BBC's Watchdog - rllmuk vs Sony

[Ste_S]

I've got a rarely used PSN account for a PSP and unlinked my debit card from the account after reading all of this.

Emailed Sony to explain why and recommended they start using two step authentication.

[Guest]

Ooh, who did I offend? Tell me how, in any way, you think the Watchdog piece is going to change anything, rather than hitting that red button. I'm genuinely interested.

[TehStu]

Ooh, who did I offend? Tell me how, in any way, you think the Watchdog piece is going to change anything, rather than hitting that red button. I'm genuinely interested.

Wow guys really generous and I amazed at the gestures, but really there is no need, I spent sometime this afternoon blogging my story in full and I have just had a phone call from Sony themselves telling me that they will now unban me and although they can't unban my Son right this moment for technical reasons they will try to get him unbanned as soon as possible. I'll update once I know more. Thank you again

[Garibaldi]

Ooh, who did I offend? Tell me how, in any way, you think the Watchdog piece is going to change anything, rather than hitting that red button. I'm genuinely interested.

As others have stated, you seem to have unrealistic expectations of what Watchdog can achieve. Just raising awareness of the issue was a good step.

[ZOK]

Unless your expectations are entirely unrealistic, that Watchdog piece was better than anyone could have hoped for.

That it was even on the programme at all is better than anyone could have hoped for! Of course, now it's been on, people are inevitably going to complain that it wasn't framed by the programme makers in a way to inform people like us who already know every detail inside out, rather than what they actually did, which was to make a piece they felt would be suitable for their own audience.

At around five million viewers after 25 years, you have to assume they have a rough idea about what they are doing.

[toythatkills]

Maybe pushed Sony harder for answers. Sent a reporter out to Japan to speak to them. I dunno. Just something than letting the director blow the budget on his medieval fantasy. It just all felt a bit pointless and Sony will just continue with business as usual.

Watchdog isn't for hardcore gamers. In a five minute segment they had to sum up the issue for people who know nothing about games, explain why it's such a big problem, examine the case studies and then try to offer some resolution - again, for an audience that largely doesn't know about downloading games on a PS4.

They did a fine job. Obviously it'd have been nice if they went further but it's a prime-time entertainment show and they had to draw a line somewhere, so they drew it where the balance was between getting a decent result and the viewers having some idea what the fuck they were talking about. Start talking about two-factor authentication from nowhere and they'd need another five minutes just to explain to your gran what that means.

[Jamie John]

I thought the Viking thing was OK, myself. You have to bear in mind the likely audience of Watchdog. I doubt Irene, 67, from Margate is going to appreciate a spiel on the benefits of two-factor authentication and online data encryption systems. Getting this onto national television in any form is a huge achievement, never mind it being the leading segment on a long-running consumer protection programme.

EDIT: see above.

[Kryptonian]

Maybe pushed Sony harder for answers. Sent a reporter out to Japan to speak to them. I dunno. Just something than letting the director blow the budget on his medieval fantasy. It just all felt a bit pointless and Sony will just continue with business as usual.

What if the reporter got there and didn't get let in? Would've been more pointless!

[TehStu]

I'm sure they've lost a lot more than 40 quid of impulse purchases from all the credit cards removed from accounts.

[Shimmyhill]

Ooh, who did I offend? Tell me how, in any way, you think the Watchdog piece is going to change anything, rather than hitting that red button. I'm genuinely interested.

Raising something on national tv with several million watchers and you're not sure how it may help?

Next, advertising is a waste of money...

[MW_Jimmy]

Ooh, who did I offend? Tell me how, in any way, you think the Watchdog piece is going to change anything, rather than hitting that red button. I'm genuinely interested.

It got the message across on primetime TV that Sony are shit at Customer Service. That's a pretty big achievement. Negative PR matters.

[HarryBizzle]

I've got a rarely used PSN account for a PSP and unlinked my debit card from the account after reading all of this.

Emailed Sony to explain why and recommended they start using two step authentication.

I did the same. Hopefully if enough people keep emailing they'll do something about it.

[Guest]

Well, I've never actually seen Watchdog before, so I guess my expectations of what they do are way off. If their target audience is really Eileen, 67 from Essex, then Sony will just be shrugging their shoulders.

But, it's encouraging that this has now been picked up by gaming sites, so hopefully it'll build up a head of steam and Sony will take notice.

All good then. I was just a bit underwhelmed by Watchdog really, not anything to do with Pocket Hero, and I'm glad you've been sorted.

[Kryptonian]

Signed up just to post this, as it really pissed me off.

Sony's argument for no refunds is that all users are responsible for everything that happens to their account; and liable for any costs incurred.

This is despite the fact we still don't have adequate measures for protection - notably, two-factor authentication (that is, when you get texted a code to log in after entering your password). Steam, Origin, Google Play, iTunes, and even Xbox all do this.

However, after looking at Jon Budden's twitter (the guy who emailed Pockets and is Head of Consumer Services SCEE) - he complained a couple of months ago, on April 21st, to PayPal after his account got hacked and money spent! Unbelievable.

Maybe he should've had a stronger password. I guess it's do what we say and not as we do?

https://twitter.com/Jonbudden/with_replies

Here's an archive of the above, as I imagine it will get deleted quickly: https://archive.is/VYfs9

Image link: http://i.imgur.com/zKnoiYB.png

I tweeted yosp about this and the DHL one but it will go ignored. Shame, it makes me really angry.

[Scribblor]

Poor Jon. Yay pockets and co!

[T Pot]

I tweeted yosp about this and the DHL one but it will go ignored. Shame, it makes me really angry.

I made up an email this morning saying about what happened with watchdog, then the aftermath and this stuff with the Twitter account, and sent it to the reporters that I was in touch with yesterday to get the original story to point to Rllmuk.

I even sent it as replies to their messages from last night, so it's not like it was a new email that could have got lost..

Every single one was ignored.

We need to setup a new page. RLLMUK-NEWS completely independent gaming news, so it doesn't matter if we piss a developer/publisher off.

[TehStu]

The forum has a blog thing we can buy, do you mean that sort of thing? Will we have enough content for it not to stagnate?

[HazMan1988]

I wish I had quoted the posts when I was reading through this thread last night but to sum up what stood out to me was:

That response from Sony to Eurogamer was it? Thanking them for bringing it to their attention, completely oblivious and ignorant to the fact Pockets had been going on at them for ages and only when a bit of media attention hit was it THEN brought to their attention. Fuck off.

Also, the biggest kick in the teeth is to refund that £40 he's been playing merry fuck to get back into his PS wallet. Again, fuck off.

[Guest]

Poor Jon. Yay pockets and co!

I'm not the idiot who fell for Sony's bullshit. Shazam!

[Kryptonian]

The Sony guy is called Jon Budden

[Bojangle]

I'm not the idiot who fell for Sony's bullshit. Shazam!

You're just an idiot. Shazam!

[Guest]

You're just an idiot. Shazam!

True, true. I'm not that much of an idiot that I bought Sony's bullshit though, so I'm pretty far down the idiot scale around these parts. I take it you've got a PS4 then, Boj?

The Sony guy is called Jon Budden

And you can shut up Ian, you dick.

[Bojangle]

Stuck with the old faithful PS3 at the minute. I did have a 4 for a few months after launch but sold it on as I never played it.

Going to get a Bone or PS4 when Rock Band 4 is out. (Probably a Bone due to all my previous RB DLC being tied to Live + I want to play so much more Forza Horizon after playing it at a mates).

[gizmo1990]

Why do you keep apologising about it being 'only' £40?

Maybe it's just me (everything's relative I suppose) but I deem £40 to be a far from inconsiderable amount. Especially nowadays. Certainly more than enough to feel aggrieved over and kick up a fuss.

[simms]

It's probably to do with time spent and effort expended divided by £40. I imagine after all pocket has gone through (even though he downplays this) it must feel like hard work. It may seem like entitlement to some but I'd be expecting compensation on top of the £40. At this stage a £40 refund does not seem appropriate.

[Poop who?]

True, true. I'm not that much of an idiot that I bought Sony's bullshit though, so I'm pretty far down the idiot scale around these parts. I take it you've got a PS4 then, Boj?

And you can shut up Ian, you dick.

I love how the name 'Ian' has stuck all these years, and that only four people that were in that lobby at the time actually get the joke

[Harsin]

It's really nice that in one of Rllmuk's great moments, self-proclaimed 'positive' member Jon is right here with pubescent console warz bullshit, insulting the guy who went on TV to try and make a difference and using it as platform to moan about getting negged for the 956475865328th time.

[Radish]

I'm not the idiot who fell for Sony's bullshit. Shazam!

You just fell for Microsofts DMR bullshit instead.

[DocG]

It's really nice that in one of Rllmuk's great moments, self-proclaimed 'positive' member Jon is right here with pubescent console warz bullshit, insulting the guy who went on TV to try and make a difference and using it as platform to moan about getting negged for the 956475865328th time.

Consider that this is perhaps the first thread a newcomer to the forum might see, if they've come to check us out because they've read about the Watchdog story somewhere. Consider the first impression Jon's bullshit is giving them. Cut it out, Jon.

[Guest]

It's really nice that in one of Rllmuk's great moments, self-proclaimed 'positive' member Jon is right here with pubescent console warz bullshit, insulting the guy who went on TV to try and make a difference and using it as platform to moan about getting negged for the 956475865328th time.

Where have I insulted Pockets? Where have I brought up any console wars stuff? I haven't mentioned MS once, this is about Sony's terrible attitude. And where have I moaned about negs?