To add to the irritation the servers have just gone down for 4 hours.
 

Wouldn't you just assume that their billing service was being overloaded with orders for subs?

I would've waited a few days and not bothered their customer service. Also, just like queue times on new MMOs, I'd assume the great number of support requests is gumming up their customer support. If you already solved your subbing issue (seemingly) it'd be more pertinent for them to answer the guy whose credit card doesn't work and he HASN'T bought a game card.
 

Don't think Paul understands Customer Service. Either that or he works in it!
 

@Bhagpuss: I've worked in retail customer service, so I tend to sympathize with those departments in these types of situations.

It may be a surprise, but every customer wants to be served immediately and get the answer they want. Humans are naturally this way and I don't necessarily think that customers shouldn't feel like this, but the people trying to help you are only human as well.

I think that customer service should be speedy and friendly (seems Bioware missed both in this case), but I'd also like customers to try to understand that there are MANY people alongside them who also want to be helped immediately.
 

I dont get it with them putting out a patch on a saturday just when people are most likely to want to play the game, why not do it in middle of the week when most are at work/school as most patches are done elsewhere? :(
 

No apologist for for Bioware can help this debacle.

Sorry about your issues it's deplorable that they have these issues. Closed because the customer found a workaround? Really?

Bad bad... Goes to show you that product is not just presentation but all of the infrastructure to make the presentation happen.
 

I called Bioware and had a very nice and pleasant interaction with a very friendly english and german speaking customer rep. YMMV
 

Wonder if they have troubles with credit cards from certain countries? When I tried to sub originally, they flat-out refused my Mastercard from Austria too, with no reason given, just something like "we cannot accept these CC details". Say what now? What makes you different from every other company I've ever dealt with? When my boyfriend used his UK card instead, it went through just fine though.
 

@Paul: I've worked in customer service, too, and I don't sympathize with Bioware. The customer had an issue, found a workaround at some hassle to him, and wrote about the issue asking for assistance.

In response, CS says, 'Well, you found a workaround on your own, didn't you? We won't waste time on you then' and peremptorily closes the ticket.

If I saw anyone on my team doing that, they would have gotten a long talking-to, for sure. At the end of the day, you still need to retain customers and treat them like they're valued, instead of brushing them off rudely, trying to improve your own AHT.
 

@Paul: But then, wouldn't the much much much better reply be to give the customer an honest answer, and leave the ticket open for later?
 

Cha,
first-they bans lots of countries from buying SWTOR (allows only 17 from 27 of EU),
Second-their Origin store lets me see it in French or Netherlandish (only ~5% are learning French at school in Lithuania). Update:Origin store is updated- it shows in English now - took long since BF3 release- I checked few week ago.

There is constant problems with what EA do... I was willing to buy SWTOR and BF3.. bought none.
 

I am not saying BioWare is a bad company, but they definitely need to fix their customer support attitude. Not sure anyone had ran into problems like mine, but I had really, really terrible experience with a few of their reps.

My situation was I pre-ordered 2 copies of SWTOR and my card was charged. But 3 whole weeks after launch I didn't get a single email informing me my order status... I didn't receive anything either.

I am a Korean international student, communicating with English over the phone isn't really working out well for me, so I tried not to call them over the phone; but I emailed them over my issue over 18 times within 2 weeks and got no replies. Finally I got a reply, and basically it says: sorry, but it's been too long since your ticket was created. Now your case is closed so please do not contact us again upon this issue. I was sooooo frustrated.

Luckily enough, I called them. Yay. After getting transferred countless times plus waiting in line for more than 40 min, I finally got it resolved. I got my games finally.

1 month into game play, my 2nd account got hacked (I purchased 2 game clients, one for me one for my cousin in Canada). Well it was quite stupid of me that I registered the 2nd account under a different name (still my last name, but I filled in my English name instead of my official Korean name - just for the sake of telling the 2 accounts apart for myself, yeah, big mistake here). So the account got hacked, and the hacker changed my security questions also (I have no idea how did the hacker change my security question - but again, it could be because one of my original security question's answer was a very popular make and model of my dream car).So I contacted BioWare over the phone, and they basically told me they can't verify the account is mine because it's not under my name. I said, just look at the billing info - it's under a credit card that I can provide all info for, and it's under a name that has a same last name as my account name.... plus I can give all information about address, phone number etc. They just told me nope. Since it's not under your real name, you can't answer the security questions, you can't show us an ID with THAT name on it, then the account is not yours, NOT EVEN YOU BOUGHT THE GAME AND PAY FOR IT. What logic is that?! They CHANGED my security questions and how am I supposed to answer that? I was really mad... I lost control of my emotion and burst into tears and I begged them to check the info I gave them again... they refused. I again emphasized on the point that my account is HACKED and I can't answer the security questions to verify my identity simply because the hacker CHANGED IT. The rep told me (with a very sarcastic teasing tone that I found extremely rude and irritating) "From my perspective, you are the one that is trying to hack the original owner's account... we treat account security seriously so sorry we can't help you here today" Yeah. That is exactly what he said. Because I have an Asian accent does that automatically make me a hacker? Wow. Just wow. So my solution: I refuse to be their customer until they fix their customer support, and give me an appropriate apology. But I guess that is not going to happen anytime soon.
 

You might be interested in reading http://fonolo.com/blog for some interesting posts on customer service.