How Not to Handle a Service Outage
The way a company handles failure is so much more telling than the way it handles success.
Standing on its own, I think Battlefield 3 is a phenomenal game and an amazing creation, but the way its multiplayer service is run has inspired me to swear off the Battlefield series for good. What's the dilly, yo?
Starting sometime on Saturday, November 19, 2011, Battlelog was inaccessible from my (and others') computers. Battlelog, for those who don't know, is Battlefield 3's web-based interface for viewing stats, editing profiles, and most importantly of course, joining games. Without this service you can't play multiplayer, and I'm not even sure if you can play single player without it either. Clicking the game's link from your start menu opens your browser to a Battlelog page - in other words, it's not just a website, it's the front-end for the game.
Following what has become my preferred way of seeking advice and information on outages / problems with services and products, I posted to Twitter and learned quickly that I wasn't alone in seeing this issue. What ensued was a frustrating series of brief communications with various handlers of the Battlefield 3 Twitter account (other frustrated customers like @ZombieReagan74, @IronhorseMO and @maxpower569 also participating) throughout the weekend, at the end of which I had no idea why the service was down or when it might be back up. The game effectively having been rendered unplayable, I sought information about a possible full or partial refund and got precisely jack squat. To give you a sense of the exchange, here's a quick history of the Twitter conversation:
| Time | Author | Type | Message |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Nov | @ZombieReagan74 | Broadcast | @Battlefield I haven't been able to reach battlelog all day, 31.222.133.87 is the only IP it resolves to, and no response from it. |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | @ZombieReagan74 I thought it was just me...\ |
| 19 Nov | @ZombieReagan74 | Broadcast | @djroze Nope, its been this way all day, too. I'm guessing it's not going to be fixed tonight at this point, either. |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield What is the SLA, if any, for BF3 multiplayer? |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield Still down? What is the SLA, if any, for BF3 multiplayer? |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | @ZombieReagan74 With the # of outages Battlefield 3 has had, it seems like we're owed a partial refund - the game is unplayable quite a lot! |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | Yep.RT @bubbaduck31: @Battlefield my battlelog isnt launching through my browser is it like this nation wide?? |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | Looks like Battlefield 3 was really down for the entire day, this doesn't inspire much confidence in whoever runs the service. |
| 19 Nov | @maxpower569 | Broadcast | @djroze I have been trying to log in all day still can't r u having same problem right now ?? |
| 19 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | @maxpower569 Yeah, not even a nice page saying it's down, the server just doesn't even respond. Not cool given how much I paid for the game! |
| 20 Nov | @ZombieReagan74 | @djroze Retweets | @Battlefield day 2 of battlelog being inaccessible to a large number of customers. Your support sucks, learn how to escalate within your org |
| 20 Nov | @IronhorseMO | @djroze Retweets | @Battlefield after over 36 hours of patience I believe you all owe us all an explanation about the Battlelog failure |
| 20 Nov | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @ironhorsemo Can you please DM us your IP address to help us solve the connection issue? ^PH |
| 20 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | Can't DM my IP to @Battlefield 'cuz they aren't following me... |
| 20 Nov | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze Followed. ^PH |
| 21 Nov 09:09 | @djroze | DM @Battlefield | XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX (my real IP address here) |
| 20 Nov | @djroze | Broadcast | Battlefield 3 down now for almost 2 full days, this is crazy! |
| 20 Nov 23:11 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield Your service has been inaccessible to me for about 2 days with zero helpful info, any information/explanation whatsoever? |
| 20 Nov | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze We're aware of an issue affecting some users’ ability to access Battlelog and working to resolve it as quickly as possible. ^sc |
| 20 Nov | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze In the mean time, if you could DM us your IP address, that would be really helpful! whatismyip.com ^sc |
| 20 Nov 23:19 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield I already did earlier today, did you not receive it? |
| 20 Nov 23:21 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield Just amazed there hasn't been a single piece of information or progress in 2 days, seems unacceptable for a service this big. |
| 21 Nov 00:25 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield The game is unplayable due to this issue, can I get a refund? |
| 21 Nov 00:29 | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze What exactly are you having trouble with? ^sc |
| 21 Nov 00:31 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield Same issue I have raised multiple times with you: Battlelog has been inaccessible for 2 days, no info / ETA and no way to play. |
| 21 Nov 00:32 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield When you link an internet service to the playability of the game it creates a much larger burden on you as a service provider, |
| 21 Nov 00:32 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield and I have been really disappointed with the complete lack of progress and information on this issue. |
| 21 Nov 00:33 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield Every time I've raised it I got the response that you're "aware of it and working on it" but that's not very encouraging now. |
| 21 Nov 00:35 | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze I assure you we're aware of your concerns and working to resolve it as quickly as possible. ^sc |
| 21 Nov 00:35 | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze In the mean time, if you could DM us your IP address, that would be really helpful! whatismyip.com ^sc |
| 21 Nov 00:36 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield That's the third time you've asked, I already sent it. Will contact Amazon to see if I can negotiate a refund. |
| 21 Nov 00:38 | @Battlefield | Broadcast | @djroze Well, that's all we can really say. We're really working to squash this issue as soon as possible. What more can we tell you? ^sc |
| 21 Nov 00:50 | @djroze | Broadcast | Emailed Amazon to ask about a refund for Battlefield 3, this is getting ridiculous, the game has been unplayable for 2 days. |
| 21 Nov 01:01 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield I had hoped you would stand behind your product instead of asking us to cross our fingers and hope it works again someday soon. |
| 21 Nov 01:01 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield I know running a service is complicated but that's part of what we are paying for. Despite some of their failings, Netflix does |
| 21 Nov 01:02 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield a great job of handling this kind of issue. When they have a brief outage they fix it quickly and email customers soon after |
| 21 Nov 01:02 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield offering them a pro-rated refund for the outage time if they tried to watch a movie in that time period (opt-in) - I didn't |
| 21 Nov 01:03 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield happen to redeem those refunds with them because I wasn't trying to watch at those times, but I appreciated the prompt effort |
| 21 Nov 01:03 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield to acknowledge the problem, resolve it, and ultimately make it right with the customers. |
| 21 Nov 01:09 | @djroze | Broadcast | @Battlefield Amazon took care of this for me in about 10 minutes, thanks anyway, this will be the last time I try a Battlefield game. |
| 21 Nov 01:10 | @djroze | Broadcast | *PHENOMENAL* customer service from @Amazon! Never had to use it before IIRC but in a crunch they really came through for me. Thank you!!!!! |
| 21 Nov 07:51 | @Battlefield | DM @djroze | To help us gather more information please PM my profile here:http://t.co/rX6zFZY so I may gather a trace route from your ISP ^EI |
| 21 Nov 09:09 | @djroze | DM @Battlefield | Battlefield: I wasn't kidding when I said I was done with Battlefield, I uninstalled the game last night after Amazon gave me a full refund. |
Wow, you made it through reading that whole thing!! Thanks. :) So, yeah.. Frustrating to say the least, but what's the moral of the story? I think there are four primary things that Battlefield's service operators should have done differently:
1) Fix it. FIX IT! FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT FIX IT FIX IIIIITTTTTT!!! This mostly goes without saying, but seriously guys, no error page of any kind, simply an inaccessible server for 48+ hours for a presumably large number of customers? If anyone on Battlefield 3's service team who could have contributed even a little bit to resolving this issue got any sleep that weekend I think they're doing something very wrong. Yes, it's the weekend, but for gamers that's 9 to 5.
2) Communicate! Getting information about this failure was a try-and-see operation at best. Really guys and gals, no web page about it? No blog post? Even now after the problem appears resolved (I can log in again to the website), the only news item in recent history is advertising a great new patch they released. How can anyone possibly stay informed about this kind of issue, even if you knew what was going on?
3) Stay organized. I don't know if anyone ever even utilized the IP address I sent in to them; clearly with multiple people managing the Twitter account and a lack of ability to follow conversation threads, they don't have the right systems set up to be able to do any kind of meaningful assistance or support through Twitter. Which leads me to...
4) Take it out of band. Most companies I've contacted initially through Twitter are pretty quick to establish communication with me on another band (email, phone, or a customer service web page) and I think this is appropriate - it enables them to keep better records, get more detailed information, and establish meaningful dialog with the customer to help remedy the situation. Unless leveraged in a better way a la #3, Twitter is usually too cold and too fire-and-forget to convince a customer that you actually care.
And as you saw in the Twitter thread, Amazon busted out the epic customer service in a heartbeat, providing me a refund even though they don't normally do so for downloadable content. That's the way to handle a customer's concern. And so I uninstalled the program and have sworn off Battlefield games from here on out - I firmly believe in voting with my dollar in the perpetual election. Maybe Modern Warfare next? Who knows...
Thoughts? Suggestions? Have I thought this through way too much? Throw 'em up on the comments page. :)
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