For Customer Service: Can you end the wall of silence?

[zehnvhex]

I'm not talking about how it can take days, weeks or even months to get a response on a support ticket. I get that you guys are short staffed still and training takes time and etc...etc...etc...

What I'm talking about is how, apparently, we the players are the only ambassadors between the web team and the in game team. I and plenty of others now have been faced with the dreaded "contact the other team" error message.

Twice now I've contacted in game support where they closed my ticket and told me to contact the web support team. Why can't they do it? Surely there must be some back end where they can copy/paste my issue, send it off to the web CS team as an escalation and then they can contact me on the email my account is registered with...right?

Also, and perhaps more importantly, when the web team can't do something like an item restore...perhaps we could, dunno...have them schedule something? Like, "Please select from one of the below times you can be available to resolve your issue as it requires you and the support rep be on at the same time. Thursday between 5 and 6 PM, Thursday between 8 and 9 PM, Friday between 11 and 12 AM."

Anyways...

People can be patient and understanding. You tell me it's going to take a month to clear through the queue to get to me, that's fine. I'll live. But if I sit and wait for that month and the response I get is, "Sorry not my problem, you need to dial this number instead...."

That's when I get salty.

[Cordovan]

What is your issue that you are being told to contact the web support team?

[Thar]

What is your issue that you are being told to contact the web support team?

I was directed by ingame support for the FVS missing the lvl 6 diety feat with the changes a few months ago to those feats. Forums indicated that in game support could correct this with a LR but they wouldn't respond other than a note on the closed ticket after staying online for 13 hrs for a response.

[imTonE]

I had a serious issue that needed a dialogue with CS so I stayed online for as long as it took to be reached. In the 5th hour, my ticket was closed with a message saying that my issue had been resolved.

It hadn't been resolved at all. I was online the entire time and there wasn't even an indication that my ticket had been resolved and closed. If I hadn't regularly checked the ticket status I would've never known.

Why are CS closing tickets on customers?

[saspirion]

yo ive been away for a year, i have an issue where i log in with my username and password are fine logging in but after that the game doesnt load any idea on why that is please ?

[zehnvhex]

What is your issue that you are being told to contact the web support team?

Mine was resolved. I had purchased an item I wasn't supposed to be able to and was told web support would have to issue the refund. That was months ago though.

It's more of a general frustration thing these days and there seems to be (at least from what players can see) no communication between the two support teams. My experiences are largely anecdotal based on what I see in guild chat and forum complaints. I can only begin to imagine the current ticket queue.

It would be nice if you guys were able to fix your back end so we'd instead hear, "I'm going to escalate your ticket to the web team" or if it requires in game support, "Let's schedule a time to get this fixed."

Thank you for listening.

[Kalebos]

What is your issue that you are being told to contact the web support team?

On my ticket Request #7491, Web Support closed my ticket without speaking to me and told me to contact In-game support. In-game support closed my ticket without speaking to me and told me to contact Web support. Both doors closed.
I attempted to play in hopes something would change. Upon reaching level 3, in addition to most of my gear lost, I discovered my Stat/Skill tomes were not being applied. Opened a new ticket both In-game and Web.
On my ticket Request #7709, Web Support has not responded. In-game support (Mushi) restored my Stat/Skill tomes (except UMD), but could/would do nothing about my lost items during Racial Reincarnation. Still waiting.....finger crossed.

Hopefully the new monitoring tool will help other avoid these issues.

[alancarp]

In general, if a customer/player has an issue that they feel compelled to file a support ticket about, that ticket should remain open until the customer closes it... not when the GMs decide to do so. That's certainly the way things work at my company.

If a ticket is answered and then remains open for another 72 hours or so without a customer/player action, then yeah - auto-close it then due to abandonment. But true customer service means letting the customer decide when his problem is satisfactorily resolved.

[Livmo]

In general, if a customer/player has an issue that they feel compelled to file a support ticket about, that ticket should remain open until the customer closes it... not when the GMs decide to do so. That's certainly the way things work at my company.

If a ticket is answered and then remains open for another 72 hours or so without a customer/player action, then yeah - auto-close it then due to abandonment. But true customer service means letting the customer decide when his problem is satisfactorily resolved.

I totally agree. I took a day off work to wait in game for a GM response, because other ticket was closed and was told to contact support in-game. I waited all day and after I finally logged of my ticket was closed and the GM that closed it said nothing could be done. Which I happen to know is untrue. This also happened recently. In-game GMs have resolved it for others in the past.

The point I want to add is that perhaps out of game and in-game support may not know whom they are actually dealing with. It's never a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you. If this type of support/response is considered acceptable, so be it. Actions speak louder than words.

[ShinobiKitten]

I definitely agree that a GM shouldn't be able to close a ticket without ever once having spoken to the person who posted the ticket. i've sent in tickets and just had to keep opening new ones because the GM that was online just kept closing it every single time i opened one without ever responding to me nor letting me speak to him/her . Its really infuriating when you had a question and are not given the chance to answer, nor is it answered at all, just shut down so neither side can respond. My last bad experience with CS resulted in my taking a break from game for about a week lol

[Arkai]

I had a trouble with the last freebie code (used it and got nothing) and just put a ticket (#3855345). Waited for 2 hours (7-9 PM Boston time) but got no response. I am logging out now, but i wonder if there are "better hours" to get a response from a GM.

Any clues?

Thanks!

[Qezuzu]

I definitely agree that a GM shouldn't be able to close a ticket without ever once having spoken to the person who posted the ticket. i've sent in tickets and just had to keep opening new ones because the GM that was online just kept closing it every single time i opened one without ever responding to me nor letting me speak to him/her . Its really infuriating when you had a question and are not given the chance to answer, nor is it answered at all, just shut down so neither side can respond. My last bad experience with CS resulted in my taking a break from game for about a week lol

Sounds utterly ridiculous.

I'm really glad I've never ran into more than a couple issues that required CS, once where my destiny XP got wiped, another time where I glammered a weapon but the result looked different (and much worse.) There were probably more times but all were well before the Turbine -> SSG transition, and they went well.

Now it just seems like their CS is completely dysfunctional. I seriously dread the day my character gets broken in some way during a TR.

[PermaBanned]

One of the reasons I'm no longer a customer, but rather just a player is our severely lacking Customer Support.

• Phone support? Canceled.

• Web Support? Most success I've ever had, and that was once. A big thanks to CS_Alkaid for getting involved and making things happen with an in-game GM.

• In-Game Support? Rediculously limited hours for a 24/7 game. For goodness sakes, at least have the courtousy to have an auto response of "In Game support is not available between X-Y hours, on Z days." I'm a way off of prime time player, and have had the misfortune of informing way too many fellow players that submitting a ticket regarding (i.e. a bugged Quest Boss) was futile as there's no one there to help.

Not having an auto response of "nobodies home for the next 8 hours" is beyond rude, because:
• We have to stay logged in to get support, and...
•• We don't know if they're just busy, or not available.
•• If you log out, your ticket is auto closed.
•• If you're AFK (god forbid "nature calls") and a GM responds but you don't, ticket closed.
And that's how the paying "customers" are treated. Just one more reason why my wallet is also closed.

Ticket closers need to be informative as to why they were closed. I know you have to be a paying customer (either VIP or Premium with something spent in the last whatever time period) but not everyone playing realizes this. If tickets are getting closed because we haven't paid money, say so.

You want us to give you money for support services? Make us feel like there's a reason to do so.

[ringage]

i had tickets for in game support about quest stacking that never took an answer
but to be fairly the important issue that i had all this years ,was before 5-6 months the ssd solve it and i was not even online
i had purchase an item that it never appeared on my inventory, log of and log in again did nt helped me so i hit the support button,after 1 hour i loged off and when i loged in again the next day i found a mssage that my ticket is closed and my pronlem is solved with a sorry message from ssd,they gave me back the points that the item costs plus 250 ddo points as apologize :)

[LightBear]

What is your issue that you are being told to contact the web support team?

I think the real issue is that:
- Tickets getting closed with some *** note which makes you feel left out in the cold, that's how I feel and reading up on the tales of others so do they.
- Having to send the same message twice but to two different inboxes.
- Lack of communication (Other then what we see above).

I'm in a bit of a bias about all of this.
After all it's just a game and not some sort of life support system.
That said, if I pay to see a movie (which you folks of TeamDDO always like to compare things to) and I get no sound, the movie burns up half way through, crappy seat or noisy customers then I'm going to walk up to who ever I can find of that theaters employees, explain the situation and ask what they're gonna do about it. And guess what not only would you get your money back, you get an apology and prob a discount for the next time.

What could help:
- A ticker that notifies you of your number in the ques.
- An estimation on how long it will take before it's your turn.
- Remove the option for SSG staff to close tickets but leave it to someone with that Skill.
- Have a checklist up on what Customers can do them self (which, besides the do-a-reinstall, is basically zero as DDO is a closed software program), update that checklist with new insights.
- Don't use quantitative time-to-complete measures to judge staff... Seriously there are very few justifications to do that.
- I'd rather see a full stack expertise of all employees but I guess that's not possible so instead have a tiered line of support.
- Be a team, communicate with each other on a daily basis.
- Communicate with your customers on what issues you think is most important and what is least important then check if your customers think the same.
- Ask the DDO community how they tackled technical issues.
- Have a reward program for not posting tickets to prevent abuse.-
- Have Cordovan mention in one of the many vid casts some actual figures instead of "we're working on it", like this is the que, new issues, closed issues, pending issues, how many relate to what (things bought but not received, game won't start, no sound, sound to loud, can't finish a quest, character stuck, items missing, feats missing, etc etc etc), the most annoying issue of the week. Give an example of an issue that was resolved to customers satisfaction very quickly. Give an example of one which seems Gibberish and ask the community what it could mean.

[florestan]

I recently hit 625k reaper xp and bought the cosmetic eyes. Seemed silly but why not celebrate the milestone. 800,000 plat later I used the potion and nothing happened. It took a couple days for someone to look at my ticket, which they did while I was offline. They closed it and told me to bug report it. That's not customer service. I shouldn't have to submit the bug report when a ticket describing the issue with all my info already exists. Submitting a bug report helps SSG fix the game, but people ask for customer service to fix themselves. The outcomes I cared about were either a working cosmetic feat, or getting my platinum back. So now I have a new ticket that's been open for a couple days asking for my platinum refund. Long story short the goal of the service team should be to fix what they can, undo what they can, or throw some kind of bone (50 TP or something) so people feel valued when the game we pay to play malfunctions.

[florestan]

I recently hit 625k reaper xp and bought the cosmetic eyes. Seemed silly but why not celebrate the milestone. 800,000 plat later I used the potion and nothing happened. It took a couple days for someone to look at my ticket, which they did while I was offline. They closed it and told me to bug report it. That's not customer service. I shouldn't have to submit the bug report when a ticket describing the issue with all my info already exists. Submitting a bug report helps SSG fix the game, but people ask for customer service to fix themselves. The outcomes I cared about were either a working cosmetic feat, or getting my platinum back. So now I have a new ticket that's been open for a couple days asking for my platinum refund. Long story short the goal of the service team should be to fix what they can, undo what they can, or throw some kind of bone (50 TP or something) so people feel valued when the game we pay to play malfunctions.

Got my response from customer service who closed the ticket while I was offline:

"Thank you for your help request. We are unable to assist with your reimbursement or exchange as I cannot find information in our logs verifying the loss of items due to the bug you described. I apologize for the inconvenience, but since you've already submitted a bug report you are on the right track to help us prevent similar issues in the future. Thank you."

Completely frustrating and unacceptable response.

[zehnvhex]

Got my response from customer service who closed the ticket while I was offline:

That's amazing. Even if you were lying to try to scam them out of free platinum I mean it's 800k. That's a drop in the bucket. Customer Support 101 would be to give you the freebie on good faith just to keep you a happy customer and then flag your account in case you ever try to get more freebie stuff.

Basically at this point the only thing you can get help with anymore is if you need a refund on a store bought purchase (I've gotten ~4 refunds or so over the years) or if your character is stuck.

If you have any issue other then one of those two you might as well go pound sand since SSG customer service won't help.

[LT218]

Good lord. People really need to stop giving this company money until they start providing some reasonable response times, customer service that's actually useful and start fixing game-breaking bugs like this and the TR losses. It's pathetic.