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Updating...
Okay, since it has now been over 12 days since opening the tickets and no response, not even a "We're efforting this and will update ASAP," I wanted to ask here if the CS team is going through issues or overwhelmed as I never had this much lag in response.
I believe I solved one of my problems, but the Redshift Rally issue is still a thing.
I hope all is okay, CS Team!
Anorak
Sadly... I put in a ticket on June 14th, didn't get any response till July 7th. 3 weeks. 1 year ago, after the Humble Bundle Starfinder Beginner Box promo, they got back to me in 2 days. That one had to be a logistics nightmare, but they still got back to me in 2 days. I hope they figure out their problem because, as a customer, 3 weeks is not acceptable.
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CS seems to vlbe non existent at this point though they said in another thread they had been caught up 2 weeks ago.
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This is actually getting to be very sad.
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I feel like they should bring back the Customer Service Forum until the Ticket System works as intended. Way I see it, and I could be way off base, but it feels/looks like this:
1) They wanted to close the CS Forum so they can focus on the emails and not have to constantly check the forums for people who need CS help. Which makes sense, and thus the ticket system is implemented.
2) They close the CS forum, leaving the ticket system the only method of contacting CS. As such, they aren't checking the forum as often.
3) The Ticket system only works half the time. When it works, it works and I get a response like...a day later. When it doesn't work, it's radio silence and you have nowhere to go with your ticket.
4) People post their CS problem on the forums anyway because their ticket is in limbo. But because of #2, nobody is here to check the forums for CS issues because they want everyone to use the ticket system.
I'd like to think CS isn't intentionally ignoring us, and the broken ticket system is to blame. Bringing back the Customer Service Forum and checking the forums for CS issues seems like the best fix until the ticket system works as intended.
Signed, Someone with a 20 day old ticket.
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I feel like they should bring back the Customer Service Forum until the Ticket System works as intended. Way I see it, and I could be way off base, but it feels/looks like this:
1) They wanted to close the CS Forum so they can focus on the emails and not have to constantly check the forums for people who need CS help. Which makes sense, and thus the ticket system is implemented.
2) They close the CS forum, leaving the ticket system the only method of contacting CS. As such, they aren't checking the forum as often.
3) The Ticket system only works half the time. When it works, it works and I get a response like...a day later. When it doesn't work, it's radio silence and you have nowhere to go with your ticket.
4) People post their CS problem on the forums anyway because their ticket is in limbo. But because of #2, nobody is here to check the forums for CS issues because they want everyone to use the ticket system.
I'd like to think CS isn't intentionally ignoring us, and the broken ticket system is to blame. Bringing back the Customer Service Forum and checking the forums for CS issues seems like the best fix until the ticket system works as intended.
Signed, Someone with a 20 day old ticket.
The ticket system seems to be pretty crappy.
Software Architect
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3) The Ticket system only works half the time. When it works, it works and I get a response like...a day later. When it doesn't work, it's radio silence and you have nowhere to go with your ticket.
Just for clarity, are you saying that half the time when you send a fresh email (not a response to an existing email chain) to customer.service@paizo.com, you do not get back an automatic email response with a ticket number?
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Not speaking to the original poster, but for me I’ve had CS issues in the new “only talk to us via email” regime where I get an acknowledgement of receipt and then nothing happens for weeks.
I’ve always received an acknowledgement that the ticket has been opened, but with no CS forum it’s opaque as to whether the subsequent inaction is because CS are really busy or because something has gone wrong.
There was more utility to the CS forum than an avenue for CS issues, imo.
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In my case I've never received a ticket or other email response for any email sent to customer service. My issues to date using email contact have been simple and have been fixed promptly (two Society Subscriber subscriptions stuck in pending and a missing pre-order/subscription PDF), so I know my emails have been received and acted on, but I have never received a response via email, not even a ticket number.
The customer service forum had the advantage that customers using it knew that their problem had been received by customer service, but now there's no guaranteed feedback that an email sent to Paizo has been received or lost in limbo.
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Software Architect
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Good to see you, Steve.
If you get an email confirmation, that's pretty reliably an indication that your ticket was created successfully. We've had no known cases of tickets disappearing, and a lack of response is due to non-technical reasons that would likely be equally applicable to the CS Forums if they were brought back. I do recognize that at least seeing your ticket on a page along with other tickets that are being acted upon can be reassuring that your time will come. The CS forums also fostered a spirit of mutual assistance and comradery that ticketing lacks.
Thanks, Paul.
I strongly suspect that your email system is flagging our response emails and sending them to spam or similar. Not only do we have the two tickets you mentioned, but in addition to the automatic confirmation you should have received the emails we sent upon completion of each ticket. I've just sent you a fresh email from our ticketing system with the subject line "A test email from Paizo's ticketing system". Please look through your inbox, spam folder, etc, and let me know if you received it.
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Good to see you, Steve.
If you get an email confirmation, that's pretty reliably an indication that your ticket was created successfully. We've had no known cases of tickets disappearing, and a lack of response is due to non-technical reasons that would likely be equally applicable to the CS Forums if they were brought back. I do recognize that at least seeing your ticket on a page along with other tickets that are being acted upon can be reassuring that your time will come. The CS forums also fostered a spirit of mutual assistance and comradery that ticketing lacks.
For my part, I think an automated “there are currently [x] open tickets” appended to that acknowledgment email would be useful and reassuring (and presumably not difficult nor including any information Paizo would rather keep secret?)
I know that CS’s regular updates as to the size of the backlog during the bleakest months of 2020 were helpful at mitigating customer rage.
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It also created situations where people would loudly proclaim they were leaving forever in order to signal their support of (X) cause and to please delete all their subs...only to quietly re-subscribe once their grand standing was over with.
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3) The Ticket system only works half the time. When it works, it works and I get a response like...a day later. When it doesn't work, it's radio silence and you have nowhere to go with your ticket.Just for clarity, are you saying that half the time when you send a fresh email (not a response to an existing email chain) to customer.service@paizo.com, you do not get back an automatic email response with a ticket number?
Hi Brian!
I, personally, get the automated response with a ticket number. Though I've seen others on the forum who do not. I fortunately have only needed to email CS twice, thus my "half the time" comment. The first time I emailed CS, I got a response in 24 hours. The second time, still pending a response 21 days later.
I can only comment on what I see, so for all I know I'm just waiting in a very long long. Which for the record is understandable. But there is no way to know if I'm waiting in a long line, or if my ticket fell off somewhere in the automated process.
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Hi Brian!I, personally, get the automated response with a ticket number. Though I've seen others on the forum who do not. I fortunately have only needed to email CS twice, thus my "half the time" comment. The first time I emailed CS, I got a response in 24 hours. The second time, still pending a response 21 days later.
I can only comment on what I see, so for all I know I'm just waiting in a very long long. Which for the record is understandable. But there is no way to know if I'm waiting in a long line, or if my ticket fell off somewhere in the automated process.
I appreciate the clarification, xNelly. I'm trying to distinguish between technical problems with the ticketing system and the non-technical problem of tickets not being responded to in a reasonable timeframe. I can personally help with the former, but have very little control over the latter.
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It also created situations where people would loudly proclaim they were leaving forever in order to signal their support of (X) cause and to please delete all their subs...only to quietly re-subscribe once their grand standing was over with.
I mean yeah? But it also is still happening without a CS forum, just now it's in the General forum, or the Announcements forum (that we shouldn't really even be able to open threads in) or the Paizocon forum, or...
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Thanks, Paul.
I strongly suspect that your email system is flagging our response emails and sending them to spam or similar. Not only do we have the two tickets you mentioned, but in addition to the automatic confirmation you should have received the emails we sent upon completion of each ticket. I've just sent you a fresh email from our ticketing system with the subject line "A test email from Paizo's ticketing system". Please look through your inbox, spam folder, etc, and let me know if you received it.
Sadly, the test email didn't reach me, though checking the spam folder did net me two non-urgent emails I wanted to keep for the record from other senders. Thanks for the reminder to check there, as I clearly need to do that more often.
Wherever the email filtering or disappearance is happening, it seems to be before it reaches my email account.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I appreciate the clarification, xNelly. I'm trying to distinguish between technical problems with the ticketing system and the non-technical problem of tickets not being responded to in a reasonable timeframe. I can personally help with the former, but have very little control over the latter.
Hi Brian!I, personally, get the automated response with a ticket number. Though I've seen others on the forum who do not. I fortunately have only needed to email CS twice, thus my "half the time" comment. The first time I emailed CS, I got a response in 24 hours. The second time, still pending a response 21 days later.
I can only comment on what I see, so for all I know I'm just waiting in a very long long. Which for the record is understandable. But there is no way to know if I'm waiting in a long line, or if my ticket fell off somewhere in the automated process.
That's fine. I know how busy yall so I can wait. There are fires far bigger than mine to be put out.
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It also created situations where people would loudly proclaim they were leaving forever in order to signal their support of (X) cause and to please delete all their subs...only to quietly re-subscribe once their grand standing was over with.
I think that still happens.
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Ticket Issues
Hi Brian, my complaint is the lack of updates after issuing a ticket. I still haven't heard back on one of my tickets. Even if the issue is of my own making, I would like to receive some response.
BUT if the issue is once again short-staffed (two people) answering hundreds of emails, you have my sympathy.
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It seems to me that the new ticketing system is likely to lead to multiple redundant email queries. I would strongly recommend including a “you are Xth ticket in the queue” message when a ticket is raised, and perhaps an automated “your ticket has not been addressed yet, but is still in the queue” after a week.
To give you an idea of the customer experience now that there’s no CS forum:
My order spawned on the 7th. There was an issue, so I emailed, got assigned a ticket and then got acknowledgement that it was fixed.
It sat there saying “waiting on backordered products” which I’ve seen many times as a display glitch (and the CSR didn’t mention it as an issue, so presumably it’s not genuine).
Then the subscription window closed without the shipment shipping. There were a few similarly affected customers if you knew where to look, but nowhere formal.
In other words, my ticket was “closed” but didn’t actually solve the issue (or more likely, a new issue was created - nonetheless, that distinction is invisible to me as a customer).
So I send another email, get another ticket…but it’s going to be addressed “in the order that they were received”. Meanwhile, you’re moving on to August subscriptions…have I been forgotten? Have I been impatient?
Rather than waiting until the subscription window is finished, I’m incentivised to send a “is everything okay?” email a couple of days before the subscription window closes.
A system which encourages me to send extra emails just in case (which used to happen regularly, many years ago) is undermining the benefit to the CS team of not having to cross reference the forums with the emails. Time saved there is going to start getting eaten up by multiple tickets opened on the off chance they’ll need a nudge.
I Fully understand the benefit to the CS team (and no doubt the benefit of not hosting a forum users can use to coordinate boycotts) but without some system of advising us of the progress of our ticket I’m worried it’s going to end up generating more work for the CS team than it’s saving.
Hope the issue is clear. The current system incentivises me to open tickets in advance, just in case there’s a problem or in case my ticket has been prematurely marked as “closed” without actually resolving the issue. The progress of an inaccessible email queue is invisible, compared to an active a customer service forum.
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Honestly, from the outside, the closure of the CS forum area serves primarily one purpose: to make customer A unaware of the issues customer B is having. Ostensibly this was for privacy purposes, but in reality both customer A and B have posted their woes voluntarily in plain sight.
Paizo's CS team have been stellar individuals doing mostly thankless work. I can say enough positive about them.
But the workload is clearly and obviously stupid. I mean it. You've got an environment where it's been brought up that the #1 Help FAQ article (how do I contact support) references two defunct methods of getting help... for months. We know it's been see; Paizo staff have posted in threads bringing it up, stepping over the land-mind without touching it.
Now the response-times and reliability of the only-email system are poor enough that requests for help are spilling over back into the forum in increasing numbers. Customers A and B are finding out that waiting in silence isn't uncommon.
Look, CS is overworked, and have been for years. Paizo used to have a reputation for excellent customer service but... that's gone.
I get it that money is finite and we know the creative departments aren't paid well enough, and that warehouse staff aren't paid well enough, and there aren't enough CS people. But the ongoing trend can't be sustained. Poor CS response will result in lower sales which reduces income. Creatives can't have jobs without customers putting demand on warehouse. Something needs to be fixed. Even if it's just that darned support FAQ, which realistically should be five minutes of someone's time.
Yeah, the decision to shrink the CS team via atrophy from where it was in september is a risky one, imo.
Honestly, from the outside, the closure of the CS forum area serves primarily one purpose: to make customer A unaware of the issues customer B is having. Ostensibly this was for privacy purposes, but in reality both customer A and B have posted their woes voluntarily in plain sight.
There was an expected benefit for the CS staff too - namely they no longer need to address the issue of people posting on the forums and emailing with the same issue.
It appears to me that the benefit of that is likely to be eroded by customers opening multiple tickets for the same problem though.
I think there are technical changes that might help (see above) but I think just waiting for more CS staff to be hired is not the magic bullet some seem to be hoping for.
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Not to mention that people are still posting to the forums anyway, just in every other forum instead of a dedicated forum. (Notable that the forum is still listed as a way to contact CS in the FAQ, but no matter how many times I flag it that doesn't get addressed)
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The environment I work in requires us to resolve support tickets opened by users. (These users are employees throughout the company)
More times than not, I'll get a ticket to work on, and no matter how many times I send this user a followup response to call me, they never reply or call me. Our department holds weekly conferences to discuss ongoing projects, and support tickets. I have to tell my boss every week that I am still waiting for a response, and it's getting old.
Sure. There are many users/customers who have broken e-mail systems. That said, if Paizo has proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC settings and they don't load their ticketing e-mails with tracking URLs the vast majority of their e-mail should end up in an Inbox, not blocked or hidden.
Regardless, that underlines why a non-email support method, such as oh... a forum or a telephone is vital. Single-channel support is fragile.
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At this point I've been waiting a month on a pending order that Paizo has given me no communication about fulfilling OR refunding. I hate having to file a chargeback against a company I support as much as I support Paizo, but it seems to be the only way to get my money back at this point. I hope everyone else's situations are able to be resolved better than mine was and that Paizo ends up hiring CS staff someday.
I think I'm having a similar problem... I placed an order for physical products back on May 3rd, some items weren't in stock, when they came in other items weren't in stock. I managed to get Paizo to ship what they had on July 1st but the package still hasn't arrived. (I'm in Canada so a little bit of a delay would be expected).
I e-mailed Custom Service a little over two weeks ago, haven't heard anything back. It's now been 7 weeks since my order was (hopefully) shipped but I have yet to get it.Not hearing back from CS for over 2 weeks now, sadly, has me thinking of charging the order back which isn't something I want to do but at this point might be the only recourse.