PSN down and got new PS4 as well.

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With the details I give, you will understand why I am posting here instead of on a playstation or sony forum. I will tell you that I am astonished at the horrible customer service. The issue of PSN going down was a minor annoyance in comparison to how Sony has handled getting the servers back up.

I am at the point now where I am considering returning this for an Xbox one. I can tell with my Xbox 360 that I can get online to access basic stuff like Netflix (I don't have Gold membership and I am not concerned about the online multiplayer right now). I can't even get past the e-mail verfication on the PSN network. And because I can't verify my e-mail, I cant get on to the Playstation forums or Blog to state my problem either. That is why I post this here.

Here are the details of my dealing with them so far:

1. Buy ps4 on boxing day with the NHL 15 bundle at eb games. I get a redeemable code for little big planet that expires in a long time from now. I also get a voucher for a free game of my choice online with redeemable code at bottom of my receipt. Choices of games are limited to NBA 2k15, Far Cry 4 and Destiny. This receipt is only valid until the 27th of December however.

2. I was aware that the servers were down, but not necessarily concerned. I setup an account, but server issues prevent me from verifying e-mail for about 17 hours (setup account near 9 am, verified by 1:45 am of the 27th. There are still obvious issues with getting online. I also hear that Xbox live is back up and running by this point as well.

3. I call up Sony's customer service (1-800) number on the 27th around 11 am, and after waiting, speak to a guy who gives me the whole spiel of "the systems are down and our engineers are working on it." That was never what I was calling about. I ask about the concern I have for the voucher for the free game and I am told that I would need "proof of purchase" which is pretty much telling me "prove it" I ask him what that means and he tells me that I will have to prove that I bought the system when I said I did. I then ask "so you're telling me I should provide you with a copy of receipt in an e-mail?" They tell me "yes." I ended the phone call. I found that to be unacceptable for response.

4. PSN blog tells people the system is back online, but I cant get online, nor can many other people. They have the company vice president reply once or twice and that is it. No other word on the issue from anyone within the company in a public setting. Just a blog, or twitter.

5. On Sunday afternoon (1 pm), I find out that some of my friends who also own PS4's are online, but I still am not. I decide to change my e-mail to see if this would get me online. Sony cant even send a verification e-mail to verify any changes as I am required verification to get online. I made these changes about 7 hours ago (around 2 pm). The PSN blog tells us that servers are back to normal. The comments indicate that many others are still without service.

6. Despite the comments, I decide to phone. I then find out through customer support/contacts that they are closed on Sundays for phone calls. I try to do a live chat about the issue and they shut me out from that (This was piss poor customer service in my opinion). Furthermore, forums and PSN blogs get absolutely no responses from anyone working in the company telling people what is going on. Further comments from other gamers are offering up a fix on how to get online. But others are also stating what is going on with them:
- Some have stated that they can't use their vouchers in the PSN store. That would indicate that my voucher would have been rejected for some reason if I were online.
-One person mentioned that he waited 8 hours for a verification e-mail. This should only take a matter of minutes and possibly an automated response, not hours.
-People can't access many of the features on their PSN network, including online multi-player, PSN store as mentioned above and games they have downloaded to play from the PSN store.

7. Based on what PSN says and what the customers are saying, fully functional services isn't available to everyone. There are some that feel over entitled and want free month or year of PSN service, or free game of some kind. I simply want what I paid for and that is my vouchers to Far Cry 4 and Little Big Planet 3 to be approved when I get back on the service. I dont think that is too much to ask for.

certianly been a irritating week.

receipt is needed for warranty too. so scan it and keep copy on your computer. thought this was odd till I found out a lot of electronic makers require this.

servers were up for me last night then down this afternoon. I had to restart my modem, router and ps4 to get it to work. you might try that.

as for verification email I don't know I've been a ps plus member since last nov. site says psn is up but still suffering limited access for certain apps and services. much like how xbox live said the same. sucks, but apparently there isn't much one can do to stop ddos attacks, build more servers but then the attackers just get more computers.
there were people who couldn't even use their xbones cause the xbone has to have a day one update to just work not even go online. so theres that.

I too find it irritating they aren't open on sundays or past 8pm on other days. really should have 24/7 call center, but perhaps they are using us based call center. psn is a weaker service currently then xbox live which had years of paid money for its service since the days of the first xbox. sony had given it away for free since ps2, and year people pay for it now but they give out way more money in free games. I honesty think they should remove the free games and build more servers. but people would likely yell and throw a fit.

really hope they let you use the vouchers. though I'd be more mad at the store for giving you only few days in which to use them wtf. I was able to download games but not access the store today. o.O while my friend could access the store use his codes, but the games wouldn't download. there will be days like this unfortantly but over all I've been really happy with psn. I'm super pissed at the groups attacking us gamers though. they have no goal other than to hurt gamers just cause they can.

sony seems to have a little bit of a we are number one right now attitude which is causing them to laspe on customer service. but they got beat during christmas and now this. I hope they realise they need to care more. that said. though I've almost always gotten thru to customer service in under 15 mins, and been super nice and helpful.
but that wasn't during a massive attack on them.

with microsfot you'll have to deal with their constantly trying to go digital only and raising live costs. and if they go back to dmr then you stuck. also you can't upgrade its hdd. which I only have 148gb left on my hdd so I'll have to upgrade to a 1.5 or 2tb hdd next year. I'd rather not have to uninstall games.

hope it gets better so you can enjoy your games and console. I've quite enjoyed mine. even got a vita to go with it.

Honestly, I wouldnt expect Microsoft to be any better than Sony, in terms of dealing with them.

Why? It's freaking MICROSOFT. Easily one of the worst there is, as service goes, and they'll happily fleece the heck outta you if they see the chance.

I've no particular love for either of those two companies, but after some of the nasty crap Microsoft has pulled over the years (frequently) both with PCs and the Xbox brand, well... yeah, I would never expect them to be any better.

And dont forget: All of this is ENTIRELY the fault of those worthless hackers. Something like this isnt easy to deal with... I dont envy the poor tech guys at Sony trying to deal with this. And no, "get better security" isnt really a simple option... it's not that easy. One way or another, they've really got alot of unpleasant work to do to finish this up. I dont envy them for this.

As for the customer service.... it's CUSTOMER SERVICE. What do you expect? When dealing with CS for any company... expect stupidity. The "proof of purchase" thing makes sense though.


All in all... just try not to let it frustrate you too much. Those jerkwads did alot of damage, and it's had ALOT of gamers really angry lately. I aint touched my PS4 since the network went down, since it's mostly LittleBigPlanet 3 I'm interested in right now and that game has ALOT of online stuff about it. I figured I'd just wait a couple of weeks for things to stabilize, and then I can get back to it.

Update:

Got online just after posting this. Got Little Big Planet 3 downloaded, but of course my voucher code to try and download free game was "invalid/expired." No surprises there. I will be on the every day until I get a valid game voucher and that free game. I also found out looking at my receipt that I have a reference number on it, so I will be using that.

As for xbox vs Sony-

I had xbox 360 for the last generation and the biggest issue that I dealt with the had me leaning to PS4 for this generation was something that happened in 2008. When my launch day xbox finally went kaput just before the extended warranty ended, I would call xbox in regards to refurbishing the system and they were supposed to do it for free. They told me they sent me the box to pack it in and that I were to label it with the labels provided for me and pack it with the xbox parts when it came. I never once received any of those boxes or any e-mails with those labels. After many phone calls, they then tell me that I was expired and couldn't be refurbished for free. Ultimately, they forced me to buy a new xbox because they didn't want to do the refurbishment for free when I was still under warranty. That was corporate greed if I ever saw it, as well as terrible customer service. the service reps must be really disgruntled to as it sounds they refuse to help out when it comes to "free" stuff.

Customer service reps are the worst representatives of any company from what I have seen in just about... any company. Rogers and Bell mobile here in Canada are among the worst, if not the worst.

With the latest Sony fiasco, I bet they win numerous awards for "worst company" 2014. And when people think about whether to buy xbox or Sony next Christmas, they will remember which company's customers were more disgruntled and unhappy with the customer service.

they extended their sales to make up for the down days. were you able to get them to validate your code for far cry?

Sony's customer service is legendarily bad.

Many people had issues with redeeming vouchers on PS4, in part due to retail employees stealing them and people buying the bundles to get the code for a certain game (some games aren't available for purchase on PSN) and returning them.

Sony typically refuses to refund vouchers and forces you to take the matter to the retailer where you bought it from.

At least Nintendo has damn good customer service.

I got the download done and the voucher issue fixed. I ended up deciding on Destiny instead due to the fact that it was going to take less space on my storage device than Far Cry 4 would. Not regretting the decision as I am really enjoying the game so far. Also got two other games for free on the PSN network due to a ten dollar voucher coming with the PSN plus as well as the fourteen day trial.

how big is far cry 4?

I'm planning on having to upgrade to a 1.5-2 tb hdd next year. longer I can make it without upgrading the cheaper the hdd should be.

also wanting to wait for far cry 4 and last of us to be $20 before I buy. they look like ok games but not too up my likings to justify paying more than 20. if you want to add me send a pm and I'll exchange my gamertag.

I can wait. games I have keep me busy and more coming out next year.
could get last of us for 20 right now if I get digital copy, but I prefer disks.