GW1 Support Ticket Questions

[Adaryn.4985]

Hello,

I recently put in a GW1 ticket for one of my accounts but haven't heard anything in the past couple days. I know the game has been pretty much forgotten about since GW2 came about but some of us actually like to play for those HoM cosmetics and to reconnect to a game we once cherished and thought of daily. I have been a customer since almost the beginning of GW1. I first created my account 135 months ago. I have spent hundreds of dollars on the game with the numerous accounts I have and/or gems I have bought. I don't say that to brag but I truly love the games you guys make and have done so for ages. I love that you buy them once and get to play forever, I have saved a lot of money on not having to pay for subscription fees. Initially that being one of the reasons I came to this game. I know this may seem like me harping on for no reason other than to complain, but I truly believe that the customer support should show more enthusiasm to take care of tickets even if it is for the original game.

I'm a paying customer, if I had to wait weeks for a response from any other service provider it would be unheard of. Heck, I can call Blizzard customer support and get a direct answer on any of their games, whether it be there ship wreck that was Diablo 3 or even on Starcraft 2 (while although popular isn't bringing in the money that WoW or Overwatch does). If money is the issue then please put something out there. I would gladly pay a subscription fee, even Jagex customer support will get to you one way or another, even if it involves using Twitter or Reddit to best reach you, and I pay less than 10 dollars a month for their service. Just let me pay something, I would rather not buy another GW1 account just so I can start at the beginning again without deleting my characters. I'm going to play Guild Wars 2 afterwards anyway! I'm literally going to spend more money on the game after I finish playing the original! The ticket isn't even for this email/account but I figured I have some weight with this account asking for help as you can see I have been a customer for many years, and have put countless hours into your creations. Please help me out, as a customer I'm here to support your team, your wallets, and your future plans. Though, I can't spend more money on a team that forgets their customers.

Thank you,

Ryan

(Guild Wars 1 is seeing a resurgence of activity. There are people out there wanting to see what it was all about in the beginning, and some that just want to get back into their old accounts. Forgetting a character name is easy now that I'm older and have a million responsibilities compared to when I was young and could game all day.)

EDIT: THIS HAS BEEN RESOLVED THANK YOU ANET!!!!

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It doesn't matter if you are a veteran customer or a new customer; whether you spend a lot or the bare minimum, your ticket will be attended to in the order received, and sent to the appropriate department. Access issues are more time-intensive, with GW account issues even more so. It could be days; it could be weeks. Do be aware: with high volume, ticket response times may be longer than usual.

[Adaryn.4985]

@"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:It doesn't matter if you are a veteran customer or a new customer; whether you spend a lot or the bare minimum, your ticket will be attended to in the order received, and sent to the appropriate department. Access issues are more time-intensive, with GW account issues even more so. It could be days; it could be weeks. Do be aware: with high volume, ticket response times may be longer than usual.

Access issues are time-intensive, but that doesn't mean other tickets should be left to the side. Working in IT has taught me that no matter how minor the issue, someone can take care of it in a reasonable time. I used to get tickets input for simple things such as a mouse not working. I would rather have one person devote 5 minutes to knock that out than to leave it off while I deal with a"bigger" problem and have an employee without a mouse. I notice you comment a lot on posts, do you work for ANET? Weeks is absolutely unacceptable, I don't care what the issue is. I hate to say it that way, and you may think I'm being grumpy, unkind, or just downright not understanding, but customer service has to go above and beyond to keep up with demands in today's market.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Nope; just years of experience in the Account Support sub-forum.If you are not aware, there is high volume at this time due to the recent suspensions. Also, this is the Guild Wars 2 CS Team, and GW2 issues are their priority. Even at the best of times, the CS Team allows 72 hours to respond; thus, it could be days, or it could be weeks (you can use the 'Search' feature to verify this).

If ArenaNet was a giant studio like EA or Blizzard, there might be phone service or short response times; alas, ArenaNet is a smaller studio, and does not have that kind of staff. I'm sure your ticket will be seen to in time.

FYI: Posting on the forums does nothing to speed up tickets; the CS Team doesn't really follow the forums (nor post), as they are busy attending to tickets. You can read more about ticket issues in the pertinent Stickies, should you so desire.

Good luck.

[hailtonothing.5283]

Join the club, buddy! 5 days and counting since I raised a ticket. It got activity on it a day or two later and then nothing except the updates with further information I made. Ticket response times seem to be a pretty big deal on 99% of the stuff I'm reading here/online - I wonder how many people are just saying "screw it" and walking away. I don't really understand how it can take so long, to be honest. Customers are the only way the game survives, and if you can't serve them, they go somewhere else - you'd think it would be more important than to allow a ticket to go unanswered more than a day or two.

[Adaryn.4985]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Nope; just years of experience in the Account Support sub-forum.If you are not aware, there is high volume at this time due to the recent suspensions. Also, this is the Guild Wars 2 CS Team, and GW2 issues are their priority. Even at the best of times, the CS Team allows 72 hours to respond; thus, it could be days, or it could be weeks (you can use the 'Search' feature to verify this).

If ArenaNet was a giant studio like EA or Blizzard, there might be phone service or short response times; alas, ArenaNet is a smaller studio, and does not have that kind of staff. I'm sure your ticket will be seen to in time.

FYI: Posting on the forums does nothing to speed up tickets; the CS Team doesn't really follow the forums (nor post), as they are busy attending to tickets. You can read more about ticket issues in the pertinent Stickies, should you so desire.

Good luck.

Obviously posting on the forum doesn't speed up my ticket, but someone does read the posts here. If the customers don't speak up then no one would have physical evidence of why people are upset or leaving the game. It is just like if someone emailed me saying my service sucked for reason x,y, and z. It may not warrant a reply immediately but it definitely gives me an idea where I need to fix things. As a customer, I reserve the right to say the service times are terrible here, and as a customer I can take my business elsewhere. That is why I'm posting. It doesn't mean I will, but sometimes it has to be said to be known and documented.

[Adaryn.4985]

@"hailtonothing.5283" said:Join the club, buddy! 5 days and counting since I raised a ticket. It got activity on it a day or two later and then nothing except the updates with further information I made. Ticket response times seem to be a pretty big deal on 99% of the stuff I'm reading here/online - I wonder how many people are just saying "screw it" and walking away. I don't really understand how it can take so long, to be honest. Customers are the only way the game survives, and if you can't serve them, they go somewhere else - you'd think it would be more important than to allow a ticket to go unanswered more than a day or two.

Yeah, I'm not going to sit and wait for things to settle. I'll just go play another game until my ticket is answered.

[mercury ranique.2170]

Ok. To get a few thing out of the way. Support is working really hard. There is no way to check this, but I am going to assume this.Nobody deserves a preference treatment.So you are to sit out the queue.

Off course you can complain about them being understaffed. But do know there is a big peak right now. Account ownership issues are hard to deal with and the older an account is the more.

[Adaryn.4985]

@"mercury ranique.2170" said:Ok. To get a few thing out of the way. Support is working really hard. There is no way to check this, but I am going to assume this.Nobody deserves a preference treatment.So you are to sit out the queue.

Off course you can complain about them being understaffed. But do know there is a big peak right now. Account ownership issues are hard to deal with and the older an account is the more.

I did not say those things to presume I deserve preference. I'm saying those things as I think even a simple reply such as "wait times are long please wait it could take up to 72 hours etc etc" is warranted as customers are being mistreated. I'm saying it to show that not just newer customers are having issues, but the ones who have been here a long time and never speak up are also having issues.

[The Night Fox.6018]

Anecdotal, but I have nothing but glowing praise for Anet's support. From reseting my GW1 email & PW to reinstating ingame items I accidentally misused without reading the instructions, they have been professional and jiffy of the spot.

I'm saying it to show that not just newer customers are having great times with support, but the ones who have been here a long time and speak up are also having great times with support.

[hailtonothing.5283]

@The Night Fox.6018 said:Anecdotal, but I have nothing but glowing praise for Anet's support. From reseting my GW1 email & PW to reinstating ingame items I accidentally misused without reading the instructions, they have been professional and jiffy of the spot.

I'm saying it to show that not just newer customers are having great times with support, but the ones who have been here a long time and speak up are also having great times with support.

Literally no-one is have a great time with support right now, though. I'm not saying they haven't solved issues quickly and with a player-first approach, historically, but right now this is a nightmare. If it was an issue with my GW2 account, rather than my ancient GW1 account, they'd have lost me as a customer. Perception is important, and while I'm sure behind the scenes they are SUPER BUSY, the perception is that they don't give a crap about me or my problem. 7 days and counting. No progress, no update, no ANet person bothering to drop in here and say sorry, we'll be with you soon, or we're taking measures to resolve this, or whatever.

This kind of stuff is important. When I reviewed GW2 on release I had an account provided as a member of press - they solved an issue I was having almost immediately. If I was waiting 7 days with zero contact, what kind of review would I have written, do you think? Again I understand there are reasons but most of the time a customer does not care, they just want a result.

[Adaryn.4985]

@hailtonothing.5283 said:

@The Night Fox.6018 said:Anecdotal, but I have nothing but glowing praise for Anet's support. From reseting my GW1 email & PW to reinstating ingame items I accidentally misused without reading the instructions, they have been professional and jiffy of the spot.

I'm saying it to show that not just newer customers are having great times with support, but the ones who have been here a long time and speak up are also having great times with support.

Literally no-one is have a great time with support right now, though. I'm not saying they haven't solved issues quickly and with a player-first approach, historically, but tight now this is a nightmare. If it was an issue with my GW2 account, rather than my ancient GW1 account, they'd have lost me as a customer. Perception is important, and while I'm sure behind the scenes they are SUPER BUSY, the

perception

is that they don't give a crap about me or my problem. 7 days and counting. No progress, no update, no ANet person bothering to drop in here and say sorry, we'll be with you soon, or we're taking measures to resolve this, or whatever.

This kind of stuff is important. When I reviewed GW2 on release I had an account provided as a member of press - they solved an issue I was having almost immediately. If I was waiting 7 days with zero contact, what kind of review would I have written, do you think? Again I understand there are

reasons

but most of the time a customer

does not care

, they just want a result.

I absolutely agree, I understand there is a lot of tickets but someone can knock these easy tickets out while others work on the more difficult ones. Someone on Reddit told me it took them 3 weeks to get a response. I couldn't imagine waiting that long.

[hailtonothing.5283]

@"Adaryn.4985" said:I absolutely agree, I understand there is a lot of tickets but someone can knock these easy tickets out while others work on the more difficult ones. Someone on Reddit told me it took them 3 weeks to get a response. I couldn't imagine waiting that long.

I almost think the bigger problem right now is lack of engagement with people here. There are multiple front page posts asking for "estimated ticket times" and zero response (beyond other community members saying they are backed up and to hold tight). So there's an issue with ticket volume, and from appearances, ANet can't solve that problem. The very least it should be doing, in my opinion, is dropping in to say "hey we're very sorry, we're currently solving problems that are X days old, so we expect your ticket will take at least that long before we can get to it - we'll update you in a couple of days" then there wouldn't be people in here every day asking what is going on.It's probably five minutes work to sticky a post like that, and another five minutes every couple of days to give us the impression something is happening, and most people would probably be okay - or at least much happier - with it.

[Medori.7285]

As hailtonothing said: "Lack of engagement" - that's it exactly for me. All I want is acknowledgement that I matter.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Hello folks,

I'd like to clear up a few things:

• Our Customer Support Team helps with both Guild Wars (original) and Guild Wars 2 issues. Signatures may say "Guild Wars 2 Support Team" but in fact they are all members of the larger "GuildWarsGuildWars2 Support Team." :)
• There is no deprioritization of Guild Wars tickets -- they are answered from the same "bucket" in the order received. (In other words, no one puts Guild Wars Tickets in a corner. ;) )
• If you submit a ticket, you'll get a "We received your inquiry" sort of e-mail that will contain a ticket number. You can update your ticket by responding to the e-mail -- never creating a new one! -- and asking for an update. I would strongly encourage you to allow at least five business days before you do this, perhaps a bit more. I suggest this because we do see ebbs and flows in issue reports and account situations, which means that asking about the ticket requires someone to stop what they're doing (resolving someone else's ticket) merely to give you an update. Still and all, you can ask and that's the way to do it, if you feel you need to/want to follow up.
• If you have additional information for your ticket, again, update the e-mail and provide that new info.
• While a few outlier tickets may take a long while, most do not. When I see "It could take weeks" I can feel the discouragement that breeds, and I want to assure you that most issues are not taking even one week, much less multiple weeks! (I'll say it again -- YMMV (which translates as "your mileage may vary" which means you may have a different experience) -- meaning that sure, there are cases of long back-and-forth discussions, but I think you'll find that most are resolved in a reasonable amount of time.
• From what I was told this morning, most tickets are resolved within about 72 hours. (German-language tickets may take a bit longer.) The resolution of each is dependent on the nature of the issue, as you can imagine, but the team is working as quickly as they can to help everyone.

[hailtonothing.5283]

Hi Gaile, thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it. Look I get that you've got a metric for "most tickets solved in 72 hours" probably given to you by support, but I'm on day 11 now with no notice of what's going on, no idea if anyone's looking at it, no response to my questions of "do you need more info from me to solve this". There are several others around in a similar situation, well beyond the 72 hour mark. So while I'm definitely glad you're here with assurance around priorities, unfortunately I don't buy the 72hr turnaround. If someone is looking at my ticket, it would take them literally 30 seconds to flick me a message/email "hey I'm looking at this now, will let you know if I need more info from you", and I wouldn't be asking these questions!

[Gaile Gray.6029]

@"hailtonothing.5283" said:Hi Gaile, thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it. Look I get that you've got a metric for "most tickets solved in 72 hours" probably given to you by support, but I'm on day 11 now with no notice of what's going on, no idea if anyone's looking at it, no response to my questions of "do you need more info from me to solve this". There are several others around in a similar situation, well beyond the 72 hour mark. So while I'm definitely glad you're here with assurance around priorities, unfortunately I don't buy the 72hr turnaround. If someone is looking at my ticket, it would take them literally 30 seconds to flick me a message/email "hey I'm looking at this now, will let you know if I need more info from you", and I wouldn't be asking these questions!

Have you had a response including a ticket number?

[hailtonothing.5283]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@"hailtonothing.5283" said:Hi Gaile, thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it. Look I get that you've got a metric for "most tickets solved in 72 hours" probably given to you by support, but I'm on day 11 now with no notice of what's going on, no idea if anyone's looking at it, no response to my questions of "do you need more info from me to solve this". There are several others around in a similar situation, well beyond the 72 hour mark. So while I'm definitely glad you're here with assurance around priorities, unfortunately I don't buy the 72hr turnaround. If someone is looking at my ticket, it would take them literally 30 seconds to flick me a message/email "hey I'm looking at this now, will let you know if I need more info from you", and I wouldn't be asking these questions!

Have you had a response including a ticket number?

Do you mean email? I have the automated email response- it came in the same minute I created the ticket. Since then I've updated the ticket 5 or so times with more info, cd keys etc, asking for updates. I haven't had a single reply from ANet on it. #6884711 if that helps.

[foozlesprite.8051]

For what it's worth, I needed to recover access to my old account. I sent in the CD keys, receipt information for a formal outfit I bought, etc. and I was confirmed quickly. I got access within a few days, and marked it as resolved. It was pretty painless. That's not to discredit the long wait times some of you have had, but I can basically confirm what was said about the GW1 tickets not languishing in a moldy corner on purpose.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

@hailtonothing.5283 said:

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@hailtonothing.5283 said:Hi Gaile, thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it. Look I get that you've got a metric for "most tickets solved in 72 hours" probably given to you by support, but I'm on day 11 now with no notice of what's going on, no idea if anyone's looking at it, no response to my questions of "do you need more info from me to solve this". There are several others around in a similar situation, well beyond the 72 hour mark. So while I'm definitely glad you're here with assurance around priorities, unfortunately I don't buy the 72hr turnaround. If someone is looking at my ticket, it would take them literally 30 seconds to flick me a message/email "hey I'm looking at this now, will let you know if I need more info from you", and I wouldn't be asking these questions!

Have you had a response including a ticket number?

Do you mean email? I have the automated email response- it came in the same minute I created the ticket. Since then I've updated the ticket 5 or so times with more info, cd keys etc, asking for updates. I haven't had a single reply from ANet on it. #6884711 if that helps.

I cannot see anything in the system with that number. Could you double-check what you wrote?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@hailtonothing.5283 said:

@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@hailtonothing.5283 said:Hi Gaile, thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it. Look I get that you've got a metric for "most tickets solved in 72 hours" probably given to you by support, but I'm on day 11 now with no notice of what's going on, no idea if anyone's looking at it, no response to my questions of "do you need more info from me to solve this". There are several others around in a similar situation, well beyond the 72 hour mark. So while I'm definitely glad you're here with assurance around priorities, unfortunately I don't buy the 72hr turnaround. If someone is looking at my ticket, it would take them literally 30 seconds to flick me a message/email "hey I'm looking at this now, will let you know if I need more info from you", and I wouldn't be asking these questions!

Have you had a response including a ticket number?

Do you mean email? I have the automated email response- it came in the same minute I created the ticket. Since then I've updated the ticket 5 or so times with more info, cd keys etc, asking for updates. I haven't had a single reply from ANet on it. #6884711 if that helps.

I cannot see anything in the system with that number. Could you double-check what you wrote?

It seems, according to another post, that the above issue was solved.

[hailtonothing.5283]

Yep all solved now, thanks

[Adaryn.4985]

@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:Hello folks,

I'd like to clear up a few things:

• Our Customer Support Team helps with both Guild Wars (original) and Guild Wars 2 issues. Signatures may say "Guild Wars 2 Support Team" but in fact they are all members of the larger "GuildWarsGuildWars2 Support Team." :)
• There is no deprioritization of Guild Wars tickets -- they are answered from the same "bucket" in the order received. (In other words, no one puts Guild Wars Tickets in a corner. ;) )
• If you submit a ticket, you'll get a "We received your inquiry" sort of e-mail that will contain a ticket number. You can update your ticket by responding to the e-mail -- never creating a new one! -- and asking for an update. I would strongly encourage you to allow at least five business days before you do this, perhaps a bit more. I suggest this because we do see ebbs and flows in issue reports and account situations, which means that asking about the ticket requires someone to stop what they're doing (resolving someone else's ticket) merely to give you an update. Still and all, you can ask and that's the way to do it, if you feel you need to/want to follow up.
• If you have additional information for your ticket, again, update the e-mail and provide that new info.
• While a few outlier tickets may take a long while, most do not. When I see "It could take weeks" I can feel the discouragement that breeds, and I want to assure you that most issues are not taking even one week, much less multiple weeks! (I'll say it again -- YMMV (which translates as "your mileage may vary" which means you may have a different experience) -- meaning that sure, there are cases of long back-and-forth discussions, but I think you'll find that most are resolved in a reasonable amount of time.
• From what I was told this morning, most tickets are resolved within about 72 hours. (German-language tickets may take a bit longer.) The resolution of each is dependent on the nature of the issue, as you can imagine, but the team is working as quickly as they can to help everyone.

Hello Gaile,

I have a ticket on an account under another email of mine that is not connected to guild wars 2 (which is the reason I was using this account to post), with the ticket number being "Your request (#6887420: Forgot Character Name)". It has been 10 days and I have yet to hear back. I did purchase the game key for the account from a German website but I listed the account under North America I thought. I hope this isn't what is causing the delay in ticket times. I appreciate your comments and I have seen others seeing an update on their tickets. I'm still not seeing anything on mine though and have sent a message asking if additional information is required to recover my character name. Thank you for your time in posting in here as it means a lot to see that someone is noticing what is going on.

Hope to see an update soon,

Thank you,

Ryan