Zynga's Customer Service

Used to be, once upon a time, that when Zynga somehow messed up and negatively impacted one's game, CS not only would fix it for you without a hassle, but also typically gave some compensation.

Wow, has the pendulum ever swung the other way.

Now, when you have a problem, you only get access to Customer Service if you happen to have done whatever needs doing to trip the switch so that you will have it.

The suggestion is that only paying players have access - but the reality is that many paying players do not.

Now, we're supposed to use spam central and tell our Farmville problems to other players who can't do a blessed thing about them. The only response most posts get there is sorry, can't help you .... and/or hey, log in here and I'll steal your username and password (posts which Zynga mostly ignores and allows to remain now that they have a notice at the top telling all us really stupid people how to use the support site safely... i.e. not to get suckered into such lame spam attempts).

In any case, some of us - me included - do actually continue to have access to Zynga's CS agents. Unfortunately, they don't actually  HAVE any any more. Now what they have are "Player Advocates" - and their role seems to be to piss off players by refusing to fix anything; refuse to refund the FC Zynga developers have, in their infinite stupidity, set the game to steal from players at every turn; and for added measure, call paying customers liars and cheats.

Even going through the BBB doesn't help - they just keep sending emails asking for more information until the BBB process expires and it tells you you just refused "their final offer" and no further action is required. Except, of course, that they don't actually MAKE any offers at all - they just keep asking for the same information you've given them over and over.

Whole thing is a joke.... Zynga is a company that is determined to fail and if you have any stock in them, you REALLY should sell.

There is no hope whatsoever for a company that is willing to lose a long standing loyal paying player by first stealing, then refusing to return 32 FC.  For about $6 - even if I had bought it at full price, which I have not done since they started to steal FC from players every time I blink - they have lost my $10/month subscription plus whatever I would typically spend every time they offer a 40% off sale.... an average of about $50/month.

Wise business decision, eh? 

Sell a product ... then steal it back... and when the customer complains, call her a liar and make her jump through stupid hoops for a couple of weeks then tell her again that she's a liar and a cheat and you're just fine without her business.  

Hell of a business model you've got there, Zynga.

How many feet DO you have to shoot yourself in? Time for a new logo...a millipede, I think.

Class Action Lawsuit Filed against Zynga

Pomerantz Law Firm Has Filed a Class Action Against Zynga Inc. -- ZNGA

So many so very lousy decisions that have been made at Zynga over the past more than a year now... I, like many many others, am beyond frustrated with how persistently they have been focussed on nothing but shooting themselves in the foot (they apparently have a LOT of feet!) .... but seriously?


If you read the article about the class action lawsuit, you will see that they are basing their action on the notion that
 (i) the Company was experiencing a rapid decline in the number of users for its existing web based games;
(ii) the Company was experiencing substantial delays in launching new web based games;
(iii) the Company was failing to take advantage of the changes on Facebook's web platform;
(iv) the Company was unable to effectively monetize revenues from mobile devices through its web based games; and
(v) as a result of the above, the Company's financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.


Ludicrous! It takes seconds to use Google to find out how well (or not) Zynga has been ~retaining~ players. (It's not, btw - they've been leaving in droves and for very good reasons).


The forums for each and every Zynga game are wide open - you don't even have to play a single game or create an account to wander through and have a read. And of course, there are plenty of other blogs and wikis and fan sites and news articles and....   give me a break!


If potential investors couldn't be bothered to spend 10 minutes having a look, they deserve what they got.


If they didn't, well ...as my brother would say .... "wah".  So now you've figured out that you blew it and want to do something about it? How 'bout instead of wasting your time & energy on lawsuits that reveal that you didn't take any time at all to research anything before you jumped, you spend a few minutes demanding that Zynga smarten the hell up and listen to its players? Far more productive.


They do have, among their many offerings, some winners... or would-be-winners if they could just stop with the foot-shooting thing for awhile.


Fortunately, there is, finally, a tiny glimmer of hope that things might be about to improve at Zynga!


Apparently this John Schappert dude has been there about a year - and that is about how long things have been going really REALLY badly  - if he WAS the sabateur that has been so intently driving Farmville and other games in to the ground, perhaps things might get better now?


I'd be happier if they had not just demoted him, but got rid of him entirely  - and I think that they really do need some new blood in there, or at the very least, an advisory board of players for each of the games (that they actually LISTEN to)....


but maybe, just maybe......