Right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing [Archive]

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Rutabegah

02-23-2007, 01:35 AM

This rant is addressing the huge problem that many people were experiencing when attempting to mentor lower level players. Why is it that customer support ALWAYS assumes that it is the user's fault that something is wrong? Why does every response letter include "We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 72 hours"? 2/2/07 I created a /petition on concerning this. 2/2/07 Within a few hours, I was told to delete my UIsettings and .ini files (cut and paste response to everybody), then they blamed it on my firewall 2/3/07 I responded that none of that helps, and restated the exact problem again 2/8/07 FIVE days later, they tell me to be patient, I will be contacted soon. 2/8/07 They ask me to send all kinds of information ranging from my login name to pathping files 2/9/07 Sent all that they asked for 2/9/07 They tell me my network is the problem and to contact my ISP. They say I might need to cleanboot my pc 2/9/07 I reply that I tried all that, disconnected my network, booted clean, contaced ISP, and it's not a problem on my end. 2/9/07 They sent me a huge reply concerning client port settings, ip address fixes, and proxy troubleshooting 2/9/07 I thanked them for all the information, but stated again that it made no sense to me and I see on the message boards that others are now having the same problem 2/9/07 Updated to tell them that it only affects my one character on my one account, and doesn't affect any other characters 2/10/07 Problem escalated to Tier 2 2/15/07 Response from Tier 2 asking me to explain the whole situation again /sigh 2/15/07 Responded with information again 2/15/07 They asked me again for all sorts of things (dxdiag.txt, msinfo.txt, .ini files, all sorts of things). 2/15/07 Sent all that stuff 2/17/07 Updated it to say that someone on message board figured out that this problem only affects people with a high amount of quests done in journal (2000+) or so. 2/22/07 ***** That's the end of the discussion thread. Haven't heard back. Then I look at test notes and I see: *** Gameplay ***Mentoring and deleveling should no longer cause you to crash to character select.Why do they assume it's my problem when dozens of people all say the same thing on a thread in the technical quesion board? Why the cookie cutter responses? Why the redundancy? Why do users have to come up with the root cause, the symptoms, and the ultimate answer as to what the problem is? This is not a fix that should go in in the next GU. This should be implemented immediately in a hot-fix. I have not been able to mentor anyone in nearly a month.

doctorbow

02-23-2007, 03:51 AM

<cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>This rant is addressing the huge problem that many people were experiencing when attempting to mentor lower level players. Why is it that customer support ALWAYS assumes that it is the user's fault that something is wrong? Why does every response letter include "We will assume your issue has been resolved if we do not hear from you within 72 hours"? 2/2/07 I created a /petition on concerning this. 2/2/07 Within a few hours, I was told to delete my UIsettings and .ini files (cut and paste response to everybody), then they blamed it on my firewall 2/3/07 I responded that none of that helps, and restated the exact problem again 2/8/07 FIVE days later, they tell me to be patient, I will be contacted soon. 2/8/07 They ask me to send all kinds of information ranging from my login name to pathping files 2/9/07 Sent all that they asked for 2/9/07 They tell me my network is the problem and to contact my ISP. They say I might need to cleanboot my pc 2/9/07 I reply that I tried all that, disconnected my network, booted clean, contaced ISP, and it's not a problem on my end. 2/9/07 They sent me a huge reply concerning client port settings, ip address fixes, and proxy troubleshooting 2/9/07 I thanked them for all the information, but stated again that it made no sense to me and I see on the message boards that others are now having the same problem 2/9/07 Updated to tell them that it only affects my one character on my one account, and doesn't affect any other characters 2/10/07 Problem escalated to Tier 2 2/15/07 Response from Tier 2 asking me to explain the whole situation again /sigh 2/15/07 Responded with information again 2/15/07 They asked me again for all sorts of things (dxdiag.txt, msinfo.txt, .ini files, all sorts of things). 2/15/07 Sent all that stuff 2/17/07 Updated it to say that someone on message board figured out that this problem only affects people with a high amount of quests done in journal (2000+) or so. 2/22/07 ***** That's the end of the discussion thread. Haven't heard back. Then I look at test notes and I see: *** Gameplay ***Mentoring and deleveling should no longer cause you to crash to character select.Why do they assume it's my problem when dozens of people all say the same thing on a thread in the technical quesion board? Why the cookie cutter responses? Why the redundancy? Why do users have to come up with the root cause, the symptoms, and the ultimate answer as to what the problem is? This is not a fix that should go in in the next GU. This should be implemented immediately in a hot-fix. I have not been able to mentor anyone in nearly a month. </blockquote> Ok, first things first::: Do you PLAY on test server? I'm not being snide: you made no mention of it in your post, so I wanted to clarify. Now, if you DON'T [play on test server], you stated quite clearly that you looked at 'test notes' and saw a fix that is currently patched on TEST servers. That means they are TESTING this as a possible solution to the problem. It doesn't MEAN that it is going to work. They probably have 5 accounts that they test with in the office to dink-around with stuff prior to even going on test-server. The players on test server UNDERSTAND that they are TESTING possible solutions to a problem, and in doing so, there MAY be other bugs introduced. THAT is why it should not be 'implemented immediately in a hot-fix.' as you suggest. And, if you DO play on test-server, you among other testers KNOW that it is meant as a test environment, and therefore, if this 'test' hotfix did NOT fix your particular crashing issues, it's your duty to report it on the test-server, not gripe that a 'test' hotfix didn't fix your particular issue. It just means that they need to do further work, and maybe the fix that they found doesn't fix 100% of the situations. I want to make it clear that I am NOT flaming you. Far from it. I just want you to understand that these types of things are FREAKY bugs, and could potentially be caused by something as miniscule as an extra comma amidst 3 billion lines of code. We just don't know. I CAN guarantee that something like this WILL be patched live, not as part of a GU, but as a hot-fix, as SOON as they have tested that it fixes the problem without introducing another problem (swallowing the spider to catch the fly, so to speak). GU's are for other things, new content (fae betrayal, unrest, etc.(shoulda been included at EoF release, but ah-well...)) SoE has been pretty good about getting actual 'bugs' hot-fixed as soon as the fix is tested (semi)-thoroughly. I WILL agree with you 100% that their response was not professional in any sense. These things are KNOWN-ISSUES that are affecting thousands of their clients. A known issue DOES warrant a canned response, NOT further trouble-shooting of 'your' particular system, because it's NOT a problem with YOUR system, it's THEIR problem. The canned response IS appropriate, AFTER reviewing your issue, to let YOU, the consumer, know that they ARE aware of the issue, that you are not the only one affected, and they are working towards a resolution. Now, I ask you, if you had received that as an HONEST answer after trying their suggestion on 2/2/07 of deleting UI files instead of having it go for TWENTY days and having to re-state your problem over and over, would you be happier knowing that they WERE looking into it? That they ACKNOWLEDGE that it is their fault? And that it's NOT just your problem? I'm guessing you would. I speak as a tech and a consumer, and I believe that type of response would be appropriate, given that it's a pretty global bug right now. To answer your question, about them assuming your issue is resolved after 72 hours of non-response from you: This is simple. If an issue is fixed, the complainant is HIGHLY unlikely to call back or write back to thank the tech that helped them. They have an open queue that they work from, and I'm guessing with as many accounts as they have, it is QUITE large right now. It's impossible to provide 1-on-1 support to all of those open tickets. They assume an issue is resolved, because quite honestly, if it WASN'T resolved, you would very likely let them know IMMEDIATELY that their suggestion(s) haven't worked. (All of your responses to them were within 24 hours, even). But, if you're like 99% of the consumer market, once your issue is fixed, you won't call back to thank. And that's ok. Tech work is a thankless job. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Regardless, this fix, if it works on test, WILL go to live as soon as possible. Be happy they atleast CARE about their product, overall (even if it feels like they don't care about an individual person, they ARE fairly quick with the bug-fixes, all things considered). Good luck when it goes live Ruta, -Drakhammor, 70 swash

Roriondesexiest

02-23-2007, 11:45 AM

For what it's worth, I read in another post it has to do with the number of quests you have. Do you have 2k or so quests? I think that was the magic number people were talking about. This is also why not everyone gets the issue because not everyone does lots of quests.That post also had a dev post that was working on the issue.

xOnaton1

02-23-2007, 12:49 PM

<cite>Rutabegah wrote:</cite><blockquote>*** Gameplay ***Mentoring and deleveling should no longer cause you to crash to character select.Why do they assume it's my problem when dozens of people all say the same thing on a thread in the technical quesion board? Why the cookie cutter responses? Why the redundancy? Why do users have to come up with the root cause, the symptoms, and the ultimate answer as to what the problem is? This is not a fix that should go in in the next GU. This should be implemented immediately in a hot-fix. I have not been able to mentor anyone in nearly a month. </blockquote> Hotfix February / 23 / 2007 *** Gameplay **** Mentoring and deleveling should no longer cause you to crash to character select. The caravan escort portion of Court of the Blades: Dukarem’s Purge, Part II should once again be working correctly. That looks like a hotfix to me. Hope it works for you.