Author Topic: Lamer Tech Response (I Think) (Read 736 times)

FT_Animal · « **on:** April 10, 2002, 01:51:15 PM »

OK I think I've pretty much heard it all.

A player cannot connect to the Main Arena. He can connect to all other arenas but the main. He's fustrated and tired of looking for solutions and prolly threatens ending account for *obvious* reasons, why pay if you can't play, the error is not on his end. He contacts HTC and guess what the response is>?????

"well your account ends on the 25th so cancel on the 24th and you will have used up the rest of your month. " He hasn't been able to fly the MA for weeks what does that matter or help>?

WTF is that>?? is that the extent of the tech support here?

Ya know as a AW tech I'd spend as long as weeks and in one case a month with players getting their ducks in a row so they could fly. A LOT of effort was put into Tech Support by all.

NOW!, granted I have not seen the full letter or response from HTC tech support, and I don't know if they offered a reason, but to reply with "cancel your account before the 24th" is what most people term as a cop-out from the real problem.

The player whom I've flown with for 7 years is quitting AH, and because of the response from TS, is vowing to never fly it again.

I find the responses on both ends rediculous. But I find the response from the people being paid a lamer cop-out and arrogant.

BAD! Bad! Tech Support, Bad! now go to your room, I think your ego has stretched to far.

HTC has out grown it's connection limits some how. I know a T-1 or T-3 is on order. But until HTC solves the problem is that a real way to treat commited customers who've been with HTC since day one>?

Does this game have a true tech support for it's paying customers>? Maybe there is something I am missing here.

Animal (FT) < very disapointed

Kieran · « **Reply #1 on:** April 10, 2002, 02:01:59 PM »

With all due respect, and with my years of work with the public in mind, I feel there is far more to this story than we've heard so far...

Wanker · « **Reply #2 on:** April 10, 2002, 02:20:55 PM »

Geez, Animal, nothing like telling one side of the story without quoting the entire text of the communication.

I'm not saying the guy doesn't have a beef, but how are we to know by the info you posted?

Mickey1992 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 10, 2002, 02:27:39 PM »

"He's fustrated and tired of looking for solutions and prolly threatens ending account....."

If I was threatened I would most likely respond in the same way.

"NOW!, granted I have not seen the full letter or response from HTC tech support, and I don't know if they offered a reason..."

I find it amazing that you bothered to type the above disclaimer, but then continued to bash HTC anyway. And why isn't the original disgruntled customer posting this?

Apache · « **Reply #4 on:** April 10, 2002, 02:29:46 PM »

...and why wouldn't it be on his end when 450+ DO connect to the main nightly.

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #5 on:** April 10, 2002, 02:51:48 PM »

If you threatened to quit if it wasn't resolved... I believe them giving you a date to quit by would actually be them helping you out. If you stay a day past the 24th, you pay for the entire next month.

Check your terms of service.

AKDejaVu

Animal · « **Reply #6 on:** April 10, 2002, 03:07:32 PM »

*sigh*

Working as tech support, when people call threatening to quit, I just tell them the instructions to do so. They either get mad or apologize and explain their problem, wich is usually easily remedied.

Why are are you telling me you are gonna quit if you dont mean it? Why dont you just say "HEY! I HAVE THIS PROBLEM. CAN YOU HELP ME?"

I can already picture the conversation in my mind.

"Hitechcreations how can I help you"

*in an angry tone*
"Ive been unable to connect to the MA, I'm afraid I'll have to cancel my account"

If you say you want to quit, then dont get mad if the techie assumes you MEAN IT, AND TRIES TO HELP YOU.

Mighty1 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 10, 2002, 03:18:40 PM »

Maybe your missing that this isn't AW.

I find it hard to believe that HTC would NOT try to help someone. I have always found them to be very helpful to me AND to everyone else.

From what you've told us I would guess that........HELL I couldn't gather anything from what you've said other than you think you are better at Tech Support than HTC AND your friend can't fly.

Come back when you have some facts if you want to Dis HTC without getting flamed.

hitech · « **Reply #8 on:** April 10, 2002, 03:30:03 PM »

FT_animal, I just read threw the email you are refering to, you are way off base.

The response you are quoting is to his last request (3 or 4 email exchanges) after we could not find out what the problem was.

He then responded very politly that he wanted us to delete his account, and the line you are quoting is us informing him when that there was no need for him to delete his account up until that date.

So the real story is a customer can't get connected to the main.

We do our best but can not resolve the issue.

The customer then responds with he wishes to delete his account.

We then (still looking out for the customer) inform him that he can wait until the 24th with no ill effects.

So exatly where is the bad suport in all this? I wish we could always fix all peoples computer problems but we can't.

The odds are he can not connect do to a firewall.

Ive seen link sys routers do this. Hard reset them and you are off and running. Ask rude.

Saterday I had an identical suport call, user could connect to all arenas but the main. After 30 mins of searching, turns out he had blocked us with black ice.

And in the future, it's is realy considered bad form to quote from emails, because it is normaly considered private info, and is imposible for us to post any quotes from the same emails.

HiTech

FT_Animal · « **Reply #9 on:** April 10, 2002, 04:03:20 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Kieran
With all due respect, and with my years of work with the public in mind, I feel there is far more to this story than we've heard so far...

As I said. "Maybe I am missing something here".
~A

HFMudd · « **Reply #10 on:** April 10, 2002, 04:23:46 PM »

Just to throw out something... I'm an AT&T cable internet customer. A couple weeks ago I started having a large amount of packet loss. While this was going on I had more trouble connecting to the MA than to the CT. My guess was that the longer average ping rate of the MA plus the latency due to packet loss on my end resulted in a greater chance of be unable to use the MA than the CT.

Dumb question Animal, but have you pinged some target outside your local area. (yahoo.com for example?)

Animal, my setup is a Linksys Router, Linksys Cable Modem and ATTBI ISP. If yours is simular and you would like to compare notes I would be happy to let you know my router settings. (Which are mostly default...)

Wlfgng · « **Reply #11 on:** April 10, 2002, 04:41:54 PM »

AT&T cable here in the Mountains.
no packet loss.. approx 60-70 ping

Puck · « **Reply #12 on:** April 10, 2002, 04:42:53 PM »

On Topic: I've never been anything but impressed with HTCs tech support; EVER, even during the month I flew before I really had time to fly. They are MUCH nicer than I am, and if anything they deserve more credit than they get. Having said that I (personally) think it was rude beyond the pale to attack them and the job they do based on partial information.

Off Topic: Gawd, HiTech! Does it take longer to squash the bugs or the typos in your source code? Is that just part of the on-line image, and you're really PH.D. from Cambridge in English? If you could spell AH would be at version 12.82 patch 3 by now!

FT_Animal · « **Reply #13 on:** April 10, 2002, 05:44:24 PM »

The problem is almost always on the customer end, trust me, it's giving the customer the information to look into it that helps him, not agreeing that he needs to quit to solve the problem. 90% of them don't mean it when they threaten to quit.

Sometimes you need to take a little extra care and convince the customer it can be fixed.

He doesn't post it because he doesn't use the forums, period. I use the forums to get a response that MAY help him stay in the game. It's called helping your own in a "Community".

~A

Quote

Originally posted by Apache
...and why wouldn't it be on his end when 450+ DO connect to the main nightly.

FT_Animal · « **Reply #14 on:** April 10, 2002, 05:57:53 PM »

Because the call for help in the first place was either ignored or insufficantly answered. If they can't get the proper help why not quit>?

Sometimes you have to nice them into explaining their problem because when they come to you\me they are already pissed, a lame "I don't care" response just pushes them over the edge. And rightfully so. A good tech is going to recognize the fact that they wouldn't be asking you anything unless they were pissed. So they are pissed from the get go the second you\me receive the call for help.

To point them into how to quit when they really want help is saying "I really don't give a rats ars, just go quit, makes my job easier".

It's like the cry to commit suicide, it's a cry for help, or else.

A good tech will recognize a threat to quit as a desparate cry for help. Because they DON"T want to quit. Take the time to develope a repour with that person and they will listen, and even if you both can't figure it out they will appreciate the effort.

I cannot count how many emails I have gotten from folks where we couldn't figure out their problem but did appreciate my effort to *try*, "Because nonone welse would take the time". And if nothing else they become friends. I've had people who have hated me become close friends just because I made the effort. Word of mouth in the community will increase the trust in TS.

~A

Quote

Originally posted by Animal
*sigh*

Working as tech support, when people call threatening to quit, I just tell them the instructions to do so. They either get mad or apologize and explain their problem, wich is usually easily remedied.

Why are are you telling me you are gonna quit if you dont mean it? Why dont you just say "HEY! I HAVE THIS PROBLEM. CAN YOU HELP ME?"

I can already picture the conversation in my mind.

"Hitechcreations how can I help you"

*in an angry tone*
"Ive been unable to connect to the MA, I'm afraid I'll have to cancel my account"

If you say you want to quit, then dont get mad if the techie assumes you MEAN IT, AND TRIES TO HELP YOU.