Funcom's support is actually getting worse?

[Hyde]

So ... I'll let the cat out ... I subscribed but still don't plan to be super active in TSW. I mostly wanted my pre-order foshizzle.

In the process of subscribing today I had an utter fit with the forums registration system.

* My Account page already had my forums username filled out, but I can't recover the password?

* I registered a different account, but it refuses to send me the email confirmation code?

* WORST: The "Contact us" link on the forums apparently sends an email with your message to support BUT they've stopped accepting emails directly ... which means I got a bounce from the email address to a message the -forums- sent, not me.

If that doesn't make sense ... I'll post the copy of what I sent to support through their web form in the next message.

I'm really disheartened by them no longer accepting direct email support. It was one of the few redeeming qualities of the (otherwise amazingly slow) Anarchy Online support system. You could always file a petition, then file a web report, then if no response send a direct email and be sure at least the email would get a response.

I reaaaaalllllyy hope they tidy up that part of the system. It looks even more unprofessional today than it did back when AO launched in 2001.

[Chrisax]

Registration pages are THE mess. Plain and simple.

If you get a technical issue it will be MUCH better though.

When you registered for TSW, you did it from your existing AO account it seems? This is hell.

Been there, done that. If you have time to waste, check my quotes below; it looks quite close to your issues.


For the "fun"... email exchange with account support in May:

[explained that I was able to use my (normal customer) TSW name and PW to log on TSW Beta forums and in the game itself but I couldn't use them to log on my TSW account page]

Support Reply:
Thank you for contacting Funcom Customer Support.

I understand your frustration with logging into your account. If you
would like, I could send a password reset for your Secret World account.
The reset email will be sent to the email address that is connected to
your account. Please reply with whether you would like your password
reset. (...)

My reply:
Thank you for your reply.

Yes, please, if it's the way to fix the fact I can log in TSW beta and forums and NOT on my account page with the same PW, send me a PW reset for TSW.

Can you please specify if this will ALSO reset the PW for TSW Beta and Beta forums?

Thank you again.

Support reply:
Your master account page, that your TSW account is linked to, may have a
different username attached to the account. Depending on how you linked
your accounts, the username you use to log into the TSW game client may
not be the username you use to manage your accounts. The password reset
for your master account will not affect your ability to log into TSW or
your forum account. I will reset your master account password for you,
but please be sure to use the correct username to access your account
page. (...)


GAH ?!

[Received a PW reset email)]

My reply after changing the PW:
I received the email to reset my TSW password. Thank you for this.
Unfortunately, I did what was mentioned in it but this actually changed the password of ALL my 3 accounts and made it the same ! (AO, AoC, TSW)
Also, I can't now use my TSW username or my AoC username on respectively the TSW and AoC accounts pages. I have to use my AO username and PW on all account pages.
Also again, to log on AoC (the game itself), I have to use my AoC name but my AO password. (I can't test on TSW as the servers are down for the moment.)
This means that I had 3 different passwords and 3 different usernames, one for each account, for obvious security reasons, and now names and PW's are all the same for accounts pages, while, for the games, the names are different but the passwords are the same.
Worse, if I try to change one PW, it seems that whatever I do, it changes ALL the passwords, so I can't solve the situation just described..
I just want to have 3 usernames and 3 passwords, one for each account (and game), as I had before (except it just didn't work on the TSW account page but worked in the game, as I explained in my first message).
How can this be fixed?
Also, in the case this was intended and required some action on my side, can you point me to a clear document explaining how usernames and PW's are handled by FC?
Thank you very much in advance


Support reply:
Your account page is managed strictly by a single username and password.
In your case the username for your master account happens to be the same
as the username that you use to log into AO. Logging into that account
will let you manage your different subscriptions via a drop down menu at
the top left of the account page.

It looks like when you reset your password for your account page, you
had "change billing and all game passwords" selected so that it changed
all of your in game passwords to the one you used for your master
account page.

To change your in game passwords you will need to select the game you
wish to modify your password for, then select "change my password" from
the menu on the left. When you change it, be sure to have "Game
password" selected so that it only modifies that particular game
password.

If you continue to have difficulty with this problem, please contact us
again. We will be happy to assist you.


[aspirin time]

My reply:
Thanks for your reply.

Where do I set up my master account? Or did the system decide that my AO codes were my master ones?

On a side note, I never did anything to link my accounts. It just happened. After talking to several persons, it appears I'm not the only one in this case. (Not quoting them.)

Thanks in advance.

And we are there ATM... never got a reply.

[Hyde]

Actually, no, I registered from a new account. I wanted to get my real first name out of my login name

I thought it might be a mistake, as I don't have my FC points on the new account, but I may try and talk them into xferring my points later on if I need them for anything.

[Hyde]

Wow. Just wow. So I tried to file a complaint from the account management page today. Guess what? The main Accounts interface ALSO sends an email to Funcom support that then bounces with the same error message. AND the error message doesn't even quote your issue to you, so you have to re-type it.

How can they possibly expect that to be a viable thing to do this close to launch?

It is ... by far ... the least professional support chain I have ever seen on a MMO.

:sadface: it might have convinced me to not buy the game if I had done this before deciding. I'm -sure- it will drive others to cancel.

I've deleted my original 3-part ticket and filed them all as separate tickets. Pardon my blogging mess, I'm keeping track of all 3 of them here so that I can re-file or share as needed. No need to read them all

[Hyde]

Your support routing is a nightmare. By far the worst thing I've ever seen on a large MMO about to launch.

... Summary:

Please understand, my issue with this problem and the reason why I am taking the time to report it is this: this will drive potential players AWAY from TSW and you're about to launch. It needs to be fixed.

The fix is EASY ... change the links on both the forums and Account Management pages to point here to "help.funcom.com". EASY.

... Details:

Your forums have a "Contact Us" link that pulls up a web form that you are asked to fill out. Apparently it sends an email to your old Support email address (which you have shut down). When it does that, since you shut down email support, it bounces an error message back to the user:

"Thank you for contacting Funcom Customer Service.
We no longer accept requests for support directly via email.
To open a help ticket please go to http://help.funcom.com.

... and it doesn't even quote your issue to you for easy pasting into this "help.funcom.com" site, so you have to retype everything.

That's the forums ... I could almost not worry about that, because well, FC forums have always lacked integration with the main game sites (but that's not a good excuse ... most games integrate their forums much better, both from a design as well as functionality perspective ... the current model is obviously re-used from Anarchy Online).

-BUT-

It happens on your Account Management interface, too. Yes, you've properly linked the "Help - Contact Customer Service" to this help.funcom.com page ... but it was missed that there is still a "Customer Service" link at the bottom of the Account Management page that goes to an old link ( https://register.thesecretworld.com/account/supportmail ) which does the same thing as the forums link ... it sends an email that bounces.

I don't know if that happens anywhere else. My hope is ... FC will (BEFORE launch, which means tomorrow for some) go find ALL places that a customer can request help and make sure they link to help.funcom.com.

I'm griping ... to help the game succeed. FC's biggest hole for launching a game has always been the PRE-game experience. In-game bugs get fixed, but the experience outside the game is the first impression you make.

PS. It would be VERY helpful if there were some more categories on help.funcom.com. You're funneling everything here ... so you need a "Forums" category, a "Web site" category, and probably an "Other" category. This isn't feedback, this is a report of a problem with your web site (and forums) ... and there isn't a good category to file this under.

[Hyde]

I've got a paid Grand Master account (Hyding) and have completed my account information.

When I log in to the Account Management page I see:

"Forum Login: [censored]"

However, when I click on it, hoping to go to the forums with that login (Hyding) I get this error message:

"Update Forum Login
This subscription does not have access to the forums!
Upgrade your subscription to get forum access."

Since I'm a paid Grand Master account, I shouldn't need to upgrade my account, right? What can I do to get this working?

I've read the FAQ that you get when clicking the first "Submit" button here on help.funcom.com, which says:

"Login on the account management page
On the left-side menu, click Setup My Forum Account.
Enter a username and password.
Click Update Forum Login.
If the Username field was filled you already had forum login."

But that is incorrect. I literally created this account last night to buy my Grand Master account. I never clicked "Setup My Forum Account". The account name field was already filled out. And the FAQ doesn't tell me what to do in the case where I'm told I have to update my subscription.

Thanks.

[Hyde]

NOTE:: This is a FORUMS registration issue. Please direct to the appropriate person. Since the game goes live for Grand Master accounts soon, I consider this urgent, as forums are the main mode of communicating out-of-game.

... Summary:
The forums failed to send me an email (see notes below before assuming it is an error with my email account). Can you either send me the link to click on to verify my account OR just verify the account for me?


Separately: IF you aren't actually allowing non-game accounts to post on the forums, then the forums needs language on the Registration and help pages explaining this.

... Details:

I am unable to use the forums account that is attached to my main account ("[censored]", also a forums name of "[censored]" ... which I would have preferred to not be the same as my forums name ... I've filed a separate ticket on that account since it was pre-populated and unable to be used due to an error message, see [Funcom #65751] for details on that).

So I tried to register a new Forums-only account last night via ( http://forums.thesecretworld.com/register.php ). The account name I used is "[censored]". However while I can log in with that account I can not post with it. I never got the email confirmation code to click on to allow posting permissions.

... NOTE:
I know for 100% fact that the email address I used (hydeish@gmail.com) is working as I have received multiple email responses from your support system at this account during this time. I have also checked my spam folder. Nothing there. So ... something prevented the message from being sent.



PS. I had originally submitted all 3 of my active tickets under a single incident. I realized that was a recipe for confusion. If this looks like a familiar ticket, just be aware I deleted the original and this is the replacement.

[Hyde]

I have to pity them a bit ... over the span of 30 minutes they've had over 50 support tickets submitted (see my quote tags above for which ticket #s mine were) ... and they haven't launched yet.

BUT ...

They sort of set themselves up for it based on some of the not-ready-for-launch stuff they still have in place.

[Chrisax]

The awful thing is TSW devs are for nothing in the subscription and account pages thing and that nevertheless impacts the result of their work.

[Bredin]

I had a terrible time pre-ordering TSW. TONS of support tickets, hoops jumped through, new profanities invented. It finally got sorted but man oh man it was a PITA

[noobas]

hmm.

I've had zero problems so far, but I also haven't bought anything, or expected to be able to play.

The only problem i've had was trying to play the beta thing but beta had run out (I tried on sundary I think and they had launched last week I guess).

[Hyde]

It took awhile but they finally replied to my messages. I now have a working forums account. 1 day before that forum gets wiped and I have to use the other one. Hopefully when they launch the main forums my main account will have access.

[Elrojo]

Hmm I also got the forums error message when I tried to log into the forums, but I assumes that this was the result of me not having a closed beta account, though I bought the 2nd top sub in value, and I wasnt upgrading to game master just to get forums access, which seems to be wiped anyhow.

I am assuming you can't buy grandmaster now after it has launched?

[Chrisax]

TSW official Forums should be changed very soon now, so don't worry too much.

The "pre-order" is still available... as long as it is you can get grand master http://www.thesecretworld.com/buy/

But really hurry yp.

[noobas]

I only bought the game+ the initiates pack.

I never know how long I'm going to play these newfangled games. Star wars was fun but kind of bland. Lots of repetition. I'm so totally interested in TSW's skills system.