My account had being banned out of blue on Friday afternoon for being accused of using bot/hacks while I am 100% certain as false accusation since the only things I used in wow are addons downloaded from CurseForge (WA, BigWigs, ShadowUnit Frame, Bartender 4 and etc.)
I appealed the penalty almost immediately and received a typical automatic reply reiterating ToS and EULA but without providing any useful information.
Without the means to talk to a real GM, such issue will never resolve. I have already lost the whole weekend to grind keys and that’s invaluable to me since I am a working man with kid which means minimum time to play during the weekdays. Plus, there is real risk for me to lose this account which I have played for 15+ years. The thing that’s annoys me most is that I have to purchase another copy of the game and buy another subscription to be able to post here in order to arouse customer support’s attention and this is beyond bad design.
I am a law professional and I am seriously considering dive into this and to find out if there are enough incidents to file a class action here.
First and foremost - as a law professional, you should have read all the legal documentation that you agreed to upon purchase of the games, and whenever anything gets amended or updated. Threatening a class action is about as old as the game is, so good luck with that.
Now, onto the rest.
You are with each appeal you send in. A different GM looks over all the data and either upholds or overturns the sanction. And I’ll add that the hyperbole isn’t conducive to your argument. We see plenty of cases where true falsely flagged accounts have gotten their sanctions lessened or overturned by following the proper appealing procedures.
No one cares about the Regular Joe versus a streamer arguement. Your account was sanctioned due to the data that GMs have investigated. Anyone else, their cases are separate and have no bearing on any other player.
Templated, not automatic. A real live human sent you those replies after each appeal was processed.
As to this, it may be that your ticket was escalated. Investigations take time.
This…was your own foolishness honestly. I don’t know a nicer way to phrase that. All you needed as a new Battle.net account (free) and play your way through to level 10 to be able to post on the forums (also free-to-play). A little bit of research would have gone a long way.
Honestly i think every so called threat of a class action lawsuit is a bunch of hot air thinking that it will get blizzard to unban them. Blizzard legal team probably eats this suits as mid day snack…
But you would then also know that you don’t actually own your account. Blizzard does, and they granted you a limited, revocable license to use it, and evidently they decided to revoke it.
To jump off what others said, what’d you sue for? Blizzard own the account and everything on it. They’re within their right to not allow a given person to play for whatever reason or no reason. Like a place banning someone from their place if the owner sees fit.
Along with such, a law suit takes months, if not years, to get through the court system. I’d think you’d be spending more time and money then you’d have over a gaming account.
Just adding this part to make sure it stands out from my initial post - depending on when you made this purchase, it may be eligible for a refund. Since it wasn’t necessary to spend that money, if you’re still eligible, I’d try and get your money back. It doesn’t hurt to try, at least. You can try and submit your request here:
Since I have to have active subscription for post on the forum and with a toon over level 10, I would rather buy a copy of the game and boost my toon to 70. Thanks for the information though. I will request refund once this post serves its purpose.
Refunds are very time-sensitive. But using the boost alone may have made the account ineligible. I’ll still stubbornly say that it never hurts to ask.
This forum does not require an active sub. I say this as someone who is currently not subscribed and my posting isn’t hindered at all - since I tend to stay here on CS.
Now, to post in other non-support channels, yes. You would need a sub. But not for here.
I agree with your second argument, I would rather spend those time and money on my daughter instead. But for your first argument, knowing that you did nothing wrong and then being deprived all the rights you paid for is unacceptable. Imagining your landlord evict you after you paid a year’s rent in advance and accuse you for something you didn’t do. At least the landlord will give your prepaid rent back while Blizz will still keep the 12 months subscription fee you paid while ban your account for something you didn’t do.
So heres the thing blizzard has this program thats called warden that runs 24/7 on your computer its always scanning ur computer for any programs that can be used for botting.
Yes you mite not be using these programs for botting but work related you wouldnt be the first person to be using a program thats can be used for botting but work related.
Your only option is to appeal. You can appeal as many times as you want until a GM says they are no longer looking into it and any future appeals will be ignored.
You’re never going to have a direct conversation about action taken upon your account. Not with a GM, not with CSRs, not with us.
With that said a few clarifications:
Actions taken on accounts are not ‘random’. An actual GM has to authorize it. The only automatic thing done is a squelch and that is only after a sharp influx of reports. Pending an investigation it is only a temporary effect.
This forum has no requirements beyond a character reaching level 10 to my knowledge. I am currently playing without a subscription and I am able to post just fine. It’s up to you if you want to buy a new license and such but it’s certainly not needed to post here.
Blizzard does not ‘owe’ you game time. Yes, you paid for a subscription but barring things like maintenance and action against your account that time can be lost and never recovered. The same argument has been used for long maintenance periods for years.
If your account was found to be banned/suspended in error - Blizzard usually tends to give you back the game time you lost.
Yes, it puts a crimp in you wanting to go in headfirst with the new season, but they usually try to make it right for time lost. If they don’t do it automatically, you can absolutely shoot in a request for it.
Just be mindful that most companies have similar wording in their user agreements. In fact, many other companies don’t even have an appeals process. If they feel that you’ve violated the rules, they simply close your account and you are forced to either start over, or move on.
Blizzard has always had an appeals process for them to look into whether or not a mistake was made. That said, they only ever ban the account, not the player.
Also many other game companies if your account gets hacked they will not help to restore the account. Blizzard is one of the few companies that does that and it costs them a lot of money each year.
Also sure in the tos agreement there are wording that would keep you from sueing them for being defamed. Honestly with no one knowing who you really are can you be defamed?
