It's obvious that a huge number of players, with the added stress of the hacking issues would put a big load on their CS. 3.5 days for something like this, however, keeps being bad. Customers are not the ones that got the overflow or hacking problems to happen, it is responsibility of the company.
I'm sure, however, that once the initial pressure and the mass hacking issues get solved thir CS will be faster at solving problems.
Saying the player has to understand they are slower cause they only charge for the box if a very silly claim. That alone is making agreat plea to justify the subscription model: Better CS do IS a great feature in games, and CS is something that no company that has an MMO can take ligthly.
Complaining about having your account unavailable for over 3 days is also not bashing, it is a legitimate conplaint, losing acces to your account for days, due to an error or problem on the game or developer IS a big issue, and a completely valid thing to criticize. The slo response by CS might be "understandable" but that doesn't make it excusable, both in itself and due to the fact that the original issue started by a problem or error by the service provider.
Hopefuly all this will just normalize and thigs will just work out as intended after they get out of their current rush to solve all their initial issues.
So its ok for arenaet to take care of your complaint of being on the wrong server first, then other 100,000+ hacked accounts?
they dont have to hire more customer support and there is no sub.
Why would you think that was ok? I assumed that they would complete the job on my original ticket. Tell that to the 100+ hacked accounts. I never understood this consumer defending the company for lack of what is standard.
So its ok for arenaet to take care of your complaint of being on the wrong server first, then other 100,000+ hacked accounts?
they dont have to hire more customer support and there is no sub.
Why would you think that was ok? I assumed that they would complete the job on my original ticket. Tell that to the 100+ hacked accounts. I never understood this consumer defending the company for lack of what is standard.
Great game. Terrible customer service.
As I said - still in the first week from lauch. WoW, when it lauched was terribad - I couldn't get in for a whole week because of all the server issues they were having. Let alone the tickets I put in on ther things. Nothing EVER got a respnse form them.
A.Net HAS good service, it is just they are swamped since the game JUST launched - PEOPLE GET A CLUE ON THIS POINT.
So its ok for arenaet to take care of your complaint of being on the wrong server first, then other 100,000+ hacked accounts?
they dont have to hire more customer support and there is no sub.
Why would you think that was ok? I assumed that they would complete the job on my original ticket. Tell that to the 100+ hacked accounts. I never understood this consumer defending the company for lack of what is standard.
Great game. Terrible customer service.
I'm pretty sure he is clueless regarding your OP or the progression of the thread TBH.
I do agree with others that it is a tiny bit unrealistic to expect the kind of responsive CS you get from WoW now in a freshly-launched game with the sheer volume of players it is seeing. SWTOR had some pretty horrible turn-around times on CS issues at launch as well, and they were still vastly better than Blizzard was at WoW Launch.
If you are really enjoying the game (and I hope you are) these first few weeks will be a blimp and "badge of honor" conversation point for years to come amongst the "launch vets" just like I still bring up the 90+ minutes my toon spent crouched over after looting a Copper Node in WoW.
It is annoying and frustrating as heck for you right now, but if you can put it in context and try to relax a bit. ANet has been waaaaaay more responsive then EA/BioFail was and do seem to be seriously committed to doing things as well as they can.
Originally posted by Lord.Bachus So far customer support has been on par with payed MMO´s.
Not even close dude. NO phone number to call. Something that would be fixed instantly in 99% of AAA mmos takes 3 1/2 days with this one.
AAA sub based mmorpgs are able to generate more revenue from the monthly subscrptions of there users, which enables them to contract there customer service departments out to large, corporate call centres.
Games running off the box sales alone, and trying to recoup initial costs at this point in time, do not have that luxury immediately available.
[mod edit]
3 1/2 days for a ticket response is an excellent response time for a game that just launched a week ago. You clowns need to learn some patience.
Ahh, the "no subs fee = free play" illusion.
They will probably release a $50 x-pack in 6 months you will need to buy to compete, everyone buys it and the revenue is equivalent to 6 months worth of subs fees plus the cash shop sales.....this argument doesn't hold water. A.Net will be making equal too or more than most subs based games per player per annum, count on it.
3 1/2 days for a ticket response is wretched by any standard, especially when were talking about (relatively) serious situations where that players account has been blocked, suspended, hacked, cancelled etc.
This is only one account however, i wonder how other players are finding the customer support for such issues?
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
They will probably release a $50 x-pack in 6 months you will need to buy to compete, everyone buys it and the revenue is equivalent to 6 months worth of subs fees plus the cash shop sales.....this argument doesn't hold water. A.Net will be making equal too or more than most subs based games per player per annum, count on it.
3 1/2 days for a ticket response is wretched by any standard, especially when were talking about (relatively) serious situations where that players account has been blocked, suspended, hacked, cancelled etc.
This is only one account however, i wonder how other players are finding the customer support for such issues?
You did not need to buy expansion pack to compete in GW1, I don't see why you will need it in GW2. Not to mention other MMOs expansion packs costs money as well. WoW at launch takes days after the copy-paste emails to resolve problem or even find someone to actually look at your issues.
Not to mention you can convert game currency into gem and buy expansion pack that way. I know someone got his first character slot by just converting some gold into gem.
My account got hacked but I caught it before they could change the email and such.
I changed the email to a GW2 only email. I changed the password. I contacted support to let them know.
The hackers took a few silly things from my bank like chests and mystic forge coins. My account is worthless though as I play very slow.
Anyhow, 6 emails into trying to explain to CS that I have my account and they still don't know what is going on. Furthermore they've said in autobot statements that they can not recover characters / items.
My wife's Rift account, where she had several max level characters and all the goodies that goes with raiding was hacked, everything traded off or deleted, all characters gone. Within 24 hours they had it all back (to the last backup).
Arena Net has some lessons on customer service still to learn.
3 1/2 days later, BUT they didn't put me back on my server....
I'm taking bets, three, four days to get me back on my server which is full now?
I'll say it again, great game with the worst customer service I've ever delt with. They need to get a hold of this fast. First step get a customer service phone line to call ffs.
I remember your OP before, gratz on getting your account back and sadly I doubt you will get back on your server atm. As stated with the overflow of launching issues in this area I wouldn't doubt it would take longer to get back on your server then just to move which may not be possible for you (Don't know personally obviously) , but in any case, glad to see your not one of those spammer/hackers. but then again, maybe this post is a ploy too to buy simpathy so you can link to a dev and say "See, they all beleive me!" haha, j/k
gl to yeah.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
3 1/2 days later, BUT they didn't put me back on my server.... I'm taking bets, three, four days to get me back on my server which is full now? I'll say it again, great game with the worst customer service I've ever delt with. They need to get a hold of this fast. First step get a customer service phone line to call ffs.
You can complain all you want about customer service but it's YOUR responsibility to keep your account secure. Arena Net is busy with their new mmo masterpiece. Those who use the same password for multiple sites deserve to go to the end of the support line and wait.
3 1/2 days later, BUT they didn't put me back on my server....
I'm taking bets, three, four days to get me back on my server which is full now?
I'll say it again, great game with the worst customer service I've ever delt with. They need to get a hold of this fast. First step get a customer service phone line to call ffs.
You can complain all you want about customer service but it's YOUR responsibility to keep your account secure. Arena Net is busy with their new mmo masterpiece. Those who use the same password for multiple sites deserve to go to the end of the support line and wait.
You would be the problem. Their email authentication service was broken, the links did not work and gave template errors. Had they properly tested and implemented this feature, the number of accounts being hacked would be much much less.
Accounts being hacked is just part of life now. They need to properly respond to these things or they lose, as simple as that.
Right now, sure, its painful for the user. But when someone has a high level character and their stuff gets hacked and Arena Net does not fix it, they just lost a customer who won't want to redo everything and won't give them another dime for gems.
Originally posted by jpnole Originally posted by bcbully 3 1/2 days later, BUT they didn't put me back on my server....I'm taking bets, three, four days to get me back on my server which is full now? I'll say it again, great game with the worst customer service I've ever delt with. They need to get a hold of this fast. First step get a customer service phone line to call ffs.
You can complain all you want about customer service but it's YOUR responsibility to keep your account secure. Arena Net is busy with their new mmo masterpiece. Those who use the same password for multiple sites deserve to go to the end of the support line and wait.
You would be the problem. Their email authentication service was broken, the links did not work and gave template errors. Had they properly tested and implemented this feature, the number of accounts being hacked would be much much less.
Accounts being hacked is just part of life now. They need to properly respond to these things or they lose, as simple as that.
Right now, sure, its painful for the user. But when someone has a high level character and their stuff gets hacked and Arena Net does not fix it, they just lost a customer who won't want to redo everything and won't give them another dime for gems.
I know their authentication service had problems as I received the error too. No big deal though as I just waited until Sunday and it authenticated no problem. However this is not why people got hacked. They got hacked for the same reason as always. They either got phished or used the same password for multiple sites. It's that simple and ALWAYS the users fault. I use a 16 character password via Keepass which I then change every 30 days. This is why I don't get hacked.
Man, 3.5 days is nothing to wait for an account to come back from hacking...you want a bad CS experience? This actually happened....TO ME:
1/10/2010:
From: Me
Yeah...I just got an email that my account (REMOVED) was closed due to exploitative activity. My account hasn't been active for months, not really sure when I cancelled it but I can check my bank statement if you want. So I'm thinking this has to be an error. As I said, I haven't even logged onto WoW in months.
I'm not sure if I will resubscribe at some point, but if my account is wrongly closed, I definitely won't. Also, I never engaged in the exploitative activity that I'm accused of anyway...
What happened with this issue? I got this email stating that a specialist is working on it, then I just got a customer satisfaction survey. Is this still being looked at?
(Received no response from this)
---------------------------------------------
1/13/2010:
From: Me
WOW Account Admin,
A few days ago, my account was banned for gold selling or gold buying. This has to be a mistake because not only have I never done this, but my account has been DEACTIVATED for months. So I couldn't even log on with my account if I wanted.
In the email thread below, you will see that I contact customer support about this, but received no reply other than "A specialist is looking into issue" and then a "customer satisfaction survey." They never said if they looked into the issue at all. Could someone at least just look at the server logs again? Or tell me when the alleged prohibited activities took place?
The emails below should have all the info you need to do any research...
Greetings, Thank you for contacting…(standard boiler plate email)
-----------------------------------------
1/15/2010:
From: Blizz
Thank you for contacting In-Game Support, I hope all is well today.
We have received your petition in regards to your account. If you are still unable to access your account, please contact our billing department so that they can attempt to assist with regaiing access to your account. Billing can be contacted 7 days a week between 8am and 8pm PST at 1-800-59-BLIZZ (1-800-592-5499) or by email at billing@blizzard.com. We appreciate your concern, and your patience while we get this taken care of.
And yes our specialists are still looking into the fact the acocunt may have been compromised. The estimated wait time on these investigations is approximately 165 Hours. Do not worry if you don't receive results immediately, these are complex issues that can take a bit of time to complete. When the investigation is finished, you will receive an email at your registered email address regarding what was restored. If you notice anything missing from that list, please respond to that mail with details. We appreciate your patience while we work to help you recover, hang in there!
Several months ago, my account was banned for corrupting the economy, specifically for exchanging goods in game for real world currency. I never did this, no one (to my knowledge) has my account credentials, and my account had been inactive (cancelled) for three months at the time of the banning. I cannot rule out that my account could have been compromised against my will and knowledge. There could have been a keylogger on my old machine that I never knew about. Still, if this were the case I had nothing to do with the alleged transactions so I do not feel I should be banned for it.
I contacted Blizzard about this and you can see the results of my case below. I was told that a "specialist" would look at my case and get back to me and that I was not to respond and just wait for the specialist to email me. The specialist never emailed me. It has been several months. This is getting very frustrating. Please tell me what I need to do to get my account unbanned.
They eventually unbanned me after this. But man! Seven months! They just abandoned by issue, and told me a specialist was working on it TWICE, then never even updated me.
I basically felt like they thought I was "guilty" of the gold selling the whole time and just wouldn't tell me. SOOOO horrible. 3.5 days is nothing .
So its ok for arenaet to take care of your complaint of being on the wrong server first, then other 100,000+ hacked accounts?
they dont have to hire more customer support and there is no sub.
Why would you think that was ok? I assumed that they would complete the job on my original ticket. Tell that to the 100+ hacked accounts. I never understood this consumer defending the company for lack of what is standard.
Great game. Terrible customer service.
I'm pretty sure he is clueless regarding your OP or the progression of the thread TBH.
I do agree with others that it is a tiny bit unrealistic to expect the kind of responsive CS you get from WoW now in a freshly-launched game with the sheer volume of players it is seeing. SWTOR had some pretty horrible turn-around times on CS issues at launch as well, and they were still vastly better than Blizzard was at WoW Launch.
If you are really enjoying the game (and I hope you are) these first few weeks will be a blimp and "badge of honor" conversation point for years to come amongst the "launch vets" just like I still bring up the 90+ minutes my toon spent crouched over after looting a Copper Node in WoW.
It is annoying and frustrating as heck for you right now, but if you can put it in context and try to relax a bit. ANet has been waaaaaay more responsive then EA/BioFail was and do seem to be seriously committed to doing things as well as they can.
So its ok for arenaet to take care of your complaint of being on the wrong server first, then other 100,000+ hacked accounts?
they dont have to hire more customer support and there is no sub.
Why would you think that was ok? I assumed that they would complete the job on my original ticket. Tell that to the 100+ hacked accounts. I never understood this consumer defending the company for lack of what is standard.
Great game. Terrible customer service.
I'm pretty sure he is clueless regarding your OP or the progression of the thread TBH.
I do agree with others that it is a tiny bit unrealistic to expect the kind of responsive CS you get from WoW now in a freshly-launched game with the sheer volume of players it is seeing. SWTOR had some pretty horrible turn-around times on CS issues at launch as well, and they were still vastly better than Blizzard was at WoW Launch.
If you are really enjoying the game (and I hope you are) these first few weeks will be a blimp and "badge of honor" conversation point for years to come amongst the "launch vets" just like I still bring up the 90+ minutes my toon spent crouched over after looting a Copper Node in WoW.
It is annoying and frustrating as heck for you right now, but if you can put it in context and try to relax a bit. ANet has been waaaaaay more responsive then EA/BioFail was and do seem to be seriously committed to doing things as well as they can.
FYI, WoW is just as bad right after an expansion pack or during other busy times when there are lots of tickets. It can easily take a couple days or more for a response, and that might not even resolve things.
Overall, I think Anet has been good as you say. They've been very proactive about informing people about good habits regarding passwords and the like -- and hacked accounts happen in EVERY game for the same reasons. Most companies don't bother talking to their players about it. Maybe in some ways it was a bad PR move, since it has made a lot of people assume GW2 is somehow different than other games.
I know their authentication service had problems as I received the error too. No big deal though as I just waited until Sunday and it authenticated no problem. However this is not why people got hacked. They got hacked for the same reason as always. They either got phished or used the same password for multiple sites. It's that simple and ALWAYS the users fault. I use a 16 character password via Keepass which I then change every 30 days. This is why I don't get hacked.
If their email authentication worked at the start, people would not have been hacked. Yes, its silly using the same password and / or username on sites that you use for your game account. Yes, I have different passwords and use a password manager (lastpass) and have a game only email.
This still doesn't change the facts:
1) Their security was lacking. Relying ONLY on a username/pass in this day and age is silly. Email Authentication is one method, coin locks in Rift is another, an authenticator / similar tech is another. NO GAME should be launching with only 1 method of verifying it is you. It is their fault for this faulty authentication method. Luckily, this is now fixed but it does bring us to point #2.
2) Their customer service is lacking. I've gone through their customer service email chains, or shall I say I'm in it.... and they simply don't read what you type. They've been trying to fix it and hopefully they will, but its still very shoddy support. Further, fighting them to give you back characters / accounts / home server is just silly. This is not just them selling you a box, they want you playing and buying gems.
This security / customer service drama is a huge black eye on an otherwise great launch.
Comments
So its ok for arenaet to take care of your complaint of being on the wrong server first, then other 100,000+ hacked accounts?
they dont have to hire more customer support and there is no sub.
It's obvious that a huge number of players, with the added stress of the hacking issues would put a big load on their CS. 3.5 days for something like this, however, keeps being bad. Customers are not the ones that got the overflow or hacking problems to happen, it is responsibility of the company.
I'm sure, however, that once the initial pressure and the mass hacking issues get solved thir CS will be faster at solving problems.
Saying the player has to understand they are slower cause they only charge for the box if a very silly claim. That alone is making agreat plea to justify the subscription model: Better CS do IS a great feature in games, and CS is something that no company that has an MMO can take ligthly.
Complaining about having your account unavailable for over 3 days is also not bashing, it is a legitimate conplaint, losing acces to your account for days, due to an error or problem on the game or developer IS a big issue, and a completely valid thing to criticize. The slo response by CS might be "understandable" but that doesn't make it excusable, both in itself and due to the fact that the original issue started by a problem or error by the service provider.
Hopefuly all this will just normalize and thigs will just work out as intended after they get out of their current rush to solve all their initial issues.
Why would you think that was ok? I assumed that they would complete the job on my original ticket. Tell that to the 100+ hacked accounts. I never understood this consumer defending the company for lack of what is standard.
Great game. Terrible customer service.
As I said - still in the first week from lauch. WoW, when it lauched was terribad - I couldn't get in for a whole week because of all the server issues they were having. Let alone the tickets I put in on ther things. Nothing EVER got a respnse form them.
A.Net HAS good service, it is just they are swamped since the game JUST launched - PEOPLE GET A CLUE ON THIS POINT.
I'm pretty sure he is clueless regarding your OP or the progression of the thread TBH.
I do agree with others that it is a tiny bit unrealistic to expect the kind of responsive CS you get from WoW now in a freshly-launched game with the sheer volume of players it is seeing. SWTOR had some pretty horrible turn-around times on CS issues at launch as well, and they were still vastly better than Blizzard was at WoW Launch.
If you are really enjoying the game (and I hope you are) these first few weeks will be a blimp and "badge of honor" conversation point for years to come amongst the "launch vets" just like I still bring up the 90+ minutes my toon spent crouched over after looting a Copper Node in WoW.
It is annoying and frustrating as heck for you right now, but if you can put it in context and try to relax a bit. ANet has been waaaaaay more responsive then EA/BioFail was and do seem to be seriously committed to doing things as well as they can.
Ahh, the "no subs fee = free play" illusion.
They will probably release a $50 x-pack in 6 months you will need to buy to compete, everyone buys it and the revenue is equivalent to 6 months worth of subs fees plus the cash shop sales.....this argument doesn't hold water. A.Net will be making equal too or more than most subs based games per player per annum, count on it.
3 1/2 days for a ticket response is wretched by any standard, especially when were talking about (relatively) serious situations where that players account has been blocked, suspended, hacked, cancelled etc.
This is only one account however, i wonder how other players are finding the customer support for such issues?
Expresso gave me a Hearthstone beta key.....I'm so happy
You did not need to buy expansion pack to compete in GW1, I don't see why you will need it in GW2. Not to mention other MMOs expansion packs costs money as well. WoW at launch takes days after the copy-paste emails to resolve problem or even find someone to actually look at your issues.
Not to mention you can convert game currency into gem and buy expansion pack that way. I know someone got his first character slot by just converting some gold into gem.
I dislike their customer service as well.
My account got hacked but I caught it before they could change the email and such.
I changed the email to a GW2 only email. I changed the password. I contacted support to let them know.
The hackers took a few silly things from my bank like chests and mystic forge coins. My account is worthless though as I play very slow.
Anyhow, 6 emails into trying to explain to CS that I have my account and they still don't know what is going on. Furthermore they've said in autobot statements that they can not recover characters / items.
My wife's Rift account, where she had several max level characters and all the goodies that goes with raiding was hacked, everything traded off or deleted, all characters gone. Within 24 hours they had it all back (to the last backup).
Arena Net has some lessons on customer service still to learn.
I remember your OP before, gratz on getting your account back and sadly I doubt you will get back on your server atm. As stated with the overflow of launching issues in this area I wouldn't doubt it would take longer to get back on your server then just to move which may not be possible for you (Don't know personally obviously) , but in any case, glad to see your not one of those spammer/hackers. but then again, maybe this post is a ploy too to buy simpathy so you can link to a dev and say "See, they all beleive me!" haha, j/k
gl to yeah.
"The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"
You can complain all you want about customer service but it's YOUR responsibility to keep your account secure. Arena Net is busy with their new mmo masterpiece. Those who use the same password for multiple sites deserve to go to the end of the support line and wait.You would be the problem. Their email authentication service was broken, the links did not work and gave template errors. Had they properly tested and implemented this feature, the number of accounts being hacked would be much much less.
Accounts being hacked is just part of life now. They need to properly respond to these things or they lose, as simple as that.
Right now, sure, its painful for the user. But when someone has a high level character and their stuff gets hacked and Arena Net does not fix it, they just lost a customer who won't want to redo everything and won't give them another dime for gems.
You can complain all you want about customer service but it's YOUR responsibility to keep your account secure. Arena Net is busy with their new mmo masterpiece. Those who use the same password for multiple sites deserve to go to the end of the support line and wait.You would be the problem. Their email authentication service was broken, the links did not work and gave template errors. Had they properly tested and implemented this feature, the number of accounts being hacked would be much much less.
Accounts being hacked is just part of life now. They need to properly respond to these things or they lose, as simple as that.
Right now, sure, its painful for the user. But when someone has a high level character and their stuff gets hacked and Arena Net does not fix it, they just lost a customer who won't want to redo everything and won't give them another dime for gems.
I know their authentication service had problems as I received the error too. No big deal though as I just waited until Sunday and it authenticated no problem. However this is not why people got hacked. They got hacked for the same reason as always. They either got phished or used the same password for multiple sites. It's that simple and ALWAYS the users fault. I use a 16 character password via Keepass which I then change every 30 days. This is why I don't get hacked.Man, 3.5 days is nothing to wait for an account to come back from hacking...you want a bad CS experience? This actually happened....TO ME:
1/10/2010:
From: Me
Yeah...I just got an email that my account (REMOVED) was closed due to exploitative activity. My account hasn't been active for months, not really sure when I cancelled it but I can check my bank statement if you want. So I'm thinking this has to be an error. As I said, I haven't even logged onto WoW in months.
I'm not sure if I will resubscribe at some point, but if my account is wrongly closed, I definitely won't. Also, I never engaged in the exploitative activity that I'm accused of anyway...
---------------------------------------------------
From: Blizz
Greetings!
Account Name: (REMOVED)
Thank you for contacting the World of Warcraft Game Master Department regarding the compromised account.
….(Standard boiler plate email stating specialist will contact me)
Regards,
-----------------------------------------------------------
1/11/2010:
From: Me
(Received no response from this)
---------------------------------------------
1/13/2010:
From: Me
WOW Account Admin,
A few days ago, my account was banned for gold selling or gold buying. This has to be a mistake because not only have I never done this, but my account has been DEACTIVATED for months. So I couldn't even log on with my account if I wanted.
In the email thread below, you will see that I contact customer support about this, but received no reply other than "A specialist is looking into issue" and then a "customer satisfaction survey." They never said if they looked into the issue at all. Could someone at least just look at the server logs again? Or tell me when the alleged prohibited activities took place?
-------------------------------------------------------------
From: Blizz
-----------------------------------------
1/15/2010:
From: Blizz
Thank you for contacting In-Game Support, I hope all is well today.
We have received your petition in regards to your account. If you are still unable to access your account, please contact our billing department so that they can attempt to assist with regaiing access to your account. Billing can be contacted 7 days a week between 8am and 8pm PST at 1-800-59-BLIZZ (1-800-592-5499) or by email at billing@blizzard.com. We appreciate your concern, and your patience while we get this taken care of.
And yes our specialists are still looking into the fact the acocunt may have been compromised. The estimated wait time on these investigations is approximately 165 Hours. Do not worry if you don't receive results immediately, these are complex issues that can take a bit of time to complete. When the investigation is finished, you will receive an email at your registered email address regarding what was restored. If you notice anything missing from that list, please respond to that mail with details. We appreciate your patience while we work to help you recover, hang in there!
-------------------------------------------------------
NO RESPONSE AT ALL! I finally decided to pick up WoW again in August 7 months later (!) to find my account STILL locked.
--------------------------------------------------------
8/24/2010:
From: Me
WoW Game Master Department,
Several months ago, my account was banned for corrupting the economy, specifically for exchanging goods in game for real world currency. I never did this, no one (to my knowledge) has my account credentials, and my account had been inactive (cancelled) for three months at the time of the banning. I cannot rule out that my account could have been compromised against my will and knowledge. There could have been a keylogger on my old machine that I never knew about. Still, if this were the case I had nothing to do with the alleged transactions so I do not feel I should be banned for it.
I contacted Blizzard about this and you can see the results of my case below. I was told that a "specialist" would look at my case and get back to me and that I was not to respond and just wait for the specialist to email me. The specialist never emailed me. It has been several months. This is getting very frustrating. Please tell me what I need to do to get my account unbanned.
Sincerely,
Me
---------------------------------------------------------------------
They eventually unbanned me after this. But man! Seven months! They just abandoned by issue, and told me a specialist was working on it TWICE, then never even updated me.
I basically felt like they thought I was "guilty" of the gold selling the whole time and just wouldn't tell me. SOOOO horrible. 3.5 days is nothing
.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Fair enough
They still need a line to call!
FYI, WoW is just as bad right after an expansion pack or during other busy times when there are lots of tickets. It can easily take a couple days or more for a response, and that might not even resolve things.
Overall, I think Anet has been good as you say. They've been very proactive about informing people about good habits regarding passwords and the like -- and hacked accounts happen in EVERY game for the same reasons. Most companies don't bother talking to their players about it. Maybe in some ways it was a bad PR move, since it has made a lot of people assume GW2 is somehow different than other games.
Link to my topic:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5274228/Im-Panicking-right-now.html#5274228
assistance is requested for this situation.
Thx.
If their email authentication worked at the start, people would not have been hacked. Yes, its silly using the same password and / or username on sites that you use for your game account. Yes, I have different passwords and use a password manager (lastpass) and have a game only email.
This still doesn't change the facts:
1) Their security was lacking. Relying ONLY on a username/pass in this day and age is silly. Email Authentication is one method, coin locks in Rift is another, an authenticator / similar tech is another. NO GAME should be launching with only 1 method of verifying it is you. It is their fault for this faulty authentication method. Luckily, this is now fixed but it does bring us to point #2.
2) Their customer service is lacking. I've gone through their customer service email chains, or shall I say I'm in it.... and they simply don't read what you type. They've been trying to fix it and hopefully they will, but its still very shoddy support. Further, fighting them to give you back characters / accounts / home server is just silly. This is not just them selling you a box, they want you playing and buying gems.
This security / customer service drama is a huge black eye on an otherwise great launch.