Moderators... a continued discussion

[TheDanimal]

So I've seen many of ya'll giving the mods grief for one issue or another.
Cut em some slack. They're in a tough position - peers granted authority over the group. Natural group dynamics provides for resentment of these individuals. But come on guys - check yourselves before you spout off on them. They have a job to do, which is pretty clear cut - enforce the TOS guidelines.
If your post was deleted because you made personal attacks or showed pics of body parts captioned "suck this," it's your own damn fault.
If you're posting for help because you can't access your game, but you post script with "oh yeah, Gree sucks my ^$#&!!" - it's your own damn fault if it gets deleted.

Think with your head, not with your emotions - you'll get much more accomplished.
-side note on that... I work in the customer service industry. If a customer has a problem and they are nice, I will move the world to get them what they want. If they are a jerk, I will do everything in my power to see that they do not get their way. ...you attract more bees with honey.

So before you go off one them, look back at their action, and what you may have done to cause that action. Chances are you did something wrong. If you think they are stepping out of line, hold the fires at bay and report them to clementine.

They are trying to help the community, not be a$$holes.

[Demo]

Exactly! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[DragCro]

Thank you Danimal,you are a good man i know that!
I respect you a lot and i respect and all forum members here in this forum.
Yes,we are here to help out as much as we can,as i said before in other threads we have limits.

Danimal is right,pleasant word can get you more far than a harsh word.
I am a player and i always responded kindly to support when i had a problem with the game,when i sold a building by mistake,when i pressed wrong button and did something that i didn't want or used by mistake and my ingame currency.
Everytime i got a pleasant respond and my issue was solved.
If i would send a thousand tickets with same problem my tickets won't be answered a long time and i know why is that.
In past one of the admins here posted in one of threads that if you send multiple tickets they need to gather all of your tickets and see if they are all with the same problem and that takes time..
So mistake is not on them,it is mostly on us because we don't know how to write down properly a email to suport and we are impatient to wait for a answer.
We have now a thread posted by one of the moderators how you can write down properly a email to support,please those that didn't get answer or their ticket was closed read that..

And please, you all know that we are one of you,we are players and forum members with ability to make this forum a better place without spams/trolls and we look if threads or posters doesn't insult somebody intentionally.
The main thing from this forum that i expect is to respect each other and tolerate each other.
And if we can anyhow help you belive me we will try as much as we can...

[Ranger89]

One thing is certain... if the game wasn't so flawed, there wouldn't so many tickets submitted.

[Captain Buck Slayer]

Good post as always danimal.

[Bobble64]

I find it ironic the mentioning of customer service on a topic related to GREE. All of the mods and developers that took part in the question and answer session thank you for your time. We apprecaite the acknowledgement, but GREE as a company on a whole has fallen extremely short with customer serivce. People are upset and can no longer keep their emotions at bay with the failures that have occured time after time after time. Not to mention the thoughtless canned responses that people receive through tickets.

Cutting slack for mods and devs that take the time to respond, yes.
Cut some slack for the game and how GREE has run it into the ground, no.

[Jd-fors]

Unbelievable!!!i guess it is only the ones locked out who are bitter.so much for a brotherhood.i respect this thread 0%.

[sstuutss]

Now here is the problem, danimal writes a good post, then a mod comes along and says 'there is nothing wrong with support, its all the customers fault'.

[good gawd noooo]

Now here is the problem, danimal writes a good post, then a mod comes along and says 'there is nothing wrong with support, its all the customers fault'.

SERIOUSLY?? yes Danimal(a player that contributes a ton to forum and game players) did write a very nice comment/post. Simply pointing out that you get more with sugar and honey then with vinegar(same thought different statement). And a mod thanks him and you automatically twist it to mods blaming it all on customers. Stir the pot much??? They have also pointed out that multiple tickets have to be tied together to verify issue is the same or not which delays response. To me that is more of a explanation then a statement the customer is at fault.. Relax the animosity already. Customer service as a job sucks because they take a ton of abuse(yes I do some as my job as well) . But if you are polite and nice I as well go out of my way to fix your issue. If your rude and mean and abusive well.... your problems tend to get worse or at the very least unresolved.

point of this thread is try approaching the problem from a calmer nicer angle and chances are they will resolve your issue in a timely manner and you will walk away with a sense of satisfaction. Yell scream and get upset at the support chances are you will just get more frustration for your trouble. Try putting yourself in their shoes.. they are the support NOT the programmers they are not to blame for the errors.. However it IS their job to deal with the customers. Keep in mind their hands are somewhat tied but will be more helpful if your nice

[Danger Mouse]

While I agree completely that there is no point in bawling out the mods - kinda like shooting the messenger - I can also understand the forces that drive Gree's customers to absolute despair.

People start out this game being nice, pouring the honey so to speak, and the Gree customer relations team still either blatantly ignore most tickets, trot out pat generic responses that 90% of the time have nothing to do with the ticketed problem whatsoever, and close the ticket without any resolution whatsoever.

This drives people insane, particularly when they are spending hard cash and expect to be treated like valued customers and instead are treated like an ATM.

So they get on the forums as a last resort to get their problems addressed, and again it's hit or miss whether it gets acknowledged by a mod, and when it is there's no follow up a lot of the time on what action is being taken, no updates, no progress reports, no timetable to delivery of a resolution. Just look at the thread on the IOS lockout as a great example.

Yes, the mods are caught in the middle, but they also reflect the company culture of keeping a smiling face and pretend everything is peachy until proven otherwise, and as a last resort stick your head in the sand and pretend it's still all peachy because if you don't acknowledge a problem, then the problem doesn't exist.
-
This, of course, just gets people more angry and they get banned as a result of letting their tempers free rein. If Gree had a culture that truly worked hard at customer relations to fix the cracks, as opposed to merely painting over them, then 90% of the vitriolic forum posts would just disappear. Gree customer support is the last step in a culture of taking from the customer while returning as little as needed to keep the revenue stream pouring in. It's not a culture that's about helping the customer, it's a culture about damage control to keep things quiet enough that the other customers aren't disturbed and keep spending.

[Jd-fors]

Then ban all the players who can't get on and POOF...problem solved!

[MW Flake]

Wow DM, well said.

As a point of clarification, somewhere in my readings, I did come across a thread where a mod does blame all the problems on the customers. Not sure who or exactly when, though it was fairly recent I think as I didn't read very far back.

[Russ-navy]

The final decision is made by suites, not the people that do the work, but just like going into a store to return something if you act like an ass then they go buy the rules, but if your nice then they help you within the grey area that will solve the problem, it is to easy to scream and yell, we need to think how you would react if someone talked to you the same way, when all you could do was what the suites told you, we are all humans here and need to respect that more than throwing a fit thinking they will respond like your parents do and give in, and realize this is a game, there is no big reward at the end, but a way to be competitive, in our free time

[good gawd noooo]

The final decision is made by suites, not the people that do the work, but just like going into a store to return something if you act like an ass then they go buy the rules, but if your nice then they help you within the grey area that will solve the problem, it is to easy to scream and yell, we need to think how you would react if someone talked to you the same way, when all you could do was what the suites told you, we are all humans here and need to respect that more than throwing a fit thinking they will respond like your parents do and give in, and realize this is a game, there is no big reward at the end, but a way to be competitive, in our free time

well said and I also agree with dm about history of CS gree has shown. but ... if you let frustration take over its never gonna change.. both the customer and the company(gree) need to adjust positions .. but only thing we can control is our actions.. so that is a good place to start

[1Shot]

As DragCo said above, I've had that issue happen to me one time, but instead of selling a building, I accidentally paid to automatically upgrade the building. I sent Gree one ticket as DragCo said and got a good response back. Being harsh towards staff, or anyone in general will only make matters worse for the both of you.

[ezmunie]

Thank you The Danimal, my thoughts exactly.

I've had my own business and the customer is not always right. I had a customer who called ranting and raving at me. I told him I didn't have to listen to it and hung up. He wasn't getting anywhere with me. He called back and apologized and I took care of his problem. No company owner/employee has to take BS from the customers. The mods here have an endless job of trying to keep the customers happy, but some of you will never be because you will always find something that doesn't suit you.

Gree tried to add something to the game, it didn't work. So, you give them time to get it right and most times, it's not overnight or an easy fix. It doesn't matter how long it takes as long as they are trying their best to satisfy their customers.

Patience is a virtue.

[Agent Orange]

Though I too agree that honey works better I think that there will be a point in time that the honey pot runs dry. No I am not condonning nasty public attacks on each other but I have also NEVER seen customer relations hit such an all time low.

The recent developer chat was a great first step, however at this point it's all just words as we have not had any resolution of the most pressing issue which is the locking out of players. Then we get an extended WD which in the three years I have been on the forum nobody has ever requested, and in fact most of the comment has been to reduce the relentless onslaught of events! So IMHO there seems to be a major disconnect between what we say here and what gree does. Or perhaps we need to employ reverse psychology and actuall demand more and longer events?

Now for the other hot potatoe, moderators. We actually have two classes of moderators the one gree employee spread across all forums which is insane because she cannot possibly be everywhere at the same time and the player moderators who are basically players who may or may not have a basic understanding of the games that they are moderating.

Personally I think that having player moderators was a mistake based on how it is turning out. As I said way back, my gut feeling is that gree took a group of well meaning players and hung them out to dry. Seems to me that gree saw this catastrophe coming and also knew that they were going to move their other forum staffer to a new job so it was rather clever to have the angry hordes target fellow players....

Moderation is indeed a thankless job but the keyword is moderation and not censorship which sadly is what I feel is starting to happen. In other words I believe that in some cases lines are being crossed on both sides of the fence however those with the ability to delete and lock threads are perhaps misusing their powers. Yes I understand that there have been some extremely offensive and mean spirited postings and those should not have been made however I've also seen some poorly thought out replies from player mods as well. Btw we still have the recourse of reporting such posts which is a much better solution then escalating a fight in the forums...

Would I ever consider being a moderator? No, because my core belief is that gree has been disingenious with it's customer base and has mislead it's player moderators. Plus my genuine concern for those who have been locked out which has not been addressed in the past month even when solutions have been offered by players....

[Lolsies]

Though I too agree that honey works better I think that there will be a point in time that the honey pot runs dry. No I am not condonning nasty public attacks on each other but I have also NEVER seen customer relations hit such an all time low.

The recent developer chat was a great first step, however at this point it's all just words as we have not had any resolution of the most pressing issue which is the locking out of players. Then we get an extended WD which in the three years I have been on the forum nobody has ever requested, and in fact most of the comment has been to reduce the relentless onslaught of events! So IMHO there seems to be a major disconnect between what we say here and what gree does. Or perhaps we need to employ reverse psychology and actuall demand more and longer events?

Now for the other hot potatoe, moderators. We actually have two classes of moderators the one gree employee spread across all forums which is insane because she cannot possibly be everywhere at the same time and the player moderators who are basically players who may or may not have a basic understanding of the games that they are moderating.

Personally I think that having player moderators was a mistake based on how it is turning out. As I said way back, my gut feeling is that gree took a group of well meaning players and hung them out to dry. Seems to me that gree saw this catastrophe coming and also knew that they were going to move their other forum staffer to a new job so it was rather clever to have the angry hordes target fellow players....

Moderation is indeed a thankless job but the keyword is moderation and not censorship which sadly is what I feel is starting to happen. In other words I believe that in some cases lines are being crossed on both sides of the fence however those with the ability to delete and lock threads are perhaps misusing their powers. Yes I understand that there have been some extremely offensive and mean spirited postings and those should not have been made however I've also seen some poorly thought out replies from player mods as well. Btw we still have the recourse of reporting such posts which is a much better solution then escalating a fight in the forums...

Would I ever consider being a moderator? No, because my core belief is that gree has been disingenious with it's customer base and has mislead it's player moderators. Plus my genuine concern for those who have been locked out which has not been addressed in the past month even when solutions have been offered by players....

We will try our best to improve everyone's experience both on the forums and in game, however we may not be able to get back so quickly to players in need of help. There are many posts per day here on the forum, and keeping track of each and every one of them is difficult.

We do not abuse our power and lock threads when we want and whenever we want. This only occurs during a flame fight or when there is something hurtful in our community. Our job is to improve player satisfaction and help the community grow in a positive manner, and sometimes locking threads must be necessary to stop negative behaviour.

[Lolsies]

One thing is certain... if the game wasn't so flawed, there wouldn't so many tickets submitted.

This is why we need the advice and points that players make. In this way, GREE will be able to see the problems within the game and fix them right up for everyone.

[East Coast Bias]

We will try our best to improve everyone's experience both on the forums and in game, however we may not be able to get back so quickly to players in need of help. There are many posts per day here on the forum, and keeping track of each and every one of them is difficult.

We do not abuse our power and lock threads when we want and whenever we want. This only occurs during a flame fight or when there is something hurtful in our community. Our job is to improve player satisfaction and help the community grow in a positive manner, and sometimes locking threads must be necessary to stop negative behaviour.

Now, I actually believe the user mods are sincere when they say they would like to improve satisfaction. The problem is that I'm sure most of us doubt you have been given any of the tools to do so. Perhaps you can tell us what powers you have to actually make improvements. If you could actually action on tickets, have a direct line to the developers, use your own judgement to refund gold, etc., then we would take you more seriously. You guys signed up to a thankless unpaid part time job. Brave of you to do so. In the corporate world, I would never take on a position where I don't have the tools AND the accountability that goes with having those tools. From what we see, you have no tools other than trying to soothe us. I'm not sure how that improves our playing experience. But I'll let you respond to tell me I'm wrong.

[HellRaizer]

Now, I actually believe the user mods are sincere when they say they would like to improve satisfaction. The problem is that I'm sure most of us doubt you have been given any of the tools to do so. Perhaps you can tell us what powers you have to actually make improvements. If you could actually action on tickets, have a direct line to the developers, use your own judgement to refund gold, etc., then we would take you more seriously. You guys signed up to a thankless unpaid part time job. Brave of you to do so. In the corporate world, I would never take on a position where I don't have the tools AND the accountability that goes with having those tools. From what we see, you have no tools other than trying to soothe us. I'm not sure how that improves our playing experience. But I'll let you respond to tell me I'm wrong.

Our role as Mods is somewhat different compared to the admins.
We handle spam requests and monitor for flaming, it allows the admins more time to follow up on the more pressing issues. We don't lock or delete threads unless they turn into a mass flame war. The only posts I have deleted have been the ones flagged as spam (the Vietnamese ones).. And please keep reporting them as you see them, it is very helpful.
We cannot ban people and I am grateful for that, but can move/delete/lock threads (but i would not do that unless in extreme circumstances)
Any action that we take can also be monitored.

[Lolsies]

Now, I actually believe the user mods are sincere when they say they would like to improve satisfaction. The problem is that I'm sure most of us doubt you have been given any of the tools to do so. Perhaps you can tell us what powers you have to actually make improvements. If you could actually action on tickets, have a direct line to the developers, use your own judgement to refund gold, etc., then we would take you more seriously. You guys signed up to a thankless unpaid part time job. Brave of you to do so. In the corporate world, I would never take on a position where I don't have the tools AND the accountability that goes with having those tools. From what we see, you have no tools other than trying to soothe us. I'm not sure how that improves our playing experience. But I'll let you respond to tell me I'm wrong.

Actually, we DO have a direct line to developers, but that's for people connected to GREE ex. Clementine.

In multiple threads, I have taken action on tickets and have relayed their problems to GREE.

I have also started gathering all suggestions and concerns in topics and relaying them to GREE.

[East Coast Bias]

Actually, we DO have a direct line to developers, but that's for people connected to GREE ex. Clementine.

In multiple threads, I have taken action on tickets and have relayed their problems to GREE.

I have also started gathering all suggestions and concerns in topics and relaying them to GREE.

Appreciate your response. It sounds like you play a role in keeping the forum tidy, so a small impact on taking away the blight on the forum. If this is a good use of your time, I have no objections and hope gree gives you something in return, ex: bonus unit or a few refills here and there. But I still believe that if you are in the customer service business, you need to be given the power and tools to make an impact.

[Rolinz]

In past one of the admins here posted in one of threads that if you send multiple tickets they need to gather all of your tickets and see if they are all with the same problem and that takes time..
So mistake is not on them,it is mostly on us because we don't know how to write down properly a email to suport and we are impatient to wait for a answer.
We have now a thread posted by one of the moderators how you can write down properly a email to support,please those that didn't get answer or their ticket was closed read that..

How about posting a link to the thread that is supposed to guide us players?

I have not been able to find that. Did Gree bury it somewhere hard to find?

If it is in plain sight and it was my oversight, I apologize in advance.

Is this a recent thread that was posted by a Moderator?

[Jd-fors]

Wow!gree has customer service?i was patient the first week.how many of you customer service reps are locked out?its the double talk that has us upset...
1-GREE closing tickets say solved with a nonsense computer generated message.
2-GREE saying the lockout is a priority but keeps talking about new content.
3-GREE saying there is a compensation package waiting that is pathetic at best.
4-GREE saying this 7 day war is what the players have asked for.
5-a mod saying this is the customers fault.
6-a mod saying they get on as much as they can but are in a lot of meetings and monitors multiple games-yet,the crisis is here!
7-a mod saying they are hiring more mods to help with the load(I have heard that a lot the past few years.
You all say be nice,have patience,look at it from there end.**** all that-how about GREE see it from where we are,the ones locked out through no fault of our own.everybone of you need to shut your games down for 32 days(and still counting)and we will just see if you still feel that way about GREE customer support.
**** YOU ALL!
I'm ready for my ban now!!!

[Lolsies]

Wow!gree has customer service?i was patient the first week.how many of you customer service reps are locked out?its the double talk that has us upset...
1-GREE closing tickets say solved with a nonsense computer generated message.
2-GREE saying the lockout is a priority but keeps talking about new content.
3-GREE saying there is a compensation package waiting that is pathetic at best.
4-GREE saying this 7 day war is what the players have asked for.
5-a mod saying this is the customers fault.
6-a mod saying they get on as much as they can but are in a lot of meetings and monitors multiple games-yet,the crisis is here!
7-a mod saying they are hiring more mods to help with the load(I have heard that a lot the past few years.
You all say be nice,have patience,look at it from there end.**** all that-how about GREE see it from where we are,the ones locked out through no fault of our own.everybone of you need to shut your games down for 32 days(and still counting)and we will just see if you still feel that way about GREE customer support.
**** YOU ALL!
I'm ready for my ban now!!!

Moderators are players of the game too. We see your problems every day and think of ideas to help GREE, just like regular forumers do. We know your pain, but there is no need to vent at all of us and exhibit negative behavior. We are trying to improve everyone's experience in-game and on the forums, but change does not come immediately when you want it.

[Lolsies]

Appreciate your response. It sounds like you play a role in keeping the forum tidy, so a small impact on taking away the blight on the forum. If this is a good use of your time, I have no objections and hope gree gives you something in return, ex: bonus unit or a few refills here and there. But I still believe that if you are in the customer service business, you need to be given the power and tools to make an impact.

GREE does give us something for becoming a moderator, but it does not come as a reward monthly.
As a moderator, I hope to have a big impact on the forum.

[Jd-fors]

That was directed at anybody on GREE payroll.not volunteer mods!
Like I said wanna feel my pain?shut your game off!!!

[Lolsies]

How about posting a link to the thread that is supposed to guide us players?

I have not been able to find that. Did Gree bury it somewhere hard to find?

If it is in plain sight and it was my oversight, I apologize in advance.

Is this a recent thread that was posted by a Moderator?

FAQ's to guide players are normally stickied. If there is info missing, mods/players/devs can help add to it.

This is a thread that was posted by a player explaining that mods should have some slack put off of them.

On that note, I must close this thread as this is getting a bit out of hand (the thread is beginning to receive multiple attacks on moderators).