Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Ridiculously overzealous banning policies...
SkinFlayer
Member UncommonPosts: 21
Okay, so I've been poking around various Diablo III forums and threads, but have decided to start my very own because I feel the need to bitch about a few things.
Now, let me start by saying that at the core, I quite enjoy Diablo III, or at least I really want to. My problems have not been with the game itself, but rather the infrastructure supporting it and the company publishing it. Both of which have, to me at least, been absolutely atrocious.
I purchased this game more or less on a late night whim when unable to sleep, so naturally I went the digital download route (not too many game stores open at 2-3 in the morning). I mention this because I have seen an abundance of "well, you should have bought the physical retail version" comments from people which piss me off to absolutely no end. There is absolutely no justification for differing treatment of customers based on their method of purchase. All of us have paid money for a product/service, and thus have equal right to expect this product/service to function as advertised. Or just to function, period.
All of this is just leading up to my main complaint; having been banned with no explanation, and for absolutely no reason. Had I actually done something which violated the ToS, then I wouldn't be here complaining. However, unless simply logging into my account, picking which of my toons I wanted to play at the moment, and pressing "Resume" constitute a ToS violation (done no RMAH trading, no botting, no hacking, no exploits, no third party apps, nothing other than solo through the majority of Act I on Normal with each of the different classes), I have been banned for no reason whatsoever. I'd even be able to tolerate this if Blizzard could be bothered to at least confirm receipt of my appeal, but after 3 days and not so much as a peep from customer support, I'm really beginning to become disheartened.
I want to like this game, I really do. It's got some great atmosphere, some interesting takes on character classes, and a decent amount of personality. Sure there are a lot of rough edges, the graphics are dated, and the fixed veiwpoint immovable camera angle is outright archaic in this day and age, but on the whole the game isn't that bad. It's not groundbreaking, it's not the best action RPG out there, it's not the best Diablo there's been, but it does have its charms. All of which are completely lost however if you can't play the damn game you shelled out your cash for in the first place. Maybe Blizzard is working on a new business model; get a few million people to buy a game, then release a patch which bans most of them, and refuse to reply to any of their complaints. If so, well, they're welcome to ruin their company in any manner they wish, I'd just like them to leave me out of it.
At this point, I'm just becoming so fed up with the experience that I don't even know if I want them to bother unbanning me. I think I'd probably just be happier getting my $60 back. Because as things stand right now, this is the most I've ever paid to NOT play a game. But of course, I can't get my money back because the company is simply ignoring my existence. Way to alienate your customers Blizz. Really, I mean it, in my 27 years of video gaming, I have never had a worse experience with a game or spent more time attempting to play a game only to be thwarted at every turn (lag spikes, server disconnects, random booting by GM's, maintenance downtime, and now banning).
Comments
call your credit card company and have a chargeback issued for not giving you what you paid for, a game you can play.
People always say they are banned for no reason, most of the time they have been banned for good reason. It really is very rare someone gets banned without reason.
But right or wrong.. if you did get banned you wont get your money back.
man dont use bots
Chargeback should be your last resort. If you chargeback you will potentially null in void yourself to ever playing another Blizzard game using that CC.
Chargebacks aren't normally recieved well by companies and they will not deal with the customer again in alot of cases. If you go the right route and are persistant enough you can get your situation settled without having to go the chargeback route.
1) Call Blizzard
2) Go hard
3) ???
4) Profit..
This of course if your story is true and you did not wrong in getting your account banned. Also no, just because you feel its alright to bot, gold-farm or anything other thing that might violate the ToS does not make you a victim to the system. If your story holds water.. Then you will more than likely get your situation resolved after calling and speaking senseably with a CSR..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
" I have been banned for no reason whatsoever. "
Usually around this point you know the OP did something that they aren't admitting to.
LoL.. Sad but true..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Here is another problem with the charge back, IF your CC company does their job properly they'll contact blizzard to nvestigate the issue, when they hear you are banned they wont give your money back.
Let me reiterate, since this appears to be an incredibly difficult concept for people to grasp, but I have done NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING which could by any stretch of the imagination be contrued as having violated to ToS of Diablo III (or any other game for that matter, in this context at least).
My Diablo III history has consisted of precisely the following: I created one toon for each of the available classes. I have ONLY played solo. I've played through Act I and the very beginning of Act II on Normal mode only. I have interacted with exactly 0 other players. I have said exactly 0 things in any chat channel in the game. I have looked at the AH and the RMAH exactly 0 times. I have spent exactly $0 beyond the initial purchase price on this game. The "being randomly booted by GM's" which I mentioned has been exactly that. I log into a character, and about 20 seconds later get booted back to the account logon screen. At which point (until the ban) I would be able to log back into the same character and play with no issues whatsoever (at least until the connection to the Battle.net servers would become too unstable to play anymore). Never have I been given a reason beyond "suspicious game activity". Is logging into a character to play really that suspicous? Is it because all of my characters have the same name? If so, then there should be a name validity/availability checker implemented. Is it because I have more than one character slot used? If so, then we shouldn't be given 8 or 10 available slots for characters.
I said this before, but it bears mentioning again. Had I actually done something which could merit banning, I wouldn't be complaining here. As a general rule I exist somewhat on the fringes of legality, and I am and have always been completely willing to accept any potential consequences such a life may bring some day, but in this particular instance I went the completely 100% legal and valid route, and ironically it has been the one time I've been really screwed by things.
Also worth mentioning here is that I purchased the game back on the 12'th of June, so there are absolutely no potential issue with this whole 72 hour waiting period until the transaction clears thing they've implemented.
I really don't understand why people seem incapable of accepting these things as facts. Okay, yeah, most people are lying assholes, especially when on the internet, and I do try to take that factor into account. But it is still disheartening to be forcefully reminded that regardless of truthfulness, innocence (situational at least), or any other generally considered positive traits, the automatic assumption is that I'm a lying bastatrd, and I obviously must have done something wrong. You know what I have to say to that? Screw you and the horse you rode in on.
And if you repeatedly perform chargebacks your credit rating will suffer.
Apparently reading comprehension has decreased drastically in recent years.
Let me try this one last time.
NO BOTTING
NO HACKS
NO EXPLOITS
NO CHEATS
NO THIRD PARTY APPS
NO GOLD FARMING
NO RMAH
NO ANYTHING BEYOND SOLO PLAY OF ACT I
I can't put it any simpler than that. You all are free to choose to believe me or not I suppose. The lack of willingness to do so is a tad disturbing and points to some far deeper social issues within the gaming community, but I have little faith in humanity anyway.
I purchased this game because I played both Diablo I and II when they were released, and I wanted to see how the story continued. As such, what use would I have for any of these things? I have less than no interest in maxxing out characters or gear. I have no interest in hardcore mode. I have relatively little interest in even playing through the game more than once after finishing Normal.
If you are truly clean in this situation and I mean completely clean. Like not having a prior account banned and just purchasing a new account to try and start fresh clean. Then you should take the passion you are showing here to Blizzard CSR.
It's really a matter of mindful persistance over the rigamaroo policy's of said company. If you were wronged the CSR person will reckongize this, but you can't go in their half-cocked on some victim stuff. Go into the conversation as a disatisfied customer not a "banned customer" explain your situation. Ask them to explain in full detail what metrics they recieved to warrant your account being banned. If they say they have no answer call bullshit and demand the metrics that warranted your ban or stress how they are in turn simply stealing your money..
Call the company lowly and decietful and stress how your money doesnt just grow on trees. If they are REAL people and you are being REAL about your situation it will get resolved more than likely. I can't call them up and say exactly what needs to be said for you but..
ANYONE who is truely wronged and feels that they have been taken advantage of will fight for their restitution. Don't get hung up on other people opinions here because we aren't Blizzard CSR. To do this you must be clean in your approach. You stated you live on the fringe of legality.. I'm not really understanding how that should apply to your situation now since you've stated you are completely legit in your complaint.
Take it to Blizzard fuck what everybody else is talking about.. It's that easy bro..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
You answered your own question.
Im sure you can see why we have a hard time believing you got banned just because they felt like banning someone and the magic 8 ball chose you.
GMs randomly disconnecting you is reason enough to wonder why, a gm forcing a logout is something you REALLY have to go all out for to get that done.
Here is another thing that is waving a major red flag, if you are innocent.. what is the problem with contacting blizzard?
Whatis the point of you posting your issue here? Nobody here can help you. Seems more like you just want to add to the Blizzard hate.
Hay guyz, I was banned for no reason! Blizzards is a greedy unfair company! Whaaaaaa!
Contact customer support and get your problem resolved. Pretty simple.
This is what I'm thinking. Everyone who has been ever been banned are innocent, just like those who fill the prisons.
Well there's actually plenty of innocent people in prision.. LoL.. That might not be the best comparision..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
Less than 1% are innocent, don't let television dramas fool you.
Less than 1%? don't let the powers that be fool you.. lol
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
It's entirely possible that the banning was a mistake by Blizzard. Rumor is they ARE human and prone to mistakes.
The OP just needs to get it fxed. Stiring up more Blizzard hate isn't helping him or anyone else.
How much time have you spent in prison? You sound like a criminal.
Umm, I'm not sure where you're getting that I have a problem contacting Blizzard from. It's actually quite the opposite. I have contacted them, they just haven't been able to be bothered to respond. I'd prefer not to have to call them because I simply don't like speaking to people on the phone. It's a personal quirk having nothing to do with the particular issue. When at all possible, I prefer to resolve issues of this sort online. Plus I'm in a different state at the moment visiting my family.
And again, you obviously don't have to ":go all out:" to be kicked to login by a GM as literally ALL I had done when this happened was to log in. I think it happened once when I logged out from one character, then logged into one of a different class. It also occurred when logging back into the game after having lost the connection to the server. If those constitute "going all out", then we have drastically different interpretations of the phrase.
don't let the conspiracy theorists fool you. i'm not laughing.
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
Im not ruling out the posibility they made a mistake, it happens and if they did they will have it resolved, all it takes is patience but here is the thing.
This strikes me as odd, if you are so innocent, which you may very well be, again what is the problem with contacting them?
Zero.. Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
I understand why people choose to be blind to things. It is a dark and disturbing view.. and that's no laughing matter..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.