Customer Service

This is a post about Customer Service, but first a bit of background story...

I own a Nintendo DS, and when I was thrilled to find that it could play GBA (Game Boy Advance) cartridges I immediately looked forward to when I could buy the anime strategy game "Super Robot Taisen". There's a GBA English version of that game and I went looking for it.

I found it, sort of, bundled with some other games in a GBA "Combo Cartridge." in an SM Appliance Center outlet in Mall of Asia. It was the first time I bought such a combo cart... and the saleslady didn't tell me about it's inherent weakness... that such carts had a notorious reputation for deleting save games!

And five days later, that's exactly what happened. Five days of strategy and blowing up giant robots, all gone as if I'd never played.

This of course was unacceptable. I stormed back to the store where I bought it and demanded for a refund.

The saleslady first tried to point out that everybody knew that you can't save on a combo cart. I replied: "Well miss, I'm not everybody, that was my first time buying a combo cart, so you should have warned me about that no-save function... if you had, I wouldn't have bought the item in the first place."

I got bumped up to her supervisor, who offered to replace the cartridge with another game. I didn't care for any of their other offerings: I just wanted Super Robot Taisen. And they didn't have one on single cart. Again I demanded a refund.

Now the super bumped me to the store manager. He also offered to replace the item with another item from the store and I said, "I don't want anything else. Give me a refund." At that point he said that it would take two weeks and they would issue me a check for the game cartridge.

Oh well, at least I wouldn't have wasted my money. Waiting two weeks for a game cartridge refund is better then not getting a refund at all. I agreed and signed some papers and gave them the combo cart I bought.

And now my rant:

Why the heck is it so hard to get refunds in this country? There is a law, that makes a no-return no exchange policy illegal. But they still put you through the wringer just to get a refund. I remember buying books and clothes in the US, and you can bring it back to the shop for a refund that day. Why can't it be like that?

Ironic, considering I work for a customer service organization. The experience has made me aware of just how key customer service is in a business, especially an online game business.

I am aware of the other side of the coin. Truly good service does require resources and good management of the support staff. That isn't easy, but it's worth working for.

At least I know the service levels here in the company is better then the one at the store where I bought my cartridge.

Or is it? Hmm...

What I've been Up To...

Man, it's been a long time since the last update hasn't it?

I think I owe it to everyone to explain just what's been keeping me busy these past few months.

1. Work: Since I last posted here, my department, the Game Operations department has been busy implementing some changes... and busy supporting the other units of Level Up.

Hmm... have I lost you? Maybe I should explain what it is I DO exactly in Level Up.

All of Level Up's online games have GMs. They're the ones you see in the games and on the forums. The GMs are organized into teams called Game Teams. Each game team is headed by a Game Manager. The "Head GM" for each game. The Head GMs in turn, report to me.

Wait, I know what you're thinking. "Holy crap, The G is the uber powerful head GM!" Actually, that's not the case. My job is more regulatory. I make sure the game policies and the promotions are implemented within budget, and the time of the game teams is adequately managed.

Okay to make it simple, it's like this. The company makes a plan for the game team. For example RO. They go "Hey Ragnarok Game team, we want you to summon monsters in Prontera and Lighthaltzen all week!" My job is to make sure that the Game Team summons the correct monsters and executes the summoning plan exactly as what is written down on the plan.

If you've been following the activites of Level Up's games, you know we've been really busy these past few months.

The second thing I've been up to is my tabletop roleplaying game. I play Exalted a high powered fantasy roleplaying game where you take the role of a reincarnated God King to remake the world. I am the GM (that is, I function as a meat server) of one game and I play in another. I have 8 players and we play once a month at my house. Things have gotten really intense, with demons invading the players' home cities and everyone getting ready to fend off the demonic hordes... most of my free time away from work has been spent getting ready for my tabletop sessions!

Anyway that's what I've been upto these past few days. I plan to put up some interesting articles regularly for those who visit. (Now that I have an audience, hehehe, thanks Carlo.) So check back soon!