I Love Live Chat Support!

TorQue[MoD]

]Wow this made my night. I contacted EA's Live Chat Support for help with an issue logging into my account and this is how the first few minutes went:


Just had to share with everyone else. Its so priceless!

WarrenM

Dude, they answer questions from surly users all day long. So they slipped up and fired the auto response a little early (which I doubt was even an auto response given the spelling error). Give them a break.

McGreed

That's not auto responses, that's "I don't even look at the screen and reply on anything the customer says" kinda of responses. Because you are answer those kind of questions all day, doesn't mean that you can't do you job properly, and you should at least have some proper auto responses. Nothing in that chat makes sense, for someone who is looking at the screen reading and not playing angry birds.

Torch

'Aseems' like a bit of a dilemma...

ambershee

I had an almost identical problem with a live chat person from a courier (my package had been failed to be picked up three consecutive times despite being sat by the window). The person on the other end kept telling me to rebook the courier. I genuinely had to ask if the person on the other end was a bot twice before finally not getting canned responses.

I ended up using a different courier at my own expense.

Kwramm

outsourced to India. Seems like they have to save money...unlike Blizz where they even have native speakers waiting at their hotlines if you're from France or Germany. Then again Origin doesn't even process payments themselves, they outsourced that too. So if you have a payment problem... well, take it to that sh** payment processing company (Hello Digital River!), ain't EA's problem!

Nothing against India. I worked with great Indian people during my career. I just dislike the whole way Origin is set up. This just confirms that it's miles behind the competition.

skyline5gtr

That's EA Baby, outsource everything even game jobs now a days so the CEO and board can have even more money

Kwramm

well, I'm in outsourcing I have no problem with it as long as the quality is right, because there's some games which probably would not have been made without it. But lowering quality where it is most important, where you have direct contact with the customer, is just a stupid move. But I guess if you're a number cruncher you look for direct savings rather than caring for abstract things like what impression your company gives the public....ah well, I guess once you call CS they've already got your money. Gotta be glad they have CS at all

Torch

Don't quote me on this, but I believe the characters in the Batman games were outsourced to a character art studio in London and they did a damn good job on them. Would have to agree, nothing wrong with it as long as its done right

seelk

I can't get past "here", I've never had any issues with the live support I've had to use thankfully (never Origins thankfully).

haiddasalami

Hmm my two experiences with Origin support have been pretty good. Even got a free game cause they fucked up on their side (Coupon or something if i remember correctly)

MattQ86

Try getting on tech support with Microsoft for a 360 PC controller. I swear everybody working those call centers has had a lobotomy.

Torch

MattQ86 wrote: »

Try getting on tech support with Microsoft for a 360 PC controller. I swear everybody working those call centers has had a lobotomy.

Have you tried turning it off and on? :poly136:

notman

haiddasalami wrote: »

"Even got a free game cause they fucked up on their side"

Doesn't sound like it was a good experience. Just recovered, because they gave you free shit

I honestly don't know why companies think these types of customer service, pay off in the end. If I get piss poor customer service, I stop using their product. Unfortunately, EA controls so many games, that it's hard to avoid purchasing from them

Justin Meisse

notman wrote: »

Doesn't sound like it was a good experience. Just recovered, because they gave you free shit

I honestly don't know why companies think these types of customer service, pay off in the end. If I get piss poor customer service, I stop using their product. Unfortunately, EA controls so many games, that it's hard to avoid purchasing from them

I worked at a computer store when the PC industry shifted to outsourced customer support - the customers will say otherwise but they don't seem to rank customer support that high, price always wins over customer support.

WarrenM

That's the truth. If I'm calling tech support it's because something is seriously wrong and you've probably lost me as a customer anyway. Calling tech support == you failed before the rep even picks up the phone.

notman

I agree, that price wins, but if there is enough competition, then people will stop using your product. I won't buy HP products anymore. Their customer service was abysmal, and there are plenty of inexpensive alternatives. When it comes down to it, if being the only/cheapest option, is your selling point, than you are bound to fail, if you keep providing bad customer service, and alternates become available.

notman

WarrenM wrote: »

That's the truth. If I'm calling tech support it's because something is seriously wrong and you've probably lost me as a customer anyway. Calling tech support == you failed before the rep even picks up the phone.

Actually, in the scenario with HP, I wrote them asking about getting an updated driver, since my laptop was a custom build. So, I wasn't upset with the product, just trying to resolve an issue (streaming music over bluetooth, caused windows to bluescreen). Bluetooth worked fine, for a mouse, or other inputs. Their solutions were obvious cut/paste responses, with suggestions like, 'reformat my drive, and restore'. Since the driver had never changed, it wasn't likely to get resolved with such a destructive solution.

3 email responses later, I just gave up. The first solution was clearly based on a result for 'BSOD', since the title was pasted in with the solution.

ambershee

MattQ86 wrote: »

Try getting on tech support with Microsoft for a 360 PC controller. I swear everybody working those call centers has had a lobotomy.

I followed a help link provided in a DirectX 9 error message. The link was dead, but rather than forwarding me to a support page, it forwards you to the Xbox Live store instead.

Wtf, Microsoft.

Justin Meisse

emailing & chat is a big mistake - most use a hotkey system to post canned replies. On the phone you can always escalate the issue.

I've probably clocked more hours than your average person calling customer support AND I've been on the other side. The customers are far worse than the CSRs. You have to be a detective because half the time the caller will lie to you, usually they are afraid they did something to break it or they're afraid they'll sound stupid.

TorQue[MoD]

Funny how everyone thought I was posting because of the spelling mistakes and outsourcing issues. Who cares about the spelling or even out sourcing. Its been happening for so long that we're all used to it by now. And I didn't mean auto response as in copy paste. I meant auto as in, he just responded without reading what was typed by the customer.

The part I was trying to highlight was the fact that I said "I bought two copies of your game..." and he responded with "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." An EA representative saying that he's sorry I bought two copies of their game! THAT is funny!

haiddasalami

notman wrote: »

Doesn't sound like it was a good experience. Just recovered, because they gave you free shit

Haha this is true. I wont say no to free games though

Justin Meisse

TorQue[MoD] wrote: »

The part I was trying to highlight was the fact that I said "I bought two copies of your game..." and he responded with "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." An EA representative saying that he's sorry I bought two copies of their game! THAT is funny!

It's because an outsourced support person used a hotkey reply that applies to the majority of their chats - angry customers with a problem. Kind of like when I accidentally say "you too" to cashier that says "enjoy your meal"

notman

TorQue[MoD] wrote: »

The part I was trying to highlight was the fact that I said "I bought two copies of your game..." and he responded with "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." An EA representative saying that he's sorry I bought two copies of their game! THAT is funny!

Oh, the humor was not lost on me. I actually shared this elsewhere, because it was funny. I think it just highlighted how bad customer service is, these days, and everyone is expanding on it. Did he eventually resolve your problem?

ambershee

Justin Meisse wrote: »

It's because an outsourced support person used a hotkey reply that applies to the majority of their chats - angry customers with a problem. Kind of like when I accidentally say "you too" to cashier that says "enjoy your meal"

For a hot key, the spelling is rather off.

Money

These are always fun to read, here's one more "so sorry to hear that".

http://i.imgur.com/VGVni.png
http://i.imgur.com/vJXgX.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/foWdj.png
http://i.imgur.com/1WHlQ.png
http://i.imgur.com/ho3V2.png

Isaiah Sherman

Don't buy games from EA and expect good customer service.

Justin Meisse

ambershee wrote: »

For a hot key, the spelling is rather off.

Sorry, if I understand a sentence I don't get hung up on the spelling so I didn't notice it.

I've got a lot of experience calling support and helping customers and I've heard everyone share the same "support at company X was horrible so I don't use it anymore".

The guy in the original chat is being a bit of a dick, anything for a funny screenshot though. An "excuse me?" or just ignoring the apology and moving on would have sufficed. I couldn't imagine the horrible shit those people have to deal with providing chat support to gamers, I'm sure it's 90% death threats and racist ranting.

Xoliul

TorQue[MoD] wrote: »

The part I was trying to highlight was the fact that I said "I bought two copies of your game..." and he responded with "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that." An EA representative saying that he's sorry I bought two copies of their game! THAT is funny!

LOLOMG man, I'm crying here, so funny. This is really adding value to the forum!

Isaiah Sherman

Justin Meisse wrote: »

I couldn't imagine the horrible shit those people have to deal with providing chat support to gamers, I'm sure it's 90% death threats and racist ranting.

This is quite true. Gamers are some of the most self-entitled assholes I've encountered, particularly online with the aid of anonymity.

I would rather do manual labor than do customer service of any kind.

Justin Meisse

My girlfriend's father had an interesting experience. He called support for something and as soon as he got someone on the line he demanded a manager. The guy broke protocol and said it really hurt his feelings when callers did that - they actually talked for a while and bonded over a mutual love of golfing. I'm sure he got fired afterwords, which is sad, but at least he made a difference in one person.

TorQue[MoD]

If he doesn't know that he's spelling it incorrectly then it could very well be a hotkey. Regardless, its still really funny.

HE didn't solve my issue, he told me to call the 800 number for EA help where I waited on hold for 50minutes (on skype while modeling) and then eventually the guy on the phone solved my issue. Even funnier, he was an Irish guy who sounded almost exactly like the main character from the IT crowd. We talked about the show for a bit near the end of the call too. Actually when I did eventually get through their tech support was great. This post wasn't meant to be saying that EA tech support sucks at all. And EA has the best on hold music I've ever heard. 1-866-543-5435 if you're curious.

As for people saying I was being an ass, it was late last night when we did the live chat. Reading it over now, I can definitely see how my comments could be misinterpreted as douchey. I wasn't trying to be though, I was really laughing out loud. It was all just really quite funny to me. It was more incredulous than douchey that I was trying to portray because he was even trying to explain away why he said "I'm sorry to hear that". The "What's my issue?" comment wasn't me being upset, I was just curious as to what else he would say. See how deep he'd dig the hole. The lack of tone and intonation in text makes it easy to confuse though so I understand why people think I was being an ass. He didn't seem bothered by it though.

Kwramm

Isaiah Sherman wrote: »

This is quite true. Gamers are some of the most self-entitled assholes I've encountered, particularly online with the aid of anonymity.

I would rather do manual labor than do customer service of any kind.

true. plus if it's an Indian call-center then it won't be a fun job either. It's really helping people with "first world problems" which they may not even understand. I have the same here in China. Low skilled laborers from the rural country side don't seem to grasp some of the issues, because they're totally foreign to them, they're really from a different world.
Anywhere, here's an interesting read I came across a while ago: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/indian-call-center-americanization

DrunkShaman

You should've mailed it to them for their laughters on their own customer service as well. =]