I hereby curse Blizzard to Hell

[Redith]

SO after all these hacks i have been hearing about , I decide to buy an authenticator and have it sent to my families home. 30 mins later I try to logon..MY ACCOUNT IS BANNED! At first im like crap I got hacked. So I contact online Blizzard. They dont tell me why its baned realy. They say its susspected of being involved in illegal game activities. So I have my freind in the USA call blizzard (FYI for those who dont know im military stationed in bahrain) since me calling blizzard would be a hellofa phone bill. He doesnt pretend to be me , he says hes calling for a freind who is military and overseas as to the reason to the ban. After several of the guys hanging up on him he finaly finds someone sympathetic, or he pretended to be me, and they tell him why its banned.
Because a purchase was made online for an American account, and the IP address was from overseas.

Whatever. Heres the thing. They REFUSE to reinstate it. They something to the extent of "We are sorry for the mix up, Feel free to buy and create a new WoW account once you have returned to the united states. Once you do that we will send you your authenticator at no excha charge"
NO F***ING DUH NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE! They havent refunded my money from the purchase i made that started this crap!
Im going to contact some big game magazine and let them know blizzard hates military players.

[Saturo]

You're military. You have access to guns.
Get what I'm talking about...?

(They really refuse to give you your account back...?)

[Sarayana]

Wow. That makes absolutely no sense. My mother is in Denmark and plays on a US account. Granted, she uses the mobile phone authenticator, but this just... it's like they're trawling for hackers and don't mind that they get regular, honest players in the net too...

I can tell you one thing: There's no way Blizzard would want to intentionally hurt people who are stationed overseas. I'd tell your friend to demand an escalation. Often the first line of people answering the phones can only give the standard answers ("we can't reopen this account," that kind of stuff). Of course they can fix this. It's as simple as flipping a switch. You or your friend just needs to speak with someone that will realise the severity of the situation (could you imagine the media nightmare?) and fix it.

Don't let the agents on the phone give you the run-around, demand to speak with a supervisor, tell them you want to be escalated, and for goodness sake! DOCUMENT IT! Write down agent names, reference numbers, and dates/times of the phone calls, and just plain don't take no for an answer.

[Dewclaw]

You might have to call them yourself and ask to speak to a manager.

[Redith]

DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT! My other account is down too. this time I called blizzard (I swear im going to send them my phone bill too) They shut it down because my billing address for my second account is the same as the first. WHAT THE HELL! I know this is probably to catch hackers but COMMON! They should be a bit nicer

[Saturo]

Okay, I'll help you with the shooting.
*Loads minigun and a large amount of napalm grenades into car*

[Redith]

You might have to call them yourself and ask to speak to a manager.

good advice. im on hold now for a manager. Im now definatly sending blizz my phone bill

[Tahlian]

Check your registered email for the accounts, see if you have communications from the Account Admin people. That email should give you the address you need to dispute the closures and bannings. Sadly, WoW Account Administration doesn't have a phone number so you can talk to them...such disputes have to be done by email. I'm willing to bet if you write to Account Admin and explain the situation, you can get it worked out. Just take deep breaths and be patient...which I know is difficult right now.


If you don't have emails from Account Admin, then update here and I'll go to the forums and find the address and stick it here for you. Sometimes those emails wind up getting accidentally shunted into spam folders, so don't forget to look there, too, if you can.

[Redith]

Ok well crap. did all I could put in dispute electronicly. cant do much more for now

[zedxrgal]

Time to start posting on the wow forums, mmo-champion and any others. Turn up the heat! FIRE IN THE HOLE!!

Those fuckers! Sorry hun!

[Slickrock]

Ok well crap. did all I could put in dispute electronicly. cant do much more for now

Follow up with WoW.com, and other news sites. I'm sure they'll love the story, and be happy to give you press time.. Getting some attention to your case might change their tune.

[Slickrock]

I must add, I can see why they do this... when my account was hacked a few weeks ago, the first thing the hackers did was put an authenticator on it. Bold thieves are getting bold.

[Teigan]

Making a public stink, with you being a soldier stationed overseas, should make them uncomfortable enough to help you, if they notice it.

[Sphax]

pff... really unfair for u...


They have soo much money already so they dont care about losing 1 customer overseas ....




damn that blizzard ... and that we still keep paying them to play their game

[Slickrock]

Making a public stink, with you being a soldier stationed overseas, should make them uncomfortable enough to help you, if they notice it.

Can't hurt.

[Sarayana]

I think that's being unfair Sphax. Blizzard does a lot to keep their customers happy, and many large corporations could learn a lot from the efforts they make to meet the customers on their time (such as their in-game service employees). Unfortunately, large corporations do have a hierarchy, and that's where Redith is stuck right now. The lower levels just don't have the power to go against a corporate policy that, in theory, is great - when an account is altered from a different location, they freeze it to prevent hacking.

What Redith has done is the best course of action: go beyond those lower levels of service employees and speak to the people that actually have any power to 1. go against the policy and 2. perhaps reconsider whether the policy is ideal for every situation.

I agree with the suggestions to bring this to the forums, mmo-champion, and wow.com though. Publicity is the best way to change policies that affect customers negatively.

[Mr. Perfect]

Actually, they've made tributes to military personnel before, so I'm not sure why they're giving you a hard time about it. Maybe if you used something that could identify you and your location, like writing to them on military letterhead with a Bahrainian postmark. Kind of slow, but I doubt the government gets each foreign base an appropriate caller ID...

[Sarayana]

Actually, they've made tributes to military personnel before, so I'm not sure why they're giving you a hard time about it.

This was my point. I really don't think it's a matter of deciding to give him a hard time. I really think it's simply that the people he spoke with are too low on the totem pole to be able to go against corporate policy, even when that policy unintentionally hurts innocent customers.

[Fael]

Just have to keep escalating until you get higher up to a manager of sorts and explain everything as thoroughly and calmly as possible. I went through so much crud with Sony Ericsson for a few months until they sent me a new phone, and that took getting to someone higher up after them screwing up the repairs for the phone after mailing it to them 3 times. -_- People on the lower levels would also make promises and never follow up. I didn't get any proper resolution until speaking with a manager about it.

If that really doesn't work I would try to get an angle on them on something like WoW.com about their treatment of US soldiers. :\

[cowmuflage]

Remmber don't get angry as people don't want to help people who get angry so stay calm etc. There more likely to hang up if you yell and no saying you have "anger issues" wont help after you have yelled at someone.