MMORPG: Customer Support Review

To start off id like to tell you the reason I’m doing this. So the reason I’m doing this is
so that you the readers if there are any can see how helpful the customer support for each company and to find out what is required for a free or trial account. i am going to list the response in the order I get them ill will also write a prediction of what i think I will get from them and how fast it will arrive so lets get down to business.

So from current knowledge i think eve-online will probably be the fastest, runescape and World Of Warcraft i don’t hold much hope for, at best i will probably get an automated message from the runescape team and i never had much luck with the world of warcraft team getting no reply from a query about needing a credit card for a trial account but more on that later on. all the messages were sent out on the 10/08/06  at roughly 10:27 BST that’s 9:27 GMT and i await reply.

EVE-Online were the first to reply to my question although the answers were basic but i aren’t really looking for an essay. Here’s the reply for those interested
Question was sent at 10:27 AM BST answer received 10:55 AM BST same day

“1. Yes, we have a free trial
2. No, you don't need a credit card for the trial account.
3. On our website, we have 7 day trial, but you can get 14 day trials through our affiliates.“

The good

One of the great things about eve-online support is that they send you a message confirming that the support team has received your email and will deal with it as soon as possible although its automated it’s a nice thing to since u don’t get this with the others. And you don’t need to be a member or registered to email support.

The bad

Well I can’t think of any really they‘re helpful and efficient what else could you ask for from a support team.

RuneScape: Well the message was sent at 10:30AM BST and I finally got a reply on the 14-Aug 18:39AM BST. The answer was quite long and answered the question at hand as far as I’m concerned so here’s the reply for those interested.

“Thank you for your message.

RuneScape does offer a free version of the game. When an account is first created it is 'free-to-play'. Only when the user opts to subscribe to membership do they have to pay. Membership is an upgrade rather than a necessity. Your account remains 'free' until you choose to subscribe. When your subscription ends your account is returned to 'free'. All of the extra skills, items and quests earnt as a member are not lost but are locked instead. Once the account returns to membership it has full access to those items again.

There are several ways to subscribe to membership for this game. Using a credit card is one method of subscribing for membership. You can see all of the available methods by clicking the 'start a new subscription' link from the main menu.

I hope this helps.

Don't forget to use the RuneScape Knowledge Base to find the answer to your queries quicker.

You can also find help on all free player and all new member quests through the QuestHelp system.

Yours Sincerely
Mod Mark R”
as you can see it much more detailed than what I got from eve-online and much longer but its not quantity were after its quality.

The good

Um this is a had one but to be fair they did get back to me with in a week which is better than the automated message I was expecting.

The bad

You have to create a free account to ask support something that kind of gets rid of the point of doing this.

World Of Warcraft: Well the message was sent at 10:34AM BST and one day after RuneScape replied I got there on the 15/08 at 12:08PM BST nice detailed reply at that pretty lengthily definitely worth the wait for. Anyway here the reply for those interested.

Thank you for your e-mail. A Trial Key will create an account that is valid for 10 days. You can get a trial gey for the game on this website http://teaser.wow-europe.com

To create the trial account you will be required to register with a credit card, among other reasons this is to make you aware that you will need to pay in the future for the game and that we know you will be able and willing to do so. It also prevents customers from creating throwaway accounts to harass others, or other unsavory activity.
You cannot add a game-card because the guest pass is not a full copy of the game.

You will also be required to install the game using the CDs from the boxed game.

After the 10 days are over, if you wish to continue to play you will need to upgrade to a full Standard or Collectors edition account, by buying the appropriate box. Your characters will be moved to the new account and you will be billed normally after your month's free trial.

If you upgrade to Collectors Edition, your existing characters will not be eligible for the special in-game pet. Only characters created after the upgrade will be entitled to them.

The trial accounts have certain limits, which will be lifted when the account is upgraded. The limits are:

- A level cap of 20
- A maximum allowable purse of 10 gold
- The inability to trade, auction and mail items
- The inability to access the general chat channel
- A trade skill level cap of 100
- A limit to the amount of tells that can be sent to other players and once that limit has been reached you must wait before you can send more
- No priority is given when waiting in realm login queues and you may actually go up in the queue

If you have any further questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact us again.

The good
Well they sent a petty long reply, which is more than I expected its also quite detailed and gets the point across very well.

The bad

Well they don’t send you conformation of you’re email being received which is a bit irritating the wait can be a bit annoying but apart from that it’s ok better than I expected from them.

The Trials

A Quick Word

When I first set out to do this I was going to set up three trial accounts and do a review on each of the games but because of reason we shall not go into I can’t et up one of the trials so in stead of just doing two game reviews I thought it best to leave them till I could do them at the same time so for now this review will be part one of a two part review which I will do my best to get out as soon as I can sorry for any Inconvenience caused by this.

Well to wrap this part up Id like to thank you for reading my review and I hope its helped you in some way.

By
Luke Redgwell

ã Luke Redgwell at 15/08/06 16:23
This was not and is not for use on one website only. No copywriting to your own site.