The Customer Service In This Game Is Awful

[Historical Tenacity]

My realid friends list is busier than ever (mostly due to classic, but fuck that noise), and my FF14 friends list is emptier than ever now that ShB hype is dying down and my FC is nearly empty at all times of the day now that people cleared the tier and leveled the jobs they wanted.

Anecdotes be anecdotes though.

Everything you quoted about that poster at the end there is a perfectly rational assessment of FF14, examples very commonly stated about the game across online communities.



I'd be curious what games are worse and why? I honestly haven't had to use support on enough games to genuinely contribute my own insight, but my one time using FF14's sucked. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it was needlessly frustrating with a comicly bad turn around time.

It's ultimately useless for anyone to gauge anything from what they see on their limited friends list, though. But I definitely got the idea you knew by the way you responded to someone else. You ask a thousand different people and you get a thousand different responses. When they announced World Visit, I actually made new characters on each of the worlds they grouped my main with and leveled them through the Road to Sixty as well as getting them through the story. The main idea I had was to be able to sell on all those realms, but in the end it's just too much work to manage. Which is something I enjoy about games: if they give you the freedom to do something that is optional and has lasting benefits, it better take a lot of work. That work shouldn't also be erased and you should keep on benefiting from it if you put in the work. Something I think WoW is starting to realize with Ion's comment that their weakness so far has been not having things that persist through expansions.

Though in regards to queues to log in, there are still some 20-50 queues in the eight that I play in (which is Crystal). I'm told that Aether has pretty much full servers as well, but I'm unsure of the other DCs aside from the two in the U.S. that have preferred status after most had locked status for a while. Even around 1 AM or so when I quickly do some retainer stuff, a couple of realms have a queue, though it's usually a swift entry thing. The thing with Blizzard is Real ID, as you can see anyone on no matter what they're doing. So it doesn't surprise me that classic is doing the heavy lifting (though I am slowly getting one or two levels a day; got a Paladin, Druid and Rogue to 60 back in Vanilla before focusing entirely on Rank 14 and getting crushed by my server by people who shared accounts).

As for customer service, I've had to contact them several times and it's always been super quick responses when it comes to GMs. The same goes with their live chat service -- just a couple of minutes wait and you're in, and they handle things fairly quickly. Though I haven't used the calling service as that tends to take longer than the chat. They also just recently announced an attempt to use social media to help people, under a trial program.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...3c3cda86fd7937

When it comes to customer support that's worse from personal experience, then I'd have to say anything involving EA. I remember Mythic in particular was shady, as was the old Warhammer MMO. Unauthorized charges, tickets that went weeks without being answered, no real live chat that I could find (or it was hidden or not available when couple times I tried them). Then their policy that any response they give will be auto-resolved within 24-48 hours if not responded to. Keeping in mind that they don't respond or likely read for weeks so you never know if there was a response and you have to keep on logging into your account every day to check. They also kept asking question and trying to prolong me getting refunds for unauthorized charges so that I'd just give up after a few months of back and forth and them not responding. I've also had 5+ days for Blizzard to respond to tickets before. But their live chat is okay and I just do that now.

The though examples I've read above seem to be about: Timeframe of active services (hopefully changed by the new initiative), chargebacks and people just not liking the answers they were given. Personally, I don't quantify these as particularly bad compared to the horror stories I've been through and witnessed.

[leviathonlx]

Though in regards to queues to log in, there are still some 20-50 queues in the eight that I play in. I'm told that Aether has pretty much full servers as well, but I'm unsure of the other DCs aside from the two in the U.S. that have preferred status after most had locked status for a while. Even around 1 AM or so when I quickly do some retainer stuff, a couple of realms have a queue, though it's usually a swift entry thing. The thing with Blizzard is Real ID, as you can see anyone on no matter what they're doing. So it doesn't surprise me that classic is doing the heavy lifting (though I am slowly getting one or two levels a day; got a Paladin, Druid and Rogue to 60 back in Vanilla before focusing entirely on Rank 14 and getting crushed by my server by people who shared accounts).

.

Given the login queues tend to occur even when the realms are lower pop in the middle of the night and they are always at low numbers I suspect it's just due to security measures they have in place on the login servers due to the constant DDOS attacks which means their login servers can only handle so many requests at a time. It's kind of like how even retail WoW had queues last weekend for their login servers after a DDOS attack (which was primarily directed at Classic but both games use the same login servers).

[Historical Tenacity]

Given the login queues tend to occur even when the realms are lower pop in the middle of the night and they are always at low numbers I suspect it's just due to security measures they have in place on the login servers due to the constant DDOS attacks which means their login servers can only handle so many requests at a time. It's kind of like how even retail WoW had queues last weekend for their login servers after a DDOS attack (which was primarily directed at Classic but both games use the same login servers).

You never know. Those realm in particular are packed with RPers. Balmung has always had a queue, and Mateus is up there as well. Though I suspect them being RP realms, people are always on even if they're done with what they do during the day with statics. You would think prime time queues would be much higher if that was the case, though. The non-Rp realms have no queues in the middle of the night. It used to be Balmung had hundreds in queue no matter the part of the day. But free transfers and raiding / RP communities splitting lowered it a bit.

[Mercane]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...hargeback-bans

Square Enix is infamous for their ruthless bans on refunds.

This is literally the first I'm hearing of this, and I played FFXIV pretty heavily for ~2 years.

[Beastiel]

This is literally the first I'm hearing of this, and I played FFXIV pretty heavily for ~2 years.

It's not a ban on refunds it's a ban on chargebacks. If you pay for a product and then keep the product but also go over the sellers head to take back your money you should be 100% prepared to have that company never ever be willing to do business with you again. That's common sense.

you will not be banned for asking for a refund, only for going behind the sellers back and taking a refund.

[Lochton]

I clicked the link to validate what you claimed and it’s untrue.

That link takes you directly to the thread. Cease your baiting and engage rather than fomenting a flame war.

- - - Updated - - -

For everyone who will not click the link it is called “Optional Item Wrong Purchase”.

Mate, the link just goes to their General Discussion thread.

[leviathonlx]

You never know. Those realm in particular are packed with RPers. Balmung has always had a queue, and Mateus is up there as well. Though I suspect them being RP realms, people are always on even if they're done with what they do during the day with statics. You would think prime time queues would be much higher if that was the case, though. The non-Rp realms have no queues in the middle of the night. It used to be Balmung had hundreds in queue no matter the part of the day. But free transfers and raiding / RP communities splitting lowered it a bit.

Yea that's true but those same queues exist on every realm even the low pop ones and since they always tend to be at the same amount it leads to the login server conclusion to be pretty likely.

[Itori]

I’ve only ever had to contact them once because i bought the wrong in game item and wanted to have it exchanged or tomestones refunded, they will do it but only once per account, which isnt bad. Buying things from the store? You go through like 3 windows of confirmations for your character, server, and payment and are told theres no refunds for items or crysta, and getting banned for asking for a refund? Thats the first ever ive heard of something like that, I’ve only heard of people getting banned because of chargeback and some of those people needed a ban for spending several hundred dollars then claiming fraud for their money back.

[Ryzeth]

There's a fine line between asking for a refund, and committing a chargeback.

The first is fine, and won't get you punished.
The latter is fraud, in the vast majority of cases that 'gamers' try and use them for. Every single time, will result in permanently removing your ability to access the service provided.

[gutnbrg]

cant believe this thread is still going on...Op is obviously in the wrong and this thread is a waste of time

[Erwarth]

Source for this please, because simply asking for a refund should not get you a ban....

"I made a mistake, refund me you silly willy wonka horse ridding muppet !"

*get ban*

"Worse customer service ever !"

[Super Kami Dende]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...hargeback-bans

Square Enix is infamous for their ruthless bans on refunds.

Chargebacks aren't refunds. Many People who chargeback do it maliciously and fraudulently. If you require a Refund you do it the proper way. Why would you expect your account not to be banned when you Take back the money you paid to access the service.

[Vakna]

Tbh people who do chargebacks should get even more severe punishments that extend into IRL rather than just a video game ban, since the only way you can get it charged back is by lying to your bank/paypal about the situation. If you tell them the truth that it was just your fuck up and you ignored all the reasonable resolutions the company offered then they'd tell you no.

[Justpassing]

Baseless chargeback is credit card fraud; that's why they banned you.

[Historical Tenacity]

Yea that's true but those same queues exist on every realm even the low pop ones and since they always tend to be at the same amount it leads to the login server conclusion to be pretty likely.

The world may never know. What we do know is that they upgraded their servers infrastructure pretty significantly in preparation for both Shadowbringers and the World Visit system. Though honestly, taking into account everything Yoshi-P has said about what happened during Stormblood and the way the servers handle transferring items from place to place, the likely candidates that benefit from that were things besides the player cap (which could also be a candidate for spread out queues of people that decided to stay from the population boom, if server size was the same after the upgrades). The increased load to handle instances and reserving spots for world visit were probably the target for such. As evidenced by Balmung having thousands in queue, but the people trying to visit it out of curiosity being able to do so with relative ease once they logged in (only to be disappointed that there isn't any hanky panky in public and that everyone is fully clothed in the cities; not sure why they expect goldshire or something).

All we know is that they added a couple new servers, locked almost all servers for a time due to them being full and implemented a 30 minute auto-logout feature (and discontinued the preferred status for a couple months until things settled), which 99% of the time outside of the first couple weeks of launch in Stormblood they never needed. I'm honestly surprised it's still a thing now, to be honest. Though I guess that lends credence to Yoshi-P talking about how happy they were with subscriptions for the several months leading up to Shadowbringers, and especially afterwards. Saying that they believe that "God may punish them if they asked for more." Though he said something similar with Stormblood, but with regards to being happy how it has continual growth -- with a side remark that his bosses would be mad if he ever quit and that the game will probably outlive him. However I think the latter was done on one of his frequent server visits, where he visits servers and answers questions the players have on the spot. All we had was a transcript someone translated, saying it was one of his in-game interviews, but with no screenshots.

Still, you can tell it was Yoshi-P talking and not the corporate side. Saying they're fearful of being smited if they ask for more and they're happy in a world where eight to nine million in sales is "disappointing" means they probably make bank on the game. Which has shown improvement across the board in quality with all their budget increases with each expansion.

[Justpassing]

Yea that's true but those same queues exist on every realm even the low pop ones and since they always tend to be at the same amount it leads to the login server conclusion to be pretty likely.

There aren't any queues in the morning, about at 04:00-05:00.

[Sevarin]

idk about their customer service, but i do know theyre ban happy as all hell on their official forums. if you say one bad word about their game, they ban you, permanently. also if you hurt someones feelings even in the slightest, you get a perma ban. i know multiple people that have been banned from the forums, and looking at the banning post... im just kind of like huh.... mmo-champion would be a barren wasteland if they banned for that.


the one run in ive had with their customer service in game was when i was selling a house. they took me to their dungeon and told me i was being banned for 24 hours for breaking the rules, said it was because i was selling a house, which, in fact, was not against the rules, but was discouraged at the time. the systems have changed greatly since then. he refused to explain to me how i had broken the rules, because selling a house wasnt against the rules, then proceeded to ban me for 24 hours.


the email they sent told me i was banned not for selling the house, but for charging too much for the house. i was charging literally the cost of the plot that i had paid for from the game itself. it was an fc (guild) house, so it was a direct sale of the fc which was my own personal fc that was literally just me, which i was planning on leaving. the person that reported me was pissed off because he wanted a mansion that costs 45 million from the game for 4 million, and gave me shit because that was all he had and i wouldnt sell it for that price.


so my personal experience with their customer service/gms has been pretty annoying.

i also know that they are VERY anal about fantasias (cash appearance change). even 2 minutes after you use it, if you mess up your eye color or something small, they tell you to go buy a new one for another 10 dollars.

wow will, at least in my experience, help you out if you make a mistake with appearance change, or a transfer that you decided against, or even an expansion purchase. if you contact them fairly shortly - never tried waiting a significant period, other than the expansion for a week - after any of those services, they will assist. even if it means a refund.

[Seranthor]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...hargeback-bans

Square Enix is infamous for their ruthless bans on refunds.

Chargebacks can also be viewed as an attempt at theft... now, if thats all you got to back your 'SE bans for refunds' then you failed... epicly.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/2435 maybe you want to do some reading on what Blizzard does when dealing with a chargeback.

A chargeback is the return of funds after a customer successfully disputes a payment with their financial institution.

We will usually remove content from an account when there is a chargeback on the associated transaction. In certain situations, a chargeback will result in your game account being locked.

To resolve a Blizzard Shop chargeback, select an option below. Chargebacks of Blizzard Gear Store purchases must be handled through your financial institution.

[Gorsameth]

Chargebacks can also be viewed as an attempt at theft... now, if thats all you got to back your 'SE bans for refunds' then you failed... epicly.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/2435 maybe you want to do some reading on what Blizzard does when dealing with a chargeback.

exactly, try doing a chargeback against Blizzard and they will just lock your entire Blizzard account and deny you access to EVERY game on there.

Chargeback is very very different from a refund, its forcibly taking money payed to a company.

[Leyre]

>My experiences are mine alone.

Then why the hell are you posting them on an online forum?