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Help with unwarrented ban :(
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Post by
Lambaste
My husband has been a wow subscriber for over eight years now,
A few days back we decided to help a friend who was new to wow by giving him some gold, at first my husband accidentally sent it to his wow battlenet name but we decided it would get returned anyway and went ahead and sent it again to his actual account name.
Then yesterday he's suddenly banned and it seems he's only getting generic reply's with no-one really listening to him.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, he's never done a single illegal thing, we were simply trying to be helpful to someone and he gets this? :(
Post by
SoCalWoWGal
Your husband will need to submit an appeal. He can either follow the instructions in the e-mail or see the instructions in this support article:
How to Appeal Suspensions and Closures
.
It is possible, if a large amount of gold was sent, your husband may not be able to ever get the account back, as the penalties for breaking the rules for
Exploitative Acivity
are very high.
Post by
Lambaste
Your husband will need to submit an appeal. He can either follow the instructions in the e-mail or see the instructions in this support article:
How to Appeal Suspensions and Closures
.
He already has, and they replied with a generic copy paste message again, he can prove that he has done nothing against the TOS yet it seems no-one is actually looking into the matter, if there's any other avenues that are available since the above mentioned one's are not working we would love to hear about them.
Post by
SoCalWoWGal
The relevant portion of the
ToU
is this:
8.Ownership/Selling of the Account or Virtual Items.
Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of World of Warcraft Accounts or BNET Accounts (each an “Account”). You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void. Blizzard owns, has licensed, or otherwise has rights to all of the content that appears in the Game. You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including without limitation the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with any Account. Blizzard does not recognize any purported transfers of virtual property executed outside of the Game, or the purported sale, gift or trade in the “real world” of anything that appears or originates in the Game. Accordingly, you may not sell in-game items or currency for “real” money, or exchange those items or currency for value outside of the Game.
From Blizzard's point of view, when your husband "gave" the gold to the other player, it gave the appearance that your husband is engaging in "gold-selling", which is very much against the ToU as outlined above.
Post by
Lambaste
Regardless,
He isn't guilty of what they are accusing him of, if GM could reply that would be appreciated, this really is frustrating, the email sent to him accuses him of buying gold, something he never has done.
Post by
Lambaste
Should have added,
He wasn't gifting his actual account to anyone...that has nothing to do with this situation.
Post by
SoCalWoWGal
Should have added,
He wasn't gifting his actual account to anyone...that has nothing to do with this situation.
From what I am understanding, your husband has a friend that is new to the game and your husband wanted to give him gold to help out a new player. When your husband placed the gold in the mail, it appears to Blizzard as a one-sided transaction, or what is often referred to as an "unsupported transaction". Gold is sent/traded without anything on the other side of the transaction to support it.
In-game gold, is considered a "virtual currency", and since your husband traded this "virtual currency", the transaction can indeed be a violation of the ToU.
Many player will help out fellow players in game with gold, HOWEVER, the amount of gold that is traded in this "one sided" transaction
can
appear to Blizzard as part of a gold-selling scheme. Gold-sellers are a detriment to the game, and this is one of the many methods that Blizzard uses to detect and eventually ban those accounts.
Please note that I am in no way accusing you or your husband of engaging in gold-selling activity, but I am trying to help you understand the rules and how Blizzard sees it from their side.
Post by
SoCalWoWGal
Regardless,
He isn't guilty of what they are accusing him of, if GM could reply that would be appreciated, this really is frustrating, the email sent to him accuses him of buying gold, something he never has done.
To be clear, the Wowhead forums are not a method to contact Blizzard. While the staff of Blizzard does have a representative here to assist when possible, this is not a method to circumvent the official method of
appeal of a ban
.
Post by
Lambaste
Thankyou,
And I do understand what your saying and how it may have been viewed by Blizzard, I came here in the hopes a GM would see this and offer some real assistance, because so far all we have are these replies that are basically copy/pasted.
It seems it was an auto ban triggered by helping this friend but it is unwarranted which is why I am trying to seek some help, support has been slow at best and not helpful in any way at all thus far :(
Post by
Lambaste
On another note,
Perhaps blizzards support team should approach said player first to determine what has happened, to simply ban someone for something they aren't guilty of then making them wait days in support only to get the same reply over and over simply is unfair.
He was given no way to appeal this and basically that's all he wants, the chance to show that what he did was in no way shape or form, a form of gold selling.
I guess on wow your guilty then have to try to prove your innocence afterwards.
Post by
SoCalWoWGal
On another note,
Perhaps blizzards support team should approach said player first to determine what has happened, to simply ban someone for something they aren't guilty of then making them wait days in support only to get the same reply over and over simply is unfair.
He was given no way to appeal this and basically that's all he wants, the chance to show that what he did was in no way shape or form, a form of gold selling.
I guess on wow your guilty then have to try to prove your innocence afterwards.
You bring up a very good observation on how the current customer support system can fail and that oftentimes innocent players are penalized.
You can always post any ideas that you may have to improve the customer support system in the
General Forums
, however, those forums are public forums and you may find that there are those people who would rather troll you than to provide helpful comments.
Another solution is to submit and in-game suggestion, to do so follow the instructions in
this support article
.
Post by
Lambaste
I understand how Blizz would want to as quickly as they can remove gold sellers from the game and both my husband and I are all for that, he has been playing for over eight years and in that time he has sold everything he's picked up via quests, drops, stuff he sells through professions so when we found this friend had nothing we thought it was a kind act, to help a new player who basically had nothing.
If Blizz actually took a look at his account, he has nine level 90 characters and if they contacted the person he had sent the gold to they could vouch for the transaction being 100% legal and nothing more than an act of kindness taken the wrong way by Blizzard.
But at the end of the day I truly think they could handle these situations far better, I wonder how many other innocents have been banned for assisting friends, a true gold farmer wouldn't have that many lvl 90 characters, nor would they be striving to prove their innocence, and that's all he wants, that chance to show that he is....the generic replies just get old and again so very frustrating, neither of us have done anything against the TOS, only wanted to show some kindness to a new player and then suddenly he's banned.
Post by
Lambaste
Now almost over a day, heading on two and not a single real response....from the ticket sent in, really dissapointed with everything, it's almost as if were just being ignored. I know it's near 11am American time and that support would be very active, seems no-one cares apparently.
Post by
Eccentrica
You aren't being ignored, but are merely in queue. Have patience. The automatic procedures are in place to deal with the vast number of situations that do crop up.
Araxom pops in here from time to time and does look into things so there is also that possibility open, but you'll likely get responses through the official channels first.
Post by
Lambaste
Yeah your right,
Just so frustrating, more so when all you did is help someone, he can't actually log in to even post here which is why I have been posting for him, I just don't get how they can auto ban someone then cut off all the ways to contact them to try to sort it out, makes no sense to me at all.
Hopefully Araxom will stop by, he seems to be really understanding which is what we need right now, just a way to be able to show that he never did a thing wrong.
Post by
ElhonnaDS
These aren't the official forums. His ban wouldn't affect his ability to post here.
Post by
Lambaste
Thanks for all the reply's and support,
If a mod views this post can they label it resolved, they finally did get back to him.....apparently they were doing a cleanup of sorts and were getting rid of a lot of what they assumed to be gold farmers.
Still think support in this department needs a lot of improvement but it's been dealt with now.
Post by
Eccentrica
Glad you got a happy resolution.
Post by
Aibu
Instead of writing an email, try calling their support.
They have a british number that's free to call on skype.
The number is +44 800 0288246.
So be sure that you're talking so it's understandable, and then tell your side of the story.
The waiting line can be up to a couple of hours, but if he wants his account back, this is what he must do, if blizzard isn't replying personally to your emails.
Good luck!
Post by
Jkpman
Thanks for all the reply's and support,
If a mod views this post can they label it resolved, .
I think you are still failing to grasp that this is a fan site and has zero to do with Blizzard customer support.
Glad you got it sorted out, in future it's always quicker to call them.
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