A Case Study of the Support Team - How is Support Protocol Accetable?

Personofsecrets

Greetings Everyone,

I'm taking this moment to share about a game issue that I've had since the One Tamriel update. It is striking to see the type of support that the ZOS aims to give and hope that by shedding a light on this issue that more of you may be encouraged to discuss about customer support protocol. Maybe, that way, we can get a more player friendly protocol.

What Happened

Around the time of the One Tamriel update, scrolling through my inventory, I noticed something strange. Strangely, my Helm of the Night Mother was converted from a CP 160 item to a CP 70 item. That item is displayed in the following image.



I don't know why this change occurred, but there was no patch note that discussed lowering the CP level of items. I therefore have to confront the idea that this item change was an unintended bug. It also generally makes sense that ZOS neither does try to or should try to lower the level of items.

What I Did

( 1. ) At first, during October, I submitted a support ticket, Question Reference # 161013-001781, and received a canned response stating the following.

"We are not able to restore items that were destroyed, deconstructed, or altered. "

I protested that response, but only received a message from our friend Chet that my feedback was passed on.

( 2. )

During November, I received a message from @ZOS_DaryaK who, after finding my comment about this issue in a thread, offered to help me over private message.

After I responded to @ZOS_DaryaK , I received no additional contact with them.

(3. A )

After thinking that maybe another ZOS employee on the forum may help me, in the month of December, I made this thread and never received a response from anyone.

( 3. B )

I submitted a ticket again, Question Reference # 161127-003172, and received the same automated response from earlier.

"We are not able to restore items that were destroyed, deconstructed, or altered. "

I questioned the system again and then received a new automated response which described how busy customer support had been and to e-mail them back if I still had an issue.

Finally, from our friend Kenzie, I was sent the message that my feedback was passed on.

( 4. )

Finally, as I wanted to use the items again, I sought help this most recent Friday, February 2, by Question Reference # 170217-003120.

Support started very unhelpful with what seemed like canned responses from the senders Ricky and Jesse. The sender Zachariah seemed to really want to help me, but couldn't find in my character inventory the item in question. Finally, stifling my progress, was Jacob who told me that they are not able to upgrade the item.

Point of Contention

Customer Support Can Refund Player's Items

There was, in August, a time when the customer support team refunded players items that where, by game error, the wrong level.



Via that method alone, the support team should be able to restore items despite their canned message that says such a restoration cannot be done.

This fix was a recognition of a game error causing the level of items to be incorrect and, in my mind, set a good pro-customer policy for these issues moving forward.

Conclusion

Is support willing to help us, but not able set such a policy? Then why have they helped vast numbers of people in the past?
Is support able, but not willing? Then what exactly is the job of the support team?
Is support both able and willing? Then where is my CP rank 160 Helm of the Night Mother?
Is support neither able nor willing? Then why bother having a support team at all?

HatchetHaro

Let's be real here: am I correct in assuming that you're expecting actual competence from ZOS?

Because if so, ha...

Only thing you can do is keep pressing the issue, unfortunately. Best of luck to you.

TheRealPotoroo

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Let's be real here: am I correct in assuming that you're expecting actual competence from ZOS?

Because if so, ha...

Only thing you can do is keep pressing the issue, unfortunately. Best of luck to you.

It's not just ZoS. It simply costs too much to provide competent support so these companies do as little as they can get away with.

Personofsecrets

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Let's be real here: am I correct in assuming that you're expecting actual competence from ZOS?

Because if so, ha...

Only thing you can do is keep pressing the issue, unfortunately. Best of luck to you.

It's not just ZoS. It simply costs too much to provide competent support so these companies do as little as they can get away with.

I'm not so sure about this for several reasons.

Some companies supposedly do have good customer support and even restore items without a hassle at all.

ESO is claimed to have tons have people - monetarily the game is probably doing well.

Even if the game isn't doing well monetarily or even if customer support can't be funded much, I don't see how having unhelpful support policies, such as not restoring items when items can clearly be restored with ease, helps generate more revenue for the game.

As a matter of fact, many businesses have decided that the most profitable thing to do is to compensate their customers and that is true, sometimes, even when the customer is at fault for the issue. In this case of the item level issue, it is even the company that is at fault!

Draxys

I know for a fact that they have replaced items before. In 1.5, someone in my guild accidentally deconstructed a valkyn helm, asked for it to be reversed, and they added a new one to his inventory.

Even still they always maintain their inablility to "refund" items, even though there is a precedent of them replacing said item. The inconsistency should not be surprising to anyone who has been around for a while.

Seraphayel

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Let's be real here: am I correct in assuming that you're expecting actual competence from ZOS?

Because if so, ha...

Only thing you can do is keep pressing the issue, unfortunately. Best of luck to you.

It's not just ZoS. It simply costs too much to provide competent support so these companies do as little as they can get away with.

I would like to say that this it not necessarily true. In other MMORPGs, even smaller ones than ESO, support eventually helps me or solves my issue. ESO support... not so much.

ZOS is always bragging about ESO sales figures and due to the latest claims ESO has sold 8.5 million copies - if true that number is massive. That's most likely several hundred million dollars of revenue and I am pretty sure with Crown Store they make good profits and they still have one of the worst customer support services of triple A games?

Auros

Worldwide service-desk problem in MMOs:

1) Step auto-reply "we are working on your case"
2) Step delay 50 i.e. nothing done, not even read
3) Step auto-reply "your case has been resolved, please let us know if not"
4) Step

if reply then begin {}

goto 1)

MornaBaine

Sadly, ESO is rather infamous for "Chet" and their unhelpful canned responses. You literally have to answer their canned emails every day and keep pressing the issue on a daily basis. Even then, there's no guarantee anyone will help you. For a company that could afford a multi million dollar Super Bowl commercial it seems a little baffling that they can't afford a real customer service staff. Priorities I guess...

Tandor

Draxys wrote: »

I know for a fact that they have replaced items before. In 1.5, someone in my guild accidentally deconstructed a valkyn helm, asked for it to be reversed, and they added a new one to his inventory.

Even still they always maintain their inablility to "refund" items, even though there is a precedent of them replacing said item. The inconsistency should not be surprising to anyone who has been around for a while.

I'm not sure that it's inconsistency so much as wanting to avoid a mass of tickets demanding e.g. reinstatement of items that people have deconstructed without paying attention to what they were doing - hence a policy of saying they don't do reinstatements which allows them to avoid that particular pitfall while leaving themselves able to deal with a one-off situation if they feel it appropriate. In the overall scheme of things, and with the customer support system always under siege (not least from people submitting multiple tickets for the same thing), the OP's situation was a pretty trivial one in my view, so I'm not surprised it didn't get dealt with.

MopeyHat

Tandor wrote: »

Draxys wrote: »

I know for a fact that they have replaced items before. In 1.5, someone in my guild accidentally deconstructed a valkyn helm, asked for it to be reversed, and they added a new one to his inventory.

Even still they always maintain their inablility to "refund" items, even though there is a precedent of them replacing said item. The inconsistency should not be surprising to anyone who has been around for a while.

I'm not sure that it's inconsistency so much as wanting to avoid a mass of tickets demanding e.g. reinstatement of items that people have deconstructed without paying attention to what they were doing - hence a policy of saying they don't do reinstatements which allows them to avoid that particular pitfall while leaving themselves able to deal with a one-off situation if they feel it appropriate. In the overall scheme of things, and with the customer support system always under siege (not least from people submitting multiple tickets for the same thing), the OP's situation was a pretty trivial one in my view, so I'm not surprised it didn't get dealt with.

Agreed. Tickets that come in are probably prioritized so limited support resources can help as many people as possible. The Mazzatun bug had high visibility and was probably higher priority. The Valkyn helm mentioned was prior to console release, which probably more than tripled support workload.

I do think that the policy wording is weak given these past events though.

MakoFore

the default position on all appeals of issues and restoration of items seems to be
1. an automated NO
2. a survey questionnaire asking about ur satisfaction and whether issue was resolved.
3. a human response- another no.
4. another survey
5. neglect

somewhere - someone decided this was the best policy . i understand- there is a heavy load of complaints bout minor and major issues- they must get 1000 reports of people accidentally deleting items every day- they have to filter things down, but i wonder if there isn't a better way to go about things. clearly the time/money they've invested in customer support is nt much- but in my opinion it should be one of the largest departments-tech support and customer service. stability and customer satisfaction is key if this game is going to last 10 years like Wow or fade away like most games do.

actually- right now- the best way to get things resolved is to take an issue here- to the forums- where there is visibility and support- not from Zos of course- but from the community. it seems this is the only place to take something if u ever want any kind of resolution I'm afraid.

MakoFore

not sure if this is the best worst game I've ever played or the worst best game- but what we have is an amazing game that seems to be bottlenecking when it comes to technical and customer support. theyre spending alot of the new things coming on the morrow- theyre definitely busy- but I'm sure we d all feel better if the ground was steady before we added another floor to the home. (sorry couldn't resist a homestead analogy)
anyway- just posting to bump for visibility for ya.

WalkingLegacy

Pretty sure based off my own experience and these forums that Gina and Jessica are their only two customer support agents.

The days of staffed customer support and actual QA departments are long behind us. Blame share holders for that.

Elsonso

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Pretty sure based off my own experience and these forums that Gina and Jessica are their only two customer support agents.

The days of staffed customer support and actual QA departments are long behind us. Blame share holders for that.

Actually, I blame the players.

I think that players want content, more content, and MORE content, so studio resources go there. New zones. New systems. New stuff. Other parts of the studio starve, and that would include their customer support, and maybe even ToS Enforcement and other non-content parts of the studio.

If players demanded 24 hour top notch service and refused to play if they could not get it, ZOS would put money there. Of course, that might mean less content.

As for QA, I suspect that an investigation would reveal areas that they need to change, and they probably know those areas. It could be expensive to change, and that could take from content, content!, CONTENT!. The game is simply too large to test, and they keep adding to it. They are probably not doing enough to prevent bugs from being injected into the system at the lower levels. I fear they are "testing quality in" more than they should be.

As far as quality goes, the best thing that ZOS could do for the game is send the Devs off to work on another game. The biggest quality problem is not the existing bugs that are not being fixed, but the new ones that get added each time they touch the game. At some point, you have to realize that the reason your head hurts is related to that hammer in your hand.

Personofsecrets

MopeyHat wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

Draxys wrote: »

I know for a fact that they have replaced items before. In 1.5, someone in my guild accidentally deconstructed a valkyn helm, asked for it to be reversed, and they added a new one to his inventory.

Even still they always maintain their inablility to "refund" items, even though there is a precedent of them replacing said item. The inconsistency should not be surprising to anyone who has been around for a while.

I'm not sure that it's inconsistency so much as wanting to avoid a mass of tickets demanding e.g. reinstatement of items that people have deconstructed without paying attention to what they were doing - hence a policy of saying they don't do reinstatements which allows them to avoid that particular pitfall while leaving themselves able to deal with a one-off situation if they feel it appropriate. In the overall scheme of things, and with the customer support system always under siege (not least from people submitting multiple tickets for the same thing), the OP's situation was a pretty trivial one in my view, so I'm not surprised it didn't get dealt with.

Agreed. Tickets that come in are probably prioritized so limited support resources can help as many people as possible. The Mazzatun bug had high visibility and was probably higher priority. The Valkyn helm mentioned was prior to console release, which probably more than tripled support workload.

I do think that the policy wording is weak given these past events though.

Well, according to @Draxys , a friend received their destroyed Valkyn helmet replacement.

I too have had an item replaced in the past when I was to blame for it's destruction.

Most of all it is frustrating that the support team doesn't have an efficient way to restore items - such a system could even be automated. The inconsistency in support really makes me wonder what their Monday meetings must be like.

"Hey Joe, I saw that you helped a player the other day. Stop that, we don't do that, it's bad for business."