Hi all,

You may or may not recall that I posted a thread on Saturday, notifying other SI users that the service was down (this was confirmed on their Discord).

In that post, I also expressed some frustration with the SI service, as a customer since it's inception.  I made a comment "The portal is down, so I can't even cancel".   Humour rarely transmits well over the internet - especially not dry, facetious British humour.   I can see how this could have been read as a cold 'threat' to close my account, but it wasn't intended to be as serious as that.  Even if someone does post on AVSIM that they intend to close an account for a FS service, is this really such a bad thing?

Let me say that, with my hand on my heard, I messaged the Moderators here on Saturday evening and asked that they delete or hide that thread.  It had served it's purpose and, from some replies, it appeared that it was likely to generate conflict and noise.   One of the moderators kindly deleted or hid the post.  

So, have a think about the post I made ..... it was a genuine attempt to notify others of the service disruption, and it also included a short rant about my frustrations with the service.

Ok, here's what happened today:-

I received an email from Brian saying that "your message on AVSIM made it into my Inbox today".  Someone forwarded a link to that thread and sent it to Brian.  A little strange as my post wasn't that bad, but ok.

As I was reading Brian's email, my email started pinging like mad with incoming emails - I noticed that every one of them was from PayPal and quoted 'Say Intentions' in the title'.

Returning to the email from Brian, he stated that he had refunded every single payment I'd ever made to SI and had cancelled my account.  🫢

All of the incoming emails were refunds from PayPal for every SI subscription I've ever paid.

Just to reiterate the context here, I'd never complained to Brian or SI and his actions were solely based on a post on AVSIM where I'd let other users know that the service was down and then vented my frustration with the service and had noted that, because the SI Portal was down "I can't even cancel".   I didn't want money back and I hadn't made any form of formal complaint.   I was just that customer, of which any business has many - they're not particularly happy in the relationship, something is frustrating them and they feel they aren't being listened to.  

Can you imagine PMDG refunding all purchases from every customer that made any form of negative comment about them in the last month?

I am not looking to stir up confict here and actually, I've made a decision not to return to this post once posting this.  I don't want to partake in any conflict. As with anything, there are people who are very happy with SI and there are others like me, who are frustrated with the direction the development is going in, with the never-ending plethora of non-core, gimmicky content.

I've posted this for two reasons;  one, because it happened. 😄 It's a pretty interesting turn of events in this business.  I 100% acknowledge I was tough on Brian and SI.  I had become a critic of the service in recent times.  In my view, for good reasons.  But I was never abusive in any way. It was just criticism.  Refunding every payment and cancelling a customer's service seems like an extremely emotional response to pretty average internet criticism.  I know that some of you will think 'good on you' about Brian.  I accept that.

The second reason is more pragmatic - I don't want to sound overly dramatic but the facts are the facts - either someone here is forwarding critical posts about SI to Brian, or else one of his team are monitoring AVSIM (something he said would not happen because he feels AVSIM is toxic) and alterting him to those criticisms.

If he's feeling the way he was with me this morning, you may receive "every dollar you ever paid, back" (Brian's words), and have your service cancelled. If you value the SI service (which I did, on balance), you may want to stick to positive feedback only.

😬

Whether you should or shouldn't have posted is immaterial.

Other simmers should simply mind their own business.

Forwarding your post to a developer is indicative of someone who has some serious issues and needs professional help.

There are lots of people these days who take it all too seriously and need to remember it's a game and no, should pilots become incapacitated on your next flight, you won't be able to safely land the plane and they can stop telling people that they can.

Edited January 12Jan 12 by DavidP

Feedback is feedback, some people can take it, some can’t. Maybe he can start paying my broadband bill with all the spam emails i get from them.

I’ve never used SI before, but I’ve certainly bought a number of Flightsim products over the years I’ve regretted for one reason or another.

If I post them all here, would some kind soul please forward them to the respective developers so I can get some refunds going 😂

30 minutes ago, Fromage_Flippant said:

Feedback is feedback, some people can take it, some can’t. Maybe he can start paying my broadband bill with all the spam emails i get from them.

Yes, I was always on the fence about whether to reactivate my subscription, but if a developer is that petulant then there is no way that will happen.

Maybe our friendly simmer will forward this to SI on my behalf?

Edited January 12Jan 12 by DavidP

1 hour ago, JYW said:

Hi all,

You may or may not recall [...] you may want to stick to positive feedback only.

Bottom line: You 'saved' a lot of money. That's good.

Edited January 12Jan 12 by MaGer1965

Great. 

Edited January 12Jan 12 by UAL4life

To be honest, I think this is a very concerning and weird reaction from SI if it happened like you described it.

So if I voice an opinion, I now have to fear somebody else forwards it to the CEO of SI (which is one thing), and this CEO actually reacts to something like that and can close my entire account?

I‘m a long term customer of SI and like it in general - but it‘s far from perfect and there are several areas where it could be improved.

It‘s fair that you got your money back, but still this behaviour is not very professional. I doubt it‘s a good decision to go after unsatisfied customers, because they will always exist. I think it‘s better to focus on the product instead of wasting time and energy on something like this.

And it also concerns me, that (if this is true) SI just ignores privacy and make connections between user accounts here and their database. That‘s a shame, as I think SI has potential, this is unneccessary.

Flight simulation is such a cool hobby with many smart people, so much to learn - Too bad theres also this part of unneccessary drama. And it's not only users, also developers sometimes.

Edited January 12Jan 12 by roesti

3 hours ago, JYW said:

Hi all,

I've posted this for two reasons;  one, because it happened. 😄 It's a pretty interesting turn of events in this business.  I 100% acknowledge I was tough on Brian and SI.  I had become a critic of the service in recent times.  In my view, for good reasons.  But I was never abusive in any way. It was just criticism.  Refunding every payment and cancelling a customer's service seems like an extremely emotional response to pretty average internet criticism.  I know that some of you will think 'good on you' about Brian.  I accept that.

The second reason is more pragmatic - I don't want to sound overly dramatic but the facts are the facts - either someone here is forwarding critical posts about SI to Brian, or else one of his team are monitoring AVSIM (something he said would not happen because he feels AVSIM is toxic) and alterting him to those criticisms.

If he's feeling the way he was with me this morning, you may receive "every dollar you ever paid, back" (Brian's words), and have your service cancelled. If you value the SI service (which I did, on balance), you may want to stick to positive feedback only.

I had a similar experience, my remarks where with how AI behaves (floating in the air) and it's still on rails... explaining my feelings and experience with the program.
That wasn't appreciated... 
I was for the first time in my internet journey kicked out of discord during typing, while I was explaining myself with an angry Brian.
I could get access 24 hours later via a nice support guy again, but Brian seems to see everything as an attack.
This behavior I actually don't like and find it to be honest pretty immature. Same holds for there email try to unsubscribe it's a jpg with no link makes you wonder...
I'm actually done with SAI due to this event and behavior, o well they call it premium 🙃

Edited January 12Jan 12 by virtualstuff

SI is getting better every week. Their marketing is a bit...strange for me, but what do I know about marketing?

So in short, there are tatletales here and Brian behaves like a petulant child. 

Maybe he should send himself another cake to calm his nerves. 

Thanks for letting us know.

I've removed SI from my list of possible purchases.

Just cancelled my subscription. I was thinking about it as I realize I really don't like talking to ATC anyway (I would much rather just click my response, like in BeyondATC.) but reading about this behavior made up my mind for me.

What ever happened between the the OP and Si, is just that. So, Do i care what happened between the 2, No, Thats there business. Pretty sure there's maybe more to the story. Everyone has there pro's and con's with things in life. Personally, I like it and don't fly with out it. Sure, Like any app, it has it's weakness's but also has its strengths.

Being a RWP, I find it does a great for what it does, Pick and choose your app. You can find flaws in any "add on" out there,  Agree to disagree, Like there company or not, Thats what makes us all different. Freedom of choice........

Why anyone would be a "Tattletale" is beyond me but, kind shows their shall we say, Interesting thought process. But we all know that these " Similar threads" are just rehashes

of the other threads and so on and so on and so on..... 

Enjoy life with what ever you choose. 

 

Beautiful day to fly today. Hope you all have Blue skies and very little turbulence.....