Well, I only got around 7 hours of sleep last night, but it was good to finally rest. Yesterday was very very long. I was out with my brother for many hours, and spoke quite a bit with both him and my dad.
I also made some new e-mail addresses for my businesses, and emailed back some fairly important clients. I also wrote a short message to EA, as attached to a comment I made about their customer support. I'll put it down here because it's mildly interesting :).
BACKSTORY: I lost access to my old e-mail that I had for over 10 years (no lie). I had to disable my credit card, get steam to change all my account info, etc etc. Very messy and awful.
My 'Battlefield: Bad Company 2' game I bought was attached to this old e-mail. I was unable to remember the game's password, and needed to change the game account over to my new e-mail address. I finally contacted the text-based support area for help. Tier 1 ('Rodney') provided no assistance and told me 'nothing could be done'. Tier 2 'Daniel R.' actually helped me very quickly.
Here is the Original Chat Log.
*****
'Rodney' has joined the chat.
2377205245: Hi
Rodney: Hello
2377205245: recently i lost access to my email account, and i cannot log into my BFBC2 game without the password. - I now have a new email address, and want to change my CD key to the new email address.
Rodney: May I have the cd key for the game ?
2377205245: yep
Rodney: Okay
2377205245: ****** CD-KEY ********
2377205245: it is attached to OLD@hotmail.com
2377205245: my new address is NEW@hotmail.com
Rodney: The game is registered under the account " OLD@hotmail.com "
Rodney: You need to login in to your game through this account
2377205245: i have lost access to that account
Rodney: Okay
2377205245: and hotmail will not provide me the password
Rodney: May I have your date of birth registered under your account ?
2377205245: sure
2377205245: January 1 1973
2377205245: my birthdate
Rodney: But the date of birth registered under that account is totally different
2377205245: ... I don't know why that would be
2377205245: is there any other questions you can ask me?
Rodney: Do you have the access of visiting the e-mail inbox of " OLD@hotmail.com " ?
2377205245: nope
Rodney: Okay
Rodney: Then unfortunately nothing can be done
2377205245: so, i have lost my game?
Rodney: Do you have the disc for the game ?
2377205245: it was bought in steam
Rodney: Okay
Rodney: Then unfortunately nothing can be done
2377205245: my steam account is connected to the NEW@hotmail.com account, and it has the record of my purchase
Rodney: But the game is registered under the account OLD@hotmail.com
2377205245: yes, but that account was high-jacked
2377205245: compromised
Rodney: If you wish I can transfer your issue to the senior support , tier 2 ?
2377205245: i would appreciate that
2377205245: Thank you.
Rodney: Okay
Rodney: Sure
Rodney: Please stay connected c
Rodney: *
2377205245: I will stay connected.
'Rodney' disconnected ('Transferred to Queue').
***THIS QUEUE TOOK NEARLY AN HOUR. I BEAT 2 TEMPLES IN FF1 ON MY PSP WHILE I WAITED***
Hi, my name is Daniel R.. How may I help you?
2377205245: Hello
Daniel R.: Please give me a moment while I review the Chat Log so that I can understand exactly what the issue you are having is today and the troubleshooting steps that have already been done. Your time is very valuable to me and I do not want to waste it by doing troubleshooting steps we have already followed through with.
Daniel R.: Please take note of the following Chat ID: [412321]. This will be very important if you happen to get disconnected anytime during this chat or need to refer back to this same issue. You can always get back in contact with Live Chat and give the next Agent your ID so you do not need to re-explain anything.
2377205245: Thank you for reviewing the log that Rodney and I went though.
Daniel R.: Do you have anything attached to this account now NEW@hotmail.com ?
2377205245: not anymore. I was forced to reassign everything to the new account.
2377205245: oh
2377205245: i mean, NEW@hotmail.com is my current account - pardon my confusion.
2377205245: OLD@hotmail.com is my old account, which was compromised.
Daniel R.: Yes but is there anything on the new account
2377205245: I have many things attached to the new account now
2377205245: many websites, games, etc.
2377205245: my steam account is also now on the new e-mail address.
Daniel R.: One moment please
2377205245: ok, thank you.
Daniel R.: What do you want the password to be?
2377205245: FOOTBALLZ
2377205245: I'll change it later to something very confusing and difficult to guess
2377205245: Then write it down and put it in a safe - so i don't bother you fine folks again :).
Daniel R.: Try to log in with that password
2377205245: on the old account ?
2377205245: I've logged into the old account successfully.
Daniel R.: Can I help you with anything else today?
2377205245: You've been exceedingly helpful!
2377205245: thank you so much, that is all the help I need!
Daniel R.: Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts and for chatting with me and I was glad I was able to help you. You should be getting a survey in your e-mail for our chat and if you could fill that out it would be great. I will also be sending you an e-mail with the chat log in it. When you are ready, you can go ahead and press the disconnect button to exit the chat. Have a great day!
2377205245: Have an excellent day, Daniel!
Daniel R.: You too
*****
(This was added in the 'optional additional comments section' of the EA support survey, which means
that other then you, no one will ever read it.)
*****
Tier 1 ('Rodney') told me that 'Then unfortunately nothing can be done' twice. This was and is completely untrue. Why did he lie to me? Is he a chat-bot? Who knows. Oh, yes, you folks do. Why *did* he lie to me?
Finally he asks if I want to be put to tier 2. I wait in a queue for almost an hour. Then, as soon as I got a hold of a tier 2 person ('Daniel R.'), he did what needed to be done, with a single question asked. Literally. Check the logs.
Get rid of tier 1. Get more tier 2.
Daniel R. was excellent, and he did a perfect support job. He got what I needed done, and he took little time to do it. This is the single best thing anyone can say about an employee.
By the by, I was waiting 'in queue' for almost an hour waiting for Daniel R., but it was worth every second because unlike Rodney, that outright lied to me, Daniel R. actually did a good job, and solved my problem. And he didn't lie to me.
It would make me half as upset if 'Rodney' had said 'There is nothing *I* can do'. This may have been true, and then offered to queue me up for tier 2.
If you folks are trying to save man-hours, I can respect this, but I would implore you to not have your employees lie to your customers. Even if your 'employees' are chat bots. It makes for people that feel very upset about it, like myself.
I am your customer, not a pirate. Not a thief. I bought your games with real money. Perhaps you should take a fraction of the money you spend trying to ward off piracy, and put it towards the salary of people like Daniel R.. Or, try a crazy strategy of paying more (possibly 'human') people to run your support lines.
Suffice to say, I hear rumors of you folks not being the shining example of software development and support that you may have been in the past. But seriously. You make more money then some small countries. And I want to believe that you are still worth some salt. Then I get put on queue for over an hour, and lied to by tier 1 support.
Ask yourself. If you were in my position, would you feel any different calling into *ME* for support of one of your key and inventory management products. What if I put you to my tier 1 guys, and had them intentionally lie to you to try and throw you off the trail.
I don't think you'd like it.
What if you couldn't open your building, and were losing money while I twiddled my thumbs and let you hang out to dry with my tier 1 guys.
You wouldn't like it at all.
So next time you make some decisions that will adversely affect how we your support will treat support customers, remember this.
We all should treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves.
I hope this gets printed out and shown around.
Unbelievable.
*****
Yes, so that sums that up.
If you have issues with EA, I do not begrudge you. They seem to have some misplaced priorities.
And yes, I do work with key and inventory management systems. And yes, I have worked with EA on the products that they have installed. I did my best at every opportunity, and gave them many benefits of the doubt.
Now, I'm going to go out and get some fresh air - it's beautiful outside, and I could use a break from work.
I'll post back more soon :).
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