Anyone else notice that the response time from customer service has fallen off a cliff?
I've had a thread about my current order up for nearly a week, and they seem to only answer a couple of threads a day these days.
That's no way to run a customer service center.
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Understaffed and overworked, like all the departments at Paizo.
I don't mean it as criticism, but it's been this way in general for half a decade now. "We are experiencing a higher than anticipated call volume." Between staff turnover, new product emergencies, sicknesses, cons, weather issues and others I'm forgetting, they're just understaffed and have been for a very long time.
All I can say is... wait. You'll eventually get the stellar service that always happens.
But, having to wait well over a week is NOT stellar customer service, that's the opposite of stellar customer service.
It takes way more than being polite to have stellar customer service, timeliness is a huge part of that, especially when you're running a subscription service.
I had the same issue...they said they were very busy due things having to do with 2nd ed.
I sent them e-mail which got a response faster.
If an issue is time-sensitive, call during office hours. They've always gotten things taken care of right away when I've done that.
If it's not important that it get immediate attention, make a thread and be patient. They get things taken care of right (but not right away).
Also, this is probably not germane to captain yesterday who has been around long enough to know the drill, but a lot of people bump their threads after some amount of time has passed, thinking they've been overlooked. They don't realize that Customer Service works from the bottom up so issues are (generally) taken care of in the order they've been posted. If you're reading this thread and thinking about bumping your thread, don't: It will move you that much further back in the line. You're better off making a new thread or sending an email with a link to your thread if you really think it's been skipped (i.e., people who made threads after you have been answered).
Also, don't post in someone else's Customer Service thread if you can at all help it. Again, it moves their issue back in line.
Yes, I have been here awhile, but in all my time here it has NEVER taken them this long for a response.
As my grandpa used to tell me "You snooze you lose".
So, I guess they lose (me as a customer).
Yes, I have been here awhile, but in all my time here it has NEVER taken them this long for a response.
As my grandpa used to tell me "You snooze you lose".
So, I guess they lose (me as a customer).
Not for you, sure. But remember last year when the e-mail backlock countdown was going on week after week. I sort of recall it starting in four digits, but I could be wrong. It was certainly in hundreds.
All I'm saying is... this is the way it is. It's sort of like call-in support centers with a message saying "we are experiencing higher than anticipated call volumes", which is... hard to accept as truth.
Paizo's products are top-notch. Customer support - once they get to you - are exemplary. (Which is what I was trying to convey.) But the whole company is perpectually behind. It's not just customer service. The creatives are way behind... for instance it's evidently something of an ordeal to get the designers together to hash out some errata/FAQs, because they're busy working on new product deadlines. Shrug.
I kind of laugh because I recognize the syndrome. I'm an IT guy and there are things that "need" to be done but aren't revenue-generating. Things like say... patching and updating our own infrastructure. Those tasks never get assigned manpower as long as there are billable tasks that need to be done. And soon as there is a shortfall in billable calls, we tend to have short days. Because payroll is still a thing. Small business is tricky to balance, and in many industries, profit margins are tight.
So I sympathize with the CSRs, and the designers and the developers, and artists, and editors and warehouse staff. I even sympathize with Lisa and Vic, who've got to decide what to do about manpower, staffing, and payroll. Most of all, I sympathize with you, the customer. 'Cuz this all just sucks.
You're all right, I was making a mountain of a molehill, I let a sudden bout of back pain and the shocking onset of winter get the better of me.
Sorry, consider my complaint rescinded.
Waiting for my pdf, i already announced my first extinction curse game for 31-th, January, i already charged for subscription, and i hope to receive my pdf today ;( I rally want it!!??
Also, don't post in someone else's Customer Service thread if you can at all help it. Again, it moves their issue back in line.
This is good advice. My personal rule is that it's okay to reply to a CS thread that's in the top three or four (since you're not actually pushing them down the list significantly then).
I quite often post to a thread that the OP has just bumped making precisely the point Joana did above.
I also tend to only answer on a weekend - as for some reason that seems to garner a lot of "please answer ASAP!" posts when the weekend is the one time that is pretty much guaranteed not to happen.
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Well, as I said, my original complaint was just a case of misplaced frustration on my part and this order has been concluded for quite some time so if customer service wants to close it that would be great.
Thanks everyone!