BlackBerry® World™ Development

[mooret]

Our e-mail support has been receiving far too many e-mails in regards to our application SoundEffects.  I would really like to work with somebody at BlackBerry on fixing these problems.  Here is what has happed since we first published our app:

1. SoundEffects v1.0 was published and we started receiving numerous e-mails from Storm users complaining sounds did not play

2. We confirmed that the simulator worked but devices do have issues.  The only work around is to adjust volume after the sound plays.  There are numerous posts to a firmware issue and how it was fixed but Verizon doesn't appear to be rolling out the upgrade.

3. We take the storm off the supported list for v1.0

4. Created v1.0.1 that works around the issue by constantly setting the volume when sounds play.  We post this new version up and set it to be only used for Storms.

5. The fix appears to be working for new customers.  Old customers that were on v1.0 cannot upgrade.  They get the option to click upgrade but it never downloads and always errors out.  Some customers just get the button to purchase the application again.  That's not good as we set it to be a free upgrade.

6. We are also getting some e-mails regarding how to download applications again or the downloads are failing in the middle of download.  I would like to know how to respond to this.  Is there an e-mail for support for blackberry App World because there is nothing we can do to fix these issues.

I wish I could say this process has been worth it but given the number of purchases compared to all the e-mails we have to field because of reasons outside of our control--bad firmware, bad downloads, failed upgrades, etc.  We would like to get a better understanding of how to respond to these issues and if there are improvements coming that will provide a better end user experience for our customers.  Thanks for any help you may provide.

Message Edited by mooret on 04-20-2009 02:11 PM

[mooret]

I now have a customer complaining they had to purchase our application twice when they should have been able to re-download the application from My World (but it wasn't there).  What advice should I give them?  Dispute it on PayPal?  Or can I send you his order numbers to fix?

[RLord321]

mooret,

Please send all of your App World questions to storefrontmanager@rim.com.

[Cheetah]

Have you had any luck with this? I'm having the exact same issues.
I updated my app a week and a half ago and since then customers have not been able to download my app. They either get the 'cant connect to server' error or some other error and they are still being charged. Also, if customer who have purchased my app before it was upgraded try to download the update they get another error and then the app disappears from their my app world. They are unable to retrieve their license code and if they try to download again they are charged again and they are still unable to download. I'm getting dozens of these emails every day.

I've given these customers the support number that I found here on the forum and when they call this number they are told by RIM representatives
that they know nothing about this issue and they it's the developer's fault and that they will not be given a refund and that they should contact the
developer.

I've contacted storefrontmanager@rim.com everday about this issue but all they say is that 'they are working on it' but so far nothing has been done
that I can see.

Let me know if you get any help or helpful info regarding this because I'd really like to get these issues fixed. A week and a half of angry emails from customers who have paid and have not gotten the product is getting extremely tiring and stressful.

Message Edited by Cheetah on 04-22-2009 03:27 PM

[mooret]

Thank you guys for letting me know the e-mail support address.  I have just e-mailed them with the above information.  I will let you know if I hear anything regarding these issues.  It has not gotten better at all.  And the latest issue is people buying the app, restorting their phone, then not being able to download from My World.  So... just to summarize my issues again:

1. Upgrades do not work

2. People claiming double purchase

3. My World doesn't have customer's paid apps for re-download

I guess there is some comfort knowing I'm not alone in this mess... 

please let me know if you hear anything. 

Thanks

[mooret · Accepted solution]

I received word from RIM support.  Sounds like the issues will be solved shortly!

----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your email.  I wanted to touch on a few points/issues you mentioned below, and try to provide some light at the end of the tunnel.

a.       User cannot upgrade your application (connection error message)

b.      User being not seeing your application when logging back into My World

The 2 above issues were identified early last week, and we have been working on putting together a hotfix to resolve these 2 major issues.  We are expecting to have this in place and live within the next 24-36 hours. Once this fix is in, users should be able to correctly reconcile their purchased applications by logging into My World, as well as successfully upgrade your application from the older version to the newest version.

[eaoliver]

I'm getting the same type of emails.  What a bloody nightmare.  I am completely overwhelmed with 'support' emails for problems that are totally App World related.  

Have you had any luck with this issue?

Earl

[eaoliver]

I was able to successfully re-purchase my own application.  Two separate PayPal payments!  Customers can definitely double pay if they are not careful.

I cannot believe it. 

Earl