So this article is false?
https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/2/29/2833313/blizzard-lays-off-600-likely-primarily-in-customer-service
Not at all. I agreed with that article that the CS layoffs were in 2012. Yes, 600 were let go then. I said exactly that in my reply to you.
Since then those + lots more have been hired. They had to - they released D3, Hearthstone, Overwatch and HotS. Prior to 2012 they had the classic games which did not have GM support, WoW, and SC2. Supporting all the customers that came with the 4 additional game releases required them to hire CS staff to replace the ones they laid off + more.
It was very short sighted of them to do the layoff and lose those trained folks. One of my friends was caught up in it all and was re-hired later in a CM position.
What I was making sure to clarify, is that those layoffs were 10 years ago - not recent - and the staff were replaced. Some people mix it up with the 2019 layoffs which were not CS focused.
Then if they replaced them, then what’s the deal? Because it seems they went auto with everything.
And every article I’ve read about the 800 laid off in 2019 does not state what departments they were from. Only states they were non-developer positions. Which created it’s own problems with workers by stating they aren’t developers.
How do you know that?
Those were detailed in the documents provided to Orange county by Blizzard. The CA laws require positions and a lot of info when a company does layoffs. Some news sites did dive in, others did not.
Great question for management. My guess would be that it is an attempt to deal with the volume of support requests so that people get help faster. It does not always result in the best QUALITY of support though.
A lot of the GM tools have been given to us to use so we don’t have to wait. Item Restore, Char restore, unstuck, etc.
Because it has been discussed by the Forum Support Agents many times on the CS forums. They serve as an Information Desk and try to help explain how things work. That can include explaining limitations on tools.
It’s weird to me they decide to make things auto when the game was losing more players. And not at it’s peak. And auto report features have created some drama. The playerbase isn’t always the best judge of things.
This is another one that causes some confusion - and the internet rumors don’t help.
- Reporting via right click captures the name, server, chat channel, time, and chat logs for GM review.
- Squelch IS automated - it has been in game for a really really long time and is designed for gold spammers/advertisers. It temp mutes an account until GM review.
- A Silence is an actual penalty that removes social features and puts a black mark on the account. That is applied by a GM after review. Future Silences will double in length.
- A Suspension is also not automated. It means a person did not learn from past Silences, exploited the game, botted, account shared, etc.
There are two other things that are new, and automated. There is now an auto warning that you can get in game that you are currently being reported. It is designed to get people to stop whatever they are doing to avoid penalties. The second is the auto notice you get that someone you reported was dealt with. Those are not sent by GMs.
Big ban waves will use some sort of detection method that scans accounts for selected criteria before ban waves go out. I suppose that is semi automated? But the Hacks team handles the parameters and handles the decisions on when and how to ban. That can result in false positives, although not common, but that is what appeal is for.
So then they have been denied access to the tools they used to have. Sounds like another component of bad customer service.
Yes, I know how it works. It being auto wasn’t how it always worked. People are squelched until someone can look at it. That is what causes the drama. Someone gets mad in PVP, reports someone, that person gets punished until someone can look at it.
It takes a lot of reports to get someone squelched. Not just one. The report system also does not count reports from the same Bnet account as duplicates.
I certainly don’t think the system is perfect, but it beats the gold spammers we used to have. Most of the current forum complaints for squelching are advertising related.
Here is a “fun” recent thread on reporting and automation. Quite a bit of Blue insight into the systems.
Edit - and a really good example of someone trying to blame the report system for their own mistakes. This person made several threads.
We still have gold spammers… I don’t think they’ll ever be completely gone. Just change their behaviors and adapt.
I know people lie often times online. That’s a given. Some need attention a lot. We see it every day with trolling threads.
That said, my personal preference is allow more to be put on the ignore list. Action after review not before. I don’t know how many it takes to be squelched but I don’t trust reporting to players.
Well, the alternative to player reports is Blizzard running automated scripts looking for key words. That could also be a means to flag for GM review. Not sure I prefer that though… AI can be worse than humans in some cases.
No I stated the alternative. Allow people to put more people on ignore. Let the GM look at stuff before taking action.
Is that something that can be recovered with the automatic item recovery tool? I used it a few times when I accidentally deleted things.
If not, I agree that it’s something CS should assist with since it’s their known bug.
I should actually check, but i didnt delete it. It was used to open the “chest” then I got an error.
Yeah, its not there.
Here are some examples from the last couple years I’ve experienced:
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After creating this Vulpera character, I was unable to progress the Argent Tournament because there were no Vulpera paths with the different race questlines. (Goblins had a similar problem when they were added to the game.) After trying everything, I put in a ticket and a GM was able to artificially force my character to the point where I could start getting quests again.
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My Leatherworker learned a pattern in BfA but the pattern wasn’t in the recipe list. Nor was I able to acquire it again from the trainer. A GM was able to fix it, but had to have me log out so he could take control of my character and run a script to fix it. (Funny thing, this happened during raid and he was joking around with the raid team while he fixed it.)
So they do fix things. Especially something that has no workarounds available.
I think the key is to CLEARLY and SIMPLY explain the problem. And what you’ve tried to fix it, and that those things did not work.
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My whole problem with the situation is, it was a known issue, it could easily be researched that what I said was true by looking at my inventory and achievements and the solution provided was lazy. If there is any reason for CS reps to get those powers back this is the sort of thing they should have them for.
Not being able to fix your own mistakes at the expense of the customer is bad customer service. The item and achievement are really meaningless but it would have made me happy had they corrected it. That’s how you foster goodwill and loyalty.
Then don’t bother them. Leave the ticket queue open for people who have actual problems that cannot be fixed by the player.
Just because I dont care about it doesnt mean someone else wont. This is now a quest for the betterment of the wow community.
If you are willing to fight your way thru several useless computerized responses and then a couple more useless real person responses, you might trip over someone that actually reads and understands your complaint and has the acumen, knowledge and training to solve it.
It is rare but it does happen.
But for the most part, no, they don’t do anything anymore except tell you they can’t do anything. Half the time about an issue you are not even having because the majority don’t appear to have basic reading and comprehension skills.
Such a difference from when I played back in Cata.