Boards›Player Behavior

@Riot "Support" flat out refusing to give support

SwainLaneWinGame·3/4/2017, 12:54:32 PM·2 votes·1,740 views

So a few days ago I submitted a lengthy support ticket in regard to off-meta play/playstyles, and whether or not I could be punished for picking something off-meta without the consent of my soloq teammates in ranked. If you want more context and the original interactions between my messages and the first support person, check it out here: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/player-behavior-moderation/in96i6Yb-off-meta-punishable-or-not-answers-straight-from-riot-support-wip?show=new

Now with that said, this post is not about that issue. This post is about Riot's Support Staff flat out refusing to answer my specific question(s).

After a lengthy back and forth communication, eventually the first support person decided that they had "helped" enough and closed the ticket. Frustrated with their unwillingness to give me an answer other than generalizations of "teamwork and togetherness!" platitudes, I reopened the ticket, and that's where things became downright incredulous.

My Message:

Here, let me boil it down to one simple question:

If I play off-meta (champions or playstyle), and as long as I am adhering to the Summoner's Code, is it possible for MY TEAMS REPORT'S over the course of hundreds of games, MAY RESULT in a manual review and/or punishment from Riot Games?

Then I get a reply from a different support staffer, (which is clearly a copy-paste, and doesn't even apply to me):

I'm sorry that I had to be the bearer of bad news, but all of the context regarding your suspension has been fully explained. We stand firm on our decision and we consider this matter closed.

At this point, I'm assuming they are just playing hot potato with my tickets and closing them out as fast as possible. I reply with:

My questions have NOT been answered, you and other support staff continue to ignore them with cookie cutter responses, and now you don't even know what I am asking -- since you just assume I have a suspension (which I do not).

I request someone higher up on the chain of command that can answer my question I posited in the last support ticket or two.

Then I get a response from the original staff member with this:

Hello again,

It looks like I've provided you with the appropriate context in ticket #26263453. Since there's no new concerns from the first post, I will be closing out this ticket now.

Name Redacted Riot Player Support Player Behavior Specialist

I repeat my request for an answer AGAIN in detail, and a third staffer replies:

Hey Summoner,

It looks like we've talked about this already in ticket #26263453. Unfortunately there isn't anything further we can do for you. Since this is the case, I'll be closing the ticket now.

Name Redacted Riot Games Player Support

At this point I'm pretty livid, because nowhere in any of the messages received from Riot's "Support" is a clearly defined answer given to me, in response to directly defined question(s) regarding off-meta champ selects being forced to compromise to the "will" of the rest of the team. Instead I am offered vaguely written responses that amount to "just do teamwork and use common sense".

This is straight out unacceptable. As someone who's worked for years in the customer support industry both retail and private sector, this sort of denial to provide the most basic of services -- answering a direct question to the satisfaction of the customer -- is gratuitous in its negligence to the tenets of customer service and support.

I petition @Riot Tantram or @Riot WookieCookie or whoever is in charge of these staffers at Player Behavior, look into this. And I'm still looking for a direct answer to my specific questions I requested of Riot, multiple times. I will continue to open tickets, and in the meantime (besides this public post), I will be seeking other methods of reaching someone at Riot in order to get my answers.

53 Comments

Martensitic3/4/2017, 1:17:31 PM15 votes

Now with that said, this post is not about that issue. This post is about Riot's Support Staff flat out refusing to answer my specific question(s).

No, this post is about them not giving you the answer you wanted to hear.

They answered your question. They did their job. The only "problem" is, that you didn't like the answer.

So you did the thing EVERYONE, who ever worked in customer support, experienced, and hates like the literal plague: You start repeating yourself, with slight variations to your original question, but not changing the content in any meaningful way, over and over and over and over again, in an attempt to get an answer that is more to your liking than the one you got.

Thing is, pleasing someone, is not the support staffs job. The support staffs job is to privide ACCURATE information.

And something everyone who ever worked in customer support also knows, is that there is only one useful way to deal with such a situation if it has gone past a certain point: Hang up.

Because there are other people waiting.

EvilDustMan3/4/2017, 2:34:16 PM5 votes

I still don't see how you don't understand. Both the Nunu and the singed were holding games hostage and being kind of an asshole.

Can you play off meta? Yes. Can you be an asshole about it. No.

Sarutobi3/4/2017, 4:39:52 PM3 votes

You clearly have no idea how support services work. It's a shame that they have to deal with people like you possible in the hundreds, if not thousands. They answered your question you just didn't like the answer. It's pretty clear to me!

SwainLaneWinGame3/4/2017, 2:49:03 PM1 votes

P.S. I expect the post be be downvoted often by those who assume Riot has done no wrong in terms of off-meta play and their wacky punishments -- however there is still fundamentally wrong with the system and particularly with their support staff who keep dancing around the questions with vagueness, which is what I am addressing here with these support tickets.

When your staff, as a company, implicitly state something as "fact" (the guidelines on their support portal page), then run contrary to those guidelines with punishments against players following said guidelines -- simply because of hivemind mentality / mob rule, then you have a problem. When your support staff then cannot answer simple, direct questions, it is because of those inconsistencies in how the system has handled these things; therefore no support staffer can give a straightforward answer.

(Not so) Hypothetical question: If I pick champion X, but some/all of my teammates want me to play champion Y, if I continue to play champion X against their demands and am reported, who is liable for punishment? Who made the "negative environment"? Who forced whom? Are we bound to conforming to the demands of any/all of our teammates in a randomized game lobby, or do we not have agency over our own games individually as players?

(Not so) Hypothetical answers: A. Yes, each player has agency over their own game and decisions within the game, including whether or not they follow up with requests/demands from other players. Players have agency on how they play and what they play, within a specified set of guidelines -- so long as those differences do not negatively impact the team's game as a whole or purposely infringe upon another player's agency within the game.

B. No, each player is not given agency over their own game, and should any player at the behest or demand of another teammate (either one or all) be specified to play (or not play) a certain champion or certain way, then that player must conform.

There's really only two possible scenarios and these are the type of direct answers that might be given to such a detailed question.

Had I originally asked something along the lines of "Hey is it ok if I do different stuff than what my team wants in game", then perhaps the "answers" provided by support would have sufficed.

But giving vague answers such as "just use common sense and work together with your team, remember that team moral and cohesion is the best way to play! Communication is the key!" does not tell me anything about the 'what ifs'.

If this logic doesn't make sense to you, then you either are a hardcore Riot apologist, or you don't have critical thinking skills and fail miserably with common sense.