Most of Blizzard CS/GM support is out of the Austin, Texas office.
So you are saying it is not automate and that while they use templates to reduce typing time, the GMs do make actual decisions?
Most of the discrepancy comes down to experience and training. Keep in mind, violating policy to give a player something they should not can get them fired.
No. Just no. It is far easier, and feels better, to say yes and fix things. They will when they can. People keep asking for things that GMs can’t help with though which just frustrates everyone.
Part of this is a lack of education on the part of the player. This article goes into a lot of what GM’s can and can’t do. Spotlight on: Game Master Help
Hopefully that helps with setting realistic expectations. Also keep in mind the CS folks who take tickets do so for ALL the Blizzard games and services, not just WoW. It contributes to the ticket time.
Depending on the company and volume of requests, yes. They then escalate it if you respond back that their first answer did not help. I don’t blame them, but it does frustrate customers. I DO think Blizz has a system like that they can turn on during super high volume times and set it to handle certain keywords. Most of the time they don’t do that though.
i had to do this over a nonsense forum ban a bit back, kept getting copy pasted responses and i said say the word buttercup if a human reads this, i think i went through 4 or 5 tickets before i got a human that still didnt answer the question tho
Yeah, it makes no sense. If they actually want help or guidance on the best route to get support for a particular issue, they kind of have to tell us what it is.
So many times it comes down to a mismatch between what the player THINKS a GM can do, and what the GM can actually do. That can easily be resolved though with a bit of explanation.
When it comes to removing access to aspects of their platforms (suspensions and bans), they are especially careful to use wording approved by the legal department. They will not get into an argument or debate with a poster. That is not allowed. They go strictly by the logs. It does not matter WHY you broke a rule, just that you did and got reported. Never let people bait you into responses that will get you into hot water.
Oh man, I get so mad with the auto responses. Some months back it took me 3 auto responses b4 they gave me a “real GM” who told me to go write a bug ticket! My issues had nothing to do with a “bug” and then I ranted why they didn’t read my clear concise description of the problem b4 sending me a “real GM” who also didn’t read my problem. OMG! Unreal, and so inefficient. Btw I did write a bug report and that didn’t help either!
Yes, in World of Warcraft, but the game I was talking about in that exchange is not World of Warcraft. In the other game, you can’t send items, just private messages. However, you cannot in any way read or interact with someone who has blocked you. So since they sent me a message then blocked me, I cannot read the message andt the notification that I have a new message will not go away until I do.
i can respect that but this is essentially how the “conversation” went in those tickets
you have been temp banned for violating code of conduct
ok what rule did i break
you have been temp banned for violating code of conduct
what did i do? can i get a human to respond, say buttercup if a human reads this
you have been temp banned for violating code of conduct
what rule did i break specifically
you have been temp banned for violating code of conduct
tell me what i did wrong, how am i supposed to not do it again if i dont know what i did wrong in the first place?
you have been temp banned for violating code of conduct
WHAT DID I DO WRONG? WHAT RULE DID I BREAK? linking the code of conduct doesnt tell me what i specifically did
around here i finally get a human response that said buttercup in the ticket.
I’ve worked in Customer Service. And we don’t like the automated systems either. Because too often people just get disgusted and because of how byzantine the instructions can be, they’ll end up in the wrong department. And then the live rep they DO get genuinely CANT help them.
So, their time has been wasted, and we have to route them to the right department. And if that department is full of “not my department” they get punted back to us.
Though sometimes you get reps who know how to get stuff done. Sadly, that doesn’t happen often enough.
I’ve received forum bans with NO email saying why. Just “you violated the code of conduct.” And I’m “how can I improve if I don’t know what rule I violated?”
This is what happens when companies slash their customer service department. The result is customers who think the company HATES them. Even if the company doesn’t and its just bean counters who fail to understand the true value of customer retention and customer service.
Because bad customer service will cost you customers.
This is a topic we see a lot on the CS forums. I think Blizzard can handle things better, to be honest.
When banning for cheating I understand why they just give the broad category, and not the specific program someone was caught with. They don’t want to give the bad guys an idea how their detection systems work.
When it comes to violations of the chat policies though I feel it should come with not just the category you violated, but the quote. I suspect that people would still try to appeal and “lawyer” their suspension anyway - which would just get them the template legal approved that “the suspension has been reviewed and upheld”.
Learning from what you did is helpful though. If you got in trouble for using “buttercup” I suspect that was not the only word in the chat infraction. Name calling/insulting people/picking fights can earn you a time out even if you don’t use explicit swear words.
P.S. while appeals are the one they use the templates for the most - they don’t actually automate it. It just takes seconds to look at the attached logs and say “yep, rule violation” and hit the template button. Removing access is a big deal and they will NOT engage in back and forth with players - it turns into an argument which they don’t want.
You really think most humans LIKE sitting around telling people no and dealing with the outcome? Do you know people like that who delight in making people miserable? Yikes.
I don’t know anyone like that and never have. Telling people you can’t help them sucks. Disappointing people sucks. It feels far better as a human being to say yet and HELP someone! This is how normal humans function.
Oh, I know. That’s why I specified “customers who THINK the company hates them.”
Bad customer service creates the IMAGE the company hates them. Which results in lost / unhappy customers. Which also costs the company money, whether they want to admit it or not.
let me rephrase that, i didnt get in trouble for buttercup. it was the 2nd or 3rd ticket i opened asking what i did wrong that i said " if a human is actually reading this say buttercup in the response" and it wasnt until the 5th or 6th that somebody actually said it.
Ah ok. Yeah for appeals they are not supposed to actually interact with you. They are supposed to use the template responses for legal reasons. Hopefully the GM did not get in trouble. heh I DO understand why they have to use the templates, but for appeals in particular people feel it is automated because there is no personal touch. Blizzard wants to discourage back and forth arguments - but the end result is that people feel like you did - that nobody actually LOOKED at the appeal.
its not like i was looking for a 1 on 1 with the GM, id have been satisfied with a copy-paste of the rule in question and the specific post i made that violated the rules
More like I was paraphrasing so as not be giving personal information about another game company and because I had to avoid using certain key words that will automatically flag these forums to think I am complaining about Blizzard and delete what I said and insert strong text instead. Point was, they gave me 3-4 different ways to fix completely unrelated problems that I’ve never had, only to finally say “Oh yea there’s nothing we or you can do about this issue.”
It was related to the topic because the topic is about “Automated Responses” which is something that most if not all customer service departments do.
