off on a rant a bit was because I believe consumers have become far too forgiving in general, especially when you consider how much money these companies make.



I do agree with you on that aspect, a lot of people have a tendency to "let things slide" when it comes to getting screwed over.

I think my position on the whole matter is that people let frustration and anger get the best of them and lose sight of what's really going on.

I mean, no matter how you look at it there's a significant number of problems with the hardware of the game. Enough so that it's become a public issue.

Harmonix/EA/MTV has adressed the issue. Unfortunately it's the holiday season, I don't care if they have a warehouse FULL of guitars... they can't just send a new one to every single person who bought the game.

1) They don't KNOW where you live unless you tell them to.
2) It would be the stupidest financial move in history, to just replace every single guitar regardless whether it works or not.

So that leaves them with having to get you to tell them that your gear is broken.

Once you tell them, they have to put it into a system. They have to send you a new guitar.

It's the holiday season. I ordered something from Amazon.com on December 18th and had to select "One Day Shipping" to ensure it got here by the 24th. Not much math to do there.

The point is... if it were July we could expect problems to get fixed faster. But short of 20,000 employees personally drive each replacement guitar to customers houses, they are confined to using the postal services available, which are flooded this holiday season the same as every holiday season.

The next logical argument is that "they shouldn't have released it with the problems / should have made better equipment"

There's a funny thing that happens when you create something. You just aren't going to find all the flaws. I'll use the richest company in the world as an example: Microsoft. Anyone out there using Windows Vista knows what I mean. Anyone NOT using Windows Vista: DON'T. (it works fine, as long as you don't want to do things like.. install your own programs, or change any settings.)

So to sum up...

1) Sh*t is broken.
2) They know
3) They are dealing with it as best as they can as far as replacement shipments go
4) They can't go back in time and make the original guitars better. Being angry and lashing out about it isn't productive. They've already modded the second gen strats, so obviously they ARE learning from thier mistakes.
5) See my next rant.


Being a consumer, logical person, and upstanding citizen who typically doesn't put up with being screwed over.. I've learned something in my 30 years of existence.

If I go into a resturaunt and order medium steak and it comes back rare.. I will ask that it be fixed. Keyword: Ask. And I'll do it politely.

While there are some people in the world who will go out of thier way to screw you over, most people are just like you and I: They make mistakes.

Screaming, *****ing, whining, complaining, and generally acting like the world was created to suit you (please, I'm using the general "YOU" not talking about anyone in specific) usually doesn't work as well as politely asking that ammends be made.

If someone slams into the back of my car, the damage is done. I'll politely ask them for thier insurance and deal with it. Screaming at the jackass for being a horrible driver isn't going to un-wreck my car. If they don't have insurance, I'll politely phone the police.

If my strat breaks, I'll politely ask them to replace it. If they, for some reason, refused... I'd politely report them to the BBB and politely refuse to use thier products in the future.

Frustration is something we all feel. Most of us have the ability to take a deep breath and realize that there's some people in an office in Boston going "We really need to fix this" who are probably NOT going "WOOHOO! Another 3000 broken guitars! YES! MWUHAHAH MORE ANGRY CUSTOMERS! HIGH FIVE!"

They are probably upset because it's MORE work for them, and they OBVIOUSLY put in A LOT of work on the game already.

[Ventura]

The point is... if it were July we could expect problems to get fixed faster. But short of 20,000 employees personally drive each replacement guitar to customers houses, they are confined to using the postal services available, which are flooded this holiday season the same as every holiday season.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you totally.

For a product that has at least 3x the content that the competition does, they've done a fabulous, fabulous job. And despite it being the holiday season, some people have received great customer service getting their hardware replaced.

Ultimately I think the problem was that they bit off just a tad more than they could chew. Guitar Hero 3 had a head start (afaik), has one controller, and some songs. Rock Band had to play catch up, has three controllers, and more than some songs. That anyone got a chance to get it in 2007 atall, is amazing.

This was an absolutely huge undertaking, something that's never really been done before. It's groundbreaking. And if anybody really believed they were going to get it all done nicely by Christmas with time to spare, they were kidding themselves.

Yes, I can appreciate the frustration that some folks are experiencing, like the poor fella who says he's gone through four guitars, or the other guy who had his guitar break yesterday and his drum set today. The truth is, these are the poor guys that are the ones paying the price because Harmonix/MTV/EA tried to do too much too quickly.

While these are the unfortunate few that are paying for this mistake, the truth is that the majority of us are enjoying the end result of a whole ton of work on the part of all involved.

Once we get stuck into 2008, and they have the time that they need to fix the issues that have plagued it, Rock Band is going to own the world. You just watch.

[BathTub]

Sorry, what does HMX having christmas off have to do with EA replacing your broken guitar?