And as I said, that’s the age of the oldest ticket in queue, not a timer of when your ticket will be addressed. Actual response times have been running closer to 8-10 days. Still not ideal, nobody including Blizzard is happy about the backlog, but they working hard to address them all as quickly as they can.
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Keep in mind, that’s not a countdown timer for your ticket. It’s the age of the oldest ticket in queue, but doesn’t generally reflect how long it will take to get to your ticket.
Even Blizzard is unhappy with current ticket times. But they are working hard at bringing those ticket times down. Unfortunately, we’ve seen lots of cases here on the CS forums where people have flooded the system with multiple tickets and tickets for things that GMs can’t help with.
That said, an incorrect charge would indeed be something that they can look into with you. Depending on what the charge was and how it was ‘incorrect’, a blue here might even be able to shed some light.
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No. It means that certain categories go to certain staff who are trained for those particular situations. Like said above, a refund request put in under Tech Support is going to take longer. Not by choice, but because they will sit through the queue only for the employee to have to forward it to someone who can actually help.
Actually, it’s easier to get the appropriate help. The problem is, players don’t like what the appropriate help is. Everyone wants a GM, everyone wants a phone call, everyone wants Blizzard to grant them every request. It doesn’t work like that, and never has.
If a players has a question about a quest, they used to put in a ticket just to get a “we cannot give in-game hints” response. Now, the website directs those questions to self-help options, not to the ticket queue, which means they are getting the appropriate help instantaneously. But everyone thinks they must open a ticket for everything.
Yes, when there is a better way to get help and/or it’s an issue that a GM cannot help with. Because it’s literally directing you to the best place to get help.
You’ve never been about to e-mail, except a couple rare situations (hacks team, gmfeedback, etc), and those options are still there. You can’t call because the line was always for billing and tech support, but players flooded it to ask about in-game issues. There is also a callback system, but that hasn’t been available with Covid and work from home.
That’s the thing. No, you don’t, and really shouldn’t. Not every issue needs a ticket, and it’s not meant to search through until you can submit a ticket. That’s the whole point of the support site: getting a player what they need to resolve their issue, even though it may not line up with their pre-conceived notions of what they want.
The current situation is what it is. It sucks and no one likes it, but there are people ahead of you and you have to wait. It’s like going to Walmart and there’s a long line to do a return at Customer Service. Standing at the back of the line and complaining that they don’t care about you is strange. They are working as hard as they can, and when everyone who was there before you is served, you’ll be up.
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I don’t shop at Walmart but I don’t think the average customer has to wait 2 weeks to get through the return line. I’m guessing they have a larger customer base than Blizzard.
I understand that there’s a good portion of posters here think that we either just should grin and bear it, or that the long wait, byzantine ticket system and lack of phone contact is good, actually. I’m surprised to learn this, but we all have different opinions.
I also understand that there’s a significant group of posters here that believe that customers are naive at best, and willfully ignorant at worst, and believe that it’s the customers fault that led us to the current situation. If this is the starting point for Blizzard, then that proves my point about their care level. Please read the exchange between Humanbeek and Adonijah above. Would a company that actually cares allow a situation like that? Reopen tickets, don’t start new tickets. You have to read a manual to get help?
I’m sorry that Blizzard has tough customers to deal with. I can’t help that situation, and I’m not sure why I should accept it as a valid reason to make contact for people like me more difficult. I haven’t contacted customer support in probably 7 years until this week. I’m not the problem here.
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Never been there on December 26th, huh? But the point is that the line is a lot longer than normal. It doesn’t mean they don’t care, or they hate you. It means that other customers are in line ahead of you, and you just have to be patient.
No one once said that, so again, don’t put words into other people’s mouths. Every single person in this thread knows that ticket times suck right now. But that “good portion” also understands that there’s nothing we can do to change it right now, and throwing tantrums about it is not what this forum is for.
You can, by not being one of those tough customers. No one likes the ticket times, but they are what they are right now. If that’s the path you need to get your issue resolved, then you have to wait.
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You are welcome to your opinion of me, and I will leave you to it. I don’t think it’s helpful to this discussion.
You can’t seriously deny that the prevailing response to ticket threads isn’t to just wait it out and don’t complain. I mean, that’s what you’ve been saying here…
Yes, that’s correct. You have to wait, and there’s no way around that.
But more to the point, you said:
No one once said to “grin and bear it”, nor did anyone say the long wait is a good thing. You are understandably frustrated, and are seeing what you want to see to continue to argue about it.
The current Support site and no phone contact are improvements. Are they the best? Maybe, maybe not, but again, no one said that, either. What I said was that you came to the Support site with the pre-conceived notion that you must open a ticket or you must call the number. Those notions are clouding your judgement of the system. Many issues that players come here don’t need a ticket, because they can get the help they need faster.
Yes, for the limited amount you’ve revealed, it sounds like what you need is a GM to answer your ticket. So you need to wait. Complaining about the length of the wait serves no purpose, and is not this forum’s primary function.
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This is turning into a discussion of what you think of me, which doesn’t interest me. Enjoy Azeroth and best wishes.
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Nothing about this thread is personal to you, Barthelme. No one here is judging you, personally. I am trying to explain why they have made the changes they’ve made, and why it’s an improvement overall for everyone.
Your particular issue may not be helped by the changes, but Blizzard doesn’t make decisions like this on an individual level.
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Per store? No Blizzard, has a much larger customer base when compared to one Walmart store. Walmart has 3500+ stores, so collectively yes, they probably have a larger customer base when you consider all their locations combined. Blizzard, being an online company, only has one. And that one “location” has to deal with the sum-total of all customers from around the world. If Walmart had one single location that had to deal with the returns of all 3500+ stores, yeah, the wait will be quite long. While I get the attempt at comparison, this is truly an apples and oranges comparison.
The frustration is understandable, but the business model of an online gaming company does not allow for all tickets to have a response quickly when things happen. Right now, in the world of Blizzard, things are happening. This has always been the case throughout the history of Blizzard, there have always been pockets where ticket wait times were where they are now.
The ticket system as it is today is a result of customers not using past ticket systems with restraint and correctly. Same with the phone system, when they had it. In the past, GM’s would have to wade through hundreds of “So and so said a bad word to me in the game, ban him!” tickets until they got to an actual, honest refund request. Does Walmart deal with how customers interact with each other and is forced to serve as mitigator and judge of those interactions? Not really. So yes, the ticket system is a little complicated, because customers forced Blizzard into such a ticketing model.
As for the phone system, a few years ago when it was still active, there was yet another wave of ticket making events (I forget what it was) but the phones were hammered. So much to the point that the wait on hold was 2 hours. And that is where the system (the one they had then) stopped taking calls altogether, and customers were met with a busy signal, which confused many younger players who never encountered one before. And the forums were flooded with posts just like this one, about the phone lines being busy. Customers with legitimate refund request then had to spam dial the number days on end, while they were at work, while they had to do other things, just to get through. The phone system was modified after that, then taken down.
And going back to your Walmart comparison, it takes maybe 1 or 2 days to train a new retail employee. For a game support position, it takes about 6 weeks to learn the ins-and-outs of all the systems, games, and policies. And then about another year until that person is proficient enough to have all the training required to do the job effectively. And that is why when Blizzard is hit with these large ticket volumes, it gets backed up. Because when ticket wait times are not like what they are today, many Game Masters just sit around twirling their thumbs wait for a ticket to pull and work on.
In short, the ticket system of an online game company is a feast or famine situation.
Now, is it acceptable? Not at all. And what you read here on this forum are just other customers, such as myself, expressing opinions. That is the very purpose of the forums. 98% of the time, you get other customers who help direct players to the correct resources. Other times, you get back-n-forth like this, because there is a level of frustration. And that frustration is often a one-off for most posters, because they do not haunt the forums, and do not know the complex history of supporting customers for an on-line game.
Blizzard will be the first to say that such wait times are not acceptable to them, either. But there is a lot going on that most customers just do not either seek to understand, or even want to understand, they just want their issue resolved. But what can be said, is that there really is no easy solution. Blizzard has been at this Customer Support game for a long, long time, and they have a level of expertise in it that surpasses others in the industry.
There is one thing that can be guaranteed. Ticket times will go back down, where the vast majority will be answered within hours, and that will go on for a while. And no one will come to the forums to really praise Blizzard for the ultra-fast ticket times when they do get back there. Until another event happens, and the wait skyrockets like it is currently. And there will be future posters, like yourself, bemoaning their wait for their issue to be resolved.
Of course not, and I am not reading where anyone here said you were the problem. Explaining the reality of the situation, is not accusatory. One may not like a reply or solution, but that is not assigning blame.
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Melaesia, you implied or said that I’m throwing a tantrum, I’m a bad customer, I’m not objective, that I have incorrect preconceived notions and that I have clouded judgment. It appears you don’t accept my opinions as being anything other than noise. That’s fine with me, my beef isn’t with you.
Maul, the Walmart comparison was not mine I was responding to Melaesia.
And in this wheel of time, the company is always there, always regretting that nothing can be done.
Yes, because your initial posts in here have been complaining about the wait times, and saying it’s because Blizzard doesn’t care about customers or their issues. Not liking the wait times is one thing, and understandable, but then turning into a referendum on Blizzard’s work ethic or their level of “caring” is what turns it into something else entirely.
No, you said that you’re sorry Blizzard has to deal with tough customers, and I suggested that you don’t turn yourself into one of those tough customers.
Correct. Because your preconceived notion is from your last time with opening a ticket, several years ago. Things have changed since then, and I’ve been explaining why.
You are welcome to your opinions, and they may well be correct. But realize that many people come here to find answers, and they often scan previous threads. Just a forum full of opinions give others the wrong idea about things, so we try to clear up those misconceptions when they pop up.
Again, it’s nothing personal to you. It’s just trying to let you (and anyone who reads this later) know why things have changed. Edit to add: And perhaps I was a little too sharp in my first responses, and I do apologize for that. I’m always working to respond in better ways. 
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What issue are you having, Carudas? It looks like you are on chapter 3, you have quests available to you and Prince Renathal is visible.
For clarification, your ticket wasn’t autoclosed by a Game Master. We tend to receive a lot of tickets for issues that our staff are unable to assist with. So, during times of high volumes, like now, we have an automatic system that will send players submitting tickets under certain categories a response that is intended to provide some advice and direction to self-help options to better direct folks who might be in that category.
For those who still have an issue we ask them to reopen their ticket.
For one of your tickets, this may apply:
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Who is we? Do you work at Blizzard?
“We” in this case, generally means a number of players who hang out on the forums and try to provide advice/guidance for a number of support related subjects that they may be familiar with.
I believe this thread is starting to wear thin, so I’m going to be locking it.
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