WoW and Blizzard are stealing from me!

acruxksa

I've been a long time WoW player but have recently began having some problems that I consider borderline theft by blizzard.

Two weeks ago I unexpectedly received two e-mails from blizzard in my inbox. One stated that my account was temporarily suspended for activities that weren't allowed. (I forget the exact wording) The second e-mail was a request to reset my password. This was a problem because I haven't used my WoW character for nearly a month (we've been away on vacation for three of those weeks). Either I've been hacked or one of our house sitters friends logged in on my computer and obtained my password. In any case I really didn't care and e-mailed them to say that I just wanted to cancel the account because I haven't been playing it much lately. They replied that I simply needed to log into my account and place it on hold. I've been trying to do this now for two weeks and it continually says that the account is frozen. This would be fine too except for the fact that today I noticed that blizzard took another 3 months of subscription fees out of my bank account and I can't log in to cancel.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:23:17 Post Subject:

That sucks... Time to call the bank and challenge the charges!

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:58:24 Post Subject:

Reason # 437 why I don't play WoW Grin

acruxksa · Posted: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:11:55 Post Subject:

Well,
It took some doing, but they have agreed to refund my money.

I basically told them that I had a month off and would call and e-mail them everyday unless they refunded my money. I also told them that I was pretty sure I could take up more than $40 of their time.

What really pissed me off was the no-service techs reply to this, he said that he didn't recommend I file a complaint with the BBB and seek to reverse the charges on my bank account because "It could have adverse affects on my account" I'm assuming he was talking about the WoW account I was trying to cancel, but in anycase it was a bit frustrating because everytime I asked him to refund my money he would start over at the top of the script he was reading to me. It took 25minutes on hold and about 10 repeats of the techs script before I managed to pry the supervisors e-mail address out of him.

I sent him this:
Lance,
I just spoke to one of your service reps and they explained that it is not policy to refund money once an account has been canceled. I will be disputing this for the following reason. I tried several times to cancel my account in the preceding two weeks and was unable to login, despite resetting the password. I eventually was able to log in successfully but was told I couldn't access my account for one of several reason that escape me at the moment. In any case the account was frozen and I was unable to login and cancel despite the fact that at least one e-mail from blizzard told me I should be able to do so. Lets not forget the 15 or so times I was told I could use the online system to manage my account instead of waiting on hold for a live customer no-service rep.
Yesterday I noticed that despite my multiple attempts to cancel the account I was charge for three more months. Today when I talked to customer service they informed me that if I filed a complaint with the BBB and disputed the charge with my bank my account "could suffer adverse affects" What that threat means I don't know but it sounds a bit like extortion to me.

In short I don't feel that it is legal to deny me access to my account, ignore my several unsuccessful attempts to login and cancel, ignore my e-mails proclaiming my inability to login and cancel my account, tell me numerous times via e-mail and while on hold that I could cancel my account by logging into the accounts management page online and then to charge me for three more months.

Please do the right thing and refund my money,

Not my best e-mail, but apparently it worked.

Smile

Now to track down the person that got me banned. It's a very short list of people who could have had access to my computer while I was on vacation so I will eventually figure it out.

Cleem · Posted: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:01:05 Post Subject:

I can sympathize with your situation. A few years ago I tried playing 'Star Wars Galaxies' (produced by Sony Online Entertainment, not Blizzard) that required signing up for their subscription service before installing the game. Unfortunately my computer couldn't run the game (due to a quirky video card error) so I had paid for a game and service that I couldn't use. After repeated attempts to get my money back, they refused, and I was out of luck.

I find most MMO companies to be very stringent on their fiscal policies, and I am surprised (and happy for you) that they refunded your lost money. And you are right about the advantages of speaking to a manager, rather than a service tech; that is often the key. But I would offer to you the following. Think about the bright side of your experience. All of that time spent playing the game you can now apply to more important things, and all of that money you spent can go to something else. Think about your family, friends, job, dreams, etc. I'm not saying that this is your case, but I have seen too many people have their lives altered for the worst by MMOs (students dropping out of undergraduate programs, relationships strained, problems with being late or absent at work). I hope you never end up like some of them.

I will get down off of my soapbox but I just wanted to reassure you that I don't think what happened to you is all that bad. In fact, if you now have a negative opinion of MMO companies, I would consider that to be a good thing. Two Cents

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

acruxksa · Posted: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:44:32 Post Subject:

No worries about that. I had played WoW off and on for about 3 years and hadn't reached the highest level (was lvl 64). I probably averaged 8hrs of game play a month over that time frame.

I've already downloaded the DDO trial to give that a shot.

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

BeerCheeze · Posted: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:16:59 Post Subject:

Arcuxksa... Join Kyber and look us up. If you tell me your name I'll send you an invite to the guild.

Unfortunately they just came out with a new Module and lot's of high level content so that is what most of are are playing. But I'll grap a lowbe and help you out. Plus... I got $$$ and gear to help you with Grin

Also, don't expect Turinbes customer service to be all that (if any) better. Sad

Seems MMO + Customer Service = Not happening.

acruxksa · Posted: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:04:47 Post Subject:

My name is acrux australis (not sure if you need the lastname) and I joined kyber.

I'll get back to you once I move up a couple levels, I'm sure I will need some help eventually.