Cabinhead Closure

That being said, why not just post your support questions here, I'm sure we'll all try to help you out (even though, for example, people decided to call me a troll).

I'm pretty aware of things in SL, I'm sure I can offer some suggestions.

Questions like, did you receive my order for a private sim? Or, when can I expect to receive it?

Yeah, those are clearly not answerable questions.

Blaze, if you are arguing that a general request of better support to everybody is unreasonable, I think that is a valid argument. I don't have a problem with it. "How much support can LL afford to give" is a great topic for discussion.

Nobody discussed preferential treatment but you, and you know exactly why you said it. You also hinted that my position on this issue was based on friendship with Schwan. Care to back that up too? I am not 100% certain I have even MET Schwan.

There are many reasons to assume preferential treatment. For example, the concierge program. Contract agreements.

I have worked with organisations where support did not realise that as a customer I was more important than their other customers. Generally this was always a failing on the part of the support agent and not the organisation.

In those cases, I escalate to their management and they quickly realise that as customer with a certain budget I deserve a different type of treatment.

Now, Schwanson might have that card to play. After all, he does own a lot of islands. If he is not getting the type of support he was promised as someone who is spending a lot of money with SL, then he has every right to complain.

Again, my point wasn't to take on Schwan here. I generally find him to be one of the most thoughtful, savvy people around here.

I was merely trying to leap to defense of a group of people who are often treated like expendable pawns.

blaze? Is that you?

As for the friend comment, it was either that or you were just being particularly mean and nasty. I wanted to assume the best and that you were just looking out for a friend.

Anyways, the problem always comes from the top.

Even if for a moment we can assume that support is the problem, the problem really lies with the people who hired them or who isn't defining their roles properly or ensuring that they have the resources and tools to do their job.

If you have problems with the answers LL is giving you, just say they are failing as an organisation to resolve our problems before they occur and failing that, after they occur.

However, an ounce of prevention always worth a pound of cure. Unless you're getting scammed by the organisation, people should rarely have to go to support.

Blaze,

That would all be well in good if you were rallying against someone complaining that support couldn't figure out why their laptop crashed every time they ran SL. That's fine, shit happens, technical support sucks as a job. We are talking about customer support, not techinical support. You do not know the specifics of this situation, and are honestly just making things up to speak against in your usual fashion. The bottom line is, you expect a level of professionalism from a company that you are paying for a service from. Linden Lab hides behind the service provider banner to suit themselves, and as such, are open to criticism when they fall down as a service provider.

That is precisely what has happened to Schwanson over and over again. He is speaking with the one true power he has - his wallet, and not continuing to reward subpar service. It has nothing to do with time - it has to do with attention to detail, professionalism, and giving people what they are paying for. If you want hundreds of dollars a month out of customers, then back that up with quality service and support. Now they want even more money for private islands, but the support was still lacking even at its original price.

In this particular case, yet another incident caused him to cancel an order and to rethink his ongoing commitment to a company that it seems is not committed to providing quality support to its customers. I can't say that I blame him for that decision, knowing the many things he has gone through as a customer.

LOL. Ya, lets go with the "Aimee is mean and nasty" theory. That works

Aimee, I doubt you were. If schwan is not a friend, at least he is someone you feel deserves to be treated with respect and in this case you assumed I wasn't.

There is nothing wrong with Schwan getting preferential treatment. In fact, if you have read my postings you see in many places I have argued that Anshe must get preferential treatment.

In this case you were assuming that preferential was a bad thing, and therefore I was accusing Schwanson of wanting a bad thing. I can understand how you might feel that my post was negative because of this.

Also, personally, I think the tier issue is a big one.

What really upsets me the most is that LL has not clarified that position. They must realise the FUD they are creating with their customers.

Amen to that.
I took the time to read EACH message one by one, and I do not wish to take position at all. Just wanted to add my 5 cents worth, that NO they weren't talking about technical, I am sooo 120% sure of that, they were talking about customer SERVICE, wich to be winning, should be, 1st of all: HUMAN.

I studied 6 years in customer service. The rule to "get there" is simple.
Avoid pre-written e-mails. At least, if you really have to send one, don't send it twice for same issue. That is lame. And THAT is just ONE specific thing LL does, thats makes it bad.
No need to say more, but there IS more anyways.

I lost more then 30k inventory. I emailed, I called. After 3 replies, I realised they were pre-written, always the same words, nobody really read my e-mails, they just saw what it was about and kept replying *somebody will contact you in game*. Never happened.
And when I pointed it to them, and asked for a HUMAN PERSON replying, they stopped replying and ignored me from now on... I KNOW they couldn't help for inventory loss (ex.: refund) it's normal ir's virtual.
That's not what I cared about. All I wanted was someone to CARE and reply with their own mind and hands. Not a pre-written thing.... Respect your customers.
THEY bring you the money.

I think that's what the starter of this thread meant at 1st. And if anybody out there wouldn't care if THAT happened to them, well O.o I'd have nothing more to say.

This is not a problem of support. At most all support can do is try to hold your hand through this traumatic experience.

This is a technical problem. Point the finger in the right direction -> the VP of Development.

Well, and then Philip for hiring the VP of Development.

Erm, as much as I've always had good dealings with Schwanson, no he's not doing what you say here. He's said that Cabinhead isn't for sale (so presumably he's keeping it for something else) and, in response to Ulrika's question about still buying sims, said yes if the price is right. So he would still appear to be rewarding "subpar service", surely?

On the main point though, there is one person at LL who I swear is either (a). not really into the job and doesn't give the attention required to do the job properly or (b). has so much on their plate that they don't actually have the time to do it properly. Not sure which it is, but I've encountered the effect that could be caused by either of those not once, but in nearly every dealing with them.

Yes, I am not sure you understand my point.

Support... says it. SUPPORT. Holding someone's hand to take your own words.
You believe not returning calls and also do not take the time to reply to a customer with your own words is good support? I do not think so.
While this issue was technical, you are totally right, WHILE technical could help, support should still be there to help, explain the situation or something.

Each category of work has its reason to live. And if they all not work all together, then...
It's going to die.

I'm going to have to disagree with you Elka, and I've fought for this when I have managed support.

The point of support is not to do soul-destroy apology sessions regarding things you have absolutely no control over.

Support didn't create the inventory loss, so they shouldn't have to deal with it.

You really don't understand hehe.
Lord NO I don't want apologizes. You have to be empathic, not sympathic when you work customer support. We all know that, I do as much as you do.
I'm all about not replying to e-mails by hand after 3rd time same issue, not returning calls, AND the other team never really contacting me, after I was told they would by support team. NO MATTER if YES or NO it was YOUR DEPARTMENT, that shouldn't count.
That's all I'm saying. And I think we're just sooooo not on the same track that you will never be able to agree. But it's okay! : )

Odds are they have several 100 emails to reply to. Hand replying to them all consumes too much time.

And then support for not keeping on top of it from the customer facing perspective.

This was my observation as well. It seems the only people getting shortchanged are the newbs who would have benefitted from Cabinhead program.

awww Schwan! *hugs*

I'm sorry to see Cabinhead go, but I certainly understand. Maybe some day far in the future, if things get better, we could give it another shot. In the meantime, I'm just thankful you are not yet leaving all together.

Well it's certainly Schwanson's to do whatever he likes with it, and whether newbs are being shortchanged by it I couldn't say because I don't really know the scope of what was going to be there.

But I presume there won't be a free project on it now and he's not selling it, which kind of means that Schwanson will line LL's pocket if there's something in it for him monetarily, which is a rather different standard than the one he suggests in the opening of this thread.

That's just my observation and I'm more than willing to accept I'm wrong on that.

Schwan wow I just fell off my chair here. I know how hard it is to get a project off the ground here big old hugz to you. Look to your next project then keep looking forward. LL is a small complany we all know this and what we are experiencing imo is growing pains. I know it doesn't help you right now but I have to believe it will get better. I hope it does especialy for massive projects that realy need the cs.

Cat

Understand and totally agree with your your original observation as well all that is stated here. Just added the comment on the newbies loss.

There is really no need for a drama thread.

I had to make a decision that was heavily influenced by my bottom line. My other business ventures in SL were subsidizing this venture. I strongly beleive in the goal and spirit of Cabinhead, perhaps in the near future we will restart the project. ATM I lack the time, resources ($$), and patience to continue this project as it stands.

My latest experience with customer service was not the worst I have had, and eventually I did get my questions answered (sort of). It did require that I contact LL again after they did not get back to me within the time frame they had promised, when I did call them, again, they were able to get some answers. When I am a good customer of a company I demand from them the same level of service that I give my customers. I become irrate when that is not delivered.

Unfortunately running a business requires that you step back and 'trim the fat'. In my case, Cabinhead was a big chunk o' fat that needed trimming, and its elimination puts me back in the black. I Hopefully if my LL business starts to become profitable again, we will be able to complete the project.