Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I've had it.

It's total impossible to get a reply from anyone in the PA team, pa support team etc.

When you join #support you meet people with problems but no problem solvers. Im sick and dead dead tired of it.

This is NOT the proper way to treat a paying customer at all.

This is crap service and I will tell everyone who wants to join planetarion what they can expect of support from the people incharge of this game.

If anyone wants to see logs about the appaling reply rate in #support please pm me on IRC.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

that is the community support we need Kargool !

this round i have not used the support a lot but in the rounds before i frequently visited the channel because i always think you get a better and up to date answer than from the manual :)
and i cant say that i got not helped there :up:

of course you cant always expect high level admin support by Kal or Kloopy or whoever you wish, but i guess they have other things to do next to PA. You should forget that they only get half paid or not at all as a lot of it is volunteer work.

From someone who just started up with PA you might expect such a reaction but not of someone who wants to be a leader of an alliance and example for those who might look up to them.

Having your own problems with it is one thing - spreading bad word about PA is something else. I dont say that they are without mistakes or that the support should not be improved but this way you wont achieve it - this way you just drive more players away from PA.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I have never gotten an answer in #support, i agree admins have better things to do. And if you need help, you'll normally get a better response in #planetarion from another player

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

First off, let me say that the 5 -five- times I have gone into support I have gotten help 1 -one- time. I've gotten a voiced complain from the peoples in my own alliance about the same feedback. I suggest that PA either make up a better strategy on the support channels here or they try to get more people to be avaliable about questions. The technical questions cant be answered if you read the manual, also when people expirience bugs and errors they cant rely on the manual to be much of a help. .

And for the rest of the reply? Well, I prefer not answering any of this. First because you dont know me, second because I dont care, and third I dont wanna be banned from the forums.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

i agree that the manual gives as good as nothing for an experienced user. I said above that i go to support for this. i guess if you demand good and support at all times (is needed because of the different timezones etc) you have to pay for it or raise the amount of support crew. Thb i dont know if they have a schedule and plan to have someone always aronud or if that is random by who is just on

btw do you complain only about the activity of support or about the quality of support as well ?

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I cant complain about the quality because I havent gotten any help.

The one time I did get reply the answer was polite and nice. But then again, it hasnt been done anything about it though.

(yes yes, wait for the bug fix next round)

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

The one time i got support last round, i think it solved my problem. But like i said, people in #planetarion will go a lot more in depth and normally theres always someone around who has the answer to your question. i have had questions answered faster and much more thoroughly there

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Look at it this way, there's 100 member alliances that are completely dead and quiet at times. There's a *much* smaller group of people in #support to help, and we try our best to answer questions when we're there. For the most part, answers are given to questions if you wait. If you join the channel, see nobody is there, and then wait till someone shows up, we're moer than happy to help you. A lot of the time, someone is there.

We're voulenteers from the community--we aren't paid to sit there and reply. We're not on any sort of payroll nor do we get perks--we just like to help. If you'd like to help to come see Lunar_Lamp, or Icy when she's back and they can set you up on trainee status :)

-NitinA

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

The level of support is poor all over but its not really the people in #supports fault, they try their best to help but alot of the questions are on aspects they cant answer and you need a PATeam member to be able to do get an answer. The problem is these members of PATeam are volentary so cant be around all the time which is annoying but is understandable. Its the same problem with help via these forums although hopefully we should see an improvement to this forum once Kal gets round to officially oking my idea (kal thats a subtle hint if you didnt realise :) )

Anyway rather than bitching at them on THE SUGGESTIONS FORUM perhaps you and the others here can come up with ways to help improve #support somehow. If you want to just bitch and flame mind you take it elsewhere

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I would love to hear a reply from the people in #support.

I would also love to hear Jolt's suggestions as to how to solve theese matters.

Can anyone who matters actually reply?

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

That was more like Seth's Wiffle Bat of Unsubtillity but it still works.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

(17:56:13) (Ali) hi ron
that was 4 minutes ago
i just joined, didnt even say anything

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

That'd be me, for one, and I already replied...

-NitinA

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

No, thanks, im to busy trying to keep players playing the game.

Yes, you are volunteers, yet i am amazed for the poor activity you show. Granted you all do this on a volunteer status, but when it comes to technical issues you guys cant do anything at all.
It allready screwed one player over because the admins dont reply but I guess it doesnt matter. It just makes them stop playing and using their money on something else.

Improvement suggestions: put up a time schedule on services. Make it hour times. For example : topic: We answer to questions from the players at 1200 PA time 1400 PA time etc etc.
Make the volunteers pick times they are around and make the topic so and so. So that when here is actually noone around you can tell people using the topic.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

All i can say is shut up, nothing personal but your alliance doesnt seem to be organised enough to have an op on to tell a planet to recall. stop flaming the support crew as its better now than if theres no channel at all

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Yes, and your alliance HC is very late to reply when they are launching attacks that need to recall. Most impressive activity.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

:D you got me there. he just likes killing things. Back to the topic. volunteers have flame immunity, they are each given a fireproof suit

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Okay, let me try to be abit more polite. I know the people in #support is doing a community service and are doing a great job at it, but still, people dont get replies, they go unsatisfied from a place that's supposed to help them. When they do that, they think: Planetarion doesnt care about the players. I dont think that's fair over the players. I love to help people, infact that's why im a HC of an alliance, because I like to help the players playing with me.

The reason for my outburst is the fact that we need to improve the quality of the service, and that logic still stands.

You cannot mute the problem to death, you got to make people listen. And if ratteling some cages make people listen, then im gladly willing to do so.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Theres your solution karg, instead of asking more people to join the crew (the only solution it seems) do it yourself or stop whining

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

The volenteers give up their spare time to help, now this free time is often not as easy to lock down as saying "i will be around to take the 1200-1400 shift". Real life things which have to take priority can come up at a moments notice. What your asking for example is like saying I should have to choose a block of time where im moderating these forums no matter what which is simply asking too much as I simply cant lock a time down. Anyone volenteering to help this game SHOULD be able to commit a good number of hours to doing this every week but theres no way you can expect them to lock this down to specific times when they arent getting paid for it.

And considering these people ARE willing to do something you arent you can hardly have a go at them about their activity. You need ideas that deal with the shortcoming of the system but work around the limitations that volenteers bring.

Oh and additionally on your idea, having specific Q&A windows hardly solves the problem as people need help there and then most of the time and probally cant wait till the next window. And when it comes to the kinds of questions their galaxy and alliance cant answer for them the chances are they need someone like Kal or Kloopy whom are juggling PA with their Real Life jobs and as such it could be 10+ hours till they are online and most people wont wait that long (infact in my experiance you will have been kick banned from channel in that time, ofc that could just be me that gets kick banned for being stubborn and refusing to leave and come back later)

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Ive been in #support plenty of times during several rounds but ive never had any problems with them tbh.....

Their usually really helpfull imo... :D















Word of the day: patience ;)

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I've almost always gotten the help I wanted when I've joined #support. Have you tried using the web-based support system?

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

My bold, added for emphasis

Well, there is a backup position if there isnt anyone on. Kargool, you might simply be unlucky and keep missing the support crew, or you might have been asking around 0400 hours in britain, where most of the Support crew are Poms. Usually its only me on at around that time (being an aussie etc), however recently i have been tied down in Uni exams which are somewhat important for my future and thus must take priority.

Furthermore, as for creating an online roster; my availability varies each day - sometimes i am at uni and sometimes i am not. the days that i am at uni varies, and the time (morning/arvo/night) also varies on each day. I imagine that other members of the support crew would have similar variable online times, so knocking up a roster is going to either be 1) clumsy or 2) inaccurate anyway. So having fallback points (email addresses, support tickets) is by far a better option imo.

For the record, i went and hunted down Kargool on IRC regarding this issue to find out what he wanted. But like many others have said; dont flame us for not being around on-demand. We help out to appease our alteristic streaks, which doesnt involve trolling support forums or #Support 24/7 - having said that we do get very good coverage.

And sometimes hours and hours go by without anyone dropping by. It can become quite boring; which is why we may not pick up on something straight away. And i (and Squishy et al) also idle in #planetarion just for people who ask there anyway ;).

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

You could always post (where possible ofc) in the support forum where someone always replies quickly.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Kargool, I'm not disagreeing with you or anything, but this game revolves around the community. Sure thats unfair as we all know Jolt are far from inputting anything into this game. But, as a community, we are actually pretty good at solving problems in the game, hell, we know it better than anyone else.

What I'm saying is, the community is the real support imo and will continue to be for quite some time.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I am not saying that, the HC and the officers of our own alliance try to help out whenever a member is having problems, or we discover something that needs a better clarification. We go to the support channel, and there is noone around. sometime this problem is right there, right now.

I would like to ask one more question, have the support-crew tried to ask for input from suppor-crews elsewhere? as in other games? Sometimes input from others may lead to a better service you are yourself able to give.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

I think what everyone is trying to say is this:
Jolt own the servers which run planetarion.
Jolt only runs the game because someone in planetarion wanted to use there servers.
Ever since Planetarion has started it has been a sort of community game
Planetarion still is a community game but run on Jolts servers.
So in a nutshell a mostly run community game is run by the community who dont have full time planetarion but have full time jobs and have volunteered to help where they can in #support etc..
I dont know if appoco gets paid even a penny but he does a lot for the community but he cant do a lot 24 hours a day 7 days a week because if planetarion was going to pay well then us 2k paying customers (if that) would have to pay a lot more to actually pay for a better service.
Remember kloopy and kal where once community as all PA team.

I even got offered a place in #support channel and had a small trial for 2 weeks and i think i did a pretty good job but i had to turn it down coz RL decided otherwise.

Hope you dont take offence to this thread kargool coz I do see where you are coming from but I just cant see how it could change without more volunteers or paying more to pay someone for proper support.

Just remember there is 4 ways to get support mail/irc/forums the planetarion public and i would say forums is probs the best bet just no one uses or looks on forums like they used to.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Ok first of all kargool looking at my logs in support your always joining the channels around the same time asking for help. Now, as we are volunteer workers (ie us PA team members) most of the time (when your asking for support as most of us are from the UK) we are either asleep or working as we are on the same time zones. Now, i am usally asleep when you come into support and the last few days you have virtually entered that channel around the same times, that is probably why no PA admin is awake. Now, i can agree perhaps the activity isnt 100% at the moment, but there is also the 'support' button found on the bottom left hand side options ingame above the 'manual' button i beleive. if you get no responce from anyone in irc you can always use that option and we will then get to it as soon as we are awake. Or, leave me a pm as my client is running and ill get to it when i wake up.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

When are you asking these questions Kargool?

Did you bother to read the P welcome message which details what to do when the support team arent around?

Did you bother to follow those instructions?

Do you expect unpaid volunteers to dedicate their lives to PA support?

Do you have any idea how many support requests come through during a round on irc, email, forums and ingame? ( hint : its a hell of a lot )

Back when i ran the team i had no complaints about service, and i fail to see how its changed significantly to make things "so much worse".
the same sort of people are still there, doing what they do best - and often for nothing but abuse from other players such as yourself.
Give them a break fs. Submit any requests you have ingame if there are none of the support team awake at the times you ask and they'll get it answered within 48 hours, usually within 8-12 at most from my experiance

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

why is this in this forum, just wondering. Maybe move it to somewhere more useful, like a trash can. This thread isnt going anywhere. What were you hoping for kargool, an "Approved"?

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

You have a point lol.
Should have posted this elsewere :)

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

Like PD? ;)

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

if you really want i suppose, you could ask a mod to move it there

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

your idea is ok'd pending some technical issues, if you talk to jj about them u may be able to jointly come up with a workaround, or maybe we can ignore them for now - i'll be back from my trip on Friday i'll try to find you then.

For the others - wakey's system should greatly enhance the suggestions forum system.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

as others have said, obviously high end support cannot allways be available - if people think there is a lack of an irc presence in #support there are as others have said other methods to contact the team. Yes irc is the best method as it means we can get to the route of problems very quickly, but unless there are lots of good people applying to join the support team there are limits to the irc based service we can provide.

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

i asked Kargool on irc the same : he said that the suggestion in this thread would be to tell everyone how bad PA support really is ....

Re: Reply from PAadmins and PA crew needs to improve.
 

when i talked to kargool on irc, we ended up with "pistols at dawn" :p