How to obtain Technical Support from SOE? [Archive]

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GrizzlyOfUK

06-16-2010, 05:50 PM

Hello,I'm trying to get some Technical Support regarding an issue with registering a game activation code. I live in the United Kingdom but it seems that there is no available Technical Support from SOE!I've tried the International Telephone Number for the UK several times, but all I get is an automated message telling me which number to press for support with a particualr game, after pressing the correct number I just get total silence. No more messages, not even any music, simply nothing at all. I've waited on the phone for 5 minutes and given up! I DO NOT intend to pay for an international telephone call to the USA!So I try the so-called Live Chat feature. Filled in all the required fields, hit Submit and got a Live Assistance window that told me my current position in the queue is number 1 and that the average wait time is 21:00. After waiting 21 minutes I'm now told "We apologize for the delay. We will assign you to an agent as soon as one is available.". It's now been 60 minutes and, yet again, I've given up waiting! Clearly the "Live Chat" should be renamed to "Possible Live Chat if any of our agents can be bothered to respond"!I've now submitted a Support Ticket, but somehow I doubt that I'll ever get a response to that!Can anyone please tell me how I'm supposed to contact SOE's Technical Support Department? I have a problem with my EQII subscription and I'm told to contact Technical Support to resolve the problem. But it seems that there is no Technical Support, because so far everything I've tried has not worked! Do SOE no longer provide Technical Support to International customers?

Shareana

06-16-2010, 06:10 PM

They do provide Tech support, but it seems taht some of the staff are at the E3 convention currently.<a class="plain" href="http://help.station.sony.com/cgi-bin/soe.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=10404&p_created=1098857202&p_sid=C-Vt-B2k&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=1&p_srch=1&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9NjQyLDY0MiZwX3Byb2RzPSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY 9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9c2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZ T0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9Y29udGFjdA%21%21&p_li=&p_topview=1">Updated - [TECH] Contacting Support</a> Keep in mind that the times are Pacific and plann accordingly. I realize that calling direct is out of the question, but perhaps holding for the chat a bit longer or an email. Or is it an issue that someone on the forums can help with? If it is about something wrong with your account, then you would need to get with CS directcly....

GrizzlyOfUK

06-16-2010, 06:45 PM

Thanks for the response, I am aware that the times are PST, which is why I had to wait until, for me, evenings to try and contact them!I'll point out this part:"UK: (44) 870-600-0267 15:00 - 22:00 GMT M-F (excluding holidays)"GMT = Greenwich Mean Time = My local time! It's Wednesday here, so that's a valid day to try to phone them. Is there perhaps a holiday that I'm not aware of? I tried to phone that number at: 15:20 GMT; 17:45 GMT; 18:30 GMT; 19:50 GMT and finally at 20:40 GMT! Same result every time, an automated message telling me which number to press to select game specific support (Star Wars Galaxies Online press 1, EverQuest 2 press 2, etc) I press 2 and then get total silence!I tried the Live chat at 20:45 GMT and cancelled that at 21:47 GMT. Just over ONE HOUR waiting at position ONE in the queue and no response! If SOE coudn't find just ONE agent to respond to my live chat request in an hour then that is, quite frankly, pathetic techical support!As far as I'm concerned, telling me that "some of the staff are at the E3 convention currently" is just simply an insult. Clearly SOE places a higher value on their presence at E3 than they do with dealing with their paying customers, the very customers who are helping to keep their business running! Quite frankly, how many insults do SOE intend to inflict on their international subscribers?I doubt very much that anyone oh the forums can help me with the actual issue. I've tried to register a Game Activation Code and I get a message telling me that I have already used the key, please enter a new key or contact technical support! Only I can't contact technical support because it seems they're more interested in E3! Do SOE consider attending E3 as a holiday?

Wingrider01

06-17-2010, 08:14 PM

<cite>GrizzlyOfUK wrote:</cite><blockquote>Thanks for the response, I am aware that the times are PST, which is why I had to wait until, for me, evenings to try and contact them!I'll point out this part:"UK: (44) 870-600-0267 15:00 - 22:00 GMT M-F (excluding holidays)"GMT = Greenwich Mean Time = My local time! It's Wednesday here, so that's a valid day to try to phone them. Is there perhaps a holiday that I'm not aware of? I tried to phone that number at: 15:20 GMT; 17:45 GMT; 18:30 GMT; 19:50 GMT and finally at 20:40 GMT! Same result every time, an automated message telling me which number to press to select game specific support (Star Wars Galaxies Online press 1, EverQuest 2 press 2, etc) I press 2 and then get total silence!I tried the Live chat at 20:45 GMT and cancelled that at 21:47 GMT. Just over ONE HOUR waiting at position ONE in the queue and no response! If SOE coudn't find just ONE agent to respond to my live chat request in an hour then that is, quite frankly, pathetic techical support!As far as I'm concerned, telling me that "some of the staff are at the E3 convention currently" is just simply an insult. Clearly SOE places a higher value on their presence at E3 than they do with dealing with their paying customers, the very customers who are helping to keep their business running! Quite frankly, how many insults do SOE intend to inflict on their international subscribers?I doubt very much that anyone oh the forums can help me with the actual issue. I've tried to register a Game Activation Code and I get a message telling me that I have already used the key, please enter a new key or contact technical support! Only I can't contact technical support because it seems they're more interested in E3! Do SOE consider attending E3 as a holiday?</blockquote>used the activation key - did you purchase the software previously or are you trying to reactivate a old account? If you are trying to reacitvate a old accout you do not need to enter the activation key, install the station launcher, logon to your old account and attach a subscription to it the download.E3 is a tech show, it is a premire release time for new products, not a holiday.

GrizzlyOfUK

06-18-2010, 11:05 AM

<cite>Wingrider01 wrote:</cite><blockquote>used the activation key - did you purchase the software previously or are you trying to reactivate a old account? If you are trying to reacitvate a old accout you do not need to enter the activation key, install the station launcher, logon to your old account and attach a subscription to it the download.E3 is a tech show, it is a premire release time for new products, not a holiday.</blockquote>I "suspended" my account due to the fiasco over SOE's International release for EQII Sentinel's Fate. I recently managed to purchase a copy of the EQII Sentinel's Fate Collector's Edition retail box via Ebay.co.uk so I re-activated my account, but when I tried to enter the Game Activation Code from the front of the "manual" I got this message:You have already used this Activation Code. Please enter a new code or contact Technical Support.I have not previously used the key, I checked my subscription details for EQII and this is the list of Enabled Features:<ul><li >Entitlement: Desert of Flames + In-Game Item: Genie Bottle</li><li >Entitlement: Echoes of Faydwer</li><li >Entitlement: Extra Character Slots (Station Access)</li><li >Entitlement: Kingdom of Sky</li><li >Entitlement: Rise of Kunark</li><li >Entitlement: The Bloodline Chronicles</li><li >Entitlement: The Fallen Dynasty</li><li >Entitlement: The Shadow Odyssey All-In-One Pack</li><li >Entitlement: The Splitpaw Saga</li><li >In-Game Item: 1 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 1095 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 1461 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 182 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 30 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 365 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 547 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 7 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 730 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: 90 Day Vet Reward</li><li >In-Game Item: Booster Pack & Frozen Fingers</li><li >In-Game Item: Carnivorous Plant</li><li >In-Game Item: Clockwork Copter</li><li >In-Game Item: Cockatrice House Pet</li><li >In-Game Item: Dire Bear Pet and Mount</li><li >In-Game Item: Gazing Orb</li><li >In-Game Item: Mysterious Shard</li><li >In-Game Item: Paintings of EQII</li><li >In-Game Item: Pet Monkey</li><li >In-Game Item: Picture of the Desert of Ro</li><li >In-Game Item: Ring of T'Haen</li><li >In-Game Item: Sentinels Fate Pre-Launch Bonus item</li><li >In-Game Item: Talking Statues</li><li >In-Game Item: Time-Away Promo Bonus Item</li><li >Starter and Booster Pack: Oathbreaker Set</li></ul> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody></tbody></table> As you can see, Sentinel's Fate is not listed (other than the Pre-Launch Bonus item). So, I'm guessing that the Game Activation Code has been used previous to my purchase, therefore, as the message instructs me, I'm trying to contact Technical Support!So far I've tried the International Telephone Support for the UK, multiple times, for the last 3 days. I always get the same recorded message telling me to press a number for specific game support, I press the number for EQII and then get total silence. The call does not end, there's no message asking me to wait, there's nothing, just complete and utter silence! Yesterday I stayed on the phone listening to that total silence for 15 minutes! So I guees there's no-one at SOE to answer the phone? Or is it just the International calls that SOE ignore?I tried the Live Chat, waited at position ONE for just over an hour (62 minutes) and gave up! If SOE can't respond to a Live Chat request within an hour then that's an option they should remove because it's clearly a complete waste of time! Maybe the "Live Chat" doesn't work for International customers?I submitted a Support Ticket about 40 hours ago, still no response to that! I thought EA were bad at responding to Support Tickets, but they're better than SOE!So, what, exactly, am I supposed to do to actually obtain some sort of Technical Support from SOE?Yes, I do know what E3 is! I can't help but wonder about Shareana's comment "but it seems taht some of the staff are at the E3 convention currently". Have SOE sent their entire Technical Support team to E3? Or, is it simply that SOE don't really care about actually providing Technical Support? Seriously, this has got to be my worst ever experience with trying to contact a Technical Support team!

Ironcleaver

06-18-2010, 11:21 AM

This happened to me on the opening day of SF (I'm in the states). I entered my key, it eat it, but it didn't stick anywhere on my account and I didn't gain access to the new content. When I tried to re-enter the key it stated I already used said key. The only way I fixed it was to call SoE Support where the Rep. double-checked my key and that it was entered correctly (which it was), then passed it over to the system techs to be manually updated.The issue was a hiccup in the server that updates the station account to the accual game account - or something.I've been there my friend, I feel for yea :-/

GrizzlyOfUK

06-18-2010, 12:45 PM

<cite>Ironcleaver wrote:</cite><blockquote>This happened to me on the opening day of SF (I'm in the states). I entered my key, it eat it, but it didn't stick anywhere on my account and I didn't gain access to the new content. When I tried to re-enter the key it stated I already used said key. The only way I fixed it was to call SoE Support where the Rep. double-checked my key and that it was entered correctly (which it was), then passed it over to the system techs to be manually updated.The issue was a hiccup in the server that updates the station account to the accual game account - or something.I've been there my friend, I feel for yea :-/</blockquote>Whatever the cause of this issue is, it doesn't appear that I'm ever going to get it resolved as SOE seem to be completely ignoring all my attempts at contacting their Technical Support! I now suspect that SOE gives their customers in the USA priority over their International customers and quite frankly I've about had enough of this sort of "second class customer" treatment!I'm now thinking that I'd be better off just cancelling my subscription completely and forgetting about ever playing any SOE game again!