Kung Fu Tea Promotion [Merged]

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"JustTrogdor.7892" said:

> > @"Aaralyna.3104" said:

> > The funny part is that there are Europeans asking on the facebook of Kungfu Tea if they still get their codes for the heroic and outfit as they have linked their social network accounts to the app.... And the employers of KFT reacted in a facebook reply that they are going to get this guaranteed!!! These posts are even from date 5 and 6 september (after they even had changed their terms). And it was not even hard to see the persons asking the question were from non US, you could see it on their facebook profiles they asked it with.

> >

> > I am not joking, this is currently really happening. So as a European that did same as all those ppl I am still waiting on my Heroic code and the outfit promo :)

>

> Would you be willing to post a link where KFT told players outside the US they will get their codes or even be eligible to earn them after they changed/clarified the terms that stated US only? I think many here would like to see the source. As of now their website still states US only. I don't use FB so can't look it up myself. Thanks.

>

 

You don't need an account to look at their page. Still, I don't see any such posts from Kung Fu Tea. Maybe that stuff only shows up if you are logged in. Dunno.

[Mewcifer.5198]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > @"JustTrogdor.7892" said:

> > > @"Aaralyna.3104" said:

> > > The funny part is that there are Europeans asking on the facebook of Kungfu Tea if they still get their codes for the heroic and outfit as they have linked their social network accounts to the app.... And the employers of KFT reacted in a facebook reply that they are going to get this guaranteed!!! These posts are even from date 5 and 6 september (after they even had changed their terms). And it was not even hard to see the persons asking the question were from non US, you could see it on their facebook profiles they asked it with.

> > >

> > > I am not joking, this is currently really happening. So as a European that did same as all those ppl I am still waiting on my Heroic code and the outfit promo :)

> >

> > Would you be willing to post a link where KFT told players outside the US they will get their codes or even be eligible to earn them after they changed/clarified the terms that stated US only? I think many here would like to see the source. As of now their website still states US only. I don't use FB so can't look it up myself. Thanks.

> >

>

> You don't need an account to look at their page. Still, I don't see any such posts from Kung Fu Tea. Maybe that stuff only shows up if you are logged in. Dunno.

 

edit - nvm

[Etria.3642]

I don't see it on the NA launcher at all now either.

[Jumpin Lumpix.6108]

So is the tea just as disappointing as the deluxe edition?

[SatdeNecro.2395]

Wait, they are legit just pulling everything back now with no explanation?

 

Man if I was Kung Fu Tea marketing, PR or whatever I'd be pissed because this is making them LOOK HORRIBLE. I legit only went there for the code and thought maybe I'd go back in the future. Now? Not a chance.

 

Not sure if Anet or Kung Fu Tea is dropping the ball? Or both?

[Dragon.3120]

> @"Aaralyna.3104" said:

> The funny part is that there are Europeans asking on the facebook of Kungfu Tea if they still get their codes for the heroic and outfit as they have linked their social network accounts to the app.... And the employers of KFT reacted in a facebook reply that they are going to get this guaranteed!!! These posts are even from date 5 and 6 september (after they even had changed their terms). And it was not even hard to see the persons asking the question were from non US, you could see it on their facebook profiles they asked it with.

>

> I am not joking, this is currently really happening. So as a European that did same as all those ppl I am still waiting on my Heroic code and the outfit promo :)

 

Their is nothing on Kung FU Teas facebook side. I searched every post on Kung fu teas facebook side nothing.

[sakura.7961]

> @"SatdeNecro.2395" said:

> Not sure if Anet or Kung Fu Tea is dropping the ball? Or both?

 

KFT made a post saying that they decided to suddenly ban all non-Americans from getting the goodies. They claimed that they did this from the start which is an obvious lie since many non-Americans did manage to get the goodies.

 

ANet has not said anything about the situation. @"Gaile Gray.6029" was very active in this thread, making multiple comments, but after what happened she has been completely ignoring everyone's problems. Furthermore, ANet has sneakily removed all the promotion posts from the non-American clients and websites.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

So .. it's Friday, a whole working week later.. I wonder if we will get a small 1 or 2 liner later today just as that TGI Friday feeling kicks in and the exit doors open wide.

[Miss Lana.5276]

> @"Greener.6204" said:

> > @"sakura.7961" said:

> > KFT made a post saying that they decided to suddenly ban all non-Americans from getting the goodies. They claimed that they did this from the start which is an obvious lie since many non-Americans did manage to get the goodies.

> You're conflating intent with result.

>

> > ANet has not said anything about the situation. @"Gaile Gray.6029" was very active in this thread, making multiple comments, but after what happened she has been completely ignoring everyone's problems.

> They're looking into what seems to be a complex situation, not ignoring it.

>

> > Furthermore, ANet has sneakily removed all the promotion posts from the non-American clients and websites.

> There was no sneaking; they were overtly removed. Why would they keep directing people to partake in a promotion that was having issues?

 

I would definitely consider it sneaky. First the conditions on KFT's website were changed without an announcement (certainly none that I can see anywhere, except in response to a comment, which I don't consider good enough to be an announcement, as you have to dig for it anyway), then the advertisement was removed from the launcher without any comment.

 

Even just a "Hey guys, we've removed the announcement because of issues behind the scenes. We're investigating and will report ASAP!", but nothing.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Miss Lana.5276" said:

> > @"Greener.6204" said:

> > > @"sakura.7961" said:

> > > KFT made a post saying that they decided to suddenly ban all non-Americans from getting the goodies. They claimed that they did this from the start which is an obvious lie since many non-Americans did manage to get the goodies.

> > You're conflating intent with result.

> >

> > > ANet has not said anything about the situation. @"Gaile Gray.6029" was very active in this thread, making multiple comments, but after what happened she has been completely ignoring everyone's problems.

> > They're looking into what seems to be a complex situation, not ignoring it.

> >

> > > Furthermore, ANet has sneakily removed all the promotion posts from the non-American clients and websites.

> > There was no sneaking; they were overtly removed. Why would they keep directing people to partake in a promotion that was having issues?

>

> I would definitely consider it sneaky. First the conditions on KFT's website were changed without an announcement (certainly none that I can see anywhere, except in response to a comment, which I don't consider good enough to be an announcement, as you have to dig for it anyway), then the advertisement was removed from the launcher without any comment.

>

> Even just a "Hey guys, we've removed the announcement because of issues behind the scenes. We're investigating and will report ASAP!", but nothing.

 

Sneaky.. maybe on the side of KFT, though on ANETs side they likely took what preventative measures they could when the issue became known. They then followed it up with a very, very small "we is sorry", "we come back say sorry again.. soon!" and then silence, which is the part I find a little disturbing from ANET especially when it seemingly looks like EU players have been duped into giving social media info out to KFT for no reason now.

 

Lets hope ANET get a handle on the situation soon now and something gets sorted out.. bad press is still press I guess, but there does seem to of been an excess of bad press lately, so hopefully this trend can be quashed and normal gaming happiness resumed all round :)

[WesleyTCLW.9853]

The whole story for me goes like this:

 

KFT: We got your info, but we screwed up, we cannot provide what we promised. Ha Ha. And you know what, instead of compensation, we restricted the gifts to US residents only. BAM

 

Anet: Not our fault, therefore nothing we can do.

 

 

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"WesleyTCLW.9853" said:

> The whole story for me goes like this:

>

> KFT: We got your info, but we screwed up, we cannot provide what we promised. Ha Ha. And you know what, instead of compensation, we restricted the gifts to US residents only. BAM

>

> Anet: Not our fault, therefore nothing we can do.

>

>

>

> Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Only part you're wrong about is Anet saying it's not their fault and there's nothing they can do. They haven't said that. They haven't said anything at all. They've been completely silent on the issue since just before KFT changed the terms.

 

We don't know why. Hopefully that's because they're waiting until they have all the info and can do one announcement with what went wrong and what they're doing to put it right. Worst case scenario they're staying quiet and hoping we all forget about it. We don't know.

[Miss Lana.5276]

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > @"Miss Lana.5276" said:

> > > @"Greener.6204" said:

> > > > @"sakura.7961" said:

> > > > KFT made a post saying that they decided to suddenly ban all non-Americans from getting the goodies. They claimed that they did this from the start which is an obvious lie since many non-Americans did manage to get the goodies.

> > > You're conflating intent with result.

> > >

> > > > ANet has not said anything about the situation. @"Gaile Gray.6029" was very active in this thread, making multiple comments, but after what happened she has been completely ignoring everyone's problems.

> > > They're looking into what seems to be a complex situation, not ignoring it.

> > >

> > > > Furthermore, ANet has sneakily removed all the promotion posts from the non-American clients and websites.

> > > There was no sneaking; they were overtly removed. Why would they keep directing people to partake in a promotion that was having issues?

> >

> > I would definitely consider it sneaky. First the conditions on KFT's website were changed without an announcement (certainly none that I can see anywhere, except in response to a comment, which I don't consider good enough to be an announcement, as you have to dig for it anyway), then the advertisement was removed from the launcher without any comment.

> >

> > Even just a "Hey guys, we've removed the announcement because of issues behind the scenes. We're investigating and will report ASAP!", but nothing.

>

> Sneaky.. maybe on the side of KFT, though on ANETs side they likely took what preventative measures they could when the issue became known. They then followed it up with a very, very small "we is sorry", "we come back say sorry again.. soon!" and then silence, which is the part I find a little disturbing from ANET especially when it seemingly looks like EU players have been duped into giving social media info out to KFT for no reason now.

>

> Lets hope ANET get a handle on the situation soon now and something gets sorted out.. bad press is still press I guess, but there does seem to of been an excess of bad press lately, so hopefully this trend can be quashed and normal gaming happiness resumed all round :)

 

But both those apologies were *before* the advertisement was removed from the launcher, and *before* the terms were changed on KFT's site. Sure, they may legally not be able to say anything about what happened on KFT's end, but even acknowledging to the players that they had removed the ad would have been a more open and honest step than just silence.

[Haleydawn.3764]

Has anyone else noticed that there is no minimum age restriction for this sweepstakes though? Pretty sure this is illegal across many states/countries, since sweepstakes/giveaways/etc are technically considered lotteries (even the Free DLC requires entry of Personal Data, 100% chance of the “prize”).

[phs.6089]

Has it been fixed, yet?

[Mewcifer.5198]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > @"sakura.7961" said:

> > > @"SatdeNecro.2395" said:

> > > Not sure if Anet or Kung Fu Tea is dropping the ball? Or both?

> >

> > KFT made a post saying that they decided to suddenly ban all non-Americans from getting the goodies. They claimed that they did this from the start which is an obvious lie since many non-Americans did manage to get the goodies.

> >

> > ANet has not said anything about the situation. @"Gaile Gray.6029" was very active in this thread, making multiple comments, but after what happened she has been completely ignoring everyone's problems. Furthermore, ANet has sneakily removed all the promotion posts from the non-American clients and websites.

>

> As people said earlier in the thread Gaile is probably not allowed to say anything yet. She's the Community Manager - her job is to pass on information from other people in the company in whatever format she thinks is appropriate (and probably the other side too - collating feedback to give to people at Anet). But she won't have the authority to make decisions like sending everyone the dragon t-shirt, certainly not to force KFT to honour their agreement. Trust me, it's a very frustrating position to be in (I'd like to say you get used to it, but you don't, it sucks every time) but it's how companies need to work - different people each have their area of expertise. In other words feel free to blame Anet in general but please don't blame Gaile personally because it's not up to her.

>

> As for why it's taking so long for someone else to make a decision and tell Gaile what it is - we don't know. But we can guess. From the outside it looks like what happened is:

> * Anet and KFT agreed to a joint promotion - Anet provide freebies and KFT give them away to promote their stores and app (apparently the social media function is new and they wanted to show it off).

> * As soon as the promotion starts it becomes clear KFT's software cannot handle the demand _and_

> * At least one of the promotional items Anet provided is causing artificially increased demand from gold sellers and therefore causing knock-on issues for their security team

> * KFT respond by 'temporarily' freezing the promotion until these issues are fixed

> * KFT then change the terms and conditions, part-way through the promotion - to limit it to only a small portion of Anet's customers

>

> That gives us a number of possibilities for what's happening now and needs to happen before anyone can give us a meaningful statement and certainly before any kind of compensation/extension of the promotion can be considered. That includes:

> * KFT/their contractor improving the app to handle increased traffic

> * Anet developing a new Heroic code which only gives the bonus items and doesn't upgrade free accounts

> * Anet trying to work out if their contract with KFT said the promotion was US-only

> * If it was always supposed to be that way Anet trying to work out how they explain it to non-US players and if compensation is necessary, and if so what

> * If it wasn't then KFT may well be in breach of contract and that means getting both companies legal teams involved

>

> It's not a good situation and should not have happened. Anet should have been clear about how many people they were promoting this to and how many are likely to participate (which they should be able to estimate from things like average number of players logging in per month). KFT should have been clear on how much traffic their app can handle. Someone at Anet should have realised that the Heroic Edition code would upgrade a free account and giving them away free would therefore have been exploited by botters and gold sellers, but going back to what I said about different people's areas of expertise it's possible the people who knew that weren't asked and the people running the promotion thought the same as many of us did before it started - that it would just give the extra items. Both companies should have been clear on who they intended to include in the promotion and whether it would actually be restricted to those people or open to everyone in the world. But for whatever reason none of that did happen and now it needs to be sorted out. Even in the internet age that won't happen in a matter of hours.

>

> However I'll be very surprised if we don't get something by the end of today (US time - so about 1am Saturday GMT at the latest) because it's highly unlikely they'll say or do anything over the weekend and on Monday it will be almost a week since it was shut down and that's really not going to help either companies reputation.

 

This is a very well put explanation of everything. I wish more people looked at the bigger picture like this.

[Menadena.7482]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> However I'll be very surprised if we don't get something by the end of today (US time - so about 1am Saturday GMT at the latest) because it's highly unlikely they'll say or do anything over the weekend and on Monday it will be almost a week since it was shut down and that's really not going to help either companies reputation.

 

That timing sounds right and I am guessing the people involved are rushing around right now. After today it will mean they spent more than 1/4 of the planned length of the promotion in a FUBAR state. Even if they do not have an ultimate resolution I would expect an update by the end of the day, they might still be working on things but be able to say the promotion was extended for example.

 

This whole thing smells as if the entire thing was done by not consulting people in the trenches. Most of them (not just techies) would have had reservations about launching a major promotion they had not done before on a Saturday. The start of a 3 day weekend in the US to boot.

[Menadena.7482]

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> Sneaky.. maybe on the side of KFT, though on ANETs side they likely took what preventative measures they could when the issue became known. They then followed it up with a very, very small "we is sorry", "we come back say sorry again.. soon!" and then silence, which is the part I find a little disturbing from ANET especially when it seemingly looks like EU players have been duped into giving social media info out to KFT for no reason now.

 

Not just EU players. Since the offer is not coming up any of us that linked a social media account but are still waiting on the offer are also in limbo.

[Menadena.7482]

> @"WesleyTCLW.9853" said:

> The whole story for me goes like this:

>

> KFT: We got your info, but we screwed up, we cannot provide what we promised. Ha Ha. And you know what, instead of compensation, we restricted the gifts to US residents only. BAM

>

> Anet: Not our fault, therefore nothing we can do.

>

>

>

> Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Since we do not know the agreement terms it is hard to say what happened behing the scenes but I am leaning heavily that anet did what they were told by kft. Did kft tell them the wrong thing (thinking they said something else) or change their mind about what terms they wanted? None of us know. As to what they can do though, it depends on the terms of the contract: anet's existing customer base is at stake but not as much kft's so it is in anet's interest to fight for us if their legal team says they are in the right.

[Vash.2386]

Has there been any response from anet yet?

[Endless Soul.5178]

I'm now kinda glad that I didn't bother participating with this promotion after all.

[Moonyeti.3296]

> @"Dante.1763" said:

> > @"JustTrogdor.7892" said:

> > My guess, we will get an update from Anet close to the end of business day Friday. Then they will let the thread stew over the weekend and maybe eventually sink the thread. Thread sinking is an option available via the Vanilla forum software (what this forum runs on) that allows new posts to be made but won't bump it up on the forum page with each new post. So eventually it just falls off the page no matter how many new posts.

>

> And that would be when people start going to other places to complain which are for more visible than the forums...wouldnt be smart to do that.

 

The issue is still alive and well on the GW2 reddit page. I bet it will get posted there if it gets suppressed here. Elsewhere too, as you mentioned.

[Menadena.7482]

> @"Moonyeti.3296" said:

> The issue is still alive and well on the GW2 reddit page. I bet it will get posted there if it gets suppressed here. Elsewhere too, as you mentioned.

 

Gaming forums tend to do that for some reason. For another one the company made clear that forum actions, which could randomly come from someone complaining about nothing, could put your in-game account at risk. So the more high-profile you were in the forums the greater the odds of an in-world punishment.

 

Suddenly myself and other top posters started shuffling off the official platform to third party sites.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"Haleydawn.3764" said:

> Has anyone else noticed that there is no minimum age restriction for this sweepstakes though? Pretty sure this is illegal across many states/countries, since sweepstakes/giveaways/etc are technically considered lotteries (even the Free DLC requires entry of Personal Data, 100% chance of the “prize”).

 

Plus, there's no mention of what 'in-game content' can be won via the 'Daily Prize'.

 

_For the month of September, you’ll get to enter the Kung Fu Tea x Guild Wars 2 Daily Sweepstakes for a FREE DRINK ($5 app credit) AND a copy of Guild Wars 2 Deluxe Collection ($74.99 value) *PLUS win in-game content*!_

 

Nowhere can one find the 'official rules' for the contest/sweepstakes/give-away, either.

[Aaralyna.3104]

> @"Dragon.3120" said:

> > @"Aaralyna.3104" said:

> > The funny part is that there are Europeans asking on the facebook of Kungfu Tea if they still get their codes for the heroic and outfit as they have linked their social network accounts to the app.... And the employers of KFT reacted in a facebook reply that they are going to get this guaranteed!!! These posts are even from date 5 and 6 september (after they even had changed their terms). And it was not even hard to see the persons asking the question were from non US, you could see it on their facebook profiles they asked it with.

> >

> > I am not joking, this is currently really happening. So as a European that did same as all those ppl I am still waiting on my Heroic code and the outfit promo :)

>

> Their is nothing on Kung FU Teas facebook side. I searched every post on Kung fu teas facebook side nothing.

 

There is. I don't know if I am allowed to link to facebook sites or share screenshots or naming names of facebook posters so I rather be on the safe side and say... Go to facebook and then Kung Fu Tea (@kungfuteausa), then look for a post in their feed regarding "GW2 FREE DLC CODES (HEROIC EDITION & IN-GAME DRAGON EMBLEM OUTFIT) APP PROMOTION UPDATE" which is posted on 4 september 21.15. Then look at the comments of ppl in the post. Search for a certain Lisette that posted 2 day ago. She is from Europe and you see that Kung Fu Tea replied her with "Hey ! We appreciate your patience. If you have claimed the rewards, you will definitely be receiving the codes as soon as our system can continue distributing them!"

 

This is just 1 of the persons outside of US they replied such... as they replied a few more similarly.