NFBC Message Boards

Group --



I know a lot of you have been emailing me, yelling at me, leaving me voicemails --- overall, voicing your genuine concerns with our game and the state of the software over the last seven days.



I wanted to offer my sincerest apologies for everything you've had to deal with. I know that my words can't convey how sorry we are for the problems we've allowed to manifest since the rolling out of this game.



The bottom line is -- Greg, Tom and Geoff have done everything possible to make sure this gets rectified and are doing everything possible to ensure it doesn't happen again.



The tech team at Fanball is working around the clock to ensure we are fixing any issues that arise.



It may seem as if we aren't working fast enough to meet some of your expectations and I know it's frustrating. After all -- I used to play this game and I know how important it is to get in and get out of the site especially if you have multiple teams. I know we are making that difficult but we will continue to refine that and make it as easy as possible.



I'm embarrassed. We all feel terrible. And we will continue to do whatever it takes to earn back your respect and trust. We are making great strides on improving this process, but it's not where it needs to be.



I don't have a lot more to say -- I'm going to let our actions speak for me and this team moving forward.



I feel honored to have met many of you in LV and I understand how passionate you are about this game. We need to match that passion with a successful product and that is our goal.

I'll take a full refund for all FAAB Leagues. Short of that save your breath!

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you.

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

I'll take a full refund for all FAAB Leagues. Short of that save your breath! Walla you might be on to something there!



And not to re-open this whole issue again, but was the new FAAB interface simply not tested enough or put through the ringer before last weekeend's debacle? And if not, why not? I can't keep up with all the threads on these MBs but still have not seen an answer to my those questions.

Originally posted by rkulaski:

quote:Originally posted by Walla Walla:

I'll take a full refund for all FAAB Leagues. Short of that save your breath! Walla you might be on to something there!



And not to re-open this whole issue again, but was the new FAAB interface simply not tested enough or put through the ringer before last weekeend's debacle? And if not, why not? I can't keep up with all the threads on these MBs but still have not seen an answer to my those questions. [/QUOTE]You won't get a truthful answer about the FAAB issue last week. Bottom line is it wasn't tested enough and wasn't tested anywhere near early enough. Some people will have you believe it was tested and WORKED properly before last Sunday. Too busy promoting live events and taking our money to actually put together a working product I guess. To top it off, we the customers were used as guinea pigs to figure out what was wrong so that Fanball programmers could fix problems that should have never been present. Sorry, that is the way I see it.

Hello Ryan,



Welcome back to the boards. Thank you for your apology. If sincere, it's a start.



To prove it's sincere, you now have to back it up with action. You must get your back end working perfectly and now. Last weekend was a disaster. However, if it had ended there, was repaired quickly, and was now working perfectly....all would be forgiven, all would be forgotten (well maybe not forgotten, but forgiven ).



However, there remains issues a week into the season. Some of the issues are beyond comprehension like today's deadline hitting 10 minutes early. Things like that should not happen. The constant issues have almost become comical.



You need to get this back end working as well as what we had last year at a minimum. Then you need to tweak & improve from there. You also can not take forever getting us there.

Also, please don't take short cuts. The quality control here is severely lacking and must be improved. Even something as simple as the listing of this week's waiver claims. Why is this week's claims below last weeks? Common sense says the latest goes on top. Though not a big deal, it's so simple that it just shows the lack of QC. Who's watching, who's checking, who's at the wheel?



Listen I've been trying to remain positive throughout all these issues. I believe constant complaints start to fall on deaf ears and the message gets lost. The message can't get lost. Get everything working properly and fast. I've been a big fan of the NFBC and remain one. However, even the biggest supporters have a line where their patience is severely tested. Don't let us down.



Glenn

I'd just like to know one thing:



What exactly are Daily Ponits?

Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



Honestly Chest -- I'm not sure why that criticism exists. Sure, we wanted to throw a better event. Without a doubt that was one of our goals. Having a successful software package was another one of our goals. I believe, that given the fact our events (for the most part) were great and our software was not -- it's become some sort of excuse for why we failed. The events portion of our business did not impact our inability to deliver a successful software package.



Additionally -- some have stated that we spent so much time "making it pretty" we overlooked "substance". The hardest part of all of this for us internally is we feel the issues could have been prevented and we made a few mistakes. Thats tough to swallow, but we are trying to put this behind us and make the game as streamlined as possible.



Again, I accept the criticism but we never focused on making things look pretty over making them work. That has never been the problem with what transpired.



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



We have allocated tons of resources to making changes and that is what allowed us to overcome some of our shortcomings late in the week. We will continue that staffing level this week as we continue to try and solve some of the outstanding issues that some of your are experiencing. We are doing everything we can to ensure it gets fixed.



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I talked to Greg and he really felt it was best for him to handle it. I can tell by my email that LOTS of you wanted me to say something -- so I decided to do so. I'm sorry it took so long.



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you.



Thanks -- I appreciate that. However, we owe you results -- not just an apology.

Originally posted by Ryan E. Houston:

quote:Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



Honestly Chest -- I'm not sure why that criticism exists. Sure, we wanted to throw a better event. Without a doubt that was one of our goals. Having a successful software package was another one of our goals. I believe, that given the fact our events (for the most part) were great and our software was not -- it's become some sort of excuse for why we failed. The events portion of our business did not impact our inability to deliver a successful software package.



Additionally -- some have stated that we spent so much time "making it pretty" we overlooked "substance". The hardest part of all of this for us internally is we feel the issues could have been prevented and we made a few mistakes. Thats tough to swallow, but we are trying to put this behind us and make the game as streamlined as possible.



Again, I accept the criticism but we never focused on making things look pretty over making them work. That has never been the problem with what transpired.



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



We have allocated tons of resources to making changes and that is what allowed us to overcome some of our shortcomings late in the week. We will continue that staffing level this week as we continue to try and solve some of the outstanding issues that some of your are experiencing. We are doing everything we can to ensure it gets fixed.



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I talked to Greg and he really felt it was best for him to handle it. I can tell by my email that LOTS of you wanted me to say something -- so I decided to do so. I'm sorry it took so long.



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you.



Thanks -- I appreciate that. However, we owe you results -- not just an apology.



[/QUOTE]I will let you be. I would suggest you stay sensitive to question 1. I do not think there is enough evidence to prove anything is there. A lot of people including me think it though.



One last question?



French or Dutch side?

Originally posted by rkulaski:

quote:Originally posted by Walla Walla:

I'll take a full refund for all FAAB Leagues. Short of that save your breath! Walla you might be on to something there!



And not to re-open this whole issue again, but was the new FAAB interface simply not tested enough or put through the ringer before last weekeend's debacle? And if not, why not? I can't keep up with all the threads on these MBs but still have not seen an answer to my those questions. [/QUOTE]I would definitely say a lack of testing with live data played a part of what happened. I'm not going to run or make excuses about what transpired. The issues were preventable with more testing and that makes it difficult for everyone internally to swallow. We all know we could have prevented it and we missed it.



I'm sure we could have done a lot of things different, but we failed to meet our users expectations and that is what hurts the most.



Like most of you - We are never going to be happy until these issues are rectified.



To answer your question -- yes, I believe a lack of extensive testing played a key role in our failures.

Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

One last question?



French or Dutch side? I was there last year, albeit breifly (cruise stopover). We took a drive around the island and saw both sides. Truly one of the wackiest things you'll ever see.

Originally posted by Glenneration X:

Hello Ryan,



Welcome back to the boards. Thank you for your apology. If sincere, it's a start.



To prove it's sincere, you now have to back it up with action. You must get your back end working perfectly and now. Last weekend was a disaster. However, if it had ended there, was repaired quickly, and was now working perfectly....all would be forgiven, all would be forgotten (well maybe not forgotten, but forgiven ).



However, there remains issues a week into the season. Some of the issues are beyond comprehension like today's deadline hitting 10 minutes early. Things like that should not happen. The constant issues have almost become comical.



You need to get this back end working as well as what we had last year at a minimum. Then you need to tweak & improve from there. You also can not take forever getting us there.

Also, please don't take short cuts. The quality control here is severely lacking and must be improved. Even something as simple as the listing of this week's waiver claims. Why is this week's claims below last weeks? Common sense says the latest goes on top. Though not a big deal, it's so simple that it just shows the lack of QC. Who's watching, who's checking, who's at the wheel?



Listen I've been trying to remain positive throughout all these issues. I believe constant complaints start to fall on deaf ears and the message gets lost. The message can't get lost. Get everything working properly and fast. I've been a big fan of the NFBC and remain one. However, even the biggest supporters have a line where their patience is severely tested. Don't let us down.



Glenn I agree with all your comments. These "little" things annoy me as much as the "bigger" things.



Our ability to fix all of these things is what we are focusing on.

Originally posted by Bobby D:

quote:Originally posted by rkulaski:

quote:Originally posted by Walla Walla:

I'll take a full refund for all FAAB Leagues. Short of that save your breath! Walla you might be on to something there!



And not to re-open this whole issue again, but was the new FAAB interface simply not tested enough or put through the ringer before last weekeend's debacle? And if not, why not? I can't keep up with all the threads on these MBs but still have not seen an answer to my those questions. [/QUOTE]You won't get a truthful answer about the FAAB issue last week. Bottom line is it wasn't tested enough and wasn't tested anywhere near early enough. Some people will have you believe it was tested and WORKED properly before last Sunday. Too busy promoting live events and taking our money to actually put together a working product I guess. To top it off, we the customers were used as guinea pigs to figure out what was wrong so that Fanball programmers could fix problems that should have never been present. Sorry, that is the way I see it. [/QUOTE]I gave a truthful answer.



And I can completely understand that "guinea pigs" statement. I had a long talk with one of our customers today and he told me the same thing -- told me we sold him a Mercedes with a Yugo engine. I completely understand and no need to apologize.



After all -- its our fault for making you feel that way and now it's our job to ensure you don't feel that way any longer.

[ April 12, 2010, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: Gekko ]

Look Ryan, when a service changes vendors from one to the other the customer should either see no change or an upgrade. The customer should never feel a downgrade. Given all the issues we've seen over the last week, we have felt the downgrade.



To be honest, you followed the exact path most managerial types do when faced with a customer crisis. The wrong one. Going incommunicado and leaving the dirty work to Greg and Tom - who are also your customers mind you - is the wrong way to go.



Here are some ideas on what you could have done:



- First post - pinned in the forum - containing laundry list of the issues, their priority and their expected completion date while asking if there were any issues you had missed. Encourage us - the user community - to provide feedback.



- Second post - also pinned - A daily status report post on this board with a brief update on each of these items. This would have taken no more than 15 minutes to create as I am sure you were receiving regular updates.



- Third post - also pinned - asking for suggestions on interface tweaks, improvements etc...



There are more ideas but you get the picture.



Instead you chose to avoid the boards for the week while the fire were burning. Presumably because you did not want to get flamed. That's understandable from a personal perspective but not from a customer service perspective. Interfacing with only Tom, Greg and the rest of the folks at the NFBC was not sufficient and I'm sure you know that. Not every customer service rep has the opportunity to talk directly with their customer's user community. You do via these boards. We needed to hear from you last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc...now you're coming here a week later only after most of the fires have been put out with an apology?



Next time something like this happens - and there will be a next time - suck it up and show some managerial courage. Until then, posts like the one you just put up are just mealy mouthed, meaningless words.



You seem like a nice guy Ryan, I really mean that. But your style is cowardly.



[ April 11, 2010, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: Hawk ]

Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you. I would like to echo the questions of Chest - especially the #1 and #3.



As you are aware, this is a pretty tough crowd and although you will never please all, I think responding sooner may have been helpful. Taking 30 minutes to provide an update would have possibly gone a long way, at least to me.



I do understand that when you customize a product, there is a good chance there will be a lot of bugs to work out. Unlike some others, I don't feel a refund is required becuase of this, but I do feel, being upfront and explaining the situation would have calmed lot of owners - not all, but a lot more. I don't know what was done for testing before deciding to "go live," but if there was some beta testing you had to know there were issues, if those were known, and still opting to push it forward would be a wrong decision in my mind.



One thing I do think that is overlooked is, as the contest owner, these decisions are yours, not the majority of the players. If we don't like the product, our decision is whether to come back or not. That is our decision.



There has been an enormous amount of expansion in the NFBC in the last 2 years and that is a GREAT thing, but at times this year, it was the first time where I could feel the growth may hurt the customer service a little. Greg/Tom and Jeff are still great - but even processing payments took a few calls to the accounting department. The woman I spoke with (I apologize, I forget her name) was very nice and great to work with also, but this kind of thing didn't happen in the past).



The last thing I want to ask is, in the past, Las vegas has always had the perception of being the top priority. I understand more leagues are filled out there and have no issue with that, but at times, it feels like the other locations, while treated great, are just considered a notch below. Will you go to Las Vegas every year or move around and meet some of the other participants also?



Just my two cents. This is still the premier fantasy event. I really think part of the "problem" was the expanded growth - again problem is not the correct word, but I would think it makes it a little harder to handle everything and keep people happy as you grow.



I don't know you from Adam, but I'm sure you didn't sign on with the intention to fail. (Not saying you failed, but you did allow a software to be released that wasn't working). You don't owe us hourly updates, but an occasion update during this time really would have made some feel more comfortable.



Greg - that invitation to come out East or Midwest, etc applies to you also! Tom is great, but would be nice to meet some others as well. (Although I can't blame you, I'd hang in Vegas over NYC if I had the choice also)!



[ April 11, 2010, 10:09 PM: Message edited by: poopy tooth ]

Originally posted by King of Queens:

I'd just like to know one thing:



What exactly are Daily Ponits? Just because you don't have any... kidding, I laugh at that each day also...

Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

quote:Originally posted by Ryan E. Houston:

quote:Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



Honestly Chest -- I'm not sure why that criticism exists. Sure, we wanted to throw a better event. Without a doubt that was one of our goals. Having a successful software package was another one of our goals. I believe, that given the fact our events (for the most part) were great and our software was not -- it's become some sort of excuse for why we failed. The events portion of our business did not impact our inability to deliver a successful software package.



Additionally -- some have stated that we spent so much time "making it pretty" we overlooked "substance". The hardest part of all of this for us internally is we feel the issues could have been prevented and we made a few mistakes. Thats tough to swallow, but we are trying to put this behind us and make the game as streamlined as possible.



Again, I accept the criticism but we never focused on making things look pretty over making them work. That has never been the problem with what transpired.



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



We have allocated tons of resources to making changes and that is what allowed us to overcome some of our shortcomings late in the week. We will continue that staffing level this week as we continue to try and solve some of the outstanding issues that some of your are experiencing. We are doing everything we can to ensure it gets fixed.



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I talked to Greg and he really felt it was best for him to handle it. I can tell by my email that LOTS of you wanted me to say something -- so I decided to do so. I'm sorry it took so long.



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you.



Thanks -- I appreciate that. However, we owe you results -- not just an apology.



[/QUOTE]I will let you be. I would suggest you stay sensitive to question 1. I do not think there is enough evidence to prove anything is there. A lot of people including me think it though.



One last question?



French or Dutch side? [/QUOTE]I'm sensitive to the question. I've got 136 emails in my inbox that all think the same way you do. However, I wanted to clarify that development is one part of our business. Creative is another part. Live events is a different part. All of those units work together -- but Creative + Live Event divisions didn't cause the problems you felt over the last 7 days.



If I'm completely honest with all of you -- I'd say that it had a lot to do with testing but also a lot to do with requirements. When we purchased the business we did not receive extensive requirements documentation (development blueprints so to speak) of all the nuances of this game.



There were a lot of preventable issues -- and we can talk about all the "why" but I'd rather focus on "rectify" and ensure we get it right.



I always tell me kids "you can't change the past - all you can do is learn from it and make better choices". I'm hopeful we will do that without forgetting what a poor first impression we made.



We feel terrible Chest. But believing that we focused too much on making it "pretty" is simply not accurate.

from the players perspective it seems like a huge push was made at fanball to roll out the draft software (WHICH NOBODY WANTED) AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FAAB SYSTEM (WHICH EVERYBODY WANTED).

Originally posted by Hawk:

Look Ryan, when a service changes vendors from one to the other the customer should either see no change or an upgrade. The customer should never feel a downgrade. Given all the issues we've seen over the last week, we have felt the downgrade.



To be honest, you followed the exact path most managerial types do when faced with a customer crisis. The wrong one. Going incommunicado and leaving the dirty work to Greg and Tom - who are also your customers mind you - is the wrong way to go.



Here are some ideas on what you could have done:



- First post - pinned in the forum - containing laundry list of the issues, their priority and their expected completion date while asking if there were any issues you had missed. Encourage us - the user community - to provide feedback.



- Second post - also pinned - A daily status report post on this board with a brief update on each of these items. This would have taken no more than 15 minutes to create as I am sure you were receiving regular updates.



- Third post - also pinned - asking for suggestions on interface tweaks, improvements etc...



There are more ideas but you get the picture.



Instead you chose to avoid the boards for the week while the fire were burning. Presumably because you did not want to get flamed. That's understandable from a personal perspective but not from a customer service perspective. Interfacing with only Tom, Greg and the rest of the folks at the NFBC was not sufficient and I'm sure you know that. Not every customer service rep has the opportunity to talk directly with their customer's user community. You do via these boards. We needed to hear from you last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc...now you're coming here a week later only after most of the fires have been put out with an apology?



Next time something like this happens - and there will be a next time - suck it up and show some managerial courage. Until then, posts like the one you just put up are just mealy mouthed, meaningless words.



You seem like a nice guy Ryan, I really mean that. But your style is cowardly. Probably could have done a lot of things differently but for every person who wanted me to speak -- there were emails in my inbox telling me they never wanted to talk to me again.



Listen -- I wasn't being a coward. From day one I've been beaten up and abused. I faced the crowd in Las Vegas - shook hands and never made a customer feel as if they weren't wanted to be in this contest. Hell -- I even worked an auction much to the criticism of King of Queens.



Sure - I could have handled it differently but Greg and I agreed on how to handle it and that is what we did. As Greg stated several times -- he didn't need an EVP working the message boards, he needed us working on making progress. I think we accomplished that (still a lot to do) and we continue to do what is needed to rectify the outstanding issues.



I accept your criticism with open arms -- and I know that we'll never make everyone happy with the decisions we make. That's just reality and I'm still answering questions about why we chose Bellagio over Flamingo. It's the nature of having this many passionate people playing this game.



I'm sorry you don't feel I handled this properly.

Originally posted by Ryan E. Houston:

I'm sensitive to the question. I've got 136 emails in my inbox that all think the same way you do. However, I wanted to clarify that development is one part of our business. Creative is another part. Live events is a different part. All of those units work together -- but Creative + Live Event divisions didn't cause the problems you felt over the last 7 days.



If I'm completely honest with all of you -- I'd say that it had a lot to do with testing but also a lot to do with requirements. When we purchased the business we did not receive extensive requirements documentation (development blueprints so to speak) of all the nuances of this game.



There were a lot of preventable issues -- and we can talk about all the "why" but I'd rather focus on "rectify" and ensure we get it right.



I always tell me kids "you can't change the past - all you can do is learn from it and make better choices". I'm hopeful we will do that without forgetting what a poor first impression we made.



We feel terrible Chest. But believing that we focused too much on making it "pretty" is simply not accurate. [/QB]Regarding the bolded part, Did you not receive it because you did not ask for it or did you not receive it because it did not exist?

Originally posted by Ryan E. Houston:

quote:Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

quote:Originally posted by Ryan E. Houston:

quote:Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



Honestly Chest -- I'm not sure why that criticism exists. Sure, we wanted to throw a better event. Without a doubt that was one of our goals. Having a successful software package was another one of our goals. I believe, that given the fact our events (for the most part) were great and our software was not -- it's become some sort of excuse for why we failed. The events portion of our business did not impact our inability to deliver a successful software package.



Additionally -- some have stated that we spent so much time "making it pretty" we overlooked "substance". The hardest part of all of this for us internally is we feel the issues could have been prevented and we made a few mistakes. Thats tough to swallow, but we are trying to put this behind us and make the game as streamlined as possible.



Again, I accept the criticism but we never focused on making things look pretty over making them work. That has never been the problem with what transpired.



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



We have allocated tons of resources to making changes and that is what allowed us to overcome some of our shortcomings late in the week. We will continue that staffing level this week as we continue to try and solve some of the outstanding issues that some of your are experiencing. We are doing everything we can to ensure it gets fixed.



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I talked to Greg and he really felt it was best for him to handle it. I can tell by my email that LOTS of you wanted me to say something -- so I decided to do so. I'm sorry it took so long.



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you.



Thanks -- I appreciate that. However, we owe you results -- not just an apology.



[/QUOTE]I will let you be. I would suggest you stay sensitive to question 1. I do not think there is enough evidence to prove anything is there. A lot of people including me think it though.



One last question?



French or Dutch side? [/QUOTE]I'm sensitive to the question. I've got 136 emails in my inbox that all think the same way you do. However, I wanted to clarify that development is one part of our business. Creative is another part. Live events is a different part. All of those units work together -- but Creative + Live Event divisions didn't cause the problems you felt over the last 7 days.



If I'm completely honest with all of you -- I'd say that it had a lot to do with testing but also a lot to do with requirements. When we purchased the business we did not receive extensive requirements documentation (development blueprints so to speak) of all the nuances of this game.



There were a lot of preventable issues -- and we can talk about all the "why" but I'd rather focus on "rectify" and ensure we get it right.



I always tell me kids "you can't change the past - all you can do is learn from it and make better choices". I'm hopeful we will do that without forgetting what a poor first impression we made.



We feel terrible Chest. But believing that we focused too much on making it "pretty" is simply not accurate. [/QUOTE]Ryan- I predict you will be succesful to the degree in which you listen and to the degree in which you give honest communication. It is just one guy's opinion but I appreciate you listening tonight. I think you could have answered one of my questions a little more forthright, but I have no interest in piling on you in a public forum.



I do think great strides are being made. IMO if you make strides like this next week then you will have a customer base that is back on the path to trusting you all with our money and in a lot of ways our time.

You know what Fanball, I gave you the benefit of the doubt because I also work in IT and do the same type of job as Ryan does for my company - minus the catastrophic failures that is occurring at this time.

We are in the midst of replacing a system of a campany we just bought out. And I preach that we need our BEST testers involved and intense testing because we can't accept failure and have this new company think we are incompetent when we shut off their existing system.



Well, Fanball obviously failed miserably on that mindset. This is UTTER BS and I am sick of this pi$$ poor product. Greg/Geoff/Tom, you need to evaluate things because people are going to be jumping ship with all this bs and garbage product.



Enough is enough. I can't finish looking at bids 10 minutes prior to the deadline, every page is ordered by someone that has no clue how to order stats, the funtionality in general is poor(I can make a long list but it seems to fall on deaf ears so I am done wasting my time - since there are only a certain one or 2 who seem to be in the "know" when it comes to ideas).



I am sure, those people at fanball are sorry AGAIN, but this is hideous and beyond ridiculous. Heads need to roll or change something because FANBALL HAS SEVERLY dropped the ball.



Ryan, excuses about not having all requirements is the biggest IT copout. Especially when you had a working product previously to piggyback off.



[ April 11, 2010, 10:21 PM: Message edited by: PantherPride ]

Originally posted by poopy tooth:

quote:Originally posted by Chest Rockwell:

specific questions for you!



1) I along with many others feel like you have been focused on all of the wrong things. I hear a lot of hype and glitz versus substance. Are we wrong? Were we right and do you get that the course needs to change?



2) We will do better is not going to satisfy this crowd because so few people trust fanball. You fix issues like this with more resources, different priorities, changing personnel etc. In general terms how are you going to fix it?



3) Why have you waited so long to post this?



I as one of 435 accept your apology. I think we all just want some more information from you. I would like to echo the questions of Chest - especially the #1 and #3.



As you are aware, this is a pretty tough crowd and although you will never please all, I think responding sooner may have been helpful. Taking 30 minutes to provide an update would have possibly gone a long way, at least to me.



I do understand that when you customize a product, there is a good chance there will be a lot of bugs to work out. Unlike some others, I don't feel a refund is required becuase of this, but I do feel, being upfront and explaining the situation would have calmed lot of owners - not all, but a lot more. I don't know what was done for testing before deciding to "go live," but if there was some beta testing you had to know there were issues, if those were known, and still opting to push it forward would be a wrong decision in my mind.



One thing I do think that is overlooked is, as the contest owner, these decisions are yours, not the majority of the players. If we don't like the product, our decision is whether to come back or not. That is our decision.



There has been an enormous amount of expansion in the NFBC in the last 2 years and that is a GREAT thing, but at times this year, it was the first time where I could feel the growth may hurt the customer service a little. Greg/Tom and Jeff are still great - but even processing payments took a few calls to the accounting department. The woman I spoke with (I apologize, I forget her name) was very nice and great to work with also, but this kind of thing didn't happen in the past).



The last thing I want to ask is, in the past, Las vegas has always had the perception of being the top priority. I understand more leagues are filled out there and have no issue with that, but at times, it feels like the other locations, while treated great, are just considered a notch below. Will you go to Las Vegas every year or move around and meet some of the other participants also?



Just my two cents. This is still the premier fantasy event. I really think part of the "problem" was the expanded growth - again problem is not the correct word, but I would think it makes it a little harder to handle everything and keep people happy as you grow.



I don't know you from Adam, but I'm sure you didn't sign on with the intention to fail. (Not saying you failed, but you did allow a software to be released that wasn't working). You don't owe us hourly updates, but an occasion update during this time really would have made some feel more comfortable.



Greg - that invitation to come out East or Midwest, etc applies to you also! Tom is great, but would be nice to meet some others as well. (Although I can't blame you, I'd hang in Vegas over NYC if I had the choice also)! [/QUOTE]Poppy -- I understand the growth concerns. That is part of the reason we hired Geoff to come in. We knew we were going to set record numbers with NFBC this year -- and we knew we needed more help.



We have to continue to provide top notch customer service in order to facilitate our customers requirements. It's something we talk about a lot.



We have three of the best: Greg / Tom / Geoff. We also have a full-time, 7 days a week, staff in St. Louis that will help with this game in the future.



In regards to locations. For NFFC I was in New York with Tom. I was in LV for NFBC. I plan on traveling to a lot of the locations to meet everyone. I know Greg really loves Vegas but maybe we'll mix them up a bit to let everyone get to know all of us.

Originally posted by Gekko:

from the players perspective it seems like a huge push was made at fanball to roll out the draft software (WHICH NOBODY WANTED) AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FAAB SYSTEM (WHICH EVERYBODY WANTED).



Honestly Mark, EVERYONE knew this was going to happen the minute that Fanball purchased the NFBC/NFFC.



The biggest problem is that it was promised (in a round about way) that we all would get to test the software and be familiar with it MONTHS in advance.



The whole process was comparable to craming for a huge test, and we ALL failed it.