Wrong tier 10 piece bought - GM helpless

#0 - April 19, 2010, 11:41 p.m.

Entering my weekly ICC group run, I was 2 badges away from a shiny tier 10 piece I have had my eye on, knowing I was going to be able to purchace this item after the first boss kill, I loaded up with a scroll chant and gems to get it fixed up and wearable on the fly.

Marowgar went down and I proceeded to buy the (wrong) tier 10 chest, without looking, I chanted and confirmed the soulbound warning screen.

My experiance in the past was that GMs were plentiful and helpful (I havent opened a ticket since BC)
Wow, things have changed, 24 hours later I got a copy/pasted responce stating I was out of luck and the confirmation screen should have warned me about items becoming soulbound (which it did)

When I explained (on the second ticket) I thought I was chanting the correct piece, it was crickets .. policy is policy.

So I pondered this for some time, my impressions of GMs were they were an in game customer support, when I pull a bonehead move, they fix it. I try not to do anything too earth shattering and I consider myself pretty low maintanace.

My impressions completly changed that day, it was clear that Blizz was trying to make the game more "automatic" and less personal, the canned responce I got proves this.

I went from feeling like a valued customer to a rat hitting a feeder bar.

Things I am fully aware of:

GMs dont create policy, they simply enforce it.
Items bought with badges and enchanted become instantly soulbound.
Blizz no longer cares to put a personal touch on the game.

At this point it's not even the item loss .. this rat is done.

Malkorix

#45 - April 20, 2010, 2:08 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Maybe you should re-read the policy. It does, in fact, leave room for GMs to help people that make legitimate mistakes.

The OP just happened to get one that wasn't willing to help (or determined that their case didn't warrant it).

Actually, the Game Master in question did provide an appropriate response, based on our current policies. We allow ourselves some latitude and it is true that nothing is absolute, but sometimes we have to make hard decisions. In this case, there was not one, but two different confirmation messages that were skipped, which resulted in this unfortunate situation. Confirmation messages, I feel I must add, that were implemented specifically to prevent issues like this.

We are happy to help our players, Padagi, and we are also obligated to handle the issues that come before us with consistency and integrity. Part and parcel of that is following the rules that we've established.

Q u o t e:
It is fine to have a confirmation screen, because it reduced the number of people that will make mistakes.

Should the confirmation screen be the "be all, end all" of customer service?

Of course not! On the other hand, where does one draw the line? We've chosen to draw that line behind several layers of player protections.

Malkorix

#48 - April 20, 2010, 2:14 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Perhaps some useful suggestions might help the folks at Blizzard resolve issues like this in the future:

1) Allow players to get a refund on items even after gemming/enchanting an item. They player would lose the gems and/or enchants, but at least they wouldn't be out 95 emblems (or however many they used).

2) Instead of throwing all the items in together, create tabs similar to those on the talent tree. Players would then have to select holy, discipline, or shadow (using the priest as an example). This, too, would likely cut down on mistakes like the one made by the OP.

3) Alter the dialog box to inform the player that they are purchasing a piece for a spec they currently don't have activated. Instead of the 'are you sure' dialog, it could be changed to something like 'you are purchasing a piece intended for shadow spec, are you sure you want to procede?' (this would pop up for holy/disc priest, for example).

Things like this are bound to happen in an environment where people have to quickly run back and grab their piece while the raid is underway. I don't blame Blizzard for creating a way for players to correct their own mistakes without having to contact a GM. However, it's nice knowing (or perhaps used to be nice knowing) that somebody was available to help correct our mistakes on the rare occasions we did something like the OP.

I like your constructive approach. Please consider creating a post on our Suggestions forum to express these ideas where they can be considered by our Development staff.

Q u o t e:
Things like this are bound to happen in an environment where people have to quickly run back and grab their piece while the raid is underway.

Accidents do happen and we understand that. We also expect our players to exercise a reasonable amount of caution whenever they are making an important purchase, engage in a trade or make use of the Auction House.