Best part is then receiving the “unremovable until you interact with it” survey
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When players ticket for something GMs can’t help with, then keep opening tickets, it just clogs up the ticket system creating higher wait times.
I realize a lot of this happens because Players are not sure what GMs can actually DO, or NOT do. I personally think they need to reply to the first ticket with a very clear “we can’t assist with X for Y reason” so people realize the limits and stop putting in tickets.
This post is super helpful in going over what GMs are allowed to do so people don’t waste their own time or get frustrated with unrealistic expectations.
It is a major problem, yeah. There have been multiple situations over the years where I have said “If someone can contact me, I welcome it because this could be easily solved” and no one actually talks to you. It’s a huge problem.
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there have been at least a couple of people who thought your post was referencing WoW GMs.
so… now we’ve got people claiming GMs are robots, plus the addition of the forum now searching for keywords, in order to suspend accounts?
oh boy.
posters here are super report-happy, a system like that just wouldn’t be needed.
there’s a difference though- as someone that’s been playing since the start of vanilla, i know what usually can be fixed or dealt with as opposed to just wasting time. but in that same sense, i’m not gonna waste my time trying to get something done if i knew nothing would or should be done to begin with. basically, i’m not gonna argue a point unless i know i’m right.
I’ve received those. And I always slam them hard in the “anything else to add?”
I know only one person will ever read the survey (and that’s a maybe) but enough of these “one person seeing how the customer feels” and it can make an employee question whether they want to stay with them.
I remember hte last positive response I had. I was trying to get my Kul Tiran. Filed a report. Got a blanket response. Gave up for a week or so. Filed it again. This time I got a response, and it was a live response. And you could tell they actually READ my message. And they fixed the problem. Oddly enough, that one never sent me a “how did we do?”
Because I would have told them to thank that guy for actually being human.
And here’s the worst part. Blizzard’s CS during Vanilla was slam bang awesome. I mean, awesome. I filed reports and I got quick responses and it was obvious they read them. I actually spoke to one on a fun issue. I was moving gold between toons. They contacted me saying there was unusual behavior. I asked them for specifics and they told me about the gold being moved.
I politely told them that I was mailing gold between my alts, for training and all that. They responded with a few minutes and apologized for taking up my time.
THAT is good customer service. They do their job, and when mistakes are made, they apologize.
But, they’ve gone downhill. All in the name of saving a few bucks. And probably losing hundreds of thousands of customers and seeing those savings vanish into the night.
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I have a friend who got fired from a tech support job for actually helping people because he did so in a way that was not part of the script.
there are a lot of people who truly believe they’re right, simply because they’re customers.
they neither know nor care about what the function of a GM is, and seem to believe that their purpose is to serve.
weirdly enough, a good chunk of the people who feel this way, start their complaints with:
…as if it’s something which they should be able to use as leverage. 
So you were just making it up.
And you are unaware that lazy and bitter people exist. And lazy and bitter people can be created by a poor work environment which can make it pervasive.
I am not saying this is what is happening but I am pointing out your narrow experience and description of ‘how normal human function’ is not only not evidence but deficient and lacking in awareness.
Perhaps this will help, though not knowing your ticket or it’s response it’s just a shot in the dark.
And fill the survey after you finish the ticket.
Oh lord yes, the script. I’ve had to deal with that. Worked at UHaul. We always had to thank them for calling UHaul. Even when they were a total jerk. Which I got a number of during my time with UHaul. It was required that we said “Thank you for calling UHaul.” at the end of the call.
Now, we were given some leeway, because we were the guys who contacted the mechanic when your vehicle broke down. But, we also had a number of canned responses for various things. Some were canned for specific reasons. Because it was either company policy (ie we don’t cover certain types of problems) or that was the ONLY solution (diesel fuel in cold weather was one example I can recall).
maybe the ones that don’t have the common sense god gave a pecan tree…
I got it from the Blues on the CS forum. They have explicitly said it - and of course normal humans prefer positive outcomes so it is common sense. The policy is to help wherever you can BUT sometimes you have to say “no”. That is not something they enjoy doing.
They are not sitting around rubbing their hands together looking to see how miserable they can make people. Failure to be polite. Failure to actually help where they can - is only going to get negative reviews on the surveys. Someone out to make people miserable is going to get fired fast.
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Yea, in his case it was because they have a certain script of troubleshooting they expect you to go through, even if you outright tell them what your problem is and they know exactly how to fix it. Like, to use a slightly silly, but I’m sure you’ll understand example: Say I put a bootable USB drive in my USB port and now my PC won’t open Windows and I call tech support… Well, first you must restart your computer. Then you must restart your modem. Then you must do they hokey pokey. Then you must turn yourself around. Okay, now we can tell you that you need to take the USB stick out of the USB port and now restart your PC again. But, my friend would just say “Unplug the bootable USB drive and restart your computer.” and that’s what got him fired.
‘S/he said’ is not evidence.
Ok. Feel free to think CS are gremlins sitting around in their miserable cubes among chip crumbs and empty soda cans. Moldy coffee from 3 weeks ago is starting to take on a life of its own. They ignore the spiders now because they just no longer care. A customer calls - a hopeful customer who thinks they can help! Muahahahahahaha No, that is just another soul to feed on until the husk is dry.
Another day in CS 
P.S. You have no evidence they are dried out cynical evil people who delight in making people miserable.
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Oh, tech support is another creature altogether. The few times I’ve called them for any reason, the first thing I tell them is “I know computers. Just tell me what info you need. You don’t have to baby step me through a dozen steps to get the info.”
I could tell they appreciated not having to talk me through those steps.
The companies that allow the techs to skip the script are great. Many won’t though. They HAVE to make you do all the stupid first steps. I feel bad for those poor techs who had to make the customer do that stuff.
Funny story though. I lost internet so called up to ask if there are outages in my area and do some troubleshooting. I had done the basics - restart everything.
Turns out my answer was almost as simple as plugging it in. Cat had stepped on the button on the modem that turns internet connection off. This was a long time ago - not sure modems still have that “feature”.
I felt very stupid because here I was looking at all sorts of complicated options, when it was really really basic.
My router would need an awfully powerful cat getting in an awfully small area. It’s the same design as the power switch on the back of most PCs.
Mine on the modem, not router, and was on the top in a very easy location to hit. The device was provided by the cable company. I can imagine people with kids have even more unexpected and silly tech issues than people with pets.