If someone submits a ticket to you

[Nnytk]

Please don't just close it with a random automated reply that just assumes you're trying to abuse the system. Especially when you end said reply with a threat of a sanction on the persons account or however you put the "please don't bother us again." message. I realize customer support is hard, I worked it for several years, but I gotta say I'm pretty sure I would have been fired if I told a customer basically "leave me alone and I know you're trying to game the system".

[Khaleg]

Please don't just close it with a random automated reply that just assumes you're trying to abuse the system. Especially when you end said reply with a threat of a sanction on the persons account or however you put the "please don't bother us again." message. I realize customer support is hard, I worked it for several years, but I gotta say I'm pretty sure I would have been fired if I told a customer basically "leave me alone and I know you're trying to game the system".

 

But Bioware runs no working, helpful and competent customer support for this game but a wall of ignorance and impudence instead. So all is working as intended. They are helpful in max 1 of 10 cases. In the other 9 cases you get unintelligent and empty blah blah as "reply, mostly in the form of an automated stupid totally useless and dumb reply which offers no help and treats you like a 3 year old kid.

This company has no respect for customers, not even traces.

[Halinalle]

Please don't just close it with a random automated reply that just assumes you're trying to abuse the system. Especially when you end said reply with a threat of a sanction on the persons account or however you put the "please don't bother us again." message. I realize customer support is hard, I worked it for several years, but I gotta say I'm pretty sure I would have been fired if I told a customer basically "leave me alone and I know you're trying to game the system".

 

If you expect them to tell you more about investigation of bots you reported then you can stop expecting too much right now. They won't be telling any specific info to you or any other player. Why? The law.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Halinalle

[JattaGin]

Without context, it's difficult to reply to this thread.

 

I have to say that most of my tickets through the years received individual, friendly responses, most of them even with a solution. Last time, my item granting request was denied and while I was disappointed about it, the woman from CS explained her decision very detailed and she obviously did online research about the case.

 

Some years ago, CS had really bad responding times, but since last year, all my tickets got a response very quickly, even on Sundays.

[DrDaMoZ]

But Bioware runs no working, helpful and competent customer support for this game but a wall of ignorance and impudence instead. So all is working as intended. They are helpful in max 1 of 10 cases. In the other 9 cases you get unintelligent and empty blah blah as "reply, mostly in the form of an automated stupid totally useless and dumb reply which offers no help and treats you like a 3 year old kid.

This company has no respect for customers, not even traces.

 

That's a load of bantha poo. I had items lost during crafting so i made a ticket. Everyone i talked to said i shouldn't bother, just give up and accept the loss, yet 3 days later i got a detailed reply saying it was a strange a difficult problem but they managed to solve it and send me back every item lost, which turned out to be more than i thought i was missing. Yes, you read it right, i got back more stuff than i believed i was missing.

The key to being helped properly is to be nice, be detailed about the problem without adding unneeded information and try not to let your emotions run amok.

Customer service people are people too, not some robots or tools there for your convenience.

They have rules and guidelines where if you are being a poor example of a nice person, they are not obliged to help you at all and in most cases won't.

And when i look at your post, these assumptions and allegations you spread, if you use that kind of pessimism towards customer service i'm not surprised they can't or won't help you.

Also Bioware doesn't run the SWTOR Customer Service, EA does.

[Alec_Fortescue]

Unfortunately threads like this get removed quickly but the first two posts perfectly sum up most of my recent experiences.

[dr_mike]

At least they didn't delete it on sight. Some folks were saying that they were doing so.

 

If you want to follow up on the issue, I would suggest looking at section 15 of the ToS. There's a link at the bottom of the page. Don't hold your breath on a response even with that though.

Edited February 11, 2017 by dr_mike

[Khaleg]

That's a load of bantha poo. I had items lost during crafting so i made a ticket. Everyone i talked to said i shouldn't bother, just give up and accept the loss, yet 3 days later i got a detailed reply saying it was a strange a difficult problem but they managed to solve it and send me back every item lost, which turned out to be more than i thought i was missing. Yes, you read it right, i got back more stuff than i believed i was missing.

The key to being helped properly is to be nice, be detailed about the problem without adding unneeded information and try not to let your emotions run amok.

Customer service people are people too, not some robots or tools there for your convenience.

They have rules and guidelines where if you are being a poor example of a nice person, they are not obliged to help you at all and in most cases won't.

And when i look at your post, these assumptions and allegations you spread, if you use that kind of pessimism towards customer service i'm not surprised they can't or won't help you.

Also Bioware doesn't run the SWTOR Customer Service, EA does.

 

You basically picked the only issue they are helpful with, restoring items. Their rights and capabilities mostly end exactly there. And btw, Bioware is part of EA, a division, and not a different company anymore.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Khaleg

[t-darko]

I'm a frequent ticket submitter, with some success, and how do I know that!? I observe what changes, admittingly I'm sometimes is barking up the wrong tree, sometimes I've been spot on. On the topic of things being done, or assurance of things being done, it all boils down to trust.

 

To dismiss CS and the work being done from a submitted ticket, is a rather immature, insecure and juvenile approach to demand conformation on grievance by verbatim. People are doing their jobs, but to spill and foam insecurity in manners that would never be under consideration on any other place or occurrence as on internet, is far from constructive.

 

Submitted tickets need to be clean, as in only contain useful information; Server name, location(planet, story, ops, fp, wz), time( I use GMT as it is where I use my time)an accurate description of the events transpired, a playername if needed, or guild name. But above all it must be free from profanity or other kind of self empowered rage.

[AscendingSky]

For my own part, in the past I have had some very helpful and friendly responses from the CS people when I've sent in tickets. The past year though? Just automated responses that do nothing to help me (and often are not at all related to what I was asking about), or responses that are very poorly written, full of spelling and grammatical errors, basically telling me "Nothing I can do, too bad for you" regardless of the issue.

 

When I've called in, I've NEVER received a useful response; I don't think they let their phone reps do much, and nothing involving anything in-game.

Edited February 11, 2017 by AscendingSky

[Andryah]

Please don't just close it with a random automated reply that just assumes you're trying to abuse the system. Especially when you end said reply with a threat of a sanction on the persons account or however you put the "please don't bother us again." message. I realize customer support is hard, I worked it for several years, but I gotta say I'm pretty sure I would have been fired if I told a customer basically "leave me alone and I know you're trying to game the system".

 

Based on what you "claim" they said to you as they closed the ticket.. sounds to me like you are harassing CS over something already previously ticketed and addressed.

 

Just because they do not handle something the way you want, or disclose information to you that you are not entitled to.. does not mean that CS is not doing their job. They can and will ban players who abuse the CS system.. and there have been players (even some posting in this thread) that have been warned accordingly.

 

But by all means... sure... make an unsubstantiated thread in the forum to press your dissatisfaction. That certainly will get your needs met in the ticket. :rolleyes:

 

Personally, I have submitted less then a dozen tickets in the last 5 years, but everyone was handled professionally, and I never got told to "stop, or risk sanction". Then again, I always made clear, factual, actionable, concise tickets too.. and they always handled them in a professional, and even timely, manner.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Andryah

[Nnytk]

Based on what you "claim" they said to you as they closed the ticket.. sounds to me like you are harassing CS over something already previously ticketed and addressed.

 

Just because they do not handle something the way you want, or disclose information to you that you are not entitled to.. does not mean that CS is not doing their job. They can and will ban players who abuse the CS system.. and there have been players (even some posting in this thread) that have been warned accordingly.

 

But by all means... sure... make an unsubstantiated thread in the forum to press your dissatisfaction. That certainly will get your needs met in the ticket. :rolleyes:

 

Personally, I have submitted less then a dozen tickets in the last 5 years, but everyone was handled professionally, and I never got told to "stop, or risk sanction". Then again, I always made clear, factual, actionable, concise tickets too.. and they always handled them in a professional, and even timely, manner.

 

I'm so glad that you are better than me. That you can be concise, and more intelligent, and are just a so much better person than I can ever hope to be. Thank you so much for not even trying to consider, or ask, or even really care about me. I am not a human being nor do I have any emotions what so ever to speak of. I must just be a jerk right? I must be that guy that abuses the system, or whines, or makes trouble. I must be a cheat, or a liar etc.

 

Or maybe I asked customer service for a character restoration, and couldn't remember all the characters that I deleted after several months of being harassed by someone making lvl 1 characters for the soul purpose of telling me what a piece of ...... well I won't resort to expletives, but lets just say one really bad night I decided to delete all my characters. And then asked cs to restore them, and a really nice agent told me that they couldnt do a full restore because they need the names and levels and servers etc. But that person did restore the characters that I could remember the names of, then told me, if you can give us the names of the characters and levels and server and classes of other characters we would be happy to restore them. So I submitted in another ticket. And got told that I am trying to get free character renames, and if I bother them again I could get a sanction.

 

But hey, I'm a liar right? I have screenshots of said tickets as well, both of the cs agent telling me they'd be happy to help with any others, and the next automated ticket telling me they won't help and that I am trying to cheat the system. So thank you so much for showing me what a good and smart person you are. You are far far smarter than me, and I hope that makes you feel amazing friend.

[dr_mike]

I'm so glad that you are better than me.

 

If you click on his user name over on the left there and view his profile, you'll see an option to put him on ignore at the bottom right of that page.

 

You may want to edit your post. We have some folks here who like baiting other users and then reporting them.

 

Just a suggestion from someone who's already done that. This isn;t the only swtor forum out there.

[SteveTheCynic]

Or maybe I asked customer service for a character restoration, and couldn't remember all the characters that I deleted after several months of being harassed by someone making lvl 1 characters for the soul purpose of telling me what a piece of ...... well I won't resort to expletives, but lets just say one really bad night I decided to delete all my characters. And then asked cs to restore them, and a really nice agent told me that they couldnt do a full restore because they need the names and levels and servers etc. But that person did restore the characters that I could remember the names of, then told me, if you can give us the names of the characters and levels and server and classes of other characters we would be happy to restore them. So I submitted in another ticket. And got told that I am trying to get free character renames, and if I bother them again I could get a sanction.

Well maybe that information should have been in your first post in this thread instead of a vague complaint about their response. Oh, and what about /report Charactername (click Harrassment) followed by /ignore Charactername? Or did you forget to mention that you did that?

 

And *why* was this person harrassing you? What did *you* do? (It's not impossible that you just ran past him when he was drunk and he decided to harrass you for no reason, but nobody would believe such a story because it's so rare.)

[Nnytk]

Well maybe that information should have been in your first post in this thread instead of a vague complaint about their response. Oh, and what about /report Charactername (click Harrassment) followed by /ignore Charactername? Or did you forget to mention that you did that?

 

And *why* was this person harrassing you? What did *you* do? (It's not impossible that you just ran past him when he was drunk and he decided to harrass you for no reason, but nobody would believe such a story because it's so rare.)

 

Really friend? Really?

[SteveTheCynic]

Really friend? Really?

Yes. Really.

 

At first, on this thread, you posted just a complaint that they waved around the prospect of a CS ban. OK, I didn't even know that existed, but I suppose it's the equivalent of the courts finding you to be a "vexatious litigant" (not a good thing).

 

Only later did you explain the circumstances, and given everything, it's at least somewhat reasonable to proceed as if you did something that would merit such treatment from CS. I'm not saying you *did* deserve it, merely that it's reasonable to think it might have been deserved. So the first part of my post was adressing that. (And your explanation was sufficient to dispell such concerns, AND SO IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE ORIGINAL POST.)

 

But you said someone harassed you repeatedly over an extended period, and my experience, both in real life and in games, is that nobody does that "out of nowhere". There's always a reason, even if it isn't a good reason (frankly, there's never a *good* reason), and that reason always involves something the recipient said or did before the harassment began. That doesn't mean the harrassee went out of his way to insult the harrasser, of course, but instead, that the harrassee did something that was (unreasonably, perhaps) interpreted as "wronging" the harrasser. So, bearing that in mind, the last question should NOT be interpreted as "what did you do to insult him?", but rather as "what did you do that might have upset him enough to make him do that?".

[BRKMSN]

Or maybe I asked customer service for a character restoration, and couldn't remember all the characters that I deleted after several months of being harassed by someone making lvl 1 characters for the soul purpose of telling me what a piece of ...... well I won't resort to expletives, but lets just say one really bad night I decided to delete all my characters. And then asked cs to restore them, and a really nice agent told me that they couldnt do a full restore because they need the names and levels and servers etc. But that person did restore the characters that I could remember the names of, then told me, if you can give us the names of the characters and levels and server and classes of other characters we would be happy to restore them. So I submitted in another ticket. And got told that I am trying to get free character renames, and if I bother them again I could get a sanction.

 

But hey, I'm a liar right? I have screenshots of said tickets as well, both of the cs agent telling me they'd be happy to help with any others, and the next automated ticket telling me they won't help and that I am trying to cheat the system. So thank you so much for showing me what a good and smart person you are. You are far far smarter than me, and I hope that makes you feel amazing friend.

There are proper ways to contact customer support about harassment and I doubt it starts with you deleting your characters and then asking them to restore said characters. That aside, when a CSR tells you to feel free to contact them again, use the email method to make sure you get the same rep.

 

In your case, it sounds like their investigation didn't provide much evidence of the alleged harassment, so the second CSR that looked into your issue probably felt you could be abusing the system. While your case may be completely legit, there are other people that have claimed harassment to get free name changes / server transfers. It happens and, unfortunately for you, it makes these cases reasonably questionable.

 

In conclusion, it's best to do things in the right order. Report the harassment first. Wait to hear from CS. Then work with CS to find a solution. Don't make rash decisions and expect them fix something you regret. As I stated before, after the initial CSR replies (and helps you), switch to the email (they send you an email as well as a an in game response) so you can keep working with the same CSR that knows your case. Don't keep creating more tickets.

[Nnytk]

There are proper ways to contact customer support about harassment and I doubt it starts with you deleting your characters and then asking them to restore said characters. That aside, when a CSR tells you to feel free to contact them again, use the email method to make sure you get the same rep.

 

In your case, it sounds like their investigation didn't provide much evidence of the alleged harassment, so the second CSR that looked into your issue probably felt you could be abusing the system. While your case may be completely legit, there are other people that have claimed harassment to get free name changes / server transfers. It happens and, unfortunately for you, it makes these cases reasonably questionable.

 

In conclusion, it's best to do things in the right order. Report the harassment first. Wait to hear from CS. Then work with CS to find a solution. Don't make rash decisions and expect them fix something you regret. As I stated before, after the initial CSR replies (and helps you), switch to the email (they send you an email as well as a an in game response) so you can keep working with the same CSR that knows your case. Don't keep creating more tickets.

 

Well I didn't tell them about the harassment, and like I said in the beginning post, my issue isn't that they couldn't help, it's that they just automatically assume you're trying to cheat the system and just send you an automatic reply of we think you're making to many tickets aka one other ticket. Which I don't even get why they couldn't have a secondary system in place where if they think you're trying to game the system they'd restore you're character with a generic number name and if you really wanted that name change so bad that you delete all of your characters, wait a few weeks, then lie to them, all to get something for free after spending a ludicrous amount of money already on the game. Then you can pay for it.

 

Oh and to be clear on my last point that was part sarcasm and part serious I feel I need to clarify, since a few of the people in this thread have already made up their minds about this and have been kinda meh personality wise about it. I mean if the name changes and server transfer lies are so rampant why don't they just have two ways to restore? The one that allows you to rename your character if someone else has already taken the name, and a secondary way for cases where you want several characters restored and they are worried you are trying to cheat them, aka they restore them but with a generic system assigned number/letter name that you have to pay to change. I would be fine with that I have no problem paying for things, as I said before I have spent a ludicrous amount of money on this game because I enjoy it, I will continue to enjoy it, I just kinda wished I could have had at least a small bit of the same amount of loyalty from the company that I have shown to them, and not be treated like a thief/liar.

 

But anyway I assume other peeps are going to come in here and pass judgement, but thank you to the people who were helpful, including the person I'm qouting.