jet_jaguar72 said:
I still cannot understand the ire of the fans regarding the official site. (well I can understand the propaganda stuff, but thats another story)
I mean, honestly, what else do you expect from an official site? They have a pretty good amount of video, audio, a great timeline, a really big gallery, lyrics, interviews and a message board.
The design is nice, it looks exactly like the packaging of the deluxe HTDAAB set.
The news could stand to be more timely however.
I think criticism is good, but people have been ranting how horrible it is yet, I have yet to see a better organized or thorough fan site. I am not knocking interference at all however since I feel their message board and columns are good. They could definitely use a nice design update, but the content is there. I don't understand this mentality of liking one or other exclusively...
These are some of the reasons why I find the new site so frustrating.
*They are charging more for less. With Propaganda we paid about $7 a year and for it, we got physical magazines that we could keep and read later, exclusive CDs, and advance access to multiple concerts on each leg of whatever tour the band was on. Now, we pay $40 a year. For that, we get advance access to a single show rather than multiple shows. I know that I, and plenty of others, took the language they used in describing the advance tickets to mean that we'd have access to 2 tickets at as many shows as we wanted. Instead, they clarify after people join by saying that we only get access to a single show. I was thinking the $40 might be worth it for as many shows as we wanted. I really fail to see how it's worth a single freakin' show. We get downloads that we used to get for free on the former U2.com and which are impractical for people not using high-speed internet. We get emails, half of which are html gibberish, none of which tell us anything we don't already know. In my book, emails don't really compare to a physical magazine. We have to pay for full access to Zootopia, which used to be free. And we get a 25% off coupon for the U2.com store, which blows.
*The U2.com store blows. They don't let people know when things are backordered. They charge people multiple times for single purchases and add dishonest charges to sales. They charged my credit card after I told them I wanted an order cancelled, sent me the wrong items after the cancellation, and then told me it was my problem when I wanted to return them. Their service reps have absolutely no training and often don't even know what store they're representing.
*They stole from Propaganda members who didn't want to join the new U2.com. Rather than offering the option of a refund for issues not sent, they simply offered a discount on membership to the new fan club. They refuse to answer people who want to get a refund. This is fraud.
*The email program that goes with the website is horribly designed. Hell, the entire website is horribly designed. My mom could barely read a lot of it and her eyes aren't too bad. I've got 20/10 vision and I have trouble reading some of it.
*Principle Management is behaving like a bunch of pussies regarding it. They hired Signature Networks to run the website, the online store, and the fanclub. However, when customers take their grievences to Principle, Principle makes it very clear that they don't give a crap and feel they have no responsiblity. And of course, when Fanfire doesn't answer questions asked, the idea of customer service is worthless.
Basicly, they're doing a shitty job of running the thing and none of the people involved in the running seem to care. We're paying a lot more and getting less. Now, I know the argument might come up that the website's just getting up and running and that they had a lot of new members which could cause problems. To that, I respond that they've had three years since they killed Prop to get the damned thing working properly and for $40 a year, we should be getting damned good service from the get-go, not this crap. Fanfire built the crap, U2 doesn't give a crap, and we get dumped with crap. I know I wouldn't be resubscribing. Ooo, but we do get a membership card and a key chain. Those are sure as hell worth the other $33.