Since many of us are unable to link our phone numbers if they’re associated with popular cell services like Cricket and MetroPCS, I asked support to clarify whether or not it would be a good idea to use someone else’s phone number.
Here’s the response I received:
I understand that you were inquiring about using someone else’s phone number on your account.
I would not suggest doing so Cory as yes it could potentially give them access to your account as well as will be needed from time to time to log into the account. You would need to have full constant access to the number on your account.
Essentially, the messaging from Blizzard is:
We require a phone number to play Overwatch 2.
Sorry, we won’t accept your phone number.
Don’t use someone else’s number, because you need it to log in and it could compromise the security of your account.
Switch cell phone plans, or don’t play our game.
Let’s not forget the justification they used for going free-to-play:
At its core, we believe the game is a social experience that should be shared with everyone. This shift to free-to-play will open up and make the world of Overwatch available to more people than ever before, removing the barrier of entry and making it easier than ever to quickly jump into a match with friends. Inclusion is a strong driving force for this decision; when we stick together and work as a team, there’s nothing that can stand in our way.
Inclusion? Removing the barrier of entry? Sicking together? Those are all empty marketing buzzwords. Blizzard and the Overwatch team don’t stand for any of that, because they’re just casually casting so many of us aside, with absolutely no recourse.
I’ve loved, played and supported Overwatch for 6 years. It’s one of my favorite games of all time. I participated in both of the OW2 betas and bought the Watchpoint pack in advance, because I truly enjoy it. Now I’m being told to sod off: refund your purchase because we’re not going to let you play our “inclusive” game.
Indeed. They’re also inadvertently encouraging us to make our accounts less secure by working around their post-paid phone requirement. People have already discovered an app that provides you with a phone number that Blizzard accepts. But then the question is, are you going to be able to guarantee access to that number for forever? What happens if you lose access to it? A smurf/cheater isn’t going to suffer much if they lose access to their account, but for a legitimate long time player, they’d be devastated.
Well said, a smurf gets a free acount now and doesn’t care if loses access due to a phone problem in a month or two. That is not the case for someone that is only using one account.
As we get closer to launch, the more I start to believe they are actually moving forward with this ridiculous countermeasure. I thought they would have backed off by now.
Rumor has it the Dirty ol CEO wants our numbers for other reasons… you know. SPAM MARKETING our cell phones, and eventually pushing us to be REQUIRED to download the blizzard app to play. Just to sell us MORE bloatware and track us.
Hold the line, don’t log in, or cave in. Let them feel the fall out of their scummy actions.
There’s a subtle hint at something here that’s important to call out for those who use a bypass: the quoted line above sounds like they’ll be periodically reverifying with whatever number you have on the account.
So temporary numbers might cause headaches, or will have to go through hoops to keep changing the account’s number.
first of, that isn’t their number anyways so it technically isn’t right on top of them sending messages they will have to answer iirc reading so how will they do that?
second, what happens when they get rid of their number unexpectedly? Then you’ll just have to get your own number anyways because they’ll lock your number out and there goes your account.
or if they get hacked and now your friend or family member is wondering what happened.
then there are the people scrambling to find a number and using app numbers which are not permanent and they can cut you off any time if you forget to make one text or phone call a month because it does happen, which i personally would not risk my account with.
I genuinely don’t see a problem with what the person gave you and what you’re expecting.
You’re contacting support to tell you that you should use someone else’s phone number (that smells like a type of a policy violation for the worker), or to have some back end developmental tool to fix it, which i guarantee the average support advocate would not have access to.
However, you did the right thing by escalating it to support even if they do not have tools to actively fix this. Why? Because these cases get flagged, more flagged the more they show up in metrics to begin investigating ways to improve the process.
I would highly encourage this from anyone that is affected by this issue. While you shouldn’t expect support to be able to fix this, escalate it to pull up those metrics and encourage the company to see it as an issue needing to be addressed and fixed.
Source: I’m a content writer for customer support of another company. This is the process how new projects and content are created.
I consider this an emergency level issue, given that the game is about to launch in a few days, and there’s a 100% chance that a lot of players haven’t even realized they dont qualify for the post-paid requirment. Launch day you’re going to see tens of thousands of complaints of this mark my words.
I genuinely don’t see a problem with what the person gave you and what you’re expecting.
You’re contacting support to tell you that you should use someone else’s phone number (that smells like a type of a policy violation for the worker), or to have some back end developmental tool to fix it, which i guarantee the average support advocate would not have access to.
I am not blaming the support person: I’m glad they answered honestly, that using someone else’s number isn’t a good or secure option. The point of this thread is to pass on the information I was given, and to illustrate that Blizzard leaves us pre-paid phone users with no good options.
that shows you how desperate they are to play. some don’t care to look into things for think things through, they just want a number to sav them from the hassle.
I get how huge of a pain point that is too. Honestly, the buzz and what you’re doing is what everyone should do in regards to it.
I feel like if it’s just buzz on forums it’ll get dismissed as people ranting on things that don’t affect them. Escalated as support tickets however grows a number of active users that they’re seeing result in unresolved escalations.
I could easily see they either do something like expand the available devices for it, or even do something where sign in codes can provided through calls.
I’ve had my number attached to my battle net account since I made my account (early 2016) and nothing changed. I didn’t get a single scam call because (shocker, I know) I only put my number into trustworthy sites and don’t share it around everywhere. People like to be delusional and speculate with no evidence.
