Does Zenimax take their customers seriously?

MathisBorgen · April 2014

I need to vent a little and share my experience with Customer service.

I lost my equipment/gold/mats due to a 100% success rate bug during item improvement, and sent a bug report and a help ticket, because I wondered if it was possible to be compensated for wasting a lot of my time and gold gathering materials. I didn't expect that they would compensate me, but I thought I'd ask just in case, since I feel kind of cheated because I trusted that 100% ment 100%.

My issue with customer services is that they appearantly just send out automated responses, even to follow up mail. My follow up response didn't even make sense, as it didn't answer anything I asked. And when I complained in the next mail, saying it was bad customer service to send automated responses, they sent me a mail with a link to exactly the same answer as the response before.

I think that this behaviour is very disrespectful towards your customers, I understand your need to send automated responses to simple questions, but you clearly don't even bother to read tickets to it's full extent. I really love the game, but this arrogant behaviour is really bad if you want to build trust and loyalty with your customers.

My mail-conversation with customer service follows, so you can see for yourselves how frustrating this can be:

The response to the ticket I submitted:

"Helping you is our passion!

We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 120 hours.

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!
Subject
I was trying to improve a lvl 22 Robe I created to blue quality, used 5 improvement mats t

Response By Email (Pirrassa) (04/08/2014 10:27 PM)
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Customer Support Team, my name is Pirrassa and I see your having a problem with materials used. I apologize for the inconvenience your experiencing, and I would be happy to assist you. But unfortunately in this situation there is really nothing that I can do to help you with your lost. The creative process is a very exciting and vital point to this game, and unfortunately failure is just a part of learning and getting ahead. Again I apologize for the inconvenience of it all, but when it comes down to it we can not do anything more than just that. But if you should happen to run into another issue that you need help with please don't hesitate to contact us back so that we can help you correct that issue.
Again thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Customer Support Team.

Best Wishes In Your Adventures
Pirrassa"

My answer:

"Hi again.

"The creative process is a very exciting and vital point to this game, and unfortunately failure is just a part of learning and getting ahead. "

Yes, I agree with this statement. The problem is that the game says 100% success rate. If I read between the lines of this statement, you're saying that failure at 100% is expected. If that is the case, you should change the number, because if it isn't 100%, then it's a lie. If it is a bug and it is supposed to be 100% success rate, then I feel like you're not taking responibility. If that's the case you should admit that this was not supposed to happen at least, instead of a "these things happen" statement, and imply that I was the one who should have known that 100% isn't 100%. I can live without the materials and gold lost, I'll just have to play a couple of hours regaining them, it's your response witch feels like you're shouldrering the blame onto me that I don't appreciate in this matter.

Kind Regards

MathisBorgen"

Their response:

"Response By Email (Jeremy) (04/09/2014 07:35 AM)
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.
If an item no longer appears in the improvement tab list, first ensure that the crafting station is the correct type. If an item disappeared from the list after an attempt to improve it, this means that the item either has reached its highest craftable quality and can no longer be upgraded or that the upgrade attempt failed and the item was destroyed.

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

Me:

"If helping me is your passion, then you should take some anti-depressants, because this isn't very passionate. You could at least read and respond personally instead of sending a standard form that has nothing to do with the issue. This is really bad customer support and I'm really dissapointed."

Their final response (where I give up ):

"Response By Email (Jeremy) (04/10/2014 12:18 AM)
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.

Answer Link: Where is the item I was trying to upgrade? (A link to EXACTLY the same answer as my last reply)

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

MathisBorgen · April 2014

And before moderators decide this "isn't constructive" and lock the thread; this IS constructive critisism, as it highlights a big problem relating to building trust with your customers. I would like to hear your take on this, if developers are going to look at how they respond to customers, and I would like to hear other players experiences with customer support, witch, again, is a constructive topic in regards to how Zenimax chooses to interact with their customers.

djodars · April 2014

It's not Zenimax's fault to be honest... You can blame the customer service employees that specifically "read" your case, but there's a lot of good employees who take their time resolving issues instead of copy/pasting random messages.

I agree that they need to check their employees more and whip those that are lazy like that.

MathisBorgen · April 2014

Yeah, I agree with most of that, djodars.

That why I say it's meant as constructive critisism, since I feel they should look into this matter. I think they will loose a lot of customers otherwise. $:\$ But even if it isn't Zenimax's "fault", it's still their customer support, even if it's outsorced, so they have responsibility for how they interact with customers IMO.

Ariane · April 2014

Actually, I think this bug is even worse. I lost a pair of boots after creating them. They weren't in my inventory, they weren't in the sell to merchant window. I thought they had been eaten by a crocodile argonian. But I found them in the crafting window. I couldn't send them to anybody, or sell them, or transfer them, I could only deconstruct them.

I have only had great experiences with Zenimax CS so far, so I ask you to keep trying. I'm pretty sure you'll find an agent that will be able to help you, despite the fact that I think they must be a little bit overcharged right now >.<

MathisBorgen · April 2014

I won't bother trying to contact them anymore about this tbh.

I dont think the original issue will be answered anyway, and it would take too much time and energy for "nothing". So from now on, I'll just bug report if there is an issue, I don't think anyone actually reads tickets fully over there anyway..

I'm glad someone has good experiences with their CS though.

Bloodmonarch · April 2014

In answer to the title of this thread...I would say... 'yes'

scruffycavetroll · April 2014

well, i received an email today that appears to have moved my monkey & mara issue forward, but i guess i just have to wait and see.

Mojo · April 2014

scruffycavetroll wrote: »

well, i received an email today that appears to have moved my monkey & mara issue forward, but i guess i just have to wait and see.

I was having issues with pets tmaps and Mara ring. Took me a few emails but it did get resolved.

mattias.snakeb16_ESO · April 2014

Not entirely sure everyone knows what Customer Support is there for or if they even know /bug exists.

You definitly shouldn't be sending bug reports to CS, but if a bonus item you paid to have in your copy of the game is missing then by all means do.

If you're having a problem that EVERYONE is having then don't send a support ticket, search forums, FAQ's and Google to see if you can fix it yourself.

No one will help you if one badly spelled Google search is going to fix it, and major bugs won't be fixed without a patch or at least maintenance.

MathisBorgen · April 2014

Bloodmonarch wrote: »

In answer to the title of this thread...I would say... 'yes'

Care to elaborate on that?

I would say "in some instances". I think it's fairly accurate to say, based on complaints/praise of their CS on this forum, that they ignore most of the relatively "small" issues, and just send out pre-made answers by just reading the topic, while if they come across something more critical (like bank wipes or stuff like that), they make a little more effort.

My issue was a relatively small one in the grand scheme of things. But when I waste so much time, resources and gold to create and upgrade items, making sure it's 100% successful (since that's whay it says) and it fails you'll feel cheated. So I wanted to report this, ask if I could get my materials back (even if this was a long-shot) and I wanted at least an answer to the question "Is there still a chance for unsuccessful action even at 100% success rate". When they send a response and it says "If you need further assistance..." and they just send a random mail without even bothering to read what's written, or use 30 seconds answering it personally, and also the fact that their automated response in this case makes it seem like "I should know better" and when I confront them about it they send a new mail just to mark the issue as responded to, I think that it's bad CS.

It might seem like I'm ranting, but that's not my intention.

I just want Zenimax to see that this can be an issue in regards to keeping customers happy. Also, I'm curious to others experiences with customer support. If you have good experiences then that is reassuring. Maybe the people like me who are unhappy with CS are in minority, and maybe I just got unlucky. But I still consider my experience with CS bad.

I still love and enjoy the game the game though!

drizzintahl · April 2014

So I submitted a few tickets about the Groundskeeper quest, which literally singlehandedly prevents me from progressing. The email said:

Response By Email (Dennis) (04/09/2014 09:41 AM)

Greetings! Johnathan

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.
You may wish to try abandoning the quest and reaccepting it, as well as logging off and back on.

If you cannot abandon the quest, it is likely considered a main story quest. We are currently working to fix this issue. In the meantime, you can progress to the next chapter of the storyline by moving ahead to the next area.

It is our hope that you will be able to return and complete the affected quest shortly.
\\\\\\\\\

So yea, go to the next zone, pickup the next story. Real *** cute.

drizzintahl · April 2014

Omg, they have a customer support survey!!!! I found a great way to spend my morning.

Tiqwah1984 · April 2014

well be happy, you can play... i even cant play because of this "great" support -.-
cant login since 2 days and still waiting for support ...

MathisBorgen · April 2014

drizzintahl wrote: »

Omg, they have a customer support survey!!!! I found a great way to spend my morning.

Haha, I got one as well..

Hope they actually read those at least!

MathisBorgen · April 2014

Tiqwah1984 wrote: »

well be happy, you can play... i even cant play because of this "great" support -.-
cant login since 2 days and still waiting for support ...

That sucks..

drizzintahl · April 2014

Haha, just to fill up the character count and maybe shed more light on my awesome customer support survey, I gave them the lyrics to Clay Aiken's "Invisible" pulling from some website's top 50 worst pop songs. Made me giggle.

MathisBorgen · April 2014

drizzintahl wrote: »

Haha, just to fill up the character count and maybe shed more light on my awesome customer support survey, I gave them the lyrics to Clay Aiken's "Invisible" pulling from some website's top 50 worst pop songs. Made me giggle.

That's fantastic!

DanteYoda · April 2014

djodars wrote: »

It's not Zenimax's fault to be honest... You can blame the customer service employees that specifically "read" your case, but there's a lot of good employees who take their time resolving issues instead of copy/pasting random messages.

I agree that they need to check their employees more and whip those that are lazy like that.

Are you serious? If Zenimax employs them then yes its Zenimaxs fault, honestly i'm starting to wonder if you maybe work for them too..

If the 5 items say 100% then there should be no failure it should always work for the player, if not it is a bug and should be dealt with as such, the player who is now no longer a beta tester as we've started live should be reimbursed for their time and the bug fixed asap by the developers..

Vlas · April 2014

DanteYoda wrote: »

djodars wrote: »

It's not Zenimax's fault to be honest... You can blame the customer service employees that specifically "read" your case, but there's a lot of good employees who take their time resolving issues instead of copy/pasting random messages.

I agree that they need to check their employees more and whip those that are lazy like that.

Are you serious? If Zenimax employs them then yes its Zenimaxs fault, honestly i'm starting to wonder if you maybe work for them too..

If the 5 items say 100% then there should be no failure it should always work for the player, if not it is a bug and should be dealt with as such, the player who is now no longer a beta tester as we've started live should be reimbursed for their time and the bug fixed asap by the developers..

I am pretty sure he is one of two things an employee at ZOS or a bored person at work...

Either way, would be great if these forums had an ignore feature.

nurayamab16_ESO · April 2014

i love this game

- though at times i do get despondant - from what i seen and experienced the CS support is a very mixed bag

- it seems to matter whom you happen to get, if they actually read what you wrote and then, if they will help or not .. now that is not a good thing and needs improvement .. yes the dreaded processes and procedures ...

- the game itself is even with all the "features" that still need to be sorted, wonderfull and filled with a lot of fun ... like those witty personal mails from the hirelings wich seem at times more pertinent and personal then cs replies

hope to see you all in there and the issues sorted soon

Brucas · April 2014

I'm wondering about this as well. Some things are functioning worse and less reliably than they did in the beta, and when we contact Customer Support about it they either tell us some basic information that we are already well aware of (and, as you say, continue to copy-paste this data in subsequent replies) or advise that we ignore the issue, accept that it's part of a system (broken and frustrating though it may be), pretend it's not there and move on. It's a little worrying, to say the least.

Mavor · April 2014

I had an issue where I never got a forum account created - somehow between beta and headstart I just got lost in the shuffle I suppose.

Obviously its been fixed - but not before I had to submit 3 different tickets - and the responses told me, no kidding, that my game login would get me into the forum...which we all know is bulls***.

It took over a week and a multitude of generic, incorrect responses to finally get someone on the phone and get it actually handled.

I mean they were just sending out plain old WRONG information.

kirnmalidus · April 2014

I'm confused by your original problem. Upgrading items to blue improvement level requires an upgrade material that only adds 15% (the upgrade item for green adds 20%), so if you used 5 of the blue level improvement items, you only had a 75% chance of success, not 100% as you state. So failure isn't a "bug" it's a 25% likely outcome of the upgrade you chose to attempt.

Si_O_Si · April 2014

To the OP: no, I don't think they do take us very seriously. I have a separate issue than you, but their attitude and approach was the same. Automated replies, that fail to even read what my issue was. The ready-format answer could as well have been randomized. To my complaint on that, no answer followed, rather the case was "solved" in their eyes. Marked on this in the survey - still no answer. Five days and going.

Abysmal customer support.

Berserkerkitten · April 2014

To be fair, the GM probably never played TESO, because ZoS has outsorced customer support to a bunch of 12 year olds in Pakistan.

KazinM · April 2014

MathisBorgen wrote: »

I need to vent a little and share my experience with Customer service.

I lost my equipment/gold/mats due to a 100% success rate bug during item improvement, and sent a bug report and a help ticket, because I wondered if it was possible to be compensated for wasting a lot of my time and gold gathering materials. I didn't expect that they would compensate me, but I thought I'd ask just in case, since I feel kind of cheated because I trusted that 100% ment 100%.

My issue with customer services is that they appearantly just send out automated responses, even to follow up mail. My follow up response didn't even make sense, as it didn't answer anything I asked. And when I complained in the next mail, saying it was bad customer service to send automated responses, they sent me a mail with a link to exactly the same answer as the response before.

I think that this behaviour is very disrespectful towards your customers, I understand your need to send automated responses to simple questions, but you clearly don't even bother to read tickets to it's full extent. I really love the game, but this arrogant behaviour is really bad if you want to build trust and loyalty with your customers.

My mail-conversation with customer service follows, so you can see for yourselves how frustrating this can be:

The response to the ticket I submitted:

"Helping you is our passion!

We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 120 hours.

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!
Subject
I was trying to improve a lvl 22 Robe I created to blue quality, used 5 improvement mats t

Response By Email (Pirrassa) (04/08/2014 10:27 PM)
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Customer Support Team, my name is Pirrassa and I see your having a problem with materials used. I apologize for the inconvenience your experiencing, and I would be happy to assist you. But unfortunately in this situation there is really nothing that I can do to help you with your lost. The creative process is a very exciting and vital point to this game, and unfortunately failure is just a part of learning and getting ahead. Again I apologize for the inconvenience of it all, but when it comes down to it we can not do anything more than just that. But if you should happen to run into another issue that you need help with please don't hesitate to contact us back so that we can help you correct that issue.
Again thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Customer Support Team.

Best Wishes In Your Adventures
Pirrassa"

My answer:

"Hi again.

"The creative process is a very exciting and vital point to this game, and unfortunately failure is just a part of learning and getting ahead. "

Yes, I agree with this statement. The problem is that the game says 100% success rate. If I read between the lines of this statement, you're saying that failure at 100% is expected. If that is the case, you should change the number, because if it isn't 100%, then it's a lie. If it is a bug and it is supposed to be 100% success rate, then I feel like you're not taking responibility. If that's the case you should admit that this was not supposed to happen at least, instead of a "these things happen" statement, and imply that I was the one who should have known that 100% isn't 100%. I can live without the materials and gold lost, I'll just have to play a couple of hours regaining them, it's your response witch feels like you're shouldrering the blame onto me that I don't appreciate in this matter.

Kind Regards

MathisBorgen"

Their response:

"Response By Email (Jeremy) (04/09/2014 07:35 AM)
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.
If an item no longer appears in the improvement tab list, first ensure that the crafting station is the correct type. If an item disappeared from the list after an attempt to improve it, this means that the item either has reached its highest craftable quality and can no longer be upgraded or that the upgrade attempt failed and the item was destroyed.

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

Me:

"If helping me is your passion, then you should take some anti-depressants, because this isn't very passionate. You could at least read and respond personally instead of sending a standard form that has nothing to do with the issue. This is really bad customer support and I'm really dissapointed."

Their final response (where I give up ):

"Response By Email (Jeremy) (04/10/2014 12:18 AM)
Greetings!

Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.

Answer Link: Where is the item I was trying to upgrade? (A link to EXACTLY the same answer as my last reply)

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

In short. No. They just want your precious sweet sweet money!

MathisBorgen · April 2014

kirnmalidus wrote: »

I'm confused by your original problem. Upgrading items to blue improvement level requires an upgrade material that only adds 15% (the upgrade item for green adds 20%), so if you used 5 of the blue level improvement items, you only had a 75% chance of success, not 100% as you state. So failure isn't a "bug" it's a 25% likely outcome of the upgrade you chose to attempt.

Sorry, I have missspelled. I used 7 blue threads (I made sure it was at 100%, since I'd rather be safe than sorry. Used to try my luck at 60% early on, but after three fails in a row I decided to always make sure had 100% success rate). But that might explain why I got the first "these things happen" mail. But I pointed out clearly that i it was at 100% in both the ticket and in the next response, even if I went too fast with the keyboard and wrote 5 mats instead of 7.

But either way, there is a bug with 100% successfull rate, see here for example: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/comment/583723 The rate drops town to 20% (or 15% as you said with blue) when you press improve and the warning pops up. So now I double check and take screenshots in case it happens again.

Also, just as a FYI as I'm on the subject, I crafted a robe yesterday, when I chose trait the number of materials I chose had gone back to the lowest amount automatically. I didn't see it until the second I had pressed create, so I made a robe 4 levels lower than I meant to.

So something clearly is bugged with the crafting, but if you make sure to double-check everything befor you click create (and that it says 100% in the warning as well) it should be fine I think.

But the point of the post isn't really about the issue I submitted, it's about how Zenimax CS respond to customers asking for help. They still sent me automated responses and ignored my follow-up mail. Witch is incredibly frustrating, since they write "If you have follow up questions, don't heaitate to respond to this ticket" (or something to that effect).

(BTW, I can see how this might make me look like a doofus that won't admit I was wrong, but I am 100% sure I was at 100% when upgrading. Even if I wrote 5 instead of 7.

)

1111scornneb18_ESO · April 2014

i dont feel so

byghostlightrwb17_ESO · April 2014

drizzintahl wrote: »

Haha, just to fill up the character count and maybe shed more light on my awesome customer support survey, I gave them the lyrics to Clay Aiken's "Invisible" pulling from some website's top 50 worst pop songs. Made me giggle.

and THERE is exactly the problem, Zenimax arent the issue its people like you and others who clog up the service avenues with multiple requests, or junk, or say like when some gets the whole guild to write in because one person has a problem.

Congrats for being part of the problem.

byghostlightrwb17_ESO · April 2014

kirnmalidus wrote: »

I'm confused by your original problem. Upgrading items to blue improvement level requires an upgrade material that only adds 15% (the upgrade item for green adds 20%), so if you used 5 of the blue level improvement items, you only had a 75% chance of success, not 100% as you state. So failure isn't a "bug" it's a 25% likely outcome of the upgrade you chose to attempt.

Yum, some crafting have a skill that allows great chance for the same amount of blues.