Science & Industry

Hello all, I would just like your opinions on this matter:

The original incident goes like this: I accepted a courier contract to move over 200,000 cubic tons. When reaching the pickup location I dragged the package into a ship it did not fit in, the package which obviously did not fit automatically broke open and scattered the contents in my inventory. I eventually contacted the issuer and got most of his stuff to him and paid him for inconvenience. Of course I got a fail for the contract though. I've been told by a lot of people in the game chats that the package breaking open by itself is a bug so I petitioned asking if it was possible to take the fail off of my contract history being that it seemed unfair to me if it was a bug. A GM answered my petition saying he could not. I asked him if it was because it was physically impossible or if he wouldn't do it because it was against policy. He refused to answer saying he can not discuss the game policy with me(which was kind of weird).

I'm a little pissed off i must admit. In reality if I try to stick a giant box into a coffee can, the box isn't going to explode and scatter the contents all over my house. If what happened was not a bug and in fact a legitimate game mechanic, I find it pretty unfair and dumb trickery. Why not just a notification saying the package does not fit so you can then drag it into the right ship where it will fit. However if it is a bug, I feel really let down that they are unwilling to help me with this matter if indeed it is physically possible to remove the fail, and in actuality, its not about having 1 fail on my record, its the principle of the matter that I did not fail this contract, the faulty game mechanic failed it and then dropped it into my lap to wonder "WTF". I just want things to be righted and with the renowned customer service of this game, I would like to be helped. I'm not asking for ships back, i'm not asking for isk back, just a removal of the fail since in my mind, I did not fail it.

So what are all your thoughts , how should I pursue this complaint further?

P.S. Warning to all...make sure you drag your packages into the right ships!

Nope, did not get my collateral back. And I paid him some isk for some of his stuff that I couldnt get to him, because his items got mixed in with mine and I was only able to get back what was his by going through my huge inventory picking out things i was sure did not belong to me.

I understand what your saying Hans, But I feel a good contract reputation is priceless.

If I would have failed this contract by being attacked and blown up, I would not have a problem with that at all, being as that would be a legitmate and fair fail. As for the collateral loss, he under estimated his collateral for his stuff. I wanted to be honorable about it and that is why I was all to willing to pay a little bit more of isk for his satisfaction. After we settled everything, he actually asked for my services in the future since he obviously saw that I was trust worthy and serious about contract hauling. As I stated before, I am only upset at this situation because I feel like I was failed by either a bug or a stupid game mechanic that i saw as unfair to me and any other player who drags a package into the wrong ship.

Somehow I feel that if I would have left the items there, not only would a GM still not grant my understandable request to have an unfair fail caused by a bug removed, but i'd have a disgruntled issuer awell. Do you have any theories as to why they will not grant my request if it is in fact a bug?

In 4 years of playing, 3 of them hauling on alts in Red Frog, I have never, ever heard of a package "breaking open accidentally." NEVER. Never seen it, never heard of it, never heard tales about others hearing it.

Here's what happened, you got a package too big for your ship, so YOU broke the package in an attempt to haul it piecemeal, only to discover that you can't reassemble them.

Happened to me, The GM helping me on my petition suggested trying to move the item really quickly after the error message pops up. It worked for me

Note how he mentions moving something when "the error message pops up". That's not what you described.

contract history is pretty meaningless..

somebody puts a courier contract up you can accept it regardless of the amount of fails on your history

tbh, the completed/failed history is about as much use as the bounty system

I agree with this as the system currently stands. It could be helpful if someone were trying to advertise a Courier business, but the only adverts I've seen in recent memory have been on the forums for Red Frog & PUSH.

What I would love to see would be something akin to the Mercenary Market, but for Couriers. Couriers would create profiles including their home regions, maximum payload, maximum jump distance, expected pay/jump, willingness to go low/null, etc. Then, instead of nearly always setting up public contracts, you could go to the market and enter in what you want shipped and where, the market would call up a list of couriers who meet your specifications and you could research them based on that. At that point, past performance would actually be a discretionary tool.

Seems like it would be a lot more dynamic than the system we currently have and could even result in Courier Corp wars with each side undercutting the other and/or wardeccing to maintain their piece of the pie.