What does it take or does anyone care?
I'm sitting here wondering, what does it take to become an ARK/GM? Do they even screen or monitor these people at all? I must admit personally that I have had only good interactions with ARKs and GMs. I was stuck once, and was promptly moved as soon as I could be. I petitioned for a name change (because somehow my female character had a male first name) and it was handled in less than 30 minutes. So, my interactions with FC have been overall satisfactory (aside from a bililng issue that could have been resolved in two minutes if FC had an 800 number to call for customer service not related to gameplay).
It is with that preface that I say this, unfortunately my good experiences seem to be the minority of all interatcions with FC and their ARKs/GMs. I base this opinion soley on the multiple posts in these forums. I mean, how many players have to quit before FC starts listening? But then again, the only thing that anyone at FC with any influence ever sees is th bottom line. And the bottom line is their number of accounts are growing or staying the same. After all, why worry about keeping customer when you have new customers joining? I can tell you from first hand experience that this is two things, 1) A way of life for large corporations, and 2) Not acceptable.
I work as a customer service associate for a Fortune 500 company. My company serves over 45 million customers in the U.S. as well as 16 other countries. We have recieved many awards and commendations for providing excellent customer service, as well as the top ranking for our industry 3 consecutive years. The division that I am in handles my companie's interactions with the U.S. Govt., and for anyone that has ever dealt with any part of the U.S. Govt, you are aware that they can easily be the most difficult of customers. Our office is repeatedly given accolades bye Govt offices that claim our service level to be above that of any other company they deal with. I have even personally been commendated for service that I provided for the President of the U.S. Why do our customer service associates consistantly provide excellant service (in 2 years no a single complaint has been made about ANYONE in our office) and FC's ARKs/GMs consistantly fail to meet the expectations of the AO community? Simple, we are well compensated for our work, therefor we are happy employees and do great job each day trying to actually help our customers.
FC needs to follow the lead and put the ARKs on the payroll (I'm assuming the GMs already are, which means they need a raise). In addition to this, they all need to be trained on how to solve problems and properly interact with customers. FC, you need to give you first line of service (ARKs/GMs) actuall power to do something like replace items that were lost due to bugs. And while you're at it, hold those same people responsible for their actions, if they help someone cheat, fire them. And while we're on the subject of cheaters, if you catch someone cheating, ban them from the game. But thats not enough either, you must give ARKs/GMs a way to proactively search out cheaters and remove them from the game.
I personally have a limited amount of time I can spend playing, around 15-16 hours a week, but I am seriously considering applying to become an ARK(even though you're required to dedicate 10 hours a week to the ARK program). I want to do it because I am sick and tire of seeing good players leave because of things like this. I have firm beliefs regarding how customers should be treated and feel that I could at least make a little bit of a difference. I would like to know if anyone out there in the AO community thinks that it would be worth my time or effort, or if anyone would even care that I was trying to help out?
