“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” Dante, Inferno

This page is an overview of what you can expect if you contact Gameloft Customer Care. It is based on the experiences I have made over the years, exchanging many many mails in a variety of cases.

If this is the first time you plan to contact Customer Care, you will find a few tips how to not let this drive you insane.

If you already have some experience with Customer Care, you can regard it as a funny round of bullshit bingo. You are guaranteed to win.

There are quite a few help desks and customer services I had to deal with in my life. I know that there usually is a data base that automatically suggests possible solutions according to keywords found in the customer's mail. Good systems already offer this feature to the customers before they even send the mail, thus saving a lot of work for the agents. But the Gameloft Customer Care is very different in many aspects. First let me list all the positive things I can say about them:

They usually reply quite fast.

That's it.

Contents show]

Phase 1

Now for the things that will turn every contact with Gameloft Customer Care into the most absurd, grotesque and exhausting experience you've ever made:

They do not read your mails. They never do. Forget this idea. They – do – not – read – your – mails. Their function is not to help you but to keep you away. They are Gameloft's firewall against annoying customers, nothing else. Keep that in mind. Forget the “customer” and the “care”. Not the game is the problem, you are the problem, and you are treated as such. Agents do not know the game. They may have played one or two races, that's all. They know nothing about vehicles, stats, matchmaking, rewards, ads or any other of a player's everyday procedures. They only rely on their data base. Unfortunately, as they do not read your mails, it's also useless to explain anything to them. You have to go through phase 1 without being able to control the procedure. The average time an agent spends processing your mail is 15 seconds. Don't invest more than 3 minutes in writing your mail, it's useless. If you don't attach screenshots or videos in your first mail, you will be asked to provide some, so better attach them right away. Chances are that the next agent will open them. Perhaps. As they do not read your mails, they search for the first random keyword they find and answer with a predefined template, regardless if it fits or not. Many of the templates are taken directly from the FAQs. There are two kinds: complete mail templates that start with “Hello” without your name, text templates that are built together if the agent is in the mood. Sometimes agents add some words of their own; you can recognize these additions by the fact that they mostly don't fit the rest of the sentence. Don't expect that your issue will be dealt with by one single agent who is already familiar with the case. Your replies will be randomly distributed to any agent available. Every agent will only refer to your last mail (see 1: They do not read your mails) by applying the automated keyword search and template insertion method again. This procedure will be repeated an unpredictable number of times, depending on whether there are previously unused templates left of not.

Phase 2

When all templates are used up, phase 2 begins: The random agent will start to actually read your mail. If you are lucky, the agent will even understand, but this is improbable because all your previous mails where you explained the issue are ignored. Also, if you hoped that the agent would read your complete mail—how dare you! Your insolent persistence forced them to abandon their holy rule number 1 (They do not read your mails), so don't expect them to read more than the first three lines. Phase 2 is a freestyle round that will only end when you give up or demand an escalation to the team leader. If you want your issue to be escalated, make sure to write that in the first three lines of your mail, otherwise it will be ignored. If you choose not to escalate your issue, the following options are available: The agent accuses you of cheating or fraud so you can't get a compensation. The agent says they have checked their data base and found that there is nothing unusual so you can't get a compensation. The agent simply denies what you have written so you can't get a compensation (remember that all your previous explanations have been lost long ago). The agent says that the issue didn't occur on their side so you can't get a compensation. Once an agent has chosen one of the above options, they do not change their mind. Explanations will not be read, screenshots will not be opened. You can repeat writing them, the answer will always be the same. Your only option now is to demand an escalation. Remember that your demand has to appear in the first three lines of your mail, otherwise it will be ignored. In order to avoid damage to your mental health, it is recommended to escalate your issue immediately after reaching phase 2. Make sure to carefully read the answer to your escalation demand. They have excellent skills in messing this up. Reasons: Carelessness. Remember that you are a problem, not a customer. Team leaders don't like agents that keep escalating cases, so agents try to avoid that wherever and as long as possible. Insist!

Phase 3

Congratulations! You have reached phase 3! I have done this only once, and I got my compensation.

Considering all the time I had to spend and all the anger about the ignorant, renitent, arrogant and insulting behaviour of the agents, one could ask if it's worth it. Yes, it is. I would accept if an agent actually read my mail and gave me an answer that refers to what I've written. But this never happens. They treat you like idiots, like cattle that they expect to swallow everything they throw at you.

As some passages of my above description show slight traces of humour, you might think that I exaggerated in order to make it more fun to read. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In the next section you will find the original mails I exchanged with Customer Care about a recent obvious case. The correspondence is still ongoing, so check back from time to time for a laugh or two.

After all, this is the best advice I can give you when you contact Customer Care:

Laugh! Your mental health is always more important than a bunch of ignorant so-called “agents” who don't do their job.

And:

Leave negative ratings for the game in the Google Play Store or whereever you downloaded the game. They matter. Always provide reasons for your rating. If you have already given a positive rating, change it to negative.

Publish your Customer Care experiences. Not necessarily on the Gameloft Forum as critical posts tend to be deleted. The more is published, the more pops up in search engines, and the more the public image is changed.

Be loud! Comment under Gameloft's social media posts!

Real case

Status:

Not solved, closed.

Not solved, closed. Extremely dissatisfied. Instead of help, this was an endless series of incompetence, denial, refusal and finally a threat to ban me from the game. Very unprofessional.

Typos on both sides have been left uncorrected. Added comments are .

Rimma: Reading? We don't do that here.

I already knew they would ask for screenshots, so I attached one. This avoided an additional mail from them, but neither was my mail read nor was the attached screenshot opened. The reply was built with templates that referred to videos in general, but not at all to my issue. Furthermore, the statements were wrong.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-24 22:15 Bug report and request for compensation, Asphalt 8, Android, Player ID f15ff91 Dear team at customer care, I'd like to report a bug and request for compensation. Since October 15, 2019, an ad for Falken Tyres has removed the ad button for Tuning Kits on the pre-race screen. This causes a loss of 5 Tuning Kits per day.

Since there is another bug you haven't been able to fix since three upgrades now, Android players cannot watch Nitro Starter ads unless they have watched a Tuning Kit ad before. As the Falken Tyres ad blocks the Tuning Kit ad button, it's also impossible to watch Nitro Starter ads. This causes a loss of 5 Nitro Starters per day. Attached please find a screenshot. As the bug persists for ten days now, please send me 50 Tuning Kits

50 Nitro Starters. Before you ask: No, it has nothing to do with the general ads problem players are currently facing. It's badly programmed ad graphics. It's your fault.

Yes, I have restarted my game repeatedly. It's reproducable.

No, it isn't only on my device. All German players are affected. It's been reported on Gameloft Forums and Asphalt Wiki.

No, I will not reinstall my game. It's a bad design, not my device. Best regards Guy Bukzi Montag

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-24 22:43 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Dear Gameloft Player, Thank you for contacting Gameloft Customer Care. We are sorry to hear that you've had an issue and we aim to resolve your problem quickly. This automated response confirms that we have received your message.

Your ticket ID is 19140623. Please keep and refer to this ticket ID in any follow-up emails on this subject. While our Customer Care specialists are reviewing your issue, you can communicate with our staff and with fellow players on our official game forums: http://forum.gameloft.com/. You can also find helpful tips and up-to-date information about our games in our FAQ: http://support.gameloft.com/?lang=en We will get back to you as quickly as possible. Best regards,

Gameloft Customer Care

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-25 10:26 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, Thank you for contacting Gameloft Customer Care. We’re sorry to hear that you’re having trouble. Please note, the videos are not available every day. It depends on the campaign held in a particular country at a particular period of time. We are always here to help, so don’t hesitate to contact us again anytime. Kind regards,

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Rimma

Customer Care Agent

Anna: I answer with predefined mail templates whether they fit or not.

I made the mistake—again—to explain more details, thinking that Rimma had actually read my mail and simply misunderstood it. The result was a mail template from another agent who did not read any of the previous mails.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-25 11:51 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Rimma, thank you for your reply. > Please note, the videos are not available every day. This is wrong. Every player everywhere in the world can watch 5 ads for Tuning Kits and 5 ads for Nitro Starters per day. As long as these 5 ads have not been watched, a second green button "Play ad!" is displayed. See attached file "Working booster ad button.png" from a fellow racer. Only if the 5 ads have been watched, the green ad button disappears and players have to buy boosters or use up their free boosters. The timer is reset at 00:00 UTC, then the 5 ads are available again. > It depends on the campaign held in a particular country at a particular period of time. This is wrong. The 5 ads per day do not depend on campaigns. The CONTENT of the ads does. As you can see from the first screenshot in my last mail, the Falken Tyres ad has completely replaced the Tuning Kit buttons. There is no room for an ad button any more. You are taking away boosters from players in Germany while players in other countries can still get them. This is unfair. Please send me 50 Tuning Kit

50 Nitro Starters.

Best regards

Guy

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-25 13:01 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, Thank you for contacting us back. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please try the following troubleshooting steps to solve the problem: Go to Settings on your device. Select Applications. Select Manage Applications. Scroll to find the game's name, then select the app icon. Tap Force Stop. Tap Clear Cache. If your problem still persists, please follow these steps to re-download the game: Uninstall the game. Reinstall the game from Applications – My Downloads Don't forget to reconnect to the previously used social network account to recover your game progress. Please let us know if this works. Sincerely,

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Anna

Customer Care Agent

Gaspar: I prefer smaller, more versatile text templates so the customer thinks we actually care, haha.

This time I kept my mail short, but repeated my demand for compensation. I got the third different agent, bingo. And there it was: The "We've checked your account" claim. Bingo again. And not true. Apart form this, the whole mail is composed with generic templates about ad rewards and game design in general. Nothing addresses the original issue.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-25 13:39 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Anna, I think there is a misunderstanding. The missing ad button is caused by a badly designed graphics replacement, not by a malfunction of the game. I've cleared the cache, of course with no effect. Please refund 50 Tuning Kits

50 Nitro Starters. The number will increase by 5 for each day you don’t remove the Falken Tyres graphics replacement. Regards Guy

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-25 18:48 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, Thank you for contacting us again. We would like to inform you that we have checked your account in our data base finding that you are receiving the correct amount of rewards from Ads per player. Please note that there is a certain amount of rewards every player can received per day. Addressing your complaing of the design of the game, please note that decisions regarding game-design changes are taken based on a number of factors, such as overall community feedback, the game economy and balance needs, etc. As a result, some ideas and comments from our players may not always be brought to life. However, we do pay attention to our game community's mood and strive to make sure our games better match our fans' expectations. We assure you that your comment has been duly noted, however, and will be passed on to the development team directly. Thank you for your interest in our games. Sincerely,

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Gaspar

Customer Care Agent

Tracie: People love me. I'm just a friendly that replies to overdue mails.

As I got quite upset because everything I wrote was constantly ignored, I started from scratch with an ironic (I admit) decription for absolute dummies. Now I also added that I had reported the issue to Falken Tyres, Gameloft's ad customer. Of course, this wasn't read, but just to have proof for later.

Never heard of Tracie before. Either she's new or a bot.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-27 01:40 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Dear Rimma, Anna, Gaspar, > We would like to inform you that we have checked your account in our data base finding that you are receiving the correct amount of rewards from Ads per player. You have not. If you had really checked my account, you would have found that I have not received any Tuning Kits at all from pre-race screen ads for twelve days now. > Please note that there is a certain amount of rewards every player can received per day. As you do not seem to be familiar with the game, please allow me to shortly explain it. I will add pictures inline as you obviously neither open attachments nor read previous e-mails. A.

This is the home screen. Arrow 1 points to a button for 10 daily ads. I have watched these ads almost every day and have received a reward for each ad. This is what you may have found in your data base when you say that you have checked my account. Arrow 2 points to the Play button. This is where players can play races. Before each race, a pre-race screen is displayed. B.

This is a screenshot from a NORMAL pre-race screen that a fellow player from the United States has send me. Arrow 1 points to a purchase button that is displayed if a player has no free Tuning Kits. Arrow 2 points to a button for 5 daily ads that grant Tuning Kits. If all 5 ads have been watched, the button disappears. Arrow 3 points to a button that is displayed if a player has free Nitro Starters. Otherwise, a purchase button like 1 is displayed. Arrow 4 points to a button for 5 daily ads that grant Nitro Starters. If all 5 ads have been watched, the button disappears. C.

This is a screenshot from the pre-race screen on my own device with the Falken Tyres ad. If you compare this screenshot with the one from B., you may notice a difference. The Falken Tyres ad has removed the ad button for the Tuning Kits. Normally, at least a Nitro Starter ad button would be displayed. But it is not because of a bug you have not fixed since version 4.2: For Android players, Nitro Starter ad buttons are only shown if a Tuning Kit ad has been watched before. As the Falken Tyres ad has removed the ad button for Tuning Kits, it is also impossible to watch ads for Nitro starters So if you remind me that there “is a certain amount of rewards every player can received per day”, I would like to remind you that the Falken Tyres ad has reduced this number by 10 per day. 5 Tuning Kits and 5 Nitro Starters. > Addressing your complaing of the design of the game, please note that decisions regarding game-design changes are taken based on a number of factors, […] My complaint was aiming at the design of the Falken Tyres ad graphics depicted in screenshot C. > […] such as overall community feedback, the game economy and balance needs, etc. a) Community feedback: It may have escaped your attention but the community feedback on the Falken Tyres ad is devastating. You could have had a look at your own forum (it’s easy once you have understood how the search function works), at Asphalt Wiki (they also have a search function) or at Facebook (now that’s a bit tricky; Facebook’s search function is not very reliable). I will sum it up for you: Players hate the ad because it is an unfair disadvantage for German players who are forced to play without 10 ad boosters per day. b) Game economy: It may have escaped your attention, but the ad does the opposite of promoting Falken Tyres. It damages the reputation of Falken Tyres because it obstructs the players. How can a dissatisfied ad customer contribute to the game economy? c) Balance needs: It may have escaped my attention that angry players and angry ad customers serve any balance needs. Could you please explain this point a bit further so I can understand it? > We assure you that your comment has been duly noted, however, and will be passed on to the development team directly. This is great! It is indeed very easy for a developer to make a little change to the Falken Tyres ad so that the additional ad button is shown again. When can I expect the feedback from the developer team? I hope my explanations were understandable and clear. If so, my request should also be clear: Please refund 60 (12x5) Tuning Kits

60 (12x5) Nitro Starters. The numbers will increase by 5 for each day you don’t remove the Falken Tyres graphics replacement or reactivate the ad buttons. Just to make it a bit clearer: We have already reported this issue to the marketing department of Falken Tyres. Your ad customer knows of your apparent disability to design ads that serve their purpose. Sincerely Guy Bukzi Montag

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-29 03:19 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, Thank you for your patience; we apologize for making you wait. Please be assured that your request is being processed. We will contact you as soon as we have new information for you. Sincerely, -------------------------------

Tracie

Customer Care Agent

Anton: I don't know what this is all about, but here's another mail template.

Now things got complicated. An additional issue had occurred; Gameloft's servers were unresponsive. This was a general problem for the majority of players. Anton, the fifth different agent in a row, thought: "Hey, I've got a template for that!", ignored everything that was previously written and fired out the automated mail.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-29 11:17 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Tracie, Rimma, Anna, Gaspar, > Thank you for your patience; we apologize for making you wait. No problem. Please note that in the meantime (since October 28), my game has now lost all ad functionality and all buying features. Either ad buttons have completely vanished or there's the turning "wait" circle. I cannot open Pro Kit Boxes or fuse Pro Kit cards either. The “Get Boxes” screen has been reset to a pre-pre-pre version which shows the discontinued Super Racer Kit Box, so I can’t get any Daily Kit Boxes. Also, there's no three daily Multi-Credits option any more. As Multi-Credits offer 3x 25,000 tokens per day, they will be added to my refund request. Other functions that require server connections (like Multiplayer) work fine though. Please refund: 70 (14x5) Tuning Kits

70 (14x5) Nitro Starters.

1 Daily Kit Box.

75,000 (1x25,000) Credits. The numbers will increase by 5 boosters, 1 Daily Kit Box and 75,000 Credits for each day you don’t restore the complete ad and buying functionality. Here's screenshots for the lost functionalities since October 28: Sincerely Guy Bukzi Montag

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-29 13:28 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, Thank you for your response. In order to solve the issue, could you please do the following steps: Make sure no one else is connected to your WiFi Network.

Make sure you are not running any Streaming or P2P Software on your WiFi Network connection.

Make sure that the signal is at maximum.

Restart your WiFi connection.

Clear your device cache.

Make sure that you have at least 20% of free space in your device memory.

Turn off your device for 2 minutes and then turn it back on. If this does not help, we would suggest you re-install the game. Please do not hesitate to contact us and let us know if these actions have solved the problem. We are looking forward to your reply. Best regards, -------------------------------

Anton

Customer Care Agent

The return of the Rimma!

Mentioning the second issue was a grave mistake. While I thanked them for solving the second issue and thought we could finally come back to the original one, Rimma (who, of course, didn't read or remember any of the previous mails) was happy to have this finally classified so she could get rid of me, and answered that the issue occurred on my side (Bingo!).

This was a blatant lie in more than one respect:

First, it is certainly not on my side if a complete in-game panel is replaced with another design.

Second, also the connectivity issue was not my fault, it was a server problem on Gameloft's side. This time, Rimma didn't even bother to look it up in her data base. There she would have found this, which was also listed in the FAQs: "Connection errors: We are aware that some of you have some online features missing or can't log into social networks to play online. We're working on a fix for these issues. Meanwhile, try to reboot your device, clear the cache and restart the game; this should resolve the issues." I had reinstalled the game three times now, only to see that the connectivity issues reppeared after a short time.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-30 19:07 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Anton, Tracie, Rimma, Anna, Gaspar, The described steps didn't help, but reinstalling did, thanks. I can watch ads again now, and I was able to claim the Daily Kit Box and the 75,000 Credits. This also means that the Falken Tyres ad is back. See my e-mail from October 27 for a detailed description. I expect the following compensation: 75 (15x5) Tuning Kits

75 (15x5) Nitro Starters. The numbers will increase by 5 for each day you don’t remove the Falken Tyres graphics replacement or reactivate the ad buttons. The issue has been reported to your ad customer, Falken Tyres GmbH. It has also been published on Asphalt Wiki; 13,127 views for the respective page last month. Sincerely Guy Bukzi Montag

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-10-31 10:50 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Dear Guy, Thank you for your message. Please note, we can't provide you any compensation in this case as the issue occurred not on our side. Should you face any other difficulty, please feel free to contact us again. Kind regards,

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Rimma

Customer Care Agent



Gaspar is actually a reincarnation of Franz Kafka.

Things were getting really grotesque. In order to keep this level, I answered with an equally absurd mail, but turned serious again in the second half, asking for my issue to be escalated, repeating my demand for compensation and now adding that the whole conversation would be published on social media channels, including Asphalt Wiki. With no effect, of course—how could I assume that agents would read more than the first three lines?

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-10-31 19:55 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Dear Rimma, thank you for your funny reply. It is very nice to hear from you again after four other agents replied to my mails without reading the previous ones. This is a well-organized Customer Care, I like that! > Please note, we can't provide you any compensation in this case as the issue occurred not on our side. You are perfectly right. You now, it's an old Android bug that hasn't been fixed for ages: Every year around Halloween, Android devices display an ad for a now defunct tyres company (Falken Tyres) that existed in the 19th century and delivered tyres to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. I just forgot that, I thought it was Gameloft who changed the Tuning Kits panel to the Falken Tyres one. Silly me! And now for something completely different: As you and your colleagues are either deliberately ignoring what I write or are lacking the intellectual capability to understand it (both are inacceptable), I want to talk to your manager. I expect the following compensation: 80 (16x5) Tuning Kits

80 (16x5) Nitro Starters. The numbers will increase by 5 for each day you don’t remove the Falken Tyres graphics replacement or reactivate the ad buttons. The bugged ad has been reported to Falken Tyre Europe GmbH. They were not amused.

This has also been published on Asphalt Wiki; 13,180 views for the respective page last month.

Furthermore, this conversation will be published on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Asphalt Wiki—you can choose the order.

Guy Bukzi Montag

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-01 20:48 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, Thank you for contacting us again. We understand your point of view but please note that we already checked this situation and this is not due the game's functions. Unfortunately we can not provide you a compensation on this. Please let us know if you experience more difficulties. Regards,

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Gaspar

Customer Care Agent

Gaspar can handle one-line mails appropriately. Congratulations!

Fed up with the amount of nonsense replies, lies and ignorance, I abandoned all politeness and compressed my demand in one single line. That should do, I thought. Instead of a mail from the team leader, I got a mail asking me to rate my experience with Customer Care. This was a sign that the issue had been closed on their side, but maybe only on the first support level, so I sent back the survey and waited for the team leader.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-11-01 22:08 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] I cannot recall having asked for your comment. I said I want to talk to your manager. This is a formal complaint.

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-02 18:06 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, Thank you for contacting us again. We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced. We have escalated your case to our team leader. He will reply to you very soon. Thank you for your patience. Best regards,

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Gaspar

Customer Care Agent

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-05 19:14 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, We aim to constantly improve the way we serve you, and we value your feedback.

Please take a moment to tell us what you think about our Customer Care services. Good, I'm satisfied Bad, I'm not satisfied Please do not reply to this message. If you wish to continue discussing your issue with Customer Care, please reply to our agent's most recent message. We will make every effort to come up with a satisfactory solution. Thank you for your valuable time!

Gameloft Customer Care

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-11-05 19:18

Correction. He can't.

Since one-liners seemed to finally work, I tried another one a week after the escalation to ask when I'd hear from the teamleader. Well ... Do you remember Gaspar's former reply that my "comment has been duly noted, however, and will be passed on to the development team directly"? He seemed to remember this, too. And messed it up. He had one job ...

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-11-09 09:55 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Please define "very soon".

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-09 17:41 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, Thank you for contacting us again. We apologize for the delay in our response. We have sent a reminder to our development team, he will reply to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. Best regards,

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Gaspar

Customer Care Agent



Gaspar again: Oops, I chose the wrong template.

Life is a lot simpler now that I omit all politeness in those mails. Of course I'll switch back to a formal and friendly style if I hear from the team leader.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-11-09 18:01 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Since when is the development team your line manager? Read what you wrote ("We have escalated your case to our team leader. He will reply to you very soon."), then act accordingly.

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-09 20:32 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, Thank you for contacting us again. We apologize for the misunderstanding. We have sent the reminder to our team leader since our previous message. He will contact you as soon as possible. Regards,

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Gaspar

Customer Care Agent



Three days later: Still nothing, template from Rimma.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-11-12 18:33 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] You are constantly and deliberately ignoring my demand to escalate the issue. If your team leader is not willing or not able to reply, we want to talk to the person who is responsible for Customer Care as a whole. The way you treat customers is insulting. As we have lost 110 Tuning Kits and 110 Nitro Starters, we want you to compensate exactly this number of boosters to ALL German players that were affected. "We" includes ticket No. 19201521 and ticket No. 19190153 who had the same problem.

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-13 10:03 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello, Thank you for your patience; we apologize for making you wait. Please be assured that your request is being processed. Sincerely,

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Rimma

Customer Care Agent

Luis, team leader: I guess I can't ignore this any longer.

This was a bit nasty. If an agent had replied that they had not escalated the issue because of xy, they would have admitted that they lied several times before when they assured they did. Well, one day after my message, finally a team leader replied. First reaction, as always: not informed about the case, deny and refuse. At least he took the time to create some sentences on his own.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-11-18 12:00 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Please write one sentence in your own words why you did not escalate the issue.

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-11-19 18:07 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, My name is Luis and I'm a Customer Care Team Lead for Gameloft. Your case was escalated to me, I will be glad to issue any possible assistance. I'm sorry about the time it took me to handle your case. After checking your case, I see you are having problems not getting some ads. I verified this change with the development team and the ads in questions are no longer active for your region. Please note like previously stated, ads depend on the campaign held in a particular region at a particular period of time. In this case, this campaign is no longer active, since there is no error with the ad or the game mechanics, we will not be able to offer compensation. I do apologize about this process Guy but since ads are not constant for any region, ads are taken as an extra for players and not a must. Thank you for understanding. Regards,

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Luis

Customer Care Team Lead

Luis: Denial and open threat

The response from Luis took eleven days. It would have been a sign of good will and respect for the players to grant some kind of compensation, even if it was only 10 Tuning Kits or 20 Tokens. However, Luis chose to openly threaten to close my account and ban me from the game.

I was thinking of writing a friendly reply, informing him that threatening or banning me will not prevent Asphalt Wiki from revealing their practices in any way. But hey, they will find out themselves.

Guy Bukzi Montag 2019-12-05 22:15 AW: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Luis, thank you for replying to my e-mail. > After checking your case, I see you are having problems not getting some ads. Please let me first inform you about the dimensions of this case. I am writing to you as an administrator of Asphalt Wiki, the largest Asphalt community and data base in the world.

I am also writing to you on behalf of all German players affected by the issue, especially and namely ticket IDs 19201521 and 19190153 who had the same problem.

This case has affected so many users that it even made its way to negative Google Play Store reviews (see screenshot to the right).

Your programming has damaged the public image of your ad customer, Falken Tyres, instead of promoting it.

We had personal talks with the marketing department of Falken Tyres. It was them who ordered Gameloft to remove the Tuning Kit promo image, after we explained them that it was obstructing players.

The people at Falken Tyres were not at all amused about the fact that their campaign had negative effects, and especially that Gameloft kept denying this in a reply to them. Falken Tyres has released an official public statement for Asphalt Wiki in which they apologized for the inconveniences (which weren’t even their fault) and announced that they had ordered Gameloft to remove the promo image (which happened on the same day). This said, please let me refer to your reply in detail: This is not about me “not getting some ads”. It’s about a promo image that evidently blocked all Tuning Kit ads exclusively for German players, while players in other countries still had this game functionality available. German players have lost a total of 110 Tuning Kits and 110 Nitro Starters until Falken Tyres ordered Gameloft to remove the promo image. > I verified this change with the development team and the ads in questions are no longer active for your region. Of course not. The campaign ended after 30 days. This does not change the fact that the promo image blocked a game functionality that was evidently available to all other players in the world except German players. > Please note like previously stated, ads depend on the campaign held in a particular region at a particular period of time. Please not that, like previously stated, this is not about ads. It’s about a promo image that blocked a game functionality and discriminated against German players. > In this case, this campaign is no longer active, since there is no error with the ad or the game mechanics, we will not be able to offer compensation. This is false in many ways. There are three elements of the Falken Tyres campaign: Normal Falken Tyres ad videos shown amongst other ad videos. We don’t complain. Falken Tyres logos on billboards across all race tracks. We don’t complain. A Falken Tyres promo image that was laid over the normal Tuning Kit panel on all pre-race screens. This image evidently did obstruct players, it did block a game functionality and it was an error on your side. Therefore we ask again for a compensation of 110 Tuning Kits and 110 Nitro Starters for all German players affected, at least for the above-mentioned ticket IDs 19201521 and 19190153 and for my own account. > I do apologize about this process Guy but since ads are not constant for any region, ads are taken as an extra for players and not a must. We are familiar with the terms of use. In this case, however, Gameloft did not decide to change a game functionality intentionally (we understand well that game functionalities including ad options are not guaranteed and can be changed by Gameloft). The issue rather resulted as an accidental side effect of a badly programmed promo image overlay. Of course, you can insist that the promo image blocking a game functionally was intentional. However, I would like to ask: What use has a promo image that deprives players of advantages they would have had without the promo image? It is a disadvantage both for players and the ad customer whose public image is damaged. I am sure that you now understand the situation and that we will find a satisfying solution for all parties involved. Best regards Guy

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-12-11 16:57 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, Thank you for taking the time to bring this information to our attention. At this moment, I am checking with the development team to see check on your statements. I will write back to you as soon as I have more information about this situation. Thank you for your patience. Regards,

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Luis

Customer Care Team Lead

Gameloft Customer Care 2019-12-16 21:06 Re: [#AYH-61654-183] [Gameloft Customer Care - InGameSupport] [Asphalt 8: Airborne] [Motion] [Ad-Related Issues] [Other] Hello Guy, Thank you for your patience with this case. After checking with the development team once more, a final decision has been taken for this case. The Falken Tyre promo worked as planned on our end, in our opinion players did not bare any losses and because of this Gameloft will not be offering compensation. We invite you to read our "Term of use" and please note the point quoted below: "Without limiting anything in this Agreement, we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to restrict, suspend, or terminate your Account and/or your access to any or all parts of the Services at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability, including in the event we stop offering any aspect of the Services..." Guido, I am sorry you feel affected by this situation, please note that Gameloft has now offered our final statement for this case and we will not continue to comment on this case further. Regards,

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Luis

Customer Care Team Lead

See also

Customer Care blog series: