Biggwin Registered User
Posts: 173
(9/19/02 7:35 am) Reply
A message from Customer Service
A message from Customer Service
There have been some rumors spreading around the net like a wildfire over the last few days. Alan Crosby has asked me to pass this message on to you about those rumors.
Greetings all,
Rest assured that there is no plan to institute a "pay for Customer Service" model. We have a large staff of over 70 GMs and Supervisors for EverQuest alone and plan to continue with the same level of Customer Support, as part of the purchase price for all of our soon to be released titles.
Customer service will always be an integral part of SOE's products and while we may not respond to every issue as rapidly as we would like, we do try to resolve them all in time. If you find that your issue has not been responded to, please use the Contact a GM link on the EverQuest board. These emails are generally responded to within 48 hours thanks to the diligence of our Email GMs. In addition, while GMs are available in limited numbers 24 hours a day, you may have the best chance of contact during peak usage hours which are from 5PM to 8PM PST as this is when most GMs are available.
Thanks for your time and patronage.
Alan Crosby
Customer Service Manager
EverQuest Games
patofnaud Registered User
Posts: 2636
(9/19/02 10:28 am) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
Which is probably the same ratio and City Cop to Jo Average Citizen.
If people stop petitioning every time some KS's their freekin Bixie, maybe they will be able to respond to the lost corpse requests faster.
In over 2.5 years I've only have to /petition maybe 3 times. If every one averaged the same then your math really needs to be
70 / ((400000 players / 3 = #petitions) / 30 months) = Actual number of petitions they need to answer. Then factor in zone crashes, zone repops, massive rezzes from said zone crashes and still 70 people should be able to handle the load.
Major companies may sell 300000 computers, that don't mean they will get 300000 service calls, not does it mean they need to staff for 300000 service events.
kaldanm Registered User
Posts: 4
(9/19/02 1:56 pm) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
hum...
I didn't know Customer service use Magelo sig...
Re: A message from Customer Service
How many of that 70 are management and don't actually log in to handle petitions? How many of that 70 are assigned to Stormhammer? I know I used to routinely see at least one GM logged on at all times back when I used to play from March 99 - April 2000. Since I came back in June 2001 I only see a GM listed in '/ all GM' about once a month. That could be because they are hiding but I'd guess it is more likely that the server to GM ratio has gone up.
GMs have always been less than helpful in EQ. I've *never* gotten them to res me or reimburse me for items or experience lost due to bugs. In fact I haven't even bothered trying since I came back over a year ago. Personally I play the game like there aren't any GMs. I solve my own problems.
Interestingly enough though I saw an unlisted GM in person the other day who saw through my sneak/hide and danced around me. Kind of freaked me out since I was doing the sneak across an entire zone thing when I was the only person in the zone and everything there wanted to kill me. True to my character I just ignored them and kept sneaking. A dancing cat person is beneath my dignity as a dark elf.
and especially the last bit from Smedley's comments:
At all times we want our GM's to be consistent and fair and polite. Believe me the GM in this case is an incredibly fair person.. it just came across harsher than we would have liked.
The bottom line is that part of what you pay us for is Customer Service. We darn well better provide it!!
Let me close by saying that we seriously want to help players. We understand what paying monthly means.. it means people expect SERVICE. We totally understand that, even if at times it can seem like we don't.
I know we can only take care of the future by improving on our handling of Customer Service.
John Smedley
President and CEO
Verant Interactive, Inc.
I'm not sure I need to say how ironic I find Smedley's comments from three years ago to be.
patofnaud Registered User
Posts: 2637
(9/20/02 5:18 am) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
Aye Fricka.
As they say some folks need to follow the 3 golden rules of forums,
read, comprehend, post.
Just fyi:
I have petitioned lost a lost corpse, and Guide found it.
I have petitioned falling under the world, and got summoned out.
I have petitioned loosing all my gear while looting my corpse during a zone crash, and gotten EVERYTHING back.
I also died in said zone crash and was the recipient of a 100% rez within 10 minutes after the zone came up by a nice Guide who summoned and rezzed everyone.
Just becuase you don't see them online, don't mean they aren't there.
Just becuase they don't "spawn" as soon as you hit return on you petition, don't mean it won't get responded to.
Folks need to just learn to understand the difference between GUIDES vs. GM's and what they can do. They also need to stop petitioning most of the crap they do and deal with it themselves.
I've seen just in the last few weeks, folks who petition because Speed of Shissar would not stick on them, after they tried a dozen times, when they already had another form of hast buff. /bonk
I've seen folks talking about petitioning because the can't (typo edit) use thier ammo, when the had a Cloak of Tiny Shadows in RANGED SLOT. /bonk
I have petitioned twice in the last week because Conium Darkblade decided to go on walkabout. My petition was answered within 15 minutes and they came to Dagnor and reset Conium (the second time he was attacking the GM, I about fell out of my chair laughing).
The only other time I petitioned is when the transporter gnome in the Timmah Deep was taking a swim. My petition was answered within 5 minutes and I was summoned to the OT.
I hear people complain and bitch about the GM's but I have had nothing but positive experiences with them.
/shrug I am pretty happy with the support I have received but I have never lost any gear, been in a bad KS situation etc etc.
Registered User
Posts: 323
(9/20/02 8:07 am) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
They should never make one pay for their bugs. This is like a company making you pay for having a faulty item.
They do however, and I don't know why they don't have this, need a petition page that pops up in game allowing players to prioritize their petition. Also petitions should be able to be resolved with you offline.
Also, lost corpses won't be a problem with graveyards in PoP I think. Keep getting rid of the reasons people petition. For example they should have a /unstuck command if you are under the world. Sure some would sploit it, but so what. If caught /ban.
Edited by: veenublue at: 9/22/02 9:07:12 am
Papasmurf Registered User
Posts: 1
(9/20/02 6:01 pm) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
O thats the biggest @#%$, i'd rather take a guides word that was kicked out then your sorry ass @#%$ to try to keep your money high and keep us playing the game. And wtf wait 48 hours to solve a problem ???? That's Obserb you must have some @#%$ GM's, for someone to have to wait that long to get some assistance. Maybe it might help to lower the req for a GM to get more ppl to join so that more people can get helped faster. O sorry that would make you think right? and make you get off your sorry ass and actually do something. Don't want that to happen
@#%$ Artist
Salgurdar Registered User
Posts: 55
(9/21/02 1:32 am) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
The biggest problem is EQ has no real competition in the MMORPG genre. Hopefully with the new crop of MMORPG's coming out late this year through to next year and beyond, a few of them will teach Sony/VI what customer support is all about.
I'm afraid there is a distinct lack of customer service. The problems you are talking about are relaticely simple ones to fix, and guides have the power to fix them. But alot of peoples petitions go unnoticed everyday because the have been "escalated" and directed to a GM. There are lots of things a guide simply CANNOT do. and 70 GM's is not even 3 per server. Where there used to be 5 per server when I first started playing (sept 99). And before you say "But there is more servers now!" There is also a hell of a lot more subscribers, that's why the number of servers had to increase.
The facts are there, and as scary as it seems, EQ is destined to travelthe path of Tanarus.
Edit: Please read our sig/personal pic rules. Both mustn't be more than 15kbyte combined. - ShadowCross Edited by: Shadowcross at: 9/21/02 9:24:24 am
Re: A message from Customer Service
Actually when the game was released and up to where the whole system was changed there was never more than one GM per server. There were a number of guides, but only one GM. Sometimes if they were short people GM's had more than one server to be responsible for.
It's amusing to me to read all the predictions of doom, when the next batch of MMO's come out EQ will die etc. That is exactly what was said when AC, DAoC, Diablo II (I know it's not an MMO but it was supposed to be an EQ killer) AO et all were released. The statments are almost exact.
Someday EQ will 'die' I'm certain. This game was never supposed to last this long anyway. But as people leave more will sign up, Sony is expanding all over the world (I believe they just announced China).
I'm not mocking anyone, but Sony's heard of the pending demise of EQ for years and it hasn't happened yet.
Re: A message from Customer Service
[quote]My petition was answered within 15 minutes and they came to Dagnor and reset Conium (the second time he was attacking the GM, I about fell out of my chair laughing).
[/quote]
If an NPC is in its spawn point, it works as it should. If else where it wont. So if it's not programed to wander back to its spot, this works best. I've seen a GM attack a npcmerchant and drag it back to the spot then go to gm-non-attackable mode or whatever. I've never tried but I assume some player action of DA tanking and CoH/evac would work as well.
"We need to make sure everything is working properly before we can patch this stuff -Alan "
Mocean Registered User
Posts: 46
(9/23/02 11:35 am) Reply
Re: A message from Customer Service
Quote: I've never tried but I assume some player action of DA tanking and CoH/evac would work as well.
I've actually done this myself on several occasions. Dragging merchants back to their home point because it gets the problem dealt with immediately.
LylyLamont Registered User
Posts: 109
(9/24/02 10:18 am) Reply
BS
They never replied to me on any issues and once I pettitioned 3 times for one issue. They couldnt even be bothered to tell me no They dont have CS... all they have and these useless things called guides who excell at nothing more then saying "no I cant help you.. let me forward this to a GM who will never respond to you"
Re: wow some of you are harsh
i have been playing since dec.99 and have had several occasions to get gm help i went through a 6 month period where i would trade with someone and my part of the trade would never show up not all the time but like 30% of the time . maybe they just like me (lol) but i have never dealt with a g.m. and not got my problem resolved maybe not right away but always got it handled i remember 1 time i had 3 bags of very nice resist gear i was selling for a jeweler friend go poof i petitioned got a guild with the usual responce ill have to inform a g.m. the next day my mother in law kicked me out of her house . i was unable to get back for over a week all i could do was reply back and forth by email to the gm when i logged back on all my stuff was there . as someone that now works in the customer care field for a major national company that deals directly with the public i have to give them a thumbs up for there efforts . BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THERE ARE ALOT OF PEOPLE THAT DONT HAVE A BIT OF COMMON SENCE OUT THERE makeing them all happy is a very big chore .
Taatewed Anpierced
51 barb rake
Obsidian Phoenix Order
at: 9/21/02 9:24:24 am
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies