dlainedee

Most of the messages they get, for example ban appeals in certain things, aren't worth even reading. There's totally no point to answering them and even less point hiring more staff just because of them. They can handle the amount of customers, but they don't have any need to give a long&detailed answer to every post they get. You are ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT any doubts, wrong!

Wrong again... If you appeal that hamburger, not only do you get a real person to speak to about it, but they REMAKE a fresh burger for you. Customer Service... When you pay for a membership for a health club, for example. If you do something against the rules, or maybe a little out of line, they usually give you a warning. They always tell you nicely. THEY NEVER just banned you without explanation, and then tell you TO SIGN up again...

Look at the amount of players and imagine how many people send messages to customer support every day. They definately can't give a real answer for everyone, that's physically impossible. Why should you be put higher at the query list than someone who would actually have something to say? If the case is certain, there's no point for them to waste their valuable time on it. Wrong! If you can't handle the amount of customers that you have, hire more employees, or change businesses.

I think, an appeal, especially, should be read by a real person and responded to by a real person. There should be no exceptions to this. My opinion...

I agree, but they shouldn't be banning and muting so quickly. They do so without heart, and too often without real responses. Especially real responses to the appeal. Also, if a member hasn't had any black marks in a long time, they should have been removed. They seem to be so obsessed with catching bad members, that many good members are unjustly punished. They need to slow down on all this banning and muting, it makes good customers fear spending their money and giving their time.

If you truly want to help, then help Black Knight77. He was permanently muted. He is level 124. There is no way he deserved to be permanently muted. Very few in their right mind would, purposely, do anything to get banned or muted at his level. It takes no less then 2 to 3 years to become a level 124. He cared or he would not have been a member for that long, and worked on his skills for that long. He was given one appeal, and, the response was a canned response. Where is the justice in this? The very least any corporation could do for a member that has been a paying member for a long time, should be to give them the benefit of the doubt. OR at least allowed to give an apology and then given only a warning. This is extremely unfair and unjust. My heart is broken over this and I feel his pain. :( Maybe, you can look into this...

Real life friends should NEVER have any bearing on bans and mutes. NEVER! What the heck is "often logging on from the real computers" ?? What the heck does that mean? I have never heard of anyone logging on using a FAKE computer. "Probably" ? "Looks incriminating" ? "Guess that a friend was doing wrong" ? You have no right to guess. Condemning friends and family for what another does, is WRONG. Does Hitler, Stalin, how about Saddam Hussein... Ring a bell? Guilt by association? Is that what you truly believe? It comes right back to, the corporation that you insist on standing up for rarely has sufficient proof when they permanently ban a member, especially for this real life stuff. If they...think, guess, assume, presume, when it concerns a customer, then this says, they rather dispose of paying members then deal with the truth. They give no benefit of the doubt to the customer. So it comes back to... Extremely bad customer service to ban a paying customer when there is no proof, beyond a doubt. This real life trading. I know nothing about it, so I will give a customer service opinion... There is no sure-fire way to prove, without any doubts, that real world trading takes place. They would have to bait the customer, *collect the money*, and do the trade, to prove without doubt. If they are doing this, they are not doing it to all members that they ban for this offense. They are guessing, assuming, presuming, which is unfair to all members. Especially members that like to give away things to family and friends. However, this can't be correct..., right...? With your own words, out of your mouth, you said, staff doesn't have the manpower or time to respond to their paying customers on a personal level, so, if no time for the customer, then no time to dress up and bait members, to catch the bad members... Now is there? (Remember, you CAN'T have it both ways...) You make it seem as though, and I am thinking maybe it is so, they are way too obsessed with catching bad members. Their obsession is so strong, that some where along the line, they forgot about all the good members that may have been innocent and that they have unjustly condemned because of the bad. Btw... I know two brothers that played this game for years. The older brother was going off to college, so he decided he wouldn't have time to play. He gave all his things to his younger brother, worth game millions. The staff banned both brothers for real world trading... Staff used canned responses, and said they had proof. There is no way they had proof, that was a lie. They used canned responses, and would not listen to their father that did the appeal. Little brother did not pay big brother for his RS things. That is a FACT. Big brother gave little brother his things. If they lie once, they will lie over and over again. Listen, you really don't know what you are saying... I know, I know...you said you have many years of working with a corporation (more then one), and have extreme experience in customer service...EVEN though you are only 19 years old. I commend thee...

First off, I never said, personal opinions for the game, or any site, have no place. YOU said that. Please do not put words in my mouth, I asked you not to do that more then once. Thank you... Second, personal opinions have nothing to do with customer service. Third, CANNED responses have everything to do with the topic of being unfairly banned or muted. EVERYTHING to do with it. Especially auto responses. Like I said before, you are very young, and have no experience in the corporate world, regardless of the country. The almighty dollar is the bottom line of any corporation, company, kool-aid stand, but customer service can make or break a corporation -- in the long run... You keep taking this personally, and that is not what this is about. This is about HUMAN BEINGS, that paid for a service, which was unfairly treated by the corporation that they trusted to be a fair corporation. However, I really don't want to go back and forth with ya. ;-) It has come down to, -- I am a corporate lady, and I have been for many years. I am for the profit of the company, but I am for customer service also, side by side with the profit. I understand and respect your right to think customer service is not and should not be a priority of any company. That is your right to think that way. So...we really don't need to try to convince the other that our way to do things is the correct way. ;) One thing though... 'proof-reading' your posts, before you click on the Submit button, can be a good thing... :-)

You 'feel' they 'got' the correct number of staff... ? No response needed. I believe the reader can see that you have no idea what you are talking about. It really doesn't matter that you 'think' a personal response isn't necessary when dealing out bans and mutes. It is, however, absolutely necessary. A corporation should never lease/contract a commodity, an account in this case, then take that commodity/account away without absolute proof of an infraction. And worse, turn around and invite the member to sign up and pay for a new account. It really doesn't matter what you 'think', the bottom line to this is unprofessional, and just plain wrong. Black marks that are not removed with good behavior as time moves on, is setting the member up for a fall. It causes members to feel uneasy about spending time building up their character, and having their private information on a site of this kind. This is unprofessional and just plain wrong. The game is great, and can be a wonderful 'family' played game, and a lot of fun. I'm quite sure the staff is wonderful people. But customer service is lacking. Customer Service should be the number one priority of a good corporation. If this is supposed to be funny, then I missed the joke? Can you fill us 'all' in, or is it an inside joke? ;-)

Extremely bad customer service to ban a member/customer because a corporation is not good at something, or they 'think' a member/customer did something wrong. They need to know for a fact, without any doubts WHATSOEVER.

You are right. Forums are different then on the game. You have all the proof you need in the permanent-typed words of the post. ;-) We aren't talking about the forums though. We are talking about things that happen during the game. When a 60 second screen shot, especially in a crowded area where text is scrolling quickly, is unfair. We are talking about real humans that will work with the member, instead of against the member, when an offense has happened. Especially a first offense. We are talking about good member/customer service vs. bad.

I can't, for the life of me, understand why you don't understand that canned responses to disciplinary actions is wrong, and unprofessional. ;-) Especially to the appeals. And, an 'auto response' (where no human is involved) should never take place for disciplinary actions. If their accounting department thinks the corporation cannot afford to have a separate customer service department, that is trained in dealing with people and their problems, then they should err on the side of the member. I'm just a customer service type of gal, what can I say... :-)

I can understand that staff would not discuss each member that they ban with the mods, but that has nothing to do with the confidentiality of the members. I think you mods need to discuss banning in the your staff/mod forum. Besides the game and the profit, it appears that banning is the number one thing the staff does. It is bad policy to ban because it is easier then dealing with the member on a personal level. Banning members should not be taken so lightly. It should be the last thing staff does to a member, only when there is no other choice. There should be a lot of thought given to each ban, before a ban is issued. Basically, the member is a ban begging to happen. Black marks is another policy that should be discussed. There should be a scale, and a time limit that black marks stays on a member's account. And this should be announced for all players to know and understand. It would be a great incentive for all members to know that, yes they messed up (if you will), but as time goes on with good behavior, these marks will be lowered to eventually disappear. Otherwise, what is the point of the mods? It appears that they are only in place to tattletale on everything they see that might, and only in their opinion, might be bad. If their duties is to help the members, then they also need to help the members behind the scene. Members reporting members... Unless it is absolutely obvious, many things are taken out of context, and a 60 second screen shot of what is said, is unfair to the members. It truly breaks my heart every time I've spoken to a member that was unjustly banned. Staff would not listen to their explanation, and worse, replied with a canned response. Canned responses should NEVER be used when a corporation is taking disciplinary actions against their members. Their customers. Some where along the line staff forgot compassion when dealing with the public. With this type of website, compassion must be first in the minds of those that control the switch to permanently ban a member.

No offense, and you do seem like a very sweet person, but I'm not after guessing. I'm not sure I understand why a mod wouldn't know... If there was a way to contact and have a conversation with Staff, I would go directly to the PTB with all my concerns.

I am not so sure I agree with you. If a corporation knows without any doubts that a member disobeyed the rules, and feels that the punishment of banning is the just and correct punishment, they WOULD NOT invite the member to sign up with their corporation again, and to sign up using a different member name. An upstanding corporation would never say those words to a banned member. It is always better to err in favor of the member, then not to. It is better for a few bad members to slip through the cracks, then for even one good member to slip through those cracks. A good corporation, with a good customer (member) service department, will stop what they are doing and deal with the member on a personal level.

I really don't think anyone expects mods, especially untrained ones to have that kind of power. Though I do have some power where I am a mod, and I can ban (lock out) and mute, I can't do this site wide. That should be left to the paid staff, the employees. However, if I found out that, for example, Member-A got into trouble for something that I thought was unjust, or unfair, or untrue, then absolutely, I would go to staff with my thoughts... Why wouldn't I? Btw... No one can really answer... Black Marks, are they removed after a 'certain' amount of good behavior? If not, as a Mod, that would definitely be a 'new thread' I would start in the staff forum, to be discussed...

Then why aren't you discussing this with staff? As a mod you should be able to stand up for those members that you believe to be telling the truth. As a mod you should be able to discuss with staff when you think they are wrong in their decisions... As a mod you should be able to discuss anything with staff. You should also have a way to email staff privately and discuss anything, with unlimited characters... ?

I don't mean to sound as though I am against RS's TOS, because I am not. And, even though I don't agree with some of the rules, that doesn't mean I don't abide by them. Of course I do. It is the way they handle banning and muting, that I disagree with. The use of canned responses (which I personally tested), and the use of them when it concerns being banned, muted, or just reprimanded. I disagree with. To invite a member back to the fold that was banned, stating that the member may use a new member name, does not look good. Black Marks... After (insert scale) a certain amount of time, these should go away, if there are no other infractions.

That made little to no sense... but... ;)

I'd like to respond to this, because I am a mod - Volunteer *Community Support Team* member/mod. Absolutely!! I'm not really positive what the reasons are, but yes, we are treated horribly by many members because we are mods and have direct contact with staff. Many of these members were friends before, but not after. Jealousy was, and is, our first thoughts also, but I think there is more to it then just that...possibly anyway...

You are taking this personally, instead of having a conversation. That is what 'forums' are about -- conversation. However, you are incorrect... I may play, but I pay. Since I pay, that does indeed make me a customer and/or client. I know that mods aren't paid, but you are taking this as an offense to mods. This has nothing to do with mods. The way staff treats it's members, the way things are handled is what I disagree with. I know many mods on the game, and have become very close friends to them. There is bad everywhere, so I NEVER judge all because of the few. This is what I have been saying, and, communication. Please, remove 'take this personally' from your thoughts, and then reread my posts... :) Also, remember that along with my personal opinions, I was also responding to what others were saying... ;)

You attack the poster, instead of the post. This is what a forum troll would do. Not a mod of any company. Once you act the part of a troll, the rest of message is not worth reading. You might try to proof read a little also. :-)