300 ESO Customer Service Employees Let Go

JD2013

DanielWinterborn wrote: »

300 out 1 mil in ) haha Cruel ZOS that 1 mil could have kept that place floating for a LONG time.

Except that the one million isn't coming from ZOS. Or even indeed as one million upfront.

Garwulf

Companies have a tendancy to retrench staff just before the end of the Financial year. Irelands Financial year ends on December the 31st..... So no surpise that it is happening just before christmas.

Sevalaricgirl

Companies always lay off right before Christmas. I know. I work for a very large technology company and they do it right before Christmas every time they lay off.

Next not all of their CS is in Ireland so I'm sure they felt that their other CS could handle the load.

I've never had problems with CS. They've always been responsive to me. I want to know why everyone is assuming the entire customer service staff is in Ireland.

And for people getting all panicky over the demise of the game...honestly, the sky is not falling.

Here: http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/12/19/the-elder-scrolls-online-dev-layoffs-report/

Bethesda has now offered a clarification on the issue, explaining that it had “adjusted” customer support levels back in mid-August as per business requirements following the console launch of Tamriel Unlimited. Here’s the statement the publisher provided to several news outlets via email:

Following the successful console launch of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited in June, we have a thriving console and PC online community. We adjusted customer support levels in mid-August by reducing staffing by approximately 50 people to reflect the game’s stability and the needs of our players. This is a normal practice. We have been diligently working with the IDA, and the employees affected by this decision since the summer. We are disappointed by the inaccuracies in the report of the Connacht Tribune.


One more thing, they have CS in Austin too.

Sigtryggr

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ireland/Business/article1647043.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_12_19

ZeniMax Online Studios launched its European customer support centre in 2011 and signalled it would create 300-400 jobs. The Irish operation peaked at about 100 employees, however, and has since had a number of rounds of redundancies.

So the people they planned to employ but never did are counted as layoffs? Cheese and cabbage for everyone at Connacht Tribune!

Brightxdawn

Probably could not afford to pay them since they're giving away a million dollars.

Volkodav

Brightxdawn wrote: »

Probably could not afford to pay them since they're giving away a million dollars.

Again,..ZOS snt the one giving that money away.It is the producers and the sponsors.

anitajoneb17_ESO

Volkodav wrote: »

Brightxdawn wrote: »

Probably could not afford to pay them since they're giving away a million dollars.

Again,..ZOS snt the one giving that money away.It is the producers and the sponsors.

Sponsors ? What sponsors ? ESO has sponsors ? LOL

Whether it's ZOS providing the prize money or BGS or ZM or Bethesda Softworks makes no difference.
Decision-makers decided to invest that money in the "giveaway" and not in the development. That 's their choice, not ours.

As to thinking they should have kept it for development or to keep the Ireland staff is a matter of opinion, but don't forget that an employee full time (including taxes and all) costs about 50K/year for an employer. So you see, with 1 Mio you don't go very far anyway.

And we can speculate as to the why, how and all about the shutting down of the irish CS site, the truth is that we don't know exactly what happened, if it was planned or not, and why it happened. The newspaper tells one story, ZOS tells a slightly difference story, I doubt anyone knows what really happened, not even the laid-off employees.

And it's kind of you all to feel "concerned" for these people and all, but hey... it's not the "scandal" of the century. Each drop of oil and petrol carries much more human drama than this.

Volkodav

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

Brightxdawn wrote: »

Probably could not afford to pay them since they're giving away a million dollars.

Again,..ZOS snt the one giving that money away.It is the producers and the sponsors.

Sponsors ? What sponsors ? ESO has sponsors ? LOL

Whether it's ZOS providing the prize money or BGS or ZM or Bethesda Softworks makes no difference.
Decision-makers decided to invest that money in the "giveaway" and not in the development. That 's their choice, not ours.

As to thinking they should have kept it for development or to keep the Ireland staff is a matter of opinion, but don't forget that an employee full time (including taxes and all) costs about 50K/year for an employer. So you see, with 1 Mio you don't go very far anyway.

And we can speculate as to the why, how and all about the shutting down of the irish CS site, the truth is that we don't know exactly what happened, if it was planned or not, and why it happened. The newspaper tells one story, ZOS tells a slightly difference story, I doubt anyone knows what really happened, not even the laid-off employees.

And it's kind of you all to feel "concerned" for these people and all, but hey... it's not the "scandal" of the century. Each drop of oil and petrol carries much more human drama than this.

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Volkodav wrote: »

Brightxdawn wrote: »

Probably could not afford to pay them since they're giving away a million dollars.

Again,..ZOS snt the one giving that money away.It is the producers and the sponsors.

Sponsors ? What sponsors ? ESO has sponsors ? LOL

Whether it's ZOS providing the prize money or BGS or ZM or Bethesda Softworks makes no difference.
Decision-makers decided to invest that money in the "giveaway" and not in the development. That 's their choice, not ours.

As to thinking they should have kept it for development or to keep the Ireland staff is a matter of opinion, but don't forget that an employee full time (including taxes and all) costs about 50K/year for an employer. So you see, with 1 Mio you don't go very far anyway.

And we can speculate as to the why, how and all about the shutting down of the irish CS site, the truth is that we don't know exactly what happened, if it was planned or not, and why it happened. The newspaper tells one story, ZOS tells a slightly difference story, I doubt anyone knows what really happened, not even the laid-off employees.

And it's kind of you all to feel "concerned" for these people and all, but hey... it's not the "scandal" of the century. Each drop of oil and petrol carries much more human drama than this.

I was just commenting on the fact that people keep saying that ZOS should keep that money for development.ZOS has no access to that contest money.I wasnt commenting on the situation in Ireland. I'm with you.None of us can know what actually happened. We arent privy to that info.

ZOS_AlanG

We’re reopening this thread after removing several off topic side discussions. Per the forum rules, we do not allow discussion of real-world religious issues or politics. A number of posts were also prejudiced and hateful, which is not acceptable on the forums. It’s important to us that the forums remain civil and welcoming.

Vonovosi

The decision to close this center was not made recently. it was reported back in August

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2015/08/zos-cuts-support/

This is part of ZOS outsourcing support to a third-party agencies.

Robotmafia

Kahl_dur wrote: »

More info from EuroGamer:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-12-18-elder-scrolls-online-irish-customer-service-office-closed-and-300-jobs-lost-report

did you guys read this.. its only 50 jobs not 300.. i mean still sucks but not quite as bad

terrordactyl1971

ZOS_AlanG wrote: »

A number of posts were also prejudiced and hateful, which is not acceptable on the forums. .

In my opinion, none of the posts were as hateful as wrecking the incomes of 300 families 1 week before Christmas

ADarklore

So was this in addition to, or including, the previous layoffs back in August?

Here is one of the threads from back when it was initially announced.

What I find funny is how the PR spins, "A spokesperson from Bethsoft confirmed customer support layoffs to Massively OP in the following statement: “Following the successful PC and console launches of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, we have a thriving online community and have adjusted customer support to meet the ongoing needs of our players."

So in other words, reducing the amount of customer support BETTER meets the needs of players.

Nadijeh

50 Jobs out of 300 through out the whole year is what it sounds like to me. There couldn't be a worse time to lay off your staff than this time of year and I really do feel badly for those people and their families right now.

To people worrying about how profitable ESO is, there's still not a whole lot worth spending money on in the shop for the average player outside of the DLC and some of the mounts/pets. The costumes are getting better, but they're not where they need to be yet. The things we purchase in a in-game shop need to be impressive enough to warrant spending money on them.

Callous2208

Even though I posted in this laughable thread like a week ago, I will now read only the title and op again and react accordingly like everyone else seems to be doing.
Omg figures. This game is dying. No bug fixes will happen now. The end is nigh.
Am I foruming right?

SneaK

zornyan wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Following the successful console launch of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited in June, we have a thriving console and PC online community. We adjusted customer support levels in mid-August by reducing staffing by approximately 50 people to reflect the game’s stability and the needs of our players. This is a normal practice. We have been diligently working with the IDA, and the employees affected by this decision since the summer. We are disappointed by the inaccuracies in the report of the Connacht Tribune.

Thanks for clearing it up gina, it's unfortunate that the websites proclaim things as fact, when in fact they couldn't be further off the mark.

To everyone else, this is very very normal practise in gaming, especially mmos, since at release they will have millions of new customers, which means there will be a larger number if customer service requests, this dies down extremely quickly once the game and community is settled in.

It's the same with game developers, many teams of people are hired to design the base game, but far less coders are required to make up and coming dlc/patches etc.

It still shows poor morals from Zeni mgmt laying off 50 people in December. That's a bad way to go, before xmas and just before someone would be expecting bonuses. Griswold might be kidnapping Mr. Zenimax this Thursday.