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Does customer service/billing department exist? Not a troll. Account banned.
gruntpyre
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
*Wanted to update OP to reflect that I enjoy the game, have nothing against PWE or Cryptic, and just want my account reinstated and to be able to use the Guardians of Neverwinter pack on my account and be able to play a product I enjoy.*
My account was banned early yesterday after I purchased a Guardians of Neverwinter pack via the founders section. I was all stoked to level my character, and even got to play some after the purchase went through. Deciding to take a break and go about my day, I come back a while later and logged back in. This account has been banned.
Having no idea whatsoever what is wrong, I check my emails/forums etc. Apparently, paypal/banks place temporary holds on suspect purchases (I take that to mean purchases made from companies like PWE).
The purchase was placed on hold, and subsequently approved a few minutes later, but apparently this was enough for PWE to flag my account and automatically ban me electronically.
With that said, I've been trying to reach PWE since yesterday via email and phone. It actually took me a good amount of time to find the alleged customer service/billing support phone number(s) (Really its just one because the corporate number redirects you to the billing number).
I've called upwards of 20+ times today already today, sent numerous emails, website tickets, etc and I have come to the conclusion that unless this issue can be resolved in a timely fashion I'm going to be left with no other recourse but to do a chargeback.
All I want is to play the game, receive the product I ordered, and potentially buy more products in the future.
Has anyone ever successfully reached a human in the customer service/billing department? I really do not want to waste my time dialing the number hundreds of times if its just a fake department.
This is stuck in my head.
"Thank you for calling Perfect World billing services, all of our agents are currently busy. Please hold for the next available agent."
Phone rings more...
"Thank you for calling Perfect World billing. Our business hours are Monday through Friday, 10am through 6:30pm Pacific Time. If you are calling during our normal business hours, all of our agents are currently assisting other customers. Please call back again in a few moments, or check us out on the web at www.perfectworld.com."
Pause
"Thank you. Goodbye. Beep Beep Beep."
My account was banned early yesterday after I purchased a Guardians of Neverwinter pack via the founders section. I was all stoked to level my character, and even got to play some after the purchase went through. Deciding to take a break and go about my day, I come back a while later and logged back in. This account has been banned.
Having no idea whatsoever what is wrong, I check my emails/forums etc. Apparently, paypal/banks place temporary holds on suspect purchases (I take that to mean purchases made from companies like PWE).
The purchase was placed on hold, and subsequently approved a few minutes later, but apparently this was enough for PWE to flag my account and automatically ban me electronically.
With that said, I've been trying to reach PWE since yesterday via email and phone. It actually took me a good amount of time to find the alleged customer service/billing support phone number(s) (Really its just one because the corporate number redirects you to the billing number).
I've called upwards of 20+ times today already today, sent numerous emails, website tickets, etc and I have come to the conclusion that unless this issue can be resolved in a timely fashion I'm going to be left with no other recourse but to do a chargeback.
All I want is to play the game, receive the product I ordered, and potentially buy more products in the future.
Has anyone ever successfully reached a human in the customer service/billing department? I really do not want to waste my time dialing the number hundreds of times if its just a fake department.
This is stuck in my head.
"Thank you for calling Perfect World billing services, all of our agents are currently busy. Please hold for the next available agent."
Phone rings more...
"Thank you for calling Perfect World billing. Our business hours are Monday through Friday, 10am through 6:30pm Pacific Time. If you are calling during our normal business hours, all of our agents are currently assisting other customers. Please call back again in a few moments, or check us out on the web at www.perfectworld.com."
Pause
"Thank you. Goodbye. Beep Beep Beep."
Post edited by gruntpyre on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Some people on these forums claim they try to call 70+ times per day for a couple of days and got no response, and were never able to speak with anyone. So, goodluck!
If all else fails, call your credit card company / bank, and have them reverse the charge.
At this point I'm just curious as to whether there are actual employees that work there, or if its just a diversion.
If that's what I have to do, then that's what I have to do. The sad part is, I just want to play with the guardian pack I purchased.
No. You are speculating on random things when I told you why I was banned.
This is from an email sent to me. I've called my bank and paypal. The holdup is on the end of PWE, not paypal or my bank as paypal has completed the transaction yesterday, and there is no bank hold on the purchase.
The only holdup is that PWE has not updated my account to reflect that the payment has already processed, and their electronic auto-ban system has my account banned immediately after purchasing their Guardian pack.
This is a HUGE disincentive to other players to purchase Guardian packs if they have a similar experience.
Here you go, than ppl think all my hate towards PWE has no fundamental reason...
I'm not here in this thread asking people "how should I respond to getting screwed by the system". I'm asking people if anyone has ever reached a live customer service or billing representative or if I should stop trying to do so.
It is not an acceptable business practice to me to sell a product, immediately restrict the use of that product for an indeterminate amount of time, and provide no real recourse to getting the issue fixed.
this sounds like a raw deal, mate. i've never had to call them myself. but i'd be pretty put out if i were you as well. i hope it's resolved quickly enough!
I bet most people with American banks have trouble with the payment going through, it wouldn't make sense to ban all these people. I wonder why they are making this horrible decision. To be fair though, the customer service is probably flooded with <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> emails right now. I mean have you heard some people talk about some of the things they have emailed customer service about? Hopefully they get your problem resolved, please let us know what happens for when this inevitably happens to one of us.
I don't blame you i just told you how it works. Yes it worked for me earlier and yes it took several days. If you think i'm trolling you because you don't agree with the facts i tell you then you should REALLY take a break. I'm not saying it's normal or fair, i don't care, i'm just telling you how it works, period.
And yes the only way to reach someone is via the support page. It takes 3 to 5 days usually.
Why continue to post on a forum for something you clearly hate? Dimwit
I appreciate the support. I have nothing against PWE. I simply want to use the product I purchased. As soon as this is resolved I will move forward and continue my gameplay experience with nothing held against them. But if I get screwed I'll simply chargeback with my bank and use my money elsewhere and advise anyone I know to do the same.
The moneylenders situation makes sense (its international). I've had to deal with similar when I purchased SimCity. I'm not doubting that they get tons of silly emails. I simply want to know if there is a REAL LIFE customer service or billing department. No matter how many times I've called I get the same fake loop "All of our reps are busy, please hang up and call again" type message.
Are you kidding me? I mean I understand having patience and all that but 5 days? I am sure you would not exhibit that "zen-like" patience when all the OP did was give the company what it wants: money. If they truly value their customers then the old business model of speed, quality and accuracy comes into play. This electronic ban system makes it sound like the company is responding in a cost-efficient way but need to at least maintain a skeleton crew to at least address issues such as these. The whole paypal flagging the payment because it was to PWE not only speaks of a problematic past but justifies that they have in no way did anything to change that past. As a paying customer the OP has the right to question services rendered and if nobody responds has a right to question if there even is a sentient customer service department. This is open beta...you cannot set your game on auto-pilot at this critical stage.
Use the CSSupport page, file a ticket, and enjoy a weekend outside, and when you get to play again, if something seems too good to be true, avoid it.
I would hope that a company concerned with making money would respond to customer issues related to making money. If not, they should prioritize how they respond to issues/complaints. Issues that impact their bottom-line like purchases that were made and not received, or resulted in accounts getting banned will cause them to lose a current purchase, and future income from myself (and possibly others in my network). Any company worth its salt prioritizes responding to similarly situated customers as myself. I don't really care if someone else is complaining and emailing them their opinions on game balance and don't get a response.
I had troubles with zen not showing up. I can rightfully say their phone line is a sham. It just doesn't exist. But just be patient send in one level headed ticket and wait. They will fix it . Their communication just sucks. A lot.
Like you, I have to ask, has anyone spoken to - or even received a response from, a living human from customer service?
Listen. I'm trying to be civil and logical here. I don't need lifestyle tip advice from people. The basic premise of my post was that I was playing the game, decided to take a break and enjoy some time outside of the game. The product I purchased was not delivered and my account was banned afterwards.
Today is Thursday. Your weekend comment is not only irrelevant to me as well, but not timely. Unless you are conceding they won't even respond before the weekend.
Average customer service doesn't seem "too good to be true". Its what I expect as a consumer for any product, whether it be in real life or online. I'm not asking for exceptional customer service. I'm asking for average customer service. And I'm asking whether anyone ever has EVER spoken with a PWE live representative.
I appreciate your post if you are trying to calm me down, but its not necessary.
I used my account card from the bank even tho it was an international purchase, I still got it to go thru. There was a call from my bank asking me if i had done the transaction, maybe paypal can actually learn from my bank so other people won't have this problem.
I've seen this happen in AoC, WoW, D3, GW2, the same exact thing every time. Paypal is garbage.
Just do a chargeback get a prepaid visa and pay for it that way it will save you alot of time.
I understand why it happened. Its because Paypal reviews suspect transactions. I'm certain they review transactions from accounts to Perfect World Entertainment because of the history of people hacking paypal/PWE accounts. The problem I have is that the purchase had a temporary hold, was almost automatically resolved from hold and labeled as complete, and the purchase went through. I have paid for the purchase. It is done.
The only holdup is on the part of the seller (PWE).
Just like you, I absolutely love Cryptic. I have nothing against PWE, I'm actually unfamiliar with their overall practices in other games. City of Heroes was one of my favorite games ever.
One of the reasons I'm posting this entire thing isn't because I'm lacking in patience. That's debatable, but I've waited on things before. I have several novels to read. I'm playing with my dogs today while off work. Chores that are being done etc.
I just think its helpful for myself to have a visible issue that can hopefully be resolved by an appropriate party escalating the ticket, and also, helping others who are in a similar situation or will be in the future, get some kind of answer as to what the appropriate thing to do is, and whether it is worth the time attempting to call billing/customer service.
I'm playing a Guardian after all
Their default message, when you can do a quest to find the number itself (using your real life dungeoneering secret door discovery technique), is that all representatives are busy and you should call back later.
Again, I don't blame PWE for suspending accounts with the paypal hold process. It's understandable. What I take issue with is being advised to submit a ticket, not receiving a timely response, being told a customer service/billing phone number exists, and being unable to reach anyone for 2 consecutive days during business hours.