Customer Service - What a Joke

shahualing · May 2013

Three weeks it took. For them to cancel my ticket without an answer.

Well this is their answer it seems;

As Lewstelamon01 has pointed out, posting ticket replies is against the Rules of Conduct.

I'm sorry to hear you're having a bad experience. If you are still experiencing trouble please do submit a new ticket with as many details as you have.

Thanks!

This is beyond terrible CS...I don't think I've ever encountered CS this bad before this.

lewstelamon01 · May 2013

You know, I'd say "in before the lock" but...dude, even you should know that reopening a closed thread is simply asking for your thread to be locked.

Pretty sure that you were told the same thing in your ticket, and again in your response in that thread. Complaining about it more isn't going to change that.

They ARE hiring more CS reps but as those reps need to be trained, it's nowhere near an immediate solution to the problem.

l1d3n · May 2013

They are trying... have patience.

lyokira · May 2013

Not just reopening a ticket, but now also clearly admitting that you're using multiple alts.

igglypiggly · May 2013

at least they got to your ticket within 3 weeks, even if it wasnt a satisfactory answer. if youd like to complain about bad customer service, take a look at nexon. pwe's customer service is a dream compared to that to be honest. be grateful this isnt nexon.

hell theres even a running gag about nexon for that exact reason. something goes wrong in their games you got "nexoned" its common knowledge that any tickets sent will go unanswered, no money refunded, you got hacked? too bad. your NX poofed? too bad, you got nexoned. auto banned for a glitch they accidentally introduced and didnt fix? nexoned.

sometimes you need a little perspective to realize how good other games customer services are in relation.

mrpikkerd · May 2013

igglypiggly wrote: »

at least they got to your ticket within 3 weeks, even if it wasnt a satisfactory answer. if youd like to complain about bad customer service, take a look at nexon. pwe's customer service is a dream compared to that to be honest. be grateful this isnt nexon.

They MASS CLOSED ALL TICKETS. That's not getting back to the person, it's giving up.

lyokira · May 2013

mrpikkerd wrote: »

They MASS CLOSED ALL TICKETS. That's not getting back to the person, it's giving up.

Just because the ticket is closed doesn't mean the issue is not being attended to. Sometimes this is done because they already have a solution being implemented, or there's just too many people posting the exact same issue: 1 report is as useful as a million, if they give the exact same information.

igglypiggly · May 2013

mrpikkerd wrote: »

They MASS CLOSED ALL TICKETS. That's not getting back to the person, it's giving up.

so resubmit, theyll still get to you when they ACTUALLY can, which means a week or 2. consider how flooded their customer service must be at this moment due to the exploit. the fact remains they will still get to you.

mrpikkerd · May 2013

lyokira wrote: »

just because the ticket is closed doesn't mean the issue is not being attended to. Sometimes this is done because they already have a solution being implemented, or there's just too many people posting the exact same issue: 1 report is as useful as a million, if they give the exact same information.

every ticket.

The guy who had his account locked because he bought a founders pack.
The exploit report on how to loot chests unlimited times
The request for information on what was lost in the rollback.

EVERY TICKET.

hydroman · May 2013

Better off trying to find a fix in the forums or in game tbh. The tweets page can also be used. They have so many little issues and tickets to sort through atm.

mrpikkerd · May 2013

igglypiggly wrote: »

so resubmit, theyll still get to you when they ACTUALLY can, which means a week or 2. consider how flooded their customer service must be at this moment due to the exploit. the fact remains they will still get to you.

Not interested in opening another ticket. They have my unlimited looting of chests expoit in their history. I'm sure we'll have a rollback when people realize they can loot instance chests as many times as they like instead of just fixing it now.

When I'm told by the bug reports forum moderator to make a ticket and do so, don't get ANYTHING for 2 weeks, then the EXPLOIT REPORT is closed during a mass ticket purge. Screw them. They lost my good will.

igglypiggly · May 2013

seriously *** hole? you want to post that on the forums so people google it and we have another huge clusterfk of exploitation and 2 days downtime? way to go.

mrpikkerd · May 2013

igglypiggly wrote: »

seriously *** hole? you want to post that on the forums so people google it and we have another huge clusterfk of exploitation and 2 days downtime? way to go.

I didn't post how to do it, just that there was one. I've made an in game ticket, created a thread on the bug report forum, posted a PM to multiple forum moderators and emailed customersupport. SO yes, I want people to google it and exploit it and make it get fixed because perfectworld has showed us with this mass closing and ignoring of tickets that that is how they want the bug fixing to go.

lyokira · May 2013

I won't be surprised if they are actually overfilling their ticket database, so they had to do a mass archiving and delete so that they can receive more. Just a theory of course, nothing substantiated.

fongador · May 2013

lewstelamon01 wrote: »

You know, I'd say "in before the lock" but...dude, even you should know that reopening a closed thread is simply asking for your thread to be locked.

Pretty sure that you were told the same thing in your ticket, and again in your response in that thread. Complaining about it more isn't going to change that.

They ARE hiring more CS reps but as those reps need to be trained, it's nowhere near an immediate solution to the problem.

Doesn't matter if it is locked. The CS in this game does suck. Game has been out how long now and while I cannot use the Gateway from my pc at work as have another minority they won't do anything about it. Because there aren't enough complaints.

/shrugs

Simply shooting themselves in the foot. With a double barrel shotgun...

Honestly? Your best chance of getting something resolved is mentioning it here in the hopes someone will see it.

mrpikkerd · May 2013

fongador wrote: »

Honestly? Your best chance of getting something resolved is mentioning it here in the hopes someone will see it.

Which is exactly the wrong way to do Customer Support.

skalt112 · May 2013

I don't see how anyone can defend the CS here. The mass closing of tickets makes it seem like they have little respect for the time it took to create the ticket, and the amount of time the customer has had to wait for resolution.

I know they are swamped, and have difficult jobs, but this is just disrespectful to customers.

fongador · May 2013

mrpikkerd wrote: »

Which is exactly the wrong way to do Customer Support.

I know which is why I agree to an extent with the OP and is one of many areas this game is lacking.

lewstelamon01 · May 2013

skalt112 wrote: »

I don't see how anyone can defend the CS here. The mass closing of tickets makes it seem like they have little respect for the time it took to create the ticket, and the amount of time the customer has had to wait for resolution.

I know they are swamped, and have difficult jobs, but this is just disrespectful to customers.

Which is worse: the ticket sitting in limbo and people complaining that the tickets never get answered....or mass closing tickets over a certain age and hoping the queue is repopulated with legitimate issues rather than a mess of gameplay-related tickets and other issues that don't even NEED a ticket (things, for instance, that a wiki or the forums can answer)?

This wasn't a choice between a good idea and a bad idea, nor was it intentional disrespect. It was the choice of which was the lesser of two evils.

vaeledrin · May 2013

lewstelamon01 wrote: »

Which is worse: the ticket sitting in limbo and people complaining that the tickets never get answered....or mass closing tickets over a certain age and hoping the queue is repopulated with legitimate issues rather than a mess of gameplay-related tickets and other issues that don't even NEED a ticket (things, for instance, that a wiki or the forums can answer)?

This wasn't a choice between a good idea and a bad idea, nor was it intentional disrespect. It was the choice of which was the lesser of two evils.

Why the dichotomy? I choose option 3. Use funds to hire more QA and expand the CS department. Then fire all of them a few months before the game collapses (if and when it does).

lewstelamon01 · May 2013

vaeledrin wrote: »

Why the dichotomy? I choose option 3. Use funds to hire more QA and expand the CS department. Then fire all of them a few months before the game collapses (if and when it does).

And have you happened to check the PWE careers page before making such a statement? http://www.pwe-inc.com/career You'd note that they're already on that process.

Hiring more people is a long term solution. A short term decision had to be made in the meantime.

I really don't understand why people think that the solution is as simple as "throw more people at it, duh!!" Hiring those people requires training and the expense of paying them. Not to mention not all of them will pan out.

Seriously, do you think that a schmoe fresh off the street, with no training, can satisfactorily solve customer issues?

johnny305 · May 2013

They punish players that play legit I guess....

skalt112 · May 2013

lewstelamon01 wrote: »

Which is worse: the ticket sitting in limbo and people complaining that the tickets never get answered....or mass closing tickets over a certain age and hoping the queue is repopulated with legitimate issues rather than a mess of gameplay-related tickets and other issues that don't even NEED a ticket (things, for instance, that a wiki or the forums can answer)?

This wasn't a choice between a good idea and a bad idea, nor was it intentional disrespect. It was the choice of which was the lesser of two evils.

Doing the exact same thing again and expecting a different result is just crazy. Are you suggesting they cleared the queue of tickets in the hopes that they will have a better outcome next time the queue gets jam packed? That is pretty poor management no matter how you try to spin it. It looks more like they are trying to discourage people from submitting tickets. Whether it's true or not, that is the perception.

If I treated any of my customers like this, I would never expect to see them again. There is a reason they call this customer service, and for most business, customers are the basis of their ability to create revenue.

vaeledrin · May 2013

lewstelamon01 wrote: »

And have you happened to check the PWE careers page before making such a statement? http://www.pwe-inc.com/career You'd note that they're already on that process.

I really don't understand why people think that the solution is as simple as "throw more people at it, duh!!" Hiring those people requires training and the expense of paying them. Not to mention not all of them will pan out.

Seriously, do you think that a schmoe fresh off the street, with no training, can satisfactorily solve customer issues?

On the process you say? You mean it should have been done before hand since we all know that Cryptic is incapable of releasing products without major exploits in it. As if we haven't learned from the good 'ol days of Blizzard and what not regarding MMO releases. So what if they over-expand initially? They can always cut back and still profit a hefty amount while engendering good will by not having their queue overflowing.

And yes, you could probably take any person off the streets, and train them within a week to handle these things. You could probably write a program that could handle it too. You can also pay minimum wage or offer 'internships' or find some way to garner your slave labor. It isn't that hard (unless you're looking to skate by with the bare minimum).

The final solution is always "Throw more manpower and money at it" because it works - you really shouldn't underestimate humanity.

As a great friend and mentor of mine once said, "Quantity has a quality all its own."

lyokira · May 2013

johnny305 wrote: »

They punish players that play legit I guess....

They punish people who haven't realized that this is a beta, with all the rollbacks and etc that goes along with one.

lewstelamon01 · May 2013

vaeledrin wrote: »

On the process you say? You mean it should have been done before hand since we all know that Cryptic is incapable of releasing products without major exploits in it. As if we haven't learned from the good 'ol days of Blizzard and what not regarding MMO releases. So what if they over-expand initially? They can always cut back and still profit a hefty amount while engendering good will by not having their queue overflowing.

And yes, you could probably take any person off the streets, and train them within a week to handle these things. You could probably write a program that could handle it too. You can also pay minimum wage or offer 'internships' or find some way to garner your slave labor. It isn't that hard (unless you're looking to skate by with the bare minimum).

The final solution is always "Throw more manpower and money at it" because it works - you really shouldn't underestimate humanity.

As a great friend and mentor of mine once said, "Quantity has a quality all its own."

You're forgetting a few major things in your argument there:

1. Minimum wage in CA is far above the federal minimum wage. So even at minimum wage you're not looking at cheap labor.

2. You better have a lot of interns to handle the flood of tickets CS is getting for NW alone. Using interns for that kind of work, at any rate, is a waste of their talent. Interns are usually getting unpaid work for college-level positions--the kind that require a degree or study in the field they are working...basically, it's comparable to a residency for their chosen field of study.

3. Training, a week? At what company that isn't fast-food? I did much the same work and the minimum training period before I was allowed to touch the live queue was two weeks. You have orientation, systems training, etc. Sure, you can probably get by with a week training.....if you want to wind up with what amounts to a half-arsed solution that isn't much better than the one you got.

Again, it's at best a mid- to long-term solution to hire more people, unless your job requires minimal training--e.g.: something that doesn't require access to sensitive information such as billing/account questions.

qualexious · May 2013

shahualing wrote: »

Three weeks it took. For them to cancel my ticket without an answer.

Well this is their answer it seems;

This is beyond terrible CS...I don't think I've ever encountered CS this bad before this.

Did you expect something better from Corruptic? I have absolutely no faith in this cash-cow game or anyone involved in it. The only reason I am on their forums is because it's like a horrific car accident, it bothers you but you can't seem to look away. I just visit to see how high the flood waters are on this sinking ship. Also, trying to reason or complain to Corruptic with hopes of of improvements is like polishing brass on the Titanic, it doesn't need to look good when this ***** sinks.

qualexious · May 2013

lyokira wrote: »

They punish people who haven't realized that this is a beta, with all the rollbacks and etc that goes along with one.

Then why not wipe?
Then why not refund ZEN?
Then why ban people for "testing" exploits?
Then why not communicate the broken state of the game to their "testers"?

You keep telling yourself this is BETA. The only thing they are testing is a bunch of sheople donating cold hard cash straight to their bank account.

azuregate · May 2013

Lol at the deluded fanboys believing that the mass closure of tickets will all "eventually" be looked into.

Protip: They won't.

davan9k · May 2013

fanboys, fanboys everywhere.

the customer service around here is not existing. charge your money back thats the only way.

czeslawczad · May 2013

It actually blows my mind right open when I read people saying, that "they're trying" or "they'll get to you in a week or two". Sweet mother of whatever what in the name of seven nonexistant hells are you talking about? How can you even try to say "it's ok for a company to accept their customers' money and not provide any customer service whatsoever"?

Imagine you're in a convenience shop, you have some bread and butter in your basket and you're waiting in a long queue to the checkout. The line doesn't seem to be moving, so you ask the person in front of you what's going on. He says "the checkout assistant isn't here, they're hiring someone, it might take them a week or two". Then the owner of the store comes in, tells everyone to gtfo and says "if you're still interested in buying stuff come back inside again, you'll be served... one day". Would that also be "allright" for you? Where the hell do you live?

Regards,
Kalantris

Customer Service - What a Joke

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