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I used to complain about PlayNC customer support when I had issues with City of Heroes.  However, having experienced my first Blizzard customer support endeavor, I'm longing for my frustration at PlayNC.  Basically, the GMs are (apparently) over-worked.  In my case, I waited 3 hours with an "open ticket - wait time unavailable".  Then, 5 hours later, I get an email that my ticket had been escalated.  The email was sent from donotreply@blizzard.com and specifically said that matters of this sort were best discussed online.  I also got an in-game email apologizing that I was not online when they got to my ticket; but, once again, was told that the matter could not be handled via in-game email, so I was not to reply to the in-game email.

This is where the frustration started.  I get an email saying not to reply to the email, and I get an in-game email saying not to reply to the in-game email.  If all conversations are best held online, then when is someone going to just pop in and say "hello"?  How can I just say, "Hey! I'm here! We can talk now!"?  There's no answer.

PlayNC, while frustrating due to their scripted answers to all questions (which Blizzard suffers from as well), at least had a ticket system where you could reply to the email with additional details or visit the customer support website and give additional details.  Blizzard's answer to the PlayNC ticket system (although I do not know if this was the intent) is the WoW official customer service forum.  Of course, on the forum, I made note of my issue.  The main problem was that there were about 5 threads about the same issue, and in one of the threads a Blizzard rep stated that it was, indeed, a "known issue".  My issue with this knowledge of an issue is that if you know something is a known issue, why not create a simple, scripted fix for the issue and then distribute to your support staff, delegating at least one person to "clearing out the bucket" of open tickets for the known issue until the bucket is clear?  Instead, I take back unconfirmed reports of a potential five day wait from ticket to resolution.

The issue I have with MMORPGs is that they really have no true incentive to perform once they gain the status that WoW has gained.  In effect, it's not like I can go to Verizon for my WoW service.  They have a captive audience, and they can do pretty much whatever they want as long as the consumer has a vested interest in depositing $15 every month.  Not wanting to lose something that you invested hours and hours of your time in making is a pretty emotionally-linked incentive if you ask me.  Some people can walk away from this, but most cannot; which is why we put up with less than stellar customer support. 

One aspect of WoW's customer support forum that astonished me was this strange "Village of the Damned" vibe which permeated through every positive post made in which someone just "accepted" the insane "unofficial" wait for the issue to be resolved.  It was like they were spraying arasol benzodiazepines through the PC's internet connection, calming them to the point they were just accepting what seemed like a presposterous amount of time to wait for resolution to a common issue. 

This begs the question, just how badly strapped is Blizzard customer support?  For that matter, just how badly managed is Blizzard customer support?  Is management not giving these reps the tools they need to efficiently handle more tickets, thus increasing productivity?  It's a possibility, and one that I've experienced first-hand in the telecom world.  What was the answer?  New Customer Relationship Management software that integrated other system data to create a one-stop-shop for 95% of all questions and solutions. 

But in the end, we're (meaning WoW players) mostly addicts, just wanting our fix.  We don't care if it's dirty, sometimes we OD, but most times we're just happy to be comfortably numb (at least our butts after sitting on them for hours on end).