The Complete Utter Nightmare that is SWTOR Customer Support

[Farbod]

I opened this thread for people to understand what a customer has gone through and maybe get a few laughs while they wait endlessly for someone, anyone, to actually help them with their problem. I have have never dealt with anything close to this ridiculous before... I actually sent Blizzard a thank you letter after all this because it made me realize how good of a job they actually do.

December 30th - After switching from an alt, I notice my main character is no longer on my character list. I close and reload the program, still missing. I try adding and removing a character, still not working. So I open my first ticket.

January 2nd - Still no response for this major of a problem. I decide to call customer support, and this is the first time I hear about my ticket being "elevated".

January 3rd - Still no response, so I open a second ticket.

January 3rd - A live agent contacts me and says they are working on the problem and I will be contacted later that day.

January 4th - Both tickets given generic "thanks for bug report" treatment and closed. Yes both tickets closed.

January 4th - I immediately call customer support and open 5 more tickets, hoping that would get someones attention.

January 5th - I again call customer support and demand a supervisor, after speaking to several people telling me they cannot handle game issues over the phone, I finally get someone to help me, he tells me he promises I will be contacted online and helped.

January 5th - Character finally restored.

January 6th - After spending hours and hours leveling treasure hunting to 400, my crew skill magically disappears. Because of the well known phantom 4th crew skill bug, I am hoping that this bug would be fixed by restarting the program. It does not and I reluctantly open a new ticket, knowing full well that I am in store for hours of headache and pain.

January 7th - I again call customer support, as it is very hard to gear and level when one of the crew skill you use to gear your character is not available... Again I am told to be patient and someone will help me.

January 8th - Ticket closed. Generic response given. New ticket put in.

January 9th - I call again and am told that this will be escalated immediately. I put in a new ticket summarizing the events.

January 10th - 2nd and 3rd ticket both closed. Severely frustrated I call customer support and ask for a supervisor. I get someone who says they are from Bioware, and that they are escalating my ticket to "level 7" and that I should go wait in game because I will be contacted very shortly.

January 10th - After 3 hours of staring at my computer screen, and putting in 2 more tickets hoping that might get someones attention, I decide to call customer support again. After explaining my situation to the person for about 10 minutes, he tells me he is transferring me to someone that can help me. After 5 minutes of being on hold, someone starts speaking German. I explain that Im an English speaker and in broken English he asks me for my info. I try and explain that I was told I was being transferred to someone who could help me with my problem, but all he says is that they cant fix in game issues over the phone. Frustrated I hang up and try calling again. This time I, I explain what just happened, am put on hold, and then hung up on while holding...

January 11th - I call again, and again am transferred to someone who says they are from Bioware. He tells me about this same "level 7" escalation. He says to open a follow up ticket and that he will mark it. I do so, but after several more hours nothing happens.

January 11th - I open about 10 tickets, hoping that someone will notice and help me. I finally get an in game agent who asks me what ticket I need help with. I explain the situation and point him to the original ticket and my follow up ticket. He says "thank you for reporting the issue, please refer to the forum and patch notes for further information" and closes the chat.

January 11th - I now have a decision to make. Deal with these ridiculous problems and never hope for any form of support, or just stop playing this game. These are not the only problems I have had. From items missing, mail never being delivered, and buying stuff off the GTM without ever receiving them, the problems have been numerous.

I hope I am the only one that has had to deal with such a nightmare, but judging from the posts on this forum I highly doubt it. I wish you all luck...

Farbod
-Killer of all Droids

[Elite Peon]

I found a video of SWTOR customer service !!

[Nemrod]

Feeling the need to post this on even more forums?

All I read here is...created a ticket, created two more, opened five more tickets, opened about 10 tickets...

[Elite Peon]

Feeling the need to post this on even more forums?

All I read here is...created a ticket, created two more, opened five more tickets, opened about 10 tickets...

The guy is understandably frustrated maybe you will feel the same way when you have to open 10 tickets and make however many calls just to get some simple help that would take a wow GM 2 mins .

[Roxinius]

Yes because you're the only person having an issue they can only do so much when they have thousands i've people with issues news flash you aren't special you're just another person in a line of people they are helping

[Farbod]

Feeling the need to post this on even more forums?

All I read here is...created a ticket, created two more, opened five more tickets, opened about 10 tickets...

Because my tickets were ignored and closed without receiving any help. You sound like you work for SWTOR customer support.

Yes because you're the only person having an issue they can only do so much when they have thousands i've people with issues news flash you aren't special you're just another person in a line of people they are helping

That's the problem... They aren't helping people at all. Also, English isn't very hard to learn. I could loan you a good book if you are interested.

[Twiddly]

Yes because you're the only person having an issue they can only do so much when they have thousands i've people with issues news flash you aren't special you're just another person in a line of people they are helping

So perhaps he should be considered special, since he has paid, and is still paying for service, that is being denied him? "Lol you are worth nothing, others have problems to!" is a ridiculous excuse. talking to that many people for two problems, is in itself a problem.

[Valeron]

They have to be using EA support and not their own in house one. Because this kind of sloppy customer service is EA's M.O.

I've had nothing but bad experiences with any EA game that I've needed support with.

[Bumblebeetuna]

You opened 23 tickets for one problem?

I had an issue with a bugged quest that was preventing me from finishing my class story. I opened one ticket and it was answered and resolved 4 days later. That seems a bit slow compared to what I was used to with Blizzard, but whatever, it was fixed.

You creating an absurd amount of tickets to me appears very selfish and does nothing but clog up the customer support system for everyone else. What was stopping you from playing on a different character while you waited for your original ticket to get answered? You aren't the only one experiencing issues, just be patient.

[Necrolepsy]

Looks like you hit the bug jackpot, I haven't experienced even 1 bug in the game yet that was more than a minor nuisance (ie a model not displaying correctly on tatooine).

[Seezer]

And then realizes he deleted it...

[LichslayerX]

I remember WoW's initial customer service being the same way.

[Farbod]

They have to be using EA support and not their own in house one. Because this kind of sloppy customer service is EA's M.O.

I've had nothing but bad experiences with any EA game that I've needed support with.

That's what I figured as well. I know EA outsources their customer support. They don't really care about helping anyone, their only goal is to get rid of as many tickets as quickly as possible.

---------- Post added 2012-01-12 at 12:40 AM ----------

You opened 23 tickets for one problem?

I had an issue with a bugged quest that was preventing me from finishing my class story. I opened one ticket and it was answered and resolved 4 days later. That seems a bit slow compared to what I was used to with Blizzard, but whatever, it was fixed.

You creating an absurd amount of tickets to me appears very selfish and does nothing but clog up the customer support system for everyone else. What was stopping you from playing on a different character while you waited for your original ticket to get answered? You aren't the only one experiencing issues, just be patient.

Obviously you didnt read my post. Tickets were only created when my original ones were closed and ignored. The only way I ever received any sort of intelligible reply is when I was reduced to overloading the system with numerous tickets. Was it something I wanted to do? No, but at that point I didnt really have any other recourse.

[Gilian]

It's funny that people expect new games to be perfect without bugs like WoW is after 7 years of developement. How was WoW's customer support in Vanilla?

Though this is a bad situation, missing a whole character.

[Jilor]

I like how he act likes Blizzard used to solve problems instantaneously. Did you guys all forget the days of waiting a good four days just for a ticket to get ANSWERED the FIRST TIME? Blizzard is no better. And just because they close the ticket doesn't mean they aren't doing anything about it. They're just closing it off so they don't waste multiple resources on something that is getting worked on. This sounds ridiculously selfish. I also don't buy all the problems he lists...I haven't experience a single one of the bugs he has spoke of and played both beta and since day one of early access. Don't get me wrong, the game has bugs...but characters and crew skills disappearing permanently? Failure to receive mail from the GTN? I play the GTN and buy stuff off it every day and haven't seen a single thing go missing. I think he's exaggerating for sympathy.

[mirodin]

So if everyone that has a problem starts doing like you do, will that make customer support better?

[Beavis]

I remember back in 2006 I won a Lava Dredger as my first piece of loot in a WoW raid. This was all the way back when a shaman would have to respec to use a two-hand mace. So, I got super excited, hearthed backed and respecced. Unfortunately, in my excitement, I left before the item could be MLed to me. My guild tried and failed to get me back there before the loot chest despawned. Though this was completely my fault, I put in a ticket anyway hoped I would get a nice GM to send me the Dredger. Well, it took two weeks, two tickets, and like 3 forum posts to just get a simple "no, can't do it." This was like a year and a half after the game had come out. So, while Blizzard's CS is awesome now, that is the product of a lot of time, effort, and money. SW:TOR may or may not get there, but the comparison of a fully mature product with something that just came out 3 weeks ago is hardly fair.

[Wargon]

I would be incredibly frustrated as well but I remember the first couple years wow was out when a ticket would be answered maybe 2 weeks later if I was lucky.

[Potato Bus]

Was it really necessary to open multiple tickets on the same day in a feeble attempt to catch a GMs attention? I understand the need for additional tickets after a previous ticket is closed in error, but 5 or 10 in one day just to try and raise a flag at the support center? Really? You come off like a 4 year old who isn't getting what he wants at the store and starts throwing a hissy fit, not a calm, rational, adult.

You do realize they likely handle issues and tickets on a 1st-come 1st-served basis, all you're accomplishing with that is bogging down their systems, making the resolution of your issue take longer as they now have to sort through 20+ tickets of repetitive information, document every time you made contact with any relevant updates in the "master" ticket that is being individually examined for your issue (because they will close duplicates to trim down their queues) and honestly probably pissing them off to the point where the individual responding to you may not care if you receive exceptional service or even have your issue fully resolved (not that that is an acceptable mindset for a paid CS employee, but as a former CS agent, I can tell you that pissing off the people who are trying to help you with stupid shit like this is NOT in your best interest).

[Farbod]

I like how he act likes Blizzard used to solve problems instantaneously. Did you guys all forget the days of waiting a good four days just for a ticket to get ANSWERED the FIRST TIME? Blizzard is no better. And just because they close the ticket doesn't mean they aren't doing anything about it. They're just closing it off so they don't waste multiple resources on something that is getting worked on. This sounds ridiculously selfish. I also don't buy all the problems he lists...I haven't experience a single one of the bugs he has spoke of and played both beta and since day one of early access. Don't get me wrong, the game has bugs...but characters and crew skills disappearing permanently? Failure to receive mail from the GTN? I play the GTN and buy stuff off it every day and haven't seen a single thing go missing. I think he's exaggerating for sympathy.

LOL. Yes I want sympathy. I really couldnt care less what you have experienced. Count yourself lucky. If you would like a screen shot of my tickets and problems, I have actually documented them incase it could help me get them resolved.

I was a huge Bioware fan, and recommended games like Mass Effect and KOTOR to all my friends. I was looking forward to SWTOR for a long time and was excited when I started playing. While I expect bugs to persist and expect there to be some delays with support, I never expected to be treated the way I have been. Tickets closed and ignored and even hung up on by customer support while I was waiting on hold.

I really dont give a rats ass about your sympathy... Just hoping posts like mine actually get Bioware to take some notice and improve their horrid support...