Astonishingly Poor Customer Service

[Guernicus]

Last Tuesday morning, over 9 days ago, after playing with no issue the night before, when I attempted to load the game, it never got beyond the Load screen. I closed and restarted the game. I restarted my iPad. I deleted and reinstalled the game from the App Store. My game version is up to date and my iPad system software is up to date. The iPad is a newer model. And, as I say, it had been fine the previous evening.

That evening, I sent an email explaining all this to customer support. After receiving an automated message telling me to read the FAQ (which I already had) I replied and laid out my problem AGAIN.

On Saturday, a customer support person called [Name removed] contacted me. It was clear he had not even bothered to read my carefully laid out issue as he told me to go into the game, go to settings and resend my complaint. If I could do *that* I wouldn’t have a problem. I responded that I couldn’t do that and waited.

By this Tuesday, I had heard nothing so I sent a follow up email, only to get another automated response that the ticket had been CLOSED and if there was still a problem to come back to the website. So I went back to the website and resubmitted my issue.

I got the automated message and today, good old [Name removed] has sent me *exactly* the same message as he did last Saturday telling me to open the game and resubmit the issue from the settings. Clearly, once again no human being actually bothered to read my problem.

This is really quite astonishingly shabby. I have paid real money into this game - not a vast amount - but I always believe in paying for what I enjoy. I expect in return not to be treated so poorly, to have a fundamental issue dealt with properly. They have not done that. I have no idea what to do. Whatever I do, it seems I’ll just get an automated message and no one to actually deal with my issue. I’m this putting this out in the forums in the hope that someone can help. I won’t hold my breath.

[Nevada]

I have passed this on to admin to see if we can find out what happened.

In the meantime, could you please post the Ticket ID number (should be in email subject line).

Thank you.

[Simourgh]

I cannot agree more. That Customer Service is seriously defective.
Good luck with your issue.

[Guernicus]

I have passed this on to admin to see if we can find out what happened.

In the meantime, could you please post the Ticket ID number (should be in email subject line).

Thank you.

Thank you

The first attempt was ticket #6491961 - this was closed, erroneously
The second attempt was ticket #6524471.
(I emailed support back last night to say not to close, that I couldn’t open the game, but have had no response.)

[cdosr]

I am wondering if they (Playrix) outsourced the first line of support. The "Help and Support" button pops up a screen with teeny-tiny letters that say "Powered by Helpshift". I don't know if that's just a software package or an actual company that provides first line help. I got curious when I was reporting a problem with another game from a different developer and recognized the help / support / navigation / reporting mechanism to be the same, Helpshift.

In my previous job life, we too outsourced the front line support to an organization. Their function was to off-load / filter the initial volume of calls / reports, many of which were common questions or problems reported by our users. If those could be handled / resolved by the outside company then that freed up the developer's time and only the more difficult problems or bugs would have to be addressed by the development team.

In order to do that filtering, we had to provide the external support team with a set of "scripts" that would help them identify the common problems, gather enough information (like system configuration, etc.). Some of these scripts would start with very simple questions that, on the surface, might seem stupid to the person reporting the problem. For example, how many times have you checked your television's owner's guide for the troubleshooting section. Is the first question "Is the television plugged into a working power outlet?"

Anyway, I just was thinking that is it possible that the first recipient of the problem report is not really totally familiar with the game but is going through a scripted set of requests for info. Once they recognize that the script isn't going to work for a particular problem or that there's enough in your responses to tell them that they cannot deal with the problem will they forward it to the development tteam (or the 2nd line of support) for further action.

Not to say that it isn't frustrating when you're stuck in a loop, need to get into the game to use the reporting system to say that you can't get into the game ...

I would be really great if there was some "break out" mechanism other than trying to get the information to Anna. E-Mail rather than "in-game reporting" was supposed to be that but in this case it doesn't seem to fit any script for the support person.

[Simourgh]

I am wondering if they (Playrix) outsourced the first line of support. The "Help and Support" button pops up a screen with teeny-tiny letters that say "Powered by Helpshift".

Thanks for sharing that idea. It makes sense, if we consider that the Customer Service used to be more efficient 3 years ago, and that it was not working with "Helpshift", but with regular email.

[kitty4715]

Guernicus, sorry to hear about your troubles. I've had the exact same thing happen trying to report a problem through the Playrix Helpshift website. Described it here. After three tickets and more than a dozen messages where I kept getting the same automatic response telling me to "submit a new request in game" I gave up. Maybe I'll try a fourth ticket today.

I do hope your problem gets solved! And I really hope Playrix takes a look at this customer service issue and does something to remedy it!!