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TERA subscription error affects thousands [Updated]
According to several tipsters and many, many pages on TERA's forums, something's gone badly wrong with En Masse's account system. The studio admits that some players have been billed immediately upon selecting a subscription plan instead of being billed after the 30 days. Other players have reported not being able to log in at all, as the game cannot find their subscriptions or free time and delivers an "expired account" error. En Masse posted that it is aware of the situation and is working to resolve it. The studio says that players who purchased a physical copy of the game and signed up for a subscription before entering their game code triggered this problem. However, we've also had reports of players who have encountered this error when dealing with digital copies. Affected players should now be able to log in to TERA while En Masse works on fixing the error. [Thanks to Andrew, Schippie, and Alex for the tip!] [Update: En Masse has contacted us to note that the 2000 players have been affected by the "insufficient remaining subscription time" issue, not the "immediate billing" error. En Masse says that these are two separate issues that the studio is actively working to resolve as fast as possible. We've updated this article accordingly.]
Patch 4.3.4 patch notes, new customer support changes live
A minor patch for World of Warcraft was deployed this morning. There are no gameplay changes, and this isn't the patch with the world events leading into Mists of Pandaria. The changes introduced in this patch are designed to streamline the ticket submission UI. Patch 4.3.4 notes A new Submit Bug button has been added. Clicking this option will open a report dialog box, along with basic instructions on what to include in your bug report. A new Submit Suggestion button has been added. Clicking this option will open a text dialog box, along with a description of what to include in your suggestion. The Report Lag button has been removed. The Report Abuse button is now called Report Player. The Report Player function offers four categories: Spamming, Language, Name, and Cheating. Reporting a player for Cheating now opens a text window in which a description of the occurrence can be written. Reporting a Name opens a window with three categories: Player Name, Guild Name, and Arena Team Name. There is also a text field for optional information. Report Player now includes text and visual instructions for how to submit a report. Right-clicking a character's portrait now offers additional reporting options. source If you're having problems patching your client to 4.3.4 and you're using the 64-bit client, you'll need to follow some additional instructions, which we've included past the cut below.
Blizzard highlights customer support changes coming in patch 4.3.4
Blizzard has updated the Customer Support options in the upcoming patch 4.3.4 for WoW, including a brand new interface for dealing with in-game harassment, naming violations, and cheating. These features have been in the game previously but were buried a bit in the customer support window (which was, admittedly, funky at best). Now things seem a bit more straightforward. Hit the jump for the full announcement.
Love is in the Air customer support policy
Blizzard has posted a guide to what customer service and support can and cannot do for players during Love is in the Air, the WoW in-game holiday that runs between Feb. 5 through 20. As with most in-game events like this, players will be getting exclusive items, quests, tokens, prizes, and chances on really rare items like mounts from daily bosses. These events are designed to be rare and happen only once a year, and Blizzard stresses (again, by design) that these titles, achievements, and other event goodies need to be acquired during the holiday. Legitimate claims of items lost with logs will be restored as normal, but Blizzard wanted to make sure people knew in advance that item purchases and achievement-related issues during this limited-time event will most likely not be able to be addressed. Putting out notices like this is definitely a nice move by the community team. Many people have complained in the past of not knowing when a new event was starting in game or that their schedules did not permit them to complete all of the necessary holiday achievements and get all of the accompanying items. For many of those, the bright line rule is that "Blizzard wants these things to be rare," so they are rare by design. Remember: Get your holiday stuff done ASAP. This is your early notice that things will most likely not be given to you if you miss the event. The full blue post, after the break.
Microsoft launches AnswerDesk online, brings tech support to your basement apartment
Love getting others to fix your computer, but hate the nuisance of putting on pants and leaving your house? Great news! Microsoft has launched an online version of its in-store AnswerDesk tech support, letting customers get the help they need from the comfort of their own busted computer. You can go online to get live chat-based help from a selection of techs 24/7. The service lets you shop for assistants, based on experience for troubleshooting help. The first taste is free -- if you need additional support with things like remote virus removal or system training, however, it'll cost you. The service requires a Windows Live ID and can be found at the source link below.
Blizzard releases customer support how-to videos
As part of its continued fight against account hacking and account compromise, Blizzard's customer support department has started a YouTube channel dedicated to hosting how-to videos on security, what to do if your account is hacked, general security tips, and how to use the Battle.net authenticator. Not only are the videos educational and helpful, they are also adorably fun, making security as enjoyable as it possibly can be. Not only is this an awesome service for Blizzard to put out, the videos offer excellent ideas for online security in general. The tips in the general account security video are great tips to follow, even if you aren't a gamer. Everyone on the internet should be following these security tips. Good on you, Blizzard, for this awesome community service. I don't think we can give the customer support guys enough shout-outs. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Netflix beefing up service center in preparation for global launch
It's no secret that Netflix has grand plans to expand its global footprint that now feeds media to some 20 million North American subscribers. Hell, the company was boasting of the "significant dollars" allocated to its 2011 international expansion plans just four months ago. While nothing's official yet, we've unearthed a few tantalizing openings posted to the Netflix job site over the last few days that could point to an imminent launch. Notably, Netflix's customer service call center in Hillsboro Oregon is gearing up to expand its scope of operations beyond North America. Two new job postings for a Training Supervisor and Quality Assurance Analyst both mention the need to prepare for "rapid" international expansion and "will support a specific country / region outside of North America." The Training Supervisor is being hired specifically to educate customer service reps in preparation for that future international growth. Neflix is looking for fluency in English in addition to Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European), leaving things pretty wide open with regard to the countries targeted for initial launch. We do know that Netflix had plans to launch in the UK way back in 2004 -- plans that were ultimately scrapped in order to focus on its core US business (and later Canada). But if not the UK then we should at least expect to see Netflix target the European continent first if a statement attributed to CEO Reed Hastings from way back in January of 2010 still rings true: "the big market for Hollywood content (after the U.S.) is Europe...Third is Asia. Fourth is the rest of the world." Can't let Amazon have the market to itself now can we Reed? [Thanks, Chico]
Public Service Announcement: Don't file false GM reports
This may seem like common sense to a lot of people, but it came up as an issue recently on the official Customer Support forums. The message is simple: Don't file false GM tickets. Whether you're doing it to get back at someone you dislike, to play a prank on someone, or just because you're bored, don't do it. Support forum agent Nevalistis points out that false reports are is against the Game Master interaction policy. Each GM petition is taken seriously, and if the GMs see a pattern of frivolous or false reports, they can and will take action from warnings all the way up to suspension or permanent account closure. Those of us who have tried to petition a GM lately know how long the queue times are -- so from all of us with legitimate problems, please make sure your ticket is legit. It may save your account, it may save a GM's sanity, and it'll certainly help those with real problems get the help they need a little faster.
Momentus XT hybrid drive causing headaches, Seagate working to fix
All's not well in hybrid solid state storage land, as owners of Seagate's Momentus XT are facing serious issues with their drives -- despite glowing initial reviews, a number of long-term users claim that the drives chirp, crash, stutter, and freeze with alarming regularity, particularly when installed in a Mac. Seagate forumgoers speculate these are symptoms of the XT's magnetic platters spinning down inappropriately, due to an overzealous power management scheme. That's the bad news -- and it sounds pretty bad -- but the good news is this: Seagate's owning up to the issues, and is actively involved in getting them fixed. So far, a pair of new firmware updates have addressed some symptoms, a third is on the way, and a Seagate engineer known only as STX_NB is proactively chatting with affected customers about possible fixes. That's what we call technical support -- take notes, tech companies.
Blizzard opens EU customer service Twitter account
A few months ago, Blizzard opened a Twitter account for its U.S. customer support team. Though it seems to mostly be used to retweet accolades for support staff and keep followers abreast of ticket queue times, there are also helpful links to hot CS topics and support-related announcements mixed in there. Now, players in Europe can take advantage of the same service with the Blizzard EU CS Twitter account. Between the official Warcraft Twitter account and the new Game Guide/community site, it's good to see Blizzard finally embracing social networking and web 2.0.
Apple trademarks 'Express Lane' and 'VoicePass'
Apple has filed two new trademarks right before the holidays this week. VoicePass is the first one -- it's filed in the category of "construction and repair services," so it likely has to do with supporting broken devices. MacNN says that the VoicePass service is used when calling in to customer support -- certain customers in the US and Canada can have a support number recognized automatically by the phone systerm, avoiding having to identify themselves every time they call. So this likely isn't a new service or implementation -- Apple is likely just filing to cover a little-known service it already runs. Same deal with Express Lane, another trademark filed by Apple this week. Express Lane is Apple's streamlined product repair system, and the company has filed for a trademark on the name involving "web based support and diagnostic services by using resources and tools for computer software and computer hardware provided on-line and over telecommunications networks." Again -- this is a service that Apple already runs, but the company is laying claim to the names in these areas, just in case.
Google: Chrome OS laptops won't dual boot with Windows, live customer support for Cr-48 owners
We know there's a lot to digest after Google's Chrome OS event today, but following the shindig we caught a few minutes with Google VP of Product Management Sundar Pichai. While he wouldn't answer our questions about upcoming Chrome OS laptops -- you know, the ones coming from partners such as Acer and Samsung in mid-2011 -- he did tell us that those Atom-powered laptops won't dual boot Windows. In fact, he told us that "certified" Chrome OS laptops won't support dual boot environments at all. Of course, the Cr-48 has a root feature so it will likely be able to run Windows (assuming there's enough flash storage), but it's clear that major manufacturers won't be shipping laptops with Google and Microsoft operating systems living side by side. With that said, we asked Sundar about one of the major concerns we've had about Chrome OS: customer support. (Some history here -- we've heard from a few laptop manufacturers that Google's lack of customer service for the computer OS is a major issue and a legitimate reservation). Sundar said that it's a valid concern, but that the OS is incredibly simple and that Google doesn't expect to have many confused or troubled customers when it's ready for primetime. Nevertheless, Google will provide live support for those that receive a Cr-48 and help with any and all issues. No word on if that aid will continue past this limited pilot program, but we're sure there will be more much more to come on all of this next year.
Blizzard announces automated account recovery form for hacked accounts
World of Warcraft accounts have been under siege for years, with hackers and gold-selling outlets stealing passwords, items and more to fill their coffers, selling that gold to unwitting buyers. Blizzard has fought back incessantly over the years to stem the tide of gold farming and account hacking, and as you can imagine, the scale at which this happens is very tasking on its customer support department. Blizzard has just announced a new, speedier way to get help and answered about your hacked account, stolen items, authenticator issues and more! Now, under the new system, you will not have to email or call Blizzard to get these matters into its queue -- simply use the Account Recovery Form.
Blizzard customer service now has its own Twitter account
Blizzard has just announced via its Warcraft Twitter account and the forums that the Customer Support team now has its own Twitter. The full text of the forum announcement is below: Auryk You can now follow all Blizzard Entertainment Customer Support news and updates on Twitter. Just head over to @BlizzardCS, (http://twitter.com/BlizzardCS) for the latest Support related news, events and more. We will be providing constant updates during Tuesday's maintenance and service outages. Additionally, you will be able to view updates to our Queue Times for Game Master interactions, account investigations and escalated tickets alike. source No word if the intermittent outages of the authentication system that were recently being experienced will be reported on this new Twitter account, but I think this is a step in the right direction for further increasing the communication from Blizzard to its customer base.
Anti-Aliased: The customers aren't always right, but they should be supported
The customer isn't always right. Trust me, I know, I use to work at GameStop. *shivers at the thought of pushing reserves* Sometimes, the customer is wrong -- dead wrong -- but that doesn't mean the customer shouldn't be supported and appreciated. Customer support is one of those areas of MMO games that often goes overlooked when it goes right, or put under a spotlight when it goes wrong. There is no middle ground with that department, and the many good people who put long hours into making sure your account properly works don't get enough thanks Well, let's fix that. Today I want to talk about two recent interactions I've had with customer support, but I also want to address a few issues that I have with the system as well.
Google starts live phone support for Nexus One owners
Google readily admits that its Nexus One customer support at launch was lacking. However, the Goog says that it's committed to improving the experience as it blazes a path into the world of consumer handset sales. Today, more than a month since the launch of the Nexus One, Google is offering owners access to a real live person via 888-48NEXUS (63987). The new support line is operational from 07:00am to 10:00pm PST and augments Google's support forums, FAQs and email support. Unfortunately, Google's live support line seems limited to status and shipping issues -- for live tech support you'll still have to call either HTC customer care number or T-Mobile depending upon the issue. And of course, the whole thing changes if you're an international user. As convoluted as it all sounds, an unamed Google spokesperson still claims that "live phone support from Google, combined with an optimized on-line support experience, enables a superior Nexus One customer experience." Sure it does: the average consumer just loves looking through on-line forums and FAQs to solve issues before picking up the phone to complain. [Thanks, Phil L.]
Blizzard Twitter contest winners still await prizes [Updated]
Followers of the official Warcraft Twitter will recall that Blizzard ran a contest some months back using the #Battlecry hashtag, encouraging players to tweet a message for either the Alliance or the Horde depending on the background of their Twitter page. It was a pretty cool promotion and was a great social media activity for fans, who proudly showed their World of Warcraft allegiances throughout the contest period. An interesting post came up on Pixelated Geek the other day, however, wondering about the results of that contest and if Blizzard had ever gotten around to giving prizes to winners. Or if they'd ever gotten around to contacting the winners at all. The writer notes that he himself was a winner, having received a tweet from @Warcraft requesting for further details, an e-mail he promptly responded to. He then notes sending several more e-mails to the noted address as well as to customer service but has not yet gotten a single reply to date, nearly two and a half months after the contest ended on August 24. The author also notes several other Twitter users who were asking the same question -- as it turns out, more than a few #Battlecry winners also hadn't received prizes nor responses from Blizzard. One follower asked, "any news for the winners of #battlecry? I haven't heard or received anything yet," while another mused, "Wondering when I will receive my prize from the #Battlecry contest." Still another asked, "has anyone got their Battlecry prize yet? I haven't received anything" just last November 6. One WoW.com reader even wrote us at the end of October confirming the same thing, that he had won but had not received any word from Blizzard, much less a prize. Update: We have received word from one of the winners that Blizzard sent them an email confirming their prize will be sent soon.
How do you support players that don't trust your support?
Let's face facts -- people don't like admitting that they don't know something or need help. They'd rather hammer at the problem until they solve it themselves, or they'd rather ask a trusted friend for help. Kids are super guilty of this, as they'd rather not tell an adult when they can't do something themselves.So how do you work with kids when you're the support staff of their favorite game?Steve Wilson, customer service manager of FusionFall, decided to do some digging with support groups to find what they could do better in their customer support. What did he find out? Simplicity is key -- something that goes way beyond just the 8 to 13-year-old demographic. Customers don't want to be railroaded through a knowledgebase, nor sent to be put on hold with phone support. They'd rather perform a quick in-game chat to have their problems solved. He also found out that players would rather consult with other players than a member of a support team, which is why why FusionFall puts such a strong emphasis on their community forums and the support section. Players can ask questions of their fellow players while a support agent can chime into the threads when necessary. It maximizes the agent's time, and it allows the player to feel comfortable. A win-win all around! [Via Parature]
Broken Xbox 360? Be happy you don't live in Nome, Alaska
We almost all have Red Ring of Death stories at this point, but few compare to that of Kim Galleher in Nome, Alaska. The Seattle Times reports on the mother's month-long quest to get her 13-year-old son's Xbox 360's RRoD warranty honored by Microsoft. Turns out the main situation revolves around MS not sending a coffin because Galleher's address wasn't recognized -- it's speculated in the piece this is because the United States Postal Service delivers mail in the region to post-office boxes. Meanwhile, other attempts to circumvent the address glitch with Microsoft also failed. Although Galleher's circumstances are slightly out of standard parameters, the whole piece reads like one giant failure in customer service.One of the better parts in the story is Galleher wrote a letter to Xbox honcho Robbie Bach, stating that Microsoft ought to be "ashamed that a group of women at Victoria Secret can figure out how to send a bra to [her] via UPS and yet Microsoft can't figure out how to send an empty box."For fairness, we contacted the Nome, Alaska visitor's bureau to get a little more background about the mail situation in the town, located at the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. The incredibly pleasant woman on the phone said she had the same problem when dealing with another computer warranty situation and the post-office box issue causes problems from time to time. As for Galleher, Microsoft contacted her directly through an advocate to inform her a "repaired console" should arrive by March 17.[Thanks, Matt S.]
The suit of Square-Enix spam
When reporting this story, the sentence, "Never give your e-mail to anyone you don't trust," seems to come to mind. A Japanese man was bombarded with account re-registration e-mails from Final Fantasy XI's PlayOnline launcher, eventually bringing him to the point where he called Square-Enix and asked them to stop sending him the e-mails. The odd part about all of this is that he never played, or even touched Final Fantasy XI.It seems that one of the gil/item sellers in Japan got hold of his e-mail address, and was using it to create all of their accounts that they use to spam FFXI. Of course the accounts were banned shortly after their creation, but the gilseller continued using the e-mail, creating a tidal wave of spam for this man's e-mail client.After calling Square-Enix and being told that they could not stop the messages from being sent to his inbox, the man took Square-Enix to court in early 2007. His case was originally denied, but he appealed and won. Now Japan's High Court has blocked Square-Enix's appeal, and the man has been awarded a whopping 56,000 yen. Yes, that's right, two years of legal wranglings for only 556 US dollars and a clean e-mail inbox.
