PlayOnline's terrible customer support

[Gergall]

that awards reserved for HP (got a problem with out hardware with planned death? send us money for a new one)

A coworker called HP regarding a product he wanted to purchase for our company. He just wanted to ask some extremely basic questions about the product before purchasing.

He got bounced around to 3 different support reps in different departments, none of whom had ever heard of the product or had any idea what it did, how to use it, or who could answer his questions. Meanwhile, my coworker was on their website looking at the product and trying to give them the URL so they could see it (they weren't interested).

The 3rd rep he spoke to bounced him back to the 1st guy.

[Aksannyi]

theres a huge difference! at least you arent paying them for each time you call support

Technically you are, if you are calling from a land line phone. I know, I know. But some places still don't have good cell phone reception. (My dad's house comes to mind.) It's pretty fucking stupid that they still don't have a toll-free number.

[Nattack]

Technically you are, if you are calling from a land line phone. I know, I know. But some places still don't have good cell phone reception. (My dad's house comes to mind.) It's pretty fucking stupid that they still don't have a toll-free number.

dont bring your technicalities on me! I mean at least we arent entering in a CC to talk to them.

[Bluefrostie]

You may not directly be paying for customer service, but your $13+ a month maintains your character, maintains their phone lines, their (customer) service, their free coffee in the morning, etc.

[Nattack]

i just said no D:

[Bugpop]

Not long after PS2 release I called customer support to find out what ports needed to be open in order to play without disabling norton security. This information was not available on the internet nor was web chat an option at the time.

The CSR told me that firewalls and antivirus software are 3rd party programs that needed to be disabled prior to playing FFXI. I asked whether PoL or FFXI provided computer security. He explained that PoL viewer or FFXI did not provide firewall or internet protection. He added that it was also my responsibility to keep my computer secure.

He seemed quite impatient and I felt he was irritated that I was even bothering him with these questions. He wasn't even trying to help me out. All I got was this catch-22... I have to keep my computer secure while playing FFXI but according to him I can't run any security software while running FFXI.

Anyway, I told him that he was wrong because there is no way that SE or anyone else would include computer security software as a probitied third party software. Those programs do nothing to modify or change the functionality of FFXI or POL. I told him further that if he used the term as narrowly as he was using it that the operating system itself is third party software and I shouldn't be using that either. It would be irresponsible for SE to require that computer security software be disabled to play the game considering how many customers they have. Just as I demanded to speak with someone else that could help me, or a SGM.

...
...Click...
...
...Click...
....

...Dialtone...


I had waited over an hour for a CSR and I wound up getting an idiot. I called back, waited on hold for quite a while, then it rang, and got a message to call during business hours. I haven't bothered with calling since.

[Nattack]

ive worked in a few call centres, this is common. this is why i dont use call centres unless i have to (generally anything i need to know I would be able to find out by myself)

[Silenka]

Not long after PS2 release I called customer support to find out what ports needed to be open in order to play without disabling norton security.

The answer, obviously, is to get a better antivirus/firewall program.

I recommend avast.

Seriously, how can people use that Norton shit? Working in customer service myself, it's no wonder they were impatient with you. Your shit not working with FFXI is really not their problem, as it has nothing to do with FFXI directly, and it's a problem for you to work out yourself. I also hate when people come to me with problems that have nothing to do with what I can actually help them with - it just wastes both our time and grates on both parties. There is such a thing as bad customers, just like there is bad customer service.

That being said, SE's customer service does suck, but like Nattack said I have heard that Comcast in most cases is worse. I'm equally glad that I don't have to deal with Comcast or have had to deal with SE CS yet. Better be a lot better for 14 is all I'm saying.

[Bugpop]

The answer, obviously, is to get a better antivirus/firewall program.

I recommend avast.

Seriously, how can people use that Norton shit? Working in customer service myself, it's no wonder they were impatient with you. Your shit not working with FFXI is really not their problem, as it has nothing to do with FFXI directly, and it's a problem for you to work out yourself. I also hate when people come to me with problems that have nothing to do with what I can actually help them with - it just wastes both our time and grates on both parties. There is such a thing as bad customers, just like there is bad customer service.

That being said, SE's customer service does suck, but like Nattack said I have heard that Comcast in most cases is worse. I'm equally glad that I don't have to deal with Comcast or have had to deal with SE CS yet. Better be a lot better for 14 is all I'm saying.

Dude, this is standard discussion.... chill out

At the time I was given one free year of Norton firewall and antivirus so I used it. I learned to use it and I didn't have any problems with getting any of my software working with it. I just needed the port info from SE which is fairly reasonable information to provide. The response was unexpected, unreasonable, and irresponsible.

The CSR didn't bother with assisting me with the ports issue. He told me that firewall and antivirus software are third party programs and as such should be disabled according to the ToS. According to him it didn't matter whether it was Norton or any other computer security software. My response to him is that requiring that all computer/internet security software (Norton or otherwise) be disabled in order to play an online game is irresponsible. I told him that I doubted that SE included security software as third party software and that again, I needed the port information (see quote below). If he didn't have that information might have said "I'm sorry sir, but I don't have that information." Further advising where one might find out would be useful too.

How much better trained would the staff for 14 be? It's likely that GM policies will remain the same. I doubt they'll reinvent GM policies if they already have a set laid out they can copy + paste. They'll likely train the existing staff to use the 14 GM software and split them between being GM's for 11 and 14 depending on where they are needed. The existing staff will train any new staff members. It will be just more of the same.

Category : FINAL FANTASY XI Subcategory : GM Policies
Article No. : Q12666 Created : 2006/12/07 Updated : 2006/12/07
Rating : 56%

Question:
Does virus-scanning software or security software count as running a third-party program in the background?

Answer:
No. Running security software or anti-virus software is not a violation. However, automatic update features offered by some anti-virus and security software can interrupt game play, and/or cause the game to suddenly crash.

Category : Technical Issues Subcategory : Connecting
Article No. : Q12293 Created : 2003/06/09 Updated : 2006/01/27
Rating : 96%

Question:
I need the necessary port information for the game.

Answer:
PlayOnline(including all related software such as FINAL FANTASY XI) may use any of the following ports. If you are using a router, please configure it to allow packets to pass through these ports.

Port numbers that may be used by the PlayOnline server group.
TCP 25, 80, 110, 443 or 50000 - 65535
UDP 50000 - 65535

Port numbers that may be used by terminals such as the PlayStation(R)2.
TCP 1024 - 65535
UDP 50000 - 65535

*Your router may require that you use a PC to configure your network settings. For more information about how to configure your network settings, please refer to the instruction manual that came with your router or contact the manufacturer directly.

*If your Internet service provider (ISP) specifies a DNS server, you may need to configure your settings to allow packets to pass through UDP Port 53 as well. For more information, please refer to the instruction manual for your router or the information provided by your ISP.

[Silenka]

Meh, standard and advanced is all the same nowadays thanks to the crackdown on advanced

My point was that of course those POL guys you talked to would give you the answer they hoped would make you go away, because they didn't have any real answers for you. They deal with (if at all) tech problems solely pertaining to POL/FFXI which has nothing to do with your strange and possibly oddly configured antivirus program. They couldn't possibly advise you on tech information, especially if they're not trained for it, yet the customer is always right and so rather than telling you they don't know (which they should have), they tried to get around it with twisting a manufactured answer around and making it a completely retarded roundabout way of attempting to help you. Not saying that's right, but then again, it's not their job to solve your tech issues.

All I'm saying is if I sell you a kitchen cart, you don't call me days later asking how exactly to put it together and where in your house to put it, cause it's not my job and no one in my store could give you that info. (People do that, though...orz)

No hard feelings, just wanted to share from the 'helper's' POV.

[DeadManWalking]

The fact about SE having a shitty customer support really hit my face when I was about to start playing FFXI again about a year ago. Because I was unsure if my account and characters would still exist, since I heard that they would get deleted or something for a long inactivity time (I think I had nearly 2,5 years back then) I decided to contact SE and ask if my characters were still there, before getting excited for starting again.

Since english isn't my main language and even though it may seem that I can type it just fine, actually speaking it for me is pretty hard. Especially when I would have to pass information of my account ID, password and such. So I decided to use the online chat thingy. After about 30mins of waiting, someone finally took my queue and started chatting to me, so I described my problem and asked the question; "are my characters still there available to play?"

First I got an answer "let me check". Also at this point I have to mention that the employee who I chatted with didn't talk very fluent english nor his talk seemed very official either, because he used abbreviations like "u" in stead of you and "2" in stead of to, etc.

Few mins after the "let me check" -line the guy came back with his so called results about my old characters and he just said "your characters have been deleted". And I decided to confirm this with one more question, asking "so my characters cant be reactivated anymore?" on which he answered with plain "no". And that was the end of that chat.

Few months after that conversation my friends persuaded me to start playing and damn, I did want to play. So I thought "oh fuck it, I'll start from scratch if I have to". So I installed PoL and logged on my old account and did all the starting shit on it, and for my (pleasant) surprise, I found my old characters were still there, untouched and definitely not deleted. I didn't even have to use any character recover service, just pay for the chars and hit the game.

So I began to wonder, what kind of idiots does SE employ on their customer service, because I for sure am not going to touch the live chat ever again, it was the worst customer service I've ever gotten, honestly the person seemed like he just wanted to get rid of me asap or something.