However, Mrs. Smith, the blogger behind the Webkinz Help site, pointed me to one unlikely solution, for a family that has been shut out of the site since June:
The Davises called the Webkinz manufacturer, Ganz, repeatedly, but never got through. They also sent e-mails. After three months, they finally got a call back, but it didn't help.If only we all had a television news reporter personally intervening to solve the problem.
Michael Davis called the situation "absolutely frustrating."
So the Davises called 5 on Your Side. A quick Internet search revealed a lot of people have the same problem with white screens, as well as other issues. Many people also said the customer support was little help.
Ganz spokeswoman Susan McVeigh told WRAL they take care of most complaints in "three to five days." She admitted to "bad handling" of the Davis' complaint.
She also said the most recent number the Davises were calling wasn’t the right number. They said it was the number they were given.
Regardless, a Ganz representative has since called the Davises. The problem turned out to be a program plug-in. The Davis' home computer was apparently too new, and their version of Internet Explorer defaulted to the wrong player plug-in.
Ganz said Real Player has to be turned off for Webkinz to open. Another option that worked for the Davises and others – open Webkinz using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.
As for the "program plug-in" being the root issue for the Davises, that may have been true a few months ago, but it's not the case for me and most other people experiencing Webkinz lockout right now. For one, in our case, we were able to operate Webkinz fine before December 23. Two, we don't have Real software on the family iMac. Three, we've tried loading Webkinz on two different computers using IE7, Firefox 2.x (Mac and PC) and Safari. Four, Ganz admits that it's a technical problem, as described in this Newsday article:
Although Ganz, the company that makes Webkinz and operates the site, had run tests and had been prepared for the holiday load, it ran into a "programming issue that was unforeseen," said Elaine Parsons, director of operations.Stay tuned for more updates here and on Webkinz Help ...
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ReplyDeleteWe've used this form several times since my daughter's room won't load and it's still stuck after 17 days. We've also not received a reply from customer service other than the auto-response that says they'll take care of it in 1-3business days unless it takes longer.
ReplyDeleteI am now a "happy" Webkinz owner. I like almost all of you registered a Webkinz over the holidays and was never able to get into my room. I submitted my request via the above route (used the husband's email since mine was too long to fit) on Jan 4th. Just now 12am on Jan 8th, I did what I usually do before signing off for the night; try to visit my room (it usually logs me off, so I don't have to). However, this time much to my satisfaction, it loaded my room. I just about did a cartwheel across the living room. I've just spent the last half hour (instead of going to bed like I should), playing in my room. For those of you still having issues, please try using this form. I understand it hasn't worked for some of you, but I was just about to give up hope and then this... And I can't believe I'm about to defend Ganz because I was gearing up for the lawsuit, but give them a chance. You figure the thousands and thousands of accounts that are in limbo, there may not be a blanket fix. They might just have to go into each account individually and figure out what the problem may be. After all, the form asked for username and password. It's probably so they can log in and see first hand the errors we get and then they diagnose from there. I sending happy thoughts your way that you too can finally enjoy Webkinz World to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteI finally have a working webkinz but still am not happy with the company. I have two boys and only one has been able to use it and that is the oldest the one that would understand a little better that it was because a website would not work properly. Even the one that could use it could not get into his room. For 13 days I have had a crying 6 year old because all he wanted to do was play with his Christmas present. Was not COOL!!! I got mine fixed by calling this number 1-800-724-5902 press 0 and ask for help with a webkinz problem.
ReplyDeleteI too was a frustrated Webkinz owner. My nieces & nephews have several and my sibelings & I got them to play games long distance with the kids. It is a great concept, the site has lots of things to do that I am still discovering. I received my webkin on Christmas Eve and 2 days later could no longer get into any of my rooms. I kept getting the frozen loading chair that some of you have talked about. After submitting 3 suggestions & 4 technical requests today,15 days later I can get into my room again. I did not receive any kinzcash or extended subscription as the bulletin promised just an email saying "we are sorry about the problem you experienced" and that it was now fixed. I am happy it is fixed but wouldn't have gotten half as frustrated if they had an actual responsive customer service system in place. Makes me wonder how long they will be around? I hope they can get their act together as my family really does enjoy the site. Thanks to all who wrote in. It was great to hear about what was going on through all of you since there is no hope of getting information from Ganz.
ReplyDeleteThe cusomer service is AWFUL at Webkinz.
ReplyDeleteI also think it is utterly ridiculous that you can't change your pet's name. My son registered one of his new pets himself and made a spelling error. We own 26 Webkinz and thankfully never had a mistake in the past because it is impossible to get ANYONE at Webkinz to try to help you.
In my opinion the customer service is HORRIBLE at Webkinz. Yes, they are having technical problems, but they don't even respond to any emails or voice mails (it has been a week) and in order to have good customer service, they really should have live people answering the phones. Instead, you go to a voice mail system that tells you if you left a message in the last 24-48 hours and have not heard back, that means they are very busy and to please not leave another message (REALLY NICE CUSTOMER SERVICE...)
I am just waiting for a class action suit against Webkinz.
I wish we had never purchased these dolls. My kids are sad and I am not about to donate any more money to a company with this pathetic type of customer service.
They can'y even respond to emails or have live people pick up the phones. What a joke of a company...
I hope someone from Webkinz actually cares that they are losing customers. I WILL NOT ever buy another Webkinz again because of this. IT stinks because we invested so much money already, but they will not get another dime from me ever again. This includes their parent company, GANZ. I will never buy any of their products again due to their poor customer service.
Feels good to let my frustration out somewhere. Thanks for listening.
WOW! I had no idea that so many people were having so many access and room loading issues! I guess my kids have been lucky w/ our accounts. I ran across this blog looking to see if others were having time zone issues and issues renaming rooms. We are in the central time zone and my daughters account is an hour ahead. I figured she made a mistake when she signed up but I set up my 5 year olds account and when he logged on today his is an hour ahead now too. Also, we have been trying to rearrange and/or share rooms and when we try to use the rename function we get a message that says we are trying to use a word that is not allowed. I wonder what part of "Boy's Room" is in violation? Has anyone else run into these issues?
ReplyDeleteThanks - Freezing in Minnesota
PS - We cannot seem to get any of the charms in our area. I managed to get two before they became completely non-existant. Rumor has it that maybe Ganz got caught up in the whole lead paint nightmare? The vendors that I frequent cannot get any information from the company. Hmmm...
Well for 2 days now my daughter's stuff is missing...food, clothses, furniture, garden...the works. We have not given her password to anyone... I have sent 2 emails to t hem requesting assistance but i have not heard back from them yet.
ReplyDeleteI see someone else is having trouble with all their webkiz stuff disapearing...I have had the automatic response back from the company but that is it. It's been 5 days since both my girls stuff has disapeared from their rooms and the dock. Also, there is nothing in the Wshop either. We cannot access charm forest either anymore. ARGH!! I'm with the other parent who is not buying webkinz anymore!!
ReplyDeleteAs a parent who is brand-new to the whole Webkins thing, I don't have a clue as to how to even contact this company to voice a complaint! My children got their Webkins for Christmas and we tried setting up my son's account which ended up in limbo, no way to do anything with it. Kept trying for over two weeks and finally got his adoption registered, but the site would not load at all. Then we registered our daughter's adoption with no problem, but again we cannot get into the website at all. After we enter our login the stupid "w" what says loading just sits and flashes but it never goes anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI've been to the customer support area and there isn't even an email form to fill out! No contact number, no snail mail, nothing. I looked up Ganz and sent an email to the parent company, but that was two weeks ago and I've not heard a peep. Where do I go to even FIND an email form or phone number?
My kids are brokenhearted. They had begged for these dumb things for months and I finally allowed grandparents to get them and they are totally useless. I am furious!
We too are having problems. My sons webkinz has his mouth taped shut and it in some kind of space suit looking thing. No clue what this is. We are missing stuff too, clothes, food, etc. Anyone with this problem?
ReplyDeleteI think they weren't prepared for all of the kids that were going to get them for Christmas.
I posted the earlier post about missing things. Well after 2 emails not being answered I followed the advice I read on this board to stop using Internet Explorer and use Firefox. It worked like a charm! Give it a try.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is I am able to see everything @ work when I use IE but not @ home...very strange.
Good Luck
My daughter also had all of her rooms emptied out. I finally did, after several days, get a call from support at Webkinz. But they were of no help. They were sorry but didn't know why. I told them I was the only one with the password so that was not given out. They can't help.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter has 10 Webkinz and one day realized her password has been changed. We got her a new password and when she opened up her rooms(all 10 of them) she realized EVERYTHING was gone. In their place she received broken cots and old refrigerators...plus, all her Kinz cash was gone. I have my suspicions...She gave out her password to a classmate who can be a little stinker...and I think this girl logged in at her home as my daughter, used her password, and gave herself all of my daughter's items. I can't even begin to accuse without Webkinz' help. This was 2 weeks ago and many many e-mails and calls. Nothing. It even says somewhere on their site that anyone caught stealing other peoples' things will be banned from the site. I am sure they can go back and figure out what address the other girls used...or at least let me know they are unable to help us. My daughter has been devastated and wants nothing more to do w/ Webkinz. The company is making mass amounts of money...they really need to figure this support system out. Any advice???
ReplyDeleteTrying yet another internet browser did the trick for us. We have an older Mac with a newer operating system (OS 10.4.11). We were not able to log on to Webkinz reliably (1 of 100 attempts or so) with Safari 3.0.4 or Firefox 2.0.0.12 for many weeks, apparently after updating the browsers. We were able to log on before the updates, but not sure which browser, probably Safari. We were able to access every website other than Webkinz with both browsers. Got the idea of downloading the Opera browser and have been able to access Webkinz reliably since.
ReplyDeleteWow I cant believe this many people are having problems. My daughter has had webkinz for about 10 months and nothing really has happened to make her not want to play but she has not been able to get on no for over a week. She goes to log in and a blank white screen comes up. I cant find an email or anything to ask for help. I already tried the things they had in their customer support area. My daughter also just recieved a new one and has not been able to enter this one in yet. What is the deal with all this. Does anyone know how to fix the white screen problem???
ReplyDeleteMy Daughter received 4 webkinz for Christmas, and she managed to register 3 of them without issues, but the 4th one got registered, but didn't have a room of her own. Even the Welcome gift for the toy (a Yorkie) is in the dock, but cannot place it in a room, because it comes up with an error (Because the Yorkie's Room is not there). We sent email using the Form, in December, but other than the Automated message, nothing was done about it as of yet. I am thinking of buying her another yorkie, just so that she can get a room for her 2 Yorkie Pets, but what if that does not work either??????
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLately, everytime I try to open webkinz using webkinz.com or linking from google, I get a blank white screen. It starts to come up, then the address changes to http://www.webkinz.com/SWF/setLocale.swf?locale=us_en
ReplyDeletehas this happened to others? I can't seem to find an address to send an email to webkinz. I updated my flash player and deleted realplayer (read somewhere that may be a problem) but to no avail. This is the first real problem our family has had 9its been going on for several days and I need a webkinz fix!). Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks
why does this address come up when I type webkinz.com
ReplyDeletehttp://www.webkinz.com/SWF/setLocale.swf?locale=us_en
This only happens on my laptop and not on the desktop. Does anyone have a fix?
I had the same problem (comment on 4/15) I read on another site, retype the address and use www.webkinz.com/us_en/ When I did that instead of just webkinz.com, my problem was fixed. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteMy son has two webkinz and i have been tryig to merge tem it was said after surfing all over the web you CAN merge but they have to do it with in 30 days of maing an account. it takes them over 30 days to get back to you> the firefox works on our desktop but my laptop is fine with IE. I havent seen anything lost i his rooms yet but ill keep his password changed every now and than. as should you all change passwords every week its the best thing.. Merging CAN be done just they have to do it. You cant delete an account but they can.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletewe haven't had access to webkinz for four days now and have no response from our emails asking what is wrong. There is no phone number to reach them and when the elephants were the pet of the month I bought six and none of them had extra prizes and I was supposed to have two boxes per pet and only got one each. This is really poorly done because you can't reach them except for email and it takes them forever to get back to you. I said I had a problem because my pet was stuck in the door and they wrote back and said that I had too much furniture in the room maybe?????
ReplyDeletewe logged into my son's account today and everything form all 20 rooms is missing. How on earth is that possible. Is some rooms the wallpaper and floor are missing - it's gone to grey again. If you can only email away 3 items at a time- how can someone- even if they HAD the password - get rid of 200 plus items in 2 days?
ReplyDeleteDid anyone who posted ever get a solution to this???
For those of you who are missing your dock items or things in your room try raising the "Local Storage" setting on Flash Player. If you right click when you are on your log in screen it give you the options of "Settings" or "About Flash Player". Click "Settings" and go to the icon that looks like a folder. Slide the meter all the way to the right to raise the amount of space that Flash Player can use to store Webkinz information. I figured this out for myself after getting a response from an email I had sent to Webkinz advising me that I had too many items in my dock and I should get rid of them or I could let them do it for me.....as if that would have ever happened! Now if I could just get past this white screen aggravation...........
ReplyDeleteHope this helps!
All of the above is true and we in our house are NOT BUYING ANYMORE WEBKINZ. It's a real shame, they went cheap on this website and the service and now they will pay the ultimate price loss of consumers. It's been over a month not being able to get into the site and THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT.....PERIOD. This company is a fly by night dominator that is not putting back into the system the value they are clearly taking when they TAKE our money for this very broken SERVICE.
ReplyDeletei just worte a nasty hate mail the Gertz about the webkinz line i personaly dont think anything will come out of it but i sure feels good to let loose all this fusteration.
ReplyDeletebasicly i thaink they all should be fired cause there are a lot of people looking for a job right now that could provide better service.
i had like...12 rooms and all of the stuff is GONE!! my last three pets did not recieve their
ReplyDeleteown room so i spent 1,000 kinz cash for 1 room.
i think that those people should give me all my stuff back. i had about 100 items in my dock that are now gone! all my stuff is gone,not my webkinz or wallpaper and flooring(thank goodness for that).when i said that they should give me my stuff back i dint just mean me i met EVERYBODY. you know what this seems to be a common problem and i dont know why those dumbo's dont give people their stuff back, its simply madning.i really like playing webkinz so when i earn a bunch of money i spend it, and now ALL that money is gone thanks to webkinz aka the dumb brains. i dint expect any of this it was just one bad thing then another. i spent thousands of dollars and i had exclusive and pet specialty items and ofcouse EXPENSIVE items. i send money no matter what even in real life i always get stuff at the mall. its safe to say shopping is the sport im best at.So i especialy spend money on webkinz because all you have to do is click on the Things To Do menu then click on the Wshop icon. its pretty simple if you ask me. my webkinz account is VERRY important to me.
i love my webkinz so much i wrote storys about them one was called Snowflake and Iceys adventure to hawaii. okay what im trying to say is i love my webkinz and want my stuff back!!!!!
thanks for reading