Factions

[Nicland]

I would like to start out by saying I love UO. I have played around 9 years without a break in service. I enjoy the interaction with other players and until recently, would not have considered another game.

Recently I have tried to remove a character from factions. For two months I have tried without success. I have emailed UO without any response. I have paged GM's on several occasions and I have begged them to help me. I have spent 12 hrs total waiting for a reponse from them. Last night was a three hour marathon, I went from #10 all the way down to #8 and finally gave up and went to bed. Tonite someone left the little orange message after 2 hours and it said "this needs further investigation, please email bugs.com and please understand no further corrispondance will come your way" This after I stated that I had emailed and was begging for someone to help. Thing is I heard someone had this problem and a GM got him out and he waited the 7 days and was fine. So these guys refuse to help.

UO was much better before EA Mythic took over. These guys are the biggest disappointment I have ever seen. I will never ever purchase a game they have anything to do with. In addition, when I find another game I find suitable, it will not be an EA game or mythic. I will avoid that company at all costs. While I still like UO and I will make sure in the future that I do not get attached to nother EA game.

That being said, my punishment to them is I am dropping one account tonite. While it pains me to do it, I feel that I have too.

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

<blockquote><hr>


That being said, my punishment to them is I am dropping one account tonite. While it pains me to do it, I feel that I have too.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's the way to do it. They'll feel the punch in the pocket better than any other type of retribution.

Factions has needed attention for years...I anxiously await word on where they fit in the plans for this year.

 

[Nicland]

I would settle for being able to get out of factions.

This is really the kind of customer service you expect from the neighborhood lemonaid stand.

UO must be where old programmers go to die.

 

[Nicland]

Well, One account gone and it was liberating.

 

[Guest]

How did you try to leave factions?

Did you go to your factions base and double click the faction stone inside by the sigil monoliths and click the "LEAVE FACTION" button?

 

[Kaj]

If this is really important to you, you might consider xsharding. That will remove your faction status.
But it will cost you $40/Around 20m.

 

[Ryix (europa)]

Try making a guild and removing the whole guild from factions.

Its really just a matter of getting lucky gm wise, most are from the sims and would rather send an automated message or write one that have to log out of sims and into uo to help you.

Ive had alot of very helpful gms show up and help, specifically over a minor (although very annoying) guild problem i had when they first removed the stones. She spent a very long time talking to me trying to resolve this, despite having no power to actually do anything herself (all she could do was try things her end and mine she had very little "power" and was very frank regarding this) but she was very adamant she was going to help and even after i sent her away to help the rest of her que she carried on popping in with new ideas as she helped other people. (eventually it got fixed a few publishes later)

Othertimes ive had game stopping problems, and EABrad(Blatant Sims GM) just sent me a messge to report it. My char was physically unplayable and i get sent a link

(i had something stuck on my cursor that even logging out and restarting didnt fix)

 

[Guest]

Ive done the same. Like UO. Will play UO. Will give feedback. But when there is a problem. I typically, assess my accounts and drop one. Now Im to the bare minimium. But if needed Ill drop one more. Ill never quit. But will spend less. Thats what you have to do.

 

[Lord Kotan]

<blockquote><hr>

While I still like UO and I will make sure in the future that I do not get attached to nother EA game.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's me.

 

[Babble]

Maybe try warring guilds? Less buggy and easier to control

 

[Kat SP]

You may already be aware of this, but it may be helpful to someone. If you're in a faction guild, you have to leave the guild first, then go to the faction stone and quit the faction. I have a couple of people who have done this several times without a problem. I just re-guild them to the non-faction guild after their 7 days is up.

Sucks that you have to leave your guild and be out of touch with them to resign, but I guess it's a bug or something. Surely it wasn't meant to be that way. If so, that's got to be one of the dumbest protocol's I've ever heard of.

 

[Nicland]

<blockquote><hr>

How did you try to leave factions?

Did you go to your factions base and double click the faction stone inside by the sigil monoliths and click the "LEAVE FACTION" button?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I did. I don't remember exactly what happened at that time, but since then I have not been able to access the faction stone and I am not able to single click any of my characters to access insurance, leave house, quest items, etc.

I have been in several factions over the years and have never had trouble until now.

 

[Nicland]

Ok, so after I posted last nite. I went back and waited another 2 hours trying to get the "right GM" I begged and pleaded saying I know you have gotten other folks out of factions pleaseeeeeeee help me. What do I get, but another canned message saying "it sounds like a bug, please Email [email protected] and Please note, we will not have further contact"

 

[Sakkarah]

<blockquote><hr>

Thing is I heard someone had this problem and a GM got him out and he waited the 7 days and was fine. So these guys refuse to help.

[/ QUOTE ]
While I sympathize with your situation, I dont think it's fair to say these guys refuse to help. I had a situation that took nearly a year to resolve. Granted my situation wasn't as severely aggravating as it must be for you. I simply had a PBD stuck to my bracers and was unable to remove the PBD because the context menu would never pop up. I had several GMs look into it and every single one gave up because they couldn't figure it out. And I too was sent through the whole email thing. Eventually, one GM after much effort and plenty of goodwill also threw in the towel but escalated the matter to a Senior GM. 2 hours later, the Senior GM contacted me and he too had to fiddle a while before he finally managed to fix it.

It was annoying that it took so long, especially considering the first time I tried to remove it, I wanted to sell them and by the time it was finally unblessed they weren't worth half of what they once were. But the GMs who did show up tried their best, they just didn't know how to fix it. All I can suggest is that you dont stop trying, eventually someone will know how to get you out of factions

 

[Guest]

I respectfully agree to disagree with you on this one.
<blockquote><hr>

While I sympathize with your situation, I dont think it's fair to say these guys refuse to help.

[/ QUOTE ]
I disagree. If they can't even show up or bother to give a suggestion as to how to resolve the situation, then yes they are refusing to help. In customer service, the perception of someone wanting or trying to help--even if unsuccessful--goes a LONG way in how someone views the level of service they received.
<blockquote><hr>

I had a situation that took nearly a year to resolve.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ridiculous! They certainly should have some sort of escalation guidelines to avoid the brutal catch-and-release cycle of the current GM page practice--Just think of how many GM's are wasting their time on someone's x-teenth page about a situation that possibly could have been resolved had it been properly addressed the first time!
<blockquote><hr>

All I can suggest is that you dont stop trying, eventually someone will know how to get you out of factions

[/ QUOTE ]
Of course! That's the level of service that we've been conditioned to expect of late and unfortunately they're living up to our low expectations. I think the pic at the following link best sums up my feelings on this entire matter... web page

 

[Kat SP]

<blockquote><hr>

I disagree. If they can't even show up or bother to give a suggestion as to how to resolve the situation, then yes they are refusing to help. In customer service, the perception of someone wanting or trying to help--even if unsuccessful--goes a LONG way in how someone views the level of service they received.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT!!

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I disagree. If they can't even show up or bother to give a suggestion as to how to resolve the situation, then yes they are refusing to help. In customer service, the perception of someone wanting or trying to help--even if unsuccessful--goes a LONG way in how someone views the level of service they received.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT!!

[/ QUOTE ]

x2

 

[Guest]

On a side-note, I had something resolved very quick today.

My char was stone-bugged (I was like 140 stones naked), and a GM went right and fixed it. Amazing if you ask me.

 

[Nicland]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Thing is I heard someone had this problem and a GM got him out and he waited the 7 days and was fine. So these guys refuse to help.

[/ QUOTE ]
While I sympathize with your situation, I dont think it's fair to say these guys refuse to help. I had a situation that took nearly a year to resolve. Granted my situation wasn't as severely aggravating as it must be for you. I simply had a PBD stuck to my bracers and was unable to remove the PBD because the context menu would never pop up. I had several GMs look into it and every single one gave up because they couldn't figure it out. And I too was sent through the whole email thing. Eventually, one GM after much effort and plenty of goodwill also threw in the towel but escalated the matter to a Senior GM. 2 hours later, the Senior GM contacted me and he too had to fiddle a while before he finally managed to fix it.

It was annoying that it took so long, especially considering the first time I tried to remove it, I wanted to sell them and by the time it was finally unblessed they weren't worth half of what they once were. But the GMs who did show up tried their best, they just didn't know how to fix it. All I can suggest is that you dont stop trying, eventually someone will know how to get you out of factions

[/ QUOTE ]

By the way, I have a PBD stuck too. I don't have any big beef with not getting help with that. I understand that things happend and are not easy fix. in general im pretty sympathetic to the folks that run the game.

That being said the big difference between your situation and mine is that you had not one, but many gms helping you. If I had just one give me a message that wasnt a canned response saying he was trying to figure it out then I would be ok. If i knew they were trying and couldnt, I would be ok. The fact of the matter is no one is trying. I can't believe people dont get written up or fired for this sort of behavior. It's really an embarrassment to EA and Mythic. the message sent is I don't care about my customers or my product, so why should you buy it (which I won't again).

 

[Sakkarah]

<blockquote><hr>

If they can't even show up or bother to give a suggestion as to how to resolve the situation, then yes they are refusing to help. In customer service, the perception of someone wanting or trying to help--even if unsuccessful--goes a LONG way in how someone views the level of service they received.

[/ QUOTE ]
There is a queue, if they haven't shown up it's because they haven't reached your number yet. My understanding is the queue # is bugged so even if you see 6, you could in fact be 35th. That doesn't mean they're refusing, just that they haven't gotten to you yet. Also, I do not pretend to know what the OP's experience was with the GMs but in my case, they genuinely tried but failed and that made the whole difference for me. So even though I wasn't happy my problem wasn't resolved, I wasn't angry because I did get a good service.

<blockquote><hr>

Ridiculous! They certainly should have some sort of escalation guidelines to avoid the brutal catch-and-release cycle of the current GM page practice--Just think of how many GM's are wasting their time on someone's x-teenth page about a situation that possibly could have been resolved had it been properly addressed the first time!

[/ QUOTE ]
No arguments from me there. My problem though was escalated twice. The first time to no avail, the 2nd time successfully.
<blockquote><hr>

Of course! That's the level of service that we've been conditioned to expect of late and unfortunately they're living up to our low expectations.

[/ QUOTE ]I rather take the approach that whether or not I'm happy with the service I'm getting, if I have a problem that needs resolved, giving up will get me nowhere. So I just keep on

Again, my situation was nowhere near as bad as his. I didn't page daily. I would page once a week or once every other week, usually while doing boring chores such as training or restocking vendors.

 

[Nicland]

Tried again tonite and guess what I received. yep you guessed it the same canned response. "this sounds like a bug, please email our bug department and stick your head between your legs. Please note there will be no further corrispondance". Oh, wait time 3hrs.

 

[Nicland]

And again today, I waited 1.5hrs for the same canned response. At least they are getting quicker with no help

 

[Nicland]

again, 3 hours and no love. Oh I finally got a email from UO saying we are looking into this, but dont expect to hear from us again.

 

[Nicland]

I took the day off yesterday, so no report from monday. Today I have been waiting a couple hours and still number 9 in list and still in factions.

 

[Nicland]

Got a new response today. they sent me a link to "how to get out of factions" on the UO website. This is the response to me explaining what I have done to get out of factions (which mimics the website).

I question if these people know how to read english.

 

[Kylas]

What you need to find a different PATH to exiting factions.

If you can join another faction (try) do that then attempt to exit again.

If your in a guild leave the guild try again to exit.

If your not in a guild have someone create one (Have them join your faction). You join their guild. Then have them remove the guild from factions.

Dig

 

[Nicland]

I have tried creating a guild and dropping it, didn't work. I'll look for someone with a faction guild and see if I can work it from that angle. My fear is that the person who creates a faction guild will not be able to drop factions and get stuck like myself.

Another night of paging, another night of canned messages.

 

[Kylas]

Sadly the problem is a database one. Its a fix thats outside the ability of a GM to do anything about.

Other then a developer hand editing the database file I dont think you have a prayer short of deleting your character.

Dig

 

[Nicland]

ok, I have tried several more times. still the same canned responses. still can't get out of factions, still cant pull up the menu when I try to single click my body, still cant toggle insurance. Though ive had several hour plus waits, tonite I had a 20 minute one and when i responded to the canned response that you guys are unbelievable, they just sent a canned response to email UO if your not happy.