I’ve infrequently had to open tickets over the last years of playing this game but recently had a string related to a bugged consumable item that eventually just boiled down to “oh well”. Is this the standard now? GMs seemed to indicate they are not empowered to do anything now to resolve issues. Why not just shift entirely to bot responses that likewise send you boilerplate article quotes unrelated to the problem you described and permanently close the ticket? If nothing else it would speed up the process and cost less.
Edit: Sucks this was locked as I got far more coherent information here than from actual employees.
That has always been the standard. Game Masters have always been hands off in the case of bugs until developers were able to implement a process they could do that didn’t have the potential to break other stuff in the process.
That has never changed.
Because while you were attempting to reach out to them for something they couldn’t help you with, there are still things that they can. Usually it’s restricted to the options you can choose from via the support site. If you have to wiggle your way into an option that at least remotely matches your query, you’re usually only setting yourself up for disappointment.
Generally that frustration results from a misunderstanding of what the GMs are allowed to do. It is rather limited.
They don’t give game hints or help people find where they are in a quest line. They will point you to Wowhead or the forums.
They don’t take bug reports, QA does. They will tell you how to submit a bug report property via the in-game tool or the bug report forum
They don’t fix individual bugs on accounts, with VERY rare exceptions when the Devs permit. That tends to make things worse so they don’t tinker with individual accounts. Bugs get fixed in hot fixes or patches when the Devs fix it.
They don’t do the things we now have self help tools for. They gave players the GM tools so we don’t have to wait in a ticket queue. Char restore, item restore, mail restore, and even most refunds are self help tools now.
Character stuck - we have a tool for that. If that does not work you can still put in a ticket, but often get a template so tell them you already tried the unstuck tool if that is applicable.
Reporting other players - with the exception of a few categories like ongoing harassment, real life threats - they only take reports via the in-game tools that capture all the info. Char, server, chat channel, time stamps, chat logs. If you do need to use the ticket report for the rare cases be sure to give them that same info so they can find the player and logs.
Most of the cooldowns on services and features are set in stone. The CS team can’t over ride that. They will just point to the policy and apologize that they can’t help.
Achievements - they really don’t let them help with those. If it is bugged you usually have to wait for a Dev fix then repeat the Achievement. VERY rarely there are exceptions, but not often.
Loot Disputes: Blizzard CS does not get involved in loot disputes. Players are to use the tools in game to distribute loot. If a scam has been perpetrated - that can be reported and they may investigate, but they don’t re-distribute the loot. They just remove it and penalize the scammer.
I am sure there are more things that players often misunderstand but that is my list off the top of my head.
The Customer Support Forum Serves as an Information Desk to help guide players through the Support/ticket system, answer policy questions, and explain account services. It is a fantastic place to start if you think you need help. It can reduce a ton of frustration by getting you to the right place - or keeping you from wasting your time
I am certain this is a misunderstanding on your part. GMs are able to address all sorts of issues. GMs don’t fix bugs, though Bugs are addressed by the development team.
I won’t rehash it here but what it was does not fall into anything you listed as something they aren’t permitted to do. Ekon’s response was the fallback though I was not asking for them to fix the bugged item. It’s clear, I never thought otherwise, that they do not have the tools or means to hotfix items.
Essentially it’s a bugged item from a vendor so I requested they simply delete it from the toon’s inventory and swap it for something else from the same vendor that was the same price. They functionally used to be able to mail inventory items.
On a side note the responses in here were immediately far more coherent and relevant than everything I got back from three GMs until the forth one who actually mostly addressed the issue before permanently closing the ticket.
I assume I can delete the item but there was never a resell to a vendor window to reimburse the currency to buy something else. I mean I might as well delete it because it won’t work and there’s no telling if the bug will be fixed at any point.
Out of curiosity, what is the item, and how exactly is it bugged?
This sounds like the currency was something other than gold. If that’s the case, the absence of a refund timer is intentional.
This is not a service they provide. It’s not a service they have ever provided.
They can mail items, but they are not going to swap an item for a different item. If the item is bugged, as you claim, then you should put the information in the Bug Report Forum (there’s also an in-game Report A Bug feature) and wait for it to be fixed.
If you can’t or don’t want to wait, then you can delete the item and purchase the other item. But that’s your decision, and a GM doesn’t need to do it for you.
From what I’m reading you can not put a gem into the gear after it’s been converted to tier, perhaps if it doesn’t take to much luck you can get the drop again, gem it, then use the catalyst?
That seems needlessly convoluted as you get the refund timer for all sorts of items purchased with other non gold currencies. e.g. Resonance Crystals, TimeWarped Badges, Undercoins, Kej, Bronze Celebration Tokens etc. (can’t tell at the moment if the BRD relic coffer keys refund as I stopped doing that)
Good to know now I suppose.
Can’t/Won’t refund the currency. The result would have been the same if I simply deleted the tokens and purchased nothing.
Can’t tell at this point. I thought that slot was from the Vault but I also didn’t keep track assuming later that a modification item wouldn’t function as described.
It’s the socket from the weekly vault tokens. The Nerubian Gemweaver which should apply to pve helms, bracers and belts that don’t already have a socket (many unlisted caveats apply). The helm was either from the Vault rewards for delves or catalyzed from something but I neglected to assume I would need to remember weeks later it’s exact origin. It doesn’t work on the delves belt I have which also lacks a socket I assume because it’s a delves item.
This is ultimately my fault for deviating from my usual behavior of never purchasing gem sockets from the vault tokens.
How this related to GM responses was essentially told ‘nothing can be done, shrug’.
No, you won’t. We don’t use AI to answer tickets. Yes, we have some situations in which you may receive an automatic reply. Those are designed to provide advice and direction on common issues that we receive that our staff usually cannot assist with, especially while we are receiving a high volume of tickets. Otherwise, the replies you receive are from Game Masters, of the human variety.
That isn’t really true. We still have Support staff available to answer tickets.