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A criticism of DB CS methodology

ThurthoradThurthorad ✭✭✭✭✭
In my experience getting an initial response from DB in a timely manner is good. Though for some reason they always reply to me in the early hours of the morning in a oddly narrow window of support.

However, getting a second reply after they've asked a question and I've provided an answer can take an enormous amount of time. It have had gaps in responses as long as 4 days. Long enough that the offer that had caused the problem was no longer available and thus the issue could not be address is in the correct manner. The reason that this seems to happen is that the initial query gets assigned to a particular agent and if they are not in the following day no progress is made on that persons queue.

May I suggest that this process be amended so that there is a team who looks after follow up queries and that efforts are made to reduce times to respond to follow ups.

Is it the case that Zendesk only deal with DB CS for a few hours a day (roughly 4am UTC to 7am UTC?). I am currently in a situation where I am waiting on a second CS response and it is very frustrating knowing that I won't be getting a response today because I didn't get one in the middle of the night, and that it might be several days before I get a response at all depending on the availability of the agent.

(and this is separate from the frustration I feel about a process that charges for an item and doesn't deliver it)

Comments

  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    Zendesk is an application, not a provider. It's the ticketing system DB or it's outsourced company chose to use. But the rest of your post appears to be largely correct. DB has outsourced their CS to a third party company. That company seems to be based in Asia from the time of their responses. And once a ticket is assigned to a rep that's your rep.

    I would not suggest a separate team for all followup items, but tickets should be re-assigned if the initial rep is out of the office.

    The broader issue is that the delayed responses make providing fair compensation more difficult for everyone.

    The current internet outage at the start could probably be fairly resolved by providing a bunch of 5* speed boosts to let affected players catch up. But if the ticket is stretched beyond the event end then the player is left asking for a 5* crew and rank adjustment which CS won't do. And eventually the ticket is settled without people being happy with the resolution. Quicker CS turnaround makes it much easier to address issues with reasonable mid-event compensation.
  • AviTrek wrote: »
    That company seems to be based in Asia from the time of their responses.
    Some used to be based in Germany, but I don't know if they work for the support company. Yannic is one support specialist that lived in Germany about 18 months ago.
  • [7TW] UnkieB[7TW] UnkieB ✭✭✭✭✭
    milamber42 wrote: »
    AviTrek wrote: »
    That company seems to be based in Asia from the time of their responses.
    Some used to be based in Germany, but I don't know if they work for the support company. Yannic is one support specialist that lived in Germany about 18 months ago.

    He was one of the people let go in the big layoff.
  • AviTrekAviTrek ✭✭✭✭✭
    Germany is possible. The time difference between Germany and Asia is close enough to confuse matters without knowing their full schedule.
  • edited January 2019
    I am usually up in the wee hours of the night and when i do open a ticket i get the reply an hour later, i reply, and get another reply an hour later. Dont know why they reply so late at night...but i sort of like it.
  • AviTrek wrote: »
    Germany is possible. The time difference between Germany and Asia is close enough to confuse matters without knowing their full schedule.

    They are definitely not based in Germany. Responses I've gotten were timestamped between 2 and 6 am German time. Asia or India is my guess.
  • Dirk GundersonDirk Gunderson ✭✭✭✭✭
    KayJay47 wrote: »
    AviTrek wrote: »
    Germany is possible. The time difference between Germany and Asia is close enough to confuse matters without knowing their full schedule.

    They are definitely not based in Germany. Responses I've gotten were timestamped between 2 and 6 am German time. Asia or India is my guess.

    I seem to recall that we settled on the Philippines as the most likely location a while back, if only based on the given names of one or more of the CS reps. Regardless of their location, I think it is perhaps more troubling that they seem to know so little about the game they are supporting than how infrequently they respond. At least if they understood what we were going through they would be able to give better support when they get around to doing so. Other than event-related problems, I think I would rather wait longer for the right response rather than get an uninformed one right away...especially if you have to go through the escalation process.
  • [7TW] UnkieB[7TW] UnkieB ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2019

    I seem to recall that we settled on the Philippines as the most likely location a while back.

    Definitely the Philippines. At least I know that’s where the CS team manager is located so I’d guess the team he manages is also there.

    At one time they still had some German CS as well for German language support. No idea if that’s still the case.
  • SSR BarkleySSR Barkley ✭✭✭✭✭
    I've never had a scenario where the followup response takes 4-5 days

    the vast majority of their CS and QA team is in the Philippines. It's not a hard find via social media. I do believe they still have a few german CS agents
    /SSR/ Barkley - semi retired
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  • I typically wait a day for the initial reply. If there is a question I need to reply to, it’s another day, and at times, a few days to get a response (which in an event can be frustrating). However, I have no idea as to the number of staff employed or the hours of operation on DB's part.
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  • Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
  • edited January 2019
    It's now Thursday and the start of a new event. My ticket from the past event a week ago is still open.

    Send a message at 0900 am, wait 21 hours until 0300 am for an answer, etc.
  • KanonKanon ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's now Thursday and the start of a new event. My ticket from the past event a week ago is still open.
    Same here, I had a couple of responses, asking for details, and then confirmation, with days between each message, and now I'm waiting since Monday morning for any kind of interaction.
  • jestergeniejestergenie ✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    ...and they want me to recommend this game. This kind of behaviour has a name - impudence. Oh well, I'm gonna pay them back with their own coin... I will do whatever I can to discourage as many potential players as possible.
  • jestergeniejestergenie ✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    ...and they want me to recommend this game. This kind of behaviour has a name - impudence. Oh well, I'm gonna pay them back with their own coin... I will do whatever I can to discourage as many potential players as possible.

    I suggest that if you hate the game and DB that much that you just leave the game and this forum and get on with your life. Many people enjoy playing and wish it to continue.

    Suggestion acknowledged and dismissed. After all it's not that hard to keep up with both of these things: my life and this forum.
  • ThurthoradThurthorad ✭✭✭✭✭
    I like this game and want it to continue. I do want their CS to improve though and I am happy to work with them to make that happen. Contributions that are burn-it-all-down in tone are quite frankly pointless here and you'd be better going to reddit or somewhere.
  • Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    I had this same problem, exactly. It was frustrating at least, infuriating at best. It left me thinking that all CS is doing is gatekeeping compensation requests. At least I was treated as I was trying to get something for nothing when I was expressing a technical concern.

    On one hand, I feel like the community may have groomed this attitude. It had been over a year since my last ticket and felt the attitude I got was very different. Then again, I had recently been dealing with a different customer service issue for a warranty replacement on a car part. The manufacturer had their stuff together and we're really helpful. The retailer who was my policy responsible for honoring warranty replacement was gatekeeping my issue; the difference in quality of service was palpable. So yeah, it's 2019, and it makes a difference when your goal and/or standard is ACTUAL customer service versus running WalMart customer service desk.
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  • jestergeniejestergenie ✭✭✭
    edited January 2019
    Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    ...and they want me to recommend this game. This kind of behaviour has a name - impudence. Oh well, I'm gonna pay them back with their own coin... I will do whatever I can to discourage as many potential players as possible.

    48 hours later...

    Got second reply, not bad.
    It was another attempt at stalling. I find it offensive.
    Sent back my own reply. I'm very determined/stubborn person. :p
  • Captain_WhoCaptain_Who ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    ...and they want me to recommend this game. This kind of behaviour has a name - impudence. Oh well, I'm gonna pay them back with their own coin... I will do whatever I can to discourage as many potential players as possible.

    48 hours later...

    Got second reply, not bad.
    It was another attempt at stalling. I find it offensive.
    Sent back my own reply. I'm very determined/stubborn person. :p

    This is what I find to be typical for CS. This is why the game gets a 1 on the recommendation scale, and reason enough to get a permanent ban from my wallet.
  • DScottHewittDScottHewitt ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    ...and they want me to recommend this game. This kind of behaviour has a name - impudence. Oh well, I'm gonna pay them back with their own coin... I will do whatever I can to discourage as many potential players as possible.

    I suggest that if you hate the game and DB that much that you just leave the game and this forum and get on with your life. Many people enjoy playing and wish it to continue.

    But, many of us enjoy his/her daily meltdowns. Please don't drive him/her away!!!!!
    "The truth is like a lion; you don't have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself."
  • Sent a ticket today. I'm gonna find out myself... ;)
    24 hours later...

    Got reply, not bad.
    Reply has literally nothing to do with my problem. Standard, copy-paste gibberish. Not good.
    Sent back my own reply and described my problem again.

    ...and they want me to recommend this game. This kind of behaviour has a name - impudence. Oh well, I'm gonna pay them back with their own coin... I will do whatever I can to discourage as many potential players as possible.

    48 hours later...

    Got second reply, not bad.
    It was another attempt at stalling. I find it offensive.
    Sent back my own reply. I'm very determined/stubborn person. :p

    This is why the game gets a 1 on the recommendation scale, and reason enough to get a permanent ban from my wallet.

    Concur
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