* 0. Exploitation of Economy 09/18/2009 07:48:33 PM PDT

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I would just like to take the time to vent a few of my thoughts on Account Closure.

Yesterday at around 8:33 AM PST my wifes account was closed for "Exploitation of the Economy"

First I'll explain the events leading up this.

Q u o t e:

Me and my wife were both playing WoW straight threw the night, she spent her time farming herbs and minerals in Sholazar for somewhere between 6-9 hours, taking dvantage of the fact that nobody else was online and for once there didn't seem to be any underground-farmers taking all the nodes.

After this extensive farming stint she sent the mats to her bank alt and posted a portion of what she acquired on the AH for sale. She then took a shower and then came back and browsed the forums for a while. (At no point did she log off or become disconnected for being afk.)

She realized she had been banned when she went to make a post on the forums and was unable to. Checking her account status she finds out her account was closed. She alt-tabs back to WoW to find herself still in Dalaran and still online. She then logs out to try and log back in and see if shes really been banned or if there was a mistake on the website. Sure enough her account has been closed. She checks her email and finds the "Exploitation of Economy" from blizz.



That would be fair enough if she had actually done anything. She has already sent the email to AA asking it to be reviewed but I still have a few issues.

Most people I've asked about this say she may have been hacked and then the perpetrator committed the acts that got her the ban. I don't see this as possible since she had control of her account the entire time.

Also, I thought when you got banned a GM would whisper you in game and tell you your being banned and why, the disconnect you as the ban became effective. Even if she was afk and missed the whisper from a GM wouldn't she still have been disconnected by him?

Also have problems with the email that was sent explaining the closure. The first line reads:

Q u o t e:
After a thorough investigation, we have found that a player of the account listed above participated in activities designed to gain an unfair advantage in the World of Warcraft economy.



First - if there was a "thorough" investigation I am beyond 100% sure that this would never have happened. Also, if an individual somewhere took the time to actually investigate her account, you think they could have taken the time to write short personalized email that actually explains something.

That brings me to my next problem with the email. It doesn't explain anything. In a nutshell all it says is, "You're account is being closed because you broke the rules." We both would like some clarification as to what exactly she is being accused of! Are they saying she bought / sold gold, used a 3rd party program to bot, what? To use a bad analogy this is akin to being arrested with the only reason given to you being "You broke the law."

Also bothering me is the extent of the punishment. I have a friend IRL who had the bright idea to hire a leveling service. Long story short he got caught and got a 72 hour suspension!

The only thing that I could see happening here is that she was mistaken for a bot because she was farming for so long at such off hours of the night. As I understand it, Blizzard get rid of the farmers in one fell swoop, which would explain why there was o farmers out. Still if there was an actual "thorough" investigation done that theory should have been debunked quickly.

I'm confident that this will be reversed, it just seems to me to be terrible customer service. We have both had accounts with Blizzard that have never been out of good standing for over three years now. What do we get? She gets perma-banned with practically no explanation. Then, to make the customer service seem even worse, there is no number to call about this. Just an email address to write to, which you'll then wait days to even get a response from, much less to actually get the problem taken care off.

To make matters worse my wife is an achievement junkie. She will now miss pirates day and most likely all of brewfest, which she'll have to wait a year to get another shot at.

I'm also concerned about the game card that we added the night before she was banned. The email states that all recurring charges from debit / credit cards would be canceled, but what about a game cards time? Once this is resolved those days (or weeks for all we know at the this time) better be restored.

In addition to that I feel she should have extra game time credited to her account for the incredible inconvenience and stress placed upon both of us completely by Blizzards own fault. Any self respecting business that causes their customers undo grief make an attempt to make amends with the customer. That's just good business.

I hate to be one "those" people, but if my wife somehow ends up not getting her account restored there is just no way I'm going to continue to play this game. Not only is playing WoW with my wife a huge part of my interest in this game, the sheer injustice of that would prevent me from ever wanting to log back on or continue giving Blizzard my money.

Now that I'm done venting I am going to wait patiently to see how this all plays out. I know beyond 100% that my wife did nothing to violate the Terms of Use, and fully expect this to be fixed in good time.

While we're waiting, I would like to ask a question if a GM would take the time to answer.

How, if my wife is not guilty of violating any rules, and was not hacked, could a mistake have been made causing a permanent account closure for exploitation of economy? Could it be human error, was she reported by a player as a bot and no one actually took the time to investigate? Needless to say neither of us are very happy, but every little bit of feedback I actually get helps when we feel that we are dealing with a very cold and intransparent system.

[ Post edited by Haydan ]