"Submit a ticket" the catch all answer should come with an *

[Sanderson]

"Submit a ticket" the catch all answer should come with an *

More often than not, when a post pops up about an issue, it is immediately followed by a "submit a ticket" response. That's great and all and should be done but, it should also come with an asterisk stating: *Don't expect a resolution or even a response to a submitted ticket in less than 6-8 weeks, at best.

Wait, before the deluge of angry posts, and hear me out. Submitting a ticket is always a good idea and I'm not attempting to slam the lack-of-support system as it stands (there's already been enough of that to fill a book) what I am attempting to do is NOT give the person with the issue false hope that their issue will be resolved anytime soon.

So, yes, submit a ticket but, know that you'll need to pick up the pieces and carry on (if you can) with the game as best you can, because if you think waiting for a week or two (or six or eight or more) for a response to happen is just false hope.

I know FD is aware of the lack-of-support system with various posts about adding staff and all that but, "submit a ticket" is a good thing to do but, will not help you any time soon.

I'd recommend "Submit a ticket, to help FD but, you won't get a response or resolution in less than a month or two or more" as opposed to just "submit a ticket" like that's going to get a fix, because it's not.

 

[Kyudos]

You are being a little harsh - how many other games / software products do you use that drop everything to address your issue immediately? Have you ever tried to get Support from Microsoft for example?

 

[mdlman]

He's not being harsh. The support is worse in all measurable ways than even MSFT support. You get better ticket response times and answers on open-source projects (read: all volunteer) than you do through FD's outsourced support.

In the last week I've received auto-close notices for three separate tickets entered during beta/gamma, and that auto-close was the _first_ response to the tickets.

 

[Sanderson]

You are being a little harsh - how many other games / software products do you use that drop everything to address your issue immediately? Have you ever tried to get Support from Microsoft for example?

I'll do my best not to get pulled off topic or into an arguement but, I will say this; I've never experienced this level of "support" from anyone, anywhere, including MicroSoft and several Chinese companies that shipped their stuff, by boat, across an ocean, to my house.

This isn't about MY ticket, it's about letting people know that submitting a ticket, realistically, will take 6 weeks at least to get a response, if ever at all. So, like I said earlier, submit a ticket and go on best you can (if you can) because it may well be 2-3 or more months before you get a response.

 

[Valethar]

Even EA answers your tickets in less than 6-8 weeks. The answer usually doesn't have anything to do with what you submitted, but you get a reply.

 

[Sanderson]

Miracle of miracles, or coincidence? I got a reply to a ticket. A nice, automated, "Hey, were going to close this ticket without even looking at it, have a nice day."

Pathetic.

 

[Gogster]

People should come here to vent, ticket if you want something fixed.

 

[Whiterose]

My advice is to submit a ticket about the submit a ticket responses on the forum

 

[almostpilot]

All the answers of the developers comes down to:

No,

Not at moment

No, it´s not a priority

Open a ticket

I´ll see, but....

 

[Obsidian Ant]

It was around six months ago that people were saying that support would be like this if Frontier didn't ramp up their support during the Beta phase. Those people were shouted down, yet it turned out they were entirely right.

Sanderson is right in pointing this out, and it should be pointed out everytime that a developer or forum member suggests submitting a ticket - that the ticket may most likely go unanswered.

 

[Sanderson]

People should come here to vent, ticket if you want something fixed.

My advice is to submit a ticket about the submit a ticket responses on the forum

All the answers of the developers comes down to:

No,

Not at moment

No, it´s not a priority

Open a ticket

I´ll see, but....

And the answer to all of the above is this:

"Hello Commander,

Apologies for the delay in seeing to your ticket. We are just reaching out to you to see if you are still having the issue you had originally reported.
I shall resolve this ticket, however if you are still encountering the issue simply respond to this message and let us know. This will reopen your ticket.

If you are no longer experiencing the problem then please do not reply to this ticket, this will leave the status as resolved. Please make a new ticket should you encounter any other issues.

Kind Regards,

Your Frontier Developments Team,"

Smart, very smart FD. Close them all and hope only a fraction are angry enough to actually take more of their time to reply back to a canned computer response.

So, what now? Wait another 8 weeks or so until we get the next "Closing this ticket unless you're stupid enough to reply and subjugate yourself to another two months of humiliation, frustration and no still no support, have a nice day".

OMG! I've got it! This is the "dynamic, ever unfolding rich online experience" David was talking about, subtle game mechanic Mr. Braben, I almost missed it and now I fully understand why offline was axed. How else would we receive the canned automated responses? My bad.

 

[Ericlas]

People should come here to vent, ticket if you want something fixed.

After only "auto close responses" to, in november, ticketed issues that still exist, i just don't bother anymore.

And i believe, after reading through many threads, some others don't as well anymore.

Beta players put much effort in helping FD, not only back then, but espacially in the last one, leading to a release candidate, full of known and ticketed issues and even exploits back from gamma and a 1.1 update that was nearly unplayable, despite the fact those issue were well known.

Some people are frustrated and i am assuming their number is going to grow, with actions like the ones we experienced after the last weeks, yes even months.

 

[Sanderson]

After only "auto close responses" to, in november, ticketed issues that still exist, i just don't bother anymore.

And i believe, after reading through many threads, some others don't as well anymore.

Beta players put much effort in helping FD, not only back then, but espacially in the last one, leading to a release candidate, full of known and ticketed issues and even exploits back from gamma and a 1.1 update that was nearly unplayable, despite the fact those issue were well known.

Some people are frustrated and i am assuming their number is going to grow, with actions like the ones we experienced after the last weeks, yes even months.

Good news, I read a while back (from Michael I believe) that FD has doubled their support staff. There's now two people not responding to tickets!

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Good news, I read a while back (from Michael I believe) that FD has doubled their support staff. There's now two people not responding to tickets!

Well to be fair, the first person is going to have to spend a bunch of time training the new person. Pretty sure they won't have time to do any support whilst training is going on.

 

[Ericlas]

Good news, I read a while back (from Michael I believe) that FD has doubled their support staff. There's now two people not responding to tickets!

I get the sercasm and it was funny the first time i read it.
But looking into the recent number of tickets....last i've seen someone posted his id was #40000 ish.
Let's say some of them where closed automatically and not reopened.

let it be 30k open tickets right now and assumed 30 support guys (just throwing out a number, too high i believe but anyway),
that still means 1000 tickets for every guy to work through, ignoring the tickets incoming in the meantime.

I'm not going further, because thinking about how much time 1 ticket may consume makes me just sad and angry.
And i realise i just don't care anymore.
They do whatever they want, you just paid to get onboard and enjoy their game, made for them, aimed for them, evolving for them.

 

[Sanderson]

Well to be fair, the first person is going to have to spend a bunch of time training the new person. Pretty sure they won't have time to do any support whilst training is going on.

Good one

What I find almost comical (almost) is the close resemblance to automated phone support; "If you're having an issue, submit a ticket by pressing 2". "If you've already submitted a ticket, press 3". After pressing 3, you're greeted with "Sorry you're having an issue, please press 2 to submit a ticket".

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I get the sercasm and it was funny the first time i read it.
But looking into the recent number of tickets....last i've seen someone posted his id was #40000 ish.
Let's say some of them where closed automatically and not reopened.

let it be 30k open tickets right now and assumed 30 support guys (just throwing out a number, too high i believe but anyway),
that still means 1000 tickets for every guy to work through, ignoring the tickets incoming in the meantime.

I'm not going further, because thinking about how much time 1 ticket may consume makes me just sad and angry.
And i realise i just don't care anymore.
They do whatever they want, you just paid to get onboard and enjoy their game, made for them, aimed for them, evolving for them.

What gets me the most is while this game is a complete mess, IMO, they start a new IP. I'm like, hey, shouldn't you at least fix this one before you move to the next one? I mean, I do understand why, you have to create more games if you want to become a cash cow publisher but, that doesn't make it right.

 

[regandeddie]

Thing that annoyed me this week - I had 3 open tickets, and the "middle" one was "answered"; I reported a bug back at the end of December (a station in imperial space with imperial owners was acting like a federation station and showed as federation on the hud) not a game-breaking problem, but a bug nonetheless. 6 weeks later I get the reply that the ticket has been closed, but I may reopen if it's still a problem. So it hasn't been checked (or fixed) - rather than support spending a couple of minutes looking at the DB to see the properties assigned to the station, I'm expected to make a 400 ly round trip to see if the problem has/hasn't been rectified (not that I care enough to find out)

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[Sanderson]

IMHO the way Tickets work :

- if you have encountered something that affects you personally... open a Ticket and wait these ~5-6 weeks
- if you have found a possible Exploit... open a Ticket as well
- if you encountered a bug or anomaly that does not kill your game instantly : submit a Post into the Bug-Report Thread (those seem to be read almost daily)

One of my tickets, the most recent and the one I'm referring to here, was an issue many many people experienced (exploding insta death in the middle of nowhere, with no ships around) and has been posted many many times in a lot of threads.

 

[ollobrains]

Netural viewpoint

Have a problem

Start a thread - devs dont really read - u join the masses waiting and seeing if it ever gets looked at it might but in 12 months
Submit a ticket - u are just a number theyll get to it maybe or eventually

So what can u do not much each one fo us is one of 360000 players
So numbers count if half the player base has an issue theyll fix that
If a couple of dozen its less urgent. They are ambitious and rushing things and poor programming seems common, so this game will remain full of bugs, thigns that half work and things that should but dont work we adjust all games are like this.

U can remain positive partake in the endles discussion, u can roam the galaxy or u can come an djoin us in pand and do the limited things and attempt to influence the game