Haven bows out.

[Haven]

Blizzard are giving me a lot of shit atm - every time I go online to play I am locked out. Getting two types of email:

Mostly getting warnings that I have a Trojan and/or Keylogger installed and so my account ha sbeen disabled. A quick password reset always sorts this out but its very annoying.

But last night after 5 mins of play after re-installing my computer to make sure I don't have anything undesirable on it:

Account Name:

Account Action: 72 Hour Suspension
Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This suspension happened because one or more characters on the account were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.

We've found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/antigoldselling.html

The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/termsofuse.html. Note that additional Terms of Use violations may result in more severe actions against this account, up to and including permanent closure.

For any disputes of this action or further information on Exploitive Activity, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and contact page here:
http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article/41654

Regards,

Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment Europe
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/index.xml

I will be firing an email to Blizzard asking for details but I really don't expect a reply and tbh this is just another reason to stop playing.

 

[Gombol]

Yeah. Blizz does seem to fail in many ways, especially crap like that. They need to get their act together for cata, Or they will loose many players (I've already left after reading alot of the...Stuff...for cata.), Hope you get some acual news 'bout what happened.

 

[Zaggu]

Now this is nuts. And exactly what character of yours would be involved in gold selling? Did you send a large amount of gold to some AH mule or something? Even so, I fail to see the relation between stashing gold in a mule's bags and selling it for actual money. :/

 

[Angelic]

Nuts?! This...is...BLIZZAAAAARD!!

 

[SgtFury]

Maybe this is a good way to go Cold turkey Sometimes wish that I could kick the habit...... especially when I go onto TS and docbot mentions he hasn't seen me on there in a year .

Do you have a authenticator Haven?

 

[Xylak]

Awww dude, that truly sucks.

Here's hoping you get it sorted out quickly and that your account hasn't been compromised in some way.

Good luck getting some sense out of them. Your only hope is that they see you as a genuine player and not someone on the scam.

Come back to us soooon!

 

[HotStuff]

Blizzard remind me of the way you get treated in Blackpool.

There are so many people paying money they can afford to be bad to regular paying customers.

Good luck with this one Haven, and don't give up, wow is always a nice hobby to come back to, just keep responding with emails. innocent people have nothing to hide.

 

[Elincia]

There are so many people paying money they can afford to be bad to regular paying customers.

This indeed
Well I hope it gets solved quickly

 

[Haven]

Thanks folks for the kind words.

The good news is that they unbanned my account this afternoon after forcing another password reset.

The bad news is that they they had then re-banned it before I'd even got home

 

[Gombol]

Thanks folks for the kind words.

The good news is that they unbanned my account this afternoon after forcing another password reset.

The bad news is that they they had then re-banned it before I'd even got home

....What for this time? USeless blizzard..

 

[Peepee]

but but who will run around naked?

 

[Haven]

but but who will run around naked?

I'll have to stick to doing that in RL from now I guess

Looking at the process for removing account suspension - there's some quite OTT details they require before they will consider your request. One particular bit that caught my eye:

Please provide a scanned scan or photo of a piece of government-issued photo identification, such as a passport or driving license matching the first and last name of the registered account owner. The file must be under 5MB and be in the jpg, gif, or bmp format.

Makes you realise how much this is not a game after all >_<

 

[BiG D]

100% sure you're still dealing with blizzard at this point? That's a pretty poorly worded thinger.

 

[Zooggy]

Hoy,

Please provide a scanned scan or photo of a piece of government-issued photo identification, such as a passport or driving license matching the first and last name of the registered account owner. The file must be under 5MB and be in the jpg, gif, or bmp format.

For what it's worth, a friend of mine here in Portugal was asked for the same thing, after similar problems. This was about a year or so ago.

I can't give you any more details, as he chose to cancel the subscription, rather than go through the hassle...

Cheers,
J.

 

[Haven]

Hoy,
For what it's worth, a friend of mine here in Portugal was asked for the same thing, after similar problems. This was about a year or so ago.

I can't give you any more details, as he chose to cancel the subscription, rather than go through the hassle...

Cheers,
J.

If it comes down to it then there's not a hope in hell I'm providing them with that level of info so I'll do the same. The onus here is definitely on the paying customer to prove their innocence rather than providing info on what happened and helping them to sort it out. I've got another wall of text email from them in which they basically say "you must have been hacked" or "you must have been selling gold". It doesn't read well.

100% sure you're still dealing with blizzard at this point? That's a pretty poorly worded thinger.

Yeah its a redirect from the game itself so I'd hope so

 

[SwampFae]

*Golf Clap*
Way to go, Blizz. Chased away another customer.*sighs*
Sad to see this happen, Haven.

And D. This is true. This is something that Blizzard require from players at times.
If Customer Support sees that Tech Support have a ban in place or any other serious issues in the account's notes, they may require this. Especially if you use the form they provide on Battle.net.
The Photo-ID function has been around for ages now.
The idea behind it is a good thought. But in practice it doesn't always work out so well.

 

[Dr Drae]

The idea behind it is a good thought. But in practice it doesn't always work out so well.

Read; at all.

It's a bit invasive to ask for such personal information for what is essentially still a game. I can understand taking all this seriously, in the manner of account security, but this takes the biscuit a bit.

This reminds me of certain cases in English Law, which essentially state that you're innocent until proven guilty. Blizzard seem to have taken that, turned it on it's ass, and shoved it in your face. :/

Either way, sad to see you go Haven.

 

[Razaak]

Just noticed Soulhaven come online in Dalaran, hope it's really you and not the scumbag hackers... and yeah, that was me that whispered you with a false name (quite deliberately)!

 

[Burrick]

Im thinking of starting up in the gold farming business haven and just wondered if you could give me some hints and tips on how its done

LOL!

 

[HotStuff]

If this can happen to Haven, it can happen to any of us.

Sorry you are leaving it at this point Haven.

Now how much was that authenticator again?