Back in MoP I created a monk on my 2nd account, I was able to get the name Dragon. I played him off and on for a few years but never really got a connection with the class. I never deleted that character to preserve the name just in case Blizzard ever made a dragon based class, fast forward to Dragonflight and the creation of the Drakthyr race. This is what I had been waiting for, so I created and leveled my Drakthyr named Dragon. I decided I wanted this character on my main account since that is the account I had had active since shortly after vanilla launch. So I paid for a character transfer from one account to another, on the same server. This is where my problem happens. Blizzard in all their wisdom flags my character for a name change. The reason given was a character with that name already exists on that server. They are still applying that name to my deleted monk, that had not been max level since WoD. Now when I pay to move a character I am paying to moved my whole character class, race, and name. I can understand the name change if I was moving to a different server where someone else had the name already reserved but this was between my accounts that I pay for, on the same server. I did not get what paid for. If I had wanted a drakthyr named Blizwrongdme I could have just created it on my main account right away. After much back and forth with Blizzard GMS I lost the name, to a paladin. When my issue originally popped up, a GM should have been able to look and see I paid for both accounts, I paid for the transfer, and been able to give my transferred character the name he had been created with. Instead I got a bunch of BS. No offer to make it better, just an offer of a free name change (they already gave me that and that was the very issue, I did not want a free name change}. At the very least they should have refunded the character transfer.
When you get a name change, it locks the name to the original account, I think for 30 days. Other players on your realm will be unable to use your previous name for 90 days. Also when you delete a character it locks the name to that account depending on what level it is, and that is after squishing.
When you character transfer you essentially deleted the character on the old account, to recreate on the new, and the name was locked to that account.
That name lock will fall off eventually, what I would do is make a low level on the old account. After the 30 days the lock will fall off, then you can reuse it on the new account when that happens.
GM staff can not bypass this.
That makes it likely then that the name lock was removed, someone else was able to get the name, and again GM staff have no control over names.
Of course, I am not a Blizzard employee and do not know the full details, but ultimately if someone else has the name, or it is locked to your other account, GM staff can not bypass this.
It would have been nice for a GM to give me the advice about making a low level character but what I got was, sorry for your luck too bad.
The part about GMs not being able to unlock a name is not or has not in the past been entirely accurate. I originally got the name Dragon back in mop because I asked a GM to unlock name from a character that had not been active since vanilla. He looked into it and was able to do this for me. If this has changed Blizzard should revisit this policy for cases like mine.
They changed it because they can’t be asked every expack release to check names to release them. They have a system in place to automatically release names that haven’t been used in two expack time.
That isn’t exactly the same thing, Phoob. Releasing a name from an inactive account is entirely different from releasing a name that is locked to an account for 30 days.
The ones locked for 30 days when a character is deleted (by deleting the character or by transfer), are hard coded. We cannot circumvent that.
I am sorry for your experience and that we couldn’t do more to assist and advise you at the time.
They should also look into making it so this issue does not happen to someone else. If a person pays for a character transfer from one of the accounts they pay for to another account they pay for on the same server the name should be part of the move regardless of anything else.
That simply isn’t possible at this time. You could transfer between WoW licenses on the same Battle.net account and not have an issue, but a specific Battle.net account doesn’t connect to any others.
The mechanic is in place to allow players who have had specific character names the ability to retain them in the event they delete a character or transfer that character to a different realm. They have 30 days where only their Battle.net account can lay claim to that name.
Even if your second Battle.net account has all the exact same information, there isn’t anything that connects it to your first one. It simply isn’t technically possible at this time. Sorry.
The name locking is a way for Blizzard to make sure people don’t game the system for a free name change. I can understand this , they don’t want someone deleting a character, creating a new character with that name, then undeleting a character with a new name. But this was not the case, blizzard got paid and with this type of transfer they got paid more than normal.
Like I said this is an issue that needs looked into. If you have a paid service the customer should be able to get what they are paying for.
You will have to.post in general or use the ingame suggestion feature for your suggestion
No, that has nothing to do with that at all. The reason for system that holds recently deleted character names for that Battle.net account is as I said. To allow the account that had the name time to reclaim the name before it becomes publicly available to anyone else.
Yes, but that has nothing to do with the system that locks level 30+ character names to a Battle.net account when they are deleted.
If you’d like to see a change to how these systems work you’ll want to submit your suggestion/feedback where our Game Developers can see it. Customer support didn’t develop these systems and cannot do anything beyond the policies that govern our actions.
But you did. Your character transferred. That’s all you paid for. The whole name debacle is something else entirely.
Mixing up the two only muddies things.
You bought and paid for a transfer. Your character transferred.
You were unaware of how the name system operates and lost a name you’ve held onto for many years. I am sorry for the loss and the inconvenience you’ve faced, but you did get what you paid for.
This is supposed to be a role playing game, The name is just as much of the character as the race and class, and every attempt should be made to preserve that.
If you want the system to be changed, you’d want to either put your suggestion in the general forms or in-game. The CS forums isn’t for it and going on about it won’t make the change happen in a heat beat.
In case you didn’t notice, I play on Moon Guard. I very well understand the importance of names, especially in a role-playing context.
It doesn’t change the fact that you went into this not knowing or understanding how the name releases work between unlinked accounts. It also doesn’t change the fact that you got the transfer service you paid for. That part is indisputable.
It absolutely sucks that you lost the name to a random paladin - but who is to say that Dragon means any less to them as it does to your character and your story? I don’t say all of this to be a jerk, I really do feel for you in this situation. I’ve lost a couple great names over the years to people snagging them up in the midst of my changing some things up.
In the future, please do not hesitate to come and ask if there is something you aren’t sure of or what have you. Folks are happy to try and help to prevent these kinds of mishaps when another player tries to do their due diligence BEFORE everything goes pear-shape.
You can always try and politely talk to that player via in-game mail, to see if they may be interested in giving it back or selling the name to you. It’s within their right to deny you this, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask.
Good luck to you, and again I am so very sorry you’re in this predicament.
Why in the world didn’t you create a level one on the account Dragon came from to hold the name?
This completely baffles me.