Let’s talk about our dealings with the Customer Support Service of Game Publishers, Developers and Software Delivery providers (Steam, GOG etc.) and how efficient or mediocre their CS is/are. For Software delivery service providers, we can also rate their service
Let me start with:
(1) EA/Origin:
Software platform - terrible. Why you might ask? They’ve locked most of their flagship titles on their platform. And a few older titles of theirs aren’t even updated with the latest updates, here’s glaring at you SimCity 4 Deluxe. And in the case of The SIMs 3, their version is gimped.
Customer Support - I’ve neen hearing EA’s CS is quite bad, but from personal experience their CS is adequate enough with a caveat that you contact them via a call or by way of their “Live CS Chat” system.
(2) Steam:
Software platform - Good. That is if you can get used to the fact that their platform IS a form of DRM.
Customer Support - Swift and efficient, again based on experience.
(3) 2K Games:
Customer Support - terrible, not only do they think you’re an idiot who doesn’t know what you’re saying, but most of all they do not even let your feedback reach the game developers when it comes to game breaking bugs and errors.
I’ve had to use Microsoft’s customer services a couple of times and they solved my problems very quickly. One one occasion I had my xbox live account taken and I got it back the same day i contacted them and the second time I bought a game on the wrong account and used their live chat and got a refund instantly
Common misconception steam is in fact not at all DRM in and of it’s own. Steamworks is valve’s DRM system. A lot of games you buy on steam can be ran without the steam client open. Just a small unlikely to be complete list here courtesy of @Gnuffi.
As for customer service, I have never had many issues I’ve needed to sort. Last time I can recall I’ve had a CS complaint was a good while ago I needed to RMA a graphics card, the fans were going bad, clogged up and unbalanced bearings I suspected. The vibrations of which made my entire case rattle. Of course the store tests my card in their open bed test system and find that there’s no problems of course. 2 months later the fans fail but now I’m outside the warranty period.
THQ Nordic, GOG, and SEGA have had the best support teams so far. Capcom has definitely been the most hands-off from my experience, sadly.
My biggest frustration with Capcom support was when I contacted them about the GFWL version of Resident Evil 5. There were several back and forth messages with a long delay, I sent my proof of purchase as requested, and… nothing. I never heard back. They also really didn’t appreciate the fact that I offhandedly asked about a future God Hand port.
Steam used to be a good week behind all the time, but they definitely listened. They figured out that they can’t possibly keep up, so support is now directly integrated into the client and automated. Most tickets will never go by them, and they only step in for the important stuff-- account issues, refunds after the two hour/two week mark, and so on. It’s a high quality system that saves both Valve and their customers time and frustration.
I really have to give a shoutout to Newegg, here. They saved me from the worst purchase I’ve made in my life. I got a $450ish store credit refund for a Vega 56 that AMD support utterly screwed me on. Obviously don’t go in making bad purchases with this in mind… but they’re definitely the kind of company that can make things right. I feel pretty awful for petty complaints about a promo reward they never advertised on the XFX lineup just prior, as that was entirely out of their hands… they really did a stellar job, and as much as I like to say that I “get” support teams and the stuff they put up with normally, it wasn’t the case that time. I acted like “that” customer, and they still did their best to help me out. I’d highly recommend their services for any North American computer-related purchases.
Yep, I got lucky. I just remember being amazed that my ticket for Quake 1 on GOG went through in about half a day-- an American studio that owns the #1 digital distribution platform for PC somehow can’t respond as quickly as a Polish store selling old/indie games. Truth is, I didn’t really get it at the time-- it’s all about infrastructure. If your infrastructure can’t handle a heavy userbase, it’ll collapse.
I didn’t really catch onto why Steam support used to be so horrible until I saw PUBG. The game started off with so much promise, then it exploded in popularity and it became a struggle just to keep up with server demands. Had the game remained a relatively quiet success, they could have built it up without the constant stress of a millions-strong playerbase at stake.
y exactly, and it’s exactly like me too, i used to produce just for the farmer and his wife and their 3 kids, and everything was just fine, but then ppl got word of how delicious my milk was, and before you know it, ppl were like, “WE WANT MORE, WE WANT MORE,” and i felt so happy cuz i felt like i was helping ppl and making them happy, and i was all-in on it
I had to contact Blizzard a couple times, once to migrate my account between regions. Problem solved in 10 seconds.
The second time I had an issue in WoW and a GM showed up in game just a few minutes later. They’re pretty great.
In my experience, Microsoft is also pretty good with CS. They always solved any problem I had in a timely manner.
I’ve rarely had to contact any customer support, never been in contact with Valve, EA or the other big ones. Just a few smaller ones at times.
Not nearly as relevant as say Valve but Arenanet has been the best customer support I’ve had to contact in the last years. I had to reset and change my email for my old Guild Wars account but hardly had any information to go on. So I dug up one of the old boxes and asked if that was enough and sure enough a nice lady updated my account within minutes.
It might not have impressed me so much had it not been the original GW, which is absolutely dead at this point.
Heh, I thought it was going to be about Chrono too. It’s in Off Topic, but I went ahead and stuck a tag on it just to set aside any doubts/ambiguities.
I apologize if the topic’s title was a bit ambiguous to warrant a negative reaction from you guys. But as @CptMold did note, I DID post this in “Off Topic”. And besides, chrono.gg’s support staff, you guys, are prompt when it comes to Customer Support. I remember that incident during this year’s “Game Hole” event and I logged onto chrono.gg on my phone and I was unable to save the generated free key and you guys gave me a replacement one immediately within minutes Now if that wasn’t great CS, I don’t know what is.
I haven’t actually used customer support very often for games, only 3 times. Once with Valve/Steam and twice with EA/Origin.
EA/Origin has by far been the most outstanding CS experience I have had to date. Twice they fixed my issues in mere minutes and the reps were super friendly. I went through their chat, so I’m not sure about the other methods. They may be a company that people love to dump on(for good reason) but their CS is great.
Valve/Steam, ugh, they were efficient, but it took way too long and as I was locked out of my steam for a week(5.24 days) I was not very happy. Thankfully I had games on other platforms to tide me over so I was happy to wait…sort of. They did fix my issue with no problem, though I have since learned not to put my steam app on a device that my kids use as they are prone to deleting apps they don’t use when they need space.
Sony - I had a PSN account from 2011 which I used with my PSP and then not since. After inheriting my brother’s PS3 I thought I’d reactivate it, although I couldn’t remember many details. The support guy was really helpful, we had a chat about the Soul’s series and what he was doing at Sony and then he sent me a confirmation email. Wasn’t expecting a good result as my details were sketchy, but all was well in the end.
Humble - Again, incredibly helpful. Accidental double purchase at $1 tier corrected without issue. Polite emails and even though there was a little lag in reply (I’m guessing they’re busy), I’m really happy with their support.
ebay - Not really relevant, but they’ve also been good in the past.
Now if that wasn’t great CS, I don’t know what is.