You are not adding to the conversation troll so please move on.
The new Defiance game has been a nice distraction (especially if you are a Borderlands fan) as it is free to play around on this weekend. Even more interesting to see Rift going free to play next month.
I think you are acting emotional. In summary he is right, every online service would quickly respond to any kind of chargebacks and the first action is suspend your account.
I will avoid the term banned here, because some companies will make a final decision after the issue was investigated by their customer support. He is not trolling you by telling you the truth. Frustration is understandable but the ones who have reversed the payment were also at fault.
This could have been avoided by thinking before acting.
it's a DISPUTE not a charge back or payment reversal.
They are VERY different, its the first step in a process, granted it should be used as a last resort but it requests the opposite party respond to the disputees greviance , ie enforces some to provide customer services.
I'm sure that although the OP was hasty in opening a dispute if he had his issue recognised he would not of done it.
My opinion, both parties are to blame, OP for being to hasty and pwe for not addressing the issue or even saying they would and having an overly aggressive ban/suspension policy
Losing a customer or allowing people to get away with reversing charges without first exhausting all mechanisms for handling the problem?
I'd do the first. If you're reversing charges that quickly? You're NOT a good customer. Some forms of customer behavior aren't worth putting up with for any dollar amount, and that's one.
Again, right and wrong and self-defense go out the window in business if you strive to be a premium standard of customer service.
And in the end, beyond IP licenses and good gameplay/content, I think having a premium customer service experience is going to be part of what will dictate the success of western F2P games.
Elements of F2P that work on human psychology will generally still work in western markets (such as lockboxes). I see no reason for F2P companies not to employ those. However, in countries with smaller (often culturally homogeneously clustered) populations and higher average income (which I'd say the US, UK, Canada, Germany and many western markets are), you need, need, need to hemorrhage the rate of churn. And you do that by providing the best, most soothing, most personable, most hassle free customer service experience, not the one that is convenient for the company.
Again, I don't see many places that even offer an Applebee's or a Starbuck's level service experience in MMOs... and I chalk this up to a number of things. But Blizzard does it. And I think it's kept their numbers high. I don't think they're a dinosaur about everything. I also don't think they're the best overall but what they do have is quality phone support with soothing music, good customer service scripts, and are optimized for doing business with customers who expect a low distance to power.
That's where I think PWE is still weak. Their payment systems are clunky. Their customer service policy is below what I'd get at Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart isn't the best at that already.
Somebody who could do everything PWE could do plus smile at the customer, do a bit of Apple style product presentation feng shui, and take a bit of risk on policies to allow for superior customer service (right or wrong) is going to win against PWE in a head to head competition. And if somebody can do those things and have an equal product, they deserve to win because service (not just fairness but service) makes the product.
It's not that the customer is always right. They aren't. It's that inflexible policies to determine right and wrong without investigation are worse than treating the customer like they're always wrong.
it's a DISPUTE not a charge back or payment reversal.
They are VERY different, its the first step in a process, granted it should be used as a last resort but it requests the opposite party respond to the disputees greviance , ie enforces some to provide customer services.
I'm sure that although the OP was hasty in opening a dispute if he had his issue recognised he would not of done it.
My opinion, both parties are to blame, OP for being to hasty and pwe for not addressing the issue or even saying they would and having an overly aggressive ban/suspension policy
Do you really think it makes a difference for cryptic if it is a reversal or a dispute? You are taking money back you agreed to pay for a service. Cryptic is right to put a hammer on it because if they don't then people will start doing it for all kinds of reasons:
- Opened 100 lock boxes no ship, not happy with it so I reversed the payment
- Bought (insert ship name here) I did not like it, so I reversed the payment.
- Customer Support did not answer my ticket within 24 hours after a major release.
- Bought an item but technical issues keep me from claiming it, was asked for patience but I think I deserve better.
Do you really think it makes a difference for cryptic if it is a reversal or a dispute? You are taking money back you agreed to pay for a service. Cryptic is right to put a hammer on it because if they don't then people will start doing it for all kinds of reasons:
- Opened 100 lock boxes no ship, not happy with it so I reversed the payment
- Bought (insert ship name here) I did not like it, so I reversed the payment.
- Customer Support did not answer my ticket within 24 hours after a major release.
- Bought an item but technical issues keep me from claiming it, was asked for patience but I think I deserve better.
Again, is doing the RIGHT thing the FRIENDLY or ENTICING thing?
If not, a company shouldn't be doing the right thing in terms of self-preservation. You save that for when you've exhausted friendly options.
This guy probably jumped the gun on his chargeback but the fact that he's emotional and volatile about this really doesn't warrant (and isn't helped by) PWE's customer service.
It's quite likely that they had an error in delivering the service he purchased. It's also quite likely that he wouldn't get anything done without drawing attention to the issue via chargeback, depending on where the error lies.
At this point, Cryptic, PWE, and the player either find and fix the error by cooperating or they part ways. It'd be a shame for a company and a consumer to part ways because the company is inflexible and the customer is emotional about their purchase getting recognized.
For what it's worth, I think both sides could stand to breathe.
The player needs to continue trying to exhaust his options. He may have been rash but it's unproductive to focus on a decision he already made. He really should just contact Brandon AND billing to resolve the issue and be patient.
Meanwhile, really, PWE shouldn't issue the bans UNTIL an investigation is completed and a chargeback is issued. Issuing bans for a completed chargeback after they've investigated the issue? That I could understand. But they really shouldn't consider a dispute the same as a chargeback. And it's poor form for them to do so.
LOL... really? Pulling out the TOS? Ya, EVERYONE reads those. Of the many games I have played I have never read the TOS and I doubt 95 to 99 percent of people would say the same. ....
But regardless, the TOS document is still a binding legal document, just like the TOS document you have implied agreement with your ISP. Or the rules outlined in your State Drivers Handbook when you go out to drive a car...
Ignorance is simply not a good enough legal reason to invalidate it...
What is wrong with all the fanboys in the thread? Of course he was right to do a chargeback if he cannot access the items he paid for. Banning him for that would at least in Germany be illegal. And no, TOS that are against a law dont apply.
The nicest and sweetest people in the world frequently turn into the worst CS nightmares. One can find many examples of that on websites like "Not always Right" where people share their CS nightmares.
as someone who had worked in customer service all his early years. this site is glorious.
i still remember this father was trying to use his disabled son who had Multiple sclerosis to return a pair of shoes he didn't want anymore.
i told him i see the shoes haven't been worn. do you have a box. his reply NO. do you have a recipe? his reply NO. my reply after that was how do you expect us to resell those shoes. his reply. that's not my damn problem its yours.
my reply well its your problem now. because i'm not taking the shoes back.
For me its simple really. I get not tech support in game. Zero responses from an actual human, if I even get an automated response. And no customer support from the web page either. I When I go through the ticket process for Perfect World. I get a web page error that says my page has been redirected. It says I should enable cookies. I enable cookies and turn security down. And it still does the same thing on three different browsers and PCs. It is like I am on a permanent ban for customer support. I have even submitted a ticket about this in game. I have received no responses at all. My account cold be jacked and I would have no way to contact them. I would probably have to look for a phone number or use snail mail. If there is such a thing for Perfect World.
I guess the true meaning of Perfect World is a Perfect World for them and NOT US!
They don't even seem to respond when people post problems online like these. They don't care about the truth! I see no response from the moderators saying the problems are being worked on and we will see results. They are to afraid to go on record and even acknowledge these problems eve exist!!
There can be only one conclusion. We are right or they would remove this thread altogether. Or at least lock it!
What is wrong with all the fanboys in the thread? Of course he was right to do a chargeback if he cannot access the items he paid for. Banning him for that would at least in Germany be illegal. And no, TOS that are against a law dont apply.
Banning/Suspending is perfectly acceptable. I am not a "fanboy" but I am a CS in another gaming company.
If the system shows you got what you paid for, and you dispute the charges, you are effectively saying that you refuse to pay for what you got.
In order to prevent the customer from logging in, buying more stuff, and then disputing the new charges while an existing dispute is ongoing, 99.999% of companies will place a hold on your account pending resolution of the current dispute.
The Terms of Service is the contact that you agree to when you create an account and access any of the services offered by the company.
You can claim it is illegal all you want, but until you take the company to court and prove that any portion of the ToS is illegal, you are bound by it.
If you don't like it, leave. No one is stopping you. And any company would rather see one person with an attitude leave, no matter how much they pay into the system, then deal with their BS.
WRT the OP claiming that they are a CS "dream". Not hardly. Anyone who opens multiple cases about the same issue and whines in the companies forums is far from a "CS dream" and are usually the ones that CS points out to others on the team with a warning to be aware that the user is filing multiple duplicate cases regarding the same issue.
You have a bug, file a bug report. There is not a damn thing CS can do for you since the system shows your account got credited for the pack. Taking it out on CS won't get the issue resolved and harassing CS over it will only make them annoyed with you.
What is wrong with all the fanboys in the thread? Of course he was right to do a chargeback if he cannot access the items he paid for. Banning him for that would at least in Germany be illegal. And no, TOS that are against a law dont apply.
It's not "fanboys," it's how business works. If someone disputes a charge, you freeze that account. The company doesn't initially know why the dispute occurred, and have to protect themselves in case it was an identity theft issue. Failing to freeze the account, and potentially allowing more charges to be made to that account, would be irresponsible.
____
Keep calm, and continue firing photon torpedoes.
They don't even seem to respond when people post problems online like these. They don't care about the truth! I see no response from the moderators saying the problems are being worked on and we will see results. They are to afraid to go on record and even acknowledge these problems eve exist!!
There can be only one conclusion. We are right or they would remove this thread altogether. Or at least lock it!
Forum Moderators are usually separate from actual Customer Support, although many may be able to contact Customer Support if need be.
You should never expect Forum Moderators to have access to your account, or your account information, or your Support Cases, or any other details about your account or any cases you have created in the past or have pending. Period.
The Forum Moderators job is to moderate the forums, not address game/account/service issues.
Customer Support, in most cases, does not monitor forums. They do not look for issues in the forum to help users. You have an issue, you file a Support Case or a Bug Report.
Account issues between a user and the company will NEVER be aired by the company in the public forums. Ever.
The forums are a service provided by the company for the users to have a central location to receive information from the company (Announcements) and to talk to each other about the game.
You want information about what is being worked on, go monitor the Dev Blogs, Release Notes, Patch Notes, and the Beta Shard.
Incorrect. The very first, and immediate thing they should do is exactly what they did when a charge is disputed/charged back because it prevents any further charges from incurring on the now flagged account.
Until an investigation is completed they have no way of knowing if the charges being disputed were legitimate or made without the true credit card owners consent.
It would be grossly irresponsible of them to allow a customers account to keep incurring financial expenses once a dispute/charge back has been filed.
This is why you don't file a dispute until you have exhausted all other options on a legitimate charge.
Couldn't they just freeze payment sources on the account?
Or, y'know, even working within your parameters, use a different set of terminology. Like "suspended pending a review of the claims and confirmation of the account holder's identity." "Banned" sounds punitive. It doesn't exactly make someone feel like they're staying at the Ritz.
I'm just saying, in hospitality, cinema, theme park, retail, or live theatre, it would be a jerk move to conduct business the way most gaming companies do. Being industry standard doesn't mean much if the industry standard sucks compared to other entertainment venues.
If you did a chargeback at Amazon when an Amazon book failed to arrive, I HIGHLY doubt you'd have your Prime Account closed.
It's rigid thinking that calls for running things that way.
For me its simple really. I get not tech support in game. Zero responses from an actual human, if I even get an automated response. And no customer support from the web page either. I When I go through the ticket process for Perfect World. I get a web page error that says my page has been redirected. It says I should enable cookies. I enable cookies and turn security down. And it still does the same thing on three different browsers and PCs. It is like I am on a permanent ban for customer support. I have even submitted a ticket about this in game. I have received no responses at all. My account cold be jacked and I would have no way to contact them. I would probably have to look for a phone number or use snail mail. If there is such a thing for Perfect World.
I guess the true meaning of Perfect World is a Perfect World for them and NOT US!
They don't even seem to respond when people post problems online like these. They don't care about the truth! I see no response from the moderators saying the problems are being worked on and we will see results. They are to afraid to go on record and even acknowledge these problems eve exist!!
There can be only one conclusion. We are right or they would remove this thread altogether. Or at least lock it!
And here's the thing: it is a three day weekend.
We are fortunate enough to have Brandon around who works in PWE marketing and has ties to marketing, is a PWE employee, and stays in regular contact with devs. If anybody can track down the issue, it's him.
But you have to let him track down the issue.
I would have tried to approach Cryptic and file tickets and give them 5-10 business days minimum to resolve things before doing a chargeback.
That said, after no response after 10 business days and no solutions from other users? I'd be inclined to initiate a dispute over any transaction over $50. They could ban me for that but they'd lose me as a customer. And I spend well for my income level and I promote their games.
I got banned temporarily for that once. They tracked down the error and resolved it. (My billing page still looks weird because of the error in their system that caused me to lose $50 in ZEN; I've been 5300 ZEN off ever since.)
For me, it's all business. It should be all business. I don't see the need to use punitive words like "banned" but in a case like this, either use the claim to as a negotiating hedge and be patient or push the chargeback and walk away.
Forum Moderators are usually separate from actual Customer Support, although many may be able to contact Customer Support if need be.
You should never expect Forum Moderators to have access to your account, or your account information, or your Support Cases, or any other details about your account or any cases you have created in the past or have pending. Period.
The Forum Moderators job is to moderate the forums, not address game/account/service issues.
Customer Support, in most cases, does not monitor forums. They do not look for issues in the forum to help users. You have an issue, you file a Support Case or a Bug Report.
Account issues between a user and the company will NEVER be aired by the company in the public forums. Ever.
The forums are a service provided by the company for the users to have a central location to receive information from the company (Announcements) and to talk to each other about the game.
You want information about what is being worked on, go monitor the Dev Blogs, Release Notes, Patch Notes, and the Beta Shard.
I disagree with your response.. 1 if he had received the proper reply. From a human. Because this does involve a purchase rather then a bug issue everyone is experiencing. It should take precedence over anything else. I am guessing the OP would have been happy with a proper response the first time. And would have been patient if dealt with in a proper manner.Not wanting to deal with a disgruntled customer only perpetuates the situation. Makes thing worse for the people trying to fix the problem in the first place. More messages and tickets to got through. Form my experience and replies from customer service. Is that based on the automated reponses there is a program looking for key words. If you put enough of these key words into your thread. your get an automated response about the issue. Which may or may not resolve your issue. In the mean time the problem perpetuates itself not being solved. It seems to me the whole ticket system is broken. Mostly because it does not seem to matter how severe your problem is. Purchases should take priority over game bugs. Not is a sense that game developers need to work on fixing billing. But these issues need a larger staff dedicated to customer service. And honestly I would actually be willing to pay a small fee to get my issue resoled sooner if I was in the OP shoes. But this system does not exist yet. On the comparisons to Sub, lifers, and free to play. There are comparisons as to the access we get to service. I understand this process. There needs to be a way to use certain key words if your issue is really serious and needs resolved not. There needs to be examples during the ticket process. that if your issue is not a serious one. You will be put further back on the list for support next time you submit a ticket. There should be a public forum talking about I submitted my ticket and was bumped back on the list because I did not read the examples properly. This will act a a deterrent to those who submit tickets as being serious but actually are not. I realize you might say that would be to much work. In the short term yes. But deterrence is the key word here! A short term boost in the work load. And a long term benefit to those who really do need the help for billing issues like the OP has. Another thing that might help is a forum system where we help each other. Someone here responded to my thread about my account. Actually gave a better response then anything PW or CRY has ever given in their automated responses. The should and need do need to do this because better customer service only help their bottom line $$$$$$$.
We are fortunate enough to have Brandon around who works in PWE marketing and has ties to marketing, is a PWE employee, and stays in regular contact with devs. If anybody can track down the issue, it's him.
But you have to let him track down the issue.
I would have tried to approach Cryptic and file tickets and give them 5-10 business days minimum to resolve things before doing a chargeback.
That said, after no response after 10 business days and no solutions from other users? I'd be inclined to initiate a dispute over any transaction over $50. They could ban me for that but they'd lose me as a customer. And I spend well for my income level and I promote their games.
I got banned temporarily for that once. They tracked down the error and resolved it. (My billing page still looks weird because of the error in their system that caused me to lose $50 in ZEN; I've been 5300 ZEN off ever since.)
For me, it's all business. It should be all business. I don't see the need to use punitive words like "banned" but in a case like this, either use the claim to as a negotiating hedge and be patient or push the chargeback and walk away.
I understand what you are saying. But my response is based on my three years in STO since the first day the game came out I have been playing this game. The customer service has been the same for me the whole time. I am just saying they do not have enough people taking care of these issues. And as a result they ARE self perpetuating. only making the problem worse. I myself in the past have submitted two tickets on the same issue. But not after waiting a few days with no response.
Shaking my head at the people responding to OP. Somehow, demanding even the most basic quality these days has turned into a "sense of entitlement." :rolleyes:
All of you railing against OP...guarantee you if any of you were in his place, you would not be so cool-headed. You're all a bunch of dirty hypocrites and I dare you to try and deny it; you might as well not be human if you do.
This is quite simply bad customer service on part of Cryptic. Don't care what any of you d*mn apologists say, I have no sympathy for any of the staff. Not one iota, why? Because they quite simply do not try hard enough. They are poor planners and poor coders, as evidence by the debacle that arises every time they implement any significant changes. They are vague with their responses, they are slow to respond if they do at all, as evidence by this thread. And finally, they seem entirely too content to find new and innovative ways to take our money while putting very little effort into making sure the sh*t they've already offered us runs anything close to smoothly, as evidenced by their pushing the d*mn key sales. They should at least try to act grateful that we had the good graces to come here and play their game and pay them money for it. We certainly didn't have to, and if we didn't, where would they be? That's right: very quickly out of a job. :mad:
Saying "these things happen in all MMOs" or "they don't have enough people" or "if you don't like it don't play" are all complete BS excuses. Just because "these things happen" does not make it acceptable. If they don't have enough people, they should take a pay cut and use the difference to hire someone else. Tell me not to play? Yeah, that's REALLY going to make the problem better, genius.
All of you railing against OP...guarantee you if any of you were in his place, you would not be so cool-headed. You're all a bunch of dirty hypocrites and I dare you to try and deny it; you might as well not be human if you do.
You really should watch your generalities. I've been in this kind of situation before and remained quite calm, there's nothing inhuman about it. Or maybe I'm a closet Vulcan.
That said:
This is quite simply bad customer service on part of Cryptic.
is really the only thing that needs to be said. Cryptic/PWE have been massively backed up on CS issues ever since the Neverwinter release - they say that they staffed up in preparation, they say that they're adding more staff each week, and I have no problem believing that this is true. But none of that should be the concern of the consumer.
They dropped the ball. Big time.
And in all honesty, it's because they'd rather lose a few customers than have overstaffed for support. From a strictly financial standpoint, it's the smart play. But it does leave a bitter aftertaste for anyone who has to try to get some support.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
When a payment is disputed a company has a legal obligation to secure any and all items related to that payment, especially their own property. Your account does not belong to you, you merely pay for the right to access it. If you break your end of the deal prematurely by disputing a payment or performing a charge back, then you automatically lose the right to access said items, in this case your account.
It is also worth remembering that payments are often disputed due to fraud, a very serious matter in some instances, and no company with a combined IQ higher than that of an Aphid would play fast and loose with the laws regarding possible fraud. If you cannot understand the simplest of rules regarding money transactions, then perhaps you should be allowed access to any.
Just a quick addition here, in case my previous post was not understood, here is a scenario for you:
You are an Ebay seller. Somebody purchases an item from you online, they issue the payment and you dispatch the product. Whilst the product is en-route (and perhaps held up by an unforeseen traffic accident involving drunk llamas) the buyer decides that 2 days is too long to wait and issues a charge-back for their money.
Now the product is out of your hands and slowly but surely making its way to the purchaser, who is now also attempting to get his money back, thus potentially leaving you with no product and no money, and potentially them with both.
Now you could contact the shipping company and ask them to hold off on delivering said product until the matter has been resolved, or you could be a fool and allow the person to get away with both their money AND your product. What do you think you would do?
If you answered "Stop the stuff from being delivered" then congratualtions, you now understand what Cryptic/PWE are doing with regards your situation.
If you answered with "Let them have the stuff for free" then please do not go near anything even remotely sharp, do not attempt to dress yourself and do not attempt conversation with anything more intelligent than your sofa.
Just a quick addition here, in case my previous post was not understood, here is a scenario for you:
You are an Ebay seller. Somebody purchases an item from you online, they issue the payment and you dispatch the product. Whilst the product is en-route (and perhaps held up by an unforeseen traffic accident involving drunk llamas) the buyer decides that 2 days is too long to wait and issues a charge-back for their money.
Now the product is out of your hands and slowly but surely making its way to the purchaser, who is now also attempting to get his money back, thus potentially leaving you with no product and no money, and potentially them with both.
Now you could contact the shipping company and ask them to hold off on delivering said product until the matter has been resolved, or you could be a fool and allow the person to get away with both their money AND your product. What do you think you would do?
If you answered "Stop the stuff from being delivered" then congratualtions, you now understand what Cryptic/PWE are doing with regards your situation.
If you answered with "Let them have the stuff for free" then please do not go near anything even remotely sharp, do not attempt to dress yourself and do not attempt conversation with anything more intelligent than your sofa.
Let me clear up some facts here before we continue. Those llamas you speak of were not drunk. They were in fact Stoned. Get your facts right!!
I could (and would) agree with you guys who are saying "well they show that the transaction was complete" and so to them you got the items and now you want your money back IF they would have a GM check my account to SEE whether or not I actually had the items in question. They did not.
If I was trying to get money back on items I had already received I would have no problem with what they did but I do not and have not had the items (which I have no doubt a GM could easily verify). In fact, now I do not have all the items I DID pay for (I'm sure I have spent over a grand on this game). Where is the justification for taking back all of the things I did pay for? If anything they should have made it where I could not collect the LOR items, not completely ban the entire account.
As to account security, why would a hacker be filing a dispute for a $20 item not received after they had filed several tickets to get the item they had not received, that makes no sense at all. I'm sure they have records of all of this.
And thanks for the support guys. I did not come on here to cry about what happened and to complain about their customer service. I really just wanted to spare anyone else from experiencing the same nonsense. Hopefully I can get my account unlocked this week and get back to playing. I now know how PWEs customer service works and they can now rest assured I will be spending no more on a company who treats great customers like this.
I could (and would) agree with you guys who are saying "well they show that the transaction was complete" and so to them you got the items and now you want your money back IF they would have a GM check my account to SEE whether or not I actually had the items in question. They did not.
If I was trying to get money back on items I had already received I would have no problem with what they did but I do not and have not had the items (which I have no doubt a GM could easily verify). In fact, now I do not have all the items I DID pay for (I'm sure I have spent over a grand on this game). Where is the justification for taking back all of the things I did pay for? If anything they should have made it where I could not collect the LOR items, not completely ban the entire account.
As to account security, why would a hacker be filing a dispute for a $20 item not received after they had filed several tickets to get the item they had not received, that makes no sense at all. I'm sure they have records of all of this.
And thanks for the support guys. I did not come on here to cry about what happened and to complain about their customer service. I really just wanted to spare anyone else from experiencing the same nonsense. Hopefully I can get my account unlocked this week and get back to playing. I now know how PWEs customer service works and they can now rest assured I will be spending no more on a company who treats great customers like this.
I'll just stick to a few points here. First of all I do understand how much it sucks when things do not go well, I've been there myself and I hated it too. The point people were making is that LoR has only just launched, there have been numerous issues that are tying up both Cryptic and most likely PWE too. Expecting a rapid response, even to something like this, during such a hectic period, was probably a little much to ask for.
If the first or second response to your queries goes awry and you do not receive (or cannot access) the goods you have paid for, the next step should have been a direct email to PWE customer services. If that does not go well and you still receive no resolution, then and only then should you have tried to recover the funds.
In your frustration you just jumped a few steps ahead, that's all. And once this weekend is over and the Cryptic guys are all back in the office, fire off an email explaining calmly and in detail what you did to try and resolve your issue and why you felt it prudent to try and recover your funds. With luck you can have the whole mess straightened out by midweek.
Lastly, as to your point about the hacker applying for a refund, I may not have been very clear. The system for obtaining a chargeback is in place to protect the payer as well as the payee. It does not matter what the reason is for the charge-back (for all the system knows your card could have been fraudulently used and now you are trying to get that illegally spent money back), the result is invariably the same. Any items, digital or otherwise are locked down until such time as any possibility of wrongdoing by either party has been clearly established and accepted/refuted.
The system is automatic, it is not some form of personal attack or judgement on you as a person, it just does its job and nothing more. The step you have to take next is as I said, emailing Cryptic/PWE's customer service department and requesting that this matter be resolved.
This is why I never buy any packs associated with launches. Launches are always problematic at best and all buying a pack does is create yet another problem that can occur. I purchased one once and had nearly the same problem, though I did not dispute the payment and it eventually got sorted out about 3 weeks later and by then I had already finished all of the new content and my pack was basically completely worthless by then.
Chargebacks are always a very bad idea due to the fact that they result in a permaban 99% of the time. When STO launched, wait time was 30 days...expect the same with a massive expansion + a small company.
Yeah a disgruntled spouse, girl/boy friend etc never TRIBBLE and/or logged into the account of the person they were pissed off at and spitefully messed with the legitimate owners account, or was trying to commit some sort of fraud.
For example I'm sure there are some former CoH players that remember the kid that got banned for filing a charge back after they made the shutdown announcement.
She felt she was entitled to a full refund for the years sub that was purchased for her account.
As she was ranting she stupidly admitted to people that
a. The years sub was purchased 6 months previously so any refund given would only be for the unused portion.
b. She didn't pay for the sub that she was trying to get refunded to her bank account.
It turned out that her aunt payed for her sub on her aunt's credit card, and she thought if she disputed the payment, she could get the money for the sub given to her rather than refunded to her aunt on her credit.
And this would have been easy to check if, as I said, they looked at my several tickets I sent in game and the responses which they sent to me.
Also, once again, it wasn't a chargeback, it was a dispute. They don't charge it back until the dispute is finalized which, from my experience with paypal, has taken weeks at minimum.
In some countries it's actually illegal to ban you over filing a dispute like this. Imagine you had a conflict with your boss, and you decided to take the matter to Court, and you got thereupon fired, simply for no greater reason than to take it to Court! Or you had a dispute with your cable company, and, for spite, they immediately cut you off.
Regardless of whether or not it's legal (and no, just putting it in your TOS doesn't make it legal, per se), it's simply highly unethical behavior on the part of PWE. Every 'civilized' company will have procedures and provisions for you in place to dispute matters with them -- even financial disputes. And are usually even obligated, by Law, to have those. Without such institutions, society could simply not function.
I wasn't going to say anything but reading through all these posts I just had to. This entire thing is so pathetically funny.
You've been playing this game for so long and blah blah blah....
Well you know EXACTLY how season launches go and no matter how hard they try there are always issues.
Season launch and a holiday and you expected them to get back to you in the snap of a finger. Just because you get an automated response, doesn't mean it ends there. All you have to do is reply back that the situation isn't resolved and it'll get moved to a human. The mere fact of it being right after a launch and so close to a holiday you should have known response time was going to be slow.
No **** they suspended your account. That's just common sense when you nearly instantly request a refund on virtual items. Hackers, exploits any number of reasons will warrant a suspension when a billing dispute is made. If the problem was that someone TRIBBLE your account and racked up a huge credit card bill you wouldn't be complaining about that suspension until dispute resolution then.
As far as your claim that you wouldn't have disputed the charge if there was a phone number, blah blah blah.......you're 46 years old and you've never heard of a search engine but you've been playing online games since 96. Typing customer support number for Perfect World Entertainment" in google isn't exactly all that hard.
All of this racks up to a cluster F$#% of things you did wrong. It's not exactly a secret that PWE doesn't have the support staff to resolve issues within 24 hours or even a day or two when there is a major update (or any other time for that matter)
I know it was easy to get caught up in the excitement of LOR launching and all and that you were really looking forward to the pack you purchased, but a lot of the problem you brought on yourself.
I'm not trying to be a ****, just saying the truth. Now for the record GMS have very limited access, usually just the ability to move you across a map or transfer you to a different map or other issues like that. They have no access to Billing related issues.
Now that you've issued the billing dispute I would highly recommend you call customer support, explain the issue and apologize for your rash behavior and work to resolve the issue amicably.
Sending multiple tickets for the same issue may have blocked the normal ticket progression and caused an even further delay in a human response so you might want to make sure you have both/all ticket numbers handy when you call them.
And just so there is no mistake about it I personally think PWE support sucks and needs some major overhauling. Cryptic's support staff was so much better and more timely.
I wasn't going to say anything but reading through all these posts I just had to. This entire thing is so pathetically funny.
You've been playing this game for so long and blah blah blah....
Well you know EXACTLY how season launches go and no matter how hard they try there are always issues.
Season launch and a holiday and you expected them to get back to you in the snap of a finger. Just because you get an automated response, doesn't mean it ends there. All you have to do is reply back that the situation isn't resolved and it'll get moved to a human. The mere fact of it being right after a launch and so close to a holiday you should have known response time was going to be slow.
No **** they suspended your account. That's just common sense when you nearly instantly request a refund on virtual items. Hackers, exploits any number of reasons will warrant a suspension when a billing dispute is made. If the problem was that someone TRIBBLE your account and racked up a huge credit card bill you wouldn't be complaining about that suspension until dispute resolution then.
As far as your claim that you wouldn't have disputed the charge if there was a phone number, blah blah blah.......you're 46 years old and you've never heard of a search engine but you've been playing online games since 96. Typing customer support number for Perfect World Entertainment" in google isn't exactly all that hard.
All of this racks up to a cluster F$#% of things you did wrong. It's not exactly a secret that PWE doesn't have the support staff to resolve issues within 24 hours or even a day or two when there is a major update (or any other time for that matter)
I know it was easy to get caught up in the excitement of LOR launching and all and that you were really looking forward to the pack you purchased, but a lot of the problem you brought on yourself.
Maybe I have been lucky but I haven't had any problems with season launches other than the usual server shutdowns, queues, etc... Problems that everyone else has also.
You know why don't you use a search engine and look for that number yourself and see how easy it is to find?
Nearly instantly? It had been 3 days with several tickets and I had emailed them back about their suggestions not working and continued to get the same reply. While you may be all too familiar with the way PWE is staffed I do not. I do not frequent these forums and I really don't remember hearing that much (if any) complaining in game about how their support team is staffed either.
Also how do you know it doesn't end with an autoresponse email? Have you worked for PWE? Do you know anyone who does? Unfortunately I do not.
And yes I have been playing just about every MMO that has come out since UO and I personally have never encountered a problem like this. Any problems that I have had before with other MMOs I have at the very least gotten a reply stating that "yes, we know about your problem and are working to fix it" which I would have been fine with. But to continue getting automated emails with a solution that does not work...was not working for me. I saw other people in WoW that had billing problems but never once do I remember any of them getting an auto ban with their troubles.
Comments
I think you are acting emotional. In summary he is right, every online service would quickly respond to any kind of chargebacks and the first action is suspend your account.
I will avoid the term banned here, because some companies will make a final decision after the issue was investigated by their customer support. He is not trolling you by telling you the truth. Frustration is understandable but the ones who have reversed the payment were also at fault.
This could have been avoided by thinking before acting.
it's a DISPUTE not a charge back or payment reversal.
They are VERY different, its the first step in a process, granted it should be used as a last resort but it requests the opposite party respond to the disputees greviance , ie enforces some to provide customer services.
I'm sure that although the OP was hasty in opening a dispute if he had his issue recognised he would not of done it.
My opinion, both parties are to blame, OP for being to hasty and pwe for not addressing the issue or even saying they would and having an overly aggressive ban/suspension policy
Again, right and wrong and self-defense go out the window in business if you strive to be a premium standard of customer service.
And in the end, beyond IP licenses and good gameplay/content, I think having a premium customer service experience is going to be part of what will dictate the success of western F2P games.
Elements of F2P that work on human psychology will generally still work in western markets (such as lockboxes). I see no reason for F2P companies not to employ those. However, in countries with smaller (often culturally homogeneously clustered) populations and higher average income (which I'd say the US, UK, Canada, Germany and many western markets are), you need, need, need to hemorrhage the rate of churn. And you do that by providing the best, most soothing, most personable, most hassle free customer service experience, not the one that is convenient for the company.
Again, I don't see many places that even offer an Applebee's or a Starbuck's level service experience in MMOs... and I chalk this up to a number of things. But Blizzard does it. And I think it's kept their numbers high. I don't think they're a dinosaur about everything. I also don't think they're the best overall but what they do have is quality phone support with soothing music, good customer service scripts, and are optimized for doing business with customers who expect a low distance to power.
That's where I think PWE is still weak. Their payment systems are clunky. Their customer service policy is below what I'd get at Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart isn't the best at that already.
Somebody who could do everything PWE could do plus smile at the customer, do a bit of Apple style product presentation feng shui, and take a bit of risk on policies to allow for superior customer service (right or wrong) is going to win against PWE in a head to head competition. And if somebody can do those things and have an equal product, they deserve to win because service (not just fairness but service) makes the product.
It's not that the customer is always right. They aren't. It's that inflexible policies to determine right and wrong without investigation are worse than treating the customer like they're always wrong.
Do you really think it makes a difference for cryptic if it is a reversal or a dispute? You are taking money back you agreed to pay for a service. Cryptic is right to put a hammer on it because if they don't then people will start doing it for all kinds of reasons:
- Opened 100 lock boxes no ship, not happy with it so I reversed the payment
- Bought (insert ship name here) I did not like it, so I reversed the payment.
- Customer Support did not answer my ticket within 24 hours after a major release.
- Bought an item but technical issues keep me from claiming it, was asked for patience but I think I deserve better.
Again, is doing the RIGHT thing the FRIENDLY or ENTICING thing?
If not, a company shouldn't be doing the right thing in terms of self-preservation. You save that for when you've exhausted friendly options.
This guy probably jumped the gun on his chargeback but the fact that he's emotional and volatile about this really doesn't warrant (and isn't helped by) PWE's customer service.
It's quite likely that they had an error in delivering the service he purchased. It's also quite likely that he wouldn't get anything done without drawing attention to the issue via chargeback, depending on where the error lies.
At this point, Cryptic, PWE, and the player either find and fix the error by cooperating or they part ways. It'd be a shame for a company and a consumer to part ways because the company is inflexible and the customer is emotional about their purchase getting recognized.
For what it's worth, I think both sides could stand to breathe.
The player needs to continue trying to exhaust his options. He may have been rash but it's unproductive to focus on a decision he already made. He really should just contact Brandon AND billing to resolve the issue and be patient.
Meanwhile, really, PWE shouldn't issue the bans UNTIL an investigation is completed and a chargeback is issued. Issuing bans for a completed chargeback after they've investigated the issue? That I could understand. But they really shouldn't consider a dispute the same as a chargeback. And it's poor form for them to do so.
Ignorance is simply not a good enough legal reason to invalidate it...
as someone who had worked in customer service all his early years. this site is glorious.
i still remember this father was trying to use his disabled son who had Multiple sclerosis to return a pair of shoes he didn't want anymore.
i told him i see the shoes haven't been worn. do you have a box. his reply NO. do you have a recipe? his reply NO. my reply after that was how do you expect us to resell those shoes. his reply. that's not my damn problem its yours.
my reply well its your problem now. because i'm not taking the shoes back.
I guess the true meaning of Perfect World is a Perfect World for them and NOT US!
They don't even seem to respond when people post problems online like these. They don't care about the truth! I see no response from the moderators saying the problems are being worked on and we will see results. They are to afraid to go on record and even acknowledge these problems eve exist!!
There can be only one conclusion. We are right or they would remove this thread altogether. Or at least lock it!
Banning/Suspending is perfectly acceptable. I am not a "fanboy" but I am a CS in another gaming company.
If the system shows you got what you paid for, and you dispute the charges, you are effectively saying that you refuse to pay for what you got.
In order to prevent the customer from logging in, buying more stuff, and then disputing the new charges while an existing dispute is ongoing, 99.999% of companies will place a hold on your account pending resolution of the current dispute.
The Terms of Service is the contact that you agree to when you create an account and access any of the services offered by the company.
You can claim it is illegal all you want, but until you take the company to court and prove that any portion of the ToS is illegal, you are bound by it.
If you don't like it, leave. No one is stopping you. And any company would rather see one person with an attitude leave, no matter how much they pay into the system, then deal with their BS.
WRT the OP claiming that they are a CS "dream". Not hardly. Anyone who opens multiple cases about the same issue and whines in the companies forums is far from a "CS dream" and are usually the ones that CS points out to others on the team with a warning to be aware that the user is filing multiple duplicate cases regarding the same issue.
You have a bug, file a bug report. There is not a damn thing CS can do for you since the system shows your account got credited for the pack. Taking it out on CS won't get the issue resolved and harassing CS over it will only make them annoyed with you.
Keep calm, and continue firing photon torpedoes.
Forum Moderators are usually separate from actual Customer Support, although many may be able to contact Customer Support if need be.
You should never expect Forum Moderators to have access to your account, or your account information, or your Support Cases, or any other details about your account or any cases you have created in the past or have pending. Period.
The Forum Moderators job is to moderate the forums, not address game/account/service issues.
Customer Support, in most cases, does not monitor forums. They do not look for issues in the forum to help users. You have an issue, you file a Support Case or a Bug Report.
Account issues between a user and the company will NEVER be aired by the company in the public forums. Ever.
The forums are a service provided by the company for the users to have a central location to receive information from the company (Announcements) and to talk to each other about the game.
You want information about what is being worked on, go monitor the Dev Blogs, Release Notes, Patch Notes, and the Beta Shard.
Couldn't they just freeze payment sources on the account?
Or, y'know, even working within your parameters, use a different set of terminology. Like "suspended pending a review of the claims and confirmation of the account holder's identity." "Banned" sounds punitive. It doesn't exactly make someone feel like they're staying at the Ritz.
I'm just saying, in hospitality, cinema, theme park, retail, or live theatre, it would be a jerk move to conduct business the way most gaming companies do. Being industry standard doesn't mean much if the industry standard sucks compared to other entertainment venues.
If you did a chargeback at Amazon when an Amazon book failed to arrive, I HIGHLY doubt you'd have your Prime Account closed.
It's rigid thinking that calls for running things that way.
And here's the thing: it is a three day weekend.
We are fortunate enough to have Brandon around who works in PWE marketing and has ties to marketing, is a PWE employee, and stays in regular contact with devs. If anybody can track down the issue, it's him.
But you have to let him track down the issue.
I would have tried to approach Cryptic and file tickets and give them 5-10 business days minimum to resolve things before doing a chargeback.
That said, after no response after 10 business days and no solutions from other users? I'd be inclined to initiate a dispute over any transaction over $50. They could ban me for that but they'd lose me as a customer. And I spend well for my income level and I promote their games.
I got banned temporarily for that once. They tracked down the error and resolved it. (My billing page still looks weird because of the error in their system that caused me to lose $50 in ZEN; I've been 5300 ZEN off ever since.)
For me, it's all business. It should be all business. I don't see the need to use punitive words like "banned" but in a case like this, either use the claim to as a negotiating hedge and be patient or push the chargeback and walk away.
I disagree with your response.. 1 if he had received the proper reply. From a human. Because this does involve a purchase rather then a bug issue everyone is experiencing. It should take precedence over anything else. I am guessing the OP would have been happy with a proper response the first time. And would have been patient if dealt with in a proper manner.Not wanting to deal with a disgruntled customer only perpetuates the situation. Makes thing worse for the people trying to fix the problem in the first place. More messages and tickets to got through. Form my experience and replies from customer service. Is that based on the automated reponses there is a program looking for key words. If you put enough of these key words into your thread. your get an automated response about the issue. Which may or may not resolve your issue. In the mean time the problem perpetuates itself not being solved. It seems to me the whole ticket system is broken. Mostly because it does not seem to matter how severe your problem is. Purchases should take priority over game bugs. Not is a sense that game developers need to work on fixing billing. But these issues need a larger staff dedicated to customer service. And honestly I would actually be willing to pay a small fee to get my issue resoled sooner if I was in the OP shoes. But this system does not exist yet. On the comparisons to Sub, lifers, and free to play. There are comparisons as to the access we get to service. I understand this process. There needs to be a way to use certain key words if your issue is really serious and needs resolved not. There needs to be examples during the ticket process. that if your issue is not a serious one. You will be put further back on the list for support next time you submit a ticket. There should be a public forum talking about I submitted my ticket and was bumped back on the list because I did not read the examples properly. This will act a a deterrent to those who submit tickets as being serious but actually are not. I realize you might say that would be to much work. In the short term yes. But deterrence is the key word here! A short term boost in the work load. And a long term benefit to those who really do need the help for billing issues like the OP has. Another thing that might help is a forum system where we help each other. Someone here responded to my thread about my account. Actually gave a better response then anything PW or CRY has ever given in their automated responses. The should and need do need to do this because better customer service only help their bottom line $$$$$$$.
I understand what you are saying. But my response is based on my three years in STO since the first day the game came out I have been playing this game. The customer service has been the same for me the whole time. I am just saying they do not have enough people taking care of these issues. And as a result they ARE self perpetuating. only making the problem worse. I myself in the past have submitted two tickets on the same issue. But not after waiting a few days with no response.
All of you railing against OP...guarantee you if any of you were in his place, you would not be so cool-headed. You're all a bunch of dirty hypocrites and I dare you to try and deny it; you might as well not be human if you do.
This is quite simply bad customer service on part of Cryptic. Don't care what any of you d*mn apologists say, I have no sympathy for any of the staff. Not one iota, why? Because they quite simply do not try hard enough. They are poor planners and poor coders, as evidence by the debacle that arises every time they implement any significant changes. They are vague with their responses, they are slow to respond if they do at all, as evidence by this thread. And finally, they seem entirely too content to find new and innovative ways to take our money while putting very little effort into making sure the sh*t they've already offered us runs anything close to smoothly, as evidenced by their pushing the d*mn key sales. They should at least try to act grateful that we had the good graces to come here and play their game and pay them money for it. We certainly didn't have to, and if we didn't, where would they be? That's right: very quickly out of a job. :mad:
Saying "these things happen in all MMOs" or "they don't have enough people" or "if you don't like it don't play" are all complete BS excuses. Just because "these things happen" does not make it acceptable. If they don't have enough people, they should take a pay cut and use the difference to hire someone else. Tell me not to play? Yeah, that's REALLY going to make the problem better, genius.
Like I said: shaking my head.
You really should watch your generalities. I've been in this kind of situation before and remained quite calm, there's nothing inhuman about it. Or maybe I'm a closet Vulcan.
That said:
is really the only thing that needs to be said. Cryptic/PWE have been massively backed up on CS issues ever since the Neverwinter release - they say that they staffed up in preparation, they say that they're adding more staff each week, and I have no problem believing that this is true. But none of that should be the concern of the consumer.
They dropped the ball. Big time.
And in all honesty, it's because they'd rather lose a few customers than have overstaffed for support. From a strictly financial standpoint, it's the smart play. But it does leave a bitter aftertaste for anyone who has to try to get some support.
It is also worth remembering that payments are often disputed due to fraud, a very serious matter in some instances, and no company with a combined IQ higher than that of an Aphid would play fast and loose with the laws regarding possible fraud. If you cannot understand the simplest of rules regarding money transactions, then perhaps you should be allowed access to any.
Sig by my better half.
You are an Ebay seller. Somebody purchases an item from you online, they issue the payment and you dispatch the product. Whilst the product is en-route (and perhaps held up by an unforeseen traffic accident involving drunk llamas) the buyer decides that 2 days is too long to wait and issues a charge-back for their money.
Now the product is out of your hands and slowly but surely making its way to the purchaser, who is now also attempting to get his money back, thus potentially leaving you with no product and no money, and potentially them with both.
Now you could contact the shipping company and ask them to hold off on delivering said product until the matter has been resolved, or you could be a fool and allow the person to get away with both their money AND your product. What do you think you would do?
If you answered "Stop the stuff from being delivered" then congratualtions, you now understand what Cryptic/PWE are doing with regards your situation.
If you answered with "Let them have the stuff for free" then please do not go near anything even remotely sharp, do not attempt to dress yourself and do not attempt conversation with anything more intelligent than your sofa.
Sig by my better half.
Let me clear up some facts here before we continue. Those llamas you speak of were not drunk. They were in fact Stoned. Get your facts right!!
The Llamas that caused the accident were stoned. The ones driving the delivery truck were drunk.
Sig by my better half.
If I was trying to get money back on items I had already received I would have no problem with what they did but I do not and have not had the items (which I have no doubt a GM could easily verify). In fact, now I do not have all the items I DID pay for (I'm sure I have spent over a grand on this game). Where is the justification for taking back all of the things I did pay for? If anything they should have made it where I could not collect the LOR items, not completely ban the entire account.
As to account security, why would a hacker be filing a dispute for a $20 item not received after they had filed several tickets to get the item they had not received, that makes no sense at all. I'm sure they have records of all of this.
And thanks for the support guys. I did not come on here to cry about what happened and to complain about their customer service. I really just wanted to spare anyone else from experiencing the same nonsense. Hopefully I can get my account unlocked this week and get back to playing. I now know how PWEs customer service works and they can now rest assured I will be spending no more on a company who treats great customers like this.
I'll just stick to a few points here. First of all I do understand how much it sucks when things do not go well, I've been there myself and I hated it too. The point people were making is that LoR has only just launched, there have been numerous issues that are tying up both Cryptic and most likely PWE too. Expecting a rapid response, even to something like this, during such a hectic period, was probably a little much to ask for.
If the first or second response to your queries goes awry and you do not receive (or cannot access) the goods you have paid for, the next step should have been a direct email to PWE customer services. If that does not go well and you still receive no resolution, then and only then should you have tried to recover the funds.
In your frustration you just jumped a few steps ahead, that's all. And once this weekend is over and the Cryptic guys are all back in the office, fire off an email explaining calmly and in detail what you did to try and resolve your issue and why you felt it prudent to try and recover your funds. With luck you can have the whole mess straightened out by midweek.
Lastly, as to your point about the hacker applying for a refund, I may not have been very clear. The system for obtaining a chargeback is in place to protect the payer as well as the payee. It does not matter what the reason is for the charge-back (for all the system knows your card could have been fraudulently used and now you are trying to get that illegally spent money back), the result is invariably the same. Any items, digital or otherwise are locked down until such time as any possibility of wrongdoing by either party has been clearly established and accepted/refuted.
The system is automatic, it is not some form of personal attack or judgement on you as a person, it just does its job and nothing more. The step you have to take next is as I said, emailing Cryptic/PWE's customer service department and requesting that this matter be resolved.
I wish you luck.
Sig by my better half.
So I never buy them, never, ever, ever....;)
And this would have been easy to check if, as I said, they looked at my several tickets I sent in game and the responses which they sent to me.
Also, once again, it wasn't a chargeback, it was a dispute. They don't charge it back until the dispute is finalized which, from my experience with paypal, has taken weeks at minimum.
In some countries it's actually illegal to ban you over filing a dispute like this. Imagine you had a conflict with your boss, and you decided to take the matter to Court, and you got thereupon fired, simply for no greater reason than to take it to Court! Or you had a dispute with your cable company, and, for spite, they immediately cut you off.
Regardless of whether or not it's legal (and no, just putting it in your TOS doesn't make it legal, per se), it's simply highly unethical behavior on the part of PWE. Every 'civilized' company will have procedures and provisions for you in place to dispute matters with them -- even financial disputes. And are usually even obligated, by Law, to have those. Without such institutions, society could simply not function.
You've been playing this game for so long and blah blah blah....
Well you know EXACTLY how season launches go and no matter how hard they try there are always issues.
Season launch and a holiday and you expected them to get back to you in the snap of a finger. Just because you get an automated response, doesn't mean it ends there. All you have to do is reply back that the situation isn't resolved and it'll get moved to a human. The mere fact of it being right after a launch and so close to a holiday you should have known response time was going to be slow.
No **** they suspended your account. That's just common sense when you nearly instantly request a refund on virtual items. Hackers, exploits any number of reasons will warrant a suspension when a billing dispute is made. If the problem was that someone TRIBBLE your account and racked up a huge credit card bill you wouldn't be complaining about that suspension until dispute resolution then.
As far as your claim that you wouldn't have disputed the charge if there was a phone number, blah blah blah.......you're 46 years old and you've never heard of a search engine but you've been playing online games since 96. Typing customer support number for Perfect World Entertainment" in google isn't exactly all that hard.
All of this racks up to a cluster F$#% of things you did wrong. It's not exactly a secret that PWE doesn't have the support staff to resolve issues within 24 hours or even a day or two when there is a major update (or any other time for that matter)
I know it was easy to get caught up in the excitement of LOR launching and all and that you were really looking forward to the pack you purchased, but a lot of the problem you brought on yourself.
I'm not trying to be a ****, just saying the truth. Now for the record GMS have very limited access, usually just the ability to move you across a map or transfer you to a different map or other issues like that. They have no access to Billing related issues.
Now that you've issued the billing dispute I would highly recommend you call customer support, explain the issue and apologize for your rash behavior and work to resolve the issue amicably.
Sending multiple tickets for the same issue may have blocked the normal ticket progression and caused an even further delay in a human response so you might want to make sure you have both/all ticket numbers handy when you call them.
And just so there is no mistake about it I personally think PWE support sucks and needs some major overhauling. Cryptic's support staff was so much better and more timely.
Maybe I have been lucky but I haven't had any problems with season launches other than the usual server shutdowns, queues, etc... Problems that everyone else has also.
You know why don't you use a search engine and look for that number yourself and see how easy it is to find?
Nearly instantly? It had been 3 days with several tickets and I had emailed them back about their suggestions not working and continued to get the same reply. While you may be all too familiar with the way PWE is staffed I do not. I do not frequent these forums and I really don't remember hearing that much (if any) complaining in game about how their support team is staffed either.
Also how do you know it doesn't end with an autoresponse email? Have you worked for PWE? Do you know anyone who does? Unfortunately I do not.
And yes I have been playing just about every MMO that has come out since UO and I personally have never encountered a problem like this. Any problems that I have had before with other MMOs I have at the very least gotten a reply stating that "yes, we know about your problem and are working to fix it" which I would have been fine with. But to continue getting automated emails with a solution that does not work...was not working for me. I saw other people in WoW that had billing problems but never once do I remember any of them getting an auto ban with their troubles.