In game mail and contradictory GMs that can't spell

[Aradiel]

...

 

[Shft]

Sounds like a load of shit to me, you just gotta find the right GM

Pretty much every time I get a satchel retrieved from the mail they say it's a one time thing.

 

[iaccidentallytwink]

You cannot get mail from NPCs, actually, and it's intended. Only GMs can give you mail.

I have 3 Battle.net pets on my account, I get none of them from making a new account.



Not sure if it's any help to you, but just thought I'd put that out there.



Look out for <WE MADE KALE AFK> soon.

 

[Monkman]

I know I have heard of other people getting satchels from the mail with GM help. This happened to me on my mage awhile back, where my bags were full so my satchel got mailed to me. I had no way of getting the satchel, as it didn't show up in my mailbox since I am on a trial. I opened a ticket with a GM, and he said he couldn't do anything for me. When I brought up the fact tha tothers ahve had GM assistance with this exact scenario, he gave me some BS along these lines:



"This is why I dreaded this conversation. I can't control what other GMs have done in the past for other players, but the policy is that we can't get Postmaster Mail redirected to you. I'm not sure what the other GMs may have done, but there is nothing I can do to get you a satchel."



So basically, some GMs are douche bags that simply refuse to help, while others are actually good customer service reps and make their customers happy. Paying or not, we are still customers of Blizzard. I'm sure there are no F2P players that NEVER paid for WoW in the past, so we are all customers and deserve better treatment IMO.

 

[solvogero]

. Paying or not, we are still customers of Blizzard. I'm sure there are no F2P players that NEVER paid for WoW in the past, so we are all customers and deserve better treatment IMO.

A customer is a "current or potential" buyer...not "previous". You assume a lot when you say ALL f2p players have paid for WoW (and its an utterly wrong assumption). While you still might be considered a "potential" buyer, you're not paying and you're not the target audience for the trial accounts.



From everything everyone has posted on this over the last few months, the GMs who are refusing to help are actually doing their jobs.



No, you don't "deserve" better treatment (in my own personal little opinion, they should disable f2p's from even being able to request in-game customer service on all but a few very specific issues).

 

[Shft]

A customer is a "current or potential" buyer...not "previous". You assume a lot when you say ALL f2p players have paid for WoW (and its an utterly wrong assumption). While you still might be considered a "potential" buyer, you're not paying and you're not the target audience for the trial accounts.



From everything everyone has posted on this over the last few months, the GMs who are refusing to help are actually doing their jobs.



No, you don't "deserve" better treatment (in my own personal little opinion, they should disable f2p's from even being able to request in-game customer service on all but a few very specific issues).

1. Who are you to say that we aren't potential buyers, whether we paid in the past or not.

2. I think he was assuming all f2p twinks, rather than trial accounts.

3. Just because they are "doing their jobs" doesn't mean that they aren't being assholes about situation that require little effort to deal with.

4. Nobody deserves to be treated like trash, and what kind of business shows the worst service to the customers they hope will pay for the game. People aren't going to say to themselves "Damn, resolving this issue requires me to pay, I think i'm going to get this game for that feature. They are going to think, " Wow the customer service at Blizzard sucks, if this is how poorly they treat their potential customers, the way the treat the paying players must be even worse!"

 

[solvogero]

1. Who are you to say that we aren't potential buyers, whether we paid in the past or not.

i'm not saying we're not potential buyers. i'm saying we're not the target audience for trials.

2. I think he was assuming all f2p twinks, rather than trial accounts.

agree

3. Just because they are "doing their jobs" doesn't mean that they aren't being assholes about situation that require little effort to deal with.

denying you your mail, which is what's intended, is not being an asshole

4. Nobody deserves to be treated like trash,

again. f2p is set up so we can't have mail. sitting back and making you follow those rules isn't treating you like trash.

and what kind of business shows the worst service to the customers they hope will pay for the game.

do you really think they've got their fingers crossed that someone who's played for weeks and weeks on a trial account and is raising an issue about a satchel is going to start paying...because of "good customer service"?

People aren't going to say to themselves "Damn, resolving this issue requires me to pay, I think i'm going to get this game for that feature.

agree

They are going to think, " Wow the customer service at Blizzard sucks, if this is how poorly they treat their potential customers, the way the treat the paying players must be even worse!"

utterly disagree.



As far as i'm considered (and i really do believe i'm not the only person on the planet who thinks like this), my thought process goes more like "hey, i'm getting what I paid for".



Free customer support for people who aren't paying for their product just isn't a very common thing in the software industry...and rightfully so. As I'm sure you'll agree, Customer Service Reps don't work for free and their time is generally considered better spent on helping those who actually pay (all in my opinion of course).

 

[Monkman]

Anyone who has worked for a company that deals with people will tell you that Customer Service is the most important thing when it comes to making people return to your company. If you have shitty customer service, it won't matter that you have the exact same product at 30% less than your competitor. People will say "no eff that place they treat me like crap" and go shop at the other place, paying MORE.



Through college I worked at the customer service desk at a home depot. The CEO was always talking about how to improve customer service, because without it people would just keep going to Lowes. It doesn't matter what else we do, if the customer service is crap people won't come.



The same holds true for software. It doesn't matter what business avenue you are in, customer service is THEE most important part of the company (if they deal directly with people that is). If someone has a good experience, they tell 1 - 2 people about it. If they have a bad experience, they tell 10 - 20 people about it.



Also, being a "previous" customer means that I am still a customer. I have definitely contemplated buying a retail copy of WoW now that I have played this trial, although I most likely won't. Was my poor experience with a GM the sole reason for me NOT wanting to pay for another WoW account? No, but it is a contributing factor.



I understand the GM I dealt with was just trying to do his job correctly, and I don't blame him. The fact of the matter is that someone else received exactly what I was looking for, and I did not. How am I supposed to feel about that, other than getting dumped on? It isn't even that big of a deal, the satchel probably had some crappy item in it I wouldn't use anyway. The problem is I was treated poorly as a customer whether you agree with it or not.

 

[yasueh]

The target audience for trials are the completely new players who have no idea just how badly this game is run. The game is bleeding customers. Instead of fixing the game to keep them, Bliz is going after new ones who have yet to see the problems driving people away.



Mail was restricted on the time limited trials only to prevent them from being used for gold selling. Originally they did not have that limitation.



The continued existence of that limit in the form that was present on time limited trials is down to Blizzard not bothering to make any effort to update trial accounts, so that they function in line with the amount of time that they could be expected to be used, even by genuine first timers, except to remove the time limit. As I've said elsewhere, if they didn't want people using them forever, then they should have just extended the time limit, or switched it to a /played limit (And they shouldn't have advertised it as Free to Play when they had no intention of providing that kind of service).



Bliz now have the problem where previous and existing customers are using the trial, and communicating with the new potential customers, when I'm sure they'd rather keep those potential customers completely in the dark as to the decline of the game.



One of the things we can tell them, is that the quality of service you get as a trial is no different than what you get when you pay, and that the GMs are not refusing to help because you are on a trial, they are refusing because the majority of them simply CBA. There is no consistency at all regarding what GMs will do, so player interactions with GMs are obviously not being recorded and checked over.



Blizzard's level of customer service is simply appalling, especially when compared to other game companies. The amount of communication there is between the developers and the players is practically non-existant, with the fault lying entirely with Blizzard. They neither keep the players informed, or pay the slightest attention to the opinions of players. If the players are not happy, then Blizzard's attitude seems to be that they need to find new ones.

 

[solvogero]

Anyone who has worked for a company that deals with people will tell you that Customer Service is the most important thing when it comes to making people return to your company. If you have shitty customer service, it won't matter that you have the exact same product at 30% less than your competitor. People will say "no eff that place they treat me like crap" and go shop at the other place, paying MORE.

not really an apples to apples comparison in my opinion. your scenario has the customer intending to spend money at the store in the first place.

Through college I worked at the customer service desk at a home depot. The CEO was always talking about how to improve customer service, because without it people would just keep going to Lowes. It doesn't matter what else we do, if the customer service is crap people won't come.

lol....funny you should mention home depot. the customer service at my local home depot is significantly worse than Lowes...but i still go because its closer. like..the frickin employees won't make eye contact and literally just ignore questions if they're in the middle of something...and i'm not talking about the def employees. i'm not exaggerating. seriously. Point is, the customer service IS crap and yet I still go. ..because everything weighted, its still worth going to.

The same holds true for software. It doesn't matter what business avenue you are in, customer service is THEE most important part of the company (if they deal directly with people that is). If someone has a good experience, they tell 1 - 2 people about it. If they have a bad experience, they tell 10 - 20 people about it.

agree

Also, being a "previous" customer means that I am still a customer. I have definitely contemplated buying a retail copy of WoW now that I have played this trial, although I most likely won't. Was my poor experience with a GM the sole reason for me NOT wanting to pay for another WoW account? No, but it is a contributing factor.



I understand the GM I dealt with was just trying to do his job correctly, and I don't blame him. The fact of the matter is that someone else received exactly what I was looking for, and I did not. How am I supposed to feel about that, other than getting dumped on? It isn't even that big of a deal, the satchel probably had some crappy item in it I wouldn't use anyway. The problem is I was treated poorly as a customer whether you agree with it or not.

i do disagree. and home depot really does suck (and yes, I enjoyed sharing that with 10-20 people).

 

[Zatox]

your all acting like they are dropping their pants and shitting on you, when in reality they are doing their job, did you know that breaking work rules can get you fired

 

[solvogero]

your all acting like they are dropping their pants and shitting on you, when in reality they are doing their job, did you know that breaking work rules can get you fired?

agree.

 

[Kincaide]

your all acting like they are dropping their pants and shitting on you, when in reality they are doing their job, did you know that breaking work rules can get you fired?

Have you just gone Full Troll now?



I remember back when trolls just lived under bridges, not burned them.

 

[Monkman]

Have you just gone Full Troll now?



I remember back when trolls just lived under bridges, not burned them.

Indeed.



And to the comment about doing things that are "against the rules," how do you know it is against the rules? If one GM does it, but another says he can't, is that all we are going on? Have you read the employee agreement for GM's at blizz and know what they can and cannot do?



Obviously it is possible for a GM to satisfy this customer complaint. Whether or not they will seems to be dependent on the GM you talk with.



I fully understand not wanting to do something to lose your job, especially a GM position at blizzard as I'm sure its relatively easy and well paid. However, I don't know any boss in the world that would fire someone over something like this, as it was making a customer happy.



Again, I know I am not a paying customer. I understand that trial accounts are not meant to access the mail system and accept that. However, this could happen to ANY trial player, not just an ex-sub like me who is twinking for free. They have no idea that I'm not a first time player. If I was, I would have thought exactly what was said above:



"Wow, this customer service really stinks. I can't imagine paying for this only to have crappy customer service when an issue comes up."



That is not what you want potential, prospective customers to think. Even if I only play for a year as a new sub, that's $80 for the game + xpacs, plus $15 a month for 12 months. Not to mention all of the people I would talk to about playing again since I want to play with friends IRL, not just random people from my server.



All of this for a simple satchel stuck in the mail. It would most likely take all of 2 minutes to create a random satchel bag and send it to me. Instead, I discussed (in a mature way) the reasoning with this GM for a good 5-10 minutes. And you say they have better things to do with their time as paid employees....

 

[Preeztess]

There are things that GM's just can't do, then there's things they COULD do, but some won't. It depends on the GM. I wrote a ticket yesterday and it went something like this:

Dear GM,

 

 

I recently accidentally deleted a cherished item out of my inventory and would very much like if it could be returned to me. I am enjoying this trial and would be very upset if I could not bring this item with me when I upgrade to the full game. Anything you could do would be great, thank you!

 

~ Preeztess

A little kindness goes a long way.

 

[yasueh]

I have a gnoll skin bag on a Horde F2P character (entertaining the GMs with a spot of roleplay helps).



I also have a level 1 character with a number of soulbound items that are only available to characters of level 10 or above, because the old level 10 version of that character got dinged to 11 (by the GM's XP locking tool, but there is still a way to 'delevel' a character that they can use). I also got a paid service of my choice for free as way of compensation for the trouble that was caused (I took a character off one account I didn't want to keep paying for, and put it on the account that was going to have it's subscription run out last).



A number of GMs can, and do make the effort to keep customers happy. Unfortunately it seems the large majority are nothing but Jobsworths, and won't be fired for doing as little work as they can get away with.

 

[Lithogen]

[font=times new roman,times,serif]Everything done in game is at the sole discretion of the GM. Character restores, item replacements, quest bugging. If you get a crappy GM, then you get nothing. I remember back in BC one GM wouldn't help if an item was given to the wrong person when the master looter made a mistake. Another would do it right then and there. Another would escalate the ticket and it would get solved 3 days later.



It also doesn't help that some GM's are just flat out pricks and make you feel like helping you is a waste of their time and respond to you as if you're some ignorant wretch begging for a copper piece in the street. Some are really nice and will go out of their way to help like completing bugged worgen quests or just moving you a few feet to the side when you're stuck in cluster of rocks. (While others will put you in the GY across the zone.)



Getting help really depends on your GM. [/font]

 

[Deadvulcano]

Player A: plays f2p and spends 6 hours a month complaining or dealing with limitations.



Player B: plays p2p by f2p limitations and spends $15 a month but doesn't spend time grinding/complaining can premade at will, summons, boas, etc etc.



Player C: plays f2p and spends 15 hours a month complaining or dealing with limitations.





Player A's time is worth less than $2.50 an hour.

Player B's time is worth more than $2.50 an hour.

Player C's time is worth less than $1 an hour.



If you can't be bothered to empty your bags in the dungeon and your time is really worth so little there is nothing we can do for you. Otherwise be nice like Preeztess. I have never had a problem working with GMs.





Young boy : Would you like some candy? I'll give you one piece.

Young girl: OK! But actually I need 2.

*Young boy thinks for a moment*

Young boy : You get zero!

 

[Zatox]

Have you just gone Full Troll now?



I remember back when trolls just lived under bridges, not burned them.

The bridges were burned a long time ago, and I don't really care what people think of me anymore.



Also, I feel I'm being trolled more then I actually troll, I'm just extremely blunt. And if you don't like it,tough shit.

 

[Shft]

There are things that GM's just can't do, then there's things they COULD do, but some won't. It depends on the GM. I wrote a ticket yesterday and it went something like this:

Dear GM,

 

 

I recently accidentally deleted a cherished item out of my inventory and would very much like if it could be returned to me. I am enjoying this trial and would be very upset if I could not bring this item with me when I upgrade to the full game. Anything you could do would be great, thank you!

 

~ Preeztess

A little kindness goes a long way.

You sly dog you