A Rant About Terrible Customer Support at SimMarket

[hjsmuc 393]

SimMarket is a brand of a German corporation. If you need assistance PM me. 

[Bill Griffith 160]

Hi Ian,

I have been dealing with SimMarket for a while now and I have spent a bit of cash there.  No problems so far, but I will have to rethink getting my add-ons from them.  Being ignorant to a customer is not acceptable.  I hope that your problem is resolved very soon.

 

Bill

[ErichB 3,639]

I'm not the whiny type nor am I negative and I was worried that my post would be seen as some kind of trolling

 

It's not about that.  Simmarket, as far as I'm concerned has an extremely bad attitude when it comes to support.  This is definitely the place to raise the flag when these things happen, as we are all part of the same community.   Problems should be called out if you are unreasonably treated as a paying (frequent) customer.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

I'm a long-term customer of simMarket with many products in my simMarket account. I remember a single support issue only, when I coudn't get their activation process to work. Answer by their support was kind of scant and of the RTFM type, but it turned out that I actually wasn't following their process to the letter and finally, when I tried again more precisely, their process worked for me.

Yeah, their support did not look that polished to me, but in the end it turned out to be user error.

 

Ian, the simMarket CEO is Miguel Blaufuks. It's a brand of simFlight GmbH, Germany, and they provide a postal address, a telephone no. and an email address in their imprint. Maybe you want to try and contact Miguel directly to sort this issue out?

 

EDIT:

Just looked up my old support tickets, starting in 2009 - there actually were two more issues when simMarket staff kept replying comprehensively and patiently - none of them used the name 'Jorge', though ...

Edited February 13, 2017 by The Undecided

[scianoir 610]

 

 

Guys - I just want you to know I appreciate your responses. I'm not the whiny type nor am I negative and I was worried that my post would be seen as some kind of trolling. But I was just so angry and I felt the flightsim community deserved to know how one company had treated a long-time customer. So thanks for the positive remarks and support.... As always, the AVSIM community is awesome!!!!! :-)

 

Don't worry Ian, those of us who have read your posts on Avsim over the years know that you are invariably polite, diplomatic and helpful. SimMarket are probably amongst the biggest vendors in the flightsim world but that doesn't give any company the right to treat their customers badly. Your post was reasonable and appropriate!

 

Bill

[Peter Webber 339]

I believe it is very appropriate to "expose" the vendors who believe they can treat their customers in any fashion. In my area of the world, the banks, telecoms, satellite companies are the worst for that. They have such beautiful advertisements, but behind the scenes are totally dysfunctional and rely upon numbers of subscribers...not worrying abut loosing 100, as long as they get another 100...and this is how the online flight sim companies are becoming...it's the $ that counts. I have had very sarcastic e-mails from an Austrian mesh product supplier where he basically told me I was stupid (in other words of course) when I inquired about my DVD package which was not delivered to me. Eventually he provided me with the Austrian Post tracking info and then I was able to locate it in my own area. Why didn't he just send the tracking number with the original invoice? Shocking behaviour. In my country, this is the norm. Europe, USA?? You are becoming 3rd World in terms of customer service. It's the "norm" here. It's becoming the "norm" there.

[ErichB 3,639]

 

 

In my country, this is the norm. Europe, USA?? You are becoming 3rd World in terms of customer service. It's the "norm" here. It's becoming the "norm" there.

 

Trust me Peter, there may be some issues here, but it is nowhere close to the South African fiasco.  

[ZKOKQ 984]

 

 

Shocking behaviour. In my country, this is the norm. Europe, USA??

It must be global, happens here in NZ too. They become arrogant. The bigger they are, the worse they are. I feel sorry for the developer, they get wacked with the re-sellers commission, but get poor service as well, any bad behavior from the re-seller reflects on the developer, which is unfair.

[Peter Webber 339]

Trust me Peter, there may be some issues here, but it is nowhere close to the South African fiasco.  

I would like to know your idea of the "South African fiasco"...? Are you exposed to the post office here?

[Holdit 551]

 

 

I believe it is very appropriate to "expose" the vendors who believe they can treat their customers in any fashion.

I'd go further and say that it's important. Very few of us have unlimited financial resources to throw at our hobby. Usually, purchases need to be considered before committing our hard-earned, that's why we read reviews and forum conversations about products and also ask our own questions. It's worth knowing as much as you can about the vendor too, in order to avoid being left high and dry if you need help later on, no matter how good the product itself might be. 

[ErichB 3,639]

I would like to know your idea of the "South African fiasco".

I'm from Durbanville originally and have just come back from there. Why stop at the post office? The list is far more extensive. South Africa has become a fiasco. But I'm agreeing with you not disagreeing.

 

As far as customer service is concerned, it doesn't take much of an effort to make a huge difference. I'm surprised some businesses, especially in our small community still don't get that.

[garrett_frank 150]

 

 

we own the products we purchase

 

You typically only own a license to use the product.

 

On another note--and I've done this a couple of times--if you're having an issue with a vendor or market, then, as the OP has done, contact the developer. Several different developers have transferred my purchase to their own system. A couple of products weren't being updated at the vendors' sites. All incentive to buy direct, if possible.

[lodestar 186]

If so, we need to contact their management people and tell them what's going on

 

Ian, i'm curious about this, didn't know Simmarket is the German corporation. Since i live in Germany for some years now, i know Geman people can sometimes sound rude(especially if their English is bad), but they are actually just direct. When i saw the topic, i was thinking this could be a issue. But then, Jorge is a Spanish or Portuguese name, so that's probably not the case. I think you should contact the owner, i'm sure they are going to deal with this, they are probably not aware of.

 

On the other side, i have purchased several addons from simmarket, but never needed their support, so no bad experiences here

[CrownCityMisfits 58]

I was going to suggest contacting the developer, having them confirm your purchase, then maybe they could provide you with an alternate activation key, or whatever it requires. Looks like you are on the path to getting it sorted.

 

I've never dealt with SimMarket. The only shop I've ever had a problem with is Flight1. Their activation process is atrocious. Never again.

 

FSPilotShop and FlightSimStore get 2 thumbs up from me.

[BillW 210]

I've always had good cooperation from Flight1. Goes to show that none are perfect. The two mentioned by Aaron are indeed good stores.

 

Bill W