As many of you who read my pieces know, I’d been having nothing but trouble with Ubisoft’s customer support for a while now. I had written first about my frustrations with their denial of the issue, and again over an ironic situation where I was sent an automated survey to ask me what I thought of their customer support.

Even though I had resigned myself that I likely would never see the bonus Blood Ruby mission for which I pre-ordered the game in time, I had told Ubisoft that I would not be giving up. Ever. A statement I held to each time I responded to their notice that my work order ticket thingy would be closed.

And then something miraculous happened.

Last week, absolutely out of the blue, I received an email via the Game Informer website stating it was from “Jem” (this may surprise you, but that wasn’t his real name) from Ubisoft who had somehow seen my pieces and wanted to see if he could get me the appropriate code for the Blood Ruby mission.

I’m not kidding, I think I read that message three times before I realized it didn’t quite sound like a joke. I looked at the profile it was sent from and it showed that it had just been created. All at once the joy of the situation hit me and I threw a fist pump in the air and actually shouted, “YEAHHHHHHHHH!!!”

(I did that in public, by the way.)

As soon as I returned to my computer, I wrote him back, thanking him for reaching out to me and letting him know that this meant (and still means) a great deal to me. I told him which platform I had pre-ordered the game for, again thanking him for anything he could do.

Less than 24 hours later, I heard back from him. With, at long last, my Blood Ruby mission code.

(insert choir of angels singing here)

I wasted no time in entering the code to make sure it worked. It did. Color me one majorly happy camper.

I have nothing but sincere thanks to Jem for making this happen. I have no idea how he came across anything I wrote, but the fact that he did and that he took action on my behalf, well, it darn near caused me to have an emotional response. There are still good ones out there, folks. Jem is proof.

Do I wish the end result was the rule rather than the exception? Of course. I’ve seen the forums out there talking about all the people who never received their codes either. I stuck with the silliness because of the principle. I know folks who said it wasn’t worth it, and I feel badly that they didn’t get something they paid for and just decided to not pursue it because it would be a headache (I was proof of that).

Ubisoft: you are darn lucky you have people like Jem working for you. This guy was an exception to your customer support. Please rethink your stance toward the people who write in for help. They love your games like I do, and just want to get what they paid for.

Do I understand there are probably people out there trying to cheat the system? Yes. Are there alternate ways to find out if that’s true? Yes, I believe so.

I had stopped playing Far Cry 4 on principle until the subject was put to rest. Jem made something wonderful happen and, as soon as I return home from seeing family for the holidays, you can bet I will be sitting down to explore every inch of Kyrat. I will also raise a glass of iced tea to Jem for his efforts. He will always be what I remember most about this experience. And that sometimes, amazing things will happen when you persevere. Or are exceptionally lucky. Or both.

Jem, I have no idea if you will ever see this, but thank you so much for showing me that Ubisoft is more than the sum of its parts. And that you, specifically, made my most-anticipated game of 2014 come back into focus.

I even got to hang on to my principles in the matter.

Cheers, friends. And may the holidays treat you as wonderfully as you each deserve.