Hubby banned for buying too much leather off the AH... why?

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We’ve been playing for 20 years. Never bought gold. Never cheated. Never multi-boxed. Never paid real money currency to anyone for anything, ever.

Hubby is being told he’s perma banned for buying leather listed on the AH, crafting and vendoring for a small profit margin. How is this a violation of TOS?

Blizz claims he engaged in unauthorized exchange of in-game property for “real world” currency. All he did was buy leather on the AH. Was he supposed to know that the items he bought belonged to gold sellers? He didn’t pay anyone anything IRL.

Obviously, some algorithm screwed up and flagged him. Blizz has ghosted him. Won’t let him post on this forum, there’s no number to talk to a human. Opened a ticket. Only God knows if or when someone will read it and respond.

Totally demoralized… what should we do? What can we do?

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Sounds as your hubby’s leather shopping spree got him banned for overdoing it! Maybe the auction house has limits to keep things fair or prevent hoarding.

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What kind of cooked take is that ? "Maybe the auction house has limits " don’t spread misinformation online :rofl:

Either Hubby is lying or you got extremely unlucky , if you’re sure you didn’t do any rule breaking you’ll have to keep appealing to blizz and hope you reach a human.

Dark times indeed.

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Here is the draft of his appeal on the matter… he asked me to share it here.

"I am completely flabbergasted, I 100% control my account and never intimated it was hacked, nor have i bought or sold gold. This is completely wrong, and there is no possible way a human reviewed my case. I have been a loyal blizz customer for almost 20 years… As i said before, I have never sold or bought gold, or traded, or given any in game items or received items for anything…If you go back through my logs a human can see all my activity and i will be vindicated!

I am so dam squeaky clean it’s embarrassing for me to admit. The ONLY possible reason i could have been flagged was either playing on my computer at home mornings and night, and playing on my work computer during the day (i work 15-17 miles from where i live). OR that i buy lots of leather from the AH and craft to vendor. The morning i was banned was about 2-4 hrs after i emptied my bags after 3-4 weeks of crafting and vendoring…every day i bought as much of the leather as i could (10-50 stacks per day depending on price) as it turns out i was getting nervous my mail would expire, as i wasn’t sure if i was crafting enough to keep up with my purchases…and my bag-non seemed glitched because it seemed to always show 2000~ leather in my total inventory.
[6:05 AM]
After I emptied my mail to consolidate it, i actually had over 12,000 pieces of leather…im thinking this triggered something. Also note, I wasn’t reselling the leather or cornering the market, our sever is so populated, that on any given day, i was buying 5-20% of the thick leather available…If it was at a good price (98s- to 1g25s) so i wasn’t buying super cheap stuff…just shuffling leather…And I can assure you this is a time sink, for little return, but i have time

I have no automated add-ons except auctioneer, Im very old school, My game play is unorthodox, but its the style I enjoy, i don’t raid, just pvp, farm, ah, and accumulate gold to buy stuff, and gear my toons.

The embarrassing thing is, I have about 890g across all my toons and about 8-900 gold of craft able leather…I was about to break 2k which would have been 2 mounts…so im no high roller or cheater, scammer, buyer or seller of gold…this is a serious injustice…I challenge blizz to prove what i stated her to be untrue, or even one part…LOOK through my logs please!..and state how I possibly violated something.

Lastly, my wife (who plays with me the last 19 years) pointed out “meybe some of the leather you bought was farmed by bots” while it’s possible some of the leather i bought off the ah could have been, there is no possible way a player can know, and I bought ah leather from EVERYBODY…furthermore…i paid fair market price.

I’m going through this lengthy explanation, still not knowing what i actually did wrong, except for the accusation i bought or sold gold…which I know i did not do.

As you can tell i am extremely indignant about this…this is like getting pulled over for speeding in a 70 speed zone in a vehicle that is governed down to 65…its impossible and impossible to believe."

Appeal description:

I have no idea why my account has been banned. The only possible reasons could be playing the game at home in the evenings, and at work during the day on my other computer. Or, is it because of all the raw mats i have been purchasing, and crafting with, from the auction house?

Blizz’s response:
NatsumeShigu said:

Hello, Your case has been reviewed, and the actions were found to be applied correct and fairly, as the final decision is upheld. We have found absolutely no signs of account compromise on your activity. We will not proceed with any further details regarding this case, as your appeal chance has been used, your case has been noted and we will not be reviewing, discussing and/or escalating about any matter regarding this account in the future, including all appeal attempts. Regards, Blizzard Customer Support (web site address)

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Hey Chellez,

Just something to throw out there that won’t necessarily be of any help, but more for understanding.

Being actioned for buying from the auction house, especially in non suspicious ways, isn’t likely. It’s also not typical for an action reason to include something that specific. At any point in the appeal process, did a GM explicitly say it was from buying the leather?

For penalties like these, there are often long investigations that can take days, weeks or even months to complete. Meaning, whatever a player was doing right before the action is virtually never the reason.

In reading the draft you posted above, I see the reference to the activities your husband was doing shortly before the action hit. So it sounds like he may have associated the two when it’s unlikely they are related (due to the typical investigation times). It’s more likely the triggering event was further back in time.

That said, I don’t mean to say that your husband did anything illicit. GMs are human so mistakes can be made. Your husband doesn’t have to stop after one appeal. He can keep resubmitting it until Bliz overtly tells him to stop. The reason this is beneficial is that each resubmission has a new GM to review it (a new “set of eyes” so to speak) which can help catch mistakes.

Even if the decision is upheld and Bliz says no more appeals, always keep an eye on the account email. Sometimes mistakes can take a while to catch.

I’m not saying there was or wasn’t a mistake (that’s not info I have). I’m just offering some info and advice.

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Greetings Leviathan,

While I appreciate your response and attempt to help us understand, we’re left even more confused as to why he may have been banned.

If you were to look at all the activity on his toons, specifically his hunter named Kibblesnbitz on the realm Nightslayer in Classic, which the toon he was playing when he got banned, you would see no unusual trades of gold, either through AH or to another player.

He does have some very weird game play habits… one such “quirk” is buying thick leather and letting that toon craft headbands and chests, then vendoring them for a small profit. It’s the only thing he can do while he watches the store where he works because it lets him go afk whenever a customer walks in.
He did say his auction addon showed a huge jump when he emptied his mailbox that was full of leather that he hadn’t pulled for a while. He’s wondering if that triggered your AI to “turn on him”.

It just really sucks because he’s an aging fat guy and WoW has been pretty much his life for the last two decades. He’s devastated. If he can’t play, there’s no point in continuing my subscription. I don’t want to play without him.

We’ve maintained 5 accounts for us and the kids for the past several years. We’re really disappointed it’s ending like this.

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Unfortunately, I don’t have access to anything like that. MVPs are chosen by Bliz from the community, but we are still just community members at the core. Meaning I can’t access anything that a true Bliz employee can.

I can’t say (because I don’t know), but drawing from experience with assisting Bliz from the sidelines I highly suspect that it didn’t have anything to do with what he was doing shortly before the action hit. E.g. buying crafting reselling, etc.

Don’t let my post confuse you. Despite my suspicion that it wasn’t the AH/crafting that got him, there is also the possibility that it is a mistake. Sometimes innocents get caught in a dragnet. Sometimes mistakes are found quickly (during the appeal process) and sometimes it takes longer (past the appeal process).

In other words, even if he reaches the point that Support tells him to stop appealing, don’t throw the towel in right away. Sit on it for a while and see if anything changes in the following weeks (watch the account’s email address). If not, it’s unfortunate for sure. But if so, major bonus.

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I’m in the exact same boat as you are. I’m trying to work my way through this process and I’m very upset that I got hit with this as well on Friday morning. All I do all day is literally just play WoW and do quests. I’m the definition of a WoW hermit as I rarely interact with other players unless LFG. I rarely trade on the AH and I’ve traded real life players less than 5 times. I no information from them, and I’m having problems proving something that never happened. I never thought this was how I’d be leaving WoW. Upsetting.

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Ok, this is hubby finally, (Kibblesnbits/ Nightslayer) the one who was banned, I had to subscribe to another account it seems to be able to post again. I wish to sincerely thank Leviathan for the “human” response, and appreciate the responses here, it means a lot in the proverbial barren waste land of automation.

I have another layer of questions as i pursue a rightful conclusion to this mess. It seems I have/had one appeal…just one. Unfortunately i was banned and appealed before the blizz email came through (not the reason and not knowing i only had one appeal), and my brief appeal was rejected, and the appeal button is now locked…and is showing “resolved” I cannot re-appeal which means the ability to follow some of the above advice is not possible, other than to wait.

For clarity, my one appeal shot was wasted on a 2 sentence question, not knowing I have one shot? anyway the above draft letter i sent the only way possible…through the survey tab lol. After i was banned, and 1 appeal, they confirmed i was not hacked and will uphold verdict. I never said i was hacked. what can i do to get this properly looked at?

It was brought up that the issue was probably not any of my ah buying habits or a recent activity, but i only started this realm a few months ago, and unfortunately, i carry the curse of a very good memory: in the last few months i have not griefed, spammed, used trade or any channel to hawk goods, flamed anyone or engaged very much with people in general except my guild, sons, and wife.

Im not in IT so i have no programs other than off curse forge on my computer…I was told I was directly, or indirectly, engaged in the trading of real money for in game stuff ( paraphrasing) …this is NOT possible, that is why I’m a bulldog with a bone on this issue, besides the fact i have never been sanctioned before (19.5) years playing or since 2011(as far as battle net goes)…heck I still have my original cd-roms for wow.

Most people who play wow love the game, it becomes part of your routine, part of your life, my wife, and several of my kids played growing up, and World Of Warcraft (especially Vanilla, tbc, and wrath) we had birthday parties, we watched guildies, friends (some of which we are still friends decades later with) grow up and become old together…The game has become part of OUR family social fabric. Those who love the game would never do anything to lose it.

So, what has happened to my account was unfair, wrong, and not warranted, there can be no evidence to support the accusations. I know for certain this mistake will be found and corrected at some point, but will i benefit from it? only time will tell. Further more, how can i even consider playing again until this is resolved, not knowing, always looking over my shoulder, waiting for the Ban reaper to take this away again?

Passion Knows no boundaries, fortitude is built and gives great rewards, respect is earned, and a man who has no Guile, is respected and honored.

Kibblesnbits/ Nightslayer realm

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No the GM didn’t say that but specifically said “i was involved directly, or indirectly for the exchange of in game property for real world currency”

besides buying 2 purple hammers from the ah (17g apiece) one for my wife’s priest, and one for my pally (lvl 48ish) there only remains the 12,000 pieces of thick leather. One of my son’s who is pretty smart thinks there is AI using algorithms that tracks players UI’s and picked up the bag-non glitch i referenced earlier…and saw a instant bump from 2k to 12k leather…when bag-non updated, the AI thought i bought it?, or it instantly spawned…as a side note, after i pulled all my mail i consolidated it in mail to my other toon to return later.

I’m not asking for your valuable time to be wasted here, on this, but rather for this to get to the right person/ people. At this point this IS a customer issue problem that needs to be fixed or referred…Thank you

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Well, Finally!!! got a email>>>>>>>>

Greetings ******,

When you appealed the ban to your account 4 days ago, we did uphold it - but we also sent it up for a secondary review by our hacks team.

Good News! They have overturned this completely, and you should once again have access to the license.

I do apologize for the delay and inconvenience.

Thank you very much for your patience with the process

Just WOW…completely exonerated!
Good Luck to the others who may be in this situation, don’t give up!
If you did nothing wrong keep fighting…and pay attention to the TOS so you know if your right or in the wrong peeps

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I guess this means I don’t have to suspend my own account sub in protest. Been playing Valheim while waiting for a final verdict. I’m at the swamp phase… not my favorite part of the game… back to WoW I go. Hubby needs a tank.

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Congrats! Very glad to hear they resolved it and you have access to your WoW account back.

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Great!

As much as the internet likes to preach that all Bliz support is AI, it’s definitely humans behind the scenes and they do sometimes make mistakes!

I’m glad to hear you’re back up and running!

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If banned for buying leather on the AH, appeal through Blizzard’s support ticket system and clearly explain the situation—mistaken flags can happen, but only Blizzard can reverse it.