Is SE really this shady?

I like to read the forums a couple times a day while at work. Its apparent that every single day there is a new thread about how shady SE is. If its banning people with high amounts of gil or removing gil from certain players if they have to much with out any notice before hand. Or if they have lackluster software to protect players from getting hacked. I even remember reading a thread where one person contacted support and then during the middle of the conversation the SE support staff brought up someone else's personal info in to the chat box. And the list goes on.

So here is a question.

Is SE really this shady and has such horrible standards when dealing with their paying customers? I've never played 11 or any other game that was design by SE that would need me to be reliant on there staff. Or are all these stories getting blown out of portion and seem worst then what they really are. Is SE struggling with launch? or is this the norm?

Disclaimer- Shady was the wrong Adjective to use. I apologize to SE for that. I don't think there going Mafia on our azzes.
I also didn't stat that RMT was the main issue. More on lines of the customer service and I used those as examples. It doesn't make me feel comfortable that I am going to get my issue solved any time soon. And thought Id asked if it will get better with time. I guess the whole sitting on hold for 2 hours plus would work, but id think not everyone can do that.

Sorry if some thought this was a primarily RMT issue.

They are punnishing honest players while incapable of dealing with RMT/BOTS

That's pretty shady in my book.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pygar

They are punnishing honest players while incapable of dealing with RMT/BOTS

That's pretty shady in my book.

---

It's quite an assumption that everyone who has lost gil and posted on these forums is completely innocent and honest. I can tell you with certainty that no one who actually did do anything wrong is going to post here admitting to it.

It's hard to know what's really true or not with the rmt bans. The players who take to the forums and describe how SE is taking their millions of gil could actually be botters/rmt people. I mean, we all know there are botters and rmt-ers out there, the evidence is pretty clear.

Or they could really be innocent players who SE really fucked over in their anti-cheating efforts. If that's actually true, it doesn't make SE shady as much as it makes their attempts flawed and kinda stupid.

The only definitively "shady" stuff going on here is RMT and botting by outside sources.

I'm sure those threads are just people being mean-spirited. SE loves us all <3

From what I have experienced, I think the support team is understaffed, and under trained on how to deal with different issues. There are no individual cases for the team because the canned responses to certain general situations save them time, which lets the understaffed team get to more people's problems. However, being understaffed is a business decision by SE, which, as a business is trying to maximise profit by minimizing expenses. As an accountant, I understand their corporate philosophy, but as a player, I want to know that my case will be heard with all the evidence that makes my case different from the canned response cases.

I really couldn't tell you out of all those people who was legit and who was full of it that got temp ban. But that week I had 8.5mil and I didn't get a ban, Also made friends with a very skilled crafter who said he was rolling with over 30mil if he was lying idk but I doubt he was but he never got a ban. So I really don't think it was people with "Large amounts of gil" as much as it was people who used bots/bought gil.

Simply put, SE has less than average customer's service of all the companies who make MMO's (or at least from my experience). They have been consistently below average since the days of FFXI. They have always turned a blind eye to RMT/Botters. I suppose it is money in the bank, and who wants to turn down 10k RMT subs, because a few people are crying about not making money in game.

[QUOTE=Grogin;1401718]From what I have experienced, I think the support team is understaffed, and under trained on how to deal with different issues. There are no individual cases for the team because the canned responses to certain general situations save them time, which lets the understaffed team get to more people's problems. However, being understaffed is a business decision by SE, which, as a business is trying to maximise profit by minimizing expenses. QUOTE]

Thanks for a logical response. I fell the same way I know companies are maxing out profits. I also want all cheaters punished etc. I also know since I don't craft shiznit "everyone can see that for them selves with my profile" if I ever get hacked I wont have much to steal to begin with. But since never dealing with SE before I would definitely like to know I can rely on Support to get my account back.

I guess you don't read many threads on good experiences with support.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DiceMan

I guess you don't read many threads on good experiences with support.

---

That's because the vast mjaority of people who do have good experiences with support don't come and post about it on the forums because their issue has been resolved therefor have no need to talk about the issue further, their issue has been dealt with and they moved on with their lives. It's mostly people who are never satisfied with the help they get (even if they get the best help some people are just never happy) that come on the forums and complain endlessly about it, and this includes problems that can not be dealt with straight away that take time to resolve but people want it done NOW even though those problems are virtually impossible to do there and then.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DiceMan

I guess you don't read many threads on good experiences with support.

---

Why would you? If someone hasn't had a problem with the customer service they will go on their merry way. The only time you are going to have post positive things in the forum is if the customer service went above and beyond. However right now they can barely manage to be competent. Hopefully that will change.

Honestly, SE has always been pretty bad with customer service - even back in 2007!

Flash backs to being 16 and having to go to a public notary to have a formal letter proving ownership, filing a complaint form - both notarized and my identity verified and mailed to
prove that I was the owner of my FFXI account - simply because my father's name and information was on the account's registered credit card - just to get my hacked account back.

They continued charging throughout that hacked period (3 weeks) and refused to cancel the subscription over the phone - I came very close to abandoning the company entirely once everything was set straight simply as a matter of principle, but I was a die-hard fanboy at that point.

Square Enix makes lovable and memorable characters - and fun games, but they absolutely do not know how to handle customer service or account management. Will it improve? Probably not - but at least you don't need to deal with PlayOnline services anymore! (Talk about a nightmare)

non japanese players are second class citizens to SE. That said, they are a busy company as well. If your a fan of the series just tough it out. If your not a fan just take it elsewhere. Things should improve as they tackle one thing at a time.

SE is not shady. They just have an incompetence level that's off the charts. And I'm not talking about Yoshida and the rest of the devs, they made a great game. But the rest of the corporate entity is just terrible overall.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeuroParalytic

non japanese players are second class citizens to SE.

---

I hope you're Japanese or you wouldn't be playing an MMORPG clearly designed to capture a particular western audience called FFXIV A Realm Reborn.

This place is a cesspool of concern trolling....

Look, they banned a bunch of RMTers, removed billions of gil from the market, and they will likely continue to do so. Not much you can do to change that.

I don't think shady is quite the right word. I don't think they're intentionally doing anything wrong. They're just not handling situations in the most efficient way. And as for their customer service, it's pretty atrocious just reading other people's testimonials. I think their NA/EU customer support are really limited in what they can do and that's why it seems like nothing apart from minor account issues can be resolved quickly, as it all has to get forwarded to the Japan office.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dhex

Square Enix makes lovable and memorable characters - and fun games, but they absolutely do not know how to handle customer service or account management. Will it improve? Probably not - but at least you don't need to deal with PlayOnline services anymore! (Talk about a nightmare)

---

I think this says it all, really.

They do some things right, but SE has never really gotten down customer service and account management. This is their legacy back from the good ol' FFXI days.

Troll on: SE is resolving the RMT issue by making it so no one plays the game.

I do not think SE is shady as much as they are understaffed and incompetent. Also, I know I will get flamed for this but Japanese people are extremely proud and arrogant and think they know better then most. They are especially this way towards Americans and Europeans. Now if that plays a role in their poor customer service, I have no idea but it could.

All in all I think they are just woefully understaffed for this game. They were not expecting this many people to play and did not have the staff to support it. Also, SE has been struggling financially lately so this could be a cause for the understaffed reps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

It's quite an assumption that everyone who has lost gil and posted on these forums is completely innocent and honest. I can tell you with certainty that no one who actually did do anything wrong is going to post here admitting to it.

---

It's just as silly to believe that they're guilty. There's been too much talking about this for this to be guilty players just trying to come off as innocent. They'd certainly make some noise but I very much doubt they'd make this much noise.

Plus, I'd say we're further ahead than this; from what I've understood it's pretty accepted by now that people who sold expensive items at the market did indeed get punished. Currently we're at the stage where the community is now arguing whether if it was justified or not (do the seller hold any responsibility or not?)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WVUTrip

I do not think SE is shady as much as they are understaffed and incompetent. Also, I know I will get flamed for this but Japanese people are extremely proud and arrogant and think they know better then most. They are especially this way towards Americans and Europeans. Now if that plays a role in their poor customer service, I have no idea but it could.

All in all I think they are just woefully understaffed for this game. They were not expecting this many people to play and did not have the staff to support it. Also, SE has been struggling financially lately so this could be a cause for the understaffed reps.

---

Don't feed stereotypes please. I have know my share of "proud and arrogant" Americans. I could give you stories.

Incompetence explains it all.

We don't need to reinforce stereotypes.

SE was just under prepared. Remember that they did not expect this many people to like the game. 1.0 pretty much flopped, so why would they need to hire an entire team of people to help with a game they believed would only have around 500,000 players? Everyone who is bitching and moaning are the kind of people who have attention spans of cheese sandwiches and were told that everyone gets a trophy. Rome wasn't built in a day, and final fantasy won't be either. you can either man up and wait for the game to get better, or keep kicking and screaming on the forums like children.

SE isnt being shady and removing legitimate players gil just because they have alot. You've seen the ridiculous amounts of gil sellers spamming the chat in this game and anybody claiming that they got their gil legitimately and then got it taken away just for having alot is a liar.

Now wasn't it something like 568 accounts that were effects with either perm bans or loss of gill? If so how many percentage wise is that based on total amount of accounts? Can't be much. I can imagine it sucks to be one of those people but please let's not blow this out to be more than it really is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dyrstahl

It's just as silly to believe that they're guilty. There's been too much talking about this for this to be guilty players just trying to come off as innocent.

---

I know people say this as a joke but this is a dead serious question: Are you new to the world of online gaming? Or even the internet? I'm not even going to use real life analogies - People go to extreme lengths to try to get away with things, especially in MMOs.

I love the rivers of tears here, however non of my FC legit millionaires got they Gil taken from them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grogin

From what I have experienced, I think the support team is understaffed, and under trained on how to deal with different issues.

---

Yeah I agree. I contacted SE many times about how theres graphic lag on the ps3 because seriously it's no fun when you're casting late, when something invisible is attacking you but you can't attack back because well... it's not there. Monsters won't load. Party members won't load. Heck I got about a 5 second game freeze yesterday in the middle of CM boss. Almost killed my tanks! And not to mention the game itself kicks me out. Like it will log out with out me having to do so and take me back to the psn menus. My account is fine and all. Latency is good, but it keeps doing that now. And I would hate for it to do that in the middle of a dungeon.

I just give up on their customer service because I have tried everything that I could search for on the FAQ.

If you have played 11 for any amount of time or ever needed to change a credit card/payment method then you have probably run into there completly horrible customer service. There abilty to deal with RMT is at best shameful, as im sure any 11 player will point out what there doing doesnt stop a damn thing. They will be out there fishing,mineing, teleporting you name it they will do it.

Alot of people also expect there GM's to actually be game masters but most of the time they can only really help with your charater being stuck, they cant combat any form of RMT all they will do is ask you to submit a report to the STFU. At this point in the game both for 14 and 11 im not sure what they can accomplish anymore or what purpose they serve. As for some examples lets see.

- Recently on the offical forums for 11, a player created a thread which was designed to basically well highlight a certain player for there forum activties, on any normal forum this wouldnt last more than a few hours depending on moderation. This one thread lasted for about 5 days without any kind of moderation, its worth noteing that the very people who moderate that board are the same people that do it for this one hi2uCamate&crew.

- Players ( read : not bots or rmt ) teleporting around major cities without a care in the world and nothing being done about it, for the record im talking about using 3rd pt applications that let you run at 500% speed etc. While this isnt the norm by any means its the simple fact they know SE will do nothing about it.

- A friend of mine had a payment problem ( new credit card ) so tried to phone SE, the person on the phone took her details then said they would connect her to billing, she was then forwarded to the AA ( roadside rescue service here in the UK), i mean does that even happen without it being on purpose?

Im sure most 11 players have some kind of similar stories. The real kicker is this though, they make some bloody good games its just a shame we have to deal with the terrible support this company offers. Anyway ive said my piece im sure ill get a temp forum ban for mentioning the 11 forum thing but w/e people just need to realise this simple statement.

SE great games ( mostly ), horrible horrible customer service