Awful experience with SE support

[Kalk]

(1/2)

A couple things to preface this post.

Since the forums has a 3,000 character limit I have to split this into two parts.

I'm not really the kind of person that likes to complain about things, whether that be to support or on a public forum. However, in 11 days of contacting support, the only actual response I got was "To submit feedback, please visit the forums at https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv and make a post..." So I decided I would.

Additionally, I'm not expecting anyone from SE to read this, as obviously not one person on their team spent more than 30 seconds looking at my tickets up to this point. I'm also not expecting anyone else on the forums to read this or care about the situation, its just that at this point I don't know what else I'm supposed to do.

With that, I'll explain what happened from my POV.

On 6/19 (the day prior to the most recent patch) I logged out sitting next to my wife on the bench in my yard. My plot was an unrestricted large Shirogane.

On 6/20, while I was at work, I got a text from my wife stating that she logged on and my house wasn't there. We figured it had to be a mistake - not only was I logged out on the bench in my yard, but I hadn't received an email about the demolition. Was the email deleted in one of my spam filters? I don't know. After I got home I contacted SE support asking for help.

My ticket on 6/20 covered the following: I did not receive an email about demolition, I was logged out in my yard the night before the demolition took place, and I thought there was no way I hadn't entered my home in that 45-day time period.

I got a response on 6/21, however this response was clearly a bot or template. It simply told me that gil could be reclaimed and that I was encouraged to leave feedback on the SE forums, without addressing any of the things I mentioned in my ticket.

After getting back from work on 6/21, I opened another ticket. In this ticket, I simply stated that I was going to copy paste my previous ticket, as it didn't look like anyone bothered to read the original message.

On 6/22, I got a response. This ticket asked for character, world, plot, and email information, which I gave them later that day.

On 6/23, I was told my ticket would be escalated for further review.

On 6/30, I sent another ticket stating that I'd logged on, spent about an hour reclaiming items, and placed a bid (126) onto my old plot. I'd mentioned I'd felt a bit cheated by this whole process, as nothing had been communicated with me at any point.

On 7/1, they responded with the following message "We sincerely appreciate your desire to share your feedback and apologize for being unable to speak with you directly. We are constantly striving to improve the game and our services to our customers, and are open to any feedback you might have. To submit feedback, please visit the forums at https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv and make a post..."

[Kalk]

(2/2)

On 7/2, I logged on to claim my money from my failed bid.

That leads us to today, 7/3. There's a couple things that are extremely upsetting to me about this whole situation.

1. At no point was the status of any investigation communicated with me. I wasn't told "We found that the email was sent to you on XX/XX/XXXX", or "We found that despite sitting outside your house almost daily, you hadn't entered your home since XX/XX/XXXX and per our policy are unable to help you", or anything similar.
2. Most of the communication with SE support felt like bots. This is not a free game - I've spent well over $500 on this game by this point, can you really not afford to have a real person spend 2 minutes looking into my tickets?
3. I do feel cheated about losing my house like this. I wasn't inactive. I was logged out the night before sitting next to my house.

Now, I wasn't naïve enough to assume you'd actually help me get my plot back when I contacted you. But you can't even tell me that you won't be able to help me? Seriously? Did you even do anything other than copy paste template responses? At this point I have no idea.

[Stormpeaks]

It's in the housing page that you have to actually enter the house to cancel the auto demolition process, being outside is not enough, if it did get auto demo'd, you just didnt enter it in 45 days, with that said I do have to say that I've had multiple auto demo cancels and I have never gotten a single email about them, but even then, if you actively used the house in its entirety you wouldnt need a reminder.

Another thing, I will say it and if I get banned so be it, SE support is the absolute worst I have ever seen and I have played a LOT of multiplayer games that had support.

[Zebraoracle]

Another thing, I will say it and if I get banned so be it, SE support is the absolute worst I have ever seen and I have played a LOT of multiplayer games that had support.

Agreed 100%

[Renalt]

Sorry but SE support...at least that I know of in this game is a prime example of how to be the worst. It's simply not good at all and I seriously believe it is all automated and there isn't a single real person looking into anything.

Housing is also one of the worst things about the game. Im sorry for your loss and I hope you are able to get a new home. If so I strongly suggest logging off inside your home. Hard to explain a reason for demolition if you are inside it.

[Jeeqbit]

Additionally, I'm not expecting anyone from SE to read this, as obviously not one person on their team spent more than 30 seconds looking at my tickets up to this point.

I can confirm they don't really read the forums. They don't even moderate them usually. But they usually read tickets.

she logged on and my house wasn't there.

Too late. Doubt there is anything support can do once it's gone because it's now part of a lottery for others to bid on. This is why SE support (who are not developers) directed you to the forums - so you can post your feedback to the developers, who can consider changing the system to make it harder to lose your house.

Of course, it's unlikely they will change anything, especially since they don't pay much attention to this forum category, but all SE support can do is get you to petition the developers to change the system. Because SE support can't do that, it's far beyond their job description and they aren't exactly going to interact much with developers who speak japanese.

it had to be a mistake - not only was I logged out on the bench in my yard

My understanding is you have to enter the house to reset the demolition timer, but I'm not an expert on houses.

I got a response on 6/21, however this response was clearly a bot or template.

I assure you that a human read it. They use templates because your question won't be anything they haven't received before. When they receive interactions like yours on a regular basis, instead of repeating themself over and over, it is logical to write a template for efficiency. The templates allow them to optimize the wording to be as respectful and polite as they possibly can.

They definitely stray from the template if they feel it necessary. If they didn't, then they didn't feel it was necessary. The template was sufficient to convey what they wanted to convey.

It simply told me that gil could be reclaimed

That is legitimate if the gil for your house can be reclaimed. I know it is lacking in empathy because, you just lost your house, and you want your house back, not compensation for it in gil. But you can't get your house back as far as I know, so pointing you to gil compensation seems like an appropriate answer.

[Reinha]

Now, I wasn't naïve enough to assume you'd actually help me get my plot back when I contacted you. But you can't even tell me that you won't be able to help me? Seriously? Did you even do anything other than copy paste template responses? At this point I have no idea.

On the other hand, yes, the support system sucks in many ways and I'm unconvinced that real people actually work there. But still... if there ever is a right moment to send a template response to a customer, it's when they contact support because they feel like rules shouldn't apply to them or they didn't even read the rules. There is no reason for them to craft a custom apology and explanation over a game play mistake, nor is it their job to fix those kinds of mistakes. Customer support is there to fix bugs, cheating, harassment and other things the player has no control over.

[kaynide]

Assuming you did in fact enter your house within the time period, and it is some wonky bug, contact a GM in game and talk to them directly. Still might not be able to do anything, but at the very least it will be an actual human you are communicating with, who might have the ability to look into files.

Worst case (as long as you don’t go full Karen on them), they’ll just say sorry that they can’t help.

[Avoidy]

Man these threads keep popping up, where people lose their house despite swearing up and down that they went in and saying they got no email warning or anything. Shit's got me paranoid af and at this point I'm inclined to just believe the people over SE's ability to code properly.

[Lieri]

It was intern kun. All the SE customer support tickets are handled by one person: intern kun.

And can you really blame them?