Strategy Guide Owners... Please Read!

[aka_tom_w]

WOW

I mean WOW

I am Blown away

I have not received my first (poor typoed) guide yet and I just kept figuring "Oh it CAN'T be all that bad"

I guess it is/was.

WELL one thing is for sure, at least people are actually reading the thing. AND it would make sense that more than a few "scholarly" types who enjoy the game felt it needed to be proof read.

I am awash with awe and emotion as I read Steve's post. It sort of sad to say the MOST if not ALL (BUT BFC's ) customer service and custom support is SO abismal (lousy) that many of us, myself included, may have just assumed that's the "way it is". It had some typo's in it OK its BAD so what, we'll fix in the 2nd printing and everyone else is out of luck. That attitude might seem normal to some/most folks here.

The funny thing about a PRINTED book is you can't fix it with a downloadable patch. so the cost incuured in this solution is to send and NEW corrected 2nd edition manual to all who ordered the first "prototype" edition.

I am Thrilled beyond words to have been treated so fairly in this solution. This just shows you that in this case you don't get BURNED for being an early adopter!! AND That's worth alot of customer loyalty and brand loyalty on my part.

So Can I pre-order the new Game Based on the Engine Rewrite that has not officially started yet? I am now certain I can do so with complete confidence in a great product! :cool:

With MANY Thanks and Season's Greetings!

-tom w

[ December 23, 2002, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

[Apache]

Incredible service, as usual. Thanks.

[Treeburst155]

Outstanding, BFC! I wasn't at all interested in purchasing a Strategy Guide when it was first announced; but now, I'm placing my order...just because.

Treeburst155 out.

[Screeny]

It might be time this nifty and fancy MBA institutes/universities/colleges did some research on "Doing Customer Happy Business" at Battlefront.com and make it an example for all the big companies around the world!!!!!

Happy Holydays and a great New Year to all at Battlefront.com and at this forum around the world!!

gr

Screeny

[dalem]

Why thank you, Steve. This is unprecedented and yet another reason I look to BFC first.

Thanks again.

-dale

[Jaws]

Great action Battlefront. With this you earned even more respect than you already have.

Happy Holydays.

[Pascal DI FOLCO]

That's a Christmas gift for us ?

BFC support is really incredible...

Hat topped

[Barrold]

I can only echo the previous sentiments and provide another tip of the hat to the excellent response to these issues.

To be honest, I was hesitant to order this initially due to tuition being due, Christmas, and the cash vacuum that remodeling the basement has become (it is going to be the best place to play CMBB in West Michigan though ).

The typos provided a convenient additional excuse, but this selfless act of unique dedication to your customers and fans has earned you another sale when the 2nd edition is available.

BFC should be used as an example of great customer service for other companies.

BDH

[Kingfish]

sTrenG, I daNt Fien; ainthInG...rrron!g WiTf...?My& koPY#<>/4

k...AN istel ?g*e..$t A7 nOI..~ W@aN!

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[MG-42]

BFC,

What an outstanding example of incomparable customer targetted focus.

In a world dominated by companies whose ethos seems only to be "fast bucks and profit" it is inspiring to see there are some who have the courage and conviction to put their principles before their profit (and I'm going to make damn sure everyone knows it)

I stand up and applaud you BFC. You can consider me (and 1000's of others) a customer for LIFE!!!!!

Enjoy..and I **MEAN** enjoy!!!...your festive break!

A "teary eyed" MG

[walpurgis nacht]

Not only the best games, but the best service! You will ALWAYS win this way. Thanks gents, and happy holidays.

[Pingu]

Must admit the typo's were a bit hard on the ear at times. But would not complain because the book was not the usual re-hash that Sybex makes which is to reprint the manual with a few walkthroughs.

The book in fact steered clear of the manual and contained lots of info I had not put together (In the short time I have had the game)

So am nonplussed at the level of support. It is unheard of in this industry.

Again. Thanx for the respect you hold your gamers in.

[Splinty]

Once again you guys show what a class act you really are. My hat's off to you BFC! Thanks.

[REVS]

To whoever wrote the strategy guide, I'd like to say "chin up, mate" because he (or they?) has obviously put in much enthusiastic work into the project, but the sad fact is that it needs more work before it's right. Disappointing and dispiriting for sure, and I'm sure it's probably a result of that old mistake, "rushing into print". As someone who works in publishing I can truly empathise with the author(s) at this time.

Anyway, congrats to BFC for your stance. Very commendable indeed – and besides, being ethical is a very smart long-term marketing strategy.

[aka_tom_w]

Originally posted by REVS:

To whoever wrote the strategy guide, I'd like to say "chin up, mate" because he (or they?) has obviously put in much enthusiastic work into the project, but the sad fact is that it needs more work before it's right. Disappointing and dispiriting for sure, and I'm sure it's probably a result of that old mistake, "rushing into print". As someone who works in publishing I can truly empathise with the author(s) at this time.

Anyway, congrats to BFC for your stance. Very commendable indeed – and besides, being ethical is a very smart long-term marketing strategy.

Yes

worth repeating

"Very commendable indeed – and besides, being ethical is a VERY smart long-term marketing strategy"

-tom w

[ December 23, 2002, 05:35 PM: Message edited by: aka_tom_w ]

[KEEF888]

Hey Steve, Matt, etc., I heard they could use your work ethics over at Enron and WorldCom! Hats off to you all!

[LtCol.05]

Outstanding...customer support will always keep me coming back. Thanks and Happy Holidays to all!!

[StellarRat]

Looks like I'll have to buy a guide now! Just when I thought my money was safe from BFC!

[Waycool]

Battlefront is a class act all the way from sales to support. Cheers and a Merry Xmas to all.

[Bruno Weiss]

This is what separates BTS (BFC), from the rest of the wargame company pack. Their History and Background section provides an insight into their philosophy. Much more than words on paper, they live by it. Who could ask for more?

Thank you Steve for the candid admission and your apology is ofcourse, accepted. And while I'm at it, thank you for the two best games I've ever owned, and the countless hours of fun, excitement, and joy that I have derived from owning them. My fondest wish is that all of the hard working folks at BFC have a wonderful Holiday season and a very merry and prosperous New Year!

[PeterX]

That's great, Steve.

A word of advice- hold off on the reissue of the SG until you release the 1.02 patch so it will be as inclusive as possible.

[Lawyer]

Doing the right thing is always good business. More businesses should try it.

I have the first edition and look forward to receiving the second. Thank you for prompt action to fix the problems.

[Horus]

speakless

bfc to buy your products means to get a bunch of good people on my side.

happy christmas for you and the rest of this forum too.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Hi all,

It is with great disappointment and embarrassment that I have to make this post. As you all know, we pride ourselves on quality and attention to detail. Sadly, as I will explain below, we had our first failing in regards to our high standards. We also consider the support of our customers something that should NEVER be taken for granted or abused. Hopefully you all will see in this post how seriously we take legitimate customer dissatisfaction and how completely we seek to address it.

As most of you know the Combat Mission - Barbarossa to Berlin Strategy Guide (Strategy Guide for short) was released a few weeks ago. You also know that it didn't take long before people started posting typos and mistakes found when their copies arrived. At first we thought this was not surprising since the book is 300 pages long and it is a first edition. We thanks people for the corrections then sent them off to the author for a 2nd edition print run.

A little while later some more mistakes were pointed out. We started to feel like the number of errors was getting to be a bit much, but we didn't feel that even this number was a "killer". Again, we took the errors and handed them off to the author.

Argh... another week went by and even MORE mistakes were pointed out! Now we knew that was something seriously wrong with the text. The new batch of mistakes were handed over to the author and we stated that we needed to put out a PDF errata correction ASAP.

*SNAP* the straw that broke the camel's back hit us this weekend. Yet another thread was started up detailing errors, both grammatical and factual, which clearly showed that the bottom of the problem had not been found. The problems found thus far were enough that even a PDF errata correction wasn't likely to be good enough.

We had a very quick conference about the problems with the Strategy Guide, and everybody agreed that we needed to do the following:

1. Stop the sale of the Strategy Guide without further delay. This was done on Sunday, December 22nd. All orders placed before we put up the backorder notice will be sent out.

2. Work hard to get the author to make all corrections and changes ASAP so we can produce a 2nd edition that will be free of mistakes.

3. Inform you all of the problem and...

4. Promise to send a corrected 2nd edition to each and every one of our customers who took receipt of the 1st edition. The replacement will be sent out automatically and free of charge as soon as we have a corrected print run in our warehouse. When will this be? We don't know, but it is certain to be no sooner than mid to late February.

Well, there you have it. We are formally apologizing for what can only be described as an unacceptable screwup. The number and nature of the mistakes is inexcusable. Although Battlefront itself did not wish or cause this problem, we must accept full responsibility for it and therefore put things right with our customers. For those of you who might speculate, the costs of such a remedy were computed but not part of the decision to send out replacements or a PDF. If we had valued the costs more than our customers' good will, I can promise you we wouldn't be sending out replacements

Hopefully our admission, apology, and remedy will reassure everybody that we are still the same crazy idealists that we were 5 years ago when we started up Battlefront. You folks are the reason we are here. We intend to never take this fact for granted.

Thanks,

Battlefront

So the question, Steve, is what else can we do to help? I hope the thread I started that Firefly, Manx, Pascal di Folco, Rune, Spook and myself conrtibuted to was in some way helpful. In all seriousness, do you need any extra proofreaders? I'd be thrilled to donate my time to such a purpose. You've already got my money for the guide anyhow...(!)

I take it that you will only be changing grammar and data errors - not entertaining ideas for new or improved content (despite the growing plethora of posts clamouring for such)?

http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=004637;p=1

[ December 23, 2002, 06:25 PM: Message edited by: Michael Dorosh ]

[HeadHunter]

Add my voice to those commending BFC for great customer service.

It's not often that a company will do the right thing like this, and sadly I can't think of any other game publishers who do.

I've always been impressed by the high caliber of service from BFC and it's made me a loyal customer. You'll always have my respect.