Lol… I’d agree with you. However, Blizzard is almost sanctioning boosting at this point because they’re adding a Looking for Service channel next update.
Blizzard also has incentive to go after scammers and give you the gold back. Why? Repeat business.
If I’m buying tokens and someone takes the gold and I don’t get it back? Yeah, I’d lay off buying tokens, it’d leave a sour taste in my mouth.
They’re not just losing their fake gold with this. They’re losing a customer who is spending more than the required $15 a month entrance fee…
I’ve always had to pay after for every single boost I’ve had. I have never had anyone scam me. This is why boosting communities were so good, because it made boosters accountable. Nowdays you have so many solo sellers, it leads to more scams.
Again the reasoning the person in this case, me bought the boost is irrelevant, and again i am aware, i played a stupid game and won the stupid prize, this forum was posted to ask the bigger question. If blizzard isnt doing anything to stop boosters, and as linked many times by others is planning to provide them a channel of their own to continue the business, and in fact know the gold gained by selling tokens is more often than not what is used to pay for these boosts. should they offer some protection to the buyer. it seems like they are in every position to profit from it, but safely secluded from any liability. Your opinions on the act of boosts too is mostly irrelevant.
The gold fit into the trade window? What do you mean? They have chat logs too.
They can track how much gold was spent on the boost. It’s all there.
If you’re allowing players to buy gold and then players lose the gold to being scammed, those folks are going to be less inclined to continue purchasing the gold.
Why the heck is there no customer protection when people are paying Blizzard real money for gold and then turning around and buying services?
If I go to a store, buy a shirt, walk outside and get robbed. Should I blame the store? No. However, if enough people get robbed outside the store and they start to lose business, maybe they should invest in some security.
there’s no reasonable way to make a complicated contract in a video game. what if they ask for the gold right before the boss and make you pay double? Now you’re saved to the raid and you wont get your item.
Blizzard 100% used to take back items from players who were scammed with the ML system. They even used to say if the loot rules were specified before the run, those were the rules you had to follow.
How is this different? A scam is a scam. Why are they willing to help some scam victims with loot, yet not others who are paying them money?
I think that it should be easy enough to simply mail the gold back. Given they can see who did what and the like based on the character itself. To where it protects the people that buy wow tokens, only to be scammed out of it and their 20$, and the cruddy current solution being oopsie poopsie, go spend another 20$ again.
I will say the best way to approach boosts right now is to pay them when the full group is formed and the key is started, with the latter being standing in the dungeon with the entire group. I.E. trade them when the timer is counting down to ensure that their legit and are going to do the run. Given it protects both the buyer and boosters given it makes it less likely for them you scam you due to effort reasons. With boosters being able to end a run quickly if the buyer is trying to scam them instead.
Was going to say that. This “fit into the trade chat” is not a thing for this situation. Only guess I can think of is that if they solve this problem they will have other people asking their own scams to be solved.
And blizz is a small indie company who can’t afford more than 10 customer support reps, which is why they did personal loot to not have to deal with the problem anymore.
And they stopped doing it because it caused so many tickets it was preventing players with actual issues from getting the help they needed.
There’s always going to be bad actors. They should remove them.
But you have many chances to object to the rules set and leave. And if someone ninja’d all of the loot, then so be it – find a reputable group to due business with.
They have not acted on loot disputes since at least Cataclysm afaik. They aren’t there to police every single transaction. You’re only protection is what you can fit in the Trade window.
They do not support boosting services. It’s a part of the game, and they recognize it. They created a Trade (Services) channel so players like myself can use Trade chat to actually sell goods. If you want to purchase a service, it’s an unsupported transaction. They have said for years and years that they won’t do anything if it doesn’t fit in the Trade window. You know you aren’t being dishonest, but they don’t know that. It would take probably 60min to service a single loot dispute because they’d have to check chat logs, combat logs, etc. for all the details. And if you talked about it over Discord or whatever, then they have no record of it.
I’m not asking you to agree with it. But I will ask you to recognize that spending 60min to work on a ticket like this is wasteful. You can still play the game, and if someone is locked out of playing the game for a few days because they’re working these tickets, then it’s a failure.
Selling runs or technically anything in game for in game currency is perfectly accepted by Blizzard and OK to do. Thus I disagree with your claim. Blizzard should protect their customers as long as they engage with the system as is dictated by the ToS.
Call it “devils advocate”. But please just understand the following points I will make aren’t points I personally believe. But only how its hard to say what is and isn’t boosting.
Raid/key boosting is for gear.
Most of the AH is gear. At its base, isn’t that just the same thing but for a different difficulty level? When I had an alt reach 60 and was fresh. Undergeared, etc. The first thing I did was go to the AH and purchase all the cheap gear to get a huge ilvl boost.
This was gear I paid others to farm, basically. Sure, it wasn’t specifically from a m+ or raid. But its the same idea. I didn’t have gear. I paid someone else so I could get gear at a quicker pace.
Now don’t get me wrong. Boosting isn’t for me. I don’t think its something special, or something I would do on either end. Paying or selling. I enjoy playing the game for me, and thats it.
But. Its hard for me to say that sometimes its ok to pay others for gear progression, but other times its not. I feel inconsistent on my end. Its hard for me to say “play the game, do it yourself”, then turn around and pay someone else to farm herbs for me (via buying them off the AH).
So simply. If paying someone for an action you could do yourself (m+/raiding) is wrong and should be stopped, then all actions you pay for something you do yourself are wrong and should be stopped. (basically anything on the AH)
While I can see that a line could be drawn at “end game activities”. That just isn’t enough for me to personally support it and not feel hypocritical. I am also not saying anyone that does support it is hypocritical. Only that I would feel that way, so therefor I can’t support any line being drawn.
I just wish there was an easier way to sort it out of the UI.
Dear OP,
When the boosting communities were allowed, it gave a place where people could go to safely purchase boosts. However, they were banned, so you are left with buyer beware.
It’s the same way they won’t reimburse you if you traded materials/gold to someone to craft you something, and they bolted. Or allowing guild bank access, and someone cleans it out completely.
“Out of luck!” Is what you’ll get as a response if you make a ticket. These services have been in the game forever, and Blizzard isn’t going to stop it unless there’s RMT. They have never stated you’re under their protection for the transaction.