Quality of support provided by game companies

[Mr. S]

I had to contact game companies a lot recently, due to games with bugs and other issues. I have mixed feelings regarding that - some were really great and others had a really bad support department.

I thought asking around would be good, I'm a bit biased anyway, which companies you think provide good support.

It's multiple choice, obviously, since more than one company is providing good support. A short post about your choice would be appreciated.

So, my picks:

Blizzard - playing WoW, speedy responses and nice people. Both on the phone and in-game through chat. I only submit requests if it's really necessary, tho. Nothing like "he called me noob, ban him!".
Steam - the mail address of my account didn't exist anymore, contacted them and included a picture of the HL2 CD-KEY and my ID. Solved immediately.
EA - had issues with FIFA 11 online, like everybody else, and was really, really angry. The guy kept calm and instead offered me to have a free game from their online store in order to make up for it, since he couldn't solve the issue.

 

[Owen.C93]

Never had an issue that needed company assistance really, but I think Blizzard have done a good job with SC2 thus far.

 

[Speedster502]

I'm going to say Sony, bare with me on this.

Every time my PS3 has broken Sony Customer Support have been kind, understanding and tried their upmost to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Although the first two PS3 replacements I did have to pay for (£145) for the second break down we said to Sony that the launch 60GB models seem to have a 'major' issue in terms of breaking down so they offered us a 160GB Fat Model as a alternative whilst still paying the £145 replacement cost. For the third break down we persuaded them to give us a replacement for nothing as at this stage it was getting on the verge of ridiculous, Sony support were still very calm about the whole situation and had no problems at all sorting out the replacement PS3 for nothing. When the fourth PS3 broke we again phoned up Sony Support in a very bad mood with both the product and the company, not once did my Dad have to raise his voice or become argumentative to fight his point on getting another PS3 for absolutely nothing, they were very understanding of the situation and even suggested something to us to take further action in regards to having 4 PS3’s have technical faults. I can’t fault there service on the phone.
Not only that but after the phone call is finished they send out the replacement almost immediately, the last PS3 that went wrong officially died on Sunday morning, we called them the very same day and then received the replacement/exchange on the Tuesday. Every single PS3 that’s died has had its replacement arrived within 2 working days.

I’ve been continuously impressed with Sony’s customer support in comparison to other companies I’ve dealed with which have taken weeks to send new replacement parts. Sony in my books are right up there for customer support. 👍

 

[Mr. S]

I'm going to say Sony, bare with me on this.

Every time my PS3 has broken Sony Customer Support have been kind, understanding and tried their upmost to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Although the first two PS3 replacements I did have to pay for (£145) for the second break down we said to Sony that the launch 60GB models seem to have a 'major' issue in terms of breaking down so they offered us a 160GB Fat Model as a alternative whilst still paying the £145 replacement cost. For the third break down we persuaded them to give us a replacement for nothing as at this stage it was getting on the verge of ridiculous, Sony support were still very calm about the whole situation and had no problems at all sorting out the replacement PS3 for nothing. When the fourth PS3 broke we again phoned up Sony Support in a very bad mood with both the product and the company, not once did my Dad have to raise his voice or become argumentative to fight his point on getting another PS3 for absolutely nothing, they were very understanding of the situation and even suggested something to us to take further action in regards to having 4 PS3’s have technical faults. I can’t fault there service on the phone.
Not only that but after the phone call is finished they send out the replacement almost immediately, the last PS3 that went wrong officially died on Sunday morning, we called them the very same day and then received the replacement/exchange on the Tuesday. Every single PS3 that’s died has had its replacement arrived within 2 working days.

I’ve been continuously impressed with Sony’s customer support in comparison to other companies I’ve dealed with which have taken weeks to send new replacement parts. Sony in my books are right up there for customer support. 👍

So they're sending them out without having you send yours in first? That's pretty cool in my books.

I've sent a request by e-mail, 2.5 years ago - answer? None. Then again, was only about LPB DLC and how I couldn't access it with my 2nd account. Still sucked.

 

[AOS-]

i don't have a lot of games, nor do i call for support, but i can tell you for sure that EA and Capcom are definitely not there (via obvious money-hogging schemes)

 

[Parker]

Sony, Steam, Blizzard and Bungie get my vote.

 

[bevo]

I have tried several times to call different companies about games. Every time is was to get a refund for a game that didn't have features that were either listed on the box, or didn't work. I have never had success getting ahold of anyone who had any idea what I was talking about. 2K was the worst. It went straight to a voicemail of a guy, who never returned a call.

 

[Speedster502]

So they're sending them out without having you send yours in first? That's pretty cool in my books.

Not quite, the way that Sony seems to deal with PS3 break downs is they send a pink box to you via a courier service (usually DPD in the UK) then they bring the pink box with the 'new' PS3 inside it and it's essentially a exchange. You give them your old broken PS3 and they give you the new one immediately then the courier takes it away. It makes the process so quick to deal with. 👍

 

[Bigbazz]

I picked Blizzard as they are the company most in contact with their customers, while constantly updating their software. Though it must be said with Blizzard (atleast in the case of WoW) you are paying a monthly subscription. But fairplay to Blizzard they still support and run the servers for Diablo 2, which is over 10 years old, still gets patched and they still run a new ladder race every 6 months.

 

[Mr. S]

Not quite, the way that Sony seems to deal with PS3 break downs is they send a pink box to you via a courier service (usually DPD in the UK) then they bring the pink box with the 'new' PS3 inside it and it's essentially a exchange. You give them your old broken PS3 and they give you the new one immediately then the courier takes it away. It makes the process so quick to deal with. 👍

Ah, like Compaq, for example.