Please note: the text of complaint copies is edited to add enhancements - bold or italics - since the complaint per se lacks those means of emphasis. The intent is purely to clarify for the reader.
[Incident: 090103-002818] Text Follows:
Is it possible to verify credit to the team for coins won this month? I played Jan 01, despite the glitchy site, to total 999,9xx coins for the day. For whatever reason, the casino maxed me at that figure - but small matter.
However, during the entire day, I never hit the team feed, despite being far from the top 16. So, the following morning, I became suspicious that my coins were not being credited to the team; and began by watching for the million-coin milestone. That never appeared.
Concurrently, since I was at that time one of very few players online, I watched the team coin total. That proved distressing, since during one of the few smooth periods of play experienced since December, I racked just over 200,000 coins in about 24 or 25 minutes. The team total, even refreshed, showed an increment of only 40,000 (roughly - I did not use the calculator).
That seemed to me to be verification of some problem with credit of my coins. I stopped play, then, and went looking around other teams for complaints of similar problems. Lo, A Fresh Start not only had many complaints similar to mine, but also that extraneous billion-coin head start for January. After reading a few other teams, and waiting a while, I found a suggestion that the best way to check or solve the problem with credit, would be to leave the team momentarily, then rejoin.
I tried that, and behold: suddenly, I got feed credit of each milestone, the 10ks, the 100ks and ultimately (next day) the million. Plus, although the site was getting so much better that it became difficult to "see" my coins, the team total did begin to reflect what I felt must include mine, other than that initial 1.2 million.
Others with similar problems and suspicions (from members of Tigers Against Diabetes) include gypsysnow (possibly partially cloaked by her place in the top 16), thegoodmommy, fivehole, and bubbles_71.
I feel that the complaint last month about shorting the team more than 5 million coins in the start-up mess was too quickly marked solved. Perhaps that was my own fault, for replying to your email, rather than coming here to re-up the complaint; however, I still do not believe that we (the team) were ever credited for those coins, and I KNOW that the MVP / top-16 included at least 3 players who endured that shortfall right to the final standings in the MVP race. I was not one of those, but rather beneficiary of your boo-boo. I wound up at least three positions higher in that ranking than my coins would have warranted. However, we were more than 11 million coins out of the money, so five million more or less does not greatly matter.
This time, please get it right. Actually DO the verifications, and DO the adjustments where necessary.
Do not expect to get away totally with simply sloughing me off this time, for I will not hesitate to complain publicly and loudly should I not get more than the traditional "we are sure we got it right, but we will look into the matter" response that you issue so freely.
The premise of the Team Challenge is that you will provide accurate counts, and accurate totals. And that if those counts or totals are questioned, that you will reliably investigate the issues, and reliably report the results. Please do so this time.
First Response: Text follows:
"Thank you for writing. Team Activity feed does not broadcast all user activity. You will only appear on the feed as follows:
* once when you reach over 5,000
* from over 10,000 to 99,999 in increments of 10,000, that is 20K, 30K, ...90K
* from over 100,000 to 999,999 in increments of 100,000, that is 200K, 300K, ...900K
* from over 1,000,000 to 9,999,999 in increments of 1,000,000, that is 2M, 3M, ...9M
We regret any confusion this may have caused you.
[Incident: 090118-000269] Text follows:
Gosh, those are EXACTLY the postings that I complain were not posted - none of mine at all, for the first day and a half. NONE OF MINE - I was watching, since it had been an entire month since seeing any of them, & I wanted to verify what those intervals were. (I had just posted in the team page exactly the same guidelines you provide below [above, now], but wanted verification since complaints of non-credit and non-feed-postings were virulent that day.
OK, the site was glitchey, so maybe something kept day one from producing the postings? The problem continued into day 2: I passed the million milestone early ( having been only a few coins short when I got short-maxed the day before ) and quickly plowed through another 200,000+ coins watching the team totals on the page I keep behind the game page.
Not only did the million not hit the feed, but those 200,000+ coins produced, more than an hour after I finished them, refreshed the team page, and started to wait in case your glitchey was simply delaying them in reaching the team total, only a 40,000 coin increase in the team totals. I would guess the 40,000 were someone else struggling through a few games.
My 200,000+ were still not surpassed by team totals for another six hours - that makes more than seven hours after I stopped play. The increases were smallish, and spread through the entire time I waited - not at all like the quick burst in which I had scored mine, so again, reason to doubt that they represented mine.
Once I left the team, then immediately rejoined, I began to hit the feed exactly as you describe in your non-answer to this inquiry: each of the postings there were close in time to the scoring that I did, and fairly prompt to the feed. Of course, I could not finish the million milestone that day, having started over nearly 230,000 into the daily casino max - but it appeared right on time the 3rd morning. I am not interested in competing for MVP, so there is no great loss to me in the severance of the 1.2+ million in that count; but there is a desire to verify that those 1.2+ million were actually credited to the team. THAT is what the complaint asks, and what you should check into.
Second Response: Text follows:
We appreciate you contacting us regarding the error you experienced on the iWon website.
We are aware of the problem you reported and hope to have it corrected shortly. Since 1/2/09 you have contributed 18,911,620 coins towards your team's total. In addition, please note that the Team Activity Feed will only display 10 stories at a time. These stories are replaced in real time.
We appreciate your patience and regret any inconvenience this may have caused.
Result of Complaint?
Despite the partial success involved in this persistent pursuit of "real" numbers for my MTD total team coins contribution, please note that there is absolutely NO mention of the coins for 01012009 - they are not included in the totals to date provided as a part of the second response; nor accounted for in any other fashion except that "we are aware . . . and hope to have it corrected shortly."
Lessons Learned:
1. Record your personal IWON Achievements totals at the end of each month, after completion of play for the last day of that month. You will thus also have the beginning totals for the succeeding month. Do NOT rely, as I have done in the past, upon memory: that will be inexact, and will not serve to document adequately any subsequent complaint regarding IWON's persistent monthly start-up problems.
If you then DO have a problem, you will be forced to provide the support staff "rounded" numbers as the foundation of the complaint. That will not usually be persuasive that you are not simply another cranky Tiger, looking for a few extra coins.
2. Compare the increases in your personal Achievements totals each day, to the changes in your numbers in the MVP race, if you are a contender. If you happen to take the lead in that race at any time during a day, you will have an exact number provided by IWON to assist in the comparison there; otherwise, only the "Max" function will allow such comparison. Each max plaque, whatever the category, allows an easy determination of whether your team numbers are incremented appropriately; and affords another check on the increases in personal Achievements.
3. If there is a Team Totals issue involved, then let me know. Although it makes sense that IWON has declared that I cannot protest YOUR numbers as an individual, I have insisted that insofar as public postings of MVP numbers, or the implications of personal numbers of Tigers upon Tigers totals, I will insist upon investigation and resolution of the problems reported to me by Tigers. (The answer to that insistence is still pending, but I do expect to win that argument: IWON chose to display those MVP numbers in the public area of the Team, and have thereby made those numbers public property; the team totals are likewise publicly displayed, and are thereby both public property, AND Team property. Certainly I have at least a claim to protest either or both - since even though I am not the leader, we currently have no contact with our leader.)
4. If it becomes necessary to protest your numbers, without a clear link to an effect upon Team Totals, then YOU must write that complaint. I will post some pointers to using IWON help separately. See those, if you dread dealing with that, ummm, helpful, group. You may or may not succeed, but at least half the time, on the second or third volley concerning an issue, I have received either a useful answer, or a demonstration of what is lacking from the original complaint that would have allowed a useful answer.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
January Start-Up Complaint
As is now a tradition, I have begun the month (and year) by sumbitting a complaint about the veracity of the IWON coin counting. This time, I even have a personal issue involved (the first coins I suspect missing from the team totals are mine!
Text of the complaint follows.
Is it possible to verify credit to the team for coins won this month?
I played Jan 01, despite the glitchy site, to total 999,9xx coins for the day. For whatever reason, the casino maxed me at that figure - but small matter. However, during the entire day, I never hit the team feed, despite being far from the top 16. So, the following morning, I became suspicious that my coins were not being credited to the team; and began by watching for the million-coin milestone. That never appeared. Concurrently, since I was at that time one of very few players online, I watched the team coin total. That proved distressing, since during one of the few smooth periods of play experienced since December, I racked just over 200,000 coins in about 24 or 25 minutes. The team total, even refreshed, showed an increment of only 40,000 (roughly - I did not use the calculator). That seemed to me to be verification of some problem with credit of my coins.
I stopped play, then, and went looking around other teams for complaints of similar problems. Lo, A Fresh Start not only had many complaints similar to mine, but also that extraneous billion-coin head start for January. After reading a few other teams, and waiting a while, I found a suggestion that the best way to check or solve the problem with credit, would be to leave the team momentarily, then rejoin. I tried that, and behold: suddenly, I got feed credit of each milestone, the 10ks, the 100ks and ultimately (next day) the million. Plus, although the site was getting so much better that it became difficult to "see" my coins, the team total did begin to reflect what I felt must include mine, other than that initial 1.2 million.
Others with similar problems and suspicions (from members of Tigers Against Diabetes) include gypsysnow (possibly partially cloaked by her place in the top 16), thegoodmommy, fivehole, and bubbles_71.
I feel that the complaint last month about shorting the team more than 5 million coins in the start-up mess was too quickly marked solved. Perhaps that was my own fault, for replying to your email, rather than coming here to re-up the complaint; however, I still do not believe that we (the team) were ever credited for those coins, and I KNOW that the MVP / top-16 included at least 3 players who endured that shortfall right to the final standings in the MVP race. I was not one of those, but rather beneficiary of your boo-boo. I wound up at least three positions higher in that ranking than my coins would have warranted. However, we were more than 11 million coins out of the money, so five million more or less did not and does not greatly matter.
This time, please get it right. Actually DO the verifications, and DO the adjustments where necessary. Do not expect to get away totally with simply sloughing me off this time, for I will not hesitate to complain publicly and loudly should I not get more than the traditional "we are sure we got it right, but we will look into the matter" response that you issue so freely. The premise of the Team Challenge is that you will provide accurate counts, and accurate totals. And that if those counts or totals are questioned, that you will reliably investigate the issues, and reliably report the results.
Please do so this time.
The reference number for your submission is '090103-002818'
An amendment or addendum for complaint '090103-002818' :
The counting system continues to do mysterious and blatantly inaccurate things to both the individual totals (MVP race / top 16) and to the team totals. One very strong contender for MVP, chris1743, has just been bumped from the top slot, and in fact fell to 3rd for a while, despite having maxed every category every day. There is the chance that one of the players may have exceeded her take on Spin2Win, or PrizeMachine - but hardly likely that it made the 200k difference that we think existed at the end of day 1. Since that was start-up day for January, and the worst day of the current site problems, we had one other of our stronger players who did NOT max that day. In fact, we think that chris1743 was our only player to max casino, non-casino, and search that day. Nonetheless, both players passed chris1743 at one point, although for strange reasons, one fell back 2 hours after completing play. The other, the one who was at one time, shown as 200k short of chris1743, has not fallen back.
This is the second month in a row that IWON has demonstrably misreported the MVP statistics. Last month, the error persisted throughout the month, and was reflected in the final standings. I know, for I was (one of) the beneficiary(s). It should not persist this month, for you should actually check, and adjust accordingly.
Only by doing so can you demostrate that you do not simply apply whatever numbers you imagine will keep us playing, and quiet.
More, and more a team issue, we still also need the verification that those players listed earlier in the complaint had all their coins credited to the team. The same should be done for chris1743, since that is one very strong possible reason for her to have failed to hold that lead for MVP. There appear to chris1743, to be two separate problems, in that some - not all - of the coins won, reflect in her profile accounting; but even then, not enough to lead to the loss of position; and separately, the loss of position per se, implying a failure to credit the team even all those coins shown as accumulated on her profile page.
Some of the facts listed here I personally observed in the daily posting of MVP totals - right through this morning, chris1743 showed the maximum obtainable, except for Sell-a-friend. As of January 02, the player succeeding chris1743 in the MVP position (irankin64) was 200,000 coins off the pace. How did he gain those coins?
If you could please attempt to verify your numbers, perhaps you can accomplish TWO critical things: find the explanation of these apparently inexplicable events; and restore some faith that you do supply numbers, not merely guesses.
Conley T. Gwinn
The reference number for your submission is '090104-002809'
Text of the complaint follows.
Is it possible to verify credit to the team for coins won this month?
I played Jan 01, despite the glitchy site, to total 999,9xx coins for the day. For whatever reason, the casino maxed me at that figure - but small matter. However, during the entire day, I never hit the team feed, despite being far from the top 16. So, the following morning, I became suspicious that my coins were not being credited to the team; and began by watching for the million-coin milestone. That never appeared. Concurrently, since I was at that time one of very few players online, I watched the team coin total. That proved distressing, since during one of the few smooth periods of play experienced since December, I racked just over 200,000 coins in about 24 or 25 minutes. The team total, even refreshed, showed an increment of only 40,000 (roughly - I did not use the calculator). That seemed to me to be verification of some problem with credit of my coins.
I stopped play, then, and went looking around other teams for complaints of similar problems. Lo, A Fresh Start not only had many complaints similar to mine, but also that extraneous billion-coin head start for January. After reading a few other teams, and waiting a while, I found a suggestion that the best way to check or solve the problem with credit, would be to leave the team momentarily, then rejoin. I tried that, and behold: suddenly, I got feed credit of each milestone, the 10ks, the 100ks and ultimately (next day) the million. Plus, although the site was getting so much better that it became difficult to "see" my coins, the team total did begin to reflect what I felt must include mine, other than that initial 1.2 million.
Others with similar problems and suspicions (from members of Tigers Against Diabetes) include gypsysnow (possibly partially cloaked by her place in the top 16), thegoodmommy, fivehole, and bubbles_71.
I feel that the complaint last month about shorting the team more than 5 million coins in the start-up mess was too quickly marked solved. Perhaps that was my own fault, for replying to your email, rather than coming here to re-up the complaint; however, I still do not believe that we (the team) were ever credited for those coins, and I KNOW that the MVP / top-16 included at least 3 players who endured that shortfall right to the final standings in the MVP race. I was not one of those, but rather beneficiary of your boo-boo. I wound up at least three positions higher in that ranking than my coins would have warranted. However, we were more than 11 million coins out of the money, so five million more or less did not and does not greatly matter.
This time, please get it right. Actually DO the verifications, and DO the adjustments where necessary. Do not expect to get away totally with simply sloughing me off this time, for I will not hesitate to complain publicly and loudly should I not get more than the traditional "we are sure we got it right, but we will look into the matter" response that you issue so freely. The premise of the Team Challenge is that you will provide accurate counts, and accurate totals. And that if those counts or totals are questioned, that you will reliably investigate the issues, and reliably report the results.
Please do so this time.
The reference number for your submission is '090103-002818'
An amendment or addendum for complaint '090103-002818' :
The counting system continues to do mysterious and blatantly inaccurate things to both the individual totals (MVP race / top 16) and to the team totals. One very strong contender for MVP, chris1743, has just been bumped from the top slot, and in fact fell to 3rd for a while, despite having maxed every category every day. There is the chance that one of the players may have exceeded her take on Spin2Win, or PrizeMachine - but hardly likely that it made the 200k difference that we think existed at the end of day 1. Since that was start-up day for January, and the worst day of the current site problems, we had one other of our stronger players who did NOT max that day. In fact, we think that chris1743 was our only player to max casino, non-casino, and search that day. Nonetheless, both players passed chris1743 at one point, although for strange reasons, one fell back 2 hours after completing play. The other, the one who was at one time, shown as 200k short of chris1743, has not fallen back.
This is the second month in a row that IWON has demonstrably misreported the MVP statistics. Last month, the error persisted throughout the month, and was reflected in the final standings. I know, for I was (one of) the beneficiary(s). It should not persist this month, for you should actually check, and adjust accordingly.
Only by doing so can you demostrate that you do not simply apply whatever numbers you imagine will keep us playing, and quiet.
More, and more a team issue, we still also need the verification that those players listed earlier in the complaint had all their coins credited to the team. The same should be done for chris1743, since that is one very strong possible reason for her to have failed to hold that lead for MVP. There appear to chris1743, to be two separate problems, in that some - not all - of the coins won, reflect in her profile accounting; but even then, not enough to lead to the loss of position; and separately, the loss of position per se, implying a failure to credit the team even all those coins shown as accumulated on her profile page.
Some of the facts listed here I personally observed in the daily posting of MVP totals - right through this morning, chris1743 showed the maximum obtainable, except for Sell-a-friend. As of January 02, the player succeeding chris1743 in the MVP position (irankin64) was 200,000 coins off the pace. How did he gain those coins?
If you could please attempt to verify your numbers, perhaps you can accomplish TWO critical things: find the explanation of these apparently inexplicable events; and restore some faith that you do supply numbers, not merely guesses.
Conley T. Gwinn
The reference number for your submission is '090104-002809'
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