Customer Support and basic logic

[unindexedsearchengine]

Yay! Everyone's favorite subject has returned: shitty customer service services!
My current run-in is with Blizzard. So i get an email notification about my account being locked "due to suspicious activity", i'm not worrying, since this happens every few months, so it's routine, i go through it till the part where they send me an sms with a security code that needs to be input. No sms. I resend the code, still no sms. So i try contacting customer support, when i attempt to open a ticket. It asks me what the issue is, i select "i cannot log in". Then, when i try to submit the ticket, IT WANTS ME TO LOG IN. When I click the link "can't log in?" it sends me back to password recovery, the place with the sms code. So now i'm stuck with it.

What annoying and plain stupid run-ins have you guys had with shitty customer support services?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I've been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Crappy customer service doesn't compare to crappy customers.

 

[thesilentman]

I've been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Crappy customer service doesn't compare to crappy customers.

I understand. I opened up a private service to fix computers one time, and it went pretty well except for that one guy who thought he knew more about computers than me. I refuted his thoughts by showing him how weak his computer was security wise. I felt good in that instance, but there were some other people that made me feel justified in denying computer help.

OT- Microsoft wanted 200 USD to fix a group policy error back when I ran Vista. Er, MS, I hope you realize that 200 USD gets me a full copy of Windows 7 Professional? Do you?

I then dumped Vista for Windows 8, because as far as I'm concerned, anything's an upgrade from Vista and I like living at the bleeding edge.

And someone at Micro Center was rather tight-lipped when I tried to get a Windows 8 Pro virtual machine working on my laptop. They had handed me an upgrade edition except for the full OEM copy even AFTER I paid for the OEM copy[footnote]The OEM copy cost 140 USD, while the upgrade cost 70 USD. That explains my frustration right there![/footnote]. Much cursing ensued.

Yeah, I mostly have tech support issues as I can fix most of my problems through research on Google.

 

[Ryotknife]

hate to say it OP, but are you sure you didnt fall for a phishing scheme? I get fake emails asking for my info for wow all the time.

As for customer service, I always go in with the attitude of trying to work with the person on the other end first. I find that people usually want to help someone who is nice and respectful to them, and will even be willing to bend the rules sometimes to help you out.

If you go in breathing fire, dont expect the person on the other end to lift a finger to help you, job or not. That said, sometimes you have to because some people will string you about forever and will find any opening to pawn your problem off or dismiss you.


As for blizzard specifically, mixed bag for me. Sometimes they are quite useless. My friend got his account hacked and our guild figured it out right away because we saw him steal from the guild bank as someone was using it. We ended up following him while opening a ticket to try to get his account temp frozen for 24 hours. We even have screenshots showing who he was giving money to (we had stealthers follow to his drop point). Yes i realize it sounds like a bad spy flick, but it did happen. In the end the GM (gamemaster) did nothing.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

hate to say it OP, but are you sure you didnt fall for a phishing scheme? I get fake emails asking for my info for wow all the time.

So do I but this was the official thing, and i check my bnet account after each email BEFORE doing anything with the links in the email, so i'm pretty sure it's legit. If it's not, then i'm clearly retarded and deserve this. Don't mean i'm givin up.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

I've been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Crappy customer service doesn't compare to crappy customers.

I hear you. I've been doing some summer work for a little income. Worked as a cashier at multiple fine establishments, and DAMN some people are arseholes.

And i've also had quite nice experiences with customer-support, even with blizz. Back when diablo 3 came out i had some cd-key issues and i opted for phone-support and a guy with the most soothing Scottish accent helped me all the way through my problem.I almost wished something else went wrong just so i can listen to that some more. Also Ubisoft support is quite helpful aswell.

 

[gertmenkel]

I once called my phone company, they have those annoying phone menu's (press 1 to do this, press 2 to do that...) in Dutch. Last option was "Druk op 5 om de taal in Engels te veranderen" (Press 5 to change the language into English). They probably don't have any customers whose native language is English, or they just hate them.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Well I wouldn't put it as "bad customer service" but I few months ago, I got this email from Namco Bandai...

August 31, 2012
Dear customer,

Thank you for ordering on Namco Bandai Games America. The release date for the preorder product has changed. The product listed below will now be available on September 4, 2012.

Product Name: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition Club Namco Exclusive

If you aren't familiar with Ni No Kuni, the release date is January 2013 and that's what it's always been. Imagine my surprise when Bandai informed me that the release date miraculously jumped to just a few days away.

About a half hour later I got this email from them...

Dear customer,

Thank you for ordering on Namco Bandai Games America. The release date for the preorder product has changed. The product listed below will now be available on January 22, 2013.

Product Name: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition Club Namco Exclusive

Oops...

 

[Avaholic03]

I've been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Crappy customer service doesn't compare to crappy customers.

To take it further, I think crappy customers cause crappy customer service. Not only do they take up the time and patience of customer service reps (who are then more likely to take it out on other customers), but they cause companies to put in idiotic troubleshooting techniques to help people who apparently can't even tie their own shoes without help.

For instance, calling the cable company when the modem failed resulted in 5 separate people telling me to power cycle the damn thing. As if that wasn't the very first thing I tried. I went through 5 people who apparently that was the extent of their training before I finally talked to someone knowledgeable enough to recognize a hardware failure and sent me a new modem. I wouldn't call that bad customer service because I understand why they do it...but it is really god damn annoying.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

Was fixing my grandpa's internet and i needed the isp to reset everything for me. So i called them up, explained the problem, told him what i needed him to do.. but he still made me go through the "try turning your modem on and off" shit.. spent an hour and half telling him yes ive done that till he finally gave up asked me what it was i wanted him to do at the start, he did it, and then everything worked. On top of that id already had to wait an hour before i actually got to talk to anyone.

 

[Aariana]

A few months ago, I had to reset my smartphone. Stupid me, I forgot to deauthorize the Blizzard authenticator from it. And of course, without the authenticator, I couldn't log in to my account. So I emailed Blizzard, gave all the information I figured they needed to prove I was who I said I was, and asked to have it removed from my account. I waited. And waited. And then about a month after that I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna try logging into my account, see if maybe it's fixed and the email got caught by my spam filter.

So I logged in. With no problem. Looked at my account, and there was a message from a Blizzard CSR saying that they removed the authenticator. In my account. That I was unable to log into cause of the authenticator...

 

[Verkula]

Good Blizzard experience here as well. They were helpful enough to give me my WoW account and all of my stuff back after i was hacked twice in a row in a single week.

Now this was before everyone had to switch to battlenet, so im not sure how it is these days, but im sure to find out soon since my battlenet account is suspended "due to suspicious activity" for a while now and i just dont feel like pulling out all my serial keys and information and shit just to get it back. Ill just wait until ill actually have time to play or a game that needs battlenet.

So I logged in. With no problem. Looked at my account, and there was a message from a Blizzard CSR saying that they removed the authenticator. In my account. That I was unable to log into cause of the authenticator...

Hmmmm maybe theyve sent you and email about it as well but it didnt arrive?

 

[Blunderboy]

I've been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Crappy customer service doesn't compare to crappy customers.

Oh this. A thousand times.

P.I.C.N.I.C

Problem
In
Chair.
Not
In
Computer.

 

[thejackyl]

Only bad customer service I've received was from Gamestop. I bought some used games, took them home, they didn't work, so I tried to return them the next day. I had the receipt and everything, and they refused to take them back because: "We would never accept a trade-in in that condition. You should really take better care of your discs."

And back in 2002 when I was trading in 3 games (The games came out a few months ago) and 2 GBA link cables, and I only got $6 in-store credit, which back than apparently expired at the end of the month. And me being 15, without a job, I wasn't able to return in time to use the card.

And the best part of this story is that I still have to shop there, because none of the local stores sell a decent variety of games for the PS3. And I prefer not to buy online (Shipping usually makes it end up costing more than going to the store.) So I just don't buy used, or buy any of the extra shit they try to sell you.