Steam "Live chat" support

[k........]

Hi :)

I think it's okay to put up tickets and all that but i think there should be a live chat on steam also.. Some people only have a Little issue that could take 5 minutes with a live chat but it takes like a week or so for steam to answer on the "tickets".. It doesnt have to be a 24/7 live chat tho.. But the idea could be very good. I dont know what you think about this.

[FFL2and3rocks]

That wouldn't help because you would still have to wait for them to help everyone else in line in front of you before they get to you.

[k........]

Well.. Somehow not.. If you look at Blizzards live chat that works very well out (As an example) I've waited (As a max) 5 minutes for a supporter.. Kinda wont take long to wait depending on the amount of supporters they have at the live chat.. I still think this idea could work..

[Tito Shivan]

Blizzard doesn't have 7 million concurrent users, several trading environments, marketplace, thousands of third-party software on the site...
You can't compare both systems.

[wuddih]

Originally posted by Count Tito Von Shivanstein:

Blizzard doesn't have 7 million concurrent users, several trading environments, marketplace, thousands of third-party software on the site...
You can't compare both systems.

also blizzard has outsourced their support entirely and that will probably stop if they don't find something to replace WoW.

[Dranak]

i do like wow ...but ..live support can be better, but do remember that some people is hard to understand or has bad sound and mic...and we allso have dialect issus...

and then imo... its support that has the right to say we cant hear or understand you please send mail or ticket through system...

people seem to forget this...its not funny then ..example on a mobil that contact me at support ...bad connection and worst english i ever hear...

but you are right steam support should be there allready...it dont change a thing if people cant talk or write anyway...so please steam do this but let people read such info ...if we cant understand you ..you have to write... and if you cant be polite we have rights to hangup on you and if you keep up harazment we put you on ignore or worse we abn your accout ...

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Iera:

Hi :)

I think it's okay to put up tickets and all that but i think there should be a live chat on steam also.

Think a little. Do you think the ticket system takes that long to respond because they're lazy? Heck no, they just have loads of tickets! Now think further: do you think a live chat system would be used only by a tiny fraction of people? Heck no! At the end of day, waiting a week for a ticket is better than waiting a week in a live chat.

[k........]

Iceira.. You get me wrong there.. I didnt ment a "Call" support thing.. I ment a live chat support..

But i understand you other guys' writings too like you ReBoot about that it would just end up the live support would take like a week for response too.. But im sure if this idea would be "onair" im sure they would figure something out.. Tho i dont think it will..

But ye i made this thread up because i think ticket system takes forever to be answered :)

[Dranak]

ahhh maybe its because i have tryed both support types...sometimes it is easier to talk directly to a person then write a bloody 1 full a4 page ...and people today cant even remember what you said in the begining anyway... so word on papir do has it limits....

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Iceira:

ahhh maybe its because i have tryed both support types...sometimes it is easier to talk directly to a person then write a bloody 1 full a4 page ...and people today cant even remember what you said in the begining anyway... so word on papir do has it limits....

1. Waiting 2 weeks in a live chat sucks.
2. That's why the ticket is there. You can read up everything that has been typed.

[Charlie]

What they really need is more people working at Steam Support, I can get a reply from Origin or Ubisoft in about 24 hours, hell I can get a response from Microsoft in 24 hours aswell. But when I had my Steam Support ticket it took them 19 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ days.... this is completely unacceptable, I have heard some people say that there are only 6 people who work Support.

[Dranak]

they should just do what other do ...get user that have experiance todo it .. and who cares if they got some free games because they work for free anyway......u get point as you do it... and get some games and is a beta moderater for new games...

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by GhostMotleyX:

What they really need is more people working at Steam Support, I can get a reply from Origin or Ubisoft in about 24 hours, hell I can get a response from Microsoft in 24 hours aswell. But when I had my Steam Support ticket it took them 19 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ days.... this is completely unacceptable, I have heard some people say that there are only 6 people who work Support.

Have you ever heard of "Too many cooks spoil the broth"?
Improving a support service is not a problem that can be solved by "throwing money (or people) at it"
Been there, done that, got the shirt... Didn't work.

Origin/Uplay support is a piece of cake compared to steam.

Originally posted by ReBoot:

1. Waiting 2 weeks in a live chat sucks.

Another advantage of a ticket system. I don't need to actively wait for response. Most people have better things to do than watch at a chat window (or wait in the phone) for hours.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by GhostMotleyX:

What they really need is more people working at Steam Support, I can get a reply from Origin or Ubisoft in about 24 hours, hell I can get a response from Microsoft in 24 hours aswell. But when I had my Steam Support ticket it took them 19 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ days.... this is completely unacceptable, I have heard some people say that there are only 6 people who work Support.

Originally posted by Count Tito Von Shivanstein:

Have you ever heard of "Too many cooks spoil the broth"?
Improving a support service is not a problem that can be solved by "throwing money (or people) at it"

More people working support = faster response time = problems will be solved faster and more efficently, the most basic way of making a support service become faster is having more people work support, having to wait 19 days to get a problem solved is completely unacceptable. Amazon have millions of customers, far, far more than Steam and I can always get live chat, same with Origin, and the problem will be solved in minutes, not weeks later. If Steam support has alot of tickets the logical thing to do is get more people working support, problem solved. 'Sayings' are not fact. I am not suggesting that Steam adopt a live chat system, but thet do need more people working support or a more effective team. The quickest reply I ever had was 7 days and even that is awful. Google the largest company on the planet, gets millions more support requests than Steam and Amazon, even they can get back to me in 48 hours and the problem is solved.

[Random Reference #98]

Originally posted by Count Tito Von Shivanstein:

Originally posted by GhostMotleyX:

What they really need is more people working at Steam Support, I can get a reply from Origin or Ubisoft in about 24 hours, hell I can get a response from Microsoft in 24 hours aswell. But when I had my Steam Support ticket it took them 19 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ days.... this is completely unacceptable, I have heard some people say that there are only 6 people who work Support.

Have you ever heard of "Too many cooks spoil the broth"?
Improving a support service is not a problem that can be solved by "throwing money (or people) at it"
Been there, done that, got the shirt... Didn't work.

Origin/Uplay support is a piece of cake compared to steam.

If a restaurant was regularly overbooked they would hire more cooks to make that soup so their customers don't have to spend an inordinate amount of time waiting to be served.

When the improvement that needs to be made to a service is speed then throwing more people(address issues) and money(train said people) at it is absolutely a solution.

Since you seem to have some past experience with something similar though and I admittedly do not, could you please explain how more people to answer tickets wouldn't speed up ticket response time?

(Just to clarify, I'm against any kind of live support as that would be horrible to deal with, I just find it unnacceptable for Valve to take over a week to respond to a ticket.)

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Random Reference #49:

Originally posted by Count Tito Von Shivanstein:

Have you ever heard of "Too many cooks spoil the broth"?
Improving a support service is not a problem that can be solved by "throwing money (or people) at it"
Been there, done that, got the shirt... Didn't work.

Origin/Uplay support is a piece of cake compared to steam.

If a restaurant was regularly overbooked they would hire more cooks to make that soup so their customers don't have to spend an innordinate ammount of time waiting to be served.

When the improvement that needs to be made to a service is speed then throwing more people(address issues) and money(train said people) at it is absolutely a solution.

Since you seem to have some past experience with something similar though and I admittedly do not, could you please explain how more people to answer tickets wouldn't speed up ticket response time?

(Just to clarify, I'm against any kind of live support as that would be horrible to deal with, I just find it unnacceptable for Valve to take over a week to respond to a ticket.)

I am in the same position as you my friend, I'm against live support but more people are needed to work support.