Horrible customer support

Termon

I received an email reply back for my open ticket, around midninght, around 6-8 hours after opening the ticket. I had to send a reply back, but after another 7 hours, no reply, not even a confirmation of my response. Game crashes upon pressing play in launcher, making the game unplayable. Nice work guys.

BlackOmega

I think that patience is required at this point, unfortunately. I know it sucks, but I am sure Customer Support is overwhelmed with tickets, calls, emails, etc... That is expected during the initial launches of games.

I am sure they are doing the best they can given the incredible volume I am sure they are experiencing.

What issue are you having? Some users have received helpful information to get their clients working through the forums from other players.

Termon

I crash when I hit the play button. I have reinstalled, redownloaded, repaired, ran in administrator mode, turned off fire wall, and turned off anti virus. I have actually downloaded the game 3 times in all. This started when I tried to enter a building but instead of putting me in the building, I could no longer interact with the environment. I logged out, but the loadscreen to get to character select got stuck. I alt-tabbed to exit the game from task manager, pressed play again and for over 24 hours the play button now gives me a crash report. With the 3 day early access starting tomorrow and open release on Friday the support times are only going to get worse. Irony is the 1 hour I played before I made the mistake of trying to enter a building was fun.

Wasted

The customer support is the worst I have seen for years. They want to charge a sub fee still and be a premium game, that means not skimping on the support.

I am regretting buying this game now.

rebelcoder

Well, not sure if its better to get no reply, or a bull crap reply. I was told to uninstall quicktime in order to fix my cyrodiil crashing issue. I'm on a mac btw.

blackwolf7

Wasted wrote: »

The customer support is the worst I have seen for years. They want to charge a sub fee still and be a premium game, that means not skimping on the support.

I am regretting buying this game now.

We all do. Sadly, they dont even answer my ticket asking for a refund.

Im guessing after release they will spit out *** that its already too late for a refund etc etc

Baraz

My understanding is that there are close to a million, more or less, people playing. Am I wrong?

If over 15000 people send support tickets, can you imagine how many people is needed and the time it takes?

Ojustaboo

Customer support is the best I have ever come across by a long way.

Do you not realise how many questions they are getting the day after launch, they are not miracle workers, be patient.

Most other companies I've dealt with, getting a reply at all in 48 hrs is a rarity.

Midgardian

I had a similar problem. The game won't work at all on one of my computers and crashes frequently on my other computer for no reason. I contacted customer service about it, and the response I received had nothing to do with my problem. (They just sent me an email essentially saying: "Hello! Here are the minimum specs for the game." I'm well aware of the specs, and my computers both meet minimum).

I was impressed that they emailed me a response so quick, even if the answer had nothing to do with my question. However, I responded to the email and, after more than a day, haven't heard anything still.

Valkerian

Ok, figure there are 1 million users playing the game right now. rough estimate. And figure that most MMO's deal with a 15% player base worth of tickets in teh first 3 months of launch. Do the math and figure out it isn't that bad. And for all you whining children crying about refunds, then cancel your order. your playing a game that isn't even out yet!!! Don't want to play? Then don't. Go ahead and cancel your order or return it after. But don't expect a refund. That's like using a car for a week, deciding the speed isn't quite what you'd like and trying to return it. It's people like you all that don't quite understand what it's like to not only work on an MMO but also get it out to the public. It's not like they have thousands of employees sitting there ready to answer your ticket. Hell, I'm pretty sure they don't have thousands of employee's period! The real unreasonable ones are you all crying about a game that your getting to play early. You Dev a game like this and have it go off wthout a hitch then you can come back and maybe offer to help. Other than that, be patient. I don't know of any MMo that's ever been perfect at launch. No such thing.

Midgardian

While I understand games are complicated things to make, this misses the point: "The real unreasonable ones are you all crying about a game that your getting to play early".

People are complaining because they paid extra to play early and can't. I understand costumer service is overloaded, but they did respond in my case with a generic email that had nothing to do with my issue, so it's rather frustrating.

I very much enjoy the game, but constant crashes and not being able to access the game from one computer are things that should be whined about, because they should be fixed. I paid money for a game that would work.

Firestar1992

If you've been trying to get ahold of customer support for a technical issue for over 24 hours, I recommend messaging one of the admins and politely pleading for their help. Explain your issue in detail, especially if you've submitted several tickets for the same (technical) issue. I've been having trouble since Sunday morning and today one of the admins promised to contact a CS manager directly for me. After a couple of hours, I received an email promising to help me as well as she could. She even went so far as to tell me what hours she is working tomorrow so that I know when to expect a phone call.
Like the others are saying, with SO MANY people playing, probably all of the CS employees are busy from the moment they sit down having to deal with anxious, frustrated, and outraged customers (admittedly such as myself.) And it is likely one of the most thankless jobs on the planet.

Thank you, ESO Customer Support for all your efforts to make our gaming experience go as smoothly as possible. I understand that I am not the center of the universe and that there are thousands of others each begging for your attention. Thank you, Heather, for taking time specifically to help me.

Poxs

Even if you DO THE MATH, if you get NO response, then it is not customer service. With this type of game and the bugs that they know are still in the game, they should have geared up their customer service to handle the expected load. You plan ahead. Or maybe the managers of this game don't plan at all???

Being a software engineer and dealing with customers of both existing software and new software, you NEVER let the customer sit and stew over a problem. To keep the $$$ coming in, you have to react to the customer in a timely fashion. Hell, we even have a maximum ring count on the phone that we must answer it by.

The better the customer service, the more the customer will put up with when they receive new software. If they can talk to a rep about a problem and get a truthful and meaningful update, then they tend to work with us more to resolve the issue.

Valkerian

Ok. let's try again, since your not quite understanding. Ever been to an amusement park and gotten in line for a reallllly popular ride? And ever notice how allll those other people in front of you get on the ride first? Wellllll.... there you go. Your ticket doesn't warrent any quicker response than the possible tend of thousands of others that are in line before yours. And you yap about talking to a rep in a timely manner? Lets see...you submitted one email, they gave you a response, and then you QQed here on the forums after they didn't get back to you as fast as you'd like. Well Mr. Ruler of the World, how dare they possibly spend time helping others or actually trying the fix the issues. They should sit there and respond to your email all day long. Or maybe you could try calling them? Or sending them another (polite) email about it? I'm sure this is more stressful for them having to try to sort through thousands of issues and prioritize than it is for you to sit there mad because you don't get to play your game early before it comes out. Or maybe try to look in FAQ.s or known bug fixes. Or nicely ask some others here in the community that may have had the same issue if they have found a fix for it.

Valkerian

Or would you rather I go find a diaper and bottle for you so I can tuck you in to your widdle crib?

Midgardian

Valkerian wrote: »

Ok. let's try again, since your not quite understanding. Ever been to an amusement park and gotten in line for a reallllly popular ride? And ever notice how allll those other people in front of you get on the ride first? Wellllll.... there you go. Your ticket doesn't warrent any quicker response than the possible tend of thousands of others that are in line before yours. And you yap about talking to a rep in a timely manner? Lets see...you submitted one email, they gave you a response, and then you QQed here on the forums after they didn't get back to you as fast as you'd like. Well Mr. Ruler of the World, how dare they possibly spend time helping others or actually trying the fix the issues. They should sit there and respond to your email all day long. Or maybe you could try calling them? Or sending them another (polite) email about it? I'm sure this is more stressful for them having to try to sort through thousands of issues and prioritize than it is for you to sit there mad because you don't get to play your game early before it comes out. Or maybe try to look in FAQ.s or known bug fixes. Or nicely ask some others here in the community that may have had the same issue if they have found a fix for it.

...You do realize costumer service and the people fixing bugs are two different departments? I did send them a polite email, about how their first email was very obviously sent without actually reading what issue I was having.

You again fail at analogies. This is more akin to going to an amusement park, all the rides break, you wait around for ever to hear why, and then people with no clue like you say: "This is like going to an ice cream parlor! Sometimes a flavor is broken!"

You have no idea what any of us have or haven't done.

Xfan

I agree, the support system they have is plain stupid. First thing you do when you get a ticket is to send an automated response, informing the customer that you have his ticket, then tell him what his ticket number is and what's the status of the ticket. By mail! None of this seems to happen here, not now, not when they were in beta.
Simple automatic email with ticket number and status. And all the posts - do they have my ticket, what happens with my ticket, when I'll get any response will be minimized.
Not to mention that having no response at all makes you feel like you're talking to the wind and then hope someone will hear you. This is not how thing are done in any company willing to be taken seriously.
Just saying!

Valkerian

Midgardian wrote: »

Valkerian wrote: »

Ok. let's try again, since your not quite understanding. Ever been to an amusement park and gotten in line for a reallllly popular ride? And ever notice how allll those other people in front of you get on the ride first? Wellllll.... there you go. Your ticket doesn't warrent any quicker response than the possible tend of thousands of others that are in line before yours. And you yap about talking to a rep in a timely manner? Lets see...you submitted one email, they gave you a response, and then you QQed here on the forums after they didn't get back to you as fast as you'd like. Well Mr. Ruler of the World, how dare they possibly spend time helping others or actually trying the fix the issues. They should sit there and respond to your email all day long. Or maybe you could try calling them? Or sending them another (polite) email about it? I'm sure this is more stressful for them having to try to sort through thousands of issues and prioritize than it is for you to sit there mad because you don't get to play your game early before it comes out. Or maybe try to look in FAQ.s or known bug fixes. Or nicely ask some others here in the community that may have had the same issue if they have found a fix for it.

...You do realize costumer service and the people fixing bugs are two different departments? I did send them a polite email, about how their first email was very obviously sent without actually reading what issue I was having.

You again fail at analogies. This is more akin to going to an amusement park, all the rides break, you wait around for ever to hear why, and then people with no clue like you say: "This is like going to an ice cream parlor! Sometimes a flavor is broken!"

You have no idea what any of us have or haven't done.

I never said they were the same person. But who do you think tells the person that tells you that your issues are solved? A customer support person is there to support the customer. But if they don't have a way to fix a common issue because it's an issue with the game itself, they have to wait for the Dev's to take care of it then get back to them with the new information.

Poxs

Valk, the point I was making is that the first few weeks will set the perceived standard for their customer support so they need to make an extreme effort to make it a good one. Friends tell friends who tell others who write in blogs about their experience with the game.
One person gets good experience and he will tell one or two others.
One person gets a very bad experience and he will tell EVERYONE. Bad news spreads fast.
That is why the customer must be considered into the success equation.
If this game is to survive past the initial month that we get with our purchase, it has to get better, both with the story-line bugs (the others can wait) and their customer service. Waiting over a day and a half with NO RESPONSE is not helping.
Telling us that the game is great and that you just have to be patient does not help either when someone is frustrated to the point of wanting a refund.
As for myself. I will wait a little longer. How long? Not till the 3rd.
My old guild that was moving from GW2 to here have decided that they will find another game due to the three of us that played the Beta and were stuck on story-line bugs. And with the Launch being just a bad and one of the guildies can't even get on after paying for the Imperial edition has really turned off the entire guild.
So if they lost our guild (I pre-paid so I will play it some), how many others have they lost?

Xaloshi

Long lines make the ride worth it, no?