STO Customer Service

So I've been playing STO primarily since we got the announcement here. For the most part I've been having fun.

However, recently I ran into a bit of a glitch. The fact that things poofed out of my inventory that shouldn't have is not the issue.

The issue is the horrible customer support. I always got good customer service while playing CoH. The bar from this game is something I doubt any other company can live up to.

Just wanted to say what I've been finding out, and that is that Cryptic/Perfect World has HORRIBLE customer service.

I'll update this is they make good and solve the issue. But, I've seen other similar posts and it really looks like the CS answer is:

Sucks to be you.

I found it rather interesting that Perfect World Entertainment has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau. See here:

http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-franc...city-ca-375623

And for those interested here is my issue:

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/sh...21#post6602121

Just an FYI for those considering were to go.

Thanks for the info and the link! Star Trek Online is a game I've been considering playing after NCSoft shuts the doors on City of Heroes. I'll factor this is after I wake up late 12/1 (having stayed up for the "sunset" and final disconnection notice from NCSoft the night before) when considering which MMORPGs (if any) to try next.

IMO Cryptic's CS was horrible before they were picked up by PWE. I never got a response to any petitions, and I just gave up trying to get things fixed. So I can't say if PWE's CS is better by comparison. Also since I gave up on CS I stopped spending money in their cash shop. I get by on the free points from the LTS I bought before launch.

you think that's bad wait til you need help in TSW!

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

CS is always a factor for me in deciding whether to support a game or not. With that in mind I have found that my dealings with the CS team at City of Steam comparable to CoH CS even at this stage of Closed Beta.

The Moderator team needs a little work though as they are a young team without open minds and are quick to judge without understanding cultural differences. I don't hold it against them if they learn from it.

Incidentally, if you may be interested in CoS - there are still Closed Beta keys available HERE (CB starts in 34 hours)



EDIT: Also SWTOR goes F2P today in 2.5 hours.

My experience with PWE customer service has been pretty lousy. My experience with CoH hasn't been all that great either (save for resolving some glitchy itrials) . Same for WoW.

All were long waits just to get a scripted "You're screwed." reply. Seems to be the standard for most games.

TSW is the only game that comes to mind when I think of good customer service. Response within an hour or two (or sometimes within 10 minutes) and depending on the issue, a GM would show up. They would also check back with you to make sure everything was properly resolved and working correctly.

I don't even consider CS when deciding to play a game. I'll play what I want, and if a problem shows up I'll generally just "suck it up" although I will search the internet for possible fixes or explanations. Guess I've been lucky as I've rarely had stuff lost in games. You might check if your DOFF (Duty Officers) assignments might have eaten up lost inventory items.

I've been playing STO for a month now, mostly for free except for a $10 time card. I levelled up a Fed character to 50 (cap), and a Klingon character (they start at level 20 after you unlock the option) to level 50. I've maxed the Klingon's ship with Mk XI purple weapons and equipment, haven't bothered to go for the uber Mk XII stuff you have to grind for (all for a < 1% increase in performance? I'll spend my time on doing fun stuff instead of grinding the boring "raids").

I haven't found the restrictions to be much, although hearing from some subbers that they couldn't live with them (example: "I cry when I'm below 20 million"). *shrug*

The 10 million EC (energy credits) limit hasn't been an issue for me as the most I've had at any one time is 5 million EC, twice, each time spent for a Fleet Ship Module (you need 4 for a high end ship option, that $10 bought the other two).

Inventory and bank limits haven't been a problem, either.

I haven't had occasion to use the support over on STO, other than the community boards. I quickly avoided any further attempts at asking a question in their forums. There are a number of very vocal and obnoxious people "answering" questions in the tech forums.

To be fair though, CoH support has been pretty hit or miss over the years as well. In many cases, you get a canned response that may or may not actually be related to your inquiry. It is only after replying to them that they tend to actually do anything about the problem. With CoH, I've found that the absolute best support, comes from the tech forums here, rather than trying to go through customer support, and crossing your fingers that you get a useful answer.

I've had good experiences with CoH support also through the years, but just as often, it has been useless.

STO is like CO in the way of CS, basically if you are not a "Gold Player" then you are not entitled to GM support, it even states as much on both websites. If you want GM support you have to be forking out a monthly fee or have a lifetime sub.

There are also numerous bugs in STO that have been there since beta, but all in all... it isn't a bad game, though there isn't much of a challenge to it. You can hit 50 in less than a week without even trying, and then all there is to do end-game is grind out daily missions and elite STF's.

Wow. I just learned that PWE has disabled the ability to petition posts on the STO forums.

Quote:

Quote: Hello, Can anyone tell me how to report a post that is in violation of the community rules for this forum? In this case, it's someone spamming the same message over and over in multiple threads with a fake technical fix that in fact crashes peoples' machines. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. EDIT: The Perfect World ticket button 404s out, so that's not an option. Quote: Try a PM to pwebranflakes, that'll work, or if you're on Twitter send an @ to @PWE_Branflakes, those are the 2 ways I do it, until we get a report button on the site again

Talk about making people jump thru hoops.

I've had no problem with Cryptic customer support per se: I recently had two issues in CO (am a paying customer), and the rep took the time to respond to all my issues and answer all my questions, through several iterations.

They couldn't fix either problem because they're the result of bugs that a GM can't deal with. But at least they responded within a reasonable time, and they were polite.

The problem with CO is that the game has a lot of bugs, and they don't seem to be interested in fixing them. Of course, many people said the same thing about CoH: there were hundreds of issues that were around for years.

The sad fact is, in most any game bugs won't be fixed unless they repeatedly crash the game (and can be reliably reproduced) or flat-out prevent you from achieving a goal. If starting the mission over again will resolve the issue, forget about ever getting a fix.

I'm sure you all have your favorite example of that in CoH, but my pet peeve was mobs getting knocked into walls, who then could not be attacked (though they could still attack you).