Poor Customer Service

[Alukah]

I don't know if I'm the only one here, but whenever I contact SE for anything, after a while I get the feeling we're getting a really sub-par customer service.

Whenever a bot is reported the report is blatantly ignored, bots that have been reported since launch are still around, no matter how many people or how often they are reported, this situation gets really sad when you have to fight a bot for a sb spot. In game reports do nothing, the special task force does absolutely nothing, the only message I'm getting here is that it's okay to use 3rd party software with no worries about punishments. (Recommended read: Attention devs: Game Surveillance Unit re: open world Bots. )

Another issue is the poor way the moderation in this forum is handled, I'm sure many here can tell stories about being banned for the most frivolous reasons, the most recent cases I remember one person who got banned for something he posted around December, or someone else who got perma banned (I think twice now, haven't seen him around since) for one single word, bans are being handed out based on the mood of the person reviewing posts and there's no way to dispute a ban, sending a ticket will end up in being ignored (sounds familiar?), all you get is a generic response instead of a case review, so if a mod makes a mistake and unfairly bans you you're out of luck.

Why isn't there an official way to inquire about forum bans? Why, according to the thread linked above, are we asked to start a thread here to contact Customer Reps if we will also be blatantly ignored here?

I don't know if the people reviewing tickets, in game reports and the special task force are not being monitored, but I feel like we're being treated like garbage here, if my sub money is going to the payment of these employees who are not even trying to do their job I will seriously reconsider if I should stay supporting this game once my sub time runs out.

[Rhas]

If you click the "report" button, the yellow triangle in the lower left corner, you can be banned at any time if your message offends someone and it goes against the forum policies. It doesn't matter when a post was actually made, whoever reported it did so when they read it and chose to report it. Plain and simple with that one. SE most likely does not read every single message and only hand out bans when:

1) post is actually reported by someone
2) meets the guidelines set at the posts stickied at the top of the forums.


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[Enkrateia]

Greetings, Alukah!

While Rhal's quote is definitely helpful, I would highly recommend the actual FINAL FANTASY® XIV Forum Guidelines for better rule details, instead of vaguer descriptions of violations. Any forum account action is accompanied by an e-mail to the e-mail associated with the account that describes the violation, which is sent to inform the customer of what happened. Sometimes these e-mails may be caught in a Spam filter, so that may be worth checking.

Should you wish to inquire about a forum account action, I would recommend an in game GM call. I recommend the in game GM call, since forum moderation is handled by the GM team, and this would put you in contact with agents who are more likely to understand the actions that were issued. It allows allows a private discussion on a character verified to be on the account, which gives us the ability to discuss the account action with you. Contacting us from another account or through a means that we cannot link to the account may mean that we are not able to discuss the account action in detail, since ownership cannot be verified. Posting in the forum will not yield information, since we do not discuss the status of accounts publicly, due to our privacy policy.

Finally, in terms of absentee play reports, we do investigate those reports that we receive, and make sure to escalate any reports to the Special Task Force, especially when a GM investigation may be determined to be inconclusive.

I hope this helped answer some of your questions!

LGM Enkrateia

[AutumnLeaves]

The only reason why SE doesn't do anything about all these bot's is because of the $$$ they are getting off of them, they would rather run off the people who have a problem with botting and just let the bots run rampant, should just call the next expansion of this game "Rise of the Bots"

[SalemP]

There are 12 Lala lv50 Archers that constantly pop in and out of duties in groups of 3 around the atheryte in Gridania on Ultros. They've been doing this for a couple weeks now, and it seems to start around 1am EST and go to like 11am EST from what I've observed. I've reported them a few days ago but they're still doing it. It's like clockwork every night.

When I reported someone for name-calling a while back I got a response immediately. IMMEDIATELY. I get they're probably busy now, but still. I don't even expect to hear back from them tbh. But I would like to stop seeing those lalas every night.

[Alukah]

Greetings, Alukah!

While Rhal's quote is definitely helpful, I would highly recommend the actual FINAL FANTASY® XIV Forum Guidelines for better rule details, instead of vaguer descriptions of violations. Any forum account action is accompanied by an e-mail to the e-mail associated with the account that describes the violation, which is sent to inform the customer of what happened. Sometimes these e-mails may be caught in a Spam filter, so that may be worth checking.

Thank you for your response!

Should you wish to inquire about a forum account action, I would recommend an in game GM call. I recommend the in game GM call, since forum moderation is handled by the GM team, and this would put you in contact with agents who are more likely to understand the actions that were issued. It allows allows a private discussion on a character verified to be on the account, which gives us the ability to discuss the account action with you. Contacting us from another account or through a means that we cannot link to the account may mean that we are not able to discuss the account action in detail, since ownership cannot be verified. Posting in the forum will not yield information, since we do not discuss the status of accounts publicly, due to our privacy policy.

I had no idea the in-game GM team is also in charge of the forums, no wonder why the people at email service never have any idea of what's going on, it would be good if people who send email tickets are redirected to the in-game report system instead of getting a generic response. Not sure if I'll contact them to talk about previous issues (assuming infraction points cannot be removed) but I'll surely talk to them if the situation arises again.

Finally, in terms of absentee play reports, we do investigate those reports that we receive, and make sure to escalate any reports to the Special Task Force, especially when a GM investigation may be determined to be inconclusive.

I hope this helped answer some of your questions!

LGM Enkrateia

I'm glad to read your team is working diligently, though on the customers side this issue remains unsolved, our reports are falling on blind eyes once they are escalated to the STF and we still have yet to receive any Community Rep. response in that other thread I linked, despite it being a GM recommendation to start that thread.

I don't know if they lack manpower or time to review all bot cases in all servers, but nothing is getting done and that's something to worry about, many of us got to the point of no longer reporting any illegal activity to save our time.

[ToffeeCoffee]

Greetings, Alukah!

Finally, in terms of absentee play reports, we do investigate those reports that we receive, and make sure to escalate any reports to the Special Task Force, especially when a GM investigation may be determined to be inconclusive.

I hope this helped answer some of your questions!

LGM Enkrateia

So why are the 4 spiritbond bots I reported daily for 2+ months, sometimes twice daily still standing in the exact same spot botting?
I gave more information than a person should ever have to and have been tailgating those clowns for so long it's not even in question what they are doing.

How can I ever take this any further with you?

I had a feeling this would just end up going around in circles...in game GM says they can do nothing and stop submitting tickets (or we'll discipline you for disruption of service), to complain about the lack of action from the GSU on the forums for not doing their job, then response from you says they are doing their job...effectively closing the loop on doing anything about the fact that botting is being allowed to continue for extended periods if not infinitely in ARR.

After rereading your post...you said YOU investigate and escalate to the STF...doesn't change the fact that THEY are not actioning bot reports and banning offending accounts. All this hype about new classes & upcoming patches and expansions, and a very simple basic function of an MMO which people pay a monthly subscription for is being completely left by the wayside. Whether bots and RMT are here to stay or not is irrelevant. You have a duty to your paying customers to thoroughly investigate and action reports of cheating.

[Lithera]

The issue with MOST Bots is they aren't actually violating the ToS. Or moreso there's NO way to verify beyond a doubt that they are. They aren't necessarily using 3rd party software as you can set up in-game macros for crafting and tape down the key on your keyboard. You'll only have to check in to sell your wares and pick up more mats. SBing and Gathering bots are a bit different but GMs/Task Force members aren't mining peoples' computers to check all the programs running alongside XIV. They need an action such as teleporting or some other normally impossible task to confidently say that character is a bot/using 3rd party tools. It doesn't help if the GM contacts the "bot" and the person manning the 10 bot PCs actually responds to the /tell.

[Delsus]

You do know that the STF requires serverside evidence that someone is botting, just seeing them playing at the same time as you every day doing the same thing isn't enough proof to ban. Also for the masses of people who say "well the don't reply to /tells" a decent bot can be made to scan all tells to see if the character's first name is Rep, that is the first name of all GMs (as far ask I know) so they can reply to any and all GM tells.

Whilst most bots might be obvious to us, the STF may still not have enough evidence to ban. Think of it like this, if a house gets burgled, and one person sees them, but there is no video footage, or any evidence to place them at the scene, there would probably not be enough evidence to arrest them guilty or not.

[ToffeeCoffee]

The issue with MOST Bots is they aren't actually violating the ToS. Or moreso there's NO way to verify beyond a doubt that they are. They aren't necessarily using 3rd party software as you can set up in-game macros for crafting and tape down the key on your keyboard. You'll only have to check in to sell your wares and pick up more mats. SBing and Gathering bots are a bit different but GMs/Task Force members aren't mining peoples' computers to check all the programs running alongside XIV. They need an action such as teleporting or some other normally impossible task to confidently say that character is a bot/using 3rd party tools. It doesn't help if the GM contacts the "bot" and the person manning the 10 bot PCs actually responds to the /tell.

How is the person running the bot even to know a GM is trying to communicate with them? If the bot program is so advanced that it can identify a GM, then how hard is it for a GM to just use a regular character or otherwise to investigate? Sometimes the offender does have to get in front of the keyboard to break down the gear into materia, collect new spiritbond gear and use the marketboard/retainer. Then they always return to the set positions and bot.
SE can very easily see the transactions being made by reported bots but I doubt they even check.
Like I've said in other threads, all you have to do is interrupt a suspect bot by opening a trade window to confirm it is completely lifeless and running on total automation. There's no need to complicate the process, it's very easy for SE to work out who is playing by the rules and who isn't.