GM recklessness with tickets...

albayaty · November 2020

I've been trying to get an answer to my ticket #343873 for almost 3 days now, and the lazy staff who are reviewing the tickets just keep marking it as solved without even replying! WTF?

This is not the first time happening, i've noticed this behavior before but I always just moved on.... Why the fk don't they reply? isn't that their job?

Have any of you encountered such recklessness before?

nic1985 · November 2020

Honestly of the few tickets I've submitted, all the response have been detailed, helpful, solved. My last ticket was about a lockbox item and it was resolve within couple days. Can you share what your ticket is about?

reg1981 · November 2020

I get replies, but at the same time marked as solved without items being resolved.

plasticbat · November 2020

My experience is "their solve" is not the same as "our solve".
Their understanding of the problem usually is wrong on the 1st try (and/or read my ticket carelessly).

I usually need to spend 2 to 3 extra emails to explain to them which part of the issue they misunderstood although the 1st email already had all the information. They often mixed up things. When I say A, they think I was talking about B. After I told them I was talking about A in the ticket which is not their B, slowly, they understand. Then, we can go somewhere and they found out more and told me it is a bug. However, that usually means they can't do anything besides a sorry.

I consider what I wrote in the 1st try is precise, accurate and most importantly, to the point. Yet, they have problem to get it.
If a ticket is 'less' than mine, I can imagine it is not going anyway.

oldbaldyone · November 2020

I have a strong feeling that they are told as a matter of policy, to push back on any request that involves doing anything that could even remotely benefit the player. I asked for an item to be restored at once point - and item that really has no impact on gameplay at all honestly - and unless I could provide basically the day and time it was removed, within an unrealistic amount of a window, that they could not even see that I ever had the item. I don't buy that for a second, having had many years of experience with game backend systems, but even then - why not?

I get it - gamers will try ANYTHING to get ahead, but its like the support for this game and others is basically "The customer is always trying to get an advantage, so just so no".

mentinmindmaker · November 2020

oldbaldyone said:

I get it - gamers will try ANYTHING to get ahead, but its like the support for this game and others is basically "The customer is always trying to get an advantage, so just so no".

And sadly, they probably would be right if they did not have a strict policy.

The way I understand it, any claims must be substantiated by a known bug and/or log entries or else you get a no.

It is not always very fair.

The problem here probably is OP expecting support to do as he asks, while support concludes this is in the 'can't do' category so they just say no and close the issue. Without more data it is impossible to tell which is true and reasonable.

hadestemplar · November 2020

albayaty#6456 said:
I've been trying to get an answer to my ticket #343873 for almost 3 days now, and the lazy staff who are reviewing the tickets just keep marking it as solved without even replying! WTF?

This is not the first time happening, i've noticed this behavior before but I always just moved on.... Why the fk don't they reply? isn't that their job?

Have any of you encountered such recklessness before?

Support service is Perfect world staff, which cover not only neverwinter but also other games too.
Every day they get tons of tickets, also they all must follow procedure and investigate each ticket and that require time.

So if you submited ticket and didn't receive any response in 3 days, then it's not that they ignoring it, simply there are simply lot of tickets.

Also not all tickets are same, some have higher priority some smaller. Depend how impactfull is to game.

Remember, that these guys in support service are humans too. Try look to situation from their view point for one moment.

Also remember you are not only one player in this game.

From my experience I can tell you, no game publisher or developer manage to solve tickets in less than 3 days..

Usually it takes a month. if you get quicker response, then you would be extremely lucky.

mistameena · November 2020

hadestemplar#9918 said:

albayaty#6456 said:
I've been trying to get an answer to my ticket #343873 for almost 3 days now, and the lazy staff who are reviewing the tickets just keep marking it as solved without even replying! WTF?

This is not the first time happening, i've noticed this behavior before but I always just moved on.... Why the fk don't they reply? isn't that their job?

Have any of you encountered such recklessness before?
Support service is Perfect world staff, which cover not only neverwinter but also other games too.
Every day they get tons of tickets, also they all must follow procedure and investigate each ticket and that require time.

So if you submited ticket and didn't receive any response in 3 days, then it's not that they ignoring it, simply there are simply lot of tickets.

Also not all tickets are same, some have higher priority some smaller. Depend how impactfull is to game.

Remember, that these guys in support service are humans too. Try look to situation from their view point for one moment.

Also remember you are not only one player in this game.

From my experience I can tell you, no game publisher or developer manage to solve tickets in less than 3 days..

Usually it takes a month. if you get quicker response, then you would be extremely lucky.

I think you missed the part where the OP said they had closed the ticket without a response, not they haven't got to it yet.

@albayaty#6456 - OP, I haven't had any poor response times or any no reply tickets as yet (though granted I don't always get the answer I want), but one thing I might suggest is perhaps look at your tone in your posts/tickets cos honestly when I read yours it kinda came across a tad on the rude side, hopefully your ticket was less aggressive.

hotfrostworm · November 2020

mistameena said:

hadestemplar#9918 said:

albayaty#6456 said:
I've been trying to get an answer to my ticket #343873 for almost 3 days now, and the lazy staff who are reviewing the tickets just keep marking it as solved without even replying! WTF?

This is not the first time happening, i've noticed this behavior before but I always just moved on.... Why the fk don't they reply? isn't that their job?

Have any of you encountered such recklessness before?
Support service is Perfect world staff, which cover not only neverwinter but also other games too.
Every day they get tons of tickets, also they all must follow procedure and investigate each ticket and that require time.

So if you submited ticket and didn't receive any response in 3 days, then it's not that they ignoring it, simply there are simply lot of tickets.

Also not all tickets are same, some have higher priority some smaller. Depend how impactfull is to game.

Remember, that these guys in support service are humans too. Try look to situation from their view point for one moment.

Also remember you are not only one player in this game.

From my experience I can tell you, no game publisher or developer manage to solve tickets in less than 3 days..

Usually it takes a month. if you get quicker response, then you would be extremely lucky.
I think you missed the part where the OP said they had closed the ticket without a response, not they haven't got to it yet.

@albayaty#6456 - OP, I haven't had any poor response times or any no reply tickets as yet (though granted I don't always get the answer I want), but one thing I might suggest is perhaps look at your tone in your posts/tickets cos honestly when I read yours it kinda came across a tad on the rude side, hopefully your ticket was less aggressive.

While I agree the OP sounds a bit abrasive, speaking from the view of someone who has done tech support roles within other companies, I knew most people were upset by the time they got around to calling me. I was phone tech support for Dow Chemical from 1994 to 1996, you would never dream the chemists would use such vulgar and profane language. I was dealing with professionals. Never the less, it always helps the person on the other end of the conversation to keep your cool. I seriously doubt they intentionally ignored the posting.

The issues with Tech Support here, I can only imagine, as I never had need to call on them. As I understand, this Tech Support is message based only and not by phone. They are probably farmed out to individual contractors (working from home) or another country where they get paid about 5 cents for each task. Most support of this nature is done from a "play book" and if you haven't already sent them the information in step 2 of the manual, they will be sure to ask you for it. They normally will attempt to solve the problem with minimal effort and move on marking it solved. If it is unsolved they will move it up to a person with more knowledge. They don't want unresolved and unsolved issues.

Please understand these points;

Collect as much data about your issue as you possibly can, machine type, stats, OS, RAM, cards installed, anything no matter how trivial.
Try to be polite and objective, I know you are on edge, but it speeds results.
Don't open another ticket for the same issue, reopen the current ticket. Don't pay them twice, if Cryptic is paying them, they really don't want you to open multiple tickets. If your ticket is reopened they can't get paid that nickel!
Check back twice a day for another update.
No update then poke them the next day, each day, once a day, "Do you have any further information on my current issue?" should be sufficient.

The OP @albayaty#6456 was last online the 10th, maybe they will update us on the current status this weekend?

I hope that will assist anyone who needs to deal with Tech Support in any situation.

regenerde · November 2020

Well, i had my fair share of problems with the support, and can only say the "GMs" are mostly useless and contacting them for help is a waste of my time... for example, i bought the Mage Slayer companion from the ZEN shop a while back, and was really happy to see that those kind of companions were turned into account-wide unlocks with a recent update.

But that companion didn't show up as unlocked after that update - not a problem, all i have to do is contact the support, and they will sort it out, right?
WRONG!
Answer from a "GM" in essence: "Yep, we can see that you bought that companion, but you won't get it account-wide, since the purchase happended too long ago, bye."
Ticket solved.
WTF?

They could have just unlocked the bloody companion by themself, but they didn't do that.
They could have just handed me a 100% discount coupon for the ZEN shop companion section, but they didn't do that.
They could have simply given me enough ZEN to buy the companion, but they didn't do that.

Funny thing about this... same company, different game, probably same support - the issue was a missing ship from the Star Trek Online ZEN shop, contacted support, provided the information they needed, it took some time, but then the ship was finally unlocked for all my characters.

No offense, but what exactly is the point in keeping a "Customer Support" around in NWO, that is either unable and/or unwilling to actually help their customers?

tchefi · November 2020

regenerde said:
for example, i bought the Mage Slayer companion from the ZEN shop a while back, and was really happy to see that those kind of companions were turned into account-wide unlocks with a recent update.

But that companion didn't show up as unlocked after that update - not a problem, all i have to do is contact the support, and they will sort it out, right?
WRONG!
Answer from a "GM" in essence: "Yep, we can see that you bought that companion, but you won't get it account-wide, since the purchase happended too long ago, bye."

They will never "fix" or "give compensation" for something that they consider "normal", no matter what is your opinion (for you it's not normal), or what are your desires (you want it to be your way), on the subject.

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11477413-mount-changes-%252526-upgrades
august 24th 2020

In many cases the account wide reclaims for companions will be retroactive and players will see the reclaims for past purchases show up for their alts to claim as this change goes live. This does not apply to all companions, and it does not apply to previously limited time event companions such as the Alpha Compy, or companions that are not currently for sale.
Jared Sears
Lead Systems Designer

The companion you bought seem to be one of the "does not apply to all companions" cases.
If other players have this companion, and it is now an account-wide one for them, yep something is wrong on your account and they should do something for you. But if not, then you can't expect anything else from the support but a polite "no".

regenerde · November 2020

Well, the Mage Slayer isn't some special companion, it's one of a few regular companions launched with a campaign/module. The Chultan Hunter and Wiggins are pretty much in the same boat, and i had no problem with reclaiming them.

Beside, how on earth is it normal to acknowledge a purchase, but then refuse to fix an issue regarding it?

Anyway, i'm currently asking around in game about the Mage Slayer, to see if someone else got it unlocked without any issues after buying it a long time ago...

tchefi · November 2020

regenerde said:
Beside, how on earth is it normal to acknowledge a purchase, but then refuse to fix an issue regarding it?

Anyway, i'm currently asking around in game about the Mage Slayer, to see if someone else got it unlocked without any issues after buying it a long time ago...

You get and still have what you bought, on the conditions you have bought it : at the time of your purchase, the offer was 1comp for 1 toon. So there is no issue with what you purchased.

If you bought candle 1 week ago, and today the candle shop does a 3 for the price of 1 offer, can you argue with the shopper to get 2 more candles for free ? You can ^^, but the shopper is also free to decide to make a commercial gesture of good will, or not ^^.

But I understand, personnally I feel like it's a shame that they didn't make every "standard" companion in the Zenstore retroactively account-wide (they should have kept "event" ones only as 1 comp/purchase). All or none, but "some yes and some no" (and we dont tell you which ones are in the "no" case), they again just fired a bullet in their feet...

c1k4ml3kc3 · November 2020

I've been trying for a very long time now to get two particular items to appear once again in my inventory by contacting the Support.

One would be the Sunset Orb, and another one would the Eyepatch.

Both of these would be purely fashion items that are missing from my collection and got lost in the process of introducing the new Fashion system some time ago.

The Eyepatch item is claimable and reclaimable on each of my toons except the main one.
I will try again to contact the support and hope that someone will resolve this for me.
I've been trying this many times and best answer I got was that the technical limitations prevent the reacquisition of the item, meaning that the item was already present in the Mailbox of one of the alt characters, which possibly prevented getting it on the main toon.
If anyone encounters a similar problem, just make sure that you have no items in your Mailbox as that might prevent getting some.

I had a few issues solved for me, however. Like the return of the enchantment I lost accidentally by refining it, as well as the Vorpal Enchantment. Although the Lesser Vorpal Enchantment (at the time it was called like that) I had was unbound, I got it back as Bound, possibly to prevent selling it for about 200.000AD at the time.
The item I got back was returned to me, but Refinement points were taken away as a compensation.

If anything, this confirms that there should be no effects or actions that allow the Players to have their items returned, and I know for a fact that there are people who will exploit this system just to get a few items, possibly for story progression, which is why I also understand why the Support should be cautious and professional in doing their job.

However, I also think that Fashion items shouldn't be much of an issue to solve for any Support or GM. I am not getting any benefit that I didn't already have, right? So, an item I got claimable for codes should be claimable for me on all toons I make, account-wide.

But for the longest time I advocated for the Manaseeker and Sunset weapons to be purchasable/claimable from the SOMI/Barovia. I hope someone will take notice of this.

plasticbat · November 2020

regenerde said:
Well, the Mage Slayer isn't some special companion, it's one of a few regular companions launched with a campaign/module. The Chultan Hunter and Wiggins are pretty much in the same boat, and i had no problem with reclaiming them.

Beside, how on earth is it normal to acknowledge a purchase, but then refuse to fix an issue regarding it?

Anyway, i'm currently asking around in game about the Mage Slayer, to see if someone else got it unlocked without any issues after buying it a long time ago...

There is a cut off purchase date for reclaiming companion to be account wide. i.e. if you purchased before that date, you would not get the account wide. Chult Tiger was 'invented' after the cut off and should be re-claimable but I can't (some other players can). When I reported it, they also said it is too old, brah, brah, ... I pointed out to them that the purchase date is after their posted cut off date. Then, finally, they admitted it should be claimable but they could not do anything and would submit the report to the dev team and asked me to post here. Well, I actually started a thread days before I reported to them.

The end result is the same. I do not get my Tiger. Support closed the ticket. @nitocris83 said she reported to the dev team. Nothing happens. I bet it will be another items that will stay under the rug forever and everybody will either forget about it or too tire to bring it up to go through the same thing.

hadestemplar · November 2020

mistameena said:

I think you missed the part where the OP said they had closed the ticket without a response, not they haven't got to it yet.
.

Firstly question is what the report where about, also have been multiple tickets about same thing from same player.
Also there where cases like player submit ticket, and even though problem where solved, players submit yet another ticket about same thing and hope for different outcome.
So in such case it's normal that staff mark ticket as solved without any respond.

So untill we would know what it was about, it's simply nonsese to claim that staff doing wrongly.

regenerde said:
Well, i had my fair share of problems with the support, and can only say the "GMs" are mostly useless and contacting them for help is a waste of my time... for example, i bought the Mage Slayer companion from the ZEN shop a while back, and was really happy to see that those kind of companions were turned into account-wide unlocks with a recent update.

But that companion didn't show up as unlocked after that update - not a problem, all i have to do is contact the support, and they will sort it out, right?
WRONG!
Answer from a "GM" in essence: "Yep, we can see that you bought that companion, but you won't get it account-wide, since the purchase happended too long ago, bye."
Ticket solved.
WTF?

They could have just unlocked the bloody companion by themself, but they didn't do that.
They could have just handed me a 100% discount coupon for the ZEN shop companion section, but they didn't do that.
They could have simply given me enough ZEN to buy the companion, but they didn't do that.

Funny thing about this... same company, different game, probably same support - the issue was a missing ship from the Star Trek Online ZEN shop, contacted support, provided the information they needed, it took some time, but then the ship was finally unlocked for all my characters.

No offense, but what exactly is the point in keeping a "Customer Support" around in NWO, that is either unable and/or unwilling to actually help their customers?

There are multiple type problems, some can be fixed by them( support team) some stuffs can be fixed only by game developers.

There are limitations to what they can do.

hotfrostworm · November 2020

For those of you saying some item needed to be replaced or fixed, I seriously disbelieve the support has any control over the database. As I said above in my last posting, if they are contracted (farmed) support, then they definitely do not have any control, other than reading tips and tricks from the manual given to them by the company. If your issue is more global, effecting more than one user, then it will be handled by those in charge of the database. Sometimes even with a minor global issue, if the problem effects only a tiny percentile of users, the team in charge might decide to ignore it.

To cite a real world customer service problem; The Ford Pinto was infamous for exploding when struck in the rear. The impact would shove the exhaust into the gas tank and ignite. Ford fixed the cars brought to the dealerships, by installing a tiny rubber bracket between the exhaust and fuel tank. They did not deem it was worth recall over such a minor issue that was easy to repair. Ford played the numbers out and decided offering a fix was cheaper.

If you look at contracted tech support as the dealership who works for Ford, they couldn't offer you another car, that was beyond their control. The dealership only passed the information up to Ford, Ford then hands the dealership their decision, and it appears the dealership fixed your problem. I personally didn't like the repair and drove my Ford Pinto to the scrapyard, I could not in good conscience pass a death trap on to another living person. Many people excepted the fix and moved along while others, never bought or owned another Ford automobile for as long as they lived, but that is another story.

In short, unless the Game Moderators work inside the same building housing the servers, they do not have any control to add, remove, or exchange items on your account.

regenerde · November 2020

Well, here comes a fun fact, some GMs seem to be able to actually do exactly that - replace an item. A fellow player got a Mount Insignia replaced by a GM, he had to give them a few details about it, but he did get the right insignia in the end.

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1253941/improved-bag-of-holding-bound-to-account-bug/
the player contacted me during this mess, and he even gave me a screenshot from that ticket, it didn't help with my ticket about the bag issue, but it was worth a try.

And please don't tell me that a mount insignia is that much different from a bag... and yes, when a regular GM gave me the "Sorry, we can't (or rather won't) help you with this problem." answer, i often (kindly) asked them to elevate the ticket, but even the "Special GMs" would give me the same brush-off reply and "solve" the ticket.

sagakaiyume · November 2020

I know of someone a couple years back accidentally dropped a stack of rank 5 enchants (Was trading them to his wife, had to unbind them). He sent in a ticket and was given it back with a warning to mark it as protected.

GM recklessness with tickets...

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