So, this is one of those posts where I rant about something that has been pissing me off lately. I try not to do this too terribly often, but it happens every now and then. And usually for a good cause too.
Today’s rant has to do with EA, BioWare, and “Star Wars: The Old Republic.” I should preface this post by saying that EA has never really been known for their outstanding customer support, because…Well…They’ve never had outstanding customer support! I’ve not gone as far as to never purchase an EA game because of how bad their support is, but I have heard my share of horror stories.
I recently got invited to participate in the last two weeks of the beta test for TOR. Well, that was all nice and such except for the fact that the testing fell around an unfortunate period of time when I would be required to be out of town to visit family for two weekends in a row. However, when I found out that the test this past weekend would run through Monday, I figured when I got home that I would set it up and give it a shot. But, things were not that easy. When I logged into the game client after downloading it, I was met with a message that read something like “You are outside the currently approved testing region.” That was kind of odd, so I typed the message into Google and was told that this was the game’s strange way of telling me I needed to log into my BioWare account and set my security passwords. So, I went and did that and logged back in. Then, I was asked to answer one of the questions…Only to find that it was NOT a question I had opted to answer, but instead read “What is your favorite author?”
At first, I figured that maybe I had scrolled the mouse by accident when selecting one of the questions and thus decided to answer with the answers I had given on the other questions. None of them worked and after a few attempts the account was locked. Of course, after a short period of time the account was unlocked for whatever good that did. I contacted support only to receive an automated email that asked me to reset my password and then attempt to reset the questions. Well, resetting the PW is pretty easy, but in order to reset the questions…*drum roll*…You have to KNOW the answers to the present questions!
I then saw a post from a couple days ago that said that this is essentially a known issue with the log-in servers. When this might be fixed? Who knows, but it seems to be low priority. The article was also very clear that you should NOT call Customer Support to complain about the issue because you will be on the phone for a very long time and all they will do is tell you that they are aware of the issue and plan to fix it “by December 20th.”
At least I am not the only one with this issue…My friend Mike said that just today he had the same problem and it asked him the question about his favorite author. Now it seems he is having the same problem.
What bothers me is that Customer Service seems so blase about it. I understand that they have higher priorities, like getting the game ready to go live on December 20, but even so, you would think that customer loyalty might be important. Oh, wait…EA factors in here! EA is never known for their customer support and, of course, BioWare has a “holier than thou” attitude because of the success of their other titles. They KNOW that the game will do well just based on the sheer number of preorders and the incredible hype they’ve built up, so it’s doubtful that right now they are worried that Allahweh is unable to log into their game.
Do I think it will be fixed? Yes, probably so. But after such a pain-in-the-ass of an ordeal, I’m not sure I’m going to care too much when it is…
I think they must know they have an issue but aren’t publicly admitting it. They are in the process of building a huge customer support centre here in Ireland primarily for the Star Wars game by the looks of their job requirements. Hopefully that turns out to be what the fans need!
They need to do something, that’s for sure. As it stands now, they’ve pretty much affected how I view the game. CS is important to me, so even if the game is awesome, bad service will ruin it quick!
I feel your frustration, and I’d be hopping mad too. On the other hand, this _is_ a testing phase for BioWare, and if they have an issue they know about that is this crucial, I’m sure it’s on their to-do list.
I don’t know about EA, I think they probably don’t really give a shit, and the customer loyalty you mention only really kicks in after 20th December — testers aren’t _really_ customers yet, are they? (Actually, from what I saw last weekend, all I can say is, it’ll be such a relief to know that all sorts won’t be there once it comes to _paying_ for playing — one of the reasons I tend to favour subscription-based MMOs but maybe I’m just cynical and curmudgeonly.)
That’s a good point, and I think that’s why they said initially not to call – they know about the issues and they will fix them, but it’s lower priority than fixing other major bugs and getting the game ready to ship. They will likely fix these other things before December 20, but right now they have a few more things to worry about than whether I can access the game!
And yep, I understand what you mean – hopefully being P2P will get rid of the riff-raff!
I think they should introduce a few “Ultra-Premium” servers in these games. Where you get to pay like $29.95/month, you get no extra features or anything, just a place to play with even less riff-raff. Bit like driving a BMW “cos you can”
I’m sure there’d be a good market for that, especially in RP circles. It would be a great way to minimize the griefers and find friends that weren’t quitting the game tomorrow.
Ive also had bad experince with there CS. Back in november i recieved a email about being selected for there beta testing but no date was given when questioned they said another email would be sent. Let us just say i never got into the beta even though they promised me a beta weekend, and all my emails have not been answered. Also I should be getting into the early release but so far I have not recieved a email about that and I know of others who have.
Well, my issue with them was finally fixed, but it took a long time. To be fair, during the beta phase I guess we weren’t customers – we weren’t paying to play the game – and so minor issues with a few people were lower priority than them getting the game ready for release on December 20. But, that said, yes, I understand your frustration. I also got an email a while back saying I was invited to be in the beta and then it ended up being for two weeks in the future, despite that they said it was that coming weekend. Ah well…These things happen. X_X
I have preordered the deluxe edition ($150.00)and I am unable to access my account. I am supposed to have 5-6 days of early game access however every time I try to log in it tells me that an error has occurred and that I need to reset my password every time I try to reset my password it tells me an error has occurred and that I need to try again. 20 times later nothing has changed I have almost lost 2 whole days of early game access and my issue is yet to be resolved. The toll free number they provide is about as helpful as talking into a banana. I have sent two emails yesterday and again today but still have not heard from CS. I feel bad for everyone who is experiencing similar CS/login problems. This is BS but you are not alone.
My issue got resolved finally, but it took forever. As you said, their Customer Service is about good for nothing over the phone and totally useless via email. Via email I kept getting automated replies, and it took like 3 or 4 emails just to get a person to answer and all they said was that I needed to call about it. That was insane.
You problem is related to the password? You don’t have trouble with the security questions?
I wish I could offer you advice on how to fix that, but there’s probably nothing you or I could do about it. The security question problem can be somewhat circumvented by simply setting the answers to all five questions to the same answer, but also making the answer have nothing to do with the question – treat it like a password and put something like “biowarecustomerservicesucks” and that will help you…Unless you are like me and have them ask you to answer questions you never set, in which case you are pretty much screwed.
I have a friend who is in your boat and has lost some of his early access. Another friend was having the same problem you were and it took him hours on the phone to solve.
It also came to my attention that if you pre-ordered the game to get the early access, your early access is granted based on when you got the game. For example, the people who bought the game first got in on December 13, but others might not have gotten in until today. To me, if you pay that kind of money for this stuff, they should give you what you paid for.
This sort of stuff makes me really mad and I feel like BioWare and their customer service is ripping everyone off.
I have an issue over this whole ID verification; if you have a problem with trying to reset passwords, security questions and doesnt allow you to reset your security questions. Instead you have to call their customer service; wait for a tremendous amount of time and then when you do speak to someone to try and reset your account you are asked to resubmit your id through a drivers licencse, passport! You got be kidding. You cant verify a persons account over the phone. I never heard of anytrhing as anal. You are dealing with someone outside the U.S. ( a growing problem). They read everything off a cue card and wont budge or help you. This would never happen here in the U.S. (I believe.). Bottom line, you best back up all your info that you do with this game otherwise you have to deal with my horror. Gosh they get plenty from you on this game to begin with the game itself and the monthly subscriptions you think they would bend over backward to help you. Am I alone in this dlilemma? Its a great game but customer service is bad for this game. You could soon turn off fans by these types of problems.
Wow, you had a lot to say on this topic! :-O
I agree with you on this, completely. What I ended up doing when I finally got where I could set the information again was to take a physical screenshot of the page and even note on the image the information I entered (if hidden). Yet, I recall right around launch that when I entered the stuff correctly, it STILL acted like I had set questions other than the ones I set. I got on the phone with them and told them that this was outrageous and that I could verify my full name, physical address, D.O.B., etc and they did reset the information as I had requested. But, it is a lot of hassle. And them to actually ask some people to send a copy of their license or passport is a huge breach of privacy I think. And earlier this year (2012) I had an issue with Diablo III and some similar things, but at least they were pretty easy to deal with on the phone and very polite about it.
I really hate EA/Origin/BioWare after all this crap and I’ll be damned if I ever pay a penny in the future to come back to ToR.