I can totally understand your frustration and concerns. They make it super hard to contact them about things they can’t fix.
However, I’ve seen a number of people posting about hacked accounts here and asking for help. After submitting tickets, they have been able to recover their accounts and had many of their missing items returned.
It makes sense to think that if they can’t manage the little stuff, they will be useless for the big stuff, but I don’t believe that is the case. If you enjoy the game, don’t give up yet.
This is very much by design. If a million players were all able to put in tickets for anything they wanted, the ticket queue would get blown out of proportion. In fact, this is what was happening way back when Wrath was Retail.
There are some things a GM simply cannot help with, so they will not let a ticket into the queue for it. They will give related support articles, direct you to fan sites, etc. where you can get the help immediately. Which is MUCH better than waiting for a day to get a response, only for the response to say “we cannot assist”.
If it’s something a GM can assist with, then you will be able to open a ticket. Hyperbole doesn’t help anyone here, especially yourself.
Good. Why would you want to contact someone who can’t help you? Do you call an electrician when your house gets flooded? No, you call a plumber.
Same thing here. If you have a bug, you “call” the people who fix bugs. They can only be contacted in the Bug Report Forum.
Blizzard CS doesn’t keep a list of players affected by a bug outside of possibly ones that filed a Bug Report. When a bug affects a lot of players Blizzard runs a batch job to detect affected accounts and push a fix on all at once rather than requiring each player to file a ticket.
You are not wrong that the current support system is frustrating. Very frustrating. It does not do a good job (or any job at all), of explaining to players what GMs can and can’t help with. It just sends people in circles instead.
I can say that serious issues like Account Hacked, or Unauthorized Payment are categories people CAN usually find easily and submit a ticket under easily. Wait times are sadly multiple days even for critical issues.
Not optimal, for sure. This forum is part of the Support system though. It serves as an Information Desk to help people navigate the Support system, explain policies, explain services, etc. It ensures people know what they can or can’t get help with, how to best put in a ticket, and even get up update on the average wait queue for all tickets.
Coming here can help smooth the rough ticket process and avoid wasting a player’s time and adding to the frustration.
They DO need to improve the current system, I don’t think there are arguments about that. The Blues are aware, but I am sure they can’t discuss the business decisions made by suits, or what is currently going on. I have high hopes that the ticket process does improve, or at least get more transparent with clearer messages!
I believe also back in wrath a all the loot venders went self return with timers and restrictions. Why because players had been abusing gm’s to return purchases from these venders.
Why they have been streamlining and blocking you from making tickets for things they can not assist with. If not you would be wasting your time and blizzards just to get a reply back saying they can not assist.
The problem with this though is that except a few of us here, the average player has no idea what a GM can and can’t help with. The ticket system does not actually pop up that Crabby assistant saying “I see you want to report a bug for WoW! Bug report are not taken by GMs via ticket and GMs can’t assist individual accounts with most bugs. Bug reports are submitted to our QA department via the in-game tool or the Bug Report forum”.
If it was that clear up front, it would reduce a lot of frustration and anger.
While all systems can be improved, I simply don’t see where it’s not clear. The root of the issue is players are so laser focused on “put in a ticket and a GM will do it for me”, that the second they don’t see “Open A Ticket”, their expectations have not been met. Those expectations need to change.
They put up Support articles, no one reads them. They put up “Spotlights” and “Welcome” threads on the forums, no one reads them. They put warning on the launcher and client, no one reads them. They put “Are You Sure” popups everywhere, and people read them so little that they now have to put in a 5-second wait before you can accept it. Do you really think putting superfluous text on the front page of the Support site is going to magically get read?
On the front page? No. I would have it as an improved part of the ticket flow. All the things you said are true. People just don’t read and don’t go looking for support articles. They hit the “help” button.
You and I certainly know of all those resources. We don’t experience the same thing as the average player. We know where to look, what path to take, what they can and can’t do. We don’t experience the frustration that most of the players do the rare time, or first time, they go looking for help.
Sometimes you have to meet the player where they are - and they are in that ticket system trying to put in a ticket. Like it or not. Logical or not.
This has been an issue forever, and not an easy one to solve. Just pushing it off and saying it is the fault of the customer for not knowing the resources, when they don’t normally read the forums or use the knowledge base, is not helpful. Informed consumers are a gift, but it takes a lot to get them educated and that again means meeting them where they are first.
Can you tell I used to be a teacher? Heh.
Edit to add: The current ticket system just either does not let them put in a ticket, or it returns a template reply often not related to their issue. A template that takes days to get. After multiple tickets, days of waiting each time, the frustration is high. They just want to be told up front that it can or can’t be done and how. Not a week of back and forth for nothing. The system can do better than it does now.
There is no magic fix, Does not help that some streamers even put out wrong information and cause drama to get more views. If some of them would just take the time to educate players instead of try to push conspiracy stuff.
I have no idea how the current system architecture works exactly which makes it hard to design, or re-design a ticket flow sequence to address those use cases. It does not mean I don’t have thoughts! I do! I just recognize that any outsider trying to act like they work somewhere tends to just fail. It is not helpful without more knowledge of the actual system.
Something has changed, and that is not just a conspiracy. I don’t know what exactly, but the most of player frustrations are valid. It is not just about people who got account penalties. I monitor most of the forums, including Battlenet forums. It is nearly anything a player wants help with.
Recognizing an issue is easy. There is no magic fix though, as was already said. If I could wave a little Crabby arm and fix it, I would. For now though, I can offer sympathy to those who are frustrated. I can offer patience and time to explain how to best use the system we have in place. I can acknowledge that things are not great right now instead of pretending they are.
I also plan to suggest more people come here to USE the Information Desk we have. This is one way to make the best best of the current circumstances and assist with reducing player frustration. We can walk them through issues as best we are able.
I do understand the different levels of player knowledge. However, while not saying there can’t be improvement, I simply don’t see it. I’ve moved through the Support system and found it to be very intuitive…
…But you have to read for it to be intuitive. If you go in thinking “I must open a GM ticket for my issue”, then yes, that’s when you’ll probably find that the Support system doesn’t work and you can’t get to where you want (opening a ticket).
There’s another thread in this forum about the CE pet for Cataclysm. I found the Support article immediately when searching the Support site. But the difference is I wasn’t tunnel-visioned on opening a ticket. If I wanted to open a ticket, of course I wouldn’t have found it and I would’ve been frustrated.
I’m not sure how much more hand holding they can do.
Right, but you were on the Support site and not using the in-game ticket system, or straight website ticket system.
You are not wrong about any of that. However it is not working with the current support structure behind it.
Sometimes when things just plain don’t work, you adjust to how players are using it. Much like finally paving the worn dirt path shortcut people keep taking across the grass.
The main population having issues with the ticketing system is the community of players that believe everything must be resolved by personal attention from a GM, and they will angrily insist on speaking to a manager if they don’t get their way.
I think we can make the best possible response to the ticketing system not communicating its intentional limitations clearly by putting up a huge banner on every page in the page flow saying “IF YOU FIND YOU CAN’T SUBMIT A TICKET FOR YOUR ISSUE, THIS IS INTENTIONAL BECAUSE YOUR ISSUE CANNOT BE RESOLVED BY A GAME MASTER!”
To be honest, we know people are gonna ignore that and still file one. Unless Blizzard is gonna move the ‘not listed here’ or whatever the one that can’t be filed under it, it’ll keep going on. Even then, folks can and will just put it in one area just to be able to put in a ticket.
Yea as Zenjy said, they will just create a ticket anyway. Then got told by a GM they can’t help, then ask for a manager the Karen way as you said Sniperorc which the supervisor will then confirm again: It’s not something Blizzard can assist with.
Either because the developers don’t want them to or it’s simply not in their job field (is a suggestion, bug report or something else) and then they still “ask to be forwarded to the appropriate department because x game can do it so why can’t billionaire blizzard not do the same an indie dev can do so?”
If they were outright told “Bug reports are an issue GMs can not assist with, please do these things instead”, I would agree they were told that. It is not blunt and straightforward though. Which is why people keep trying to put in tickets! This has been an issue for years and years. They have yet to actually tell people WHY they are sending them to a pile of outside resources. That just adds to the frustration.
You know why GMs can’t help and why they get directed to other places, but the players don’t.
Reality - they are going to go to the ticket system. Meet them where they are and clearly tell them that X is not an issue GMs assist with. Something that the replies currently don’t do until like the 4th ticket and many hours wasted.
Messaging matters. I don’t actually think the current dissatisfaction is just the usual rumbles of people who are lazy and can’t navigate basic menus.
They do not want gm’s taking tickets like this because it is a waste of time and resources and money. When if the player submits a bug report and moves on.
If a gm had to answer tickets like this it would add possibly days to the ticket que if not longer and not give any gain by blizzard or players.
This why they have made so many things self help now.
One way to fix the issue would be the moment someone tries to submit a ticket that a GM cannot help with, have a popup window that says in BIG LETTERS that this is an issue that a GM cannot help you with and a link to a support article that explains it further. I’m not sure how hard that would be to implement, but can’t imagine it would be to bad.
arm and fix it, I would. For now though, I can offer sympathy to those who are frustrated. I can offer patience and time to explain how to best use the system we have in place. I can acknowledge that things are not great right now instead of pretending they are.