GMs these days have a fraction of the “power” they had back in vanilla. That’s because Blizzard automates a lot of the things GMs used to have to do themselves. So when a GM says they can’t do anything about it, its usually true – they can’t do that anymore because a system exists to handle that problem.
Things like “no soul ash, sorry” are just lackluster customer support on their part, because when it comes time to action an account, they have logs about every single thing your character has done.
If I exploited, it was a legitimate accident. You talk like you know what happened on my account. Secondly, I have never one received a single email in response to a ticket. Glad you have had a better personal experience with Blizz CS though. You are like seeing a Unicorn.
A majority of any experiences I have heard were negative.
What happens at Camp Crystal Lake… stays at Camp Crystal Lake.
And on further reflection… this might also explain my pleasant interactions with CS… I mean… do you really wanna be on the wrong side of the man from Camp Crystal Lake?
I’ve played since vanilla. I’ve seen the customer service decline over the years not only in personal service but attitude as well. It went to crap completely when Activision came into the picture it seems. The last time I tried to get help, I was redirected in the loops a few times. I finally logged a ticket and got a response eventually telling me to check Wowhead.com forums. I searched wowhead and it came up with 0 results. I googled the same query and bam! right there was the wowhead page I was looking for.
Blizzard at least let your CSRs tell people to use google or they’ll never get find the answers they’re looking for.
I tried to open a ticket on something and it kept putting through these article cycles that didn’t relate to my problem. I never was able to land on the actual, submit a ticket page, finally gave up. It seems the problem has to fit into a very tiny niche of things they want to field. There is no “Other” option linked to being able to open a ticket.
Not exactly. However the system is designed to only let you submit tickets for things CS can help with. They DON’T help with game hints, bug reports, or anything that the self help systems do.
If someone needs help navigating the Support system, the Customer Support forum is an Information Desk that is designed to assist with that. The regulars and Blues can help find the right options, articles, explain policies, explain services, etc. They can also tell you if it is something the GMs can’t do, so you don’t waste your time.
In the last five years I have submitted tickets two times. The first time I never got a response, still haven’t from like 3 years ago, and the second ticket they responded by telling me to go to wowhead to check for known bugs and work arounds.
Yeah, the last time I posted in “Customer Support” the responses were so rude that I just eliminated that as an option. Letting just ‘anyone’ respond to those topics allows forum trolls and hotheads to post rude responses. No thank you. If I have a concern/question/gameplay bug or just want to engage with Customer Service - it shouldn’t be so darn hard.
That forum is heavily moderated by Blizz Forum Support Agents.
The regulars do tend to be a bit blunt, but they are usually right. The problem is that some people don’t want to accept an explanation of how the Blizzard systems work. Telling someone a GM can’t help with X issue, is not trolling. The FSRs would delete and suspend people pretty fast for intentionally trolling people.
Well, none of those things are something that CS helps with. That is why you can’t put in a ticket for it.
Bugs are handled by QA. You can submit a bug report in-game or use the Bug report forum. QA documents the reports, researches them, reproduces them, etc. Bugs get prioritized and fixed by Devs. CS has nothing to do with it. There are VERY rare instances where the Devs give CS permission to assist with a Bug while the Devs work on the main fix, but that is uncommon.
Game questions are not something CS is allowed to handle. If you have questions you will be sent to the forums to discuss it with other players or to a third party data site. If you have questions about Services or Policies you ask on the CS forum where the Forum Support Agents get paid to answer those.
Concerns fall into feedback. CS does not serve as a means for feedback or conversations. They don’t interface with the Devs and don’t pass feedback on to them. Feedback is taken via the in-game tool or the Community forums - like this one.
Hopefully knowing the proper means to address those things helps with the frustration. CS just simply does not do what you want it to do.
A quest my WW needed to continue his covenant story wasn’t showing up and no solutions that I found online worked, so I opened a ticket. Blizz’s CS response? Abandon then retake the quest. How do I abandon a quest I don’t have, Blizz?
Anyway, I’d been on the fence about whether to renew or not. This helped that decision immensely.
You can defend the current Customer Service setup all you want. You can justify people allowed to be rude on the "Customer Support: forum. But it should not be that way. I am telling you that as a paying customer, I have given up trying to engage Blizzard for any kind of customer service. That is my genuine experience and reflects on Blizzard.
In comparison, I just purchased some software. I have a question about how to implement a feature because the instructions provided aren’t very clear. In my profile is a button - open a ticket. I click that, fill out the drop downs, describe my situation, add screenshots, and Boom a ticket is opened. It should be that simple! I get an automated email that says the hours in which they respond to tickets, which is M-F 7am-4pm PST, so I know if I opened a ticket on the weekend I’ll get a response. Then I’ve gotten responses from their Support team to clarify the question I have about the software. Yes, this software company’s ticket system also includes drop-down for bugs, feature functionality, feedback, etc. They do not ‘narrow down’ what I am allowed to ticket on so dramatically that virtually no one can open a ticket. ETA: I actually just got a response to my support ticket from this company, on the weekend, even when they state that responses will be provided on the weekdays. That is actually above and beyond customer service!
If Blizzard sells people access to a software product, then they should provide enough staffing to support it, and ease of open support tickets - on a wide variety of topics.
I also have no issue getting responses but to be honest I haven’t needed a GM for anything in a while. If I have a problem in game I usually just report it as a bug if it is of that nature then go do something else I usually only contact Blizz for in game stuff if its something that is “urgent” like when I changed factions and transferred realms all my Legiondaries disappeared.
When it happened a second time I received the auto generated response telling me to go to wowhead for quest help. Haven’t bothered with this event since then.
I usually only contact Blizz for in game stuff if its something that is “urgent” like when I changed factions and transferred realms all my Legiondaries disappeared.