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Blizzards new approach to Customer Support
qbangy32
Member Posts: 681
I used to be a subscriber to World of Warcraft but have since left the game after a year and a half due to the lack of casual content, I now have returned to EverQuest 2 to get my daily MMO fix.
I am a member of a multi-gaming community that supports WoW/EQ2 and other mmo's and recently we have had a few of our members find their accounts had been hacked, my own and my sons account had also been hacked.
A member named Kruppe playing on the Dragonmaw server with the guild Northstar legion (thats our guild) has over the last few weeks been taking a break from WoW and enjoying his time playing EQ2 with friends. Kruppe decided to check in on his old friends in WoW but instead of finding his epic equipped characters he was faced with a nice clean character sheet. Needless to say he was rather quick in sending a ticket to the GM's and his account was duly suspended pending an investigation.
Now Kruppe is no fool, he is an engineer in RL and takes PC security very seriously but somehow the hackers managed to get in and shard all his equipment and delete his characters. He was ofc quite reassured that Blizzard would be able to resolve this problem for him.
About a week later Kruppe's characters where reinstated, he logged on but found he was staring at a lot of naked characters, he then found an in-game email from a GM stating that he needed to pay 151 gold to get his items back, this apparently is to keep the economy healthy?
Is this Blizzards attempt at trying to put claimants off by forcing them to pay for becoming a victim to online crime?
Seems to me Blizzard are trying to avoid taking the full action necessary when an account has been breached, have they become so assured of their status as the preferred MMO game that they now need not look after subscribers who have fallen foul of the account hackers that are now rampant.
If this is the type of action that is to be dealt out to customers who have lost everything, how long will it be before it makes it's way into the games magazines or the popular MMO sites that advertise these games, treating your customers this way is not the right way to win new customers or to keep existing customers.
Perhaps this is a mistake but perhaps this is the shape of things to come, if it is the future of Blizzards support then subscribers beware, one false step and you will be paying the price for someone else's mistakes.
I had to post this here as my friend and fellow guildie has posted on the Blizzard official forums but it seems as if his post has been deleted, probably something to do with bad publicity, but this issue needs to be made public to make ppl aware who are currently playing WoW exactly what will happen to them if they get hacked through no fault of their own.
Comments
I've had a character "compromised" before. It's funny how blizzard will "suspend" the account until you can prove your identity to them.. Which is no easy task, first they request you fax them your ID, which their fax line is constantly busy, so that takes 2 days worth of trying, oh... and it's a non-toll-free number, so the 300 tries to fax to them, costs you money...
Then, it takes them a week to "investigate" - all the while your account is susspended, you can't even log into the website... BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE, BLIZZARD IS STILL BILLING YOU FOR THIS TIME!
After their week long investigation, yay! You get your character back! But oh no, he's naked!
Well, now wait 3 more weeks to get your gear back, all while paying the bill.
I do play WoW still, not as much after that incident, because think about this....
All the people in Naxx guild, who spend 12 hours a day raiding... what for?! Blizzard clearly states they can take your stuff, ban your account, delete you, or otherwise do anything they want, with no appeals process, no content, and no chance of ever seeing it again.... So why put the effort into a game like that?!
Just to lose it all!?
No thanks.
Hey TSW Players http://www.unfair.co/ for Mission guides, Lore Locations and stuff....
It's just sad to see a company that many of us have probably had alot of praise for in the past for their well polished games to see them then treat paying customers as if THEY are the guilty ones when getting hacked, as if they did it on purpose.
When I got hacked it must have been by a retard because all they did was deguild me (I suspected my sons but they didn't crack under interogation) so I was damn lucky, not so for my friend Kruppe who has now Cancelled his account after this experience, he was going to try out TBC but what if he got hacked again, he would have to go through the same process again and perhaps next time Blizzard would just completely refuse to reinstate his charactes because of past issues with his account being previously hacked, who knows.
His and mine are but 2 accounts out of millions that still subscribe, i left due to content he left due to the support when he needed it, Blizzard need to look after ALL their customers, no matter how big you get now, one day something better comes along and knocks you off the perch and thats when each customer subscribing really starts to become important, there are plenty of examples here on this site of games that have fallen out of favour.
My idea about Blizzard is that they would do ANYTHING for the costumers. Do wont make any problems with your in-game characters or items. That, as long you pay them. They will do anything to earn some money on innoicent players. I bet you even can let GMs walk through Stormwind City with a donkey disguise if you pay for it.
Shame on you, Blizzard!
The fact they asked for money to return "llegedly stolen items is
actualy going out of their way to help their customer. I dont undestand
why people think that if they get hacked, its not their fault or
responcibility. Are you insured? No? then its your responcibility, not
blizzards. Its VERY unlikely that he got hacked through WoW client. Most likely, he got "phished" or he has a trojan on his PC.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
No, but is someone stole it from my bank account I would.
this is a load of bullshit, i have dealt with compromised chars and deleted chars in wow before.
they have reinstated my complete character with evere single item he had, including bank etc etc.
your lieing your ass off on this story, its BS
this is a load of bullshit, i have dealt with compromised chars and deleted chars in wow before.
they have reinstated my complete character with evere single item he had, including bank etc etc.
your lieing your ass off on this story, its BS
This is the gut reaction I had as well. I knew someone who got hacked a while back, but he is upfront about downloading mods and such. He knew he did wrong, but blizz fixed his situation. IIRC, it took a couple days to recover.
No, but is someone stole it from my bank account I would.
Bank account is a bad example becuase they are insured. Thats the ONLY reason they would reinburse. The wallet eample is a better one because u r not insured, noone but you or the thief realy knows that that money was stolen from you.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
ok, so how can u prove that your account was stolen and u didnt just give away all your stuff? Nothing on your account is insured, so YOU are personaly responcible to anything that happen to it. Unless of course it is blizzard fault, like server goes down and your character is damaged. In that case yes, they should and probably would restore your chars and items. But if your account gets hijacked, well, thats your own fault. Its a double sided medal. With this system people who are getting hacked are pissed becuase they lose items and lose fun. But with a system where a company would actively monitor all security (access your computer to see if it is you who is accessing your account) would create even bigger outcry. How would u feel if in order to play WoW you would have to swipe your drivers licence at a special senters where you could play WoW? Or where ud have to buy a machine to scan your eye retina in order to verify your identity and login into wow? Just look how much whining a simple cookie access by WoW client brought up? Ridiculous, I know.
Internet, and computers in general, are very unsafe. There is NO way for companies to ensure security from your side. You have to do that. Its your choice, either you be responcible for your accounts security, or let companies do it THEIR way (and Im betting you are not gonna like it that way)
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
I try to highlight an issue that has raised it's ugly head in WoW and posters like erinys have to resort to using childish language to try to look important, what a sad world we live in.
In my post I mentioned that I had been hacked and that my sons account had been hacked, he is 14, my experience is totally different from Kruppe's, My account had not been deleted or lost any items, the character had just logged on and then deguilded themselves, however my sons account lost all his items and gold but his characters remained, he after a week of account suspension had all his items reimbursed and we have had no further problems with his account, so the out come of that hack was good for us, he got all his stuff back with no hassle.
Jump forward a few months and warning posted on Blizzards main site that Hacking is becoming epidemic and suddenly we find that a spanner has been thrown into the works, Kruppe had to find all his original details and the hardest part for him was remembering his secret question, he didn't have to ring it was all via email and after a week and a bit he got his account back minus the items which as I have said now require him to pay 151 gold, an odd request but still a fact, not a lie not BS but unfortunately a fact.
I've given you doubters a players name his server his guild, when I have seen posts that bring up problem when someone has been ripped off usually those small details are missing so you can not verify the story, that's when the story sounds fishy.
ok, so how can u prove that your account was stolen and u didnt just give away all your stuff? Nothing on your account is insured, so YOU are personaly responcible to anything that happen to it. Unless of course it is blizzard fault, like server goes down and your character is damaged. In that case yes, they should and probably would restore your chars and items. But if your account gets hijacked, well, thats your own fault. Its a double sided medal. With this system people who are getting hacked are pissed becuase they lose items and lose fun. But with a system where a company would actively monitor all security (access your computer to see if it is you who is accessing your account) would create even bigger outcry. How would u feel if in order to play WoW you would have to swipe your drivers licence at a special senters where you could play WoW? Or where ud have to buy a machine to scan your eye retina in order to verify your identity and login into wow? Just look how much whining a simple cookie access by WoW client brought up? Ridiculous, I know.
Internet, and computers in general, are very unsafe. There is NO way for companies to ensure security from your side. You have to do that. Its your choice, either you be responcible for your accounts security, or let companies do it THEIR way (and Im betting you are not gonna like it that way)
It was a sample to prove the post I quoted was ridiculous. I agree that Blizzard community can't do much again these hackers and that it is your own responsibility, but if they want, they are able to refund the lost items.
For starters read the first post Samuraisword as this was initially about Kruppe, I used my son as an example to those that think it's normal for Blizzard to charge in-game currency to get your items back after being hacked.
If this was to happen to any of you that are questioning the due process then by all means come back here and give your story and see if either account of how Blizzard deal with you is the same.
Ofc I realise WoW fans will be the doubters and nay sayers posting the negative responses, it's understandable, but it happened and if it happens to you please remember this post warning you about the new process
have a nice day now.
for a hacker to hack your account, that means their hacking an international based servers developed by the major company Blizzard. soo... they probably guessed the password or you got spyware (keylogger) on ur computer.
i really doubt hackers can "hack" MMORPG game servers, especially major ones like WoW using third party applications etc. next time use a more foul-proof password?
gese, some of you people are freakin morons....
This guys son gave out his password or they were using a mod and their account got compromised. Same thing for his guild leader Kruppe.
The in-game e-mail is from one of the hackers, not from Blizzard.
Quit using mods.
To the OP , Ya I feel your pain but it really sounds like they did the best they could with the worst kind of scenario even if they had ask for coin to replace supposedly stolen material. It's doubtful that any other company would have taken that much of an effort or even bothered to restore any items at all. If it was SOE that you had to deal with they would of probably said 'To bad, so sad, your dad". But it does make you wonder what most of these companies would do in situations like this tho. Rule of thumb is to not download 3rd party programs and just play the game as it was intended ( not saying anyone did of course, but not saying anyone didn't )
qbangy32,
What was the name and email address of the WoW GM who forced your friend to "pay" 150 Gold (WoW virtual currency) in order to get his gear back? If you cannot tell me his name and email, tell me why you can't.
If what you say did happen then some deatils are missing and this is why some of us find the story questionable. I'd like to help you to resolve this issue because it possibly affects a lot of players. Provide the deatils I asked for and maybe I can help. If you can't, well, then I'd have to conclude that 1) you've been misled or 2) you're attempting to mislead us.
I have heard of them needing gold to get items back, however the OP is full of BS. Here is why Blizzard GM needs the gold.
Basically if you sell your items to an NPC, the NPC gives you gold. However Blizzard has a feature where if you sell your items to an NPC you can still choose to get all the items back. All you have to do is give the NPC the money it gave you originally when you sold it to the NPC. The reason the gold was needed was not to the GM but the player was suppose to use the IN GAME TOOLS by going to the NPC and getting his items back. Seems pretty simple to me.
Obviously this guy is either Lieing or a complete retard. As far as getting his account hacked. Likely it was to someone he gave the pass too in the first place. He is lucky they could even restore his account in the first place. I have played some most games where they wont even restore your characters to the original spot before the comprimise.