My son and I live in Hong Kong, and are avid fans of this great game. Together we battled a Lugia raid at ICC Hong Kong some time ago. We were in Japan on vacation when we both received our very first EX Raid pass for 2:00-2:45pm ICC Hong Kong on 8 April. We were ecstatic that we got to catch a Mewtwo together!
When we were approaching the ICC Hong Kong Gym just after 1:30pm on 8 April hoping to win the Gym before the raid, we were shocked to see that the raid will end in less than 15 minutes. Needless to say, with so few people getting EX Raid passes there were already no other trainers left and two trainers has no chance to beat Mewtwo. The pass we received had the WRONG time listed on it and were therefore useless!
It is clearly Niantic’s mistake that the EX Raid Pass lists the raid time as ‪2:00-2:45pm while the actual raid took place ‪at 1:00-1:45‬pm!
After discussing this for some time, we guess that there must be a glitch in Niantic’s system that issue EX Raid passes listing the local time of the place where the pass was received (in our case Japan) but not the local time of the location of the actual raid (Hong Kong). HOWEVER, the pass never listed any time zone (e.g. JST), so no one would have thought of any need to convert time. The rules given in the Help Center also did not mention anything about the need to convert time.
Receiving an EX Raid pass is rare and the chance of receiving it while on vacation is infinitestimally small. It is clearly the case that Niantic’s system never accounted for this. There is clearly a glitch in their system that caused the wrong time being given on the EX Raid pass.
And since my son and I now play less and less together due to his busy school work, it is very likely that we will NEVER receive EX Raid Passes together again! Niantic had just rob us of a great memory!
It simply makes no sense to list the local time of where the pass is received and not the local time of the raid location. It’s like airlines listing my flight time from London back to Hong Kong using local Hong Kong time instead of London time where I board the flight. Ironically listing local time of where the pass is received is only useful for “spoofers” who use GPS-cheaters to play abroad!
I have so far encountered nothing but frustration from my dealing with Niantic’s “Help Center” since reporting the case. I had dealt with no less than 7 of their “Support” staff over 2 weeks with 4 separate reports and they have been dismissive, irresponsible, and down right disrespectful. They gave conflicting information and had refused to compensate my son and me for their mistake. This whole event really wasted a lot of my time and stressed both of us out as my son asks me for updates many times a day.
Now finally, one of their staff apologizes today and offered - TWO PREMIUM RAID PASSES!! I told him to keep them. I didn’t want to share this horrible experience but I believe fellow trainers should be aware of this glitch.
