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Customer service
sfc1971
Member UncommonPosts: 421
A few years ago a dutch news paper ran a story that the Dutch don't like to compain in places like restaurants. They just never ever come back. This hurts small business only, a McD can always count on new kids being born but a small family restaurant might have a bad waiter they let go after that night but loose 10 customers for life and get tons of negative worth of mouth.
But a big game company? That ain't a family restaurant, they can always make up any angry customers who left with new blood. This can cause real arrogance. For instance, I once got the wrong pizza and never came back and I ate a LOT of pizza, for a small restaurant that was so noticiable that when I passed a few weeks later the owner actually came out and asked me if I was okay because they hadn't seen me in such a long time...
Well, your forget the extra cheese I payed for and since "everyone" knows that if you complain in a food place, they spit on your food (if your lucky) I don't complain, I just don't come back. I was amazed back then to learn from said article that I was not alone to think like that and have since confirmed it with other Dutch people.
I have so far not been treated bad by Areanet, I knew it would be a WoW light with cash shop, and so far it has been simple fun. Not a bad deal for the collectors edition price.
But say I left in a huff. Areanet would never ever notice. So they don't care. They just have to keep enough new blood coming in to replace those who left and they are doing fine. Same way McD doesn't care about service. I long since stopped going to those kinda places because I just don't accept the lousy slow service any more for the high prices they charge.
Customer service only matters when you are restricted to a small customer group you can't replace. Areanet is servicing the world. You are replacable.
You only get decent customer service if a company cares about retaining YOUR business.
Comments
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I have one word for your diatribe - bullshit. A.Net didn't expect the huge draw of their game and they are trying to get it up to snuff, but it takes time and people are usually more impatient than realistic.
I highlighted one thing and will ask you this, does any company care? Probably not. I left my sub die on Rift and heard absolutely nothing on it. Does it bother me - NO. Does that mean they have bad CS? NO. You are equating 2 things that have nothing to do with each other. I think you should go back to school and learn what CS is.
I have dealt with A.Net since the beginning of GW1 and I can tell you they have decent albeit swamped CS. I had an issue with another player threatening me (in chat and whispers) that they will hack my account, etc. I reported it and A.Net was concerned enough to call the police after looking at the chat logs. That is what CS is.
Please, it is NOT WoW-light, if you understand the storyline, etc it is much deeper and more involved that WOW (and I played WoW).
one thing i noticed is Anet customer service is really bad.lets say for argument your introuble with lets say hacking..took them nearly 8 days to get my account back.bugs like skill points you are unable to complete not being fixed for weeks.but putting that aside if you like the game enough you wont let these things bother you.you will just workaround the bug problems.
th reason i say this is because i played vanguard on release and it was shocking..sometime i dont think people realise just how bad it was.there was so much wrong with this game that basically said it was about 18months off a proper release.even now it still has major bugs.but i stayed with it.why? because i loved the game,community etc.
it is true though..if you do not look after your customers they will not look after you..i,m done with gw2 altogether.but for all its problems on release with hacking,auction house,and all the other probs i can see why people love this game because i felt the same way about vanguard.
not too mention customer service was never going to be high on Anet's list.it didnt need to be afterall,they released a damn good game that people will play for years with or without good CS.but you would think that they would make a point of keeping people happy to keep them playing to buy content,xpacs,etc.afterall happy customers always come back,like you say.
I do wish there was some way that people would realize that you have to make your true judgments about the stability of a game and the quality of the customer service for an MMO after at least a few months.
We're just starting to get into the point where they are doing a good amount of bug fixes and balancing, so give it another month before you make your final call.