[UO Herald] Player Notice - Boat Blocked? Page a GM!

[UO News]

Greetings!

We know the waters of Sosaria pose many dangers to travelling adventurers, but in the event your vessel becomes stranded or blocked we want to help you.

If your boat becomes stuck simply page a CSR from the deck. Once you have done this you do not need to wait near your boat, it will simply be moved to a safer location by a CSR when they contact you.

Smooth sailing and have a great weekend!





More...

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

help! My boat is blocked and under attack by demons and pirates ...


Bets?

 

[Storm]

They moved my boat for me other day !

 

[Gheed]

You are now #6 in queue. Please go see if you can farm the gold to buy a new ship before you move to #5.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Once you have done this you do not need to wait near your boat, it will simply be moved to a safer location by a CSR when they contact you.

They forgot to add "hours later" to the end of that sentence.

 

[Bill Gates OSD]

"Player Notice - Boat Blocked? Page a GM!"

What they didn't mention is that it can take anywhere from 1 to 5000 HOURS to get a canned reply that GM's can't replace lost items...

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

They moved my boat for me other day !

I know a lot of chicks that can't drive ...

boats? meh! pass!!!

(you saw that jk coming ... diddle ye?)

 

[Babble]

aha a new one

 

[Nyses]

I wonder if they FINALLY had some GM training and are now trying to impress us with their L33T GM response time and skills.

Page today, Play tomorrow. Boats really? ppfffttt

Edit: this must be their "fix" for not being able to recall to your boat when it is near a server line.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

You are now #6 in queue. Please go see if you can farm the gold to buy a new ship before you move to #5.

Of course the "que" has no meaning since it is not the method they use....

They forgot to add "hours later" to the end of that sentence.

"Hours later" Fails to describe the wait time appropriately.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

If someone actually does this, start a new thread about the results please, because it won''t have anything to do w/ the fantasy that this one is all about

 

[Mr. Smither1]

My friend tried twice to get a gm to move his blocked boat. He got that canned response twice I think its like 2681 or 2861 it just list what a gm won't do.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Mythic needs to wake up to the fact that UO has the WORST customer service in the MMO industry. They either need to work to change it, or give up entirely and not bother posting things that just make them look completely stupid.

 

[Muu Bin]

It would be fantastic if someone at EA/ Mythic (read as Cal) would care to respond as to what has changed at "CSR land" which would effect this desired response of moving the boat. Is James Nichols even aware of the dismal response time of pages to GMs (or CSR's as he is calling them).

GM/ CSR pages on Pacific were non-responsive the last time I tried (back in December). This was actually for the exact thing that is mentioned in the original post. Blocked boat... page a GM... not even "You are 89th in the queue". Nothing but dead air time. The kind that gets an on-air DJ fired.

I sincerely hope that this marks a new era in customer service for this game. I will attempt to be the pragmatic optimist. Time will tell and if it all goes south, then we might need to send in some CSI's to look for any life signs in their CSR's.

 

[Kiminality]

It would be fantastic if someone at EA/ Mythic (read as Cal) would care to respond as to what has changed at "CSR land" which would effect this desired response of moving the boat.

Mesanna taught them how to do it without the hold needing to be emptied, as I understand it.

 

[Snakeman]

Greetings!

We know the waters of Sosaria pose many dangers to travelling adventurers, but in the event your vessel becomes stranded or blocked we want to help you.

If your boat becomes stuck simply page a CSR from the deck. Once you have done this you do not need to wait near your boat, it will simply be moved to a safer location by a CSR when they contact you.

Smooth sailing and have a great weekend! More...

Seriously EA, KNOW YOUR GM'S.... Because we Players do!!! Each time people I know have asked for a boat to be moved they get a canned message saying exactly like others have said, "we don't replace lost items" (wtf nothing is lost, just move the boat please) or sit & sit & sit & never get help.

Now if anyone ever does manage to get one of these new Huge boats, I can just imagine the getting blocked in issues arising.

 

[Storm]

Mesanna taught them how to do it without the hold needing to be emptied, as I understand it.

exactly!

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Mythic needs to wake up to the fact that UO has the WORST customer service in the MMO industry. They either need to work to change it, or give up entirely and not bother posting things that just make them look completely stupid.

By that logic all Mythic games have the "WORST" CS in the MMO industry since it is shared across all of them.

But then I guess none have the worst since the definition of the word means to be among its own category....

 

[Sevin0oo0]

Mythic needs to wake up

I think number 1 is someone needs to tell them. I've seen times where the uppers didn't know, and had No idea there were bad problems until someone told them, but where do you start, and who do you write? I vote we start w/ EA Japan, maybe they know how - they seem to have better answers than we get here.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

EA Japan has trumped US/Europe's CS in all aspects. Their website and patch/publish notes are far more complete than ours, and their GMs *show* themselves.

Remember the goza mat incidents last year? And how long it took Cal to respond to it.. talk to CS.. and then have it happen twice more?

Not all of EA's CS sucks as hard as what we recieve for UO. I'd wager that the CS is so bad because the reps aren't properly trained on UO. From all the reports of people calling the CS # for UO, the reps don't know what UO is half the time. How an in-game GM can be as unknowledgeable and unresponsive as those who man the UO que falls far short of EA's other properties. I seriously doubt that WAR's CS is as pathetic as UO's.

 

[Tina Small]

I think number 1 is someone needs to tell them. I've seen times where the uppers didn't know, and had No idea there were bad problems until someone told them, but where do you start, and who do you write?

If you open the Credits.dat document in the client folder, in the topmost section for the High Seas Booster Pack, two names are listed in the "In-Game Customer Support" section under the "Customer Support Manager" heading: Jon Farrinelli and Todd Gropp. The Customer Support Assistant Manager is listed as Sam Makely. Also listed are six Lead Game Masters and six Senior Game Masters. There are no plain old, ordinary "Game Masters" listed.

In the "Japanese Version" section of the credits, there is one Lead Game Master listed, two Interest Game Masters, and three (yes, just three) names listed under the heading of "Japan In-Game Customer Support Team."

As far as longevity and cutbacks go, what I notice is that in the SA section of the credits, there used to be listed a "Customer Support Director" (Rob DiBiano). Todd Gropp was at that time already the Customer Support Manager and Sam Makely was already the Customer Support Assist Manager. There were ten Lead GMs and thirteen Senior GMs. All of the Lead GMs mentioned in the High Seas Booster Pack were listed in the SA credits, with only one of them having made the jump in a year's time from "Senior GM" to "Lead GM." All of the Senior GMs in the High Seas credits were listed as Senior GMs in the SA credits.

Switching now to the UO Herald site, we look back to 2007 and see that the KR game credits STILL list Todd Gropp as the Customer Support Manager and Sam Makely was a Lead GM. Only one other name listed as either a Lead or Senior GM for KR seems to have survived the move from California to Virginia and made it to the High Seas era, though. Looking back at the 9th Age credits, no one listed there under Customer Service also shows up in the High Seas credits in a similar role. The same is not true on the Japan team, however. There are some names in the Japan section that go back several years.

 

[Bill Gates OSD]

Mythic needs to wake up to the fact that UO has the WORST customer service in the MMO industry. They either need to work to change it, or give up entirely and not bother posting things that just make them look completely stupid.

*Clicks "Like"*

 

[Mapper]

Although fantastic, I can't help but think if there is a better solution.

Why not have boats at all docks drift out a bit after 6 hours or something? Would be the front line of defense against stuck boats, Then if your boat is still stuck you could page a GM.

The way it is now, I can only see page queues getting longer because boats can freely sit at docks for weeks.. Especially when anyone can refresh them.

 

[Petra Fyde]

What this notice basically says is 'The GMs have an ability they didn't have before, they can now move boats.'

 

[Widow Maker]

The problem is..they have been monkey trained to immediately hit the "GMs Don't Do Squat" button and are unable to break the Pavlov's dog response they are so used to.

 

[Bill Gates OSD]

What this notice basically says is 'The GMs have an ability they didn't have before, they can now move boats.'

That might be what it says but what I interpret it as is, "The GMs have another ability that they can NOT use to assist players that they didn't have before."

 

[Zalan]

Why not install a stuck option. Where people can just type /boat stuck

That would take care of it.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Why not install a stuck option. Where people can just type /boat stuck

That would take care of it.

Your logic is sound and would empower the players.

Thus, you will recieve a 72 hour ban from UO.

Have a nice day!

 

[Lady Storm]

Sorry Petra the GM's have had that ability to move boats for years. This was granted back when the T2A boats blocked land and access to champs areas. I think its now been made aparent to the existing GM staff that its to be done and not sluffed off ie: the canned message.

 

[MalagAste]

I agree with the assessment that EA/UO/Mythic customer service sucks.... it's the worst ever I'm sure. In my opinion what crap they call customer service wouldn't even be considered service in any means of the term.

And they most certainly don't give one toot about UO. Heck they don't even know what it is. Let alone what is being asked of them half the time.

The GM's answer to most any question asked of them is "We are sorry but we can not replace lost or stolen items." Sad thing is 99.9% of the the time problem paged about doesn't even involve a freaking item at all.

You can say all you want about what they "can do" but the fact remains it's highly unlikely that they will do or even know what in the heck your talking about in the first place.

UO needs GM's dedicated to UO. End of story.

 

[Zalan]

GM/CSR response, "Sorry, we can not move your boat due to you locking your keys in the boat. Safe journeys & fare thee well Traveler." This is a joke, & poke at the GM`s....hehe

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Well they'll probably tell you that in game support doesn't handle that issue.

Then when you call the phone support the #9 option will be closed because its only open from 9am to 9pm central time and its 6:30pm central time.

Then when you call back and hit the Pogo or DAOC/War option hoping the nice CSR might could figure out why you can't get through to your correct option number and maybe connect you.

Then the CSR tells you that you hit the wrong option.

Then you explain that you get the closed recording when you hit your option and its supposed to be open till 9pm CST and its 6:30pm CST so it couldn't possibly be closed could it?

Then the guy very nicely sits there and tells you that in the future when you get that recording you should do....WHAT YOU JUST DID!!!!

Then he connects you to the correct CS area where you are told its a in game support problem to log into game and page a GM!!!!


I only WISH I just made this up...but it actually happened to me! Just not relating to boats.

 

[Kiminality]

I have a revolutionary idea:
Y'all could just see this as a positive thing... Like, y'know, a policy change in the direction of better customer service?
Since it kind of is.
I know it's fun to throw little tantrums every time certain topics come up, but it's hardly "constructive".

 

[Snakeman]

Yes we could look at it as a positive change, BUT we all know EA too well. They say one thing & do another. They have told us before we would be getting Better Customer support & Service. What did we get for our increase in monthly fee's..... what we got was Squat & Worse customer support then we had been getting. We been here & heard that before many times on different things . They aways promise but never change.
Ya can only blow smoke so often before people know where it's really going.... nowhere

 

[Kiminality]

Agreed on the subscription raise not actually equating to the improved CS that was used as justification for the raise.
But, this is a policy change.
Previously, as I understand it, the GMs weren't moving boats because they didn't know how to without the hold being emptied.
Now, Mesanna has trained them how this can be done, and it is now a policy for them to do it, whereas it wasn't before.
This isn't some "we want more money" line they're spinning so people won't reject a price rise, this is a "we're doing this now"

If you can't treat a positive change as a positive change, then where's the motivation Mesanna or anyone else to go that extra mile to improve CS, when all they're going to get is pancakes on the forums?

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Agreed on the subscription raise not actually equating to the improved CS that was used as justification for the raise.
But, this is a policy change.
Previously, as I understand it, the GMs weren't moving boats because they didn't know how to without the hold being emptied.
Now, Mesanna has trained them how this can be done, and it is now a policy for them to do it, whereas it wasn't before.
This isn't some "we want more money" line they're spinning so people won't reject a price rise, this is a "we're doing this now"

If you can't treat a positive change as a positive change, then where's the motivation Mesanna or anyone else to go that extra mile to improve CS, when all they're going to get is pancakes on the forums?

Kiminality sweetie, its really hard for anyone around here to believe anything we're told about CS by the Dev team.

Do you remember some months earlier the "Great Goza Mat Mess"?

Cal said they'd talked to CS and no one was going to be banned for the raised goza mats thing. Then the next day two people were banned. One of which I know very well as he plays my shard.

That whole mess has left us with a VERY bad taste in our collective mouths.

It's like my little ole Granny used say (God rest her dear departed soul) "You fool me once, shame on you. You fool me twice, shame on me for falling for same load of manure a SECOND time."

I'm sorry sweetie but I think I can safely say that no one here would like a second helping of that manure. I also think manure is a very fitting description of what EA tries to pass off as Customer Service. The only difference is Manure has a redeeming virtue: you can fertilize your garden with it. The same can't be said for EA Customer Service.

-Jirel

 

[Kiminality]

But the thing is, my little duckling, when they say (ostensibly unprovoked) that they're going to do something, then you can have a little faith that they're saying this because they mean it - not because there's a huge outcry on the forums and they want to shut you up.

See, reading the announcement and thinking/posting "If that's true, then that's a good thing, and I hope they stick to it in spite of their past performance" is being skeptical and/or cautious.
Reading the announcement and thinking/posting "Their CS sucks" is just being a jerk. It's not constructive, or showing even the slightest bit of optimism. All you're doing is pouncing on an opportunity to propagate whatever negative sentiments you've decided to adopt.

 

[Nyses]

But the thing is, my little duckling, when they say (ostensibly unprovoked) that they're going to do something, then you can have a little faith that they're saying this because they mean it - not because there's a huge outcry on the forums and they want to shut you up.

See, reading the announcement and thinking/posting "If that's true, then that's a good thing, and I hope they stick to it in spite of their past performance" is being skeptical and/or cautious.
Reading the announcement and thinking/posting "Their CS sucks" is just being a jerk. It's not constructive, or showing even the slightest bit of optimism. All you're doing is pouncing on an opportunity to propagate whatever negative sentiments you've decided to adopt.

Whatever you have been smoking, you should share with the rest of us. If it is the Pharmaceutical companies that have supplied you, then I also, totally understand your opinion and optimism. They Manufacture that crap for just that effect.

Have you not been around for the past oh, 10 years or so? Listen to Jirel and her dear departed grandmother, very wise!

 

[Petra Fyde]

This thread is far too negative.

We have been told that GMs can move boats. We can relay this information in a page.
'My boat is blocked by that of another player and cannot move. I understand from the UOHerald notice on the topic that you are able to help in these circumstances.'

 

[Aurelius]

I don't doubt for a second they are teaching the GMs how to do things they were unsure about before, and explaining things about the game to them.

I seriously doubt they have enough competent, active, knowledgable and enthusiastic GMs who will put what they know into action. I fear we can still expect to see several of them who enjoy forcing the customers to find a form of words that suits the particular mood of the GM and gets them off their backsides to fix a problem rather than send an inappropriate canned response.

I think the Dev team are trying - I don't thnik the material they have to work with is of sufficiently high quality for them to get too far...

 

[Nyses]

This thread is far too negative.

We have been told that GMs can move boats. We can relay this information in a page.
'My boat is blocked by that of another player and cannot move. I understand from the UOHerald notice on the topic that you are able to help in these circumstances.'

It is only negative, based on past experience. If the Gm's actually helped more than NOT, then you would probably see a lot of positive comments here.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.........................

 

[Petra Fyde]

How much allowance do you make for pages being so badly worded that the GMs don't know what's being asked?

There are two sides to every story. While the GMs aren't as good as they might be, sometimes the fault lies with the player. I have, on more than one occasion, been able to advise someone on a better way to word their page which has resulted in a helpful response. I very rarely page for anything, but when I do I almost always get help.

 

[Stickypaws]

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.........................

Its a giraffe with a medical problem!

Y'all to negative, y'all need a big group hug to get them positive energy's flowing!

Except for Indie games I never find good efficient GM's in MMO's, so take any positive as a good thing.

 

[kelmo]

It is only negative, based on past experience. If the Gm's actually helped more than NOT, then you would probably see a lot of positive comments here.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.........................

You have had your say. Your experiences do not reflect mine or many others. If you want to play "bait a mod". Count me in.

 

[Aurelius]

How much allowance do you make for pages being so badly worded that the GMs don't know what's being asked?

Quite a lot - but I still end up with the same concern.

If I can write an explanation of an issue which is perfectly clear and understandable to the other players here on the forum, but is not understood by the paid, full time customer support staff, I reckon the problem and the work to be done resolving it is not on the customer end of the scales.

Either several of them don't understand English, or don't understand the game they are supporting, or simply choose to cherry pick which calls they respond to and ignore the rest with totally inappropriate 'answers'. None of those is acceptable as an appropriate level of support to the customer, even though EA get away with it.

 

[Nyses]

It is only negative, based on past experience. If the Gm's actually helped more than NOT, then you would probably see a lot of positive comments here.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.........................

You have had your say. Your experiences do not reflect mine or many others. If you want to play "bait a mod". Count me in.

I am baiting no one. If you read this entire thread, you would see that my experiences are actually shared by many others.

I love UO. I have played almost 13 years, and it disheartens me to see the sad state of affairs the game support has declined to. Have you not played long enough to remember when GMs would actually SHOW UP (in a timely fashion) and assist with problems?

If we all agree to just quietly sit and accept what they pass off as GM support these days, how do any of us expect it to ever change? (for the better) Now, I grant you that it may do absolutely no good, but as another old saying goes, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"

 

[Stickypaws]

As it goes... No... I cant... My only real memory of the old GM support thing was sitting at No 6 in the que for ages on end.

But then really UO has better support than half the MMO's I out there. The only ones with hot GM's has been..... Well.. FF....

WoW you can grow old and die waiting for them.

Second Life if you see a support guy, grab them and keep them in a jar, rarer than unicorns.

Neocron... Did they even have GM's>

Dofus has an email support thing but they are so busy being hammerd by bots its hard for them to do anything.

All of the ANET games.... I cant remember ever getting a usefull reply from ANET's tech support beside one of 3 canned responses they cycled through.

UO does actually have GM's, who despite being maddening late, do try, and are there.

Its just a shame they have to deal with all the 'OMG my pencils blunt and I cant find a sharpener NNNNGHHHH!!!!!' help requests.

Point of this whole post being, the GM service hasn't declined. Its always been bad. But its always been 'something'.

 

[Amren]

Mythic needs to wake up to the fact that UO has the WORST customer service in the MMO industry. They either need to work to change it, or give up entirely and not bother posting things that just make them look completely stupid.

You sure about that?

My last page to a GM in WoW resulted in a ticket that was open for 4 days before it was resolved.

Basically, my brother and I have a guild and he decided to take a break. He was the GM and I wanted to take over the guild. After waiting about 2 months, I put in the page. It took a good 4-6 days before the guild was transferee and the ticket closed.

So really, if you need to wait "a few hours" to have a boat moved, just think, it can be a lot worse.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

You sure about that?

My last page to a GM in WoW resulted in a ticket that was open for 4 days before it was resolved.

Basically, my brother and I have a guild and he decided to take a break. He was the GM and I wanted to take over the guild. After waiting about 2 months, I put in the page. It took a good 4-6 days before the guild was transferee and the ticket closed.

So really, if you need to wait "a few hours" to have a boat moved, just think, it can be a lot worse.

To be perfectly honest, I'm shocked by how easily you accomplished something that would never happen in UO. Your issue wasn't with the game, it was with your brother. Blizzard was nice enough to fix it for you. A UO GM would have given you a canned response saying no and pointing you to worthless KB article.

See, Blizzard goes out of their way to help their customers. Get hacked? You will probably get the majority of your stuff back. It may take a few days for them to investigate, but it happens.

Get hacked in UO? You're screwed. Absolutely no help from EA unless law enforcement contacts them.



As for this thread being "negative"... When the customer base feels that the GMs don't care, something is wrong. When you have to word a page SO CAREFULLY to avoid an idiotic response, something is wrong. When a chunk of the p(l)ayerbase is more than willing to accept barely existant shoddy CS and call it "good," something is wrong.

There ARE a few good GMs out there, ones that actually appear and seem to know what they are doing - AND CARE. They are few and far between. When they are the exception, rather than the norm, there is a serious problem.

 

[MalagAste]

See, Blizzard goes out of their way to help their customers. Get hacked? You will probably get the majority of your stuff back. It may take a few days for them to investigate, but it happens.

Get hacked in UO? You're screwed. Absolutely no help from EA unless law enforcement contacts them.



As for this thread being "negative"... When the customer base feels that the GMs don't care, something is wrong. When you have to word a page SO CAREFULLY to avoid an idiotic response, something is wrong. When a chunk of the p(l)ayerbase is more than willing to accept barely existant shoddy CS and call it "good," something is wrong.

There ARE a few good GMs out there, ones that actually appear and seem to know what they are doing - AND CARE. They are few and far between. When they are the exception, rather than the norm, there is a serious problem.

That's what I'm talking about. Pretty much sums it up. EA could care less about the p(l)ayers. And it shows in most everything they do.