Phone Number is Still Listed on FAQ page.

[Cori Marie]

Hey team, I've seen some confused and frustrated customers lately who have said they've tried to call, and while the phone number's been removed from most places, it's still showing here.

[VestOfHolding]

Cori Marie wrote:

Hey team, I've seen some confused and frustrated customers lately who have said they've tried to call, and while the phone number's been removed from most places, it's still showing here.

Oh, is that phone number not valid? Would explain my trouble with getting a subscription cancelled.

[Cori Marie]

They have been working from home for almost two years without access to that landline. The number has been removed everywhere else except the FAQ.

[VestOfHolding]

Cori Marie wrote:

They have been working from home for almost two years without access to that landline. The number has been removed everywhere else except the FAQ.

Oh. In hindsight that makes sense, lol.

[Cori Marie]

Bringing this back up with the shift to email only for CS. It looks like the phone number is in six places on the FAQ:

How do I reach customer service?

You may contact our customer service department at (###) ###-#### (Monday–Friday, 10 AM–5 PM Pacific Time), e-mail us at [e-mail] or create a new thread in the customer service forum.

Can I pay with a check or money order?

We accept checks or money orders in US Dollars for domestic shipments only, and only for physical products. We cannot accept checks or money orders for ongoing subscriptions. There are two methods for calculating the shipping costst:

Go through the order process online—providing a shipping address so that postage gets calculated—right up to the point where you would enter the credit card information. Then, print off the web page (or write down the pertinent info), and send it with payment to the address below.
Contact our customer service department at (###) ###-#### or e-mail us at [e-mail]; let us know what you want and where you want it shipped, and we'll calculate the shipping cost for you. Write down the pertinent info, and send it with payment to the address below.
Mail your order to:
Paizo Inc, Attn: Store Orders
7120 185th Ave NE
Ste 120
Redmond, WA 98052-0577

How do I cancel an order?

To cancel an order, please contact customer service as soon as possible at [e-mail] or ###-###-#### (Monday–Friday, 10 AM–5 PM Pacific Time). While we will try our best to cancel an order, we may not be able to stop or make changes to an order once the order has been submitted.

How do I cancel a subscription?

Just contact our customer service department at [e-mail] or call us at (###) ###-####. Please note: if we have already started to process your next shipment, we may not be able to stop it.

I need to stop receiving my subscription for a little while. What should I do?

If you want us to hold your subscription products for a little while, we can temporarily suspend your subscription. We prefer that the suspensions not last much more than 30 days. Just contact our customer service department at [e-mail] or call us at (###) ###-####, and let us know that you want to suspend your subscription. Please note: If we have already started to process your next shipment, we may not be able to stop it.

I want to order a back issue from one of your magazines. How can I do that?

All of our available back issues may be ordered online; you can find them by going to http://paizo.com/backissues.

You can also order by phone at (###) ###-#### (Monday through Friday 10 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time) or by sending us a check for the correct amount (including shipping, which can be found on the Order Confirmation Page during checkout) and including a note with your full name and address, and telling us the issue numbers you want for each magazine. Send the check to:

Paizo Publishing, Attn: Back Issues
7120 185th Ave NE
Ste 120
Redmond, WA 98052-0577

I have redacted the phone number here to prevent it from showing up more places, but it's probably good to get rid of in the FAQ for now, along with instructions to create the CS threads.

[Cori Marie]

Bumping this, because both the phone number and the option to create a thread in the CS forum are listed as ways to contact CS still.

[Cori Marie]

Bumping this again. I raised this in November, then bumped in January when the CS Forums were archived. Then again in March. Now again in May. People are still frustrated because you list ways to reach out that do not work.

[VestOfHolding]

I'm just gonna add a +1 as a customer who was caught up in this confusion.

[Leon Aquilla]

I would also like to add that I miss calling Paizo. It was nice to speak to a real live person the few times I did. Wish they had some sort of VoIP solution in place.

[Freehold DM]

Same.

Miss wishing people Merry Christmas and the like.

[Wei Ji the Learner]

I do *not* like the VoIP implementation at my workplace, but if a *grocery retail chain* can pull it off, it might be an affordable solution rather than trying to maintain legacy hard and soft-ware.

[Totally Not Gorbacz]

All those calls could have been e-mails.

[Leon Aquilla]

But I like speaking to a real live person.

[Cori Marie]

You're still talking to a real live person when you email. There's someone on the other end typing the reply.

[TriOmegaZero]

Either way, the number should be updated or removed to avoid confusion.

[VestOfHolding]

Yeah, to be clear about my post, I'm not advocating for a return of the phone number being usable. While that would be cool, I just want the information on those pages to be accurate.

[Wei Ji the Learner]

Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:

Leon Aquilla wrote:

But I like speaking to a real live person.

Try going out some time, then!

I like speaking to a real, live person when I don't have them trying to get into my 'comfort' zone spraying while they are saying stuff.

Plus, it felt a lot more 'organic' versus the 'send an email/ticket, we'll get back to you at some point' pandemic/cost effectiveness-inspired workflow.

Can't change what's done, but can remember my positive and productive interactions with the Paizo Customer Service Team, and how many times the issues were resolved within minutes of discussion versus hours, days, weeks, or even months....

[TriOmegaZero]

Oh that’s just us being terminally online.

But given the history of CS threads, I think you and I are in the minority of callers.

[Ed Reppert]

Death threats? Absurd.

[TriOmegaZero]

Sad but true.

[Freehold DM]

That is absolutely insane and unacceptable.

[Themetricsystem]

I don't have experience doing any kind of CS for Paizo in any fashion but I can tell you with absolute confidence that the kind of threatening, abusive, and entitled behavior that customer service has to deal with in pretty much any industry is absolutely a thing and it has very real impacts not only on general day-to-day morale but also contributes to both short and long term mental health struggles. CS departments for many industries are plagued by high turnover and staff burnout, especially those who work over the phone given that it is uniquely personal (since you actually hear the customer and vocally interact with them) while also being far enough removed from physical proximity that people can feel safely empowered to be as nasty as their emotions drive them to be.

Over the last two decades of my working adult life I've held five different CS or CS adjacent positions are various places and have personally witnessed or been the target of dozens of threats against the personal safety of myself or my peers and that isn't even mentioning the instances where customers would and do jump through any number of flaming hoops in order to try to have CS staff fired because they were unhappy with either the product, service, situation, or resolution of a problem.

Email is a much, MUCH safer and saner alternative. That being said, there is very much still value in having staff who are responsible for calling OUT to customers who aren't technically, physically, or emotionally capable of discussing X or Y issues via text format alone but these are best handled, in my opinion, by starting it via written messages where the user then prompts CS to contact them at a specific phone number.

[Jonathan Morgantini]

Removed posts for harassment and baiting. CS understands that not every issue isis quickly or easily handled vid email. If you feel like you require further conversation to handle your specific issue, send an email to [e-mail] and explain the situation. Be advised this is not a QUICK option, but we do not want people to feel unduly burdened by email responses

[Cori Marie]

Any update on the actual issue being called out here? That the inactive phone number and inactive forum are still listed as places to contact customer service?

[Cori Marie]

Buehler? And before the "We're swamped because of PaizoCon" response, I want to point out that I raised this in November. Brought it back around in January when the CS forums were closed. Raised it again in March. Then again at the beginning of May. Only one of those is reasonably not answered because of PaizoCon.

[Cori Marie]

Just gonna continue checking in on this. It would make things a lot smoother for the CS team if you removed invalid means of contacting them from the FAQ

[Dancing Wind]

The good news is that it's been more than a week with no new posting for CS staff. Perhaps they will be able to retain new hires long enough to catch up the backlog.

[Cori Marie]

Just checked, the phone number and dead link to the forums are still there. Seems like nobody actually cares about directing customers to the right spots.

[TriOmegaZero]

I believe that the access to edit that page is either limited to a few people that are busy doing other things while those who could take the time are locked out, or the people that can access it to edit the number don't have the authorization to do so without leadership approval that has not come because the leadership is a committee, or the most likely situation, both of those things.

[Dancing Wind]

Dancing Wind wrote:

The good news is that it's been more than a week with no new posting for CS staff. Perhaps they will be able to retain new hires long enough to catch up the backlog.

CS staff just announced that they have caught up with the backlong

[Jonathan Morgantini]

The phone number and reference link to the Customer Service Forum have been removed.

[Anguish]

Huzzah!

[Cori Marie]

Thanks again Jon!

[Dancing Wind]

Sorry, Jon, you missed most of the spots that Cori Marie listed in her upthread post.

Comprehensive list of all the places the phone number is posted on the FAQ page

[Aaron Shanks]

Dancing Wind wrote:

Sorry, Jon, you missed most of the spots that Cori Marie listed in her upthread post.

Comprehensive list of all the places the phone number is posted on the FAQ page

OK, I'll send the complete list to our web content manager for removal. Sorry for the long process. Thanks.

[RIZZENMAGNUS]

So theres no phone number at all?

[Dancing Wind]

No, the only way to contact Paizo is by using the email address in the footer of every page

[e-mail]

[Steve Geddes]

Out of forum, email, phone - telephone was always the most effective way to get things resolved but also the least desirable channel to be rostered onto.

Getting rid of that was a good move, even though it makes it harder to resolve tricky stuff.

[RIZZENMAGNUS]

Whats the email response time? If its not within 24 hours, i think getting rid of the phone number is a bad idea, especially with emphasis on customer relations. If im having an issue with an order i made through the website, id want to call and get the issue resolved asap. Even if it was $1, its $1 of my hard earned cash that i spent, and id like to get the product to me as soon as possible. Sending in an email and then waiting for an unknown length of time to get a reaolution just seems like a customer relations "shot in the foot".

[Cori Marie]

They're not going to bring back the phone number. It's been gone for three years now. They no longer have a physical office at all. When did you email? Because if you're expecting a response within a day on the weekend that's not going to happen. They work Monday through Friday. You wouldn't have gotten through on the phone today either.

[Ed Reppert]

Found this on my "My Subscriptions" page, at the bottom:

"To cancel a subscription, please contact our customer service department at [e-mail] or call us at [phone]."