You are right, it took 3ish days, not bad considering it was weekend and if you really want to get technical, they do not even have to restore your acount, there is something in the TOS about acount sharing, they rather keep people as client so they DO investigate and learn ussually learn the acount details where obtained through keylogging, phishing mail or keyloggers.
THey take the time and efford to check up what happened to an acount due the lack of security on YOUR end. They dont do it because they have to, they do it because its fairly cheap for them to check and re-instate your acount, customer happy and stays.. a customer.
I am not going to pretend I understand blizzard's financial motivations for what they do, because it seems to me like the entirety of their CS staff spends their days dealing with compromised accounts (going off of AMA topics of former blizz employees). I imagine they would save tons of money on staff alone if they would implement one or more of the simple checks I listed earlier on their side. There is a reason every other company has already implemented them, and I imagine it is a combination of saving money on CS staff and avoiding angry customers.
I haven't got any idea why blizzard chooses to be a special butterfly in this regard. My only thought is that they may be getting some banned players just buying new accounts, as they were very successful doing on wow. It does not make sense to me that the same would be occurring with D3 bannings, though.
Edit: IIRC Turbine actually also has very poor CS times and lack of secondary account security. So at least blizzard isn't alone. Will have to check.
You are right, it took 3ish days, not bad considering it was weekend and if you really want to get technical, they do not even have to restore your acount, there is something in the TOS about acount sharing, they rather keep people as client so they DO investigate and learn ussually learn the acount details where obtained through keylogging, phishing mail or keyloggers.
THey take the time and efford to check up what happened to an acount due the lack of security on YOUR end. They dont do it because they have to, they do it because its fairly cheap for them to check and re-instate your acount, customer happy and stays.. a customer.
I am not going to pretend I understand blizzard's financial motivations for what they do, because it seems to me like the entirety of their CS staff spends their days dealing with compromised accounts (going off of AMA topics of former blizz employees). I imagine they would save tons of money on staff alone if they would implement one or more of the simple checks I listed earlier on their side. There is a reason every other company has already implemented them, and I imagine it is a combination of saving money on CS staff and avoiding angry customers.
I haven't got any idea why blizzard choses to be a special butterfly in this regard. My only thought is that they may be getting some banned players just buying new accounts, as they were very successful doing on wow. It does not make sense to me that the same would be occurring with D3 bannings, though.
Other companies put some other measures in place, the coin lock for instance, often hurts the legid user more then the hacker.. especially the ones that hacked your email box. The get a rather large amounth of emails to their CS everyday for various requests for help on various of topics, so it makes perfect sense it can take some time before you get a response.
So you going to have to wait in line before you get served. WHich can take time, unfortinately, but like the OP mentioned himself when he finally did, the issue was resolved rapidly.
Blizzard is a big company, they know, nearly every single comprimised acount is due keylogging, emailbox hacking or phishing mail. Its really simple, re-instating your acount costs them nothing and safe's them the hassle of talking to an angry and probebly lost customer, so why lose a company if it realy doesnt cost them anything to reinstate?
Even though they do not have to nor are they responsible for YOUR lacking security on YOUR own computer.
TLDR : Happy customer is a returning customer, angry customer is a lost customer.
Aha, I completely forgot about this... I knew there was a reason I couldn't/didn't want to call them beyond my general disdain for the telephone... This whole area of compromised accounts is a big enough issue that it has been split into its own separate section of their customer support. Once again, from the initial ban letter (which I have to say again, while technically did provide a reason for my being banned, is more or less akin to being told that the reason you were arrested is because you broke a law).
"Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, and how to contact them via online ticket, please visit us at http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/300515. We will be unable to investigate account actions over the phone - an online ticket is the only way to contact Account Administration."
Do I need to take a picture of my old ass blizzard keychain authenticator before you believe me? I am well aware of everything you already said.
The authenticator however does not make your account completely secure. It certainly pushes it a long way in that direction, but the responsibility should not be on the customer.
Assume your computer is compromised, like many others have been. Assume it is through a keylogger, as more and more people are becoming aware of account phishing, and several security applications help protect you from it. From this keylogger this person has access to everything you type on your computer.
That means, most likely, your full name, address, phone number, credit card info, any and all game accounts, and any other information you happen to put through your computer.
Out of all those things, the only thing they take is your blizzard account. Why?
No secondary security on blizzard's end, and terribly slow customer service. I get faster customer service from NCSoft, and that is saying a lot.
These people will not even bother attempting to use the other information they have gathered from you - everything else has far more layers of security and far faster account recovery times. Blizzard is so far behind in these categories that it is actually easier for them to focus solely on blizzard accounts, ignoring the other mass of information they gather from players even though it would be insanely profitable for them.
Not true. I have been on both sides of this issue. I've restored hundreds if not thousands of accounts while working for my online gaming company. I've also had my Blizzard account compromised and then restored.
Account security is the responsibility of the players. Like it or not - it is. Gaming companies do not want accounts to be compromised because they takes away from business. We do our part to encrypt player information and inform players to keep their information as secure as possible.
But scammers are extremely sophisticated - more so with Blizzard games then any other due to the popularity and high dollar value of Blizzard products. They target Blizzard games because they know that they have the potential to be the most profitable. Scammers will hack fansites, will set up phishing sites, will even talk players into given them their login information. They also do not stop at trying to obtain login information. I have seen phishing sites try and access credit card and billing information.
Gold sellers will turn around and steal a players information. Power leveing sites as well.
Blizzard does their part in shutting these down but they can only do so much. Remember: their main purpose is to develop and run games, not police the internet.
Id like to see your source, as with all of the massive floods of people being hacked and losing their blizzard info, including journalists, I have yet to see one person who had their other accounts accessed. I am not saying that the scammers do not have the other account information, I am saying that they do have it but do not bother because literally every single other account has an additional layer of security.
If the problem is so rampant that the player is completely unable to stop such things from getting on their computer no matter how vigilant they are (and I feel that it is this bad, and due to everybody saying that you literally need an authenticator I will take that as their agreement), then it is solely the company's responsibility. If the player cannot possibly protect his computer from this (as is the case), blizzard is aware of it (which they are), and they don't even bother to put the authenticator in the box (while being aware enough to require it for the RMAH), then they are throwing their customers under the bus. Blizzard of all companies is fully aware of how bad it is, and yet continues to choose to not even put their authenticator in the box. They continue to have the weakest account security with no login checking of any kind. They continue to have some of the worst CS times I have ever seen - as I said earlier I even had faster CS responses from NCSoft, the previous world champ. Blizzard is not just dropping the ball here; they are burying it.
Edit: The reason I bring up the lengthy CS times it is indicative of one of two problems - either the game is so successful that even the small percent of players with issues is too great for the CS team to handle, or there is an inherent problem that the company needs to address to relieve some of the pressure. The solution to the first problem is simple - if your game is doing that well you can afford to hire more people (blizzard actually did the opposite, recently laying off 600). If the game has an inherent problem with a lack of ip checking on the account... well, you add the ip checking.
edit2: Another thing worth pointing out is the ease with which blizzard could implement this - they already have a foundation with the phone authentication service (the one I referred to earlier, that I said I thought was misnamed and gave a link to, not the one that generates a code with no connection). The service at the moment seems to be poor at best by blizzard's own description, as they recommend people avoid it in favor of the other authenticators. If they simply fixed that service up, their problems would drop drastically. They could ask for the phone number at the time of account creation, the player could just forget about it.
Why they have not bothered to do this while raking in money hand over fist is a mystery to everybody.
call your credit card company and have a chargeback issued for not giving you what you paid for, a game you can play.
You people need to stop doing this. In case of getting banned it's bullshit and at some point it's going to come back to all of us, yes, CC companies like gamers. They don't like hastle because they're dealing with little entitled kids.
As for the OP, sorry to hear it man. Of course, we have no way to verify your random internet story, but sucks if true.
You think thats bad today 5k accounts were forum banned for complaining about the state of the game or questioning the devs. And another 2k were perm banned from game for it. They are litterly turing the game into a facist state of silence and acceptance.
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
i've been waiting for these posts to start
the time of joy is upon us brothers and sisters!
there is ALWAYS a reason for a ban, nothing happens without cause.
blizzard bans come with a mail, make sure your spamfolder didnt catch it.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
I am not going to pretend I understand blizzard's financial motivations for what they do, because it seems to me like the entirety of their CS staff spends their days dealing with compromised accounts (going off of AMA topics of former blizz employees). I imagine they would save tons of money on staff alone if they would implement one or more of the simple checks I listed earlier on their side. There is a reason every other company has already implemented them, and I imagine it is a combination of saving money on CS staff and avoiding angry customers.
I haven't got any idea why blizzard chooses to be a special butterfly in this regard. My only thought is that they may be getting some banned players just buying new accounts, as they were very successful doing on wow. It does not make sense to me that the same would be occurring with D3 bannings, though.
Edit: IIRC Turbine actually also has very poor CS times and lack of secondary account security. So at least blizzard isn't alone. Will have to check.
Other companies put some other measures in place, the coin lock for instance, often hurts the legid user more then the hacker.. especially the ones that hacked your email box. The get a rather large amounth of emails to their CS everyday for various requests for help on various of topics, so it makes perfect sense it can take some time before you get a response.
So you going to have to wait in line before you get served. WHich can take time, unfortinately, but like the OP mentioned himself when he finally did, the issue was resolved rapidly.
Blizzard is a big company, they know, nearly every single comprimised acount is due keylogging, emailbox hacking or phishing mail. Its really simple, re-instating your acount costs them nothing and safe's them the hassle of talking to an angry and probebly lost customer, so why lose a company if it realy doesnt cost them anything to reinstate?
Even though they do not have to nor are they responsible for YOUR lacking security on YOUR own computer.
TLDR : Happy customer is a returning customer, angry customer is a lost customer.
Aha, I completely forgot about this... I knew there was a reason I couldn't/didn't want to call them beyond my general disdain for the telephone... This whole area of compromised accounts is a big enough issue that it has been split into its own separate section of their customer support. Once again, from the initial ban letter (which I have to say again, while technically did provide a reason for my being banned, is more or less akin to being told that the reason you were arrested is because you broke a law).
"Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, and how to contact them via online ticket, please visit us at http://us.battle.net/support/
Not true. I have been on both sides of this issue. I've restored hundreds if not thousands of accounts while working for my online gaming company. I've also had my Blizzard account compromised and then restored.
Account security is the responsibility of the players. Like it or not - it is. Gaming companies do not want accounts to be compromised because they takes away from business. We do our part to encrypt player information and inform players to keep their information as secure as possible.
But scammers are extremely sophisticated - more so with Blizzard games then any other due to the popularity and high dollar value of Blizzard products. They target Blizzard games because they know that they have the potential to be the most profitable. Scammers will hack fansites, will set up phishing sites, will even talk players into given them their login information. They also do not stop at trying to obtain login information. I have seen phishing sites try and access credit card and billing information.
Gold sellers will turn around and steal a players information. Power leveing sites as well.
Blizzard does their part in shutting these down but they can only do so much. Remember: their main purpose is to develop and run games, not police the internet.
Id like to see your source, as with all of the massive floods of people being hacked and losing their blizzard info, including journalists, I have yet to see one person who had their other accounts accessed. I am not saying that the scammers do not have the other account information, I am saying that they do have it but do not bother because literally every single other account has an additional layer of security.
If the problem is so rampant that the player is completely unable to stop such things from getting on their computer no matter how vigilant they are (and I feel that it is this bad, and due to everybody saying that you literally need an authenticator I will take that as their agreement), then it is solely the company's responsibility. If the player cannot possibly protect his computer from this (as is the case), blizzard is aware of it (which they are), and they don't even bother to put the authenticator in the box (while being aware enough to require it for the RMAH), then they are throwing their customers under the bus. Blizzard of all companies is fully aware of how bad it is, and yet continues to choose to not even put their authenticator in the box. They continue to have the weakest account security with no login checking of any kind. They continue to have some of the worst CS times I have ever seen - as I said earlier I even had faster CS responses from NCSoft, the previous world champ. Blizzard is not just dropping the ball here; they are burying it.
Edit: The reason I bring up the lengthy CS times it is indicative of one of two problems - either the game is so successful that even the small percent of players with issues is too great for the CS team to handle, or there is an inherent problem that the company needs to address to relieve some of the pressure. The solution to the first problem is simple - if your game is doing that well you can afford to hire more people (blizzard actually did the opposite, recently laying off 600). If the game has an inherent problem with a lack of ip checking on the account... well, you add the ip checking.
edit2: Another thing worth pointing out is the ease with which blizzard could implement this - they already have a foundation with the phone authentication service (the one I referred to earlier, that I said I thought was misnamed and gave a link to, not the one that generates a code with no connection). The service at the moment seems to be poor at best by blizzard's own description, as they recommend people avoid it in favor of the other authenticators. If they simply fixed that service up, their problems would drop drastically. They could ask for the phone number at the time of account creation, the player could just forget about it.
Why they have not bothered to do this while raking in money hand over fist is a mystery to everybody.
You people need to stop doing this. In case of getting banned it's bullshit and at some point it's going to come back to all of us, yes, CC companies like gamers. They don't like hastle because they're dealing with little entitled kids.
As for the OP, sorry to hear it man. Of course, we have no way to verify your random internet story, but sucks if true.
You think thats bad today 5k accounts were forum banned for complaining about the state of the game or questioning the devs. And another 2k were perm banned from game for it. They are litterly turing the game into a facist state of silence and acceptance.
+1 the best thing about using a credit card is it gives you the purchasing power.
you clearly deserved the ban, failtrollfails