What's up with HelpWebkinz.com?

HelpWebkinz.com was an experiment, redirected to this blog. Bought in 2008 and deactivated in 2011, it served it's purpose. The domain is no longer registered by me, but the HelpWebkinz.blogspot.com site will be around until Google decides otherwise.

Neither my kiddos nor myself play on Webkinz much anymore, but HelpWebkinz will stay around - just in case.

As a reminder, I can't answer your questions about Webkinz, but I can give you a place to speak your mind. 

All that said, our complaint desk is still open for comments. The success story desk is open too.

(All this Webkinz talk gave me a hankerin' for Cash Cow. Wonder if I remember my password.) 

Webkinz on Other Complaint Sites

There are several other general complaint sites. Here are a few I've found, with links to their Webkinz pages. I've linked to the public parts of the sites.

P***edConsumer.com 1st complaint: Jan 12, 2008 Number of complaints: 1

my3Cents.com
When you search for Webkinz, you get 81 results back, but they seem to be recycling the same few complaints. There are tons of ads on the site, so it's hard to clear all the clutter to get a good read on how many people have actually commented. It felt like I was chasing my tail trying to figure out how many complaints had been file.

A search on complaints.com netted 8 results, archived by date. A particular date may have more than one comment. Less circular than my3cents.com.

Mybiggestcomplaint.com has one post, with a few comments, about Webkinz problems and another about Webkinz being a problem.

usefulcomplaints.com aren't. An August 2007 complaint about the layout change and four complaints from December 2007 about the site not working.

There's even a thread on the Amazon.com forums about Webkinz problems. It was started on Christmas Day 2007. To date it has 84 posts.

Those are just the ones I found from googling webkinz complaints.

A Few Customer Support Success Stories

Since starting this blog last Friday I've seen lots of complaints about Webkinz customer service, mostly in comments on other blog posts, 10 of which I've collected here. (I'll update the list as I find them.)

I've also seen a few success stories. On January 8th Jackie left a comment at our Success Stories post:

"I called 800-724-5902 and actually got a human and both of my kids webkinz are now working. They had to reset their accounts but the tech said that their old code would be usable again tomorrow so now they will have two pets online and gave a bunch of money to replace what was lost."

My friend Mopsy first posted a complaint in a comment on my other blog on January 8th that they couldn't enter a room. She wasn't happy with the online help. Then, on January 9th she posted a positive update:

"I was very happy at how they answered the phone instantly, helped me right away, and fixed it right away. The whole call took less than two minutes."

She called the Ganz 800 number which, according to the info I have, is 1-800-724-5902.

So, there are 2 success stories.

Then there's Ian's "almost success story" he mentioned in a comment:

"I got a response through their trouble ticket system, which claimed that they had fixed the problem ... but my daughter tried it this afternoon around 4 pm ET, and still no go."

Close, but no Kinzcash.

Note to Webkinz: Contact Typepad for Customer Support Ideas

Ganz was simply unprepared for the popularity of Webkinz, online and off. Handling product shortages is probably an easier fix than managing network limitations and customer service shortages. Those last areas will make or break Webkinz. Here are my completely amateur suggestions:

1) Obviously more technical infrastructure is needed, including a more secure site on the backend.
(For some techie talk about the Webkinz site see this post and comments at Chen's blog.)

2) Webkinz, get in touch with the support people at Typepad. (My other blogging platform.) Typepad has two excellent means of support for their product:
*an extensive and useful help database
*an excellent Help Ticket system

Every question I've had with Typepad has been answered through these two options. The Help Ticket system has a stellar response time. Not only are the responses timely, they are helpful.

from a Ganz Director: Missing Objects Are Still There

Though not a recent development, it show that Ganz does contact people and try to resolve issues. In October 2007 this Webkinzmom.com post relays a Ganz director told her:

” …All members must use the customer service tools that we have created. But I do have a message for you about items “lost” when dropped into the dock, and missing charms: they are all still on your account. We are currently working on fixing both issues, and when they are fixed all of the items will reappear on your account.”

It seems the fix is contingent on contacting customer support - no small feat these days. And what are those customer service tools?