Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Automated customer support is a joke...

Ok I know why it's there, but how often is it actually helpful? It seems that customer support has become nothing more than a knowledge base of the most common issues available for you to read via website or read to you by automated message.

What happened to the days when you spoke to someone who actually understood the in's and out's of the product and could give you a personalized response to your situation.

Maybe I'm just always part of that 5% that experience such a unique situation that manuals and help databases don't help. Let's consider this weeks issue:

Zynga (maker of Farmville, Mafia Wars, and just about every other time consuming Facebook game) is once again having problems with one of their games and I am forced to find out if I'm the only one with this issue or if it's a known problem that is currently being fixed. After looking through some forums, I turn to their customer support page. After searching through the help database and finding nothing, I then submit a help email describing my problem the the last detail. After 8 hours of waiting I get a reply,
"Thank you for contacting Zynga Customer Support.

We have reviewed your issue and believe that the answer to your problem exists in our Customer Service Knowledge Base..."
Now I'm back to square one. Their link had absolutely nothing to do with my problem and I'm forced to resubmit my problem because they marked the support ticket as "resolved."
Has the lack of human interaction in customer support affected you in some way? Share below...

2 comments:

  1. Hey DV you actually contacted Zinga? For a Zinga game? If I can't figure out from the Zinga forum what is wrong I just get mad at the game and then tell myself...get off this stupid game that resembles bad Atari games from 1982 and that is draining my brain and wasting vast amounts of my time. Sometimes I listen to myself and get off the game but the constant concern for my dishes 'cooking' on the stoves in my Cafe or my crops and critters in Frontierville always seems to over-ride my common sense.

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  2. Sometimes these games become a investment of your time. If you choose to quit, you'd prefer to quit on your own terms. Not because the game became unplayable.
    If you never accomplish whatever goal you sought to reach, you might end up regretting the previous hours you put into the game.
    The real problem comes with games like the ones made by Zynga. They have no real ending. So if you don't set a goal for yourself then you'll be trapped in a never ending cycle until you eventually become aware of what could then be a addiction.

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