Tip.It Times Presents: The Nightmare of Customer Service

[abomb67]

 

Can we have something less dreary next week (no offense). The last two weeks we've just had rants.

 

 

 

Last week was an interview....

 

 

 

abomb67

[wcdd777]

Great Article I agree that if you got banned and its your fualt becuse you did something dumb then you should not bug jagex, but if you got banned for no reason or so you think that should be the only reason that you should customer support.

[thunderg_cid]

well i dont have problems with customer support. I'm f2p and I lay low.

[joso]

Great article. Very well thought out. I like the fact that there are some people in this game capable of at least trying to see all this from Jagex's point of view.

[PBG8704]

I feel this artical hit the nail on the head, customer support has a very tough job I know this because I am a desktop support tech for a major Insurance company and you wouldnt believe the crap I have to take from people who created there own problems. So everyone out there just set back and relax and let the blame lay with the one who created it. :P

 

 

 

I've got to say again that I agree with the article, if you pay $5 dollars a month (I Do) you get a good amount of customer service for the millions of accounts that are signed on to RS. I'm a CSR (Customer Service Rep) and I know there are a lot of people who disregard game rules, or just figure that because they are "gracing us" with their presence we should bend over backward for them. It's this simple if you screwed up and did something wrong, deal with the consequences, don't throw a fit because you don't think you need to follow the rules, OKAY?????!

[theflandaddy]

A MEN. Thats exactly what I've always wanted to say to all those stupid little kids bugging the begeeses out of Jagex.

[sirlaser]

Don't get mad at Tip.It for running this. They can't tell the truth or Jagex will sue them :roll:

 

 

 

But I do hate those 10 year old who walk out in the wild with their new armor set then flame/scam/bug the hell out jagex

[diverboy699]

Good Article! I liked it, although I wish we could have had a Jagex Costumer Service guy to help it out, though that may have been having our hopes to high.

 

 

 

I think it's good that you explained to people, that jagex people are well, real people. They aren't just some virtual verbal punching bag, that you throw as much profanity as you can at, but real people. They also aren't AI robots, that answer your every question the exact way you want, down to the letter. They're real people, and they don't (or so I presume) know the ins and outs of runescape 100%.

 

 

 

While they probably do have a few different sections for Customer Service, they still don't know the fastest way to do something, down to when to run, and when not too. And there are bound to be some things, neither jagex nor they thought of, and at that point, yelling at them will do even less good then before.

 

 

 

Also you said in your article, that basically the 2 real problematic things in the games are when people (who are only human and can never be perfect) make mistakes (total acceptable), and then the people who then exploit those said mistakes (should be shunned into the darkest corner of hell). And sadly, there will always be these 2 types of people. But that is not without saying that we should just give up now, and all surrender to the scammers, hackers, and cheater's lowly way of personal gain. We can ALL work together to reduce their numbers and methods.

 

 

 

Finally, I think its good that people should remember to ONLY message jagex when they truely need it. Messaging them to ask about what happened on "Lost" last night, obviously isn't helping anyone (well maybe yourself, but thats besides the point!). Personally I try to message jagex ONLY when necassary. For instance, if it has anything to do with the rules such as falls into "3rd Party download" section, or a question of a Player Mods, that I heard on a fansite, I ask jagex. That way they can answer me, I can trust them, and I won't get banned for saying a website adress.

 

 

 

Well, once again, nice article as usual, I love reading them! Oh, and according to Jagex's corporate site, (edited off I think) one time said that there were over 3,000,000 accounts on runescape (wow!)

[Nova_bros]

Sorry but im not buying a single word of this article.

 

 

 

Jagex's customer support STINKS. I keep a spreadsheet of all my queries, the type of response, if it is relevant, who answers it, etc.

 

 

 

At a 2:1 ratio of Auto to staff responses

 

And a 60% unrelated response (whether its auto or staff responded)

 

and queries that have taken almost two weeks (YES TWO WEEKS)

 

to be responded to are pathetic.

 

 

 

If you called a mcdonalds restaraunt, you would get better customer service than Jagex gives.

 

 

 

With over 200K paying members (a guess) then they should stop adding worlds in atlantis and mars and hire some more staff.

 

 

 

I wont be supportive until unfair bannings, week long response waits, etc disappear.

[Evil_Entity0]

I have mixed feelings about this one...i think the making excuses for customer service is ridiculous. The part that talks about how Jagex needs some help with their company is good (they need more CS).

 

 

 

The whole "you pay $5 and expect $5000 worth of service" is just plain ridiculous. You know why we pay $5? Because that's what they are asking. Bottom line is, we are purchasing what they are selling and therefore they should offer decent customer support (regardless of price), easy as that.

 

 

 

Lol you people need to think about this. $5 a month is $60 bucks a year. That is more than a ps2 game costs. Companies that produce ps2 games have a MUCH higher overhead than Jagex. The, ehrm, more professional companies have MANY more employees, and they have to pay for advertising AND they have to pay for the cost of making the game CDs, manuals, jewel cases, etc. Now, Jagex does have to pay to keep their servers up, which is a significant cost, but it doesn't compare to the corporate overhead and production overhead that other companies need to pay. The point is, Jagex is coming out incredibly well with the "only $5 a month".

 

 

 

I've said it before, and i'll probably say it again. If Jagex is going to play in the big leagues then they need to play professionally, and at this point they aren't. Sure, they are happy to take more people's money, but they aren't willing to pay for improved Customer Service? That's not a professional business model. They've been called up to the majors and they are still playing bush league. You either adapt to new circumstances or you go bye-bye...

 

 

 

The core of the game is great, no doubt. But the game is not a professional product at this point. The game needs polish ( the many glaring spelling and grammar errors, naming inconsistensies, etc), the customer service is lacking, the lack of communication with the community on important issues (ex. proof for banning) is unsatisfactory, the website is clunky, the chat censor is hands down the worst i've ever seen in my life, obvious old bugs should be fixed (ex the moonwalking, especially since they banned some guy for mentioning michael jackson, haha), reaction time to banning autoers is way too slow (after they've already flooded the market with their goods), etc., etc.

 

 

 

They need to stop releasing pointless quests every week and spend that time polishing the game to professional standards. They need to revamp their customer service: They need numerous mods available 24/7. The mods need to actively seek out rulebreakers and use this super cheat detecting technology that Jagex tells us they have to ban them (or at least kick them until proof can be established) right on the spot. Players should be able to communicate with these mods directly while playing. They should get rid of ambiguous rules that allow for banning with no proof. When players are banned the proof used to justify the ban should be presented to them instead of just telling what rule they supposedly broke. Appeals should be taken more seriously. If an appeal is denied still without sufficient proof, then the appeal should be allowed to be presented to a "higher court" so to speak. This is just where they need to start... there are many more things that need to be fixed.

 

 

 

I know someone is gonna say "you're just made cuz you got banned!" But that's not true, i've never been banned, muted, locked, hacked, anything like that. I have had to (try to) communicate with customer support in the past though, and it's been a terrible experience. I have only received automated responses from them, and sometimes the responses weren't even relevant to what i sent them. Plus, the current paranioa about being banned from innocent things like one sided trades for letting someone borrow an item or giving gifts is unnacceptable too. I have business experience and experience with the game industry and i am simply objectively discussing problems that i see and i am also suggesting solutions to them.

 

 

 

 

 

Very well said, and it's the truth.

 

 

 

EDIT: Sorry for the long quote, but I just had to put it all in...

[xequma]

For me, i could not stand being and customer support guy. I really enjoyed reading your post and all of your postest. well rune tips, keep up the amazing work you do on this site!

[bringiton55]

customer service completely sucks. one time, i was dueling friend at dueling arena... we accedently put no mele or magic, but range on... and no forfeit... neither of us had arrows or darts or sumthin. i wrote jagex customer support about it, saying i was stuck in dueling arena... FIVE DAYS LATER they wrote me back, saying they could help... five days, i couldnt do anything on runescape...

[lovh0]

I liked it, and it brought up a few good points.

[agamemnus]

This is B.S. How unlucky can you get when C.S. hasn't replied to your last 25 pleas for help?

[ryan_mcwood]

when ever u send them a feed back,

 

they never give you a answer, rathger just send you a,

 

copied message ! :evil:

[Mr_Hyde1218]

first off, to anyone who's complaining about customer service on this thread after just reading the article should just go outside and climb a streetlight or something.

 

 

 

ok, now that they're out of the way.

 

i liked the article. one little thing i didn't like was the extended metaphor with the demon and what not, but it did get the message across nonetheless. the article did seem to draw from the subject of the biased banning, but thats perfectly ok since that has been the huge subject of the RS community for a good time now.

 

overall, good article.

 

 

 

ok, you guys can come back inside now.

[nelch]

i dont think i really have an oppinion on this article ive never really used customer support so i dont know how well its run.

 

 

 

what i will say is i dont think you should have recycled a post and used it as an article. i think it would have been better to make a proper article like you do every week and introduce a new section to the weekly article, a best weekly post section where the editor chooses his favourite post of the week and runs it alongside the main article. i think this would be a gr8 idea as it would encorage people to write the best posts that they can in order to try and get the editors choice of the weeks posts.

[Wilmot]

This is B.S. How unlucky can you get when C.S. hasn't replied to your last 25 pleas for help?

 

 

 

The problem is that people send 25 queries. I think I've sent about 6 ever and that includes old bug reports and suggestions before forums.

 

 

 

I agrtee with this articles, it's a hard job to fill well. It's not very well paid and many people get pretty sick of it. At the end of the day, some cs staff probably don't give a monkey if your banned of not - it's just a case of 30 seconds, ban or not ban, next please.

[Babbler]

I got hacked, the guy macroed (auto spammed chat) to get me banned, and jagex wouldnt do a thing, loosing me my full drag (which was in bank and nice and safe). I was a defence dueler (60atk 49str 60def)

 

And as a result, I hate customer support, might be releasing my one and only staking vid, but mebbe not.

 

 

 

By the way, you mentioned the cost of dialup internet comparing it with RS, how are you supposed to play RS without internet :roll:

 

 

 

mmm, im writing an article called "Why?" refering to why we play rs when there are so many game with better graphical and better gameplay content.

 

Doubt ill submit it, enough rambling though.

 

 

 

I think its jagex's duty to listen to the players views, and most players (quite obviously) think the customer support needs an overhaul, other games do it, why cant jagex.

[Banim]

I have to agree with some points of this article.

 

 

 

You can't really say if Customer Support sucks or not if you haven't see some of the work from inside. As a Runescape F-Mod, I can say they do the best they can, I can say they care a lot, but as said in the article, with the amount of players there is in the game, it's impossible to deal with every single problem.

 

 

 

There is more work than meets the eye.

[Grond]

 

 

 

 

 

They need to stop releasing pointless quests every week and spend that time polishing the game to professional standards.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes!! Exactly. Right after they came out with thier 100th quest; massive,challenging ect (trumpets sounding), they release their 101st.

 

 

 

I saw that and wanted to barf in a bucket.... Now dont get me wrong, I like quests but thats not what the game was intended for. Every week, 1 more quest. I was thrilled that they took a break from that and made the Mage training arena. Wonderful! A great and useful addition that many people were happy for. You dont see many people saying "Yes!! another Quest!." It would be great if jagex would give it a rest and go back to creative ideas like the Burrows, wilderness capes, ect.

 

 

 

Another thing that jagex could use is more mods. Since the population explosion the ratio of mods to players has really gotten small. More mods would definitly lighten the load on CS andwould help weed out "cheating scum" as well. I have been playing for a year and have never seen an official jagex staff member. It would be nice if once in a while the staff could log in and help people (answer questions, get feedback and ideas ect).

 

 

 

Just my opinion........

[aximili_E_I]

I agree CS needs an overhaul but they are human so it may mean that they are in denail of there own problem(lack of good CS)

[Dr_Elephant]

We have had a number of requests asking that we use the post as an article, and we agreed that it was a good idea. And I'm sure that not everyone has read the topic (as evidenced by the comments thus far).

 

 

 

It's also important to remember that not EVERYONE who uses our main site and reads the Times use our forums. They wouldn't have seen Hugh_Mannity's topic before, and we felt it was such a good piece that we should share with ALL our members, not only our forum users.

 

 

 

In a way, my post was a backhanded compliment. I come to Tip.It expecting to be entertained and informed because I've always been entertained and/or informed.

 

 

 

Waiting another week for a new article won't kill me though. :)

[vlad_the_old]

Give the man / woman a well deserved gold star (or a date with the Monster of their choice) for a very well written article.

 

 

 

We are all very quick to point the finger and carry on for ages about the shortcomings od Jagex - but how many other popular games of this type can be played for free? For this very reason RS was picked to study peoples gaming habits (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4774534.stm )

 

 

 

For those that do P2P - the fees are a lot less.

 

 

 

It really is up to us to make the place better for all - so perhaps at times we should congratulate them about things they do get right - also rather than ranting about an aspect we do not like, perhaps it would be better to try and suggest an improvement

[frizoid]

 

 

 

 

 

They need to stop releasing pointless quests every week and spend that time polishing the game to professional standards.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes!! Exactly. Right after they came out with thier 100th quest; massive,challenging ect (trumpets sounding), they release their 101st.

 

 

 

I saw that and wanted to barf in a bucket.... Now dont get me wrong, I like quests but thats not what the game was intended for. Every week, 1 more quest. I was thrilled that they took a break from that and made the Mage training arena. Wonderful! A great and useful addition that many people were happy for. You dont see many people saying "Yes!! another Quest!." It would be great if jagex would give it a rest and go back to creative ideas like the Burrows, wilderness capes, ect.

 

 

 

Another thing that jagex could use is more mods. Since the population explosion the ratio of mods to players has really gotten small. More mods would definitly lighten the load on CS andwould help weed out "cheating scum" as well. I have been playing for a year and have never seen an official jagex staff member. It would be nice if once in a while the staff could log in and help people (answer questions, get feedback and ideas ect).

 

 

 

Just my opinion........

 

 

 

the staff that deals with queries are completely different from the staff that deal with updates, stopping the updates would do nothing to improve customer service, if anything it would actually hinder it as noobs will rant to customer support on their not being any updates.

 

 

 

The forums are for feedback and questions, customer support is for anything account based. Having mods logging into game to solely answer questions is a waste of resources though some do play occasionally if they have spare time. Most of the mods you will see logging in game are not customer support related, so complaining about bannings etc to them is a waste of time as well.