Why not rename this forum for clarity?

If this forum is indeed, player to player support, why not state so? Plenty of folks have come here thinking it’s a direct line to Blizzard… due to the ‘customer’ in the forum category.

By definition, only Blizzard can provide customer support because they receive money in exchange for services. Players aren’t paid to provide support to other players, therefore it’s really player support forums.

It is true that none of the forums are really Blizzard support lines. However, only one forum literally uses the term customer in it’s heading and all the others do not.

It is also true that Blues will post in any forum which further reinforces the misconception that it is a direct line to Blizzard.

So for clarity, perhaps it is time that the term ‘customer’ be replaced with a more accurate descriptor? Players cannot be customers of other players. Players can only be customers of Blizzard.

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The word Customer is not really misleading. It is the “support” part that confuses people. They think “support” is the same as “service” which is what you get through tickets.

The way most of us describe this forum is as a Customer Information Desk, mostly populated by volunteers, but moderated and overseen by Blizzard. What is provided is information on how to use the Support Web interface, relevant Knowledge Base articles, explanations on how things work like RAF, or how policies work.

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“Customer Information” may not be the worst idea if a rename happened. Although, I suppose I could see people new to the forums seeing the name and thinking it’s only information and not a place to ask questions.

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And yet we do it day after day.

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It is the “Desk” part of “Customer Information Desk” that lets people know they can come up and ask a question.

In my head I think of it just like the Patient Info Desk at the hospital that is often covered by volunteers who direct patients to the places they need to go.

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Vrakthris Support Forum Agent 41829 posts
Aug 23
(Edited)

08/23/2018 12:37 PMPosted by Assura
Why hasn't this forum been renamed to something less misleading? I've lost track of how many times players are told "this isn't a customer service forum." Let's be honest here, the name of this forum is definitely part of the problem.

The name has been changed actually. It used to be called “Customer Service” but we felt that was misleading so we eventually changed it to “Customer Support”.

Yes, our support site has some of the same wording that we do here, that is intentional. Service, indicates that it is something that you are specifically paying for, when that isn’t the case. The subscription model that World of Warcraft has allows us to provide a great deal of support that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to provide but it isn’t a “service” that is part of the subscription.

We support our game titles and products and provide support to players who may need assistance.

08/23/2018 12:37 PMPosted by Assura
In that thread, one of the bullets in the first list explaining the purpose of the from is "Customer service interactions."

That actually can be corrected. The text in the sticky was copy/pasted from the original when we were called “Customer Service”. No one has really called that to light before now. I don’t know if they just didn’t voice their confusion or they simply understood what was intended.

Either way, thank you. I’ll update that sticky right away.

08/23/2018 12:37 PMPosted by Assura
Who should this issue be reported to? Is there a web design team who handles these things? Who could update the forum welcome post?

As noted, I’ve already been notified and agree the language should be updated to the correct term. :smiley:

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Incorrect. Did you know that a lot of businesses have volunteers that help them?

There is an I formation desk at a hospital by me that uses volunteers toj assist others. They are there giving freely their time to direct people around and help them find the area they are looking for. Much lime this forum

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customer refers to who should come here for support, not who will provide that support.

the forum title is fine, and the forum’s purpose is further explained in the sticky.

if what you actually want is help, then this forum works just great for either providing you that help or directing you on where to go to get it. it only doesn’t work when you decided before you got here what you wanted this forum to be able to help you do, then when you learn it can’t, you decide to make your main issue arguing about the purpose of the forum rather than getting help for the issue you supposedly have. changing the name wouldn’t solve this.

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Thing is? With the exception of the hostile ones, this is cleared up for new posters here within minutes. It’s not an issue.

It’s seriously a non-issue. And covered in the “Welcome” sticky.

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But there shouldn’t be a need to “clear up” anything if it wasn’t so misleading. The issue comes up time and again because it is unclear.

Player to Player Support Forum is perfectly clear.

Takes 10 seconds to rename a forum and a whole hell of a lot of miscommunication is eliminated by doing so.

Just need to review only 1 year of posts in this forum to find ample examples of people posting specifically to get in touch with Blizzard… not their fellow player base. All these people see the word customer and say to themselves I am a customer. Who am I a customer of? Blizzard. It’s not rocket science to see the ambiguity.

Anyone who doesn’t see this is sticking their head in the mud.

Or maybe some just don’t agree? You seem to think that this is a huge issue when, in fact, it’s not. We see very few posts in the grand scheme of things where the poster tries to throw around the “I’m a customer, so support me!” nonsense.

I could easily argue that the regulars here provide a great deal of support to Blizzard’s customers. We do so in a vast number of different ways too.

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I appreciate the feedback here, Baited. We currently do not have any plans to rename this section of the forums. If this changes in the future, we’ll be sure to communicate it.

And we are very appreciative of the community that has formed here!

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Absolutely disagree. First, a lot of issues that affect a lot of players is posted here by Blizzard reps. See the stickies, those are the very definition of Customer Support.

Also, something you may not realize or see, is that many of the regulars here often just re-state information that a Support Forum agent said at some point. So many players get their answers indirectly from Blizzard reps.

Also, this is a discussion forum about Customer Support. This is a place to discuss Customer Support issues, which is often a player to player activity. Every forum is for discussion. This means that you are under the mistaken impression that this forum’s name should mean or infer “to provide Customer Support” when in fact it really means “to discuss Customer Support”

Lastly, there are only a very minor handful of players, such as yourself, who take issue with the semantics of the forum’s name. The vast majority of players who post here, get their answer. It does not really matter who they get it from nor do they really take issue with the name of the forum. Only the nit-pickers do.

In short, the name is fine and the forum serves the purpose for why it is here.

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