Author Topic: Non-Existent Customer Service (Read 9348 times)

Highball · « **on:** 29 August 2019, 12:19:56 »

What is the deal here? I have been waiting SIX MONTHS just to get a misprinted cardboard sheet replaced from my Game of Armored Combat boxed set that I purchased in MARCH! I have sent the proof of purchase, photos of the defective product and my address. How hard can it possibly be to put the new one in an envelope and send it out? Hell I would be happy with just some sort of reply as to why there is a delay. Hell .... at least PRETEND to blow smoke up my ass. It is really sad when I have to come here to the forums and be a squeaky wheel to get customer service to do their job. I should not have to use other means to get customer service to be CUSTOMER SERVICE! SMFH

Colt Ward · « **Reply #1 on:** 29 August 2019, 16:28:51 »

They have been better about that than the past. With the Cons & everything going on . . .

Highball · « **Reply #2 on:** 29 August 2019, 21:45:24 »

Quote from: Colt Ward on 29 August 2019, 16:28:51

They have been better about that than the past. With the Cons & everything going on . . .

Better than the past …. LOL … and the Con's excuse has been used for a decade ad nauseam. It is unacceptable.

.RL · « **Reply #3 on:** 29 August 2019, 22:37:28 »

During the AMA's, they mentioned that they were having issues with their email server.

There is a pinned post found here: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=64290.0 with where to email them. You could try them if you haven't already.

Highball · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 August 2019, 21:11:41 »

I have sent multiple emails to BOTH of the emails provided with no results.

Highball · « **Reply #5 on:** 07 September 2019, 14:32:21 »

So another set of emails sent off …...

Sharpnel · « **Reply #6 on:** 08 September 2019, 00:05:42 »

Quote from: Highball on 29 August 2019, 12:19:56

What is the deal here? I have been waiting SIX MONTHS just to get a misprinted cardboard sheet replaced from my Game of Armored Combat boxed set that I purchased in MAY! I have sent the proof of purchase, photos of the defective product and my address. How hard can it possibly be to put the new one in an envelope and send it out? Hell I would be happy with just some sort of reply as to why there is a delay. Hell .... at least PRETEND to blow smoke up my ass. It is really sad when I have to come here to the forums and be a squeaky wheel to get customer service to do their job. I should not have to use other means to get customer service to be CUSTOMER SERVICE! SMFH

How can you be waiting six months for them to fix something that you bought three months ago? ;D

Highball · « **Reply #7 on:** 08 September 2019, 10:54:34 »

Quote from: Sharpnel on 08 September 2019, 00:05:42

How can you be waiting six months for them to fix something that you bought three months ago? ;D

I miss spoke when I said May …. It was March 23rd to be exact. Regardless if I miss spoke here or not, they now have FOUR copies of my receipt that is more than proof enough of when I purchased it. Would you like to see the receipt also Shrapnel?

JadeHellbringer · « **Reply #8 on:** 08 September 2019, 11:13:37 »

Let's ease off on the anger, please.

Charlie Tango · « **Reply #9 on:** 08 September 2019, 18:45:53 »

Please see the message I just posted in the Customer Service thread stickied at the top of this forum.

Generalstoner · « **Reply #10 on:** 08 September 2019, 21:49:30 »

PM sent.

Force of Nature · « **Reply #11 on:** 08 September 2019, 23:45:42 »

The problem with customer service is that CGL management thinks that the "Customer Service" department handles everything and assumes all customer issues are getting resolved, when apparently, they are not.

Suggested corrective action for CGL management:

Have a meeting once a week to review ANY outstanding customer service issues and work to resolve them for the customer. An outstanding issue would count as any issue more than a week old that has not been addressed and the customer notified. If there are circumstances that prevent the issue from being resolved quickly, at least notify the customer as to why.

If this and other long customer service problems were to happen at any company that I and others have worked at, someone in management would be fired. It's not nice, it's just business.

GreyWolfActual · « **Reply #12 on:** 09 September 2019, 09:54:36 »

Quote from: Force of Nature on 08 September 2019, 23:45:42

CGL management thinks that the "Customer Service" department

The problem with armchair quarterbacking CGL is evidenced here. There is t a management team or a customer service department. CGL is not some big company. The number of actual Catalyst employees is quite small. Is that ideal? Certainly not but it is the world we live in. When you talk about management you’re talking about two or maybe three people at most. There just are t the levels of bureaucracy implied in that post. And you the same token it also means that people at CGL tend to wear many hats and therefore not just be sitting around with time to spare.

I’m not defending their issues with responding to customer issues but I am trying to point out why “easy” solutions may, in fact, not be quite so easy to implement.

Sir Chaos · « **Reply #13 on:** 09 September 2019, 10:41:47 »

Quote from: GreyWolfActual on 09 September 2019, 09:54:36

The problem with armchair quarterbacking CGL is evidenced here. There is t a management team or a customer service department. CGL is not some big company. The number of actual Catalyst employees is quite small. Is that ideal? Certainly not but it is the world we live in. When you talk about management you’re talking about two or maybe three people at most. There just are t the levels of bureaucracy implied in that post. And you the same token it also means that people at CGL tend to wear many hats and therefore not just be sitting around with time to spare.

I’m not defending their issues with responding to customer issues but I am trying to point out why “easy” solutions may, in fact, not be quite so easy to implement.

The problem is that a company, especially a small company in a niche market, stands or falls with customer satisfaction. The way CGL handles customer service pisses on customer satisfaction. Customer service is NOT some optional nicety that you attend to once you´ve got everything you´d like to do covered. It is absolutely CRUCIAL.

I have absolutely no idea what CGL intends to communicate by treating customer service. However, customers who tried to contact customer service have a very clear idea what CGL seems to intend to communicate. And looking like your attitude towards your customers is "Yes, we got your money, thank you. That just about covers our end of the business transaction, doesn´t it?" is, to put it diplomatically, not a very good thing.

Highball · « **Reply #14 on:** 09 September 2019, 15:25:37 »

PM sent Charlie Tango …. not holding my breath though. :bang:

Daryk · « **Reply #15 on:** 09 September 2019, 18:23:10 »

They just completed a $2.5M Kickstarter. If that isn't sufficient to HIRE some customer service people full time (or even just ONE), what will be? ???

pixelgeek · « **Reply #16 on:** 09 September 2019, 18:25:40 »

Quote from: Sir Chaos on 09 September 2019, 10:41:47

The problem is that a company, especially a small company in a niche market, stands or falls with customer satisfaction.

I know its annoying to be ignored by a company but this statement isn't even close to being true. I know a lot of small manufacturers that have incredibly bad customer service and are still in business. I'd never order from any of them because they have a reputation for it but they still seem to be in business even after years of bad reviews and online complaints.

Quote from: Daryk on 09 September 2019, 18:23:10

They just completed a $2.5M Kickstarter. If that isn't sufficient to HIRE some customer service people full time (or even just ONE), what will be? ???

Well none of that money was for hiring staff. I think people might be POed if the KS funds went to hiring unrelated staff positions. And even if they have the money, the issue is probably the number of customer service complaints they get compared to their other business demands. Do they get enough to justify a person full-time? I doubt it

Daryk · « **Reply #17 on:** 09 September 2019, 18:30:32 »

I'm thinking there are about 11,000 people who might disagree with you on that...

Force of Nature · « **Reply #18 on:** 09 September 2019, 21:16:55 »

Quote from: GreyWolfActual on 09 September 2019, 09:54:36

The problem with armchair quarterbacking CGL is evidenced here.

Yep and is easy to do as I was a quality engineer for multiple companies and had to resolve and communicate customer issues within 24 hours. It appears that CGL management is incapable of resolving customer issues within a timely manner and is incapable of communicating any information as to the status of the customers issue.

Quote

There is t a management team or a customer service department.

Per Bosefius, here is the email for customer service: customerservice@catalystgamelabs.com

SOMEONE at CGL is responsible for ALL of the email sent to this address! Who is it?
Even ONE person can be the department or management team... even part time.

Quote

CGL is not some big company. The number of actual Catalyst employees is quite small. Is that ideal? Certainly not but it is the world we live in.

You are correct. CGL is not a big company, but it is a company regardless of the number of people. Customer service is a part of EVERY company and is the front line for all defect resolution for all of the company products.

Quote

When you talk about management you’re talking about two or maybe three people at most. There just are t the levels of bureaucracy implied in that post. And you the same token it also means that people at CGL tend to wear many hats and therefore not just be sitting around with time to spare.

What everyone following this thread want to know, is which one of the three in CGL management wears the Customer service hat?
IF the customer service hat is a "shared" hat between the three, then all three really need to have a serious review of the customer service role and resolution procedure or create a procedure if there is none at all (which appears to be the case unfortunately)

Quote

I’m not defending their issues with responding to customer issues but I am trying to point out why “easy” solutions may, in fact, not be quite so easy to implement.

Well at least I provided a "Suggested corrective action for CGL management" in my reply. Why? I actually incorporated the weekly 30 minute meeting with management to review all customer issues and was only trying to help as a "suggestion" free of charge. There is NO reason that the three in CGL management can't set aside 30 minutes every week to review, resolve and communicate to the customer what the plan is to resolve the customers issue(s).

My suggestion is instantly viable for CGL. Where is your suggestion on how to improve the lack of customer service in CGL GreyWolfActual? You appear to have more insight into CGL, how would you resolve the customer service problem? Help CGL out..

More than likely, CGL management is open to ALL suggestions as there clearly is a problem with customer service.

Sir Chaos · « **Reply #19 on:** 10 September 2019, 04:40:46 »

Quote from: Force of Nature on 09 September 2019, 21:16:55

My suggestion is instantly viable for CGL. Where is your suggestion on how to improve the lack of customer service in CGL GreyWolfActual? You appear to have more insight into CGL, how would you resolve the customer service problem? Help CGL out..

His suggestion to improve thing is quite obvious - people like us should shut the ****** up about customer service and let CGL fail to do their job.

Quote

More than likely, CGL management is open to ALL suggestions as there clearly is a problem with customer service.

At this point, given the track record, there are two possibilities:

(1) the fine folks here who are in actual contact with customers have kept the complaints secret from the decision-makers at CGL
or
(2) CGL is NOT open to suggestions because they don´t see the current state of affairs as needing improvement

You don´t have a situation like this for YEARS just because nobody´s made the right suggestion yet.

Weirdo · « **Reply #20 on:** 10 September 2019, 07:01:10 »

++mod notice++

You can criticize CGL's customer service practices on this forum all you want. You WILL remain civil while doing so.

Colt Ward · « **Reply #21 on:** 10 September 2019, 09:59:08 »

Wow, this went sideways and mean fast . . .

Look, they said in the AMA they had some problems with their email server. We are told they have a very few employees- to the point I think they have a few more than the company I work for, maybe. I am willing to bet whoever has the customer service e-mail box in their list has others- as the office monkey where I work I have three primary emails (one specifically says 'do not respond to this email' -want to guess how often it happens?) and then have access to 2 email boxes to monitor the field guys. I also have a email where everyone's voicemail calls get dumped in to make sure all are listened to in case a field guy misses it.

Yeah, I have made jokes and do still have some heartburn about the crap with BattleCorps where what I had subscribed to could not be accessed among other things- BUT since a change was announced over two years ago, things had been getting taken care of . . . and this is the first one I remember seeing posted on the forums that has not been resolved- and I know there is a bigger customer service problem they are trying to resolve while they announced they had email server problems at the time of year where staff is frequently out of the office. Couple of years ago I would have joined in the mockery- sorry, I still will not buy anything through the CGL store b/c what was previously mentioned and that opinion did effect my KS buy in, knowing someone else was handling delivery helped. But they have improved the customer service judging by the previous lack of complaints on the forums. We also had folks talk about getting replacement box set mechs for ones that were damaged quickly and with little difficulty.

Its easy to forget the improvement because it was years of poor/ineffective service. I never got BC resolved, but wrote it off and will just buy my PDFs from DriveThru.

Sir Chaos · « **Reply #22 on:** 10 September 2019, 10:59:00 »

Quote from: Colt Ward on 10 September 2019, 09:59:08

Wow, this went sideways and mean fast . . .

Look, they said in the AMA they had some problems with their email server. We are told they have a very few employees- to the point I think they have a few more than the company I work for, maybe. I am willing to bet whoever has the customer service e-mail box in their list has others- as the office monkey where I work I have three primary emails (one specifically says 'do not respond to this email' -want to guess how often it happens?) and then have access to 2 email boxes to monitor the field guys. I also have a email where everyone's voicemail calls get dumped in to make sure all are listened to in case a field guy misses it.

All these things are not good excuses. They are the problem.

CGL apparently thinks customer service is optional. It is not.

CGL enters into contracts with the people buying at their store. Until these people have everything they bought, complete and intact, CGL has not fulfilled their end of the contract. Customer service requests not just idle whining, they are requests for CGL to fulfill their end of the contract. By relegating customer service to the tail end of the priorities list, CGL deliberately neglects fulfilling their contractual obligations.

That. Is. A. Serious. Problem.

This isn´t about a couple of people on an internet forum getting upset over long wait times. Sooner or later, someone somewhere whose requests CGL has been putting off because they think customer service is no more than a nice extra is going to lawyer up to get what CGL should have given them ages ago, and that lawyer will have their case made for them that CGL is acting in bad faith here.

Colt Ward · « **Reply #23 on:** 10 September 2019, 11:44:17 »

How? Its a que, they do not have a cubical farm in India answering calls. You have 20-40% of the staff responding to customer service, and afaik they are working on the bigger Shadowrun problem plus all the other stuff they do when they have no customer service issues. They do not have a full time position dealing with customer service, so the problems are going to get answered by the single person who does that along with 10 other jobs in the order they come in- and they are (were?) getting a lot of emails from the EU Shadowrun KS buyers.

Its not like it was over 2 years ago where they knew they had a problem with their software interfacing with their warehouse (and likely could not break contract) where people were constantly being short changed. I absolutely agree this is setting back their efforts to overcome that image from the previous TPTB tenure, but I remember posts from the last several months where people did get replacement mechs.

First map problem I remember seeing, and unlike the mechs that they were selling as a set at the cons, I do not remember seeing anyone else with that issue- so do they even have maps that are not in boxes? They have also announced the GoAC box's other half of the 2nd printing is on a ship making its way over- so yeah its a open question of if they even have a map they can send at this time.

Daryk · « **Reply #24 on:** 10 September 2019, 17:44:12 »

Given all the continuing problems the store seems to have, I have to wonder why they haven't simply thrown in the towel and signed an exclusive contract with someone like DriveThruRPG, who does it full time (and well, in my experience)…

Highball · « **Reply #25 on:** 10 September 2019, 18:35:52 »

Quote from: Daryk on 10 September 2019, 17:44:12

Given all the continuing problems the store seems to have, I have to wonder why they haven't simply thrown in the towel and signed an exclusive contract with someone like DriveThruRPG, who does it full time (and well, in my experience)…

Because by selling direct they cut out the middleman and make more profit on what they manage to sell. Pure and simple Profit!

Daryk · « **Reply #26 on:** 10 September 2019, 18:37:57 »

I still have to wonder if they wouldn't do more overall business with a competent intermediary... that could lead to "more profit" even with the cost of the middleman...

Colt Ward · « **Reply #27 on:** 11 September 2019, 09:16:14 »

They DO have a middleman already, its part of some contract with a warehouse/distributor- and while it was the problem it no longer is the problem.

One thing I will say, you might want to make sure your email service is not screening them out as junkmail that never hits your inbox. We have no way of knowing unless you tell us . . .

Beargram · « **Reply #28 on:** 11 September 2019, 12:48:59 »

Brent Evans posted the following in the Kickstarter comment section a couple days ago, and might be of some help.

Quote

Hi Scott, as with most things it's next to impossible to provide a "satisfactory" answer to generalities - and every question must be dealt with individually. Currently our CS folks are (and have been) responding to all inquiries that were not duplicates (meaning multiple emails about the same specific order.) If you or someone you know has a question about a specific purchase then our team would be happy to get it resolved for you. If you are saying you've placed an order, had an issue, emailed Customer Service and did not receive an answer, then just re-send that email as a follow up to CS and CC me on that email. This way we can both resolve your order and ensure our code monkeys have the information they need to track track down the original message and ensure any message mishaps don't happen again.

*For orders about BattleTech products cc me at brent@catalystgamelabs.com.

*For orders about Shadowrun products cc Jason Hardy at jason@catalystgamelabs.com.

Rest assured that we are absolutely fulfilling orders through our webstore and we are continuing to improve the site whenever issues are found. And yes, issues certainly do come up from time to time (as they always will in fulfillment), but we have a trained and dedicated CS staff in place to handle them, and we remain committed to ensure a fluid and satisfying shopping experience.

I hope that helps answer your inquiry.

Daryk · « **Reply #29 on:** 11 September 2019, 16:48:10 »

They HAVE a trained and dedicated Customer Service staff?? ???

Do they ever check the Customer Service (and related) threads here? On their official forums? ???