Spacetime support - handling scams/loss of items
"If there is a ToS and rules for everything in game, and if Support always quotes the ToS whilst refusing a recovery when a player gets scammed, then should they even handle scams?"
Above is basically a summary of my thesis.
Hundreds of times I have seen innocent players denied of ANY help whatsoever when they get scammed or lend an item. Yes, we know that all trades are final, people should be more careful and all that. But support handles cases which are SPECIAL, so they should be treated as such - giving some leniency. Yet, the representative does nothing except quote the ToS and give a copy paste message: "Unfortunately we are not able to complete your request at this time. While we strive to satisfy every player request, somethings are outside of the scope of the Customer Support department." They do sometimes ban the scammer, but that is the most obvious thing seen to be as moral in every mmo...
The ONLY case where I have seen a player get back their items after getting scammed (lending) was in PL; the player got their dragon vanity set returned when they countlessly appealed for it. That player was a GoA. I have yet to hear of a normal player actually given back items from STS when the scammer took them.
Even if the scammer is banned, support won't return scammed items! So ultimately, the item itself is banned....
Most cases nowadays prove my thesis, take for example this:
Limsyoker's Arcane ring - it was lent to a person and that person is banned. WHY is support not returning it? They can check the chat log and see that Limsy lent the Arcane ring, yet they deny her the recovery. 100m - a years earning, down the drain.
● Will refusing a return of the victims items profit STS? No.
● Will it profit players? Yeah, as they can keep playing. It can increase their quality of life.
● Will it give STS a loss? Why should it? After all the item is just being circulated between a player and a scammer, so by going backwards, STS won't lose anything. Infact, by doing this STS gains a lot of money because players continue playing and continue to buy lots of platinum.
To synthesise, most of the AL community would agree with me that STS should become more lenient when handling scam or item loss cases. STS support representatives should try to recover items if the victim has been scammed (or lent an item) and the person/scammer is banned - why not I mean? All it does is collect dust in a locked inventory. This service should only be allowed ONCE on an account. So for example, if I lent an item to a friend and he ran away with it then support can ban him and lastly return the item to me again, with a warning etc. If I lose any item from my account again, then it cannot be recovered (except in special circumstances). Sure, even this may be harsh as items can only be returned from one scam but it is a better system than now where almost every case is rejected. STS support should use IP address tracking to aid them in checking for legitimacy of stolen item scam reports. If you look at other MMOs like RIFT, their support developers investigate much more into the case and do help return lost/stolen items.
I'll sign off with this closing statement: Support does a good job with a lot of type of cases, STS in general is doing a great job advancing as it develops AL especially considering it has under 50 members of staff, but just this change can make thousands of people who quit want to play again and it can make AL better
Of course, constructive criticism is welcome but please keep off-topic or inflammatory posts out.
- Bless
Originally Posted by Tendirin
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