GM's Responding to "Report Issue" Tickets?

#0 - Feb. 20, 2009, 7:02 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Okay, so I do my part to help clean up the game, bringing various things to Blizzard's attention so they can deal with their overly puerile fanbase. I've been doing it since the launch of WoW, so I'm well-acquainted with the various form-letter macros that GM's use when dealing with players.

Now, a while back the "Report Issue" button was added to the Help Request menu. This specifically states it's for tickets that "do not require a GM response". This is good for everyone involved; it means less time the GM's have to waste sending form letter macros and less time I have to waste responding to them.

However, it still seems like whenever I happen to be online when the ticket gets serviced, I get that new "A GM WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOU" flash in my chat box. I click on it, thinking, "Well, there must be a good reason the GM wants to talk to me. Perhaps they require clarification on why I thought "Backdoorlovefreak" wasn't an appropriate name for a WoW character. I understand how they might become confused." But the GM chat window pops up and it's the same "How are you/I will investigate this matter/is there anything else I can help you with" line of form macros.

In essence, I'm receiving a response to a ticket which (by definition) requires no response. That's time a GM could be using to help someone who required a response, and time I could be using to play the game.

And while we're on the subject, why does a ticket which requires no response necessitate a spam filter-clogging e-mail telling me the exact same thing that the form letter macros told me. "We have received your ticket and are investigating the matter." I assume that when the little "You have an open ticket." tab next to my minimap disappears that someone has received my ticket and is doing whatever they are supposed to do with it.

For that matter, it's really not necessary to send the "Blizzard Customer Service Satisfaction Survey" after every single notification e-mail. If I'm lucky, I was offline when the ticket was serviced, meaning that I have no customer service experience to rate. If I was online and a GM did actually talk to me, it was just in the same four macros. I can't rate each individual experience if the experiences are exactly the same every single time. It's like if Burger King handed you a questionnaire to fill out with each Whopper. You knew what you were getting when you ordered it, and the person giving it to you knew what they were giving you. A survey is not required in either of these situations.

I guess this could be considered more of a Suggestion, or maybe a Bug Report. Do CS Reps get bugs? Maybe they just didn't get the memo about the Report Issue button. Either way, it seemed like this was the best place to put this. I'd report it as an issue, but I didn't really want to deal with another e-mail or form letter macros.

Thank you for investigating my issue.

No, there's not anything else you can help me with today.

Have a nice day!
#3 - Feb. 20, 2009, 7:48 a.m.
Blizzard Post
I am very sorry if your time ingame was disturbed unnecessarily, Ergiz.

The Game Master may have mistaken the ticket 'type', perhaps he thought there was something he needed more information on, really hard to tell. That isn't an absolute guarantee we won't speak to you ingame if you are online, but it's been working out well overall.

We have cut back a bit on the emails we've sent in the past.

As to the surveys, those are automatic. We neither have any control over who will receive one, nor do we know who has received one. A recommendation on those would probably be best in the suggestion forum.

As always, if you have any comments on any Game Master interaction you'd like to share with their supervisors, just drop us an email at [email protected].

Thanks!