What is the normal response time to a submitted ticket?

[He11ion]

Just a query concerning the normal response time to a submitted online ticket. Could anyone advise what would be the normal turn around response time?

My thinking at the moment is, they are very quick to take your money and very quick to cancel your subscription when it falls due. However when they have your money… The time you have invested, your ongoing support for a game that you enjoy and your financial investment appears to mean very little. But admittedly my thinking is clouded by the frustration of waiting for said response.

Cheers

[SirVile]

What is the normal response time to a submitted ticket?

Until you give up and logoff. Then they close it 'because you were not online'.

I (and many, many others) have this mental picture of +GM+s sitting around, watching
consoles, placing wagers on how long it will be before the stupid Player logs off in disgust.

[Grapold]

Anything from 30mins if you are lucky to as mentioned never because you logged off had had the ticket closed.

A lot depends on ticket type, when you submitted it (normal GM hours are Boston USA working hours, though I have had responses outside these hours), which/how many GM's are online, and how busy they are.

Basically it's pot luck.

All the GM's I've ever had contact with have been great, very friendly and helpful, but response times are massively variable.

[He11ion]

Hiya,

It was an online ticket concerning TP allocation. As a week had rolled on by I submitted another ticket to ask why there was no response to the previous. I was appalled to find that they marked the secondary ticket as solved within 24 hours and left the initial ticket marked as open. Could not believe what I was seeing. My take on that is, we know what your problem is, and we either have no care or you can await our leisure, maybe both. I guess that’s why the department of Fare Trading exists.

I loaded the game but felt so let down, that I ended up closing and downloading another for a look see.

And yet I agree with Grapold, over the years I have found some of the in-game support to be absolutely outstanding and could never understand why people left over this issue. I have some insight now. Its more the principal, you support the game financially for years and when you need assistance, you are treated in this manner.

Thanking you for taking the time to respond

[Yarbro]

GMs work on BST.

Many people think this stands for "British Summer Time", but in many cases it actually means "Be Some Time".

For example, all tradesmen use BST; when they say Tuesday, they dont mean NEXT Tuesday, just A Tuesday.

[yawumpus]

GMs work on BST.

Many people think this stands for "British Summer Time", but in many cases it actually means "Be Some Time".

For example, all tradesmen use BST; when they say Tuesday, they dont mean NEXT Tuesday, just A Tuesday.

Especially when this can be misunderstood as "Boston Standard Time".

[He11ion]

GMs work on BST.

Many people think this stands for "British Summer Time", but in many cases it actually means "Be Some Time".

For example, all tradesmen use BST; when they say Tuesday, they dont mean NEXT Tuesday, just A Tuesday.

Do they realise the ramifications of such. For example I have two accounts, one has always been VIP, the other TP and on the odd occasion VIP, which is pretty standard. I have always supported the game financially, even when I have taken a break for six months or so.

The thing is, when people feel let down by these practices, by lack of customer support, they are less likely to buy TP in the future, they are more likely to allow their accounts to slip into Premium, and less likely to recommend the game to friends in a positive light, and word of mouth is a very powerful thing in any marketing strategy. I know that before I trial a new game, I always check the forums, if I see poor customer service highlighted, I won’t look further.

So to not respond or deal with issues/tickets in the order that they appear or at least within a reasonable time frame, indirectly affects them greatly. To not correct errors that relate to customers financial input is considered very poor business/work ethic.

[SirVile]

So, it was ~ 1AM Servertime on a Monday Morning (Sunday 'Night' - the bars were all open in Boston)
and a +GM+ responded within about 5 Minutes of me sending in the ticket. You could have knocked
me over with a feather. Kudos to SSG, and I hope this is the beginning of a trend, and not a fluke.

[maartena]

Just a query concerning the normal response time to a submitted online ticket. Could anyone advise what would be the normal turn around response time?

My thinking at the moment is, they are very quick to take your money and very quick to cancel your subscription when it falls due. However when they have your money… The time you have invested, your ongoing support for a game that you enjoy and your financial investment appears to mean very little. But admittedly my thinking is clouded by the frustration of waiting for said response.

Cheers

It completely depends on what time of day you submit the ticket. Although they have 24 hour coverage, the coverage during certain hours may not be as good. I believe most GM's are available during evening hours on Eastern Standard Time, but those are also the hours where most players are active. I am in Pacific Standard Time myself, and I typically don't log on till after 9 PM because I spend time with my wife to have dinner and do other things..... which is after midnight EST.

In the past, I have gotten a response within half an hour, to something like 4 or 5 hours later..... last ticket I did was about 45 minutes, last week. I did that ticket around 21:30 PST, so that would be 0:30 EST, and they responded about 45 minutes later.

Please note that if you have a problem on a certain character, you don't have to be logged on to that character when the GM contacts you, they can find you on the account and which character is logged on. So if you get stuck, file the ticket, log off of that character, and play an alt for a while until you get contacted. You can then log on to the other, "problem" character, and sort out the issue.

[Dotlbeme]

My advice is never submit a ticket if you are planning on logging within the next hour. Even if resolving the ticketed issue does not require you to be logged on, you still need to be logged on.

Wait until you plan on being on for a few hours...

Having said that, I have no complaints about my tickets being serviced within said "few hours", although usually it is within 30 minutes or so. I had one GM show up in a private skirmish (much to my surprise to actually SEE his character there!) and was happy to wait until I was finished.

I absolutely have no complaints about the level of service as most GMs have done well to address my ticketed concerns.

[Nosdracir]

My advice is never submit a ticket if you are planning on logging within the next hour. Even if resolving the ticketed issue does not require you to be logged on, you still need to be logged on.

Wait until you plan on being on for a few hours...

Having said that, I have no complaints about my tickets being serviced within said "few hours", although usually it is within 30 minutes or so. I had one GM show up in a private skirmish (much to my surprise to actually SEE his character there!) and was happy to wait until I was finished.

I absolutely have no complaints about the level of service as most GMs have done well to address my ticketed concerns.

You do not always need to be logged on to get the ticket resolved.

My most recent ticket was fixed while I was logged off. Character A had ported into MT and crashed to desktop. I could not log A back in. Logged into B and submitted a ticket for A's problem. Did some stuff on B for an hour and logged off for the night. That was 9:30 PM server time. The next morning I had an email sent after midnight saying my ticket had been resolved and closed with a note from +name+ saying they'd fixed my character.

I think it may depend on the nature of the problem. Something like failing to log in doesn't require any further details or responses from the player.

[maartena]

I think it may depend on the nature of the problem. Something like failing to log in doesn't require any further details or responses from the player.

Agreed. I once had a character that was stuck in Rohan (when it was just released, I guess I found a buggy area in Cliving where I was stuck between a wall and water near the entrance after getting my war steed stuck and I dismounted.....) in an eternal state of falling. I would appear to fall through the floor down into infinity, but after about 2 seconds of falling I would just restart the fall from the top floor level point where I was "stuck". A /stuck didn't help as it would see that I was moving and it reset. I filed a ticket, and decided I needed to log off for the night anyways (after a short trip to an alt for some crafting...)

Logged on the next day, and my stuck character was moved to the nearest Ring of Life (or Ring of Death). I don't know if they actually "killed" me or "moved" me, but it was done completely offline.

[Dotlbeme]

Agreed. I once had a character that was stuck in Rohan (when it was just released, I guess I found a buggy area in Cliving where I was stuck between a wall and water near the entrance after getting my war steed stuck and I dismounted.....) in an eternal state of falling. I would appear to fall through the floor down into infinity, but after about 2 seconds of falling I would just restart the fall from the top floor level point where I was "stuck". A /stuck didn't help as it would see that I was moving and it reset. I filed a ticket, and decided I needed to log off for the night anyways (after a short trip to an alt for some crafting...)

Logged on the next day, and my stuck character was moved to the nearest Ring of Life (or Ring of Death). I don't know if they actually "killed" me or "moved" me, but it was done completely offline.

Yeah I guess if you are stuck, it would be pretty cruel to make you stay logged in! For anything else I always try to file the ticket at the beginning of a session.

[He11ion]

Thanking you for the great advice and feedback.

I did receive a reply from online support, although it took quite some time, the response was such that I could no longer hold any resentment and actually bought a smile. It was very polite, and an exceptionally well worded apology was offered, the issue being fully addressed. It did take awhile, but all is well in middle earth