Your experiences with Customer Support.

[TheRandomWolf]

I have played many, many games... and some of them required some kind of Support. Even programs and websites. And to be honest, by far, the SWTOR one has been the worst of all. So, I am going to tell you guys the experiences that I've gone through with the Customer Support of SWTOR. You are free to lend your opinion on the matter or share your own good or bad experiences.

 

Situation 1:

When I first started SWTOR, I was a F2P. I was aware of the limitations, but after playing the game for a few days and discussing it with a friend, we decided that we should Subscribe. I didn't want to buy 60 days already. I needed to try it better, so I attempted to purchase the Origin bundle that cost me 13€. I didn't play the game that night because it was getting late, but in the following day I tried to login, but the launcher kept mentioning some kind of error. The website wasn't working as well. Every single time I tried to login the website would reload and refuse the attempt. I couldn't use the Forums and I couldn't find any solution online. I had no choice but to call them... and I did.

The first person on the other side of the line was rather polite. I explained everything to him and he told me this issue would need to be directed to another department, and that he was going to redirect me.... and the call crashed. I called again, disconnected once more. Third time's the charm? This one took a bit longer... but in the end the man said the account was dead; that I needed to make a new one, even a new Origin account and that I should call them again tomorrow. My Origin account was also affected... broken and Origin support couldn't do anything about it. So I called them a last time. It was a woman now, she was polite and friendly... even told me that it would be best to continue communicating through email due to the expensive phone pricing. Later in that day I received an email from her. She had restored my account game and Origin account, added the Subscription time.

I then noticed that the monthly CC were gone, so I contacted the in-game Support; a few days later there was no answer. I sent her another email and she added the coins.

 

Yes, it ended up "happily" in the end... but it cost me around 20€ or more in phone calls...

 

 

 

Situation 2:

This one is recent. So, back at December when I first joined, I created a Trooper. She was my very first character. And sometime ago I got her to Level 70 and finished the Class Story. But before I even got to finish the Class Story I had accepted Shadow of Revan and KOTFE(but didn't click PLAY as it had been by accident). I did a few SoR missions with a friend and so on. I decided to ignore these and continue with the Class Story. I started to notice that Aric Jorgan wasn't giving me any sort of conversations inside the ship and that after I gave him that promotion he went mute altogether. My other companions were working fine, but Jorgan never said a thing ever again. After using the Forums I decided to contact Support. I created two in-game Tickets; sent two emails and contacted two Staff members directly through here. Around 3-4 days later I started to receive responses. Unlike that woman I had met months ago, these people acted like bots... and they couldn't even use commas and grammar at all. From four tickets, I got the same answer: "Lmao, we don't care. Go remake the character or something". I answered the emails trying to explain it further because it seemed like they hadn't understand the subject at all. One of them ignored me and the other said that the Customer Support could not control the game, just help in technical issues regarding payments and the account... and that I would have to either wait for a Patch to fix it or make a new character. I asked if there was a way to bring back my old gear... and even if it was possible to re-send me a box of a Golden Cartel Market armor back to the new character I had made. The person said no.

 

Not only did I end up wasting hours and credits on this character... I also had to use Cartel Coins to get her the old armor back.. and I can't fully costumize my companions the same way they were before.

 

 

There was another situation where I had gotten myself a set, but didn't like it as much as I had hoped for. I contacted Support asking if it was possible to refund it.. in a way where the armor would be removed from my Collections and placed back into my inventory. They said no as well. I mean... they can't manipulate the game nor do any exceptions. What good is this Support if a person has to spend so much money just to get something right? It's unfair. I'm not even going to comment at how misplaced the Support is. Most of these people can't even write properly. I even got better Support from dead Free-To-Play Gameforge games...

Edited March 13, 2017 by TheRandomWolf

[ImmortalLowlife]

I've had nothing but good experiences with customer service in this game. I typically get responses to tickets within a few days, and every issue I've had they solved. Most recently I accidentally deleted a character who was wearing the XP boosting armor from the DvL event. I did that Friday, put in the ticket on Saturday, and got a response and character restored on Sunday.

[TheRandomWolf]

I've had nothing but good experiences with customer service in this game. I typically get responses to tickets within a few days, and every issue I've had they solved. Most recently I accidentally deleted a character who was wearing the XP boosting armor from the DvL event. I did that Friday, put in the ticket on Saturday, and got a response and character restored on Sunday.

 

Then I guess I'm just unlucky... because if that was me, they would say that they don't have the power to restore characters.

[fushnchips]

So you got the main problem sorted by a good CS rep about the account but the rest of the story seems to be a player issue that caused them in the first place so i'm more looking at you because doesn't this game have warnings for certain things if you choose it there is no going back ?

 

Now with the phone calls have you ever heard of Skype it does help and you can call for free yes free that's how I call them.

 

I also bet that the tickets/emails you wrote were lacking some good detail and most likely were full of rage but I have to disagree the support these days is much better than it was say 2 years ago i'm not defending how the support is but it can come down to the ticket or email presentation.

 

But this is just another rage thread about support about someone who messed up with items now since he/she didn't get the result they hoped for has to let the world know god bless the SWTOR forums for these posts.

[Screaming_Ziva]

I've mostly had good experiences with customer support but one very bad experience a while ago.

 

I had bought a pack of cartel coins through the website and was charged twice. It was obvious my account had only received the coins once but I was charged twice so I called customer support. Their answer, "dispute the second charge with your credit card company". So, listening to customer support, that's exactly what I did. I called my credit card company and they initiated a charge back. Guess what happened the next day. My account was banned because of the charge back. It then took almost 3 hours of phone calls and being on hold to finally get my account reactivated. Needless to say, if customer support tells you to dispute a charge, ask for a supervisor.

[Eialune]

I have had good and bad experiences. Mostly lackluster, especially when compared to customer support interactions with Square Enix CS for FFXI, and Blizzard's CS for World of Warcraft. It's not that the customer support is the worst customer support I've ever received, but of the MMOs I've played, it's the lowest notch on the ladder. Mainly due to long response times, automated responses that don't solve the issues, and seeming understaffing.

 

I will say I had an absolutely excellent experience recently when attempting to unlock a mount in collections. I received an error message and the mount did not unlock, but my CC vanished anyway. I put in a ticket, went to bed, and the next afternoon had a very friendly in-game response from a CS guy named Dave who said the CC had been refunded and to try again, and if the same error happened to submit another ticket asking for him and he'd handle it directly. Sure enough the CC were there and I was able to unlock it without incidence. I even joked to my husband that GM Dave must be handling all the games now.

[TheRandomWolf]

So you got the main problem sorted by a good CS rep about the account but the rest of the story seems to be a player issue that caused them in the first place so i'm more looking at you because doesn't this game have warnings for certain things if you choose it there is no going back ?

 

Now with the phone calls have you ever heard of Skype it does help and you can call for free yes free that's how I call them.

 

I also bet that the tickets/emails you wrote were lacking some good detail and most likely were full of rage but I have to disagree the support these days is much better than it was say 2 years ago i'm not defending how the support is but it can come down to the ticket or email presentation.

 

But this is just another rage thread about support about someone who messed up with items now since he/she didn't get the result they hoped for has to let the world know god bless the SWTOR forums for these posts.

 

There are no warnings about losing all progress in a Companion's development when accept SoR or KOTFE(only when clicking PLAY tho) This doesn't explain why Jorgan was the only one affected.

Edited March 13, 2017 by TheRandomWolf

[TheRandomWolf]

I've mostly had good experiences with customer support but one very bad experience a while ago.

 

I had bought a pack of cartel coins through the website and was charged twice. It was obvious my account had only received the coins once but I was charged twice so I called customer support. Their answer, "dispute the second charge with your credit card company". So, listening to customer support, that's exactly what I did. I called my credit card company and they initiated a charge back. Guess what happened the next day. My account was banned because of the charge back. It then took almost 3 hours of phone calls and being on hold to finally get my account reactivated. Needless to say, if customer support tells you to dispute a charge, ask for a supervisor.

 

Wow...

[TheRandomWolf]

So you got the main problem sorted by a good CS rep about the account but the rest of the story seems to be a player issue that caused them in the first place so i'm more looking at you because doesn't this game have warnings for certain things if you choose it there is no going back ?

 

Now with the phone calls have you ever heard of Skype it does help and you can call for free yes free that's how I call them.

 

I also bet that the tickets/emails you wrote were lacking some good detail and most likely were full of rage but I have to disagree the support these days is much better than it was say 2 years ago i'm not defending how the support is but it can come down to the ticket or email presentation.

 

But this is just another rage thread about support about someone who messed up with items now since he/she didn't get the result they hoped for has to let the world know god bless the SWTOR forums for these posts.

 

I cannot buy subscription with Skype due to the restrictions implemented to my card. That is why I only use Paysafe Cards when I do online purchases.

[Exocor]

All in all, I had good experiences with CS. Sometimes, I must send in tickets a second- or third time (e.g. achievement for infernal council), until it gets solved. However, I never expierenced "game-breaking issues", so I might be lucky. In my opinion, sometimes we have to accept, that not everything is possible and intended.

[JLazarillo]

The CS reps who I've gotten have always been friendly, polite, and professional. This might be because I try to be similar when submitting tickets, but I always get kind replies, and even the one time they couldn't resolve the issue I was hoping they could, the rep who spoke to me was super helpful in explaining what was going on, and even offered a small "consolation prize". Very classy service, all in all.

 

The problem tends to be more with the system. The CS team has definitely held on to some good sorts, but seems to be either majorly understaffed or underprepared to handle things up front, or something, because the turnaround time I've seen on tickets is really, really long. I think the quickest I've ever seen a reply, it took about a week.

 

So basically, great people, but there seems to be something behind the scenes that prevents them from being the best they can be. Or that's how it seems to me.

[SalBasss]

I have had very, very few issues but I've had good experience as well. The most recent was after being out of the game for quite a long time and I had switched phones and had to get my security key removed (temporarily before adding it again). You can do this through the website as well but for some reason I had to change my password as well, which - you guessed it - required my security key to do it.

 

So I called, they helped, were very polite and understanding, and it worked out. I was impressed how smoothly it went.

[TUXs]

I've had nothing but good experiences with customer service in this game. I typically get responses to tickets within a few days, and every issue I've had they solved. Most recently I accidentally deleted a character who was wearing the XP boosting armor from the DvL event. I did that Friday, put in the ticket on Saturday, and got a response and character restored on Sunday.

Likewise. I can complain about development direction and poor management all day long...but Customer Service has been nothing but outstanding for me as well. I've done similar things as you and have had equally great service for my stupidity.

[---AlterEgo---]

Most of my experiences have been good, except for a recent one.

 

I made a mistake and I bought the wrong item with the Tier 3 token and I submitted a ticket about it. The CS agent told me it was my fault for buying the wrong thing and that he wouldn't refund me. I didn't like his answer and I submitted another ticket and luckily the next agent wasn't an a-hole and he refunded me and I could buy the correct item using the Unassembled Components.

 

Basically, if you don't like the response of a CS agent you can try again until you find one who isn't an a-hole since they have no general guidelines to follow and they can decide what to do as they please.

[americanaussie]

CS can't do anything about companion conversations. That's a bug that they can't fix. Jorgan does go quiet but then you get the conversations eventually by the end of the class story. Torian's are wrong for Mando girls. But this requires hard coding. There is absolutely nothing c's can do about it so there's the difference in responses.

[Ralei]

CS can't do anything about companion conversations. That's a bug that they can't fix. Jorgan does go quiet but then you get the conversations eventually by the end of the class story. Torian's are wrong for Mando girls. But this requires hard coding. There is absolutely nothing c's can do about it so there's the difference in responses.

 

Yeah, I think a lot of it is managing your expectations. I've only contacted them a few times over the years with standard requests and have been satisfied.

[TheRandomWolf]

The CS reps who I've gotten have always been friendly, polite, and professional. This might be because I try to be similar when submitting tickets, but I always get kind replies, and even the one time they couldn't resolve the issue I was hoping they could, the rep who spoke to me was super helpful in explaining what was going on, and even offered a small "consolation prize". Very classy service, all in all.

 

The problem tends to be more with the system. The CS team has definitely held on to some good sorts, but seems to be either majorly understaffed or underprepared to handle things up front, or something, because the turnaround time I've seen on tickets is really, really long. I think the quickest I've ever seen a reply, it took about a week.

 

So basically, great people, but there seems to be something behind the scenes that prevents them from being the best they can be. Or that's how it seems to me.

 

I try to be as polite as I can be, even check the Ticket several times for any sort of grammar mistakes... and place as much information as needed... and still get ridiculous posts with all small characters and lack of commas.... filled with automatic stuff that fills it in and surveys...

[TheRandomWolf]

CS can't do anything about companion conversations. That's a bug that they can't fix. Jorgan does go quiet but then you get the conversations eventually by the end of the class story. Torian's are wrong for Mando girls. But this requires hard coding. There is absolutely nothing c's can do about it so there's the difference in responses.

 

I've seen cases where they had give some Missions a reset or just implemented them again. All I asked what a similar thing.. or even just cancel SoR and KOTFE off my Quest log with hopes of seeing a possible fix.. but they kept replying with the same answer. They kept saying that "Starting KOTFE blocks all progress with all companions" yet I had said that I managed to speak Dorne, Forex, Yuun and Vik.. every single conversation with no issues.

[Andryah]

I've seen cases where they had give some Missions a reset or just implemented them again. All I asked what a similar thing.. or even just cancel SoR and KOTFE off my Quest log with hopes of seeing a possible fix.. but they kept replying with the same answer. They kept saying that "Starting KOTFE blocks all progress with all companions" yet I had said that I managed to speak Dorne, Forex, Yuun and Vik.. every single conversation with no issues.

 

IF ... IF it is a bug in game, generally they cannot fix it for you. Example: Companion conversations that are known to be bugged. And.. they generally will tell you this and encourage you to open a bug-report because more bug reports on the same bug may move it up the bug solution queue.

 

You really need to come up the learning curve on what can and what cannot be done by CS before railing on their support efforts.

 

I've had 5 CS tickets since launch. Each and everyone was responded to politely and the problem either resolved, or if it's a bug they tell me so and close the ticket and encourage me to bug-report it.. which is completely reasonable. My most recent bug was a character stuck in infinite loading screen... and so I opened a ticket requesting them to move the character to Fleet (the fairly well known action by the studio to resolve this). I filed the ticket Friday evening. Monday Morning I received a response back on my ticket stating that they have escalated the ticket to the studio as this particular issue requires action by the studio to resolve. Next morning, I found a follow-up on my ticket stating that the studio had completed the move of the character to fleet and that the problem should be resolved, which it was... and the ticket closed.

 

Honestly.. the way you are nursing this thread.. you seem to want to gather up drama about CS. You will get no support from me on that front.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Andryah

[DrDaMoZ]

For me CS went above and beyond the call of duty by restoring more items than i actually believed i lost so there's not a single bad thing i can say about them.

 

- Keep in mind, all CS can do is fix administrative problems which include: Account information problems, billing problems, loss or deletion of items & characters and they can confirm or deny if something is bugged or removed from the game.

- Anything related to the actual game engine (which requires coding) like bugs, achievements and collection tab items are things CS can't do anything about. They will however forward bugs to the dev team if they can be replicated or if you've added a detailed description with your ticket.

- And then there is the neutral zone which basically is everything as a result of the player's own doing.

In these cases it's up to the CS if they want to help or not and this highly depends on how nice you are in your ticket.

- Finally, the griefers, spammers, bots and other problems related to players.

They will inform you if they have received your ticket but it will be closed and dealt with internally without updating you further. This is done because of privacy laws.

 

In short:

- Is your problem something you can add or subtract*, or a yes or no question?

CS can help

 

- Is your problem something that requires changing game code?

CS can't help

 

- Is your problem your own fault?

CS might help if you're nice to them, but are not required to do so.

 

- Is your problem with another player?

CS will help if you have proof, but won't disclose further information.

 

*Exception: Collection tab items and achievements were never ment to be removed once added, so the code for these does not exist.

So if you add the wrong item to your collection they can't remove it and thus can't refund it to you.

[FafsBG]

I've had good experiences, and I'll share a bad one that a friend had.

 

Most recently, Xeno was bugged and I didn't get my Gray Helix Components, so I wrote a ticket and next day they mailed them to me. Had that same experience with a missing guild conquest reward that they later mailed.

 

But my friend had a terrible experience - we did the Rishi datacrons together - we waited for the pigs to spawn, killed them, looted them, did everything together. And when it came to clicking the datacrons, I got the final achievement and he didn't. So he wrote a ticket asking if he can be granted the achievement, and if not, whether they can at least mail him the items the pigs drop so he doesn't have to spend more hours on it. He even said he did it with me, quoted my character name, so they can check the logs. And they neither granted him the achievement, nor mailed him the items so he had to waste hours redoing the whole thing.

[naganje]

Slightly over a month ago I started experiencing unplayable levels of lag during peak times (i.e. between 8 pm and 9 pm GMT). In many cases this would end in me getting disconnected from the server - The Red Eclipse, to be exact. The issue would generally resolve itself within 15-30 minutes. While not a major problem, it obviously had a knock-on effect on everyone raiding with me. To determine the location of the problem I ran traceroute multiple times. Comparing traces from when I was experiencing the issue and when my connection to the server was acting normally indicated that the issue was on Telia.net servers (i.e. BW's end) - latency on two Telia.net hops was all over the place.

 

I submitted a ticket that was more detailed than the above description. What I got in return was a true copy & paste joke of an answer. One suggestion involved corrupted game files... I guess game files can be corrupted in way that makes the game throw a tantrum at a particular time of day. Another 'suggestion' was a link to a thread on the EA Customer Support website which, among others, contained instructions on how to run a traceroute...

[bdatt]

All my experiences with customer support have been great.

[lukayn]

I had a great experience just today. For some weird reason, my credit card is not able to be processed by the system and I was reverted from subscriber to preferred status. The rep was extremely friendly and even though he was not able to fix the problem, he added some free subscriber game time onto my account while he escalates the issue. Not only was it a pleasant experience but I would say one of the few times where I called customer support at any company and came away more of a fan of that company than when I called. Great job, whoever you were

[Nightblazer]

I've had nothing but good experiences. My most recent one was when I came home from work to play and I couldn't log in. I had gotten an email indicating there was suspicious activity so my account was locked.

 

I called the next day and found out that my 450 cartel coin purchase over the weekend looked suspicious. Not sure why as I have bought coins before but anyway the person on the phone unlocked my account fairly quickly. Didn't have forums access to post however so emailed account dispute email and the issue was fixed next day.