My wife LOVES CG's support team
In the last GAC I lost a GAC round due to the Missing Ability Button bug, which CG openly acknowledged and wrote about on the forum recently.
I barely lost the match and cost me the full-clear, which would have ensured my victory, as my opponent didn't clear me.
I opened a case with CG, provided all the information asked for in the post, and even attached a video clip of the battle.
I thought it was only fair to ASK if I could have the crystals I lost since a KNOWN BUG cost me the match. What I got in return from "Support" was nothing but frustration for 7-days.
In the first 4-days they only replied by giving pre-written replies, that didn't apply. Twice they asked for information I provided when opening the ticket, once they asked I post about the bug to forum to let people know about the issue, and they twice provided me with tips on trouble-shooting issues with my iphone, along with suggesting I turn off ad-blockers (which I don't have).
After 4-days someone FINALLY said they'd mark my ticket as a "potential bug". -- Wow, it took 4-days to state that a KNOWN BUG "might" be a bug....and that was only AFTER I mentioned this being a KNOWN BUG several times and provided a link to CG's forum post about the bug.
After 4-days of them repeatedly ignoring any comments or questions about my lost crystals, I asked about the crystals once more, and brought up that I'd spent approximately $2,000 on this game so I was hoping for SOME actual support. On day-5 I was finally told "we won't me able to add crystals in this matter"
When I asked "why" I was told that because the game is "real time" they "do not have any manual option to make changes to the uploaded server".
I replied asking them to confirm they were telling me that there was no way to send anything, to any player, via their inbox?
Their reply????
They ignored my question and reposted the SAME message telling me they were marking my ticket as a "potential bug". When I asked why they hadn't answered my question, their next message was to provide me THE SAME tips on trouble shooting phone issues, and requesting I turn off any ad-blockers. -- Way to go CG...lie to a player and then ignore him when he questions your lie.
Here's the problem with all of this.
I know there are bugs in software, I accept that. However, the primary job of "support" is to support the players when they have problems. They offered nothing but unrelated responses for 4-days. They ignored my inquiries about the lost crystals for 4-days and then LIED about their ability to send anything to players.
If "support" would have acknowledged my question about crystals in the beginning, even if was to tell me "We're sorry but as policy we do not award crystals or other lost rewards to players in situations of a game malfunction", I wouldn't have liked the answer, but I would have accepted it. BUT, they chose to ignore the entire topic for days, then went back to ignoring it, and that frustrates me to no end.
I know there are people that have spent a lot more than $2,000 on this game, but this entire interaction has soured me to the game and I will NEVER spend again.
with a new GL and a new Capital Ship coming out I would have spent, and I would have spent a LOT more than the few crystals I was asking about. With "support" being allergic to the word "crystals", they have cost the company all future revenue from me.
But here's the bigger problem, and it's the real reason I'll never spend again....
If CG won't support, or even pretend to support, someone who spends money on the game, then there's little chance they'll support anyone.
What good does it do to pay for an advantage in the game if a bug can rob you of the advantage and the CG's response is "Oh well, now stop bothering us".
It says a lot about "support" if they're choosing to blow-off someone who spends money. Maybe I just haven't spent enough and that's the problem. Do I need to spend $10,000 for them to actually read and try to understand the ticket? Maybe it's $50,000? Perhaps at $100,000 they'd gotten over they aversion to the word "crystals" sooner than 4-days? Maybe...just maybe....there's no amount of money you need to spend in game in order for "support" to do more than pull pre-written replies out of a hat.
Whatever the amount of money you need to spend is, my most recent interaction with "support" has left me so frustrated that I'm confident I'll never spend another dollar on this game. After all, if they won't even pretend to support the players, I refuse to support them.
On the flip side....my wife is exceedingly happy with how this whole thing played out. She's offered to bake a cake a mail it to "support" to show her appreciation that I won't be spending any more. Who knows, maybe this is a case of....happy wife, happy life.
I barely lost the match and cost me the full-clear, which would have ensured my victory, as my opponent didn't clear me.
I opened a case with CG, provided all the information asked for in the post, and even attached a video clip of the battle.
I thought it was only fair to ASK if I could have the crystals I lost since a KNOWN BUG cost me the match. What I got in return from "Support" was nothing but frustration for 7-days.
In the first 4-days they only replied by giving pre-written replies, that didn't apply. Twice they asked for information I provided when opening the ticket, once they asked I post about the bug to forum to let people know about the issue, and they twice provided me with tips on trouble-shooting issues with my iphone, along with suggesting I turn off ad-blockers (which I don't have).
After 4-days someone FINALLY said they'd mark my ticket as a "potential bug". -- Wow, it took 4-days to state that a KNOWN BUG "might" be a bug....and that was only AFTER I mentioned this being a KNOWN BUG several times and provided a link to CG's forum post about the bug.
After 4-days of them repeatedly ignoring any comments or questions about my lost crystals, I asked about the crystals once more, and brought up that I'd spent approximately $2,000 on this game so I was hoping for SOME actual support. On day-5 I was finally told "we won't me able to add crystals in this matter"
When I asked "why" I was told that because the game is "real time" they "do not have any manual option to make changes to the uploaded server".
I replied asking them to confirm they were telling me that there was no way to send anything, to any player, via their inbox?
Their reply????
They ignored my question and reposted the SAME message telling me they were marking my ticket as a "potential bug". When I asked why they hadn't answered my question, their next message was to provide me THE SAME tips on trouble shooting phone issues, and requesting I turn off any ad-blockers. -- Way to go CG...lie to a player and then ignore him when he questions your lie.
Here's the problem with all of this.
I know there are bugs in software, I accept that. However, the primary job of "support" is to support the players when they have problems. They offered nothing but unrelated responses for 4-days. They ignored my inquiries about the lost crystals for 4-days and then LIED about their ability to send anything to players.
If "support" would have acknowledged my question about crystals in the beginning, even if was to tell me "We're sorry but as policy we do not award crystals or other lost rewards to players in situations of a game malfunction", I wouldn't have liked the answer, but I would have accepted it. BUT, they chose to ignore the entire topic for days, then went back to ignoring it, and that frustrates me to no end.
I know there are people that have spent a lot more than $2,000 on this game, but this entire interaction has soured me to the game and I will NEVER spend again.
with a new GL and a new Capital Ship coming out I would have spent, and I would have spent a LOT more than the few crystals I was asking about. With "support" being allergic to the word "crystals", they have cost the company all future revenue from me.
But here's the bigger problem, and it's the real reason I'll never spend again....
If CG won't support, or even pretend to support, someone who spends money on the game, then there's little chance they'll support anyone.
What good does it do to pay for an advantage in the game if a bug can rob you of the advantage and the CG's response is "Oh well, now stop bothering us".
It says a lot about "support" if they're choosing to blow-off someone who spends money. Maybe I just haven't spent enough and that's the problem. Do I need to spend $10,000 for them to actually read and try to understand the ticket? Maybe it's $50,000? Perhaps at $100,000 they'd gotten over they aversion to the word "crystals" sooner than 4-days? Maybe...just maybe....there's no amount of money you need to spend in game in order for "support" to do more than pull pre-written replies out of a hat.
Whatever the amount of money you need to spend is, my most recent interaction with "support" has left me so frustrated that I'm confident I'll never spend another dollar on this game. After all, if they won't even pretend to support the players, I refuse to support them.
On the flip side....my wife is exceedingly happy with how this whole thing played out. She's offered to bake a cake a mail it to "support" to show her appreciation that I won't be spending any more. Who knows, maybe this is a case of....happy wife, happy life.
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it could be an entirely new variant of the missing buttons bug
Did you send the time stamp and other details that was requested in the dev post about missing buttons reporting?
This is where you are making the mistake. That is the primary purpose of onshore support. Most corporations only offer this during their infancy. Once they grow enough, as EA has, they transition to offshore support. Offshore support does not exist to support players when they have problems. Offshore support has two purposes. At a minor level, it exists to provide a veneer of support to the player. But primarily, it exists so that the suit who made the decision to offshore it can point to how much money is saved by offshoring support in his annual performance review.
Sure, it probably costs the company even more in lost sales, but those numbers don't show up on any spreadsheets. The ones from transferring support offshore do. At some point in time, someone at EA got a raise in exchange for making support worthless.
As for the information I provided. I stated in my initial post "I opened a case with CG, provided all the information asked for in the post, and even attached a video clip of the battle.". The information I provided was the information in that list. -- In fact, I also explained the series of events in the battle which lead to the problem occurring so whomever looked at the ticket would have the full picture to help them trouble-shoot the problem better. -- So not only did I provide the information asked for, I provided more information..
Part of what makes it frustrating is that "support"'s first 3 replies were
1) Here's tips on trouble-shooting issues on an iphone
2) When did this occur?
3) What's your ID?
The answers to their 2nd and 3rd replies were already in the opening lines of the case, so why were they immediately asking for the same information again???
I'm sorry Ultra, but you can't reasonably defend CG on this. They didn't do anything except send the same canned responses again and again while ignoring my inquiry about crystals. -- Yes, I "asked" about crystals. I didn't demand, I didn't throw a fit, I didn't threaten...I simply asked if getting what I lost was possible.
To reiterate my initial post, had they just addressed my initial question about the crystals early on, I would have accepted a "no" answer, but they kept going out of their way to ignore that question. When pressed they lied, and then refused to say another word on the topic, or their claim.
What's worse is that, this is how they handled things when a player is reporting an issue that CG asked the players to report, and all the information they asked to was given to them. -- If they're so desperate to use a canned response, their first response should have been "We're sorry you experienced this issue. We will take the information you provided and escalate this matter to our development team. While you may not hear back from that team directly, please know that your help in identifying this issue will help us serve the community better. Is there any other way we can assist you?"
I stand behind my decision....if "support" refuses to even pretend like they're going to support the players then I will not continue to support this game financially.
Finally.....they have also ignored my request for an address....I guess they don't like cake.
About the only thing I can see that's wrong in what you wrote is that transferring support offshore didn't make it worthless....it made it a liability
The support is EA, not CG.
My experience is, unless it's a case of 'Quit the game or not' serious situation, I wouldn't bother with them. Of course you're free to try!
They're not interested and don't have the tools to do much.
Not trying to blame the victim here, but did you not believe everyone else's horror stories about support?
I've seen them and believe them....even have my own experience.
In 4.5 years I've opened 3 tickets
1) No reply...EVER
2) Spent 3-weeks answering the SAME questions and replying "No you can't close the ticket, nothing has been done". Then I got frustrated and stopped replying.
I opened this one up because there was a forum post asking us to open a ticket and to provide them with certain details. -- They asked for the ticket, so I opened one. -- As for the lost crystals, I figured it didn't hurt to ask.
But you're right....I should have trusted my own previous experiences and realized I was wasting my time. -- So I guess maybe....I am to blame.
I read your OP
You definitely weren't "asking" but demanding, and you were throwing a fit
I do agree about some of your points such as them asking questions you already provided answers to before they asked since its part of their canned responses or scripts etc.
Some level of awareness needs to be involved in their replies / script responses
Nothing changed, you have always been able to get a wide variance of outcomes based entirely on which person you happen to get.
Doesn't matter, they won't help.
I don't even mean for help, but for the missing buttons bug. They asked us to help collect data so they can see and narrow down what functions are causing it. Tusken wrote in his post to open a ticket with the infos required. But he didn't specify where to open the ticket.
Edit for typo
So you've read my transcript with "support"? I mean, you must have for you to assert that I was demanding and throwing a fit.
What is reflected in my post is the frustration that grew from 7-days being jerked around by "support".
Here's a screenshot from when I opened the ticket.
I know I didn't say "may I pretty please, with sugar on top, possibly please have some of the crystals back? Daddy, I'll be good I promise" ... but I don't consider "I would like" to be demanding or throwing a fit. In my later communications the words I used were "I am requesting", which is also very odd terminology for someone throwing a fit.
If you consider phrases like "I would like" and "I am requesting" to be confrontational, demanding or throwing a fit, then that must make being asked to pass the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving a very stressful event for you.
*Note: Before I get assaulted for not including the date when I mentioned the time, after uploading the screenshot I reviewed the forum post and filled in any details I missed, such as the date.
There's a way to open a ticket via your email by going to EA's page and opening a support ticket, but I think the easier way is to open the ticket in the game
Go to the "Gear" icon and select "Help" From there you can open a ticket.
When they reply you'll get a message in your Inbox, but once you view the update that message goes away. If you want to revisit your ticket when there isn't a link in your inbox, go back to the "Help" screen and it'll pull your ticket back up.
Thank you for your answer.
I know how to open Tickets etc I just would like to know where specifically we should open a ticket for the bug report to help them track it.
I am not sure opening a ticket for EA support might be the best way, because I am sure the Support is outsourced, meaning they have nothing directly to do with CG so they might not even know that we open the ticket to help them track down the bugs and might think we need/want help for the bug.
If one of the CMs @CG_Tusken_Meathead @CG_SBCrumb could please clear this up?
It turns out, they are incapable of adding lost rewards to the players. So then, why even bother having a support team? They aren't doing anything anyway.
To reiterate what OP said, these experiences only discourage players from wanting to spend money in the game. If we can't get our lost rewards, then why would I ever want to buy them?
Well they have to have a support. They'll probably required to have this generic EA support as well. I get the feeling CG isn't delighted by the supports ..........support (or lack of). However, what can they do?
This is me too. I wasted money, and I simply do not trust the game's support to spend any more. It's not a vengeance or bitter thing (well a bit of a bitter thing). Just the support will not or can not help in almost all situations.
I can't risk spending money on that.
Sorry this happened to you. This is a technique called cake baiting. It happens when online support purposely messes up a help request in hope the users wife is happy enough to send in a cake. They then use the return address to establish a relationship with and set up an “entanglement” with your wife. This is pretty serious and you will probably want to open a support ticket to resolve the issue.