GM Assistance: how long is too long?

[canary]

Just curious on others thoughts regarding GM customer service. I'm currently at 2.5 hours waiting for a response (which I pray will not be canned) and am curious of others stories regarding GMs and their response times.

Are long wait times acceptable?

 

[Vlaude]

Long wait times are unavoidable usually, though every now and then you'll get a quick response. The canned message thing depends on which GM reads your request, and what the request is for, ignore people who say it depends on how you word it. If you have to log off before you get assistance they will still read your request and send you an email about the results.

 

[canary]

I also know the queue has in the past been wonky, but its went from #16 to 14 in the past two and a half hours.

 

[Vlaude]

Well even if you cancel the current request and send another they will email you about the first as soon as they get to it. So it's up to you if you want to give it a try.

 

[canary]

Well even if you cancel the current request and send another they will email you about the first as soon as they get to it. So it's up to you if you want to give it a try.

Well, my only concern is it is something that requires their in game assistance. But, yeah.

I do find it odd how poor the response time is... far worse than any point I've seen it in my 11 years.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Long wait times are unavoidable usually

This does hold true for UO GM support as a whole. I think it is totally unacceptable. It should be like every other "call center" when it pertains to customer support. Fifteen minutes max on a normal day. Not the two to four hour times we all have to put up with day in and day out.

As far as those that say it's in how you word it {and I will be SHOCKED if they don't hit this thread too} that is nothing but a load of crap. That in and of it's self is Customer NO Service. If a GM does not understand something that is sent in initially they should actually do some work and find out what the person submiting a page was intending, NOT just sending the usual canned message so they can go back to playing farmtown/mafia wars on thier dang FB, or sitting at their desks making little dingleberry balls to flick at those walking by or whatever else it is they do to avoid actually servicing the customers. BUT ....

 

[Vlaude]

Well, my only concern is it is something that requires their in game assistance. But, yeah.

I do find it odd how poor the response time is... far worse than any point I've seen it in my 11 years.

I have no idea what your request is because you haven't said anything about it. I'm just giving you the rundown on how it's gone from my recent experience. I agree the response time seems slower than ever before and it would be great if they did something about that.

 

[unified]

Keep in mind, also, that it depends on how complex the problem are for the other players ahead of you. Some solutions themselves could take an hour just to figure out. I remember reading that a GM took over an hour trying to locate something for another player. Unfortunately, once on a task, they may not easily give up just because others are waiting.

I will say that the last time I paged, my problem was solved by the GM without them even contacting me.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

If you want a response in a reasonable time, ask here.
If you want a response in a reasonable time from a GM, you need to play WoW instead of UO.

at least here in UHall you will Normally will get a prompt working answer instead of a url response that's worthless

 

[Apetul]

A friend paged today, asking for a stew to be removed because it was blocking a house placement. 10-15 mins later, the stew was removed

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

A friend paged today, asking for a stew to be removed because it was blocking a house placement. 10-15 mins later, the stew was removed

Yeah, during slow play times they are adequately staffed. Most of the time you can get decent enough support then. During peak play times tho they are seriously understaffed.

 

[Luvmylace]

I think the whole system needs to learn from AOC's method .It is far superior and they dont use canned bots

 

[Babble]

For UO yes.
Other games I guess not

 

[Tazar]

If you want a response in a reasonable time, ask here.
If you want a response in a reasonable time from a GM, you need to play WoW instead of UO.

at least here in UHall you will Normally will get a prompt working answer instead of a url response that's worthless

I was trying to help a friend a couple of weeks ago who had a problem with weight of 220 when naked with an empty back-pack. I ran through several possible fixes (Dying and not looting pack, etc.) and finally advised him to call a GM. He replied back after an hour or so stating that the GM was kind enough to fix it and he seemed very happy that the wait was only an hour... considering that his last wait for a GM in WoW was 9 hours.

 

[seapup]

GM's? We have GM's in this game WOW!!!!!

Tell me where they are all hiding please

 

[MalagAste]

I waited 4 hours while fishing yesterday for a GM never saw one.

And if your asking about "reasonable" I would say that reasonable would be under and hour.

However UO Customer service is FAR from REASONABLE... so good luck. I don't think EA would know what good proper customer service was even if it were sitting right under their noses or jumped up and bit them in the Arse...... Someone should perhaps enlighten them perhaps in some sort of petition type way as to what the TRUE meaning of Customer Service is.

I am doubting any of them use QI at all. And I seriously doubt any of them have EVER watched the video put out by Disney about Customer Service. I've watched it like 5 times in 5 different types of work environments.... in fact in any sort of service environment I think it's a MUST SEE.

I know when I worked for a major retail store we had a "pep" talk every morning and discussed customer service. Where I work now in Health Care we talk about customer satisfaction all the time.... we do surveys to see how we are doing and how we can improve..... I haven't seen jack squat from EA about any of that and quite frankly I doubt they give a rats.

I'm even willing to go out on a limb here and bet that most of the big wigs at EA don't even have a clue what their customers like or care about and really barely even know what UO is.... let alone give one iota about the playerbase. I'm willing to bet that 90% of what they talk about is that Pogo crap that i still am flooded with e-mails about... I'd like to flood them with 100,000 e-mails of don't send this crap to me again for each e-mail from them I get about it.

 

[Raptor85]

My last GM wait time was "infinity" because I've been trying for weeks and still waiting, 4 hours at a time.

Short Timeline of normal GM wait times I've experienced (measured at start of year)

2011 - 12-14 hours (combined)
2010 - 3-4 hours
2007 - 45mins - 1hour
2006 - 20mins - 45 mins*
2005 - 5mins - 10mins
<2005 - 5-10 mins, on average

* 2006 and before the GM generally teleported to you and talked about your question before doing anything (they generally did it in character too), it was a great way to show they actually cared about your problem and only took a minute or so. Since even ML beta I've yet to see a GM do this.

Wasn't the point of the increased subscription rate supposedly to improve customer service? Because all I see is a downward trend since the ratehike.