Sony - beware of dealing with them!

I have a PS4 that I've had since they came out. I have MLB The Show for it and a friend (really more of an acquaintance) came over. I let him play "Road to the Show" mode on it once a week or so. So today he wants to buy some in-game currency that lets him advance his player. I think that's a shade under cheating, but it's single-player so who cares? Well the Sony store is confusing and he buys it for the 14 version when I have 15. No problem, I get on Playstation chat support, I'm sure they can switch it over.

So I get on with "Kevin E." and explain the error. He says nothing can be done and they recommend you buy things from within the game. I ask where that recommendation is because I don't see it anywhere. I say that stinks because 14 and 15 look identical in the store and I'm sure we aren't the first to make the error. He disconnects.

No problem right? Only $10. Only now, I see my PS4 has been logged out. It wasn't logged out. And now my password doesn't work. Now I'm mad. It's obvious "Kevin E." has done something on his end. So I get back on Sony's chat and talk to "Iris" this time. I explain what has happened. Nothing she can do and my email address is not in the system. So Kevin has wiped me out. I offer to send her my receipt from when I got this in-game things just minutes ago and from Grand Theft Auto V several months ago and from several other digital purchases that all have email receipts coming to this email that is not in their system. She says me sending those to her will not help and please call back when I have the correct information. Disconnect.

Yeah, now I have a worthless PS4 that I cannot log into. One last time I go to Sony chat thinking maybe I'll get someone that can help. This time it's "Sharmine." I give her the serial number of my PS4. Not in the system. My email address is not in the system. I again offer to send her the transaction numbers and receipts of digital purchases I have made that are locked into this PS4 and my email address. Please get back in touch when I have the correct information. Disconnect

So obviously the first asshole has wiped me from the system somehow. I don't even know how you do that. But what is worse, I don't know what I can do about it. I have a lot of games that I purchased digitally that I lose forever if this isn't fixed. Which, considering my luck, it can't. I dared to mildly insult a Sony customer service agent.

I do know Dan Hsu who is kind of high up in PlayStation management and I sent him a couple of emails, but that's not his area so I don't know if he can do anything. Great. This is what I need. Now I have apparently lost my PS4.

Just awesome.

update: Dan let me know there was nothing he could do. Just awesome. So every digital purchase I made is now gone. Guess I'm selling my PS4. I'm sure "Kevin" is laughing his ass off right now.

That sucks. Call and ask to talk to a manager.

There is no phone number. Just email and live chat. I did the live chat 3 times and got nowhere.

Wait for normal business hours tomorrow, demand to speak to a manager, demand they call you if necessary. Don't throw in the towel, you just need someone to getto a decision maker.

If you have to, call a Sony store and speak to a manager there. http://store.sony.com/-cms-page.sony...

Also, I have had surprising good luck with calling out bad company behavior on Twitter and getting fast responses by their social media teams.

I have a bit of an update. I noticed in my email one from Paypal. I don't normally use Paypal as a payment method, but it's there as a backup. Anyway, I got an email from them that Sony had cancelled them as a potential payment method. What?!?! So now it's obvious that this little turd acted like a child and because I said their policy was silly, he deleted my account! I sent a tweet to "AskPlaystation", but got nothing. I am astounded that a low-level CSA has this kind of authority! Is this really how Sony treats its' customers??

Coolbeans wrote:

There is no phone number. Just email and live chat. I did the live chat 3 times and got nowhere.

https://gethuman.com/phone-number/So...

Cool, thanks. I do not expect any different result though.

I second the twitter recommendation, have you tried tweeting them yet? Sometimes you can get a better response by publicly revealing things.

I sent 2 tweets to #askplaystation and #playstation. No response after 4 hours on either. I have been such a Sony supporter for years, and now I feel like an idiot!

This is honestly some high-end bullsh*t that's happening to you, Coolbeans.

Farscry wrote:

This is honestly some high-end bullsh*t that's happening to you, Coolbeans. :(

Tell me about it. I managed to find Glenn Nash's email. He is Sr. VP of Operations. I gave him the whole scoop and told him I had chat logs as well as emails, receipts, etc.

If he responds, color me surprised. I expect nothing.

I suppose Microsoft will wipe my XBL account tomorrow and Tuesday Apple will wipe my Itunes.

WTF! I may be biased working for the competition but that is absolutely crazy customer service!

Depending on where you live (*cough* EU *cough*), you might well have various legal protections at your disposal. Always worth investigating a small claims court claim too...

Assuming there is nothing omitted from the story, no company can treat a customer like that.

Nothing left out. I live just north of New Orleans, so no EU protection. Mr. Nash opened his email at 10:30 my time. We'll see if he responds tomorrow.

I hate to say it, but this sort of thing is why I bought an Xbox 360 rather than a PS3. I'm not saying Microsoft is perfect. Far from it. But at the end of the PS2's life cycle I was feeling like Sony was treating its customers with contempt. And treating 3rd party developers even worse. At that time I felt like Sony's mission statement may as well have been, "You need us. We don't need you."

And then there was the whole thing with Geohotz. I don't know much about that situation. But Sony ruined that guys life. And I'm not sure if he even broke any laws. Sony just bankrupted him in the legal system.

I was with Sony for PS1, PS2, and PSP. I even considered buying a PS4 over the Xbox One. But your story makes me think that I made the right choice.

Would Kotaku or Polygon be open to publish this story on their websites? That would certainly get Sony's attention...

I remember I had (probably still have) a problem in which some games (most EA ones, but not EA sports), just won't work on my PS4. Trying to actually find a way to contact Playstation was confusing and in the end they were no help.

This is absolutely awful from them though, I agree with bobbywatson, even if you could total up how much everything you bought cost and tell someone like Kotaku, it would maybe interest them.

The ID of the original rep would link back to the actual employee and it would be easy enough to see from system records what they did. It's just a case of getting someone to listen...

Rawkinmolie wrote:

And then there was the whole thing with Geohotz. I don't know much about that situation. But Sony ruined that guys life. And I'm not sure if he even broke any laws. Sony just bankrupted him in the legal system.

He seems to be doing ok.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

The ID of the original rep would link back to the actual employee and it would be easy enough to see from system records what they did. It's just a case of getting someone to listen...

Yes there should be records. Hope this gets worked out.

Kotaku would be all over this.. which should get you a swift resolution. I would offer to help but all my friends at Sony have left over the years.

If I didn't already have a PS4, then the way that the company has been handling this situation with Coolbeans would make me very wary of purchasing one.

TheGameguru wrote:

Kotaku would be all over this.. which should get you a swift resolution. I would offer to help but all my friends at Sony have left over the years.

If I knew somebody at Kotaku, I would send something over to them!

Just tweeted this out for you...

Hello @Sony @PlayStation One of your CSRs did something terrible to a customer http://bit.ly/1KMlMxT (cc @Kotaku @Polygon @Charlie_L_Hall)

Hoping it gets noticed...

LockAndLoad wrote:

Just tweeted this out for you...

Hello @Sony @PlayStation One of your CSRs did something terrible to a customer http://bit.ly/1KMlMxT (cc @Kotaku @Polygon @Charlie_L_Hall)

Hoping it gets noticed...

Thanks!

I feel like there's enough people around who know people at places like Kotaku that we should be able to get that story out. It's certainly fodder for a good old click-baity inflammatory headline.

That's terrible. Good luck, hoping for justice:)

I'm pretty sure Kotaku has a Tips email for these situations. I don't know what it is, though, which I confess isn't exactly helpful.

Edit: Shockingly, it's "[email protected]"

There have been similar threads at NeoGAF and I think a couple Sony employees might hang out there. Things take time but I believe they usually get resolved. I'd never go all digital with Sony, nor would I keep a credit card attached to my account there.

I'm sure Sony makes regular backups of user accounts. If they were really motivated they could completely recover your account. The problem is motivating them. Gaming media would do it but is a long shot. Maybe someone here has a connection that can move things along.

I'd also try calling, both their CS and a Sony store and see where that goes.

Short of that, starting over with a new account. But if you're like me, you'll be bitter, angry or disappointed everytime you log in to PSN

The bottom line is that if they expect people to start buying all digital games, they're going to need to give a sh*t about people's accounts. They're also going to need to allow 2 factor authentication, though that's not an issue with this particular problem. It's usually front and center to the issue.

Have there been any other instances of this happening? If nobody can find any, Beans is either the first (which would be unlikely) or there's something else going on other than malice. c*ck up maybe? Either on SOny's part or Beans'.