Monday, May 2, 2011

Amazing turnaround on closed account

I received an email on Friday evening at 9:13 pm:

"Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Use of Third Party Automation Software

This account was closed because one or more characters were identified using an unauthorized cheat program, also known as a "hack." These programs provide character benefits normally not achievable in the World of Warcraft. Such benefits include, but are not limited to, increased speed, teleportation, or running through walls/boundaries. Use of these unauthorized programs harms the game environment because they offer an unfair advantage over other players and supersede the intended limits of the game."

This amused me because my technical know-how is so low that I barely know enough to be able to update my addons. Seriously. Ask my guildies. So... me? Using a hack or a bot? Seriously?

I responded to the link in the email to dispute the claim. After sending an email out to some guildies, they got on vent to chat with me. I really expected that the process to settle this would take days. I honestly did not expect to be able to raid on Sunday night. So while I filled out the online dispute claim, I also had 10 more minutes before the Blizz call center closed. So I had a guildie find the customer service 1-800 number for me and I called on a whim. Given what I'd heard about huge wait times, I didn't expect much.

But lo and behold, my wait time was 1 minute. I talked to a guy and explained my situation. He then asked whether I used any addons. I didn't want to be a smart ass, but my answer was something like "Nothing more than everyone else uses". I mean seriously, you're going to ask a WoW player if they ask any addons? I mean who doesn't?

Anyways, so then he said that he'd forward my account to the investigative people and that while they work around the clock, to give them a couple of hours to look into it. He told me to expect some sort of response on Saturday morning. I got off the phone feeling pretty pleased with the customer service, and thought that a response Saturday morning was quite reasonable.

However about 10 minutes after I got off the phone, I received an email at 10:08 pm from an GM saying:

"Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the World of Warcraft account you are using. We understand your point of view and have thoroughly reviewed this issue. As a result, the account action has been removed from the account and all involved parties have been addressed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused"

The complete turn around from when I first received the account closure email to when I got this second email saying it was resolved? Less than an hour. I am absolutely floored with how quickly it was resolved. As I joked with guildies, I didn't even have to get all Grrr angry asian girl on them to get this resolved.

However, I don't have an answer for what may have triggered whatever automated system they have to try to find people using hacks and bots. And I am not convinced that it won't happen again in the future. Guildies had some ideas for what may have triggered this:

4 comments:

  1. That is weird, and I don't imagine they will share what info triggered their first response, will they? That is just freaky...

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  2. I'm sticking with my racial profiling explanation.

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  3. Dirty Druids in Flight Form.

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  4. @Kayeri: Yeah, they won't share what triggered it... which means I have no guarantee it won't happen again. So while I'm pleased with the fast turnaround, it's a bit irritating it happened to begin with.

    @Jess: /sigh

    @Kalthan: You guys are so jealous of us druids!

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