In my business experience, good will does have a monetary value. $0 is infact a monetary value, after all.they have something called "Good-will" that has a monetary value placed on it.
Only insofar as it affects sales. I dont think the number of people they lose to CS equates to the amount they would have to spend to improve it. Sure, lots of people say they will never play another Verant (now SOE), game... I dont really beleive it from all of them.. again, will enough never play a Verant game again to warrant the amount of money it would take to fix the problem?Its good business practice to keep people happy with your product, and with your business.
I also think that more people have not had problems with CS than have. I have been playing since beta, and have had only one minor CS problem in that time. While I agree that their CS leaves something to be desired, is it bad enough, and effecting enough of the player base to really tick off that many people? And do those people quit, or do they ebay? Ebaying is not a loss of revenue for SOE..
--Jeeves