'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
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Customer Service and You
lahnmir
Member LegendaryPosts: 5,050
Browsing through these forums a point I see getting mentioned fairly often when it comes to MMORPGs and their publishers is that people dislike said publisher because its customer service is so bad. It gets mentioned a lot when it comes to companies like Aeria, Trion etc. That made me wonder, as an avid MMO player, how many times have I actually used customer service and how bad was it? It turned out that in the last 13 years of playing MMOs I have only used customer service TWICE. Once with Square-Enix and its convulted billing system for FF11 and once with Trion for AA and the founder rewards not being recieved. Both issues were resolved in a matter of hours, nothing spectecular.
So, lets be honest here, how many times are you guys actually using Customer Service and how horrible are your experiences? I can only speak from my own experience of course but bad customer Service does not seem like a big issue with an MMO, you play and pay sub, you cancel sub, done. I am sincerely curious about your experiences.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
So, lets be honest here, how many times are you guys actually using Customer Service and how horrible are your experiences? I can only speak from my own experience of course but bad customer Service does not seem like a big issue with an MMO, you play and pay sub, you cancel sub, done. I am sincerely curious about your experiences.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Comments
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
Customer service is not ONLY companies answering help tickets/petitions. It's also how they interact with players (customers) on their media sites and forums. Both with you personally and other players. Now days there is more to customer service than just answering a ticket (Which 99% of the time is a copy and pasted automated response that answers nothing).
Even if we restrict customer service to just 'tickets' I can tell you I've had the worst experiences with NCSoft. In the first few months of playing Blade and Soul I had to open 3 tickets. The first took 3-4 weeks to resolve, the second one was closed before being resolved without my agreement and the last one was left open and never answered.
Sony/DBG is just as bad. I've had over a dozen tickets with them including one that took over a month to resolve where I was unable to access a character and they claimed it was 'deleted' even though it very much was not. In the end it was a fault on their end where they had merged character files together and the best they could do to resolve it was to delete TWO of my characters and roll them back a month. While deleting one and rolling it back was fine, as I had not had access to it for the month anyway, they also ended up deleting the one I had been actively working on replacing my missing character with. They, of course, made this decision without first asking me if I was okay with rolling both of them back. Imagine actively being logged in and playing a character, going link dead and then logging back in to find you've lost levels/gear/money/etc with no warning.
Trion never answers tickets in my experience. I had a ticket open when I was playing Archeage that after a two weeks I gave up getting an answer on.
So, yes, companies can get bad reps for their 'customer service' and it can be well deserved. Even if you do not personally have issues with a company the interactions between your friends and that company can also affect your perception of them.
Well, needless to say TRION has never seen another cent from me. And I had been a big fan of how they developed RIFT.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Get treated very badly by a company, no matter what that company does, not just gaming. And it sticks with people.
Just the way people are. Everyone has a different amount of tolerance. But whatever that limit is...cross it at your peril. Once a bad impression is made on people..it can last for life.
1. the user is trolling the company with scam reports
2. the user is trolling forum users
3. the game is terrible.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I've worked a few retail jobs between better jobs/college.
The customers are NOT always right. They are borderline stealing in most cases when they buy something , use it over the weekend, then return it for a refund. That is renting, not buying. I've had a couple buy $500 in food every Tuesday and return half of everything on Thursday. Every week and the manager gives up and allows it each time. Guys buy huge TVs before the Superbowl, then return them after the game.
They are cheapskates, liars, frauds, and needy. They want to fight over 10 cents, then treated like royalty. If they want to be treated like royalty, maybe they shouldn't be hanging out in a wholesale store.
So, I can image the needy whines customer service gets from gamers.
I've had a few exceptional experiences in certain MMOs. EQ2 comes to mind where I made some horrific choices like sending stuff to the wrong person or deleting ALL my characters in a fit of merlot rage many years ago. They were exceptional in helping me deal with my boneheaded mistakes and I will always be thankful for the above and beyond customer experience. Blizzard also comes to mind at being exceptional in their customer response. My experiences of course.
I've found that being polite goes a long way...both dealing with gaming companies or other customer support. In fact was telling my friend that I avoided a $700 gas bill (our fault with a leaky line) by talking with the technician, being very polite, etc.
172! ::salute::
You played back when MMORPGs were really steam driven not the steam we have today!
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
Heard that game Oregon Trail had a crazy death penalty back in the day!
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Worst customer service I've ever seen is Square Enix, they hate dealing with their customers. This applies to ff11 and ff14, same team and they are awful. You have to take the day off work to deal with them because they take so long and push you from pillar to post. They really seem to hate their job and it shows. They were always terrible and still are now.
3/10 - going to the dentist it preferable. Contacted them about 6 times over the 2 games over a period of about 5 years.
Enmasse
They were great during pay to play, fast and extremely helpful. They are a lot slower now and removed a lot of options, it's f2p but still seem to genuinely want to help. Haven't played in a couple of years so idk if they are still as they used to be.
8/10 - decent, especially for f2p
Blizzard
These guys are unbelievable, I only played wow for 9 months but the 2 times I contacted CS they blew me away with how fast, helpful and nice they were. Even if you contact the wrong region they will sort your issues out, not like Square Enix where you wait 3 hours to talk to someone and they then tell you it's the wrong region CS and cut you off to wait another 3 hours with the other regions cs.
10/10
Never dealt with any other CS teams.
one person who needed customer services from three different games.
what a coincidence must have a lot of bad luck
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I started working in retail back in 1992, stayed there till the early 2000's and now handle corporate accounts for a uniform company I have come to a few conclusions in my 24 years of servicing people.
1-) You are (generally) only as good as your last performance. Most customer are incredibly quick to love or hate your customer service and it can all change on a single experience.
2-) Customer service is a two person process and sometimes the two people do not work together well. You ever see two great people that you like and wonder why they hate each other? Personality differences can ruin a customer service experience thru no real fault of either party.
3-) Lost in translation. Customers do not always explain themselves clearly and CS staff will often misunderstand a problem. This is much more frequent when one or both parties thinks they know what they are talking about. People will often just stop really listening to you. I had to argue with a Videotron rep for 30 minutes that I had already changed the cord / power bar / outlet and even electrical circuit that my modem was plugged into before he stopped asking me to do these tests. I was red with rage at him not listening to me.
4-) CS Staff need to try and understand the nature of the problem. Because someone is having trouble with an item does not mean that the item is the problem. Sometimes people just need a quick how to class in very simple terms. The best CS staff know how to speak in clear terms that less knowledgeable customers will understand.
5-) Customers need to realize that they can be wrong. Sometimes the problem is something completely different. Try to keep an open mind to what the person on the other end of the line is saying. They should know (at least a little bit) about the product / service.
6-) Customers need to prepare for a CS call. This is probably number 1 with ensuring CS goes smoothly. List what you know, what you do not. What the problem is and anything you think is helpfull information. "It's not working, fix it" is not enough information for people to help you
This wall of text just to say that mileage will vary and that once does not a trend make. Learn how to properly explain your problem, show a little patience and be clear in your expectations and you will get much much better resolutions from even the most mediocre CS staff. Also if the person you are speaking to is really not working out for you there is no shame in asking to speak to someone else.
Cheers,
10 times in 6 years is a lot huh?
Square.
Two were paying for services that were not given, server transfers that didn't transfer my character but payment was taken. One was an overpayment issue (double payment taken for the sub one month), one was a credit card issue with a card that was blocked somehow and they could not take payment so locked me out of my account, another was buying an expansion that was the wrong region and would not link to my account.
Enmasse.
A friend bought and enchanted a weapon to +12 and gave me it as a present, I was on the wrong character and used it on that one instead of my main account because they asked to see how it looked. Totally my mistake but I thought I would ask since this was a huge chunk of time and gold for a present that was now useless. They checked the chat logs, unbound the wepaon and put it on my main. Other was being stuck due to falling through the ground and being in a falling loop forever.
Wow
Friend bought me an expansion pack and it was the wrong region or something, they deleted my cd key and gave me one for the correct region, forget what the other was about.
Irregardless you don't get a cookie for not using CS, that's what its there for.
Like Scorpex-x said, you don't win just because you never used CS and trying to make someone feel bad or imply they're being childish/trolling/stupid because they use CS isn't right either.
Sure, sometimes people go to CS and they are wrong or asking the impossible, but just as many have a legitimate reason to contact CS.
One of my BnS tickets was due to not getting sub services despite paying for it. They still refused to correctly flag my account and simply told me that I had to pay for membership AGAIN.
This was before they added the reoccurring membership. I had originally done a 7-day premium to see if it was worth it then purchased a 30-day premium when I found I was enjoying the game. My bank showed the many was paid, my NCSoft account showed that it had billed the coins and that the 30 day premium membership had been purchased. I never received premium benefits. Instead I spent weeks arguing with them over having already paid it while getting a cookie cutter response of, "you must first purchase a premium membership to have access to premium benefits." Note, this was after sending them screenshots of their own website showing the purchase date and payment.
It was finally 'resolved' after weeks with them reversing my previous charge, banning my account for a charge back that THEY chose to do. Waiting another week to get my account unbanned from what they did and then finally having to repurchase my premium membership again. Obviously though, this is just me being a troll to CS or bad luck (despite others posting about the same issue on the forums) and certainly not the fault of the company.
MMO's are buggy games. There isn't a single MMO that isn't full of bugs. Things happen, characters get stuck and need to be moved. Some games have 'unstuck' options, however, not all. Sometimes this requires tickets to CS to be fixed. I've had to do that in games without 'unstuck' options or when 'unstuck' did not work such as death loops.
Some companies don't have the same agent working on the ticket from start to finish. NCSoft for example has a different CS agent answering the same ticket every time; so you end up explaining over and over again what happened because apparently they are incapable of reading ticket history.
Yes, I hate NCSoft CS and have never had a good experience with them. Honestly, for plenty of people one bad experience can set the tone for future interactions.
As a side note comparing retail to gaming CS my not be the best analogy. We all know people react differently face to face than over the internet. This is also true for CS. Retail stores almost seem to bend over backwards to work with you and at least come to a middle ground. Game CS service is 90% copy and pasted automated response.
CS doesn't really have an impact on the game. If the game is a horrible broken mess then I'm obviously not going to play the game instead of wasting time with CS.
Best customer service for me was when DBG was SOE. Issues in EQ, EQ2, Vanguard and SWG always handled timely with courtesy.
The worst was Funcom. I love Funcom games but I went over a month never giving me anything more than an automated response to my ticket. Honestly, people complain about subsription for games and what do they get out of it. As far as I am concerned, they can keep all their extra xp and bonuses and just give me a 24/7 dedicated support staff like the good old days. That is worth a subscription price imo.