End of RAF checklist & when exactly does it end ?

[Moorea]

Hi

My RAF / linked accounts are coming to an end soon.

My account page says 1 of them is linked until 11-04-08

Do you guys know if that means until end of day / midnight 11/4 - server time - or some other time (PST or like anniversary of my signup - I don't remember at what time I did that) ?

I'm madly rushing to try to get a team on a server I don't have any high levels to 55 if at all possible so I can MB DKs there comes the extension and I'm afraid I would get caught in the middle with no more bonus and also loose gift levels (as it seems from the FAQ that gifting ends when linking ends)

I started preventively gifting most levels already but I don't want to do that every time I ding

Anyone has had their RAF end already ? (I think I signed up almost as soon as it was announced 90 days ago but maybe someone beat me to it and can tell what happens after ; wrt to gifting; end of bonus; etc... do we get server message "Your linking ends in 6 hours... 3 hours... etc..." [dreaming I know] I checked it's not showing in the new wow calendar either)

[Vyndree]

I'm running into a problem right now. it's 9pm server 11/3/08 -- my raf account expires 11/4 according to the site. 8 pm on 11/3 is NOT 11/4 no matter how you twist it. I planned around my advertised date and have nearly 60 levels to gift that are in limbo right now. P-I-S-S-E-D.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065094748&sid=1

Does it look like 11/4 to you right now? I can't summon, gift levels, or get the xp bonuses right now. I'm pissed and on the phone w/blizz billing.

Check my SS in that post. There is no warning that they are cutting my raf earlier than advertised.

[Moorea]

you got me worried - but I logged in and my raf is still working for now... what did blizz say on the phone ?

they should at least let you use levels to gift for 1 week or so after the end

[Schwarz]

wow so the time it ends is Greenwich Mean Time. WTF is that seriously if anything it should be in pacific time sense that is what they do all there server updates on. I hope they let grant your levels and what not. I guess this is important to know sorry for your loss.

[Vyndree]

My email to Don (phone support personnel) to his supervisor, Mac:

Good evening Mac,

My name is Jennifer and I just got off of a support call with Don. I have no problems with Don, who was very helpful during our call, but I'd like to voice my unhappiness with the Recruit-a-Friend website and its effect on my gameplay.

EDIT: <snip!> ('http://www.v-boxing.net/v/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=1&postId=57')

[Schwarz]

Stupid Blizzard.. that is truely stupid. Some idiot programmer forgot to change a variable around now they are scrambaling to make up reasons why GMT was picked. It would be sooooooo sweet if RAF wasn't available in the UK that is the only way that this could make any less sense.

I hope they resolve this with some sort of credit. I posted the thing about is WOTLK coming out on the 12th in us (ie 13th GMT).

[Moorea]

Well GMT BS or not; it says linked until 11/4 - shouldn't that mean that 11/4 it's still linked and ends at the end of 11/4; not at the begining ?

It's also not GMT because for me it stopped working about 1/2h ago - ie 10pm PST or 6am GMT

[Moorea]

I got the time for my other account from the GM - now we just need blizz to fix it and give us a few hours/days extra

please chime in in
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065195345&postId=123263033538&sid=1#0

as apparently they don't want it in the customer support forum

[Simulacra]

I'm fast approaching the same issue, I just don't know when my raf ends for sure. I'm in Australia and we're GMT +11 - and my raf is due to expire on 6th Nov, I RAF'd on 6th August at 6:45pm AEST so in theory it should end 6:45pm AEST Thursday 6th November, but will it? or will it end at 7:45am on the 6th Nov or will it be earlier still like the 5th Nov........- >.< no idea. Anyway, my druids and hunters 4some are 18 (after around 4 hours played) now and I have 30 levels each to gift to 2 of them, so it looks like an all nighter on Wednesday O.o or at least as long as it takes to get to 29 from 18

Given that I have no idea when RAF will end and that I probably won't play these chars much I might just level them to 20 and gift them to 50 tomorrow night - 50 to 60 is usually a lot of fun anyway.

And another thing, this really cheeses me off: I RAF'd on the 6th but didn't actually open the accounts until the 8th.....bstards took 2 days from me

But when I balance it all out, RAF has given me my 4 x 70 Shammies which dinged on the weekend, they are a wonderful replacement for my mixed class team and I'm actually having fun in WoW again. Given that, it's hard for me to remain pissed off for too long.

edit: it's confusing - it's the 4th here, the 4th in the US and the 4th in the UK. When I hover over the "Linked Until" date it shows "2 days left" shouldn't that be 1 day? Until to me is not inclusive and would mean my last RAF day is the 5th, which means I'm not waiting till tomorrow night ;(

[Oswyn]

I think RAF time ends exactly 90 days from date/time of referral. It just sucks that they used GMT to communicate when this ends. They should've incdicated GMT to avoid this problem.

[Aethon]

We were all credited with 3 days of playing time, why didn't the RaF days get extended as well?

[elsegundo]

90 days isnt the same as 3 months, since months have different length in days. but.... when a date is given, say 11/4, you'd expect it to last until 11/4. come on now.

good luck vyndree.

[Vyndree]

Meh, not much luck to be had. THe phone support person basically told me "even if we WANTED to give you the levels, we don't even have the ability. It's a totally automated system".

Our only hope is really in the suggestions forums and being loud and vocal about our discontent over the miscommunication thanks to the official website. No, I was not cheated out of my exact 90 days. Yes, I was misled by an official source so that I misunderstood when my 90 days ended.

I don't demand that the 3 days playtime credit be also extended to RAF. However, given the circumstances it is salt on a very open wound.

If you are at all concerned about when your RAF expires: CALL A PHONE PERSONNEL. The person on the phone was able to give me my EXACT end date TO THE SECOND. If you don't want to call, open a GM ticket or make a post on the CSF asking "When does my RAF end -- please specify timezone, hour, and minute".

I think the more you waste their man hours getting the information you deserve, the more likely they are to realize that a quick fix to the website is much more cost effective.


It's a shame that the early adopters (literally, first day of RAF) are the ones who will suffer thanks to this. At least you day-2+ people have some warning.

[algol]

"even if we WANTED blah blah"

So, what, their database deletes all records of your account creation date and accrued levels the second the deadline hits, instead of setting a disable flag like a normal database engineer would have it do? I smell bullshit. Customer support uses that line all the time, but it's usually someone that has no clue what a database even IS, much less why that excuse is crap.

The problem is, you need someone with the authority, access, and willingness to actually FIX it instead of just coming up with excuses for why you should go away and not bother them. Finding someone, especially at Blizzard support, that fits that description can be very hard.

Of course, it is possible that the guy that designed RAF was just a dumbass who made a counter field that gets incremented when you ding, and resets it to zero when RAF ends. But somehow I don't think so. And a determined person could still calculate a mostly-correct figure based solely on your current character levels.

[Souca]

Velani,

I hope they address this. I posted in the suggestion forum with some evidence that will conflict with the assumption of GMT on the website. The account creation dates are listed in EST. The post is here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065205038&postId=123263052122&sid=1#32 ('http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065205038&postId=123263052122&sid=1#32')

Hope it helps.

- Souca -

[Caspian]

Velani,

I hope they address this. I posted in the suggestion forum with some evidence that will conflict with the assumption of GMT on the website. The account creation dates are listed in EST. The post is here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065205038&postId=123263052122&sid=1#32

Hope it helps.

- Souca -I was lucky, I guess, I new the last day for me to play was going to be the 1st even though my end date was the 4th. I wrapped up my last team at the last second for my personal timer, and would have gone to the wire if I knew i would have been able to play sunday and Monday.

I also posted my evidence of non GMT times in account management. I thought the Account Creation and Last Login are local time. I wasn't home to test the last login so I am not positive. If you are EST, Souca, we may both be right, I am CST. I am sure someone at home can test this.

I also suggested that they send email to the accounts on both sides of the RAF link as well as an in game mail to each toon on both accounts a week before RAF expires with the exact day/time it ends with a Timezone. They also need to fix the web site. That won't help you guys out here but it will help future RAF'ers.

If they don't do something they will be dealing with this daily. New RAF accounts are coming up all the time, this issue will not go away.

I also think they need to figure something out for people to at least get to use their grantable levels. We were day 1 adopters, we acted as their sales force (to ourselves or friends) and our commission was the RAF benifits. Everyone needs to get paid.

The GMT issue is bogus and they know it. Also, this "fully automated system" was altered/fixed after the patch bug. So we know then can adjust it to some extent.

I brought up most of this in my suggestion posts and in the CS thread as well. The CS guys got it too because an in game feature stopped working unexpectedly, RAF bonuses. Even if the GMs can not fix it they need to esclate it to some one who can, just like they can esclate restores to character specialists.

Good Luck

[Caspian]

Velani,

I hope they address this. I posted in the suggestion forum with some evidence that will conflict with the assumption of GMT on the website. The account creation dates are listed in EST. The post is here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12065205038&postId=123263052122&sid=1#32

Hope it helps.

- Souca -Souca,
I just read your post. That was me you quoted :). You all now know my super secret forum identity, pay no attention to the flashing light....

It sure looks like you are right. I found my account creation email, I will have to check it when I get home because I can't seem to find the full headers in the gmail web interface. How did you get the full headers from gmail, download via POP/IMAP?

[Saevio]

It would be sooooooo sweet if RAF wasn't available in the UK :cursing:

[Souca]

How did you get the full headers from gmail, download via POP/IMAP?

In the menu on the upper right of the message that has Reply and an arrow, select Show Original.

- Souca -

[Caspian]

How did you get the full headers from gmail, download via POP/IMAP?

In the menu on the upper right of the message that has Reply and an arrow, select Show Original.

- Souca -Got it, thanks. Didn't even think to look at that.

Header
Delivered-To: xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Received: by 10.103.18.17 with SMTP id v17cs20188mui;
Wed, 6 Aug 2008 08:01:42 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.142.43.7 with SMTP id q7mr48577wfq.11.1218034895902;
Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:01:35 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <noreply@blizzard.com>
<SNIP> --Header poo
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 15:01:34 +0000 (UTC)


Account Management
Account Created:
August 6, 2008 8:01:34 AM
Last Login:
November 1, 2008 3:20:22 PM


This doesn't match what you see in yours. It looks like mine is PDT, but the account was made in CST so it makes even less sense when compared to yours since
you are on the west coast (according to your profile). It is NOT GMT that is for sure.

Was their a delay in creating your account in some system? That is the only thing I can think of. Am I reading everything correctly?

[Moorea]

the CS are pretty lame - I asked they escalate to someone and their answer is to lock the thread - like they don't work in the same company as the people who designed this or they couldn't tell dev if an exploit was reported to them for instance...

Also I checked on my other linked account and on the referee the mouse over says "3 days left" and on the referer it says "2 days left" - talk about consistant/working UI

They should really own up to their mistake and throw us a bone (1 day extra ... some more time to grant levels...) but I guess they just milked us for new accounts and that's the end of it... at least our experience should warn others

[Tasty]

the CS are pretty lame - I asked they escalate to someone and their answer is to lock the thread - like they don't work in the same company as the people who designed this or they couldn't tell dev if an exploit was reported to them for instance...

Also I checked on my other linked account and on the referee the mouse over says "3 days left" and on the referer it says "2 days left" - talk about consistant/working UI

They should really own up to their mistake and throw us a bone (1 day extra ... some more time to grant levels...) but I guess they just milked us for new accounts and that's the end of it... at least our experience should warn others

If you want to be reimbursed post in the suggestion forums. Posting in the CS forums will do you no good.

[Moorea]

If you want to be reimbursed post in the suggestion forums. Posting in the CS forums will do you no good.

even if that would make any sense (ie "suggestion" is the right place to get "customer service"... hello ??) - yes we did that and nothing happened

[Tasty]

If you want to be reimbursed post in the suggestion forums. Posting in the CS forums will do you no good.

even if that would make any sense (ie "suggestion" is the right place to get "customer service"... hello ??) - yes we did that and nothing happened

Its a suggestion forum, not a post and get whatever you want instantly forum.

[Tehtsuo]

"I suggest you give good customer service"

lol

[Mirina]

I just pulled my RAF dates up and I supposedly have until 11/13. I swear that it was 11/14 previously (I remember thinking about how Wrath was coming out before my RAF was ending).

Guess I'll be hauling through my last 7 levels (boosting them through BRD this evening) just to make sure I get them done in time. Also guess I should get my work done quick today and try to finish boosting my Mage to 30.

Is there still a transfer delay of toons between accounts? I don't want her to get stuck in limbo and lose the gifted levels--which, knowing my luck, would happen ><

[Los]

Oh good point, thank god I checked to see that i have about 9 days left to get my last group to 60 (and the new group to 30 for granting some lvls :))

At least you saved some other people!

[Caspian]

Is there still a transfer delay of toons between accounts? I don't want her to get stuck in limbo and lose the gifted levels--which, knowing my luck, would happen ><No, once they got the big issue fixed I have done 6 or so balancing my teams out and the last one was done on Saturday or Sunday and it took less then an hour. The longest one was under 2 hours I think.

[Marious]

Are you sure about the transfer? I did a transfer last week and it still has not happened, the approval period was like an hour but I think the transfer still takes a number of days. Or do I delete the characters that I transferred to the other account from my main account since it already happened? I checked my account a few hours ago and I still had the 2 that I transferred in that account but could not log into them. Anyone run into this situation? Luckily I got until the 17th before my RAF Runs out.

Edit: Ah just checked on it, I needed to go into the account and finalize it, I did not go through all the email then sent me, so its done now.

[Simulacra]

I got home from work and checked my linked accounts, they were still linked, so I summoned my 2 lowbie 18s (druid & hunter) to Area52 I ran them around town for a bit, quite funny seeing 18s in Area52 dressed in level 2 gear as well :) I then granted them all the levels I had taking them to the high 40s - Logged on 2 hours later and checked the links - unlinked. Phew - pretty close. Now I can transfer close my RAF accounts WOO HOO!.

<ramble>

I'm pretty happy with RAF, I got 4x70 Shammies & 2 Zhevras in 80 days without going crazy and still playing my other team, with 10 days up my sleave to level something else, which I didn't really do lol. The great thing is that I ran bot last night on my pally and shammies and finished it without any issues, great fun! I could never have done it so cleanly and quickly on my mixed class team.

Shammies are so much better, I did escape from durnholde on my mixed class team of 70s, mostly in crafted epics and didn't even make it over the bridge to the second boss. On the other hand my pally at 70 with my shammies at 67 completed it without any issues at all.
</ramble>