ATARI customer service is useless

[zein]

I didn't come here to stay! Just wanted to say how I hate Atari Customer service and ATARI itself. They sold me a Master of orion 2 online and after a year when I wanted to install it again it required a key which was totaly new to me.

So I emailed the customer service and they asked for hardware fingerprint which I provided. They kept sending me a key and I kept showing them with a copy of my screen that the key they send me is wrong.

After 5 days conatacting digital River and Atari I still have no valid key for the software that I have bought.

Atari has no shame on selling defective products with no costumer support. There is no telephone number and the people in costumer service idoticly send the same email over and over again without looking at the history of the error.

It was a frusturating experience which I will share it with every game forum and game magazine. I think Atari should be boycouted unless they give a costumer number and a good support like anywhere else.

[danib]

too bad you wont see this
from the sig of Lennier
a moo3 mac player

Proud member of the "I'm Not Buying Another Atari Game Ever Again Because They Apparently Don't Know The Difference Between Customer Support and a Mango" League.

[kjennings99]

I bought Alone in the Dark. I took it home and installed it only to see a Securerom error. I clicked the error, and it said I have Daemon tools installed. I know what Daemon tools is, and I have used it, but never on this PC.
Anyways, I emailed Atari support every week for 3 weeks now with absolutely no response other than the automatic email with my case number.

[biogal]

Try contacting SecuROM for that problem. Link (http://www.securom.com/support_enduser.asp?t=2&ts1=6)

[kjennings99]

I did contact them, but they want to pull information from my computer and will not tell me what that information is. I have several other games that use securrom, but I don't have any problems with those. That's why I contacted Atari. Besides, a simple email from Atari telling me to contact Securrom would have been something. They just never responded.

[StevieT65]

Welcome to the new age of "we have your money = we can't hear you"

I've been e-mailing support for months to get Witcher to activate correctly. I had a hard drive problem - cloned it - and swapped it out and I cannot get Witcher to reactivate. Now it has passed the activation limit and I'm thinking that basically I'm screwed!

What I do not understand is how a company can be so ignorant to not realize that they would make a lot more money if they held the mantra "good service = more sales".

At this point - I will keep sending daily suppport cases in the odd hopes that someone speaking English reads it correctly and resolves the issue - but in the meantime, I have to find a game published by someone who has a support department and give them my money!

[valamir]

Ya, Atari doesn't seem to care much about the people that buy their games, and yes they are doing the we have your money and don't care about you. Despite my issue being fixed they still haven't replied in two weeks. Nice job on making your company look like a fraud.

[vibromaster]

:eek: I am having the same problems out of EA. Contact them over and over and over and over and over and the only response I get is a confirmation email for the reported trouble. I think all of the game manufacturers are becoming useless. They don't hesitate to sell you the game, but don't want to help if you have a problem with it. I will miss Bizarre Creations. So far, they are the only game manufacturer/designer that provided prompt help. They sold out to Activision, so the game support will go the way of the others. :sour: I have quit buying PC games, because they quit putting requirements on the packaging that mean anything...I have the proper hardware for almost all, but they require certain software and setup....screw it....I love my XBox 360! Put a game in and sometimes download an update, but always works.:cool:

[Erwenla]

Same happened to me with the tatest NWN2 exp.
The <snip!> digital download is bugged to the point it won't let me play futher, so after tons of pointless emails and replies like: your serial number will be changed (WTF????)
I decided to proceed with sweet legal actions! Oh how much fun if I can carry it to the next level. I hope they have their diapers on!

[rockstar232007]

This is why I quit playing PC games a long time ago, but I can tell you guys, it's not always the games. I don't care how much you spend on a computer (especially one designed/used specifically for gaming), PCs suck when it comes to playing games, except Solitaire, and Pinball.

[Erwenla]

Trust me, I KNOW it is not my PC, I understand them better than you think.

[kalniel]

Trust me, I KNOW it is not my PC, I understand them better than you think.Yet it works fine for the vast majority of cases - so if it's not your PC then what is the difference between your situation and those that work?

[cogmag]

Atari sub-contracts gaming developers. It's the gaming developers who decide to include "securom" software with their title. If you want to blame anybody for the inclusion of "securom" protection, blame Bioware, CDProjekts, etc.

If people did not steal bicycles, then companies, like Kryptonite, would not bother developing locks. Similarly, if people did not pirate software, then developers would not produce copy-protection software. That's the bottom line.

It totally sucks that customers are getting the shaft. At the same time, it's unfair to wag the finger solely at Atari, as though Atari were 100% responsible for this.

If people want to campaign about the woes of copy-protection software, then by all means do so. I support the right to voice opinions. But be sure to point the finger at the real culprit of copy-protection: software pirating

[rockstar232007]

Atari sub-contracts gaming developers. It's the gaming developers who decide to include "securom" software with their title. If you want to blame anybody for the inclusion of "securom" protection, blame Bioware, CDProjekts, etc.

If people did not steal bicycles, then companies, like Kryptonite, would not bother developing locks. Similarly, if people did not pirate software, then developers would not produce copy-protection software. That's the bottom line.

It totally sucks that customers are getting the shaft. At the same time, it's unfair to wag the finger solely at Atari, as though Atari were 100% responsible for this.

If people want to campaign about the woes of copy-protection software, then by all means do so. I support the right to voice opinions. But be sure to point the finger at the real culprit of copy-protection: software piratingAmen! brother!:up::D

[Erwenla]

Yet it works fine for the vast majority of cases - so if it's not your PC then what is the difference between your situation and those that work?

The same situation other 12300 people are in, the game has a huge bug.
:rolleyes:

[kalniel]

The same situation other 12300 people are in, the game has a huge bug.
:rolleyes:

Why isn't the bug present for the vast majority of people then? Did they ship you a special version of the game just to annoy you?

[SoulKid]

Usually the issue lies in the compatibility of the hardware (in this case your CD ROM) and the software as it tries to check for it as the original CD software when it initializes the game. That is why they tell you to go to SecuRom so they can check the compatibility of your CD ROM hardware. The biggest thing I see about this issue is that there are so many different hardware vendors like for CD ROMs that software developers that use SecuRom, to safeguard their software content from being hacked and duplicated, cannot test EVERY CD manufacturer out there. Bottom line though is that the end users (you the purchaser) gets the crappy end of the deal and you don't really know if it works or not til you try out the product *SIGH* Enough blabbling on my end..... just my 2 cents.....

[Lostfanzz]

Yeah, yestrday I got the chase for my sister and I find on the booklet a phone number 8667214977 didn't call them (no problmz for me!!) but maybe they can help you.

[tictac0]

your right about quick pointing rockstar, but what does it have to do about what others here are saying about the lack or no response of Atari?? Game producers have been avoiding consumers on technical issues more and more as time goes, yet they are making more revenues than ever, dont you agree, or do you have a comment for that as well??