Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Customer Service. How important is it?
Sithos
Member UncommonPosts: 315
How important is Customer Assistance both ingame via a GM or outside of a game via 1-800 numbers or live chats with techs?
Assuming that gameplay in and of itself was satisfactory would the CS determine how long you played the game?
As an example I played EQ since Beta as had most of my guildmates. Within a few months of them removing server GM's and instead had roving GM's who would migrate to the server with the highest /petition count we lost many members due to them having to literally wait a week or more to have a petition answered.
I myself feel that gameplay is what first attracts a person to a game but then the CS ranks #1 as to whether I will be a long time customer. I swore off all SoE games after the CS Fiasco thats called EQ.
Whats does everyone else think?
Comments
I played EQ for two years and there was maybe one instance I encountered a bug that required a GMs help.
Why do people bitch about customer service so much? Its only a problem if the game is buggy.
90% of petitions are whiners asking for some feature or saying they went link dead and died (not a good reason for a res) or some other piss ass whiney excuse that GMs don't need to hear.
Or maybe your stupid and have questions about the game... when you get a single player game do you phone customer service to ask questions or just figure it out? Stop abusing the fact there are customer service agents and you will see the customer sedrvice is great.
hi, i have to agree with you. if the customer service isnt there in the game no matter how good the game is im gone. i would still be playing about 3 or 4 games if not for their customer service. here is an example of what i hate about customer service. sorry its so long but its an email with answer and a reply with another answer.
Hello Bruce,
Thank you for contacting the Sony Online Entertainment Customer Service
department.
If you have any additional questions, please do hesitate to call, or
e-mail. Thank you.
Phone support for all SOE titles is available MON-FRI 9:00AM-1:30PM PST
and 3:30pm-6:00pm PST, at (858)537-0898. Also, MON-FRI 9:00AM-5:30PM
GMT at 0845 6004263 or 01895 204440
Phone support for Star Wars Galaxies is available MON-FRI 9:00AM-1:30PM
PST and 3:30pm-6:00pm PST, at (858) 790-7827(STAR). Also, MON-FRI
9:00AM-5:30PM GMT at 0845 6004263 or 01895 204440
Also, please make sure to visit our Knowledge Base at www.station.com/kb
for up to date information for all of our games.
Live chat is also available MON-FRI 9:00AM-6:00PM PST at
http://www.station.sony.com/en/services/help/help.jsp
Reminder: Please keep your account information up to date. Customers
often have a difficult time recovering lost accounts if they allow their
registration information to become out of date. To update your account's
information, please refer to the "Account" section of your log in
screen.
Regards,
Shawn H.
Sony Online Entertainment
If you reply to this email, please be sure to include the original body
text so the thread of our correspondence is contained in every message.
Thank you.
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
hey great answer had nothing to do with what i asked, gee sounds like
when i
played SWG. i guess its same support system for both games. guess that
means
EQ2 will have sucky support also. thank you again and i wont waste my
money
by buying your games since you cant read what the question was.
>From: EQ Mail <eqmail@soe.sony.com>
>To: Bruce zyban <zyban358@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: expansions. (KMM9742998I7L0KM)
>Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 15:00:37 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Greetings:
>
>Thank you for contacting the Sony Online Entertainment Customer Service
>department.
>
>To download one of the Digital Download expansions you will need to
take
>the following steps.
>
>Double-click the EQ shortcut to start the patcher.
>Select the ADVANCED button.
>Select the expansion(s) you have purchased.
>Select "Complete File Check".
>Then select Download once the check is completed
>Once the download is complete you will have access to the expansions
you
>have purchased.
>
>You will not receive a CD key since your account is automatically
>registered for the new expansion once the billing is approved.
>
>
>
>Phone support for all SOE titles is available MON-FRI 9:00AM-1:30PM PST
>and 3:30pm-6:00pm PST, at (858)537-0898. Also, MON-FRI 9:00AM-5:30PM
>GMT at 0845 6004263 or 01895 204440
>
>Phone support for Star Wars Galaxies is available MON-FRI 9:00AM-1:30PM
>PST and 3:30pm-6:00pm PST, at (858) 790-7827(STAR). Also, MON-FRI
>9:00AM-5:30PM GMT at 0845 6004263 or 01895 204440
>
>Also, please make sure to visit our Knowledge Base at
www.station.com/kb
>for up to date information for all of our games.
>
>Live chat is also available MON-FRI 9:00AM-6:00PM PST at
>http://www.station.sony.com/en/services/help/help.jsp
>
>Reminder: Please keep your account information up to date. Customers
>often have a difficult time recovering lost accounts if they allow
their
>registration information to become out of date. To update your
account's
>information, please refer to the "Account" section of your log in
>screen.
>
>Original Message Follows:
>------------------------
>hi could you xplain why i can go buy EQ and 7 xpansion packs for 29.99
>and
>have everything in the game xcept the newest xpansion, but if i have an
>account with you already and only have EQ and plane of power, you will
>charge me appox 74.97 for the other 6 xpansions and i dont even get any
>cd's
>in case i lose my hard drive. seems like a rip off for anyone already
>playing your game.
man you are so ignorant it's not even funny.
Customer Support means a helluva lot in a mmorpg. Hell, people don't contact customer support mainly because their "stupid" as you midly put it. They contact customer support over serious matters that could/has effected them or other people.
Like the poster before I have said. I have quit over 4 mmorps simply because of piss poor customer service. It has nothing to do with need help with the game....there's more to a customer service rep than to provide in game hints lol.
Take Lineage 2 for example. Maybe that game wouldn't be going down the shitter if customer support actually gave a damn about their player base.
or SWG. Hell, I love that game (uesed to hate it). But a lot of players would still be there if their customer support didn't suck so bad. Yes, I like this game and I am admitting that their CSR teams are rather bad.
Shadowbane? Many people left because CSRs gave them the typical "pre-typed" message of why their servers were screwing up even ahalf a year after release.
People can deal with bugs, my friend. All seasoned mmorpg players know that there isn't one game out there that is 100% bug free (although ffxi almost is)so we're used to it and we give it chance after chance. However if a customer support member screws with us or finds us as unimportant because they could give a crap about us then you will see a game decline in numbers.
That is the answer to your first question of Why do people bitch about customer service so much? Its only a problem if the game is buggy.
I hoped that enlightened you, oh great Azron as us little "stupid" people really don't know what we're talking about. lol
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Customer Service is very important, i prefer GM
But SOE has one of ther worst customer service ever.
lol, No I'm gonna have to go with the popular opinion here. Example 1, what I love about AO's customer service is when you make your first character on a new account in AO an ARK (advisor of Rubi-Ka) contacts you, pops in and answeres all your basic questions and tells you about the game. However there e-mail support although they reply in good time, never seem to do any follow up which annoys me. IE: If I report a bug, or inquire about a potential exploit, I'd like a follow up e-mail letting me know if they found what I was talking about.. But in general, pretty good for AO. SWG... all I got was form mail and automated responses. I even sent them a reply stating I would cancel my account if I got another form mail response.. And of course, I got another form mail response, and I quit. And listed my reason for why...
Customer support has a wide range of functions, yea new players will complain once or twice about lag death, but most times they'll adjust, and players shoudl ALWAYS feel incouraged to e-mail in questions, although I'd say don't harass a GM for ueless reasons. And it's also the best way for them to track bugs and exploits.
Of course if you have any questions regarding my post please feel free to contact my customer service, where one of our reps will be happy to tell you that no one gives a shit about your opinion, and pls stay off the internet as we are trying to raise the avg IQ atm..
With a crappy game like EQ, CS is very important ;p
While one of the best (IMO) and least buggiest (IMO) games I've played (but don't play anymore) DAoC, CS was rarely needed except maybe when the housing expansion came out and they were working out a few bugs.
Well i think customer service is imporent i played lineage2 crappy game alredy quit!
But the cuostomer support.... well dont know a word for its like this
i pm a gm becuase im stuck saying "help plz" after 2 hours i get a pm saying plz write your post agian saying what your problem is
then one time server crashed when i was on a boat to mainland but then i restartet on my starteing point and lost my ticket so i pm a gm to help me out next day someone respone saying i will write back to you then 2 days past and no help....
another time i was running from this sycko monster that was slower then me
but then i get stuck in a stupid rock so the monster cautch up with me and totaly owns me fucking much so i drop my 400k weapon thats about 6 hours farming for a lvl 20, so i pm a gm about the bug and try to get help, but agian they cant help me... sooo nice off them 
and every time i see som bot who wont respond or do anything to me after i hit em, so i pm gm saying bah bah we cant do nothing so i always get pissed and killede the bots witch sucks going red and dropping my stuff
i just couldent resits pking a idiot that only killede quest monsters/ besides the quest was class changes and wasent need for them
but the thing that made me quit this silly silly game was when i was lvling my wolf pet and it died 10 seconds before i server restart so it drops it weapon and i was logged out. Then i log back in my wolf and weapon is gone and gms cant help either,
the only thing they ever help me with is when i pm them about some pker thats lvl 4 with best stuff killing people
.. and that is really the sillyiest thing becuase the game was made to be a open pvp game but its not. so anyway they mostly ban lvl 4 pkers 
Go play Lineage II for at least a few months. Then come back and say that again.
_______________________________________________
Customer Service should be quiet, unobtrusive, but there when you need it. I hate to be one of those guys complaining on Tha Intarweb, but I quit SWG cause of the customer service. Specifically, they put in a patch that made all our backpacks disappear shortly after release. Your backpack is your life in SWG and I had everything in it but a horn or something. So I literally couldn't play anymore. Fine, I drop a line to CS and three days later, I get an automated response. I send them another one. This time I get a response like "We know about it, so it'll be fixed in this patch." Fine. Patch goes in. No backpack. And come to find out, they deleted my in-game request for help because "The patch fixes this." No. No it didn't. I cancelled that day.
<<CatchPhrase>>
<<CatchPhrase>>
Well CSR is important not only for bugs but for dealing with problematic players and events.
So yeah i think its very important.A fact lost on SoE.
My CS experiences in EQ where actually pretty good, with one exception.
SWG was a whole other story though. Basically every reply you got was a form reply that told you to piss off.
DAoC, not so hot either. Sent numerous bug reports, and a petition or two about my Ranger not having his second Blade style, even though he was specced in Blades, Never got any answer. Left for about 6 months, came back for the 14 day retry, resent petitions, and still never got anything back about it.
-------
I was never what you wanted, I could never never please.
I swallowed all our sorrow in the midst of my disease.
All my fortunes, all my gains, all the battles I have won...
Now collapsing like the rain, I stand alone, your only son...
Take some solace in these words, take notice of this place.
Hollow whispers that they are, like the wind upon my face.
Sing softly in my ear and look at me with wonder.
I will try to ease your fear as the darkness pulls you under.
I wish I can say I dont need it but...
I am a big baby! I need a GM to explain to me that they cant help me on this *insert anything my mind judge unfair* althought they wish they can help me feel better in a way or another blablabla...
When a player name their toon Anosoc and it was in my guild, and to my french mind it sound like just an insult, I was needing a GM to talk to me, even if I guildremove and was angry that my guildleader of the time didnt kick the offending evil name outside the guild...
When a GMGuide take the time to listen to my evil whining, well, it help me accept the stuff I can eventually accept, and it delay my angriness on stuff I find unacceptable in the game for a little while...
GMs and most often Guides explain me quite a few options as well...
Customer service dont need to be perfect, but yes, some of it is good and important! Even if I know how to ignore and how to
eport, sometimes you just need to talk with someone wearing the badge of law...and the poors GMs does that! *grin*
That been said, I talk less then 1 time per month to a GMguide and it usually is like 3 tells or something like that...considering I play 80 hours a week, that is not that bad...considering I act as an instant unofficial GM for many many noobs at later points, it is not a bad investment. See, the noobs that need a direct, instant answer, that send me a tell, I always answer to the best of my knowledge when I can afford to send a tell(I will stop soloing to type answers, but I will not stop pulling for my group, I will put AFK and ignore a raid while answering a noob, which lead to amusing WTF the main chanter is AFK damn it!, bards on CC!...which was funny because they see me still moving and doing most of my job, yet AFK and not talking, they assume I have a RL friend that didnt speak english playing me *grin*, I was just talking to a noob). Repeating the message GM or guide give me a few month ago to noobs is appreciated both by me and the noobs hehe...
In a single RPG I would not need a customer service really, but when I am in contact with others players and expect to be playing on a blue server for the carebears?
Instanced zone and less harsh direct competition reduce my need for customer service, since 75% of the time my issues are concerning the actions of other players.
- "Coercing? No no, I assure you, they are willing to bring my bags and pay public transportation just to help me, it is true!''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
In over four years of playing MMORPGs I have never had a need for customer service on a standard server. The only time I have ever needed assistance were on test servers. On those two occasions I got my avatar into areas where I wasn't supposed to be able to go to.
I've sent in abuse reports and I've sent in bug reports. None of those reports required a customer service representative to contact me again. I did not expect to be contacted about them. Of course, I actually supplied them with adequate and accurate information so they didn't need to contact me again.
Customer service, at it's best, is invisible.
---------
Wu Name? Misunderstood Menace
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
Thomas Jefferson