Okay, I spent quite a bit of time expressing to Customer Rep. about an issue I have. The end result left me with nothing but advise to express my request on the forums.

This got me thinking, there is two serious problems I see.... This has been brought up before about transferring characters from Europe to American and vice versa. But, my particular issue wasn't just that I can't transfer my characters... (Which would yield EA more money.) But, the reasoning behind me transferring my characters is a bit deeper than that; which I also find wrong.

I started playing approximately 2 years ago, off and on. But, I got my first level 50 around November of 2012 on a European Server. (a Server suggested by friends of mine) obtained the Tionese War Leader Armor. Pardon my tastes but, looks really awesome and fits my character on a role-play level very well. The Tionese Suit was removed from the game and NOT added to collections where I could simply pay for an account wide unlock and apply it to all of my characters. (Also yielding EA more revenue.)

Now, my friends like millions of players have left the game and moved onto others. Leaving me still in very much joy with the game and with no one to play with, and no offense to the European crowd; I haven't found many that I see eye to eye with.

So I decided to continue my experience on an American Server Ebon Hawk. I found leveling the Darkside a very nice change from my Lightside path on the Euro Servers. But, I kept missing my main character, a Jedi Guardian in the Tionese War Leader Armor. I've waited well over a year to date for the option to be made available to transfer my Guardian to my American Server. I REALLY do not see a big challenge in this request. I am assuming all of our characters are some file on some hard drive on some server that can be picked up and swapped around very easily, even automated. So, why hasn't this been done yet?

Perhaps I haven't been privilege to see this from the developers point of view. But, I know other games have successfully incorporated this transaction amongst their servers. I don't understand why it hasn't been accomplished here, forgive my ignorance.

This whole experience brought up more questions though. More things I do not understand. What the customer rep. said to me for example... "I can not help you with the request of transferring the items (I've obtained) to another character." The point of the Collections was to allow players to have access to items they've obtained and duplicate them (For a price) to other characters. So they weren't stuck spending a high amount of money to share these items among multiple characters.

Why doesn't the customer reps have that authority? This is an item set that IS NOT in collections. So, in the spirit of the collection system that representative (Kate) should have full authority to honor my request, since this is something that falls into (what I perceive) a forgotten item. Something that wasn't considered in the incorporation of the collection system. And I am sure many other items like it.

Millions of players have encountered similar items that they'd have obtained and can't trade or send to other characters on their account. And once more, I've found that the customer Rep. has their hands tied behind their back preventing them from doing what should be the right thing, Honoring the spirit of the collection system.

Why should the reps have their hands free from restrictions like this? Because, The Developers may take a Very long time to address this concern, or this feature. So the reps should be able to fill in when the Devs simply can't do this on a timely fashion. I have met many Devs of many different games... Unfortunately I can't give them an A+ for their personality. Not pointing fingers, Simply a stereotype I wouldn't take to heart. But, Developers may be fully confident in producing a product for people, but isn't taking into consideration the several thousand other responsibilities that fall onto their shoulders. And nice features like this fall on deaf ears. By time it comes around in the que for something to address, I've already moved on to another game. So, in short, a long list of a stuff a Customer Rep can't do is very bad for customer retention.

Mind you, adjustments like this would help retain my subscription and even participation at the least. First, I would feel the devs are listening. Second, I would be able to invest many more hours in playing a character. Every minute I am exposed to an opportunity to spend money is a statistical probability I will spend money. So, fostering this additional need to spend time in the game should be a critical objective for the company, developers and customer reps.

What I'd like to see:

Removing the list of what Customer Reps. Can't do and add a list of what they can do.

Two fold reason here, First , I don't know what they can do, and what I've experienced to date, Is they are a really bad reason for me to be spending 15$ a month for a subscription. Since they have no defined role in the game and appear to not being able to do anything, Cut the Customer Service reps from the payroll and reduce our money subscription.

Second Reason, What they can't do isn't helpful and comes off very negatively. Why discourage your customers in reaching out for help? or even give your customers a negative tone when they seek help? This is very discouraging and poor marketing position. Why would I tell my friends to join a game with me when all they have to look forward to is negative context?

Reduce the restrictions on Customer Service Reps so they can actually help people.

More particularly with issues that can't be immediately addressed by the modifications done by the developers. They are being paid to be there by a portion of the revenue generated by customers. Enable them to be useful to the customers. Transferring a set of items that was obtained on 1 character and moved to another character SHOULD not be a restriction. And if the item is available in the collections, a Reply should be, "This item is available in collections, you can obtain a second copy there." That is acceptable. Likewise, "This item IS NOT available in collections, I can help you. " Should also be acceptable. || Mind this suggestion would apply with items that are no longer obtainable, and still useful. Cosmetic reasons is a valid justification. Obviously, but let me be clear, I am not suggesting current obtainable gear that could be used to mod and swap mods. They should be transferred mod-less, Just as we receive them from collections and only items that at one point were obtainable and are now no longer obtainable.

Enable Cross Transfer from American to European.

I seriously don't understand why this hasn't been done by now. We are able to have characters transferred from Asian Servers to American. So, I know the programming is there. And this would generate additional revenue.

Enable Cross Transfer from European to American

Same reason as posted above.

Add older sets of armor to the collections so players are able to duplicate them. And transfer the sets to new characters.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please don't let this request fall on deaf ears. And don't waste the time in getting around to it when you get around to it. I am a project manager by profession. I just laid out a scope. my suggestion to execute this scope in order would be.

1. Approval for changes to take place

2. Memo to Developers, remove the list of what Customer Representatives can't do and replace it with the list of what they can do.

3. Memo to Supervisors of Customer Service Representatives, explaining a new adjustment to policy allowing the customer service representatives to handle requests of item transfers, under the new guidelines that mods be removed from older items no longer obtainable in game and allowed to be mailed to the player character specified in request.

4. A Memo to developers to start and/or activate, The ability for players to cross transfer between European Servers / American Servers.

I don't believe this is a hard benchmark to achieve. I do not know your business model or structure so I can't begin to suggest who's desk this should fall on. I do not know if you have weekly meetings or daily meetings; or even if and when EA Reps review community feedback. But IF, this happens to be read all the way through, I would expect and appreciate this to be brought up at the following meeting after being read. And begin to process the adjustments and corrections should be deployed as outlined.

**It is safe to expect adjustments to Customer Service Reps to completed by or within the first two weeks of this issue being brought up at the following meeting.

**As for the programming of cross server transfers between Euro and American servers. I understand this maybe more involved. I do not know the skill of the programmers that would be responsible for undertaking this task, Therefore I could not place an expected completion time on this feature. However, what I could add is this is a opportunity at generating more revenue that isn't yet explored, so the person / team responsible for a task like this should be given a realistic benchmark to incorporate this feature into common practice for the community.

I truly hope this is helpful and encouraging to all those responsible for making this request come to reality.

I certainly want to thank you for taking the time to consider this proposal. And look forward to positive feedback in regards to this suggestion.

Best Regards,

Deric Carter

Mercenary at large.

I think it is a very reasonable request to be honest. This is at the end of the day a consumer product, and the desire of the end user, notably us the paying subscriber should be reflected in their policy making and the direction they take when adding features and content.

For the most part I feel they do listen as regards certain aspects of the game, such as player housing about to be introduced, PvP requests etc. But I think the actual core CSR policy needs a shake up. I think it should be a no-brainer that cross server transfers should be able to take place, cross-continent too from European to American servers. It is one of a raft of options the player should have available. transferring bound items between other characters in your legacy is my biggest gripe. The times I have been grinding for gear on a character whilst my main has something already sat gathering dust in the bank account. It screams 'artificial content' to me, as it is making your spend longer in a game than you actually need to, just because of a silly restriction that has not been well thought out.

I think as you said the introduction of a paid transfer would give EA more revenue of course, which they are never going to turn down. So I therefore think the fact that they haven't already implemented this means there is another reason why they are reluctant to do so.

Who knows, maybe this will make them start to consider your request, which I have heard asked myself many times.

Good luck.

+1

i would love to see this