The Importance of a Cordial Response

A few months back, I was playing my favorite Open-World simulation video game and I noticed I was missing one of the most expensive vehicles in my garage. To my amusement, I received a confession that my car had been replaced by a much more affordable and lackluster vehicle earlier in the week by accident. In a way, I figured that I understood customer service and interactions with other humans because of my work history, and that it was possible to restore my vehicle and the previous settings.

The first email I had sent customer support had been received with very little recognition. It stated that while they were very sorry for the loss of my vehicle, there was never any proof that I had even lost it in the first place.

I was frustrated, but I also realized that one of the more reasonable aspects of the in-game play, is that there are periodic rewards for “Good In-Game Behavior” (to a tune of $GTA2,000 every few hours of positive game play). In my response, I decided to cut my losses and take Ownership of the idea that I understood exactly what the Customer Support Team told me to accept. I wrote them back a letter of my resignation:

“Hello Support Team,

Thank you for your response and getting back to me in a timely manner. I understand you are pretty swamped, because it looks like this issue is happening to several other end users in the last week. I saw several posts on (a streaming channel) and on the (Company) Support forums about a lot of cars going missing.

It is obviously no fault of your own, it is just frustrating because the Oppressor MK II vehicle was one that I loved and it was very near and dear to me. I was hoping that there would be a more logical explanation for a nearly $4 million dollar vehicle disappearing, but alas, the present moment is very surreal and hard to believe at times.

Thank you again”


I sent my response back to Oblivion, where some Customer Service Bot would find it and respond in-kind, possibly denying its original response or rejecting me a second time. I sent it off without expecting anything back in return. I was just saddened because I really enjoyed playing the video game during my stay-at-home order.


Eight hours later, I received a response back to my letter from the company’s support staff:

“Hello,

We are very sorry to hear that you cannot access your Oppressor MKII in (the video game). We checked your account and unfortunately found that you replaced your Oppressor MKII with a Hakuchou in your garage.

Vehicles can be replaced if you try to store a vehicle in a garage that is already full. When this happens, you can choose a vehicle to replace to make room for the vehicle you want to store. As soon as you confirm, your selected vehicle will be permanently replaced.

If you try to park a newly purchased or stolen vehicle that has not yet been parked in another garage in the top slot of your nightclub, the vehicle already parked there will also be replaced.

To avoid this happening, we recommend that you only try to store vehicles in garages that still have free space.

As a one-time accommodation, we have added (GTA$4,007,720) to your account for the replaced vehicle and mods. You should see these funds the next time you log into your account.

Best regards,

The Support Team“


I was floored, flabbergasted even. My cordial response received an even more cordial response and that small act of kindness really helped to elevate my mood and make my day. It also taught me that a level of respect, no matter its level of significance can make a big difference in positive interactions. I have always wanted to thank the customer service team at large video game support forums who really try to take human interaction into account when dealing with personal issues.

I believe the most common response would be to troll or escalate the situation with insults and anger. However, I selected to take a very calm route and understand that sometimes, unfortunate things happen and I was able to navigate the storm successfully that way.


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