World of Warcraft player Zarath recently had his account reinstated following a ban on suspicion of speed hacking.
In another stellar example of creative spin, it wasn’t a banning so much as a temporary lock pending an investigation. (hee) Read:
–email– (account name editted out)
Greetings,It was brought to our attention that the (editted out) account may have been involved in the use of third-party applications in conjunction with World of Warcraft. In light of this, the (editted out) account was temporarily locked pending further review. After a complete investigation of account activity, we have unlocked the account and decided that no penalties would be applied to the account. Please note that the (editted out) account will be reimbursed for the days that it was locked pending our investigatory review.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you and we’d like to thank you for your patience during this investigatory period. We hope that you will continue to enjoy your gaming experience in World of Warcraft and please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Regards,
Lead Game Master Calobos
Blizzard Entertainment
Customer satisfaction is a top priority here at Blizzard Entertainment, and we would like your feedback on the level of service you have received. Please feel free to provide such feedback at the following web address: **snip — because, c’mon, we all know what Zarath thinks of the customer service.**
Zarath posted that it took approximately five emails to Blizzard and 5 – 6 days of waiting to get reinstated. /applause for his tenacity, especially after this Blizzard response to his second email:
–email–
Greetings,Thank you for your follow-up email. Unfortunately, we have provided all pertinent information regarding the World of Warcraft account in question. We regret to inform you that the account closure decision is final and the account status permanent. The World of Warcraft account will not be re-opened or re-activated under any circumstance.
We hope this has cleared up any concerns you may have had and expect no further communication on this matter.
Regards,
Stawl
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment
(Hey now, waitaminute! That doesn’t sound like a temporary lock pending an investigation at all.)
The good news is that Blizzard is sorry for the inconvenience, as usual, which I imagine is small comfort as he rejoins his server with a TRASHED reputation.
They are shameless.
I love the spin, though. That’s a nice touch.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s funny that Blizzard employees use their fantasy nicknames when responding in a “professional” manner? How would you feel if your doctor signed prescriptions “Sir Dragonslayer” or somesuch?
I have learned (through trial and error) that if one acts professionally, then one can be expect to be treated professionally. Bliz isn’t the only gaming company guilty of this. For some reason MMO employees across the board really think that it’s important to “live the dream”. No. They are there to provide a service, not have a good time. I honestly don’t care if they are treated to EA like working conditions if it means that the servers stay up.
haha, I thought that too, especially about the Account Admin person. Guess I can understand the Lead GM using a fake name just in case he has to get his hands dirty and work the petition queue, but the admin people? Is working over there like going to a LARP every day? Cuz that would drive me to drink.
Some gamers, way back when I was a Senior Guide in EQ, have threatened GMs and guides with RL harm for not helping with a simple issue. Imagine the response of these same types when their accoutn is banned! I think the use of character names in e-mails although technically unprofessional in a traditional sense helps to protect these people. I mean really if you were going to piss off someone you thought was a hacker would you want them to have your RL name? I wouldn’t!
Personally I think in the gaming and entertainment community, cause lets face it games are entertainment, signing with an alias is just fine. I mean would you rather have LL Cool J or James Smith sign your CD?
I’m glad that there was a semi-satisfactory resolution to this player’s issue, but dang, Blizzard needs a clearer process that gives players the benefit of the doubt. (Shut up Blizzard fundies.)
If it’s really a temp-lock pending investigation, call it that – don’t slam the door and pretend there’s no other way to contest it. Loverly spin though.
/golfclap
I can understand why someone may not want to give their real name when dealing with such a situation. But they should still do it anyway.
I work for a company that purchases loans from banks/mortgage companies/credit unions etc…Last year we bought billions of dollars worth of loans. If I mess up on a single loan or slack off (like posting on AFK) loans can go bad, lock dates can be blow through and thousands of dollars can be lost. Or, if there is fraud or misrep on loans, I get the pleasure of telling a mortgage company that they potentially now owe us millions of dollars. In such cases I do not call saying “Hello this is Chef and we have a problem”.
Honestly if you are afraid of some basement dwelling nerd with a banned WoW account then perhaps you should be working as a photographer for a kitten calendar.