Blizzard: Lowering the Bar for Customer Service
Eight days after my last reponse to Blizzard’s Account Administration team, they again responded, with a very familiar-sounding form e-mail.
From: wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com
Subject: World of Warcraft - Account Retrieval Issue
Date: September 24, 2006 1:02:19 PM GMT+08:00
To: MeGreetings,
Thank you for contacting us with your concerns regarding our Account Retrieval process. We appreciate and understand your perspective, yet have to reiterate that the account in question was brought to our attention due to a possible compromise.
Blizzard Entertainment takes account security very seriously. For this reason we have instigated the Account Retrieval process so that the registered user of the account can verify their contact information and gain sole and secure access. Unfortunately, we will be unable to restore access until we have received the required documentation. This policy is in place to protect the registered account user from misuse and damage to the account by unauthorized third-parties.
Any inquiries concerning this account retrieval process can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you for your patience and anticipated cooperation in this matter.
Hatagerak
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
www.worldofwarcraft.com
Why does this reply from Blizzard sound so familiar? Oh yeah, they already sent me that one, except for a minor modification in the first paragraph, which I underlined above.
Nonetheless, I’m still hopeful that there’s a real human being working somewhere at Blizzard, so I sent the following reponse:
From: Me
Subject: Re: World of Warcraft - Account Retrieval Issue
Date: September 24, 2006 1:26:31 PM GMT+08:00
To: wowaccountadmin@blizzard.comDear Blizzard,
Thank you for replying to my responses regarding your Account Retrieval process. I appreciate and understand your perspective, yet have to reiterate that Blizzard has not provided me with any non-ambiguous explanation regarding the “possible compromise” of my account, though I have asked for this explanation repeatedly.
I appreciate that Blizzard takes Account Security seriously, and believe that suspending my account without providing me any detail as to why it was suspended is terribly poor customer service, and is heavy-handed. As I stated in my previous e-mail, which Blizzard has taken over a week to respond to, I am unable to comply with Blizzard’s Account Retrieval process until I receive a signed agreement from an Authorized Blizzard Representative indicating that I will be fully reimbursed for the time and associated costs spent engaged in the Account Retrieval process.
Again, I request that Blizzard contact me with the information requested so that I may be able to comply with Blizzard’s Account Retrieval process. This policy is in place to protect me from misuse and damage to my World of Warcraft account, and to compensate me for the time expenditure and costs incurred by complying with Blizzard’s policies.
While I am personally skeptical as to the sincerity of an apology included in a form letter (particularly one which I have already been sent), I accept your apology for the inconvenience this has caused, and would, yet again, like to encourage Blizzard to do the Right Thing by reinstating my account, and/or forwarding me the contact information of a Blizzard representative who can and will sign an agreement to reimburse me for the time and costs incurred through conformance with Blizzard’s Account Retrieval process.
I’d also like to suggest, for Blizzard’s consideration, that those who do that which is Right never have a justifiable reason or need to apologize.
Thank you in advance for your prompt response and appropriate action,
- Dan
Several “interesting” comments have been left on my original post regarding Blizzard’s absurd Account Retrieval process. Apparently I’m some holdout of a long lost set of values which suggest that companies should provide actual customer service that extends beyond offering generated text with false apologies. /shrug It appears that bending over and taking it in the hindside is common core value of Blizzard Fanboys. Power to you if you like having your posterior poked, but I’m going to stand my ground on this one.
2 Comments »
I am glad I am not alone. Here’s a twist on the familiar Blizzard customer abuse…I was compromised, wiped out over night. Hacker sold everything including my food and bags. After reporting and speaking with the in-game GM assued that the investigation team was on it, two scant hours late I was sent an e-mail stating my account has been permanently suspended for “…abusing the Malygos economy…” So now, dealing with the trauma of logging into an obviously unsecure game environment and finding all of my 5 characters completely wiped clean, the heavy hand of autonomous judgement has found this is my fault. Interesting customer service. I shall continue to pound on them for an explanation from thier Sherlockian genius crack investigative team.
Ok how many times have we tried to get through to a decision maker at Blizzard only to have some snot nosed punk tell us he can not connect us because of policy.
well after some inet investigating I have found some useful information:
First of all all Blizz employees utilize thier first initial followed by thier last name @blizzard.com, ie) Mr Mike Morhaime would be mmorhaime@blizzard.com
second, the recent employee directory can be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/bc-credits.html
third, if e-mail is not enough call 1-(949)-955-1380 select option 3 for the company directory and type in the first 3 letters of the person’s first name. This will allow you to cycle through the various extensions. ie) Bill Galey the ingame support manager would be 949 955 1380 x 2942
I have aquired these from public access and have not hacked or cracked any sites. Thjis info is open to the public, you just have to know where to look