It's hardly an essential thing, but it does seem to me to be something that "should" be easy to organise via phone companies(?)
I have some customer service issues I tend to resolve via email, some via forum and some (few) via phone. Obviously, phones haven't been working for a little while and I wondered if there was any plan to divert them (maybe for some restricted window like "four hours a day, Tuesday through Thursday" or something)?
As I say - clearly not the biggest issue facing the world today, but maybe one that's addressable (?)
PS - It's probably the source of the worst Customer Service interactions, so if part of the reason for closing the phones during this slowdown is to protect CS staff from that rather than technical issues then I'm totally onboard with the status quo.
The world must currently be terribly frustrating for you CS folks! <3
Forcing? No.
(My PS was meant to address that. If it’s a technical barrier, I’d appreciate a workaround. If it’s a shield the CS staff issue, I’m in no rush).
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I hope that one of the few positive effects of the virus will be killing off the whole "customer service by phone" idea for good. The sensible, normal people can handle all their interaction with customer service by means of chatting with an AI or e-mailing a carbon-based lifeform, while the human refuse that uses phone lines solely to address the fact that their parents never loved them will be denied the opportunity.
Uh oh, I've mentioned "chatting with an AI". Steve, do I need to call an ambulance for you? :)
I may be nonsensical and abnormal, but my hope in the face of negative human interactions is to make them better, not abandon all hope.
I don’t know anyone called Al, although I follow Alex Horne on twitter...
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Gorbacz
Gonna have to agree to disagree on this one, at least about removing phone support. I would hope the vast majority of the people in our community would treat people in our community with respect. That includes the people who provide support for our products, they deserve respect and I appreciate the help they provide when I need it.
There have been a handful of times that I've needed to call in to correct an issue with an order. One time in particular where my order for the 2E Kingmaker crowdfunder got BLANKED OUT and I had no way to get it fixed without talking to someone directly on the phone who had the back end access to assign the items that blanked out. Thankfully I had a screen shot/email of all of the items ordered before they disappeared.
Sam has helped me on multiple occasions on the phone for time sensitive things, well time sensitive to me, and it is greatly appreciated.
There is no replacement for being able to talk directly to someone and get assistance when you have an issue that can't be conveyed through a forum. If they had a real time chat going on then that would be an acceptable alternative, but even then it isn't the same as a real time audible conversation.
Forum and email support are good when you have an issue that isn't time sensitive. If you have something that has a ticking clock? Real time is the only way to go in my opinion.
Sam is awesome. Though I haven’t seen her post for a while - it suddenly occurs to me that Callie (?) might be a replacement rather than an addition.. :o
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I prefer phone support for some issues. I am glad Paizo has it. I would rather see it continue.
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Real-time chat is something I could live with - after all, you can too throw a barrage of insults in an e-mail. But from my personal experience of many years of provoking people into fits of rage or breakdown in the courtroom, verbal interaction is the most damaging to mental health.
Yes, I know, you're all nice and great people. But the brutal truth is that you can have 49 calls in one day that range from polite to super nice and then there's that one person who will render the 49 fine interactions irrelevant because their order is 2 days late and now they want to speak with your manager while questioning why your mother didn't Roe Wade when she had the chance.
The upside of some nice guy having his ticking clock issue fixed pronto is just not worth the damage that the next person causes.
My wife works for a network team, and has dealt with phone systems a lot. This sort of thing isn't as easy as you might think if you haven't engineered for it and don't have the hardware/licensing to do it, which I suspect Paizo doesn't. I wouldn't expect them to answer calls from home anytime soon.
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Sam is awesome. Though I haven’t seen her post for a while - it suddenly occurs to me that Callie (?) might be a replacement rather than an addition.. :o
Sam is awesome and she's pounding away at various CS projects so she wasn't replaced by Callie. Callie was our 5th CS hire because we felt we needed more head count for this year and she's doing a great job so far!
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All,
The phones will continue to be sidelined while our CS folks are WFH so Steve, I suggest you hook up with one of our folks on chat to take care of whatever issues you're having in the meantime. Thanks for understanding everyone!
--Jeff
My wife works for a network team, and has dealt with phone systems a lot. This sort of thing isn't as easy as you might think if you haven't engineered for it and don't have the hardware/licensing to do it, which I suspect Paizo doesn't. I wouldn't expect them to answer calls from home anytime soon.
Thanks. I didn’t think it’d be difficult, but have never tried. Appreciate it.
Sam is awesome. Though I haven’t seen her post for a while - it suddenly occurs to me that Callie (?) might be a replacement rather than an addition.. :oSam is awesome and she's pounding away at various CS projects so she wasn't replaced by Callie. Callie was our 5th CS hire because we felt we needed more head count for this year and she's doing a great job so far!
That’s great to hear, thanks Jeff.
All,
The phones will continue to be sidelined while our CS folks are WFH so Steve, I suggest you hook up with one of our folks on chat to take care of whatever issues you're having in the meantime. Thanks for understanding everyone!
--Jeff
Cheers, Jeff. In deference to Gorbacz’s concerns, I’ll try and be extra nice. ;)
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I can confidently state I am not secretly a Doppelganger working in the shadows to assimilate and replace the CS team. Yet.
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I can also confirm I have not been supplanted as of this post timestamp.
For what it's worth, I have some great conversations on the CS phone line with some really lovely people. It totally has its advantages and disadvantages, and its good and bad interactions (I'd say my very favorite and most traumatizing interactions are courtesy of the phone line). I really appreciate everyone who has been so patient without it, so thanks! I have appreciated getting to pivot my focus on areas of CS that this set up makes it easier to attend to, but I do also miss the ease of chatting to solve complicated situations with orders!
I can also confirm I have not been supplanted as of this post timestamp.
For what it's worth, I have some great conversations on the CS phone line with some really lovely people. It totally has its advantages and disadvantages, and its good and bad interactions (I'd say my very favorite and most traumatizing interactions are courtesy of the phone line). I really appreciate everyone who has been so patient without it, so thanks! I have appreciated getting to pivot my focus on areas of CS that this set up makes it easier to attend to, but I do also miss the ease of chatting to solve complicated situations with orders!
My memory of calling you Sam is always going to be you trying to be helpful with me over-eagerly interrupting you with redundant information. :)
Glad you’ve got other, mysterious “areas of CS” to work on.
I can confidently state I am not secretly a Doppelganger working in the shadows to assimilate and replace the CS team. Yet.
Very glad to see the team expanding! What a crazy time to join. :)
I don't know if this is available in your area, or how expensive it is, but it worked for many of us work from home folks.
I was a full time system support programmer for Itty Bitty Machine Corporation and for the last 10 years or so of my career worked exclusively from home. The company paid, I think AT&T, to have a virtual phone number mapped on top of my home phone number that I could control from a website, ie. have the office call go thru, or when I was not on the clock it would be directed to an answering machine at the phone company and I could pick up messages at any time.
The only issue was, as this was before NOMOROBO so the spam / scam calls were not automatically hung up on. I had to take answering the phone as "Support, david speaking" and when it was a spam / scam call then just hang up as I never knew whether the call was coming in on my home line or my business line. Worked great till some scammer idiot keep calling and demanding to speak to my manager about me hanging up on him. *sigh* fun times!
-- david
CEO
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I can confidently state I am not secretly a Doppelganger working in the shadows to assimilate and replace the CS team. Yet.Very glad to see the team expanding! What a crazy time to join. :)
We literally had our most recent CS hire start on the day that the governor forced us to work from home! Yep, crazy times. But glad to have the extra help on board as we navigate these crazy and troubled waters.
-Lisa