Platinum Members Speak Out

[hughesmr]

I'm quite disappointed that there has been no response from DCI about Saturday nights problems. They updated their news site continuously on Sunday with no mention of it anywhere. I would be happy with anything right about now...some kind of apology. Tomorrow's D2/3 prelims should be an interesting test on how things will go this week. Nonetheless some kind of response from them is necessary. I know that it's championship week...but the platinum fees are probably the biggest money maker they have during the summer so you would think that they would want to keep those members happy.

Has anyone heard anything from DCI in response to the complaint emails sent?

Let's hope it's because they are spending every waking moment and every available dollar to insure a flawless broadcast from CA later this week.

[bawker]

[sarcasm /on] :ramd:

I think that DCI should, as a matter of policy, stop trying to offer fans any additional services beyond those available during the "pre-internet" days where all coverage, score reporting, etc. were delivered days or weeks later via limited subscription print media and end of season cassette audio tapes and vhs video tapes that were delivered around Christmastime.

To the extent that we have demonstrated that a vast plurality of drum corps fans (if one believes the assertions made by the disatisfied contingient on DCP) are an inflexible, unforgiving, unappreciative bunch - it is simply a no win situation for DCI to offer any service enhancements beyond what was available "back in the day" when drum corps were real drum corps and no one made any errors because no one tried anything new!

You wanted ideas for a plan to keep there from being any future issues? There's your foolproof idea!

Maybe once we get Al Gore to nip this internet fad in the bud, we can begin restoring the activity to a time when bugles were bugles and old AL and VFW guys snoozed in their seats (except during the color pre - when they they jumped to their feet and broke a hip! ^OO^ [sarcasm /off]

Wow. Hyperbole much? :P

The webcast was not up to snuff, and there has been nothing from DCI officially concerning what happened. Not a one-off note concerning the technical issues, not a e-mail to explain. Nil.

Working in the IT field myself...if I promised "x", but did not deliver it at "y" time....then there is a certain expectation in knowing what the outside issues are that prevented "x" from happening, especially to an end-user/customer.

No one really cares about getting "something" out of this in the end, more than they want to know what happened, why it happened, and if its going to happen again.

[Whiskey]

Well based on the facts that DCI did know about the technical issues on Saturday and they have not released anything as of today, the powers that be are probably meeting on this as we speak. I'm quite sure they understand the disgruntled fan base and it is probably killing Ricky and the gang that they could not deliver up to everyone's standards on Saturday. I expect to hear something soon or after championships. Now it's off to Cali!!!

[BetoSuave]

Well based on the facts that DCI did know about the technical issues on Saturday and they have not released anything as of today, the powers that be are probably meeting on this as we speak. I'm quite sure they understand the disgruntled fan base and it is probably killing Ricky and the gang that they could not deliver up to everyone's standards on Saturday. I expect to hear something soon or after championships. Now it's off to Cali!!!

This assumes that they believe they had a technical problem that wasn't resolved. If they thought that everything was wonderful, I'm guessing that you're not going to see anything. It is possible that they're operating under the assumption that this is just another case of DCPers whining again.

Rex has a favorite saying: "Ignorance is bliss"

[perc2100]

Well based on the facts that DCI did know about the technical issues on Saturday and they have not released anything as of today, the powers that be are probably meeting on this as we speak. I'm quite sure they understand the disgruntled fan base and it is probably killing Ricky and the gang that they could not deliver up to everyone's standards on Saturday. I expect to hear something soon or after championships. Now it's off to Cali!!!

Well, hopefully they also realize that the more they let this sit, the more outraged people will be, and the less they will care. And by care, I mean "I don't need to spend the money on DCI in the future when I can spend my money on something I'm confident will deliver for a company I'm confident cares that they get my business." It really doesn't take more than about five minutes to write a quick e-mail to send out to Platinum members apologizing for the blunders, assuring that DCI is working on fixing the problem this week for Finals, and that the matter will be seriously under consideration immediately following DCI Championships once the DCI staff is back to business in Illinois.

Really, this is basic customer service and I sincerely hope that DCI will not let this sit without even an e-mail (they have all of the customers in an e-mail data base, I'm sure) for weeks after the fact. If DCI has a time to constantly update their website, they should have time now to take a moment and write a quick e-mail to the Platinum members at least.

Edited August 6, 2007 by perc2100

[Lincoln]

llinois.

Really, this is basic customer service and I sincerely hope that DCI will not let this sit without even an e-mail (they have all of the customers in an e-mail data base, I'm sure) for weeks after the fact. If DCI has a time to constantly update their website, they should have time now to take a moment and write a quick e-mail to the Platinum members at least.

I agree. When dealing with the public, it is amazing how effective communication can be.

Edited August 6, 2007 by LincolnV

[Whiskey]

This assumes that they believe they had a technical problem that wasn't resolved. If they thought that everything was wonderful, I'm guessing that you're not going to see anything. It is possible that they're operating under the assumption that this is just another case of DCPers whining again.

Rex has a favorite saying: "Ignorance is bliss"

They knew, based on people's conversations (live chat) with the team. Real all 100 pages of the Stanford show thread. J/K don't punish yourself like that, just take my word that they knew.

Well, hopefully they also realize that the more they let this sit, the more outraged people will be, and the less they will care. And by care, I mean "I don't need to spend the money on DCI in the future when I can spend my money on something I'm confident will deliver for a company I'm confident cares that they get my business." It really doesn't take more than about five minutes to write a quick e-mail to send out to Platinum members apologizing for the blunders, assuring that DCI is working on fixing the problem this week for Finals, and that the matter will be seriously under consideration immediately following DCI Championships once the DCI staff is back to business in Illinois.

Really, this is basic customer service and I sincerely hope that DCI will not let this sit without even an e-mail (they have all of the customers in an e-mail data base, I'm sure) for weeks after the fact. If DCI has a time to constantly update their website, they should have time now to take a moment and write a quick e-mail to the Platinum members at least.

Yeah I agree it's sort of a bad PR move. A quick e-mail would have been nice with a promise of a more detailed follow-up in the near future. Like you, I cannot justify spending another $90 next year without some goodwill gesture. It's the proper thing to do if you want to keep anyone's business. All I'm saying is give them a chance. They're good people once you meet and talk with them.

[danielray]

The webcast was not up to snuff, and there has been nothing from DCI officially concerning what happened. Not a one-off note concerning the technical issues, not a e-mail to explain. Nil.

Working in the IT field myself...if I promised "x", but did not deliver it at "y" time....then there is a certain expectation in knowing what the outside issues are that prevented "x" from happening, especially to an end-user/customer.

No one really cares about getting "something" out of this in the end, more than they want to know what happened, why it happened, and if its going to happen again.

Absolutely... In the real world, if a similar event were to happen, with a similar response, people would be immediately replaced.

The crux of the issue is that DCI doesn't really have any competition in their services offerings. You either accept (and pay for) the products that they provide, at the level of service they provide or you have nothing. There is no middle ground.

What is at the heart of the issue is the idea that they want to make as much money as possible, to hold on to the largest slice of the pie. This is an extremely naive viewpoint, and one that prevents them from making considerably larger amounts of money from additional services than they are now.

They should outsource nearly EVERYTHING they do that is not related to the scheduling and promotion of events. They should stick to their core.

If they were to outsource the internet video production and marketing of the internet video production to a third party for a % of the revenues, this company would be absolutely committed to the quality of the service, they would be busting their ### to promote it since their ability to make money (and to actually retain the contract) depends on their success.

Also, if DCI were to contract or license the production and management of additional services to third parties (companies with core competencies in these specific areas), DCI would have the ability to provide a much more robust and wider range of offerings... allowing them to generate considerably more revenue than currently.

Don't get me wrong, they are quite excellent at their core competency... event/tour management and promotion, but anything they do outside of their core competency suffers in quality, tarnishes their brand, and creates a reduced potential for revenue.

[BCS513]

I was definitely looking forward to being able to watch the webcast live this summer until I found out how much it was going to be. So I didn't purchase it.

I paid pay-per-view for the San Antonio show and I will pay for the Semi-finals show. Thats a little more than $30 . Kind of sucks but I still saved myself 60. Not to mention that the fist webcast of the year was free.

I thought last year was perfect. It was 30 something dollars for a 3 month period and 60 something for a whole year. They should have kept it like that. And I hope they go back to it.

I would say that a great goal for DCI would be to one day be able to afford a live broadcast, on Finals night, shown on ESPN2.

Don't know if that will ever happen, but wow, wouldn't that be awesome.

[bawker]

If you weren't satisfied, take the refund.

IF YOU DIDN'T THEN SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH. QUIT CRYING BECAUSE OF ONE MISTAKE.

.#######

Platinum members do not have the recourse of asking for a refund for the event, as I understand.

Additionally, there has been more than "one mistake" with the webcasts, but none that were of the magnitude of the Stanford incident.

Asking for some sort of correspondence concerning the problems is not too much to ask, nor is it "crying".