GoAs customer service

[scorge]

Service providers (like us)

Do GoA provide an ACCEPTABLE level of service to you, This is NOT a GM bash, i think they do a good job, so no flaming them please. Its an overall opinion of how they run the servers, respond to right nows, subscription, deal with problems etc

 

[Gear]

On a ranking scale from 1-10

Rightnow: 8
GMs in-game (when I could reach em): 9
E&E: 5 (they are helpfull but they can't really do that many things)

That's regarding the playability of the game, assuming the game is playable.

GOA's network: 2, reaching up to 6 when they manage to sort out their problems
GOA's communication policy: 2
Patching: 1

My problems are with GOA's hardware (with that I also mean their core policies) than with anything else.

 

[Sparx]

things like rightnow are fantastic, i have always got an answer and something sorted from them!

I think we all have the same problems with Goa (not goa personally cause looking at rightnow etc they clearly do their best to help us) its the servers etc, and from previous threads that may not be entirly their fault. I'd say overall its an ok service. (just ask me again when i am pissed off due to server down when i want to play)

 

[noaim]

If the game is unplayable for everyone except those in France GOA wont lift a finger "because they dont have to".

You find a GM ingame very rarely.

If you report something, you are always at fault, the game is never to blame, you did it wrong, which I assume is because that means less work. The response is usually quite fast though.

In either case, I wouldnt go as far as calling it "service" since there are no such thing. Here they say they will come with more news about the lag in NF, and there are none (at the homepage at least, which is what matters). There are still not a word on the homepage on how to proceed with the lagissues that people are experiencing at the moment, but ofc, its only people outside France that has em, so why bother. All in all, the so called customer service is complete shit, and GOA shows that they dont give a fuck about customers time after time. And before some smartass fanboi says "quit then if you dont like it", I would if it would make a difference, or if there were any option to move chars to US servers or something, trust me, I would.

 

[Phoebee-v-]

They are doing what they can. Not thier fault that they got the hands full and got 3 servers(yes I count camlann) on 3 persons. That is kinda low but ain't thier fault.

 

[[SS]Gamblor]

They are doing what they can. Not thier fault that they got the hands full and got 3 servers(yes I count camlann) on 3 persons. That is kinda low but ain't thier fault.

How can it be not thier fault if they are the People who Bult Run and maintaine the server ?

Anyway , I Don't have a problem with the GM's , they have always tried/ suceded in helping any issues i have had over the years.

However i do have a problem with the General Lvl of Customer Service that Goa "Provide". I have ranted enough about the problems when i have had them so i'm not gona go on about it now , other than to say ...

If Another company Ran Daoc in europe and i could transfer my chars there i'd be gone in a flash . If i couldn't transfer my chars , i'd clear out my vaults and house and stuff and then bugger off.

 

[Mobius]

They aren't GREAT, but they have helped me with problems before. I think people are slightly to harsh on them, to be honest. There are definately areas they could improve in, but if you use there customer service methods properly, instead of whining on an unofficial board (as some people do) you can usually get assistance.

 

[Sendraks]

This is a rather biased poll, with far too many negative options.

There should be a second option saying "they're ok, but the service could be better."

For the most part, all my interactions with GOA customer service and the GMs have been pretty good.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

I think they do well with the tools and staff available, judging by the whines on BW and FH over the years, the poor responses on RN are down to crap users, not GOA, having said that, I do think things could improve a lot.

E&E: 5 (they are helpfull but they can't really do that many things)

Hardly fair to only give us 5, we do it for nothing, we answer everyone who asks for an E&E (I do anyway, most afaik do!), even to answer questions in depth like "Get GOA to pop Erami for meh!!11!!1" without any sarcasm or "piss off n00b". Anyway, this was about GOAs CS, not us so ill shut up

 

[Olgaline]

this issue "for me at least" isnt as simple as good or bad

every time i've had to deal with rightnow "wich isnt many" i've always resived a fast and usefull reply/feedback, and on bugged larger scale encounters, ml's ect there usually been a helpfull gm to solve it, soo and always felt that the goa gm's have done a good job of keeping us somewhat up to date during crashes, mishaps and so on here on FH,

now on the other side, constant server side lag, "ot ect" zone crashes, server crashes from rr's in OF the pryd sickness, the lack of roll of honor for ages, 2 days to re-open accounts, and so on is bad.!

i also wish they'd do more to discuarage ingame "grieving" afterall it is in the eula, seen waaay to many incidants either ingame or here on Fh were people get away with basicly "stealing an encouter" but doing it within the pull code rules" pulling agro into fops, waiting til the second a group dies to insta pull the mob wich is at 20%, ect and so on, luckly i can say i have only experinced it once and the guy ended up returning the item on his own accord,
"ps : shouting at them and calling them names is often not the answer to getting your item back, guilt is your friend"

and also more to discurage "scammers" a simple way to counter this is to simply deleet any item involved in a scamming incident, thus making it pointless for scammers to even attempt it in the first place,

 

[Darzil]

Well, they aren't the only MMO provider who have to go through OpenTransit, and the others have the same lag issues.

The account system sucks.

Any other major issues, as far as I've seen, are down to Mythic tools and Mythic coding, and would be the same whomever is hosting in Euro.

No issues with the support, hardware, network bandwidth, etc.

Darzil

 

[Thorwyn]

The GoA customer Service is ok. I`ve got nothing to complain about. The lag issues are pretty bad and I`d expect a little more effort here than just "talk to your ISP and send pingplots", but I guess it´s a pretty uncomfortable situation for GoA as well (i.e. they can´t really do anything).
I`ve seen MUCH worse customer services in my life, and they were not about a computergame.

 

[Kami]

They do a top rate job for the number of staff they have, I'd like them to have more but unfortunately they'd have to up the subs price (which people would then bitch about). I do wish they'd alter thier subscription system as it's been consistently causing myself and other problems, having to let your subs expire before changing CC etc is a dreadful setup in this day and age.

Crap poll though, too many negative options and not enough variation. you should have had something clearer like this to be less bias (yes I think it's a biased to negative poll).

Please rate GOAs support service:

1. Excellent
2. Good
3. Acceptable
4. Unacceptable
5. Poor
6. Dreadful
7. No comment/couldn't care less.

 

[eggy]

The poll questions are very biased, and don't give any decent results. Need to make it simpler such as:

Rate GOA's overall customer service:

Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Terrible

 

[knighthood]

Pretty much what everyone else said tbh

The GM's that sort the ingame and rightnow problems ive never had a problem with, allways found them to be polite and helpful

But as for the Servers theyre useless , but then i guess what with daoc slowly dying <Doooooooooooooooooooom> , it wouldnt make much sense to go and buy a Pentagon Type super computer to run the servers would it

 

[Righthandof]

i hate goa staff. worst service ever. they ruined 2 of my chars with what they call "server error"(we pay them a fortune, dont tell me they cant buy good servers/well qualified persons to handle them), and that was like 3 months ago. I've written them twice to ask them pretty please restore my character stuff, but they gave me a pc generated answer to the first one(which said "patient!"- i wonder if they would be patient if they didnt receive their monthly sallaire for 3 months, thats what should happen to them), and didnt even give me a reply at the second attempt(40 days later).

so here comes the third attempt, after 3-4 months from the incident: RESTORE MY CHARS STUFF OR AT LEAST TELL ME TO FO!

 

[eggy]

But as for the Servers theyre useless , but then i guess what with daoc slowly dying <Doooooooooooooooooooom> , it wouldnt make much sense to go and buy a Pentagon Type super computer to run the servers would it

The servers are of high spec. Lag etc isn't likely to be the quality of the server, but more likely network problems. Note: first night of Agramon, zones full, there was no packet-loss lag; hence I fail to believe that it's the servers themselves playing up.

 

[Zil]

ive never, yes, never had problems with goa or rightnow. everything ive submitted to rightnow has been replyed within 2 days.

and tbh keeping a server up 24/7/365 is a hard job, and with the amount of users connected to it as it is in daoc.

imho they are doing a great job, and i doubt thier server downtime over a year is big.

 

[Sendraks]

we pay them a fortune

Really? I pay them what I consider to be a pittance.

 

[anioal]

I voted
"They do a good job in providing a MMORPG service"

because i think they do so and from what i read about other mmorpgs, GOA has a very good uptime, also for me RightNow really worked.

 

[eggy]

Yep, Rightnow does work really well, if you submit mature and accurate reports. Here is an example of both a good, and a bad report:

Bad report:

omfg I was in my gg and i was runnin through bled an this chanter was like speed 7 at least I swear ffs why dont you band speekd hackers

Good report:

Hello,

I'd like to report a possible speed hacker/abuser. At 7:32pm GMT on Sunday 20th November, my guild group was passing through Odin's Gate. An enchanter, named 'Willyoung-prydwen' sped away from us at a speed I believe to be unrealistic for his class. I would appreciate it if you could keep an eye on this player, as I believe he may be breaking the COC.

Regards,

Joe Bloggs

 

[Fana]

When i have had to deal with GM's they have always helped me in what i believe is the best way they can, and they have always been nice and been willing to take time to make sure i was satisfied with any answer etc. There might not be enough of them, im not really sure (seem to remember one of them stating they usually, apart from the prydwen disaster, werent really overwhelmed with helprequests), but they do a damn good job in my humble oppinion.

The servers themselves are another issue, but i believe they are actually very good - they dont crash often, they dont need frequent reboots, and they dont often have significant database lag. Opentransit on the other hand should be in court by now for their failure to provide an acceptable service to companies such as GOA (and Blizzard for that matter). Its just a fact that France is probably the worst possible country to operate a euro or worldwide mmorpg in. Now Dark and Light are setting up shop there as well, and i simply dont understand why so many mmorpg operators chose this country, when they could place their datacentres in the nordic countries or germany or some such, where connectivity is usually tons better - for a very nice comparison you can look at the two WoW datacenters, one in germany and one in france. Guess which one is always having huge troubles with lag and connection outages (and servers crashing when people try to relog on mass) etc?

 

[Righthandof]

Really? I pay them what I consider to be a pittance.

Not sure exactly about the cost, but its around 12 $s i think.

atm(at 16:23 at a work day) there are 8604 players online on their servers.
the total subscribers should be at least 30.000 if not more.

12$*30.000 =360.000 $s

MONTHLY INCOME.(not considering that people still actually buy these stupid expansions, and also will buy darkness rising soon)

from this ammount of income they could buy 2 brand new sports car, or 9 great houses per month. without the expansions. this is a fortune.

but it seems like this still isnt enough to pay for 8 servers and hire a proper staff.

 

[Azathrim]

Like eggy said, this poll is very poorly formed.

You aske about costumer service, but include GOA's ability to provide a MMO? CSR is really a subpart of providing a MMO.

Two essential questions should be done instead:

1) Rate the Costumer service.
2) Rate game platform.

Then you could rate individual aspects of each of those points. Forinstance:

1.1) Rate the GM's ability to solve ingame problems.
1.2) Rate the Information level provided by GOA.

2.1) Rate the server stability.
2.2) Rate the client stability.
2.3) Rate the patching frequency.
2.4) Rate the Subscription tool.

etc, etc.

Personally I think GoA is doing a fairly decent job. The GM's are helpfull and RN is generally replied to fast. They used to be awful at providing information on their official site, but that have been greatly improved, and you can generally expect an update shortly after a server crashes or a zone have a problem. That's one point were they have improved alot and should be noted for.

However, there is a few glitches:

a) The XML is down for 4 months and counting.
b) They haven't announced a change in policy on implementing bugfixes that is not on US live servers (something they shouldn't do in my opinion, see the Poison Spike farce).
c) The patches could be slightly faster. Ie, it would be nice to have DR released before Christmas (to hopefully bring in more players with christmas sale).

All those things are minor issues though.

 

[popa]

well i got several problems whit acc and goa make is on weeks dunno if the bill problems are goa only or Wanadoo ( wanadoo have the bill stuff not 100% sure)
last problem waz whit prydwen and the auto message from goa waz on german
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that means all ppl worked on that i make a /clap


GM online not many time ( visible)on cumbria nagual make a great job be on like all the time

 

[Dorimor1]

Notice how most of the options are 'bad' ones

In future make a poll with all the options, not the ones you consider to be important.

 

[xanir]

When contactable, I've found the GMs helpful, and my overall experience with CS in general has been pretty good.

That said however, the whole item restoration thing was (and is) pretty horrible.

Firstly, it should never have happened. But I can accept that disasters do sometimes happen, and it's possibly not GOA's fault. The way it's been handled has been awful though:

First items were lost on 5th September - it's now 23rd November, 88 days later. On 26th September goa post that they have done nearly half of the reports. (I am assuming that very few reports were submitted after 3 weeks had passed, which I think is reasonable.) This rate of progress would suggest that everyone would be finished by 17th October.

On the 17th October, they post that they have in fact only completed 80% of the reports. This new speed of work would suggest a completion date of 28th October. It's now over 3 weeks since that date, and our last update gave no mention of completion dates/amount left.

It's pretty clear that while inconvenienced, the experience of the early reporters wasn't too bad, but the later ones (and especially that last 20%) are being completely fucked over.

Xalin said "We are NOT ignoring this problem. It might get sidetracked for a couple of hours while we're working on other things but we've been working on this matter on a daily basis and will continue to do so untill everybody who reported it has had their items restored or compensated", but this statement is at best misleading and at worst an outright lie - how can you explain the continuing drop in work speed without concluding that the extra resources GOA put onto restoring have since been removed before it was completed, leaving the last people forced to wait a disproportionate (and frankly ridiculous) amount of time.

Apologies for any maths errors

 

[Righthandof]

well said.

 

[Corran]

Not sure exactly about the cost, but its around 12 $s i think.

atm(at 16:23 at a work day) there are 8604 players online on their servers.
the total subscribers should be at least 30.000 if not more.

12$*30.000 =360.000 $s

MONTHLY INCOME.(not considering that people still actually buy these stupid expansions, and also will buy darkness rising soon)

from this ammount of income they could buy 2 brand new sports car, or 9 great houses per month. without the expansions. this is a fortune.

but it seems like this still isnt enough to pay for 8 servers and hire a proper staff.

Monthly income does NOT mean monthly profit, it does not mean monthly amount of available funds. Sure they may get that much income but they got Staff costs to cover already, they got servers to maintain and upgrade already, they got running costs to pay etc etc etc.

So until you know how much "profit" margin they got currently you cant really say they can surely afford XXX

 

[Righthandof]

Monthly income does NOT mean monthly profit, it does not mean monthly amount of available funds. Sure they may get that much income but they got Staff costs to cover already, they got servers to maintain and upgrade already, they got running costs to pay etc etc etc.

So until you know how much "profit" margin they got currently you cant really say they can surely afford XXX

try reading my post before replying to it pls.

"but it seems like this still isnt enough to pay for 8 servers and hire a proper staff."