Terrible Customer Service

AvaLanche1

I truly hate complaining (especially about this game that I love)... BUT!

On July 11th I discovered that my Blacksmithing station at my Elsweyr Lunar Champion house had disappeared along with another furniture item. I tried retrieving it from the housing menu but it was not even listed there for me to retrieve… like it had never existed.

Completely disappeared.

The next day I submitted a ticket about a missing housing item and received some automated response back about Crown items and checking my bank statement which I ignored since it didn’t relate to my complaint AT ALL.

I waited patiently for a week and yesterday I checked on the ticket only to discover that the ticket had “expired” without any notification or acknowledgement. Frustrating. So I submitted another ticket yesterday, once again detailing my complaint/problem.

I just checked the status of my latest ticket and it was CLOSED again, this time for being a “duplicate”! It is NOT a duplicate, it was never responded to. Even if they'd said "Tough Luck Lady", at least that would be a response. They just keep closing/cancelling my ticket without notifying me or responding to my complaint at all.

My items are missing. I did not destroy them. They will not respond. I don’t want monetary compensation, I just want an explanation where my items went.

I can't believe they treat customers this way, I'm just shocked.

rotaugen454

“I am shocked to find there is gambling going on in here”

“Your winnings sir”

“Thank you”

It can be bad at times. I’ve also had good experiences with it.

DragonRacer

Yeah, their ticketing system is frustrating.

What seems to happen is you get that auto-generated message where I guess it attempts to pull some pre-written FAQ answer based on keywords in your ticket. And then, unless you respond back to that email further, it eventually just considers the case closed. There's even some little small, fine print at the bottom saying if you don't respond within 48 hours, they will consider the case closed.

I've since learned to always, always reply. Because 90% of the time, the auto-response isn't helpful and you sadly have to re-explain the issue to prompt an actual human being to review/answer.

Maybe I'm wrong and a human does read the original ticket, but my few experiences with the system reeeeeeally make it look like that is not the case.

Raisin

ESO support can absolutely suck.

...but if you got a response, and then ignored it, obviously they're gonna mark it as closed eventually. Not only does the ticket explain the process to you (if you don't respond for 4 days, they will close it), but do you want them to run after you? @-@ You didn't communicate, so they assumed the issue was resolved. 100% your fault.

The duplicate thing is where the BS starts.

AvaLanche1

Well thanks Raisin, but I didn't realize until later that the automated message was considered an actual response.

It popped up immediately so I just thought it was one of their pop-up ads about purchasing items in the Crown Store and FAQs for Crown Store.

I'm certainly learning the ropes now.

SirAxen

AvaLanche1 wrote: »

Well thanks Raisin, but I didn't realize until later that the automated message was considered an actual response.

It popped up immediately so I just thought it was one of their pop-up ads about purchasing items in the Crown Store and FAQs for Crown Store.

I'm certainly learning the ropes now.

Yea. I learned a long time ago with them to always respond to the automated response. Usually the next reply from them is from an actual CS rep.

Best of luck.

Raisin

AvaLanche1 wrote: »

Well thanks Raisin, but I didn't realize until later that the automated message was considered an actual response.

It popped up immediately so I just thought it was one of their pop-up ads about purchasing items in the Crown Store and FAQs for Crown Store.

I'm certainly learning the ropes now.

We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 96 hours (4 days).

If your issue has not been resolved, you can respond directly to this email. We look forward to working with you again should you need us!

That's how all of my tickets end.
But yeah, they have a bot that scans your ticket for keywords and send you a first response based on that. In any case there is no customer support where I would wait a week without communication unless explicitly stated. You gotta expect them to be working against you and trying to get rid of you always, basically.

ArchMikem

AvaLanche1 wrote: »

Well thanks Raisin, but I didn't realize until later that the automated message was considered an actual response.

It popped up immediately so I just thought it was one of their pop-up ads about purchasing items in the Crown Store and FAQs for Crown Store.

I'm certainly learning the ropes now.

They're not going to give you an Ad in a Support Email.

Tandor

Many if not most companies now work with automated systems that will generate a first response based on keywords in the ticket. They indicate the process from thereon, and if you don't respond in accordance with that then it will also have been indicated that the ticket will be regarded as closed.

Unfortunately, far too many players these days expect instant satisfaction from everything in life, and so if they don't get it in respect of a ticket rather than respond to the initial response to that ticket they submit another. And another. And another. All that does is bog the system down and either drop each ticket to the end of the queue or else lock the system for that issue, and possibly that player.

I suggest you (a) put in a differently worded ticket that may not be seen as a straight repeat of what you've sent previously, and if that doesn't generate a response (to which you must then reply) (b) PM Gina or one of the other staff here with a ticket reference and quick explanation of the problem.

At all times the other key to a satisfactory resolution apart from following the clearly stated procedure is to remain polite and respectful, as you would expect anyone else in life to be if they were asking you to help them.

Freakin_Hytte

I guess I'm lucky, I've always had excellent experience from the support. I usually get help within 2-3 days if an item have been lost or if I have accidentally Deconstructed something I didn't want to

Danikat

Having worked various customer service jobs (and jobs which are not customer service but function the same way) I can tell you people almost never tell you when you've solved their problem. It's slightly more common in real life (although even then I've had people just wait for me to finish and then walk off) but extremely rare by email. You just keep trying until they stop responding and then have to assume it got sorted out.

However it is annoying that ZOS will make that assumption after only sending an automated response. I'd be interested to know how common it is for those automatic emails to actually answer the question, considering I've never heard of one being even remotely relevant.

@AvaLanche1 - when you do get a response from a real person make sure you read the instructions carefully and answer all their questions. Even if they ask you to do something you're sure is completely pointless and irrelevant (like disabling addons or restarting your console) if you don't try it and report back they'll just keep saying you need to try that before they move on to anything else.

AvaLanche1

Thank you all so much for your input. I really appreciate the responses and learned a lot. Hopefully a third ticket will do the trick, I’ll try all your suggestions.

Seraphayel

I wrote three tickets (Xbox EU) in the last weeks and the support was great. Reason: I never got Crowns I either bought or should have gotten by ESO Plus. The support was fast and helpful every time. The second time I answered their message and got a reply five minutes later. I’ve never encountered faster support honestly in any game. If it occurred once I wouldn’t bring this up but I made three great experiences with ZOS customer service and just wanted to share this.

I don’t know if it was due to the simplicity of my problem, the platform I was playing on or my language used but support was fast, helpful and solved my problem every time after I provided everything they needed.

essi2

@ZOS_GinaBruno

idk

First, I would suggest OP read the CS response again, a little more carefully It probably states something like "We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 96 hours (4 days)." at or near the bottom.

When you received the auto response you should have replied to clarify the issue since the auto response did not get it correct.

So patiently waiting a week before you attempted to follow up/check on the ticket was longer than the 4 days that the message probably states.

I am not suggesting the is a perfect way to handle tickets but we do need to follow instructions. I can state that last time I submitted a ticket I replied to the auto response and received the correct reply that resolved my issue the same day.

hexnotic

N/A

Sylvermynx

NaranjaIslands wrote: »

AvaLanche1 wrote: »

I truly hate complaining (especially about this game that I love)... BUT!

On July 11th I discovered that my Blacksmithing station at my Elsweyr Lunar Champion house had disappeared along with another furniture item. I tried retrieving it from the housing menu but it was not even listed there for me to retrieve… like it had never existed.

Completely disappeared.

The next day I submitted a ticket about a missing housing item and received some automated response back about Crown items and checking my bank statement which I ignored since it didn’t relate to my complaint AT ALL.

I waited patiently for a week and yesterday I checked on the ticket only to discover that the ticket had “expired” without any notification or acknowledgement. Frustrating. So I submitted another ticket yesterday, once again detailing my complaint/problem.

I just checked the status of my latest ticket and it was CLOSED again, this time for being a “duplicate”! It is NOT a duplicate, it was never responded to. Even if they'd said "Tough Luck Lady", at least that would be a response. They just keep closing/cancelling my ticket without notifying me or responding to my complaint at all.

My items are missing. I did not destroy them. They will not respond. I don’t want monetary compensation, I just want an explanation where my items went.

I can't believe they treat customers this way, I'm just shocked.

There's been several threads made about items mysteriously disappearing from player homes in the past month. It happened to me as well.

Is this just happening in the Hall of the Lunar Champion? This needs to get looked into, and fixed ASAP. Furnishings are too expensive to just disappear.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_BillE @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_GaryA

Yes, very true. This is perhaps the 5th or 6th one this week! That's a lot of bugged housing going on....

Jayman1000

"and received some automated response back about Crown items and checking my bank statement which I ignored since it didn’t relate to my complaint AT ALL.

I waited patiently for a week and yesterday I checked on the ticket only to discover that the ticket had “expired” without any notification or acknowledgement."

If you ignore the automated response how can they interpret it as anything else than you have either had your problem fixed or you are not interested in getting help anymore? I can understand the automated response system, the amount tickets zos must get must be staggering high. They need to have some form of first line "defense" against dead requests that wont lead to anything anyway; I bet the filter a huge amount of non-relevant ticket away with this.

You should just respond to the closed ticket, ti should get reopened again. But tbh if they just close the duplicate and dont respond to the original, that's bad CS.

iLLcrime

NaranjaIslands wrote: »

AvaLanche1 wrote: »

I truly hate complaining (especially about this game that I love)... BUT!

On July 11th I discovered that my Blacksmithing station at my Elsweyr Lunar Champion house had disappeared along with another furniture item. I tried retrieving it from the housing menu but it was not even listed there for me to retrieve… like it had never existed.

Completely disappeared.

The next day I submitted a ticket about a missing housing item and received some automated response back about Crown items and checking my bank statement which I ignored since it didn’t relate to my complaint AT ALL.

I waited patiently for a week and yesterday I checked on the ticket only to discover that the ticket had “expired” without any notification or acknowledgement. Frustrating. So I submitted another ticket yesterday, once again detailing my complaint/problem.

I just checked the status of my latest ticket and it was CLOSED again, this time for being a “duplicate”! It is NOT a duplicate, it was never responded to. Even if they'd said "Tough Luck Lady", at least that would be a response. They just keep closing/cancelling my ticket without notifying me or responding to my complaint at all.

My items are missing. I did not destroy them. They will not respond. I don’t want monetary compensation, I just want an explanation where my items went.

I can't believe they treat customers this way, I'm just shocked.

There's been several threads made about items mysteriously disappearing from player homes in the past month. It happened to me as well.

Is this just happening in the Hall of the Lunar Champion? This needs to get looked into, and fixed ASAP. Furnishings are too expensive to just disappear.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_BillE @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_GaryA

It's been happening in different houses as well, so it's not just the lunar house.

Attackfrog

Last time I used customer support was when I was trying to restart my subscription but my account has been locked or something....I was actually on the phone with a tech within the hour to unlock my account and set up my credit card and renew my subscription.

It was an EXCELLENT and EFFICIENT customer service experience actually!

I wonder what the difference was......

sevomd69

I've always had first rate experiences with CS...Last time was when I didn't't get the Tier 1 rewards when the campaign ended when Elsweyr dropped...I just literally wrote "I did not get my Tier 1 rewards when the campaign ended when Elsweyr dropped" They sent me a questionnaire within a couple of hours which I answered to the best of my ability...I was sent 14 Transmute geodes the very next day...

Malacthulhu

Welcome to Eso.

hexnotic

N/A

ZOS_JesC

@AvaLanche1 I've reached out to you via PM regarding your support ticket.

FreshlyB8ked

What's even more frustrating is there is a bug currently for console players that crashes your game if you try to submit a ticket through the game and go over the character limit when doing so. Of course there's nothing that tells you how much you've gone over the character limit when entering the ticket. Such a lovely system all around.

UrQuan

For what it's worth, my own experiences with CS for ESO have been incredibly hit and miss. Sometimes very good, sometimes absolutely terrible.

As far as the initial automated response goes... Aside from the automated responses to tickets where I don't need a response (ie. if I'm submitting a bug report that I don't need a follow-up on, or if I'm reporting a bot, or whatever), not once has the automated response ever been relevant to my issue. Not once.

I get that an automated response is a way to manage high volumes when there's a good chance that a decent amount of that volume is related to simple things that are in FAQs and stuff, and I get that it's hard to have a bot that will actually understand the context of a ticket rather than just look for a couple of key words and reply with something that might possibly be slightly related. Still, it's pretty annoying to always have to reply to the automated response saying "this response was totally irrelevant, can somebody actually read my ticket and provide a relevant response".

AvaLanche1

Update... they replaced my blacksmithing station and the other missing item which was very nice of them.

However, there was no indication of why these items had disappeared in the first place.

My biggest take-away from this experience is how to deal with their ticketing system. Hopefully though, I won't ever have to use it again.

Thank you again to all who responded with advice... there were some very thoughtful and helpful posts and they are greatly appreciated.