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Have you ever had a good or bad interaction online or in person that changed your perception of the company?

This comes up because my gaming circle was discussing our Gen Con plans today. I'm not sure if anyone remembers my write up from last year, but the Kenzer booth was one place everyone was looking forward to visiting. At the time, we had two GMs running HackMaster games, and a pretty enthusiastic player base.

So our first friend goes to the booth. Not a lot of folks around, tries talking to the booth personnel. One of the guys is fiddling with his phone, barely speaking or answering his questions. The other guy, not on his phone, seems completely disinterested in asking any questions.

We are told this, but it doesn't really seem like Kenzer. We like Kenzer. We buy Kenzer's stuff. Kenzer's good people, right? So the other GM heads over there a bit later (he had yet to hear this story), and is completely blown off. He asks about products, and they sort of just point to the table. Again, not a huge crowd, nothing going on that would seem to indicate that he's interrupting anything of consequence. He's just a big fan, a guy who purchased and runs their flagship game, trying to talk to them about what's new. This is not the sort of mouthbreather who occupies real estate in front of a booth for 3 hours, telling booth personnel about his NPCs and his house rules. He's a good guy, a fan, just trying to see what they have going on.

This is surprising when it is relayed to the rest of our group. We now have two different gamers, who did not talk to each other about it beforehand, having the same unfortunate experience at the Kenzer booth. So, the rest of us head over there the next morning of the convention. Hey, maybe it was a bad day, maybe they were stressed. Not fun for us, but it happens.

So, we walk over to the Kenzer booth, where a rather morose individual does not greet us, but rather stands there, arms crossed, giving monosyllabic, clipped answers to anything we ask. I can't speak for anyone else but our gaming circle, but it was the worst treatment and interaction with customers we saw at any booth. Did we come at a bad time, or catch them after some bad news? Maybe, but it doesn't make it a good experience for us.

It stinks, because I really love KotDT, and I think Kenzer makes some pretty cool stuff. But that was a seriously uncool move towards some of their bigger fans. One of the individuals in question mentioned it on their forum or in other feedback, and they seemed pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. It left a pretty bad taste in everyone's mouth. We have a backlog of games that includes Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades, Rifts, Palladium Fantasy, Heroes Unlimited, Supers!, Traveller, StarCluster 3, Two-Fisted Tales, Call of Cthulhu, and Rolemaster. We don't *need* to be fans of KenzerCo, as much as I love their comics.

So I'm wondering—has anyone had a good or bad experience that changed their perception of a gaming figure or company, in person or online?

Was one of the guys Kenzer himself? If not, they were probably low-level guys roped into working the convention. Let's face it, the RPG hobby attracts a lot of people who don't have the best social skills. And working in the industry is very low-paying. So unless they're higher-ups, the people working these things are the equivalent of especially sullen Staples clerks.

Would it be nice if companies could hire eager, motivated employees with some aptitude for marketing? Sure. But most of them operate on a shoe-string budget. You get what you pay for.

As for good experiences, I once called the Wizard's Attic about some Issaries Glorantha books, and got put through to Greg Stafford himself (who I had no idea was associated with the store). He chatted with me on the phone for about 20 minutes, and by the end I was sold on picking up Hero Wars.

Haffrung is right about not blaming the roped-in for their behavior.  But...

Yeah I make purchasing decisions based on stuff like this all the time.  I'll buy stuff I don't need at prices higher than I should to support a good vendor.  I will burn stuff in a barrel, figuratively at least, over a bad experience.

So I blame the company for not putting their best foot forward.  But I don't know if it would go much further.

In your case I would probably complain to the company to see if they cared.  If I got an "oh no!" type response, I would let it go.  If the complaint vector also resulted in something negative....

Quote from: Haffrung;749571So unless they're higher-ups, the people working these things are the equivalent of especially sullen Staples clerks.

Quote from: mcbobbo;749578I'll buy stuff I don't need at prices higher than I should to support a good vendor.  I will burn stuff in a barrel, figuratively at least, over a bad experience.

Unfortunate, but not surprising at all.

Even worse is when such employees know very little to nothing about the merchandise the store is selling.  If the clerks know next to nothing, then there's not much purpose anymore in shopping at such offline bricks-and-mortar stores, other than buying stuff at the lowest prices.  (These days some stuff is much less expensive online).

I spent several years working Con sales tables.

It made me leave the hobby for 15 years.

Quote from: Old Geezer;749593I spent several years working Con sales tables.

It made me leave the hobby for 15 years.

I've worked tables at a few cons, and it's difficult.  I mean, you try to be friendly and welcoming to each person who comes up, and it's not their fault, nor do they have any idea of the person you just got done dealing with.

But it's hard when you have people come up to and insist on getting all up in your personal space, smelling like cat piss, and talking about inappropriate topics who never get the hint to leave.  Or those people who stop by just to tell you that they could have done a much better job than you, and start ranting obsessively about their great game they have scrawled on napkins, and if they could only get a company to notice them they would be a huge success.

When you have someone who just drove you to your wits end, it is a skill to be able to not take it out on the next person, and that includes not being as approachable as you should be.

Do we feel RPG cons are different than other types of booth floors?  Becuase they seem to do it okay.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;749595But it's hard when you have people come up to and insist on getting all up in your personal space, smelling like cat piss, and talking about inappropriate topics who never get the hint to leave.  Or those people who stop by just to tell you that they could have done a much better job than you, and start ranting obsessively about their great game they have scrawled on napkins, and if they could only get a company to notice them they would be a huge success.

Sounds similar to the type of conversations that customer service phone-line workers get all the time.  Especially at a telephone or cable company.

Quote from: mcbobbo;749597Do we feel RPG cons are different than other types of booth floors?

No different than most other geeky/nerdy type of conventions.  (ie. Comic books, sci-fi, etc ...).

Back in '90 and '91 I played the Play-By-Mail game Blood Pit (a gladiator combat game) from Emprise Game Systems. I was one of their playtesters and enjoyed it quite a bit. I graduated college at the end of '91 and took an offer from Emprise's boss Jim Townsend to move out to Vancouver, WA and work for the company. It seemed like a wacky and fun thing to do and may have been my big break into the gaming industry. I was told we'd be running all sorts of games, making new ones, working as partners and having a ball.

When I arrived things weren't quite as they were sold to me. Instead of running 3-4 successful games and designing new ones Blood Pit was pretty much all we had. Jim is one of the smartest guys I've met, he can learn just about anything faster than most. But he's dismissive of most people, higher education and hard work in general. Months passed by and nothing new happened. Eventually we did an expansion to Blood Pit which included new races and magic but it wasn't enough and we kept losing players. Jim didn't care much about my opinions, concerns or skills and the house wasn't the party central I had expected. We rarely had friends over, I had to travel into Portland to find a group to game with.

Through '92 and into '93 Blood Pit petered out, we took other jobs to pay the bills. Jim and the co-owner of the company, Lennart, sold Emprise to the Wieck brothers at White Wolf. We packed up a U-haul truck and drove to Georgia. Jim went to work for WW doing their computer network. Despite being an avid gamer and having a degree in writing the Wiecks had no use for me so I left for Florida. Haven't seen any of them since. I have no idea where Jim is today.

Blood Pit is now just a free online game run each Friday.

Just a sad, disappointing experience. I had such high hopes for a great time but it came crashing down due to ego and laziness. Did pop my illusions about what big-time gamer guys are like. Yeah, yeah, I know, everyone is different. I'm sure the heads of most companies aren't like Jim. But still...

Quote from: ggroy;749600Sounds similar to the type of conversations that customer service phone-line workers get all the time.  Especially at a telephone or cable company.

I worked for a call center that handled Internet sign up and problems for Bell South. Oh lordy, the calls I had. The woman who tried to talk while holding a screaming baby inches from the phone, the woman who wanted to sign up for Internet service while in the midst of preparing dinner. The people who have no idea what a browser is, or had none on their 10 year old computer. People who want me to hold their hand as they look at a dozen web pages and explain what every box and link means. The guy who needed help setting up a half dozen email accounts all with aliases. The lady who took 12 minutes setting up an Internet account then immediately cancels it because she's just not sure if she wants or needs it.

And I got to dreading calls from certain states. Alabama! Louisiana! Most Southerners shouldn't be allowed to have a computer. The average education level in Alabama must be 4th grade, they shouldn't even have electricity.

Meanwhile my bosses are telling me to lie to the customers and get the call over quickly to reduce average call time (the most important thing in the call center industry.) As if I have any control over the stupidity level of my callers. Yes sir, I wish I could have hung up five minutes ago but this caller's machine is still junk and he's not understanding what I'm telling him.

That was a job I hope I never have to do again.

Quote from: Doughdee222;749615I worked for a call center that handled Internet sign up and problems for Bell South. Oh lordy, the calls I had. The woman who tried to talk while holding a screaming baby inches from the phone, the woman who wanted to sign up for Internet service while in the midst of preparing dinner. The people who have no idea what a browser is, or had none on their 10 year old computer. People who want me to hold their hand as they look at a dozen web pages and explain what every box and link means. The guy who needed help setting up a half dozen email accounts all with aliases. The lady who took 12 minutes setting up an Internet account then immediately cancels it because she's just not sure if she wants or needs it.

And I got to dreading calls from certain states. Alabama! Louisiana! Most Southerners shouldn't be allowed to have a computer. The average education level in Alabama must be 4th grade, they shouldn't even have electricity.

Meanwhile my bosses are telling me to lie to the customers and get the call over quickly to reduce average call time (the most important thing in the call center industry.) As if I have any control over the stupidity level of my callers. Yes sir, I wish I could have hung up five minutes ago but this caller's machine is still junk and he's not understanding what I'm telling him.

That was a job I hope I never have to do again.

I feel your pain.  When I first got out of the military, I worked in a call center.  People taking a dump while on the phone, or even having sex.  Who calls their company when they are having sex?

And lots of idiots.  Lots of them.

Quote from: Old Geezer;749593I spent several years working Con sales tables.

It made me leave the hobby for 15 years.

Yup, same... One of the reasons I stopped going to anime conventions... Though, when I was still working Anime conventions the regular customers in the dealer rooms were creepy as fuck... Now, most Anime cons are wall to wall hot chicks... Though sadly, all under age...


And no, it isn't limited to RPG cons...



EDIT: Oddly, this didn't sound so creepy in my head...

The single worst experience I've ever had in roleplaying was trying to buy "Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North" from its author, Ben Lehman. Nearly two months after paying - through his personal website - and repeated emails to him; I had no book, no communication, nothing.

Then the Internet explodes when he writes this viscous hoop-la (perhaps some of you remember it) aimed at some game company (Margaret Weis, if I remember?) about them not paying people for their work.

I go out of my way to support independent game designers, to make sure the money is going back to the creator specifically, and the guy couldn't even be bothered to keep his own commitments.

Finally I hunted him down on facebook - that's what it took. He replied a few days later saying that "things have been pretty crazy lately" and how he'd been busy. In the end he wouldn't even send the book to me, he just gave me a refund. And I still don't have a copy of the stupid game.

The whole thing made me perhaps more bitter than the incident deserves, and while I really do what to support small businesses and the hobby itself, it has made me substantially less likely to trust small RPG companies.

//Panjumanju

Creative Mountain Games can go suck a dick!!

Over on ENworld years ago some posters decided to build a dungeon a Cooperative dungeon based on a simple map and guide lines.

So we did.

I did all the Editing and compiling of the dungeons because it was fun. I didn't do the english/grammar part just all the mechanical work.  Fleshing a ton of crap out making sure everything matched up. I was proud of my work and considered going professional but decided It just wasn't for me.

Here is the link to getting them for free.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/28876/Adventures-The-Cooperative-Dungeon-Collection-01--04?manufacturers_id=457&it=1


Well on the 4th one I disagreed with something the head of CMG did or said on his forums. So he booted me off the forum and told me I wasn't cutting the mustard and hadn't done what I promised. Considering just a few days before I had submitted my final draft of the dungeon with lots of work involved in it. I wonder how I wasn't doing my job (For free no less). Well when I mentioned it on Enworld they shut me off and said my complaints had little to do with Enworld, well other than it was a fucking Enworld based product, done completely on the boards from poster submissions. So I got no credit at all for all the work.

CMG said they had to toss my edits and start over from scratch. Funny how when they released the Module, it had all my edits including things I specifically put in to add flavor and to make sense. Things so specific no one else could have done it by coincidence.

Of course when he shoved me off the product I had razed and burned my edits and didn't have proof he had stolen my work without credit. But in the end it was a free project that I volunteered for and all I wanted was the credit for my hard work. I got crapped on.

Shouldn't matter but after all those years still pisses me off.

Thanks for the ranting room :)

While on leave from the Navy over 2 decades ago, I went to Dragon*Con where I had great conversations with Mike Pondsmith of R. Talsorian Games and Larry Bond of GDW in the dealer's area. R. Talsorian had just come out with Roadstriker II and Mike Pondsmith and I just chatted about anime and mecha for a half-hour, the man was very enthusiastic about gaming at that point. Larry Bond and I talked about Harpoon and when he learned that I was stationed on a Knox-class Frigate happily told me that my ship would survive less than a minute in actual combat, again he was also enthusiastic about gaming and his dire news about my ship's survivability was easy to take due to that.

One of the best convention experiences I've had.

Quote from: ggroy;749600Sounds similar to the type of conversations that customer service phone-line workers get all the time.  Especially at a telephone or cable company.

Yep.  Done customer service lines, worked booths at cons.  The deal's the same: you must always be cheerful, polite and helpful, no matter how much of a jerk the customer's being.

Following the OP, a few examples come to my mind.  

* A friend was pitching a product that sounded interesting to me ... except that it was written by Gareth-Michael Skarka.  I'd seen a raft of GMS being a total and complete asshole on TBP, and I'd be damned if I put one thin dime in that prick's pocket.

* I picked up the Serenity RPG, was badly disappointed by its many flaws, and said so in great detail on more than one forum.  Cam Banks was on a couple of those forums, responded calmly and in detail, and was very gracious about my dissent from his POV.  He's a classy chap, and I'd feel good about putting dollars in his pocket.

I've interacted with Chris Perrin, the creator of a small indie RPG called Mecha through email several times.

Nice, nice guy.

Good interactions-

Bought the Hackmaster 5th player's handbook new and the binding was shot.  Contacted their office and they mailed out a new one to me and included a few other things in the box (soloquest, book on traps).

Same thing happened with a GURPs book I had.  First opening the binding cracked.  Contacted them and a new one was sent.

In regards to the whole Kenzer thing - I wonder if you tried tweeting at Kenzer (@kenzerco) and seeing what response you get?

I recently had a positive experience with BTRC (http://www.btrc.net/).

I've been playing around with EABA2.

The main rulebook went from v2.0 to v2.1.  I tried to upgrade, had a complete mental shutdown, failed to do so, and made a total ass of myself; angry email to BTRC.  I was a real prick.

Greg Porter emailed me back.  He was professional, courteous, and fixed every problem I had without complaint.  He refunded the money I spent when I bought the same product twice.  He took a lot of time out of his day to fix the problems I needlessly caused.

I apologized for my behavior, and he shrugged it off.  No biggie.

A class act, and an excellent system I'd recommend to anyone looking for good generic/universal system.

I don't usually have a lot of contact with companies, but two crews that I've contacted online stood out as amazing, professional and friendly folks to me (doesn't hurt that I love their games).

Autarch. Bought ACKS as a PDF when it came out (didn't get into the Kickstarter) and loved it. Sent Autarch an e-mail asking whether I could get a discount on the hardcopy and sure enough, they gave me the price of the PDF off the book!

Design Mechanism. Shortly before RQ6 came out I asked Loz about their plans for a hardcover and they said it was going to take a while. A few days later, out of the blue sky, Loz sends me an e-mail saying something along the lines of "got the hardcover proofs, they suck, we're starting from scratch. It's going to take even longer than I imagined." If I hadn't already ordered the softcover, I'd do it then.

The one bad experience I recall is, shit, set in the halcyon days of 1997. I was a total newb, I had just gotten Internet access and I innocently waltzed into the Palladium mailing list. Kevin had zero presence but used his (now ex-)wife Maryann as his spokesperson and online henchwoman. The woman wasn't exactly all smiles and sunshine and she, along with a cadre of hardcore Palladium fanbois (I remember them being called "Pals" or "Siembiotes"), who more or less ran the list, took a very dim view of criticism. This plus the huge months-long flame wars and rampant munchkinism eventually drove me away from both Palladium products and online RPG fora for a long, long time.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;749616And lots of idiots.  Lots of them.

I nearly took a job providing support for my employer's products (Highly specialized data analysis software), but even our customers "can be difficult"; if I didn't think I could handle that, no way I could handle the actual public's tech queries. Support people don't get enough respect from anyone.

The author of The One Ring took being told that I didn't like his game much, very well; of course, the important skill to have is constructive criticism, rather than spewing out "you are teh sux". On the other hand, he probably remembers that incident as the time an english asshole came up, shook his hand, and babbled about his game's rules for self-mutilation; it's all relative.

Graham Bottley (Arion Games; AFF2e, Maelstrom Domesday, paper figures) is just ace, really nice guy, and he's dealt with all of my (Numerous) problems swiftly and efficiently.

Honestly, the worst issues I've had with authors is dealing with them online (On this very website, in fact!) and finding out that, actually, they're just twats.

I have to say, running into Steven Long and Darren Watts (formerly of HERO games) at DunDraCon, was one of the highlights of several conventions for me. Both gents are stand-up guys, and I'd love to have a beer with either of them again.

I remember many years ago when I bought Troll Lord Game's Hall of Many Panes, the art insert was all loose pages, no actual book. I contacted them and they sent me the bound art book plus a bunch of free stuff - cost them a fortune in postage to the UK. TLG are consistently amateurish product-wise, but they are really great guys. I wish them well, and in consquence I've always given them the benefit of the doubt when thinking about buying their product.

Quote from: Zachary The First;749568Have you ever had a good or bad interaction online or in person that changed your perception of the company?

At Gen Con I've had great experiences with meeting companies and game designers.

Gary Gygax in the Paizo booth talked to me about AD&D and signed one of his novels for me at his last Gen Con.

Henry Lopez talked to me about Witch Hunter.

Joe Goodman talked about upcoming plans for DCC with me and gave me free swag from a random roll on the table in my DCC convention book.

Monte Cook talked to me about Cthulhu and signed his WoD d20 book.

Francesco Nepitello talked to me about the One Ring and signed it for me.

White Wolf or one those companies selling Vampire had a bar in the middle of Gen Con one year. Vampire ladies gave me a free beer. That was really cool. I played a Hunter the Vigil campaign after that, having never played other WW stuff before.

The guys and gals at Pelegrane Press are always friendly.

I did talk to Kenzer and they offered me discounts if I bought more than one book. Bummer they aren't always that way!

Really, I've always gotten good customer service and good geek service at Gen Con.

Quote from: Haffrung;749571Would it be nice if companies could hire eager, motivated employees with some aptitude for marketing? Sure. But most of them operate on a shoe-string budget. You get what you pay for.

You are being very generous. Going to any show, even ones that are in your own back yard (so to speak) is expensive. If you are going to have a booth, take the time to prepare your attending staff on how to act. Otherwise you could end up with a bunch of customers not only turned off your products but also sharing the negativity with others - exactly the opposite reason for being at a show.

Id lay blame more on Kenzer's management for not preparing their booth people; who knows how much money and good will they flushed by not taking 30 minutes to talk about how to treat customers at a show?

My business works with tech companies and that often brings us all together at various shows like SIGGRAPH; if they have never done it before, I give them a pep talk on booth behavior and if possible, point out lame ass stuff that others are doing. Booth denizens get it when they see others doing the exact same things they are guilty of.

I will no longer purchase anything from Green Ronin since Steve Kenson plagiarized one of my posts for his blog without attribution.  And this after I gave them several hours of consulting gratis to resolve performance issues with their forum.

Yeah.

Lets see...

Bad ones.

The Inquest magazine guys: Just a bit too condescending/insulting.

InPhobia magazine: Harlan Ellison bullying people.

Green Ronin: Jerks but otherwise ok. Apparently not a isolated incident though and others had considerably worse encounters.

Sanguine: One problem after another. And definitly not an isolated incident.

Steve Jackson Games: From about 2000 on they've become progressive dicks. Also they didn't treat their artists too well according to at least two former illustrators for SJG. Otherwise nice guys as long as you keep them at arms length.

White wolf/Arthaus/S&S: For fucks sake some of them need to be punched.

And the Good.

Games workshop: A weird one. Back in the mid 90s for reasons unknown the designers really liked some of my stuff. Id get to preview stuff out of the blue.

Crocodile Games: Met them when they were prototyping Wargods of Aegyptus. They even used one of my suggestions. Good wargame and excellent minis.

Liz Danfourth: She is freaking everywhere!Wacky artist when no-ones looking.

Larry Elmore: Damn you Larry and your infernal hidden secret! aaaagh! Still searching. aaaagh!

Privateer Press: Really good kids if you can get past their sometimes horriffic Customer Service.

They guys who did Shock Force: Met them at a few cons when they were doing the GWAR thing and right before Games Workshop closed them down.

The Ugly

Couple of artists who need to go to JAIL!

Quote from: Omega;749734Couple of artists who need to go to JAIL!

Now listen here, I tried to warn you that I couldn't draw!

The Good
The guy who has translated Double Cross (The Japanese RPG) sent out errata for free. Internationally too! Nice chap, very humble and not yet tainted by the industry.

The Bad
Working on a project with a small team. Internet-based interactions through-out. Prepare and deliver content as was agreed. One guy then throws toys out of the pram as it is not up to his standard. A standard that was not adequately communicated, even though the parameters of the content to be delivered were agreed.

Fucktard.

As a customer, i've not really had any bad experiences. As a freelancer, i've had good and bad, which is probably at least half my fault.

A big shout out to Rob Schwalb who was awesome as a project manager for the WFRP v2 stuff. Encouraging, gave advice when i needed it, told me some home truths when i went wrong and an all-round good egg.

Bad experiences i won't go into too much detail, but i'll simply say that 'editing' at RPG companies seems basically to serve the purpose of lowering the freelance money they have to pay out (as most is pay-per-word work).

I've had occasional contact with James Wallis of Hogshead fame over the years and he's always been very down to earth and approachable and willing to speak to you gamer to gamer in my experience.

I'll give Modiphus a thumbs-up too because their Achtung Cthulhu Kickstarter gave out just the right number of updates, went the extra mile to get useful material in backers' hands sooner rather than later, and have done a decent job of keeping to schedule and telling ASAP where the schedule might slip a little.

Chaosium get points for giving away a 7th edition CoC adventure (Dead Light) for free to backers at Christmas as a surprise extra, so between that and the quickstart rules we could start tinkering with 7th edition CoC early on despite the delays to the main books.

Quote from: One Horse Town;749771Bad experiences i won't go into too much detail, but i'll simply say that 'editing' at RPG companies seems basically to serve the purpose of lowering the freelance money they have to pay out (as most is pay-per-word work).

Freelanced for Palladium didnt ya?

Quote from: Omega;749775Freelanced for Palladium didnt ya?

Nope!

Some years back I ordered a copy of the Wilderlands box set from RPGnow through the RPGnet portal, back when they still sold print stock of non-POD stuff.

It was three months of delays and no shipping product before they finally just unceremoniously cancelled my order. I never got my box, and they got to collect interest on my $80 for three months.

Honestly, I suspect that's the reason why even now, though they're effectively the same site with separate frontends, I tend to avoid doing much business with the RPGNow side of OBS. I just can't stand the brand anymore.

My personal experiences:

Marc Miller – goes above and beyond, extremely nice, goes out of his way to make happy customers
Carl Brodt – extremely friendly, chit-chats, helpful, even invited me to game sometime
Moon Design – the guys are friendly, but I always have to pursue them when I purchase a hardcopy from their website
Design Mech – always polite and friendly (unless provoked!), even if they don't agree with your preferences

As a small game company, I hope I'm not hijacking by posting my experiences with freelancers

Freelancers I would highly recommend for their ease to work with, communication, and quality of work:

Eric Lofgren
Brian "glad" Thomas
Bradley McDevitt
Azim Akerberali
Rich Longmore
Colin Throm

I only have one artist I would not recommend, because he never finished up the contract and took the money and ran:

Nathan Rosario

Quote from: Doughdee222;749615Most Southerners shouldn't be allowed to have a computer. The average education level in Alabama must be 4th grade, they shouldn't even have electricity.

In the immortal words of Tool, "Fuck you, buddy."

Quote from: Sacrosanct;749860I only have one artist I would not recommend, because he never finished up the contract and took the money and ran:

Nathan Rosario

This is unfortunately more common with artists than we would like.

Unfortunately it goes the other way too. Publishers have ripped off their artists. Rare. But has happened.

The few times I've had direct contact with an RPG company (WEG, BTRC, SJG, Green Ronin) they've ranged from alright to great.

My really bad experiences have come from video game companies: Bioware, Sony, Microsoft, Activision, and (of course) EA.

Bioware is on my permanent "Fuck you" list. The other's I'll still deal with, as necessary.

Harebrained Schemes (Shadowrun Returns) seem to be a great bunch of guys.

Hm, interactions as a writer, that's different.  There's a bunch of indifferent -- eh, I wrote stuff for them, they paid me -- but a couple stand out.

I had good and fair dealings with Mayfair, and I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the company's then-president having a huge crush on my wife's college roommate.  ;)

There were a couple points of turbulence in my dealings with SJG, but some of that was out of their control -- I had a book's publication (and, hence, my payment) delayed a full year from the Secret Service fallout.  The only real snarling on my side came when I was sent the proofs from the art of one book, from their new staff artist ... and a lot of it was awful -- blown perspectives, characters looking nothing like the descriptions, that sort of thing.  I fired my comments back, and not one change was made.  (Why send the author artist proofs if they're all locked in no matter what?)

A relatively minor creech, in the grand scheme of things.

Quote from: Omega;749734Yeah.

Lets see...

Bad ones.

The Inquest magazine guys: Just a bit too condescending/insulting.

InPhobia magazine: Harlan Ellison bullying people.

Green Ronin: Jerks but otherwise ok. Apparently not a isolated incident though and others had considerably worse encounters.

Sanguine: One problem after another. And definitly not an isolated incident.

Steve Jackson Games: From about 2000 on they've become progressive dicks. Also they didn't treat their artists too well according to at least two former illustrators for SJG. Otherwise nice guys as long as you keep them at arms length.

White wolf/Arthaus/S&S: For fucks sake some of them need to be punched.

The Inquest. That's a long time ago. I always read that one in my MtG time years ago. Mostly for the price list of course. Never bothered with the rest of the games at the time.

I only have experience with White Wolf considering tabletop RPG's and they are ok as long as you think their games are good. As soon as you start criticizing their games, they close down your forum topic. And the pretention of course. "It not a game about demons. It's about the stench of sulphur. It's about the breath of darkness down your neck. It about the fist of evil around your heart. It's about ... " "Yeah, whatever dude. Quit the metafor stacking, please." "That's it, we are closing down this topic. If you can't behave."

And the political correctness. Immediately sending you an official warning if you say something that might offend someone instead of just asking. Bah! :hand:

Quote from: Omega;749734InPhobia magazine: Harlan Ellison bullying people.

Gasp.

Good interactions:

From '99 until his passing, communicating and working with Gary Gygax was always enjoyable.  Yes, I know some folks had bad experiences with him over the years and I'm not denigrating or denying those, by any means.  But overall I had a positive experience.

Dream Pod 9 - positive.  They were active in rec.games.mecha and made me from an ugly cynic about Heavy Gear into a true believer.  

Mike Pondsmith - I doubt if he'd ever remember it but I actually wrote a physical letter to R.Talsorian games in the 1990s ('90 or '91) asking about heavy weapons versus heavily armored people (this was prior to Maximum Metal introducing Appleseed like power armors) and got a physical letter back...that got accidentally thrown away by my pop :/  But it was a nice engaging letter - the opening statement as I recall was "Well generally when you hit a person with a 20mm vulcan gun burst they go 'splat'." but then went on to break down the actual FNFF damage v. human and how it would work...of course, I don't remember it because I only got to look at the letter contents on the way to work when my dad drove me, and he cleaned out his truck later in the week and out it went :/

I got a free 4e Hackmaster Game Masters Guide from K&C, but then they were giving them to everyone...

Bad Experiences?

Heh...that'd be telling.

I hate to admit it, but Games Workshops Customer Service is pretty damn awesome. They'll send you replacement pieces or hell, a completely new box if there was a problem with the product you ordered.

I ordered a copy of Runequest 6e through the Moon Design Publications webstore. After almost a month, didn't hear a peep despite the money already taken from my account. Contacted Design Mechanism, and I had my book in a Week. 3 weeks after that, my copy from Moon Design... Contacted Design Mechanism again asking fi I should return it, and they said keep it. I gifted it to ExploderWizard. Design Mechanism is awesome.

I bought a copy of the new 5e Hacklopedia of Beasts from K&C. The eyeball sticker on the front cover wasn't glued on properly and was fraying at the edges. Contacted K&C and got a new one no questions asked. Awesome books, awesome return time to resolving the problems.

As much as I love the game (Hollow Earth Expedition), I'm not overly happy with the Exile. Within weeks of receiving my copy of the book, the first 20 some odd pages started falling out... Looks like it was a bad binding job... I emailed them about it and no reply... Still no reply after 7 years... I kind of gave up on getting a new one...

Ooh, ooh! I forgot one!

Jeff Siadek of Gorilla Games! I emailed him with a question about Battlestations, and he invited me over to play with his group! It was a great afternoon! :)

Quote from: Baron;750025Ooh, ooh! I forgot one!

Jeff Siadek of Gorilla Games! I emailed him with a question about Battlestations, and he invited me over to play with his group! It was a great afternoon! :)

That's pretty awesome!

And one I'd like to forget.

Was talking with one of the coders for Natural Selection and at some point I asked him to stop bugging me with annoying comments I'd asked him before to not do. And he went totally psycho screaming and calling me "You fucking Jew!" and that was the last I ever dealt with that game.

Quote from: Baron;749856My personal experiences:

Marc Miller – goes above and beyond, extremely nice, goes out of his way to make happy customers
Carl Brodt – extremely friendly, chit-chats, helpful, even invited me to game sometime
Moon Design – the guys are friendly, but I always have to pursue them when I purchase a hardcopy from their website
Design Mech – always polite and friendly (unless provoked!), even if they don't agree with your preferences

I only had a brief contact with Marc Miller but he definitely does go above and beyond , he is a great guy.
I had a problem getting a Bundle of Holding I bought , so I emailed them and Allen Varney emailed me back within about 10 minutes telling me what to do. Great service !

You know who else are friggin' amazing?  Dwarven Forge.

I got two slightly cosmetically damaged sets and asked to exchange them, and they sent me replacements and told me to keep the originals!

I <3 Dwarven Forge.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;749999Good interactions:

From '99 until his passing, communicating and working with Gary Gygax was always enjoyable.  Yes, I know some folks had bad experiences with him over the years and I'm not denigrating or denying those, by any means.  But overall I had a positive experience.

Bad Experiences?

Heh...that'd be telling.

Agreed. Only met Gary finally in 2004 at Origins, however saw him just about every year after that either at Origins or GenCon. He spent quite a bit of time with Duke Siefried at the awesome minis setup at Origins and he was always friendly and polite.

Have to give a thumbs up to Grant Dalgliesh of Columbia Games, Henry Lopez of Arcanis fame, and Stephen Chenault of Troll Lord Games, As well as Jim Ward of Eldritch Enterprises, and Clash Bowley of Flying Mice.

These guys just keep on chugging, pretty much continuously turning out new quality RPG gaming goodness!!!

Also have to include Brendan Davis from Bedrock Games from right here as well... in the Awesome!!! category as Arrows of Indra is my favorite new RPG from last year.

Also want to include include Ryan Dancey here. He saved D&D. That puts him forever in the RPG Hall fo Fame.

Won't be dissing on any fail gaming folks today. Spent too much time on them already, and ...further, you fails already know who you are!!!

I'm still waiting on some RPG books (print and digital) to be released. I haven't given up hope they will see the light of day. I am very generous when it comes to people finishing creative projects. I know how hard it can be.

That being said, customer support should be job #1. Keeping the public in general and your customer base in particular well informed is key. My wife works in customer support (chat and phone) and I did public relations for years for the SCA. Positive interaction with the public is just so darned important. It can be taught. Even enthusiastic amateurs can be helpful. There is zero reason that people staffing a con table shouldn't be engaged in what they do. If they aren't, find new people. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance at a first impression. These stories of such lost opportunities are saddening.

Well, its not the exact same thing as what the OP was talking about, but I was very impressed by Goodman Games, and Harley Stroh's aplomb in dealing with the unfortunate situation when the first DCC book he sent ended up being one of the only times any review product sent to me was lost in the mail.

Quote from: GameDaddy;750100Also have to include Brendan Davis from Bedrock Games from right here as well... in the Awesome!!! category as Arrows of Indra is my favorite new RPG from last year.


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Thanks. Glad you like the Game. I have been getting lots of positive feedback about Indra.

My friend James & I were banned from a Games Workshop store in Basingstoke, somewhere around the mid 90's for talking to their customers about RPGs.

Quote from: UberMunchkin;751546My friend James & I were banned from a Games Workshop store in Basingstoke, somewhere around the mid 90's for talking to their customers about RPGs.

That is company policy to this very day

No. Really. The company mandate is to find reasons to fire the floor and shelf workers at the shops before they hit a certain time limit. They apply it to visitors too that dont meet certain criteria. Normally is just a "focus on age bracket X, ignore age bracket Y" stuff.

Quote from: Omega;751556That is company policy to this very day

No. Really. The company mandate is to find reasons to fire the floor and shelf workers at the shops before they hit a certain time limit. They apply it to visitors too that dont meet certain criteria. Normally is just a "focus on age bracket X, ignore age bracket Y" stuff.

Incredible. I've spent a whole lotta years in retail and never heard of a company doing this. Firing/banning staff for talking to customers about the products sold? (Or banning customers for talking to other customers about the products? Either way it's bad.) How do they stay in business?

Although I have heard of some companies who fire employees who accrue too many benefits or who's pay rise too high, but not in retail. And I've read an article about Monsanto who sues it's own customers.

More evidence that most managers are nuts.

Quote from: Omega;751556That is company policy to this very day

No. Really. The company mandate is to find reasons to fire the floor and shelf workers at the shops before they hit a certain time limit. They apply it to visitors too that dont meet certain criteria. Normally is just a "focus on age bracket X, ignore age bracket Y" stuff.

:eek:

GW finding more and more ways to suck.

I have lost count of how many GW miniatures I have purchased over the years for use in roleplaying games.

I have bought minis from games I don't even play just because I liked them.

To this day, still haven't played the LOTR battle game but I have a crapload of those minis.

Quote from: Omega;751556That is company policy to this very day

No. Really. The company mandate is to find reasons to fire the floor and shelf workers at the shops before they hit a certain time limit. They apply it to visitors too that dont meet certain criteria. Normally is just a "focus on age bracket X, ignore age bracket Y" stuff.

That's funny; there's a very tiny GW store here I've stood in and talked to customers and employees about how cool the LotR minis are for use in AD&D since they're closer to the "official" 25mm scale...!

Quote from: Zachary The First;749568It stinks, because I really love KotDT, and I think Kenzer makes some pretty cool stuff. But that was a seriously uncool move towards some of their bigger fans. One of the individuals in question mentioned it on their forum or in other feedback, and they seemed pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. It left a pretty bad taste in everyone's mouth.

Sorry to hear that, Zach! I don't know what happened to you and your buddies in 2013, but you may recall me - I was in charge of managing the KenzerCo booth and volunteers from about 2004-2011.

My best, hardest-working group of volunteers left at the same (or roughly around the same) time, I believe, so maybe the remaining staff (Dave, Steve, and Jolly) have been having problems finding new volunteers. My convention attendance has been really spotty since I now have a 'real job' and a 15 month old child, so I haven't seen who's been at the booths lately.

Quote from: Omega;751556That is company policy to this very day

No. Really. The company mandate is to find reasons to fire the floor and shelf workers at the shops before they hit a certain time limit. They apply it to visitors too that dont meet certain criteria. Normally is just a "focus on age bracket X, ignore age bracket Y" stuff.

That's just about SOP in mall retail nowadays, even beyond the seasonal hiring pretense. Reminds me why I still like window shopping and commiserating with staff. But from what I've heard from those who worked at GW mall stores, it's the truth (with workers going so far as getting people into WH/40k and then recommending a real FLGS to buy it at).

The company's a real pisser, historically and now. Only if I liked minis, so I could then boycott their product. Go Privateer Press, they're better.

They had a GW store at the Metreon in SF, where they had ultra normal college kid types showing you how to play WH40K, that was a trip.

Metreon all gone now. I don't miss it. Suck it Sony.

The park behind it is still nice, and the MOMA is under renovation now.

The airtight garage was cool, as well as the amc's; I thought it is now a target? Been awhile.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;751610That's funny; there's a very tiny GW store here I've stood in and talked to customers and employees about how cool the LotR minis are for use in AD&D since they're closer to the "official" 25mm scale...!

The one I used to visit was ok. But I did notice the "older customers are less important than younger customers" vibe going on to a minor degree.

Others though have had appallingly worse. Or really good times. Probably regional. Same goes for the WOTC stores. I enjoyed visiting the one that was here. But others elsewhere had really poor experiences.

YMMV at its best.

Quote from: Mark Plemmons;751614Sorry to hear that, Zach! I don't know what happened to you and your buddies in 2013, but you may recall me - I was in charge of managing the KenzerCo booth and volunteers from about 2004-2011.

My best, hardest-working group of volunteers left at the same (or roughly around the same) time, I believe, so maybe the remaining staff (Dave, Steve, and Jolly) have been having problems finding new volunteers. My convention attendance has been really spotty since I now have a 'real job' and a 15 month old child, so I haven't seen who's been at the booths lately.

Of course, Mark! How are you? I will say our earlier interactions with Kenzer at Gen Con (it sounds like during your tenure) were aces. I remember the Aces and Eights demos, especially. So much fun!

It stinks they've had trouble finding volunteers. I suppose it's the same thing as running a diner and having a crappy waiter working for you. You might not see it, and might be the nicest person in the world, but that waiter can have a huge impact on your customer's perception.

Chaosium makes great products, but their customer service is non-existent. A few years ago, I bought the Basic RP PDF, accidentally ordering two copies. Many, many emails and a couple phone calls, zero response. Absolutely nothing. Finally contacted AMEX to get a partial refund, have never again used their online store.

Exactly opposite from BTRC...Greg Porter replied to my issues within 24 hours, problems were taken care of immediately.

SJGames sent me a new copy of 4th edition Basic Set: Characters after I emailed them about a broken binding, so they're good as far as I'm concerned.

A relevant example of good customer service would be Brendan Davis of Bedrock Games taking my criticism of my Arrows of Indra print copy very seriously.

Quote from: dragoner;751689The airtight garage was cool, as well as the amc's; I thought it is now a target? Been awhile.

I hadn't even heard of The Airtight Garage in San Francisco! Wish I'd known, I lived not far away and could've checked it out!

Quote from: Baron;751996I hadn't even heard of The Airtight Garage in San Francisco! Wish I'd known, I lived not far away and could've checked it out!

It was cool, a Moebius designed/themed game room/bar; great before or after going to see a movie on a giant IMAX screen.

A couple of RPG publishers/companies I'd like to point out for their particularly patient, friendly and helpful communication, in alphabetical order:

Bedrock Games
Beyond Belief Games/Simon Washbourne
Evil DM Production/Jeff Mejia
Ganesha Games
Outland Arts
Precis Intermedia
Rogue Games

I hope I didn't forget any.

Any other publishers I've had contact with generally did a decent enough job, so I've not had any bad experiences really.

I've had very little need for interaction with gaming companies, as I've seen precious few fucked books and/or bunked orders.

But I did have some hassle with getting my copy of both Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity and Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man delivered. On both occasions Arc Dream and Shane Ivey did a top notch job with staying in contacts, checking up and making sure things got done and books delivered, with bonuses for late-arrival. First class and great customer service in every way. And spectacular books, obviously.

Quote from: noman;749657I recently had a positive experience with BTRC (http://www.btrc.net/).

I've been playing around with EABA2.

The main rulebook went from v2.0 to v2.1.  I tried to upgrade, had a complete mental shutdown, failed to do so, and made a total ass of myself; angry email to BTRC.  I was a real prick.

Greg Porter emailed me back.  He was professional, courteous, and fixed every problem I had without complaint.  He refunded the money I spent when I bought the same product twice.  He took a lot of time out of his day to fix the problems I needlessly caused.

I apologized for my behavior, and he shrugged it off.  No biggie.

A class act, and an excellent system I'd recommend to anyone looking for good generic/universal system.

Greg Porter is a great guy! I emailed him about 2.1 and he made sure I had the pdf in no time. Class act.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;751603To this day, still haven't played the LOTR battle game but I have a crapload of those minis.

You should. It is GW's best game system by far.

Quote from: Doughdee222;749615I worked for a call center that handled Internet sign up and problems for Bell South. Oh lordy, the calls I had. The woman who tried to talk while holding a screaming baby inches from the phone, the woman who wanted to sign up for Internet service while in the midst of preparing dinner. The people who have no idea what a browser is, or had none on their 10 year old computer. People who want me to hold their hand as they look at a dozen web pages and explain what every box and link means. The guy who needed help setting up a half dozen email accounts all with aliases. The lady who took 12 minutes setting up an Internet account then immediately cancels it because she's just not sure if she wants or needs it.

And I got to dreading calls from certain states. Alabama! Louisiana! Most Southerners shouldn't be allowed to have a computer. The average education level in Alabama must be 4th grade, they shouldn't even have electricity.

Meanwhile my bosses are telling me to lie to the customers and get the call over quickly to reduce average call time (the most important thing in the call center industry.) As if I have any control over the stupidity level of my callers. Yes sir, I wish I could have hung up five minutes ago but this caller's machine is still junk and he's not understanding what I'm telling him.

That was a job I hope I never have to do again.

I didn't work at a call center, but I worked at Radio Shack after college. This was back in Fall '91 - Spring '92, when RS had 8086 and 286 machines when everyone else was selling 386 and 486 machines. We had to try to make commission on crap boxes, selling to people who thought a computer was something that was in those bad 50s/60s SciFi movies. Remember that scene in Star Trek IV when Scotty picks up the mouse and talks into it? I've SEEN people do that while checking out a computer, thinking that was a handheld mic like you find on a CB.

There were some really cool amateur radio and electronics buffs who would come in, buy some parts, and shoot the bull about radio and all sorts of interesting electronic projects, but they were outnumbered by the idiots. If I had a buck for each time someone came in and had bought a VCR from somewhere else and wanted to buy the cables to hook it up to their television, I'd not have to work right now.

And those people who would come in and have their free battery card out to get their (once a month) free carbon battery... I still can hear the shrill "Gimme my battery!" that some of the old ladies used to yell when they came in...

One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;752246One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

Yeah, just recently had to email them about a couple of X-Wing ships that fell apart while I was taking them out of their plastic. Had new ships within a week. Good turnaround. Their online support ticketing system is pretty shitty however...

Customer Service is supposed to be just that. A good experience will get you PR you can't buy. A bad experience will get around even faster. It's a wise investment.

Honestly, if you can't handle it, you shouldn't be in that line of work.

On a non-gaming note, I've had wonderful experiences with the Chicken Sox / Klutz customer service dept. If I have a problem, they replace or substitute anything, immediately and with a smile. I had a question for the Fresh Brothers pizza company -- they sent me a $30 gift certificate with a profound apology. I went in to spend the certificate, my bill was about $28. The store manager came out to apologize three times, saying that he wasn't allowed to give me the difference in cash. I kept telling him it was fine, but he finally came out and gave me another $10 gift certificate! By way of contrast, I had a problem with Verizon that they ignored over six months while I spent hours on hold. I filed a complaint with the Public Utilities commission, and some santimonious **** called me the following day to say she'd suddenly found my problem and resolved it. I cancelled my account on the spot, and never pass up a chance to tell this story. It was over a $30 charge. Now who was the smarter business?

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;752021I've had very little need for interaction  with gaming companies, as I've seen precious few fucked books and/or  bunked orders.

Just to be clear, I didn't contact any of the publishers I mentioned because of fucked books and/or bunked orders. In most of the cases I was simply inquiring about the content, compatibility or availability of certain products or something akin.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;752246One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

I'll second this. One of their games I got contained a die with a production flaw, but nothing that made it unusable. I simply mailed them a picture of it and they sent me a new die within the next couple of days.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;752246One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

Yeah, I broke one of the carriers when pulling all the Twilight Imperium 3rd ships off the pegs, and I emailed them about it and they sent me a new one that arrived in less than a week.

FFG customer service is one of the best I've interacted with as far as an RPG/Board Game company.

As noted in an earlier post: Larry Elmore is pretty cool. I already liked his art and the one time I got to chat with him, fun to talk about the naturalism and realism he uses in his fantasy art. He offered to sign prints we bought without asking. I like having his art on the wall that much more.

Reaper miniatures has legendary customer service. The couple of times I have received ganged or miniatures missing parts. Send an email and get the miniature replaced in full with extras on top of it. No fuss. Their boards are littered with stories of good customer service due to a missing sword or such on a mini.

I've never had any bad interactions with industry manufacturers but when you do have an issue good customer service goes a long way to making you respect them more than you did.

I second the thumbs up for Reaper (I'm local to them, so that may factor in) and Fantasy Flight.

In fact, I'd say most interactions with board game publishers have been positive, despite the complications/goofs that brought me to that point.

I had such a poor customer "service" exchange with Fred Hicks that I'm completely turned off by anything from Evil Hat.  I really grooved on Spirit of the Century for what it was, so that's a shame.

Out of respect for the dead I'll just add QLI to the list and leave it at that.

Quote from: Natty Bodak;752455I second the thumbs up for Reaper (I'm local to them, so that may factor in) and Fantasy Flight.

In fact, I'd say most interactions with board game publishers have been positive, despite the complications/goofs that brought me to that point.

I had such a poor customer "service" exchange with Fred Hicks that I'm completely turned off by anything from Evil Hat.  I really grooved on Spirit of the Century for what it was, so that's a shame.

Out of respect for the dead I'll just add QLI to the list and leave it at that.

Really? I always thought Evil Hat had a reputation for good customer service. Not disputing, just surprised.

I chalked it up to a bad hair day for the guy, but it's not like it was some random booth staffer. I stewed for a while and decided I wasn't going to let it slide.

Quote from: Zachary The First;752456Really? I always thought Evil Hat had a reputation for good customer service. Not disputing, just surprised.

Quote from: Natty Bodak;752455I second the thumbs up for Reaper (I'm local to them, so that may factor in) and Fantasy Flight.

I've had good service from Reaper, yup. I actually didn't complain about all the missing noses in my Bones Kickstarter Vampire box as I'd have felt guilty about spending all the vouchers they would have sent me (did get vouchers for the three missing minis). :D But I've seen on their boards other people who complained about minor flaws and got a lot of compensation. Guess it depends what you're comfy with. Also I once had a minis shipment that went completely missing in transit, probably stolen/lost in customs & excise; they resent the shipment.

Quote from: GameDaddy;750100Also have to include Brendan Davis from Bedrock Games from right here as well... in the Awesome!!! category as Arrows of Indra is my favorite new RPG from last year.

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Thanks!  I agree that Bedrock Games and Brendan Davis has to take 50% of the credit for the job very well done!

There are a lot of good people in RPGs.  Wolfgang Baur (and wife Shelly) are probably top of my list as far as the nicest folks.  I was a subscriber to Kobold Quarterly, and they addressed issues I had with ordering kindly and professionally.  When the magazine folded, they worked very hard to ensure everyone received a refund for any undelivered magazines.  It was my pleasure to tell them to keep the remaining funds because I received far more value from the magazines than I had paid for them.  

I'm not a fan of Pathfinder - I was involved in the Playtest, but I found the experience very frustrating.  They rejected 'issues' that they felt would involve 'too many changes' to the base rules, but made other changes that didn't seem to make sense without regard to compatability.  While those issues have left me disappointed with the way they do game design, I've never been dissatisfied with their involvement with their fans (primarily through their forums), their quality production values, and genuinely interesting product.  I can't say enough good things about the folks at the top.

Kenzer Co has been good to me.  I ordered some back issues and pre-ordered an upcoming issue of a product.  I didn't receive all of my order (I thought it would come with the pre-order) and they made it right.  Jolly's love of gaming is infectious, and I'm glad that a true 'old-school gamer' willing to talk about his passion has a forum to speak to the gaming community.  While the man has dealt with some very serious personal tragedy (no parent should have to bury their child), he keeps going strong.  He'd make one of the best 'ambassadors for gaming'.  

My worst experience was with Wizards of the Coast during the transition to 4th edition - specifically in regard to Dragon and Dungeon magazines being discontinued.  I felt that I was treated rudely and demeaned.  They really did 'fire the customer' and I remain unlikely to support any product line they create.  This was severe enough that I tried to avoid any connection to Hasbro (their parent company), but I've relaxed that (I won't keep my children's fun hostage to my personal grudge).  

Dario Nardi (author of Secrets of Pact Magic) gets a special shout out.  He hand-delivered my copy during Gen Con 2008.

I tend to have good dealings with most publishers, but then again that might be because its me and they have a vested interest in not pissing me off.

I once mail ordered some Greyhawk stuff from TSR and they sent me a 1993 Gen Con duffle bag with the order.  Pretty damn cool of them.  I still have it up on the wall in my hallway.