A coworker of mine convinced me today to start playing WoW again. So I reactivated my account and preordered Shadowlands via WoW: Complete collection earlier today. Upon logging in i discovered all of my high level characters had been stripped of all their gear and left with no gold. I figured nbd, I’d dealt with phone support before and it’s usually handled half an hour max. I try to find the number and find out there is no phone support, no live chat, and the putting in a ticket is the only way to get help. I start making a ticket and I have to go through like 8 different screens in an extremely obtuse process just to find out that the wait time is 24 hours (Ticket Number: US73318723) . I waited for like 2 hours with no response and came to the conclusion that this game and this company aren’t for me. So big question: how do I get a refund?
TIcket times are 48Hrs+ the bigger issue is the fact that you got hacked and have some nasty program on your computer that allowed your account to get hacked. The ticket you shouldve opend was my account got hacked while securing your computer.
Unfortunately, this would mean that you didn’t leave your account secure or you stripped them and sold their stuff prior to leaving this past time frame 
I imagine it’s more likely that you were compromised.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the world’s a different place right now. Blizz staff have been moved to work from home. On top of that, there are a lot of people back in the game thanks to more people being home.
That said, Blizz is working through tickets as fast as they can. Certain ticket types are also prioritized, but I don’t know many that are at the 2 hour mark. It’ll likely take longer for them to get to your ticket and help restore your account.
I mean, you’re welcome to see if you qualify. The process is pretty much automated now and you can see if you’re eligible in the link below. Personally, I’d still recommend re-securing your account before leaving again. But that’s me 
https://us.battle.net/support/en/help/product/wow/166/1152/solution
I have a brand new computer. How I got hacked through my authenticator when I haven’t played since MoP is an issue yes but I figured nbd.
Well you you have could have a extremly rare man in the middle program that can fake a authenticator code other then that im not sure.
Is your authenticator still attached and was it attached during your absence? If so, then it’s extremely unlikely you were hacked. In the past we’ve seen cases where people thought there was still an authenticator on the account, but it was never properly attached.
I had an authenticator, antivirus, and I’ve purchased a new PC since last playing. My computer is plenty secure. My original ticket is at 5 hours now. I tried the automated refund process but it said I wasn’t eligible. It might be because the complete edition includes game-time.
We’re not suggesting that you were compromised on your new computer, but more likely your old one.
Blizz can look into it and see if there was any unauthorized access though. If so, they can help you recover from it. But it’ll take a little more time.
If the authenticator has been on securely the whole time, then it sounds like you might have sold all your gear thinking you wouldn’t be back. That’s not something that they’d be able to help with unfortunately.
I think Blizzard is able to provide a very basic set of gear to begin questing on in these situations. Once you get going, gold and gear are very easy.
Look. I didn’t sell all my stuff. I had an authenticator connected the whole time but honestly it’s not really the point. Stuff happens and no system is perfect, I get that. My account being hacked in the first place isn’t what’s bothering me. I also understand that there will be higher wait times for customer support, that doesn’t bother me. What DOES bother me is the insanely obtuse process put in place to try and get help. You’re right, the world is a different place right now, but I don’t have to deal with a company whose response to an increase in players due to everyone being home is to SHUT OFF their live chat and customer support line and force people to wait up to TWO DAYS to get any kind of response to their issue. I’m not saying they’re a bad company in general but I am saying that I don’t want to be a customer of theirs.
I guess it would depend on how you started off looking for assistance. Perhaps you used google or some other method to get to a spot that made it more difficult. I don’t know. But when I click on Support in the top right of any Blizz page and type “hacked”, the third option for me is “Account Hacked” and it gives a step-by-step on recovery.
I get that you’re not really concerned about your account being hacked, but I would be if I were in your shoes. It’s virtually impossible if your authenticator is on it still.
I get that and I doubt it’s how they’d like things to be right now either. But whether or not you were hacked, the onus of account security is on us as players.
In any event, if you didn’t qualify for the refund through the automated system, you will have to wait for their Billing team to reply. But they tend to go by the same restrictions that are in place for the automated system.
Best of luck either way.
Honestly I don’t know what the restrictions are. The only information I could find told me that game time is non-refundable. Is it the same for preorders? Also I do appreciate you taking the time to try and help.
The authenticator thing is weird. 8 years is a long time so maybe it wasn’t as secure when I stopped playing or maybe I’m remembering wrong on when exactly I added it. I did play a good deal of D3, Hearthstone and HotS so maybe I added it like a year after I quit?
As the others mentioned, it sounds like your account was compromised. These kinds of investigations are time sensitive, so what we can restore is often based on when it happened and was reported. We do try to do what we can though, so even in situations where we’re unable to recover the majority of items, we try to provide what we can so that the characters can be played.
Unfortunately, direct phone support is unavailable as we ended up with so many contacts, many calling about issues that our staff cannot help with, and filling up the phone lines where folks were on hold for an hour or more and everyone else found themselves trying to get through passed the busy signal.
Our ticket system directs folks to the best contact method available. That can mean web chat or the call back option, though that is not generally available with current conditions.
I am sorry for the wait times, You might imagine with the current global situations and all of use working from home, plus the influx of folks playing, response times are not what we would like them. I would challenge you to find any company not impacted by this situation.
You will want to submit a refund request.
The ticket system is designed to guide folks through to the best options, though admittedly, it isn’t perfect. We are always working to improve it. If you enter your issue in the dialog box through the Contact Support option, it usually will direct you to available support articles that may be relevant. If they are not, or you still need help there is a “still need help” button where you’d select relevant categories.
For an account compromise, if you enter something like “all items missing” or “account hacked” it refers you to this Support Article.
Once you believe you have secured your account it asks you to click on the “Submit a ticket” link found in that article. If you have an Authenticator code, it should allow you to enter it, but otherwise attach a copy of your ID so we can verify that we are dealing with the registered and not the compromiser trying to get more. An investigation is launched and our staff does what it can to get you back on track.
I am sorry if you decide that you won’t be staying, Danger, but I understand the frustration with the situation.
I appreciate you taking the time to give me all the information, thank you. I figured out the ticket system after a couple of tries. It changed quite dramatically from the last time I played, I didn’t expect it to take me out of the game client and the categories wouldn’t load fully (possibly due to so many requests?) so I’d end up with a blank page and manually have to click through a bunch of pages to try to find the correct one. It was a headache for sure but that’s probably due to my inexperience with the new system. Would you know if there is a way to speak to person from billing about canceling my preorder and such? If my purchase is non-refundable I’d really like to know why since I’ve paid for product that I haven’t yet received. Again thank you so much for your time.
Your ticket is the right way to go. They’ll let you know if there’s anything they can do about your pre-purchase. It works differently than a ‘pre-order’ as you instantly get access to some in-game perks like new Death Knights, game time and a boost for example.
Basically, using any of those could negate you from being able to get a refund, but Billing will let you know if there’s anything that they can do.
There is no way to initiate a chat with a rep, unless the system offers it, but I do see that you have a ticket in. The expansion was just purchased today, and you haven’t used the boost on it, so I don’t see any reason why a refund request wouldn’t be granted. The refund system normally would process that automatically, but if it is returning an error it will likely require a GM to take a look.
They’ll let you know as soon as they get to your ticket. Just leave it open.
Awesome, thanks a bunch.
Only semi-related but, if you do decide to continue playing with your friend, you may want to look at the Recruit A Friend program.
It’s changed quite a bit from eight years ago, and is available to individuals returning to the game. There is, however, a limited time during which it can be attached to a reactivated account.
I’m not sure I fully understand why losing all of your gear/gold is that big of a deal when your highest character is only level 90, anyway.
In the very worst case scenario, you roll a new toon, get that to cap, make a bit of gold, buy some basic gear for 90, and then go back to your main.
Aside from nostalgia purposes your 90 gear wasn’t really worth much.