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You might think a business with 10 million customers would have a way to work with them outside of email. Such logic does not apply to Blizzard, operators of the world's biggest MMORPG, World of Warcraft.
About five days into our ten-day trial, where we have been trying out different characters to get a feel for the game, I was in the middle of taking a Forsaken mage through his paces when boom, disconnected. Upon reconnecting, I received this message: "This World of Warcraft account has been closed and is no longer available for use."
The accompanying link noted I should check my email for a follow-up message, and noted an email address to contact. Here's the astonishing message I received:
Access to this account has been permanently disabled for exploitation of World of Warcraft through associated accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation. While we try to be as lenient as possible in our assessments of the results of exploitation investigations, reoccurring trends in exploitative endeavors on your accounts have ultimately lead to their closure. The recurring subscription on the account has been disabled to prevent further charges.
Wow, I must be some kind of horrid person, right? Um, wrong. I downloaded a trial directly from the official site, then installed the full version from a new, purchased box set of software. I've only logged in through the regular software client.
There's no spyware, rootkits, or any other threats my various little defensive software tools have found on my system. I don't have any problem blaming Blizzard for taking a remarkably stupid action, compounded by arrogantly hiding behind an email address instead of making someone useful available by phone.
To summarize, I'm sure as hell not doing anything that could be considered exploitative.
Maybe if they hit 15 or 20 million subscribers they might consider the benefits of real customer service and shell out some bucks for a phone contact option. Disney figured that out for both of their online games, ToonTown and Pirates of the Caribbean.
How a company with 10 million customers can thrive and grow while arbitrarily and erroneously screwing over a player simply eludes me. I'd only considered World of Warcraft recently, as a way to reconnect with my idled interest in fantasy gaming, sparked by the passing of Gary Gygax.
Looks like I'll be picking up Neverwinter Nights or something else. In closing, Blizzard, get a clue, tell whoever manages your customer service to take a class or two in communications (a first for you, perhaps?), and have a nice day.
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Same
i have a similar problem, i recently started playing world of warcraft again after about a year of not playing. me and my brother started new characters on a new server. second evening into my accnt i try to log on after a little break and i get the banned message...i am currently waiting for a response from blizz but looking at the storys on here im becoming less and less hopeful by the minute. wow is a joke to begin with there customer service and GM "help" has been utterly useless to me in my experience and now for no reason at all i cant play on my acct...maybe because ive played for about 12 hours in 2 days on 2 different characters they think im hacking? i dont know, i do have a few UI mods but the blizz support websites say that stuff is all good. this is ridiculous. i also have a forsaken mage, after playing with a warr for a day. maybe the chinks have figured out some uber way of grinding using UD mages and this is the result, innoccent bans.
I used to complain about
I used to complain about PlayNC customer support when I had issues with City of Heroes. However, having experienced my first Blizzard customer support endeavor, I'm longing for my frustration at PlayNC. Basically, the GMs are (apparently) over-worked. In my case, I waited 3 hours with an "open ticket - wait time unavailable". Then, 5 hours later, I get an email that my ticket had been escalated. The email was sent from donotreply@blizzard.com and specifically said that matters of this sort were best discussed online. I also got an in-game email apologizing that I was not online when they got to my ticket; but, once again, was told that the matter could not be handled via in-game email, so I was not to reply to the in-game email.
This is where the frustration started. I get an email saying not to reply to the email, and I get an in-game email saying not to reply to the in-game email. If all conversations are best held online, then when is someone going to just pop in and say "hello"? How can I just say, "Hey! I'm here! We can talk now!"? There's no answer.
PlayNC, while frustrating due to their scripted answers to all questions (which Blizzard suffers from as well), at least had a ticket system where you could reply to the email with additional details or visit the customer support website and give additional details. Blizzard's answer to the PlayNC ticket system (although I do not know if this was the intent) is the WoW official customer service forum. Of course, on the forum, I made note of my issue. The main problem was that there were about 5 threads about the same issue, and in one of the threads a Blizzard rep stated that it was, indeed, a "known issue". My issue with this knowledge of an issue is that if you know something is a known issue, why not create a simple, scripted fix for the issue and then distribute to your support staff, delegating at least one person to "clearing out the bucket" of open tickets for the known issue until the bucket is clear? Instead, I take back unconfirmed reports of a potential five day wait from ticket to resolution.
The issue I have with MMORPGs is that they really have no true incentive to perform once they gain the status that WoW has gained. In effect, it's not like I can go to Verizon for my WoW service. They have a captive audience, and they can do pretty much whatever they want as long as the consumer has a vested interest in depositing $15 every month. Not wanting to lose something that you invested hours and hours of your time in making is a pretty emotionally-linked incentive if you ask me. Some people can walk away from this, but most cannot; which is why we put up with less than stellar customer support.
One aspect of WoW's customer support forum that astonished me was this strange "Village of the Damned" vibe which permeated through every positive post made in which someone just "accepted" the insane "unofficial" wait for the issue to be resolved. It was like they were spraying arasol benzodiazepines through the PC's internet connection, calming them to the point they were just accepting what seemed like a presposterous amount of time to wait for resolution to a common issue.
This begs the question, just how badly strapped is Blizzard customer support? For that matter, just how badly managed is Blizzard customer support? Is management not giving these reps the tools they need to efficiently handle more tickets, thus increasing productivity? It's a possibility, and one that I've experienced first-hand in the telecom world. What was the answer? New Customer Relationship Management software that integrated other system data to create a one-stop-shop for 95% of all questions and solutions.
But in the end, we're (meaning WoW players) mostly addicts, just wanting our fix. We don't care if it's dirty, sometimes we OD, but most times we're just happy to be comfortably numb (at least our butts after sitting on them for hours on end).
SO true
My account was placed on a 3 hour suspension because of language useage in GUILDCHAT...I was reported AS A JOKE by one of my guildmates for cussing durring a raid and blizzard suspended my account...even after the individual told the guy several times it was a joke and didn't even think you could be suspended for cussing in raid chat.
I logged into another account to discuss this issue with a GM and was told by the GM "You need to log into the account that is suspended to discuss questions and details pertaining to that account, we cannot assist you unless you are logged into the account in question"
apparently the logic behind trying to log into an account that cannot be logged into missed this guy...so I said screw it and went out and got some cocktails that night instead of messing with it anymore.
I tried to log in the next day and my account had been banned because of security reasons. as well as my friends account that I logged in to in order to talk to a GM. Apparently we have been banned because we are sharing an account in order to exploit the game is the reason we have been given.
Blizzard's AA department takes at least 24 hours to return emails and there is no way to contact them by phone that I have been able to find. I have tried to reason with these people in every way possible yet they seem hell bent on just sending me canned/automated responses to my emails instead of actually looking at the situation.
the lack of phone support or even an IM support is the most absurd thing I have ever heard of...especially when the delay from email support is 24 hours or more.
I've had this game, paid my monthly bill, and played it just fine since November of 2004...at $15 a month for 42 months that comes out to $630 and for that price I cannot even get 2 minutes of someones time on the phone...its completely absurd
Account Sharing
Account sharing is against the terms of service. Even having two people play two seperate characters on the same account is grounds for a ban. Congrats on getting your account back, but I'd recommend you tell your friend to get his own account to avoid this happening again. Besides, if you do that, then you guys can group and quest together. It'll be more fun that way.
ACCOUNT BANNED
On a typical day, I get off work, grab a shower get some food and then relax in my comfy black leather chair, and engage in World of Warcraft. I get to play seldom during the week, with work and jogging, and all that other fun stuff. Today however, Blizzard had different plans, I was farming on my Mage in Netherstorm and poof..I was disconnected from the game and then emailed stating that I had done some criminal act and have been completely and permanently removed from the game. I couldn't believe it, I've played this game since release and have never had any issues until yesterday night.
I am the guild leader of a guild on feathermoon and we were just starting to get our 25 man raid going, apparently I epic farmed my way to a permanent ban? The reason on my ban stated was that I was using 3rd party programs? Which means what? I'm some sort of bot or something? I've done 10 man, 25 man instances and am the guild leader of my guild, I really think they screwed up on this one. I tried calling blizzard, and was told repeatedly that only account administration can handle such issues. I tried pleading with the person on the other line but, what is some 19 year old kid going to do, really? Next step I took was emailing blizzard at their account admin email, and was basically given the same bogus excuse, it's almost really as if he/she didn't even look and just went along with whatever the original person did.
I'm fairly disappointed because I've put in 3 years of my life into this game and I don't want it to mean nothing because of some idiot who completely missed the ball and thinks I'm using some sort of hack or 3rd party program like a bot? I've never even heard of the term "packet sniffing" software that they mentioned and accused me of using. Frankly what are my options at this point? It's been a day thus far, but I feel helpless and I basically have to hope that someone out there will care enough to look into things and actually investigate my issue.
If anyone has any feedback or advice, let me know, at the moment I'm just basically stunned at the randomness of being booted off, forever for something which is completely false.
Sincerely,
Jonathon/Phase - Feathermoon (RP)
Yeah... you don't need to be playing games.
Happiness delivered by Blizzard
"I'd like to let you know exactly what happened. First off, nothing you did on the account was objectionable; this was an error on our part, and I apologize for the inconvenience it caused. As part of our aggressive efforts to protect the quality of the game experience for all players, we monitor our realms and regularly take strong action against accounts that are used to exploit game elements or spam other players with website ads. In this isolated occurrence, the account you were playing on was mistakenly identified as such."
If they had IM or phone contacts, I could have told them this earlier. A veteran WoW player assured me I would hear back from the company, and he was right.
If it's true that Blizzard's parent Vivendi ended the phone support that could have helped fix this, shame on them.
and nothing of value was lost
and nothing of value was lost
Maybe your time isn't valuable
Blizz
Never have seen this problem with my accounts. btw, I put the game on the shelf 6 months ago with 2 70's all epic.
One thing that could be suspicious is that you said you had created several characters and "we" were putting them through thier paces. Were you the only person playing? The number of recently created characters vs playtime could raise a flag or 2 if they were out of balance. Leveling services and gold farming services are huge now adays. Blizzard takes those issues very seriously.
Also, I gotta ask...why "research" a game that has been out for the better part of 3 years?
On the other hand of customer service, blizz's gm's are the best customer service I have ever ran into....albeit a little slow, but nonetheless very effective.
Only one PC and account
Support
On the other hand, the best support experience I have ever had was in-game in World of Warcraft and I have been working in IT for over 20 years. When my character had a technical issue, the support manager dropped out of the sky and elegantly resolved the problem I had very quickly. It's too bad you want to give up so soon. WoW can be a phenomenal experience.
Honestly, Blizz needs to get
Honestly, Blizz needs to get rid of trial accounts, period. They are used by spammers to annoy others, and honestly as a consumer, you are better off buying the game and getting your free month with full playing privledges, than spending the "free trial" period functionally crippled (no mail, no trades).
Bottom line, you get what you paid for. If you want to play the tame, pay the price.
Unfortunate but true
I have to agree with David here. Blizzard is severely lacking in their customer service department. When "GM's" in game are only capable of responding via canned macro scripts and emails are responded to using standard form letters frustration abounds. Unfortunately I'm too much of an addict to quit because of this. I just wish they'd get a clue.
Phone Support?
Granted, our gaming company is miniscule in comparison to blizzard but in the subscriptino based MMO buisness, support scales pretty linearly with subscriptions and I can't imagine offering telephone support. It's outdated, expensive and frustrating.
Metrics show that the person handling the issue can get much more done using an IM or email client than talking on the phone. Not to mention that you don't really want to talk to a sweat shop in Bangalore, no matter how much you think you might want to.
It's an on line game for pete's sake, why wouldn't support be on line? The only reason I can fathom is that in Blizzard's case they have such a wide audience and by that I mean that little Timmy's mom might not really be a technocrat of any degree and is rooted in hte past before yuo0r insurance company, or your bank inundated you with canned voice messages to "visit our website", while you sit on hold.
I am surprised that people so interested in technology would pine for such an outdated and ineffective means of communication for support.
I disagree
In this issue with Blizzard, I would cheerfully engage in IM with someone who could help me. They don't offer it. They offer one solitary method of contact for this ludicrous closure issue: email.
So you think the telephone is outdated for customer contact? Fine, but you miss the human equation a competent and trained customer service rep fulfills.
Blizzard has no problem servicing billing and technical questions by phone, so Blizzard president Mike Morhaime obviously understands its value.
I've been wrongfully treated by Blizzard and I want to communicate this to someone. In their email, Blizzard threatens to delete your messages if you email them too many times about the same topic.
With this being my only contact option, then yes, I'll take the antiquated telephone as a choice.
Blizzard isn't some garage startup. 10 million players, $15 a month to play. Do the math. They've chosen to cost cut here, and I'm the one bleeding from it. And I'm not the only one, apparently.
lol
Much agreed!
I Agree
I have had the exact identical problem as you, David and am frustrated by the results. I am a 36 yr old CPA who has casually played the game for 3 years. I got the same "exploitation" message over the weekend and have been banned. There is no way I have exploited the game as I play conservatively.
I called the 1-800-59blizz number and was told that I had to submit an e-mail for an "investigation" to begin. I too ran the anti-spam/anti-virus scans and found no keyloggers, etc. on my system. I've paid blizzard hundreds of dollars and they can't even give me a human to talk to resolve. I was also told I would continue to be billed during the suspension.
P.S. I came across your webpage as I tried to google "warcraft account adminstration phone number" :)
Hi David
Less QQ more PEW PEW!
I'd like to...
Phone line still busy busy at Blizzard. Submitting through the web form just generated another autoresponse through email. Tell me again everyone why I'm the bad guy here?
Phone support
So did it occur to you to check the WoW site and see if there was a phone number listed for live support. Took me less then 2 minutes to locate a number:
Billing & Account Services
Phone Support - 1 (800) 59-BLIZZARD
Live Representatives Available Mon-Fri, 8am to 8pm PST
here a link to that information (there are probably other places to find this as well):
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3773308319&sid=1
Now you seem like an intelligent person. Heck, you're a staff writer for a website that covers technology. Why was it so hard to find a phone number? Are you to lazy or have you no skills at searching for information?
And is using the email service to resolve a problem really that bad? I've had to use it and got response quickly and my problem resolved without any problems at all. All within 2 days. And that was for a hacked account.
So, maybe next time check for the information before you spout off about bad service so you don't come off as a complete moron.
thank you
thank god. finally someone who makes sense here...
PS Tore
Hi Tore
From the email: Any disputes or questions concerning this account action can only be addressed by Account Administration.
I emailed the address provided for Account Administration. A phone contact was not provided as an option; considering the nature of the issue, I figured they prefer to handle complaints asynchronously.
I appreciate the comment, but you're erroneous in assuming I didn't try these options.
You also obviously did not read the reason Blizzard gave for shutting down my account. A company handling as much business as they do needs to have a better process in place than just tossing off a nebulous email claiming there's a serious problem when there's not.
Correct. Only Billing
Correct. Only Billing services can be dealt with over the phone(After a 20-30min wait). Only wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com can deal with Account related issues such as bans and what not. Personally, I've had a character stolen. I reported this, regained control of my account and for whatever reason, I was never rewarded back my character. I've been unable to speak to a human relating this issue. I keep getting a genric e-mail with the same exact text copy and pasted from different GMs. I suspect customer support can actually do ANYTHING, if they even wanted to.(i'm assuming they don't give a s#it)
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