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A cautionary tale about Zenimax support
sahib
Member UncommonPosts: 19
We've all seen the number of topics regarding billing issues in TESO. I also had such an issue, because my card was charged twice for the same thing. It was not a big deal (seeing as they insist those are auth holds) but I wanted to clear it up nonetheless, so I made a support ticket a week ago, detailing the billing error. In the mean time I was enjoying the game.
Tonight I finally got a response from customer support admitting there was in fact a billing error and that one of the charges was refunded (refunding an auth hold?). A minute later I received another email informing me about my subscription expiration… I checked the TESO account site and in fact all the subscription info (with the 30-day free period) has simply disappeared from the page.
Following the advice of the CS rep I proceeded to set up a new subscription, as I was told this should reset my account to the correct values.
Well, it didn’t.
That’s what I see now when I try to set up a subscription:
It would appear all my keys for the game were removed from my account by the CS rep dealing with my previous incident. Their system now thinks I do not own the game, when in fact the same system clearly shows my purchases in the billing history.
Right now, I’m beyond words. Bugs, lag, maintenance – I can live with. Those are all to be expected when launching a new MMO. But to have your billing/account system designed so poorly, as to when things like above are even possible, that’s just very disappointing and it doesn’t make me very optimistic about the game’s future.
Judging from the time it took them to deal with my previous issue, I guess I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for them to repair their own fuck-up.
So, long story short, if you have a billing issue, think twice before submitting the ticket. You just might find yourself with a resolved problem on a game you no longer own.
Comments
My suggestion is that you make another ticket and calmly and politley ask them to have another look at it. Especially as there was a refund involved and that have been known to cause issues in other games.
What can happen is that someone from support make a refund on the wrong entry and in essence shut your account down due to you having "removed" your payment. It is not the end of the world most likley but will perhaps take some work to get sorted and you might have to ask for a senior CS rep to take a look at is as the "grunts" tend to have very limited tools when it comes to dealing with stuff like this.
Any way the most important thing is to be polite and friendly.... Trust me... I used to work customer service.
This have been a good conversation
Indeed, keep calm and be polite. Sadly, you have no other choice than to go through customer support now.
Which is irritating for you, but definitely do everything to help your own case at this point!
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
I am and always have been.
Trust me, you're not the only one
Its just better to not contact them at all lol. Next time you have a problem try to fix it your self, with out their help.
I hope you keep us updated as this can be a good thread to link to in case others have the same issues
Best of luck.
This have been a good conversation
Yup, next time I have a serious issue with one of my chars I'll just reroll, safer that way
IT support... ^^
Can't tell you how many times I had to explain what it means to "copy-paste". To people working with computers. On a daily basis. Yeah...
Thanks, I'll keep you all updated.
I was missing my explorers pack and submitted a ticket the 6th. what happened: I registered a gamestop imperial edition pre-order code. I was told on friday that my package was going to be delayed with no ETA so I cancelled on the 4th and ordered the digital version ffrom zenimax.
they responded within hours, exchanged a few emails while being escalated into support to find out how I registered (which I never registered an explorers pack. I actually didnt know that was seperate from the pre-order code).
It took a few days but yesterday my ticket was resolved, and they not only issued me the explorers pack but re-issued me all of the in-game items to my account so I've got doubles of nearly everything. Quite happy with the resolution of this.
I on the other hand still wait for a resolution regarding my digital deluxe items 15 days after I filed my first ticket.
I don't get it. You bought the game, used a serial code, said it was an error. You called CS, they gave you a refund, and removed your serial code. Now you're mad that you can't play and are saying the history says at one point you used a serial code and you're mad about it?
Maybe I misunderstood? I've heard better stories even still though.
The possibility of the universe collapsing into a singularity is higher than the birth of a perfect MMORPG.
Did you really work in customer service? Really? If you did, didn't you take anything out of that experience? Or did you simply feed people bullshit all the time and laugh at the people on the other end of the line? It honestly sounds like you took nothing from the experience at all. It's almost like you feel like they're intentionally screwing you. You MUST know that they probably don't have a clue what's going on either, right? They didn't code the system they're using and they're only trying to help.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Or maybe I was actually good at my job, so I'm used to somewhat higher standards?
And this concerns me how? From my standpoint I was billed twice for a service I no longer have access to because of their error. I expect my issue to be resolved as soon as possible. There is absolutely nothing unreasonable about that.
To be honest I fail to see what possible purpose your message serves.
Yup, I know that. I was commenting on their whole billing/account system and the fact that it even allows situations like this to happen.
Sigh look no reason to get personal here we here at Zenimax are highly trained mcdonalds fry guys!
Hmm. I'm starting to think these people might not even be contacting the right company for support. ZOS CS was one of the best experiences I have had with CS, the only one better was Trion before the F2P move.
I guess there are always gonna be some horror stories out there with any CS though. Good luck OP getting your issue resolved, hopefully you get a more competent CSR next time you get in contact with them
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Ok I work for directv and trust me he is absolutely right. Call them up and start cussing and acting belligerent and this is what will happen:
First of all The CSR will be suddenly shocked at the hostile call cause believe it or not these people get nice customers for many many calls and when they occasionally get that asshat call they are usually so shocked they get nervous , their brain shuts down and they won't even hear what your saying you will never get anything done if you are not nice. Ask for a supervisor and you will get one. He will go right by the book and will not give in an inch to your hostile demands.
Be nice and polite
trust me you will have a much better chance of getting your issue resolved by a junior csr than a supervisor by being NICE!
I always made my customers very happy because I treated people like I would want to be treated but if they are an ass to me and start making unreasonable demands I only tried to see just how pissed off I could get them hoping they would just hang up the damn phone then I would put in my notes for all my colleagues to beware of this hostile person so everytime you call in from then on you would be flagged as an ass.
Right, I don't dispute what you wrote, I even agree with it, but how exactly does it apply to my situation?
Please read the opening post again, I have no anger towards the CS reps and at no point did I treat them like shit. I've been nothing but polite in all my dealings with them. This topic is a word of caution about Zenimax account/billing system which clearly does not work as intended.
As an update to the subject matter, I was contacted by someone from L2 support. Was told to apply a provided code to my account, but so far no luck, system still thinks I do not own the game.
Good news everyone! Once the case was forwarded to a L2 group it gained momentum and it's now solved. They were able to restore my ownership of the game and restore my game time
I have to admit I am surprised it was done before the weekend. Surprised but pleased
Great to hear!!
Everyone talking about CS, makes me remember when SWtOR had rather decent toll free number to call....but you did have to wait sometimes, And then one day they decided to charge you for the CS call...by the minute if memory serves correct (of course you could skype them for free..XD)....hope that never happens here!!!
Even better news is that it sounds like your problem required some amount of problem solving on their end, which means that they now have a solution for it for any future users that encounter that problem. So basically, it's kind of like bug testing (in a sucky way) in that you are helping their CS offer better CS in the future.
Buuuuuuut, you said that they actually did refund your duplicate charge. I'm not saying it's not a crap situation. Also, if it's an open ticket, I would hope they would be more responsive and not put you back in a queue, but you seem to think that Customer Service has the keys to the kingdom or something. As far as standards go, have you ever contacted support at a video game company before? It's not simple.
I actually cancelled my pre-order of SWTOR because I forgot my security question and, instead of asking me a different one it simply kept asking me the one that I couldn't answer. Their support said there was nothing they could do. After continually trying to reason with them logically, they said that the only way they could unlock it was if I faxed them a copy of 2 pieces of ID. HA! Yeah, I'm going to fax a copy of my ID to someone who could be working out of Nigeria for all I know. Nope, not gonna happen. To get to that point, though, it took me three days and hours on the phone. About 6 months later I re-addressed the issue and, once they had policies in place for dealing with this sort of situation, they simply asked me the question, accepted my answer verbally and the person was able to quickly discover that I had made a spelling error in my answer to the security question. They reset it and we went on happily from there. Another factor, I think, was the level of understanding. My first contact was with someone who couldn't really understand what I was asking and I had difficulty understanding them, too. Outsource maybe? On my re-call, though, I got someone who spoke perfect English. Maybe they realized the value of having a native call centre for supported areas.
Anyway, fact is, that nobody knows anything right now and your assumption that they should know how to deal with these types of situations is way off base. They simply don't. In fact, it could be the first time they've ever dealt with it.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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