They’re standing at a few hours at best, maybe a day at absolutely worst right now. At Wrath Classic’s pre-launch up until a few months ago? They absolutely were horrific.
Neither can GMs, which is likely why you were tossed about in the endless loop. When you open a ticket, it’s for GM assistance. GMs, however, do not have anything to do with bugs, least of all resolving them. Only Devs handle bugs and they’re handled as they’re able to fix them. They’re never given an ETA. Bug Reports forum is the only avenue for bugs to be reported and that’s as far as you can go without reaching out to your fellow players in an attempt to find a work-around.
I don’t know about this, but I do know that it doesn’t help to foster a sense a community. Back when a GM would answer a ticket in-game, it at least felt like they were there to help you “make it through” the pain point you were having.
As it stands now, people that really can’t understand how to find things on their own or who just want an answer to something they’ve likely spent 20+ minutes on in-game, are just giving up and being made to feel like they’re unimportant and no longer “part of the game’s demographic.”
It’s a small thing, of course, and something that hasn’t been around since about 2008 or so, but that personal response is something that made the game feel like a community and less like a money-making endeavor.
As a side note–a lot of reports are about behavior–at least from what I recall. The few reports that were game-related were often people just not knowing how to find things in-game or understanding how their UI elements could help them. There’s since been several UI improvements, but sometimes just a little nudge in the right direction can mean the world to a customer–no matter how silly or foolish the rest of us might think it is.
Part of that is due to the sheer amount of tickets they get (which I’m sure a lot of them are junk), part of it is probably due to Blizzard not upkeeping a large enough support staff, and part of it is that GMs aren’t in-game characters anymore but just hired customer support who might not really play the game.
The in game support window had a myriad of options, including this:
Doubtful, considering we’re posting there all the time and usually have a response for people pretty fast.
There’s a system to the tickets to make sure things are answered in a timely fashion for everyone. Depending on the ticket, some will absolutely get a template response first, to make sure that all of the troubleshooting steps available were attempted first. Then people can re-open the ticket if they didn’t work to get a GM response. That’s not all tickets, just some. Problem with purchase tickets and the like get answered pretty quickly these days. No one is waiting for several days for ticket responses any longer.
There are no hoops. You’re just not doing it right and not reading your screen. There are even 5 self service options in the in game support window. There’s access to all support articles. There’s links to the forums and Wowhead and all categories.
If you find yourself not being able to file a ticket due to whatever issue you’re having, it’s because the pages you went through already gave you the steps to solve it, told you how it can’t be solved, pointed you towards bug reports or it’s simply something GMs cannot help with.
That is correct. What they might have done in the past does not mean they can do now. It’s not because the GMs don’t want to help, they’re just limited by what the Devs and the Powers That Be have dictated. It’s also to help streamline things too, because everyone likes to think GMs are all powerful who can do anything and everything in the name of “customer service.” Even though the personal attention was fantastic back in the day - the way the playerbase has swollen over the years (yes, even with the losses), it slowed things down. By keeping a clear triage of who can do what, it helps to keep things moving along so that ticket times don’t go super nuclear again.
I would urge you to post over in Customer Support, as Sendryn has been, with whatever your issue may be. Between the players there and the SFAs, perhaps someone can give you a hand in figuring out what is going on and how it can best be addressed.
You seem to have intimate knowledge of the GMs. Did you work there or something?
This isn’t a support issue, it’s a Blizzard policy issue. If there can be a 5,000 post thread complaining about Blizzard’s WFH policy then this one is valid as well.
I’m sorry but lmao. I’ve got more help in this game over in wowhead comments than anything I’ve gotten on this forum or even from tech support other than when I had two accounts migrated. A lot of times you have questions that customer service will tell you they’re not allowed to help you with. Such as one of my quests got screwed up and I was told they’re not allowed to help me with my quest even though it was something that got screwed up.
Wowhead comments have been far more help than any other source that I’ve seen.
Exactly. You go over to wowhead and they’re not confined by some stupid policy that tells them they can’t help you with certain things. When players like you and me figure something out they will post over there and they will tell us how it needs to be fixed because they don’t have to obey any stupid policies at blizzard headquarters.
Anybody that is saying that Wowhead comments are of little or no use literally hasn’t ever needed to go over there for any help
For instance, instead of “stuck”, it takes you through a great many different options, only a few of which have anything to do with being stuck, and are very specific times when people are “stuck”. Yours isn’t there.
This is just your usual way of spreading misinformation through a bad narrative. Examples are examples. You’re perfectly capable of using a search function or asking the CS forums. Instead, you chose to make up stuff and ignore the fact that there are a bunch of different ways to get your issue solved.
Hardly. Many years of playing, a couple of years being one of the folks (players, not staff) who helps out over at CS and just taking the time to know and learn such things. It’s not even like it’s some big secret. There are stickies over on the CS forum. WoWPedia even has it on their site, but people generally don’t care until situations like yours when it’s time to complain about how something that is working as intended but isn’t what you want. Easy enough, the note on bugs is the third bullet point down on both sources.
If that’s the case, then even more so outside of a GM’s wheelhouse. If you’re looking to complain or make suggestions in regard to Blizzard’s policies, the proper place is here (if you can do so constructively and within the ToS) or via the in-game suggestion and feedback interface. Despite people who like to scream from the heavens they’re not being heard, every forum on this site - with the exception of CS - are where the Devs and their CMs come to collect data. Just because you don’t see a Blue posting in a thread does not mean it’s being ignored. If they had to sit and respond to every teensy nuanced thought, complaint or suggestion, they’d need a whole new company just to handle what the fervent playerbase would start hurling at them.
