by Moorgard on 2001-10-01
Customer Service is a tough racket. I worked many years in the retail market, and let me tell you, you have no idea just how many customers out there are trying to screw over every company they can. They will lie to you, pretend to be your friend to get something from you, and attempt to use every strong-arm tactic they know to get their way. The old adage that "the customer is always right" is from a more innocent age, and in today's world of scammers and cheats it is very easy for a company to develop a siege mentality.Imagine, now, having nearly half a million subscribers, and being bombarded by people with names like Rox0rz Urazz who are hell-bent on taking the easy way out of every situation and cutting any corner they can. Talk to any EQ guide and you will hear many horror stories of abusive players who tell outright lies to get their way.
But what happens when honest people have problems that need fixing? Jaded customer service representatives might come into a situation with their guard up and assume the customer is trying to rip them off rather than looking with an objective eye and trying to solve the issue at hand.
Lately, a few situations like this have come up, and it may be time for Verant to take a hard look at how they deal with customer needs.
You're seen many stories about the recent wave of bannings over on The Tribunal server. A large number of players were banned without explanation, relating mostly, it turns out, to using third party software that, while not "hacking" EQ in the true sense of the word, did provide workarounds for performing tasks in the background or allowed the EQ client to be played in a window. In some cases, the bannings were just an outright mistake. Many of these judgements have been reversed and the players have returned to the game.
Okay, mistakes happen. Verant has to be wary of people trying to hack the client, so we can't blame them for being cautious.
Then you read about what happened to Ferkl Kinstoler, a guild leader over on the Cazic Thule server. Seems Ferkl was looting his corpse one day and accidentally equipped another sword before one of his Ranger epic blades. When he right-clicked on the epic to loot it, the sword couldn't go into his weapon slot, and since it wouldn't fit into any of his bags due to the size of the item, the blade poofed.
Numerous petitions and e-mails later, Lead Game Master Kriggan responded to Ferkl that he "cannot authorize the return of your epic weapon for something that is not a bug."
Did the player make a mistake? Technically, yes. Was it intentional on his part? No. Was the player attempting some kind of workaround or exploit? Of course not. Considering these facts, and the time this customer spent obtaining that epic in the first place, should Verant CS have given the player a break and restored the missing half of his epic? We think so. Instead, they probably lost one--or several--subscribers because of this policy.
Allow me to submit a little equasion that may simplify things a bit:
customer + service = happy customer = return customer
It's just that simple.
One final case for you, which might also serve as a warning. A friend of mine recently went linkdead in Sebilis. When he attempted to log back in, he received a message saying that his account had been banned for "inappropriate behavior." He got no further explanation. This is an honest guy, and he literally had no clue what he had supposedly done that merited banning.
Finally, after many e-mails to GMs and customer service people, he was told four days later that he'd been banned for transferring stolen items. This absolutely boggled my friend, as he'd never intentionally done such a thing.
Then he thought about it, and realized that from time to time other players would ask him--since he's a high-level person in a guild known for its honesty--to help transfer items to an alt. My friend usually always agreed, as it gave him a chance to further prove the reputation of his guild as trustworthy folk. He remembered that he'd recently done this for someone in Greater Faydark.
Clearly, someone who had stolen an item took advantage of my friend's trusting, helpful nature. Surely my friend could e-mail Verant again and ask them to check their zone logs to review the interaction between himself and the other player to show that my friend had no knowledge of what was going on, right?
Well, he did so. Finally, eleven days after the banning took place, and after a number of exchanges with customer service, my friend received e-mail from Patrick Murphy, Customer Service Administrator, stating that "After further review the Lead GM in charge of your server and myself have decided to give this account a second chance. This account will be released from banning today." He also got word from GM Brenlo: "I will advise you that should your account encounter similar problems in the future, it will be banned. In any case I thank you for your patience with this matter and wish you luck and many adventures."
No apologies (unless you count the above as one, which I do not). No offer to make up for the many days of lost play time. Yes, he has his account back, but only after lots of legwork on his part. Worst of all, he has to put up with a response from the Verant CS department which basically says to him that "We don't necessarily believe you, but since we can't prove you're lying, we'll give you another chance. Don't mess up."
In any case, he won't be doing item transfers for strangers anymore. I'd advise you to adopt this policy as well.
Does Verant have to be on their guard against scams? Absolutely. But they also have to be on the lookout for unfortunate people who run into bad luck or make honest mistakes.
After all, helping these people is what customer service is all about.