Letter to Steven Reid about lack of customer support

[JohnFrink]

Agreed before closed.

[Archiwizard]

signed,

 

I think CS is a top priority when you pay monthly subs.

[Enkenon]

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.

 

I believe that for a matter concerning the state of the physical product you ordered(security key) you'd have to communicate with the e store where

you purchased the item from(Origin).

I don't see how in game C.S or posting in the forums can help you with this.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Sireene
quote of edited post

[Gerandar]

Most of them are from Mythic. what did you expect?

[Vahzl]

Am I the only one that doesn't need an underpaid member of a Customer Support team waiting for me to make any number of gameplay mistakes.

 

Am I alone in playing a game here, and not expecting the company that makes the game to give me a massage while I play?

 

Seriously, what the hell has happened to gamers to make them want for so much?

 

The fact that you have enough free time to even sit and switch on a PC outside of our work life should be enough, but lord no, we want the 13 moons of endor on a stick, dipped in chocolate, handed to us by customer support.

[Derbefrier]

Am I the only one that doesn't need an underpaid member of a Customer Support team waiting for me to make any number of gameplay mistakes.

 

Am I alone in playing a game here, and not expecting the company that makes the game to give me a massage while I play?

 

Seriously, what the hell has happened to gamers to make them want for so much?

 

The fact that you have enough free time to even sit and switch on a PC outside of our work life should be enough, but lord no, we want the 13 moons of endor on a stick, dipped in chocolate, handed to us by customer support.

 

so what exactly has been said here that you think constitutes a reply like that? The OP was very respectful and has a legitimate problem I never once saw him ask for a massage or anything other than getting his problem fixed. How does this lead you to the conclusion that people are being unreasonable in what they think is bad customer service? Are you just blindly taking the other side of the argument and making sensational claims like that just to get attention? It makes no sense.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Derbefrier

[Vahzl]

so what exactly has been said here that you think constitutes a reply like that? The OP was very respectful and has a legitimate problem I never once saw him ask for a massage or anything other than getting his problem fixed. How does this lead you to the conclusion that people are being unreasonable in what they think is bad customer service? Are you just blindly taking the other side of the argument and making sensational claims like that just to get attention? It makes no sense.

 

Not really, I just don't get what people expect from customer support anymore than they already get.

 

When did the quality of the hints and tips service begin to be the measuring tape for the game itself?

[Hamatula]

Not really, I just don't get what people expect from customer support anymore than they already get.

 

When did the quality of the hints and tips service begin to be the measuring tape for the game itself?

 

 

I think they expect customer support... there is a lack of it in the game for people with game problems.

 

your problems seem to stem from life itself.

[Vahzl]

I think they expect customer support... there is a lack of it in the game for people with game problems.

 

your problems seem to stem from life itself.

Not at all, I just don't expect more from something that is intially in place to help with my own personal shortcomings. The fact that it's even there is enough for me, but then again, I wash my own clothes, do my own dishes and hoover my own carpets. Life has bigger problems than the customer support in a virtual world for a videogame a few million people play. Just me though, I suppose I have a more acute perspective being in the role myself.

[Antipathize]

Not at all, I just don't expect more from something that is intially in place to help with my own personal shortcomings. The fact that it's even there is enough for me, but then again, I wash my own clothes, do my own dishes and hoover my own carpets. Life has bigger problems than the customer support in a virtual world for a videogame a few million people play. Just me though, I suppose I have a more acute perspective being in the role myself.

 

 

They have valid concerns. Just because you don't agree with them because it's a virtual world, doesn't make it less of a problem. Customer service makes or breaks a company, regardless of the product they provide.

 

Not to mention the op's initial issue was with a physical product. I find it funny that someone who offers video game reviews acts condescending about "non-real" issues.

 

Edit: I actually read your review on TOR, and it's based off a trial. Maybe you CBA to play the full version, or you haven't updated it, but I hardly think you are qualified to offer an opinion on customer service when you are clearly happy with EVERYTHING in the game that you experienced in the trial.

 

When you hit a bug that actually prevents you from progressing, and are forced to deal with customer service, please come back, as I'm sure we are all dying to hear your side.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Antipathize

[Krypto-wyrd]

I completely agree with the OP. The CS provided in this game is terrible.

 

/signed

[Krypto-wyrd]

Not at all, I just don't expect more from something that is intially in place to help with my own personal shortcomings. The fact that it's even there is enough for me, but then again, I wash my own clothes, do my own dishes and hoover my own carpets. Life has bigger problems than the customer support in a virtual world for a videogame a few million people play. Just me though, I suppose I have a more acute perspective being in the role myself.

 

No one is wanting or begging for game hints or that Bioware hand hold people through the game. They are asking for Customer Support to actually provide support to a costumer when a problem arises. No one has said, "I wantz free stuff." However when there is a problem we a game mechanic, billing issue, account issue, hole in the environment, bug in the code, It would be nice for the CS to actually provide some support. Yes the can not immediately fix a bug in the software but they can be there to assist the paying customer on things that can be fixed.

 

Example:

If a boss throws you into a wall and you get stuck and /stuck does not work, CS should be able to move you from the wall. You should not get a message an canned robotic message that they understand your pain and then get told to log off and go play another character.

 

Also there lack of community involvement on their own forums increases the appearance that there is a major disconnect in the CS department.

[Jett-Rinn]

EA/BioWare's decision to not hire any real people for CS and to give their entire company three weeks off after TOR's release will cost them 400,000 lost subscriptions within the first two months. I've also had petitions in-game for over TWO WEEKS with the only response being the absolutely insulting auto-bot garbage. Combined with zero communication from the devs since release, not having level 50s in their own queue for warzones, end-game raiding being bugged to being nearly non-playable, and countless thousands of bugs, this is shaping up to be a major disaster of a release.

 

This is probably the most ridiculous and hyperbolic post of the year.

 

No one took 3 weeks off, in fact several CSR's, Devs and Mods I follow on Google+ were all talking about sixteen hour days. Also prove the 400,000 lost sub number.

 

The rest just.... ROTFLMAO

Edited April 9, 2012 by Jett-Rinn

[Jakeswed]

Not at all, I just don't expect more from something that is intially in place to help with my own personal shortcomings. The fact that it's even there is enough for me, but then again, I wash my own clothes, do my own dishes and hoover my own carpets. Life has bigger problems than the customer support in a virtual world for a videogame a few million people play. Just me though, I suppose I have a more acute perspective being in the role myself.

 

The difference here is that most people are not as submissive as you. Some people expect support and help with services and products they buy no matter what it is.

[Vahzl]

The difference here is that most people are not as submissive as you. Some people expect support and help with services and products they buy no matter what it is.

 

Submissive? You seem to misread the part where I don't even care about it. The customer support behind a game is not the backbone for me, nor do I even care if it's there at all. The game is what I play for, not the quality of the call centre agents in Bangalore.

 

Could give a flying potato if there was no ingame support at all, I don't want or need it there, and I don't know why more recently people seem to think they should be. Didn't need it when I played Mario on the SNES, didn't need it when I played Unreal Tournament for months on end online while my mom picked up the phone causing the 56kbps connection to drop, and don't need it now.

 

I suppose some people just need that crutch though, you know, cause gaming decisions are important afterall.

 

Man im a jaded son of a gun today

[ecana]

agreed.

[OmegaMayhem]

signed,

 

I think CS is a top priority when you pay monthly subs.

 

 

Nice 3 month old necro bump.

[Tuscad]

Nice 3 month old necro bump.

 

Posting so I can find this thread and Necro it again in 3 months.

[johnduane]

Necro'd or not, nothing has changed. Customer service is non-existent in this game, and looks like it will be forever. Over at Blizzard, if you delete one of your characters, they'll have it back for you in 2 hours.

 

In an F2P game I do not expect much customer service. I sure as hell expect it when I pay monthly.

[weezdajuice]

these forums are bad and bioware should feel bad. From the lack of customer support to the overzealous mods that rule with a death grip you'd think this was disney's toon town online

[NDiggy]

Just wanted to say I agree with the OP. Customer service is abysmal in this game and its one of the many reasons I've canceled.

[Tikigit]

Agree with the OP pretty much.

 

Though from past experience talking with SR directly community wise from another game, I wouldn't expect much understanding or worth put into the message when/if he reads it.

 

Certainly a different situation back then compared to with this game but generally his comments were more "The community just need to understand that this isn't about making a game they want, but about making more money" and recurring comments about wishing he could just turn off the forums because the community following the game weren't the community desired and had the wrong preferences/opinions.

 

Though to be fair, in that situation it was more a case of he was working for a company that bought up the development team that had already started work on something, and his bosses seemed to want to just refocus and reinvent the entire game and scrap anything that came before... including the community from how Stephen would talk about how lousy it was.

 

But either way, it was a great perspective for marketing and promotional work.... but a pretty lousy one for long term community support.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Tikigit

[Sirsri]

No one is wanting or begging for game hints or that Bioware hand hold people through the game. They are asking for Customer Support to actually provide support to a costumer when a problem arises. No one has said, "I wantz free stuff." However when there is a problem we a game mechanic, billing issue, account issue, hole in the environment, bug in the code, It would be nice for the CS to actually provide some support. Yes the can not immediately fix a bug in the software but they can be there to assist the paying customer on things that can be fixed.

 

Example:

If a boss throws you into a wall and you get stuck and /stuck does not work, CS should be able to move you from the wall. You should not get a message an canned robotic message that they understand your pain and then get told to log off and go play another character.

 

Also there lack of community involvement on their own forums increases the appearance that there is a major disconnect in the CS department.

 

 

 

Right, customer support exists because in a big system things will break, they should be given the tools and capacity to fix those things on a case by case basis until the problems are themselves rectified in the game.

 

Right now it seems like their outsourced CSR's (the tier 1 first line of automated droids) don't know anything about the game and aren't likely to be able to understand basic enough concepts to help much. I've had them flag tickets as resolved and then make them invisible (so i can't see the resolution, that wasn't actually a resolution), I've had them not bother to check the bank for an item 3 weeks after a ticket was filed, that sort of thing. Basic stuff. They don't even understand most of the 'we have X problem, can you fix it?' sort of questions. We have a guy in our guild who doesn't seem to have his class quest past act 2, and he's level 50. He can't figure out where to pick it up either (assuming it can be picked up), that seems like the sort of thing a CSR should be able to go through his quest log and figure out which quest is missing/broken etc.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm somewhat sympathetic, support is a hard problem. You can't hire staff until the game exists, and you don't know what problems people will have until they start having them. So you go live, and hope to be able to build the tools as quickly as you can. But sometimes it's just the lack of an acknowledgement of what they'd like to be able to do that's a pain. It's just a game, I can live without my 3 biometric crystal alloys if you can't restore them, but a pre canned 'sorry it can't be done' isn't really good customer service.

[DarthAnaethil]

TLDR. Rockjaw has nothing to do with customer service.... completely different dept... Edited April 9, 2012 by DarthAnaethil

[Tikigit]

TLDR. Rockjaw has nothing to do with customer service.... completely different dept...

 

When it comes to GMs and other areas of communication there are cross overs perhaps?

 

To have all customer service completely isolated from the community team to me would be the same as making the community support efforts no different to that of the marketing department.

 

And community support treated as general marketing sounds like a recipe for disaster in the long run.

 

There is a significant relationship between communicating clearly and showing awareness of concerns and efforts to address common problems, that aren't really related to "Here's another promotional update video!" and "Here's this weeks Q&A of questions we felt could be answered with a positive spin!"

Edited April 9, 2012 by Tikigit