Letter to Steven Reid about lack of customer support

[Badgeking]

So, first let me start off by saying this is a very long letter. I sent this as a personal message to Stephen Reid a few days ago hoping that we would read it and do something about the lack of customer service. At this point, nothing seems to be happening. They have not once address how awful the GM's are or why they outsourced to people that have NO knowledge of the game at all. There are countless threads in this Customer Service forum asking for answers or at least some support! My personal ticket has now been in place for 15 days. Of course, it was giving the normal cut and paste answer that everybody is getting telling me it is getting passed on to another team and was then closed. Stephen Reid, Bioware, and everybody at EA, the clock is ticking. If the total lack of customer service is not changed before the free month is up, you WILL lose a lot of members that love the game. However, why should we pay $15 a month when we can't get ANY support from anybody?

 

Now, here is the letter, unedited just like it was sent to Stephen Reid.

 

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First off, it is not like me to complain on a forum. In fact, this is the first time I have ever had to contact a communinity manager in a private message. While I hope to get an answer back from you, I somewhat doubt it will happen because of how busy you are.

 

However, I would like to personally bring to your attention the total lack of customer service that people are receiving. While I really want this game to last for years to come and for it to become the biggest MMO in the world, that will not happen with the current state of the CSR team.

 

For me personally, I have had a ticket in place since 12/19/11 that has still not be resolved. My secuirty key from my CE arrived VERY messed up. It looks like somebody took a knife to it because of how many scratches are all over the device. While it still works, I paided for this device and want one that looks like new, not something that looks all scratched up.

 

I submitted a OUT OF GAME ticket using this website on the 12/19/11. However, the ticket was added to my in-game tickets. Thats not a big issue, but based on my past experince with in-game support, I knew from the start nothing would be done. Sure enough, the same day I asked for support, my ticket was CLOSED with a pre-typed, cut and paste answer that tells me it has been moved to another team. Well, it has been roughly 13 days since the ticket was sent to this team, and I have heard NOTHING from them.

 

First off, the cut and paste, canned answers need to go. Nothing is more annoying than sending a support request to just get a quick answer back that does me no good. A typed out answer from the CSR team will add that personal touch and make the customer know that their whole ticket was read. For all I know, the CSR on my ticket could have just read the first word or two and moved it on to this "team". Please, do away with these canned answers. Nobody likes them and they hurt your image more than it helps. I would rather wait an extra day or two to get help than to recieve this type of reply that does me no good, and I am sure many others feel the same way.

 

Now, speaking of this "team" that my ticket got moved to. Well, it looks like a lot of people on this forum are having tickets moved to another "team" and then having the ticket closed with no answer. Based on my forum searching, I am starting to get the feeling that this "team" is just a way for the CSR to avoid the issue and with the ticket closed, your hope is that the customer will just forget about it. I understand you are getting a lot of people asking for in-game support, but it seems like very few people are getting any support at all.

 

Another thing that is really starting to drive many of us nuts on the forums is the outsourcing. Most of the time the CSR's that we speak to on the phone do not understand us because they don't understand English. We have to repeat things over and over again for them to sort of understand our problems. Then trying to understand their reply is even worse. I have dealt with a lot of different support (for MMO's and other things) and this is by far the worst out sourcing I have ever witnessed (right along side the Origin support, which is a whole different issue that I will not discuss right now).

 

I would like to point out a few different forum threads. I am sure you have read them, because after all, you are the main community manager and when people are not getting help, I would assume you would try and help. However, nothing is being done.

 

So, thread 1:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=86614

 

Oh boy is this a good one! It seems like none of the CSR's know what any of the other CSR's are doing. Sometimes tickets get closed. Sometimes a CSR tells these people that the character restore they are looking for can be done and other times they are told that a character restore system is not in place and therefore can never be done. Talk about conflicting answers! Then your forum support person attempts to make things better, but because of the lack of information they can provide, people are left wondering what is going on.

 

For many of us, this is not our first MMO. Over the years, MMO support on forums (and in-game) has become amazing. I was there for the Rift launch and their CSR's and community managers were there, on the forums talking about issues and how they are fixing them. When support ticket times were getting long, they told us they are hiring and training as many people as possible as quickly as they can. I have NEVER once recieved a canned answer from Trion and the Rift support team. My tickets have always been address in 24-28 hours without having to be passed to another team.

 

The time for "We are looking into it" and "We know about the issue but can't talk any more about it" is done with. It is now 2012. Customers want to know what is being done to fix the issue. Simply saying "We know about it" and never again commenting makes the paying customers feel like the issue is just something on a long list of things to be fixed with no ETA on when it will happen. For major issues like characters not being able to progress because of bugs, a lot more information needs to be addressed. We, as paying customers that are affected by this, should be getting daily (or every other day) updates on this. Things like "We think we have found out what is causing the problem and are working as quickly as we can to fix it" would go a long way. At this point, it just seems like you know about the issue but nothing is being done.

 

Thread 2: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1023327#post1023327

 

Another great one! In this one, people are complaining about customer service in the customer service forum. The customer service forum is in place to get just that, service. So, when NO customer service is taking place, people are of course going to complain. The fact that the CSR's are removing our posts as SPAM because we are complaining about a total lack of customer service is just insane. Heres a great idea! Instead of reading the forum looking for posts about people complaining about the customer service, why don't you try and fix it by providing as much information as you can on each issue? The fact that a PAYING CUSTOMER had to create a detailed known issues list is just insane. Sure you have an "offical" list, but it is missing so many issues and work arounds that your customers are sharing with each other.

 

That "offical" known issue list should be updated multiple times each day. It should include EVERY KNOWN ISSUE THAT IS BEING TALKED ABOUT ON THIS FORUM! It should also be the main place were updates to each issue are talked about. List the issue, give a work around, and then nearly everyday an update should be posted about the progress. We are sick and tired of hearing "We know about it but thats all we can say" type of answers. It makes me feel like you can't say any more because you don't think a fix can ever happen or that it will take to much work to resolve and that you hope it will just fade away and be something people forget about.

 

The final thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=1022308#post1022308

 

This one again talks about the lack of customer support. I really could keep send you more threads, but I hope you get the idea. Here are some great replys in that thread:

 

1) "Agree 110% I have no complaints about the number of bugs. The customer service is lacking and IMO will be this game's downfall. Sending out automated "it's being looked into" reply and closing a ticket seems like a blow off. I had sent in a ticket asking a question, waited 3 days and got the "It's been pass on" response, and a closed ticket with no answer to the question. Do they even care? "

 

2) "Bioware, if you don't start to respect and start helping your clients with problems that are your fault your game is going to microtransactions and then free to play.

You copied much of blizzard .. copy their support system.

 

Automated answers from XXXXXXX number droid is just silly. "

 

3) "It's funny, a lot of people bust on them for not having X or Y feature that WoW had, or for copying or not copying Z from WoW.

 

I would be ok with copying their support system"

 

4) "That is not the proper procedure to deal with a ticket. You don't close and "escalate" a ticket. The ticket is needed to keep track of the issue. If the issue exists, then the ticket should not be closed because the issue is not resolved. We cannot do anything further to a closed ticket. The odds of nothing further happening with the ticket is very likely. They're only doing this in hopes the customer loses interest in whatever resolution the customer wanted and moves on.

 

Either way, it's insulting to the customer, and poor customer service. "

 

I could continue, but like I said at the start of this now very long personal message, I highly doubt I will get an answer from you. I do hope you at least read this and start listening to your customers. After all, we are the reason you have a job. You guys have less than a month to quickly turn things around with your customer service before many, many paying customers will just start leaving. One of the reasons we pay a monthly fee is for customer service. Why should we keep paying if NO CUSTOMER SERVICE IS BEING GIVEN?

 

Please, I ask you to address this issue PUBLICLY on the forums. Talk about how you know the customer service is lacking and Bioware is doing everything in its power to turn things around. Start telling the customers on the forums the steps you are taking with each bug. Give us updates on game issues. Drop your out sourced CSR team and hire only native english speaking support staff. Send out e-mails every day to every single one of them with a list of all the known issues and how to reply PERSONALLY to each one. Lose the whole pre-typed messages. I always loved getting the little jokes and funny comments in Blizzard customer support tickets. That seems like something that will never happen. Oh, and while your at it, ditch the whole "fake robot" CSR names and give them real names. Its not funny nor is it helping the whole automated claims. I would much rather send a positive comment about a CSR to a CSR manager by saying "Man, Mike really gave me amazing customer support (and I really hope I can start saying this soon, because right now everybody is awful)" than to say "Man, that CR-02 robot guy was amazing". Names help, use them.

 

My rant is now over. I hope you read it and do something about it. If not, this game will die, or lose so many subs that you have to let go of some of your team. I LOVE the game, I can live with bugs, but no customer support is going to lose me and many others.

 

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Now that this letter is out on the public forums, I hope something can be done. Something tells me this will be deleted or marked as spam, because the CSR team doesn't like people to know how bad of job they are doing. News flash! We already know how bad you are doing, so do something about it to fix it! Stephen Reid, I really hope you took the time to read this whole thing and will address the issues. Things need to change or else this game will fail.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Sireene
use of retarded - due to age of post, no action

[Gartlan]

Agreed

[Badgeking]

Well, you did not seem to read the whole letter. I did not fail. In fact, I have had no major issues IN-GAME. However, the customer service is what fails. Take some time to read the letter before posting that I fail, ok, thanks troll. Edited January 5, 2012 by Trineda
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[DonTickles]

Just because your ability to read fails does not mean this letter does. Edited January 5, 2012 by Trineda
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[renegadeimp]

I'm going to agree with this. As a lot of people are aware, i am very active on these forums helping people with a LOT of technical support problems.

 

However, since i am active, i rarely see actual CS reps giving advice. There are one or two really good reps, but they hardly ever post here.

 

Then there are the 2-3 reps that i personally have had direct discussions with support managers about for giving completely false and incorrect information to players, giving them false hope. These players then come back and cause all kinds of arguments in threads.

 

So in summary.. +1 for the OP.

[Miyaka]

Spot on OP.

I and most of my friends who migrated here are having a hard time getting past this one. Bugs are to be expected....so are hot fixes when a game launches. A lot of us work in the support industry/ the tech field. We can be patient and understanding to a point. After all..we deal with it too, just on the other end. We know how that other shoe feels. But we also know how good it feels to really resolve an issue and have someone go on their merry way with a "thanks".

 

However, the total lack of real CS is frustrating and disheartening.

As I said before..it's cute to have Droid themes for reps and all that...but it also dehumanizes the communication and leads to a feeling that the CSR's really are droids with no real human interaction being present. This is multiplied by the fact that ALL of my tickets have been closed with canned responses. Even tickets that are about something I cannot get past..such as game breaking glitches.

 

I look at the forums and nearly all the work arounds are from other players who were left to their own devices. They managed to find a solution that takes care of things in the short term. How hard is it to have these in one place so everyone can find them easily? More over....why can't these be communicated in game when a ticket is present?

 

I love this game. I love Bioware. But there is a limit to everyone's patience. We can only "go do something else" for so long while waiting for an answer or scouring for a work around.

I want to be here for a long time. I hope this CS issue is fixed..and soon.

[Gaucho]

Although I am not having issues at all playing the game, I like to read customer issues to become aware of what is going on before I fall into a ditch a i cant get out.

 

I feel sorry for all these people unable to enjoy the game, specially when they already paid for it.

 

Customer Support has to be up to Standards and equal with BIOWARE's high class standards for game design and production. BIOWARE, your awesome game is been dragged down to the dirt because your customer support is complete garbage. if I was your director managing the people that are in charge of customer support online, phone or in-game support, I would have replaced you already.

 

Bioware, put on your game face with customer support or get replaced with world of Pandas and pokemon.

[DonTickles]

Its seems that the links to the last two threads are either broken or the threads were deleted.

 

EDIT: I think the ellipses in the link broke them /tinfoilhat off

Edited January 3, 2012 by DonTickles

[Drowsiness]

I read every last word and 2 of the 3 threads he linked to are gone now. That only highlights what he is complaining about and what a lot of others, including myself, are complaining about.

 

Bad customer service = unhappy customers

Unhappy Customers = lost subscriptions

Lost Subscriptions = bye bye great game of concepts

Edited January 5, 2012 by Trineda
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[Antaron]

Hello Badgeking,

 

I totaly agree with your open letter,

I feel the same way cause the same issues happen to me.

Unfortunatly I'm not as patient as the most players in the forum.

Therefore I decided a few days ago to cancel my subscription to SWTOR

after the free playing time. This was a hard step for me as I own the CE

and awaited the game for such a long time.

 

But after all I decided that I'm not willing to accept that kind of ignorance and behaviour from Bioware/EA. I'm working in IT-Business for about 12 Years now and

have never before seen such a mess in Customersupport as it is here atm.

 

IMHO the only way to show Bioware/EA that we (the Customers) are not pleased with their behaviour is to get them where it hurts them most... at the money.

So I hope that a lot of more people stop (don't begin) to pay for this mess.

(Even it is free to us, to activate our accounts again when our voice is heard loud and clear from the people who are responsible for this.)

 

So I hope that I'll have reasons to re-activate my account real soon but for now I hope that I'm not the only one who thinks like that.

 

Or like Twisted Sister sang "We're not gonna take it"...

 

Regards

Antaron

[TomWhiting]

To add to this, my own request here stop closing unresolved tickets.

 

I'm not one to encourage bumping or spamming, as I tend to have to clean this stuff up from a LOT of places, but keep threads like this bumped. Keep creating them. Let them KNOW that you, the paying customer will not tolerate the atrocities that are going on here. Ignoring customers, for ANY reason is unacceptable. Simply closing tickets with NO RESOLUTION is unacceptable.

 

It's been proven that these CSR's don't even read the tickets. Time and time again, they've put in generic C&P responses, not even related to the issue (in some cases relating to completely different things entirely) and just closed the tickets.

 

It's not about the wait time. Most people will wait a few days before throwing a big old fit about no response. It's not about the bugs. It's not even about the outsourcing of support. No, really, it's NOT... It's about hiring people who have a clue what REAL customer service and support must be. It's about treating customers how YOU would want to be treated...

 

Again, I don't encourage spam, but if you have twitter, let the man know this thread needs his attention. Something like the following:

 

Letter to @stephenreid @Rockjaw about lack of proper SWTOR customer support : http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=124614

That will EASILY fit into twitter's 140 limit, and it'll get his attention pretty quick!

Edited January 3, 2012 by TomWhiting

[Crossfaded]

What many people seem to forget is that the scale that ToR is being built on isn't a miniscule one, and that all other current mmo's didn't begin with a clean slate either. Like many people, I have personally played quite a few MMO's, and to me, this is not strange behavior in the least. Rift did have outstanding customer support on launch day. I will grant that remark without disputing it. However, Rift's game world had so few quirks to it that fixing the world shouldn't have taken a lot of time to begin with. Again, I've played Rift. I understand the desire for the same support, but simply speaking, it won't happen as cleanly on star wars.

 

Let's cross over to another massive MMO; the one that everyone put ToR in a competition with before it released. When WoW first released, it was a nightmare. Most things worked, but the things that didn't really didn't. Even back then, you had a military storm of intelligence coming into the forums about it, and what you have to understand is, there are so many ways to process the same information. What's WoW done since then? They hired more staff, they've tackled their problems, and the game runs relatively smoothly for most people involved. I say mostly because no matter what happens, it's impossible to stop bugs. And when a bug happens, people cancel their accounts over it because they feel that they shouldn't have to wait for a solution or answer.

 

In the OP's case, I do understand the frustration. No one, especially not me, is denying you have the right to be upset. But listing this letter won't help, other than to advertise for a circle of people that you are having a rough time with the game.

 

Tech-support costs money. In an MMO's case a lot of money. And you have to make money to spend money, unfortunately. The game is on it's third week of release, after giving it's customers early access, 30 days free game time, and doing it's best to not shut down the servers every ten minutes so that the players can do what they paid to do: Play.

 

I urge you to continue being patient. You may not like the amount of time this will take to get going properly, but they are trying. You may not like the fact that they aren't acknowledging your post, but there is an equal possibility that there are other posts like it where people have simply gone off the deep end, so they just stopped paying attention to the customer drivel. They can do that. It's in their ToS. And customers can cancel subscriptions and complain to high heaven about lack of support. But it will not change the pace of things, other than to irritate the staff members.

 

Give them time to do their jobs. Let them tackle the issues on their plate before they are expected to answer issues people keep trying to shovel onto their plate. You can't fill a plate that's already full, folks, or it's just going to spill all over your tablecloth, and it will be your own fault. Again, I urge you to be patient. ToR, from my perspective, just needs time and support from the fans to get rolling.

 

Peace.

[TomWhiting]

I urge you to continue being patient.

Learn to read

This isn't about "patience", it's about treating the customer with the respect that they deserve.

The OP, myself, and MANY others have had the horrific experience of dealing with these idiots considered CSR's. If it is not stopped NOW, then when? If it's just allowed to continue, then what will be their next move? Removing customer service alltogether?

 

There are serious concerns here. it's not about "patience" at all.

How would YOU feel if you called up your bank, inquired about a transfer that was unauthorized, was told it would be addressed by someone higher up, hung up on, and then just flat out IGNORED . No resolution, EVER? While this isn't a bank, this IS in some case breaking the game.

 

People have reported issues with their account, to be told "it will be escalated" and the issue closed. WEEKS later, still nothing. I realize this takes time, but it is UNPROFESSIONAL to simply close a ticket without even the courtesy of waiting for a response. It is UNPROFESSIONAL to close a ticket without even responding PROPERLY to the ticket.

 

Patience? Most people are all about that. I've had tickets closed, claiming "it will be resolved", it's been a week, STILL my account has bugged quests that I can't cancel, STILL my account has issues. Petty? Absolutely..

 

It's not about the petty. It's NOT about the patient. it IS about telling EA/Bioware that we, as customers will not stand for this horrific treatment. We DO pay their bills, after all. We, the customer make or break this game.

[Dark_Imperium]

I would like to add my voice to this thread, to do so let me share with you guys the link to my own CSR experience Thread.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=956927#post956927

 

I completely agree with the OP btw, and I can already feel the ongoing change in SW:TOR CS.

 

The last few E-Mails I have received from two different CSR are giving me hope that things are on the way to get better/improve.

 

I am off in game to reply to Brian, my best wishes to all my fellow Gamers.

[renegadeimp]

Learn to read

This isn't about "patience", it's about treating the customer with the respect that they deserve.

The OP, myself, and MANY others have had the horrific experience of dealing with these idiots considered CSR's. If it is not stopped NOW, then when? If it's just allowed to continue, then what will be their next move? Removing customer service alltogether?

 

There are serious concerns here. it's not about "patience" at all.

How would YOU feel if you called up your bank, inquired about a transfer that was unauthorized, was told it would be addressed by someone higher up, hung up on, and then just flat out IGNORED . No resolution, EVER? While this isn't a bank, this IS in some case breaking the game.

 

People have reported issues with their account, to be told "it will be escalated" and the issue closed. WEEKS later, still nothing. I realize this takes time, but it is UNPROFESSIONAL to simply close a ticket without even the courtesy of waiting for a response. It is UNPROFESSIONAL to close a ticket without even responding PROPERLY to the ticket.

 

Patience? Most people are all about that. I've had tickets closed, claiming "it will be resolved", it's been a week, STILL my account has bugged quests that I can't cancel, STILL my account has issues. Petty? Absolutely..

 

It's not about the petty. It's NOT about the patient. it IS about telling EA/Bioware that we, as customers will not stand for this horrific treatment. We DO pay their bills, after all. We, the customer make or break this game.

 

You seem to be under the impression that the CS staff are able to code the game and fix bugs. They cant.

[TomWhiting]

You seem to be under the impression that the CS staff are able to code the game and fix bugs. They cant.

 

Nobody's talking about "fixing bugs"

Nobody's talking about "coding the game"

 

We're talking about CUSTOMER SERVICE here

 

A CSR can edit a user's account

A CSR CAN edit a toon (or they damn well better be able to)

A CSR CAN remove , or re-add things to a toon (or they damn well better be able to)

 

These are not "fixing bugs"

These are not "coding the game"

These are basic, peon customer service tasks.

[Crossfaded]

You clearly didn't follow through with the thread. Because I clearly addressed the thread to dealing with the customer service issue and having patience. I apologize that it was clearly too long-winded for you to read all the way through to get the context of the message, but patience is still the key here. (By the by, making a very serious and foolish statement like "Hey call the bank" in and of itself is a lost cause. You are talking about a service that has been around longer than I'd care to calculate, versus one released in the past three weeks. If you find that a comparison....)

[Optiklown]

100% agree with this thread. I have had 5 tickets with 5 copy and paste responses that have not fixed or even attempted to fix my problems. It blows my mind that with this game being billed as one of the most exspensive games ever made and really needing to have a good start to build its following, yet they didnt anticipate the need for solid customer service.

 

I really have enjoyed my time playing for the most part, but only responding to 3 or 4 threads a day is not going to cut it with a game this big. I really hope they turn this around before everyone moves on to something else.

[Drudenfusz]

You clearly didn't follow through with the thread. Because I clearly addressed the thread to dealing with the customer service issue and having patience. I apologize that it was clearly too long-winded for you to read all the way through to get the context of the message, but patience is still the key here. (By the by, making a very serious and foolish statement like "Hey call the bank" in and of itself is a lost cause. You are talking about a service that has been around longer than I'd care to calculate, versus one released in the past three weeks. If you find that a comparison....)

Why should I have patients when the ticket gets closed without BioWare doing anything about it?

[MichaelWonch]

Check here to see if your system can run SWTOR

 

The funny thing about that is: my computer is well below spec...yet still runs the game well enough to enjoy.

 

I actually had support imply through a carefully worded email that they cannot help me with ANYTHING because my computer is below spec. Even if the game is running, they refuse to assist due to that reason.

 

That's totally ludicrous, but I'm not angry about it. Why? Well...because even if I had a top o' the line desktop system, the support for this title would bite big ones. But, hey! I've learned a LOT of workarounds due to the utter lack of support. I even got rid of the dreaded Error Code 1 on another below spec computer (where, again, the game runs just fine).

 

One of the posters here is correct: this isn't about bugs, specifications, or even barely intelligible support reps. This is about the lack of QUALITY support...which is THE key to keeping any business going (online or not).

 

You know, I think I'd even accept the following answer to certain current issues: "we have NO idea why this is happening and not a clue what to do about it, yet. Sorry...we'll keep looking into this and let you know asap. Please understand this may take a VERY long time."

 

Honesty goes a long way, even if there is no resolution. We don;t even get that with this particular outsourced support team.

Edited January 3, 2012 by MichaelWonch

[TomWhiting]

but patience is still the key here.

No, it's not

The key here, and to ANY business is customer service. I don't care if you're a day old, I don't care if you're 1000 years old. The key to your business at ANY point is customer service.

 

The key is NEVER to tell a PAYING CUSTOMER to "wait"

The key is NEVER to tell a PAYING CUSTOMER "your ticket has been escalated" and IGNORE THEM

The key is NEVER to tell a PAYING CUSTOMER "your items will not be replaced" when they open a ticket about QUEST BUGS (ie: not being able to cancel them).

The key is NEVER to treat a PAYING CUSTOMER like utter trash

 

I don't care how long a business has been around (and Bioware/EA have been around for almost 30 years now, so there IS no excuse), you do NOT treat your customers the way this company has, EVER.

[airrazr]

well said. If i get one more automated response im gonna rip my hair out.

[Galiaan]

Hey Badgeking i checked your links in your post, good post btw! but I'm affraid your links at borked - it seems you cut them short, I hope you will go back and edit your post and fix this as it leaves some of your post a bit shortchanged.

 

anyways I unsubscribed a few days ago, what about you?

[ShetiPhian]

My brother just had one of these frustrating moments.

 

On Tatooine there is a bonus quest a body type 3 trooper with an assault cannon can't finish.

 

After walking up the only ramp to a platform there is a horizontal walkway that crosses your path. The walkway is low enough to clip the tip of your head and a good amount of your gun, yet high enough you can't jump over it.

 

My character was short enough to walk under it and complete the quest objective.

 

 

My brother filed a bug report while standing right in front of it (not sure if screenshots are submitted with bug reports) and the response he got back, several days later, told him there was no spots like that and he should look for another way up.

 

It was a platform out in the open, with one ramp. (there was another platform beside it with the same problem at the top of the ramp)

 

So not only is the CS team mostly useless but they are ignorant about the issues and don't care.

[Greyshadow]

I come from a number of MMO's where I often stick up for CSR's and Dev's. However this game has gotten me to my wits end with customer service. So far I have had only 1 problem since launch and that's the damned security key app. BUT, I have emailed them 5 times and been on the phone 4 times. I have gotten different answers every time I called and I have gotten the SAME answer every time I emailed (the one that says please call us).

 

Like others, I try to help wherever MY experience allows me to lend a hand, so I have been on the CS boards quite often. The posts that I HAVE seen with a CSR response are always the same:

 

1) This is a known issue, please look for an update in a future patch

2) Please call us in reference to this problem.

3) Please read the knowledgebase article XXXX for this problem.

4) Sorry to hear of XXXX problem, but we're really understaffed and most of your tickets go to some poor schlep in India who is working 5 jobs at a time and has to read off of a paper to know who you are calling for.

 

 

Well, that last one MIGHT be me using a little creative writing, but I think the point is valid. Now being involved in the MMO and computer industries for a combined 40 years or so, I've dealt with my fair share of First Tier CSR's (the outsourced, the stay at home moms, the college kids making a buck, etc), but in general I usually get a useful response, and even if it's cut and paste, it's usually to tell me they've sent it to the next level. So far in my 4 phone calls, I have only spoken to an actual employee once, and that was to get the key removed.

 

People can say what they want about "teething pains" and it might even be partially true, but let's be honest, we all know what the real problem is. Ray and Greg are wh0res who want to bleed every dime they can out of you. They hire what seems to be a 5th rate outsourcing company, probably for pennies on the dollar and call it "customer service" all while pocketing your cash.

 

Bioware wants to hint that the game cost $300 million to make... I find that highly unlikely, but in the event that it is, assuming steady subscription numbers, this game easily makes back it's investment in the first year. 100%

 

BUT, NOT all of that goes back into SWTOR, Greg and Ray aren't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts you know.. That's their perogative too, and I am not going to give them a hard time, but I have no doubt that THEIR take home from the launch was probably larger than the budget the entire CSR staff makes in a year.

 

I understand wanting to be rich off of your creation, hell, we all do.... but if you expect to STAY rich, you have to keep your customer base happy. Everyone here is still on their included 30 days, wouldn't it make good business sense to have a USEFUL CSR system in place? I have seen many cancellation posts on the general and on here. MOST of them are claiming customer service is the reason, and I don't blame them.