Saturday, December 02, 2006

Jagex Customer Service

This is gonna be a bad...

But I can't see this happening without comment..

Anyone who knows me..
Knows that I represented a large multi-national organisation for a number of years in a Customer Service role..

From "In the field" to "Head Office".. I saw it all..

For 3 years I assisted in supporting 400 outlets across Australia into maintaining good customer service levels..

In short.. I think I know BAD support when I see it....
And to be honest..

It just makes me frustrated to see companies throwing money down the
drain because they simply WILL NOT SPEND A PENNY on customer service.

Internet companies are the worst..
In the Real World, real companies don't get away with this behaviour.
This is (unfortunately) the attitude of the "Fly by Night" operation.

These companies are as surprised as anyone else at their own success.
As a result they are hesitant to "WASTE" profit on any Customer Service.

Customers soon realise, that they're at the mercy of a Company who just wants to extract cash while providing minimal support.

Most of these Internet Companies survive on volunteer helpers.
(Meaning.. Absolutely No financial outlay on Customer Service..)

Jagex is no different from "most" internet companies in this regard.

Is this fair for the users?
You may say YES..

For to provide real support would make the subscription prices rise..

This is probably unfortunately true also.

Lets do some sums...

At 10.48pm CST (Central (Australian) Standard Time) I counted 46568 members online.
in US dollars.. Thats.. $7.95 x 46568 = $370,215.60 a month.

$4,442,587.20 a year

OMG.. That only represents the people that were online at the time..
This is the tip of the iceburg..

:( Now I am really unhappy...

They probably have many more paid users than what a snapshot in time reveals..

Ok lets say they only have 1/3 more users...
Thats $493,620 a month or $5,923,440.00 a year..
(In Australian dollars thats around $7 million a year)

I dont care how you look at it...

They can afford to provide real Customer Support.
But they still survive on volunteer staff!!!

Well... Apart from Jagex being so stingy with their high profits..

The volunteer staff themselves are part of the issue...
If they were trained into providing true customer service..
This would provide a solution..

However most Jagex Staff seem to be selected on their "Lagg" basis..
ie: How many times they are prepared to complain about people in the game.

Obviously this creates a feeling of "Us" and "Them".
All moderators are supposed to report rule infringements.

Most users know that the only way to be a moderator is to report people until Jagex notice what a good little snitch you are..

Is this the way to create Customer Support Staff?
To select from those who cause others to be banned?

I dont know about you..
But I have seen people reported for absolutely nothing..
I have seen users with bad attitudes report people
for the most minor (in my eyes)of infringements..

It is "this" that Jagex selects staff from...
(Note: Sick feeling in Stomache coming on..)

Then what?
Training in a Customer Service role?

I doubt it...

How do you train a 14 year old who only wants to PK..
Into being a staff member or Customer Service Rep. of your company??

You dont..

But Jagex would like us to believe that this is happening...

Maybe it is.. For some..
But I have been in a similar position myself.
As a volunteer helper for Inspeak.

I know from experience what kind of battlefield it can be
as a volunteer helper.

We were supposed to all be adults and yet issues were created..
I shudder to think at the pandamonium of young children thrown
into that kind of equation.

Apart from not being able to "trust" a moderator in the game..
(ie: that moderator tried to ripp me off by 40k on a seed price.. hmmm)

The most obvious sign of bad Customer Service is when direct Questions are not being answered.

Jagex Staff who instead of putting some effort into a reply, just fob you off onto a inadaquate FAQ.


Most of us have read the FAQ's and tried the suggestions before resorting to attempted communications with Jagex.

Failing to answer directly. Just pasting a FAQ is not providing a solution.
Especially if your unable to continue the conversation in any way.

Wouldn't it be nice to reply to the moderator and say..
Sorry mate.. Tried that.. Now please help..

It seems many other people have been treated the same way...

Please sign the petition if you believe.. (Like I do)
That life time banns are unfair..

Please sign petition titled Runescape accounts being permanently banned.


(Please be advised that some comments you will read from the petition link are NOT G rated due to the fact that these people are very upset)

How would you like your hard earned levels to go down the tube?
What if you were banned tomorrow? Forever?

And if Jagex dont listen to you?
Lets say a Moderator has made a decision to ban you..
What now?
Start again?

So how do the Bans work?

Bans and mutes

and pay special attention to..

What are black marks and what do they mean?

Jagex claims to have a black mark system in place..
I will try and find out more about this..

This is an example of Jagex's flawed customer support.
(My second message about this.. Months in between..)



and their really awful reply... (Read the FAQ)



Dummies.. I did read the FAQ.. Before I posted the question.. Duh!!

I even tried what the FAQ suggested..

But Jagex's software (and my memory) will not allow me to retrieve my password.

So why do they limit your question to 400 characters? It's impossible to ask a decent question or give a decent explaination in 400 characters!!!!

The obvious answer is because they DO NOT WANT anything from you.
Except your MONEY.

Note: I have never been banned on Runescape under any I.D.
(But I have a black mark or 2.. Possibly more after this post..)

Trying to explain to Jagex staff in a system that is not setup to accomodate communications is from users, is impossible.

Jagex only allow 400 characters to a message sent from you (the user)
Whereas a Moderator (Jagex Staff) isn't restricted to this pitiful pittance.

As a result Jagex basically hamstring you into not complaining!!!

There is no way to REPLY to a moderator..
You have to repeat the whole process of creating a message from the main Runescape Website again....
and again...
Every 400 characters...

(I had a Moderator tell me that they turned on the function so I could reply to their messages... But they were only pulling my chain.. I still couldn't reply without resorting to the main menu entry..)

Of course you cant reply to any individual moderators.. Or even address them..
The messages go to Jagex.. First Moderator up.. Gets to answer..

Everyone is a number.. They dont care for individuals.. Not even their own staff.

I do think the Mods take the messages off the top because this is what i have experienced... And if you have created broken messages..

ie: Where you have to use 3 or 4 messages to make your point.. Due to this 400 character limitation..

You will see what I mean.

A different Moderator will answer each part of the message..
And Each moderator replies.. Via quoting faq's (Round in circles)...

Please Jagex.. It's a really good game..
You guys make a lot of money from it.. Obviously..
Lets not have such bad customer service..

We pay you a lot for this game.. It seems..

So lets get real about Runescape.
Employ some real Customer Service Staff and get more users online.

You only hurt yourselves..
Because If I ever get banned.. I won't stay and do it all again..
No way..

Runescape owes me hours and hours of hard work.
Trying to deal with Adolecent Moderators and a 400 character limited communications system.

Been there.. Done that.. It's all too tough for me..

I would just go and find a better game.. With smoooooth graphics..
(They do exist.. But I havent put the time into them like Runescape)

;)

Comments:
hi i am a member of runescape and my account was recently hacked and locked by runecape.i tried to unlock it using the recover locked account in management bar.ive waited about 1 week and and my account is still not unlocked how do i unlocked it? i just renewed it with membership and i dont want to miss the christmas event.

by the way do you have the jagex contact number so i can talk to them directly and tell them my problem because jagex should have the power to unlock my account instancely not make me wait 1week. they said ill get my account back quickly. is 1 week making it quickly. thankyou if you can get their number can you tell me on this site or contact me at :

alexk1993@hotmail.com

thankyou

i just want my account back thats it!
 
lazerzap, you are not alone.

My problem is worse. Jagex have now accepted 15(!) password appeals on 7-8 days.

Locked my account two times but STILL gives my password away to some stranger. Jagex sucks :(
 
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