I have a roommate who lost access to her WoW account of 15 years tonight, as she switched PCs and was logged out of Battle.net, only to find her authenticator had been lost (it was the old physical key fob style sold back in the day). We are preparing for a move and it probably got thrown out in the shuffle.
She walked through the steps to submit a ticket, accompanied by physical ID, and was told she needed to provide more ID/the name did not match. Which is more than passingly vexing, because she’s had the account for a decade and a half and was playing on it problem free as recently as this afternoon. It’s possible she used her nickname and not her birth name when setting up the account in 2005. But she can’t remember that far back.
Her Mastercard currently pays the fees on the account. She can name every character (and every pet on the characters). The address on her ID matches the address on the billing account. This seems to be the kind of issue that could be (and has been, historically) pretty rapidly fixed with access to live chat and/or phone support, both of which appear to be non-functional due to the pandemic. Meanwhile she gets ticket updates asking her for new/different ID, which she cannot amend or reply to because to view/amend the tickets she needs her authenticator.
I also share a billing address with her and would like to assist her in getting this problem solved, as otherwise she’s stuck holding the bag on a ticking subscription and a $100 BFA/Shadowlands bundle she recently bought and now cannot play. Instead of being excited about her new computer, she’s miserable and fears her Blizzard account is lost. This cannot be the first or last time in history someone replaced one of those tiny blue authenticators. Is there some avenue by which she can be put in touch with someone who can talk to her, verify her identity via her billing info, and get her account recovered (and set up with SMS authentication instead)?
Obviously tomorrow, as it’s almost 2:00 AM at the moment?
Um, your friend can try to resubmit the ticket, but if the names don’t match there isn’t much that can be done. It’s not something that can be handled via the forums or by a 3rd party. Does your friend still have the old serials, that might help (not a guarantee though). I know Blizzard has made some accommodations for those that used a nickname, but not sure how to get that taken care of.
She does not. It’s been a long time since game boxes were really something you wanted to hang on to.
I’ve seen blues respond on the forums here, and thought as this was a customer support venue they might be able to provide some support/guidance or assistance. I’ve found anecdotal reports online of people losing their accounts via authenticator loss, having used a nickname or alias upon account creation, and still getting the problem solved.
Given her bloody Mastercard is currently the payment info on the account and she can confirm that, the notion that they cannot possibly assist her because of a name issue seems rather beyond reason, to be honest.
yeah, it’s player to player support forum, Blues do post here, but mostly to moderate or provide clarification on policy. The only way to get in contact with Blizzard directly is the ticket system.
Just be aware, Blizzard is not gonna discuss anything with you about your friends account.
Has you friend re-submitted or reopened the ticket and explained they used an alias or nickname for the account? I know you can do it without logging in, just not sure where and how.
Until Blizzard said this is the final say on the issue, you friend still has some options.
She’s trying. With no chat and no phones it just ends up being a game of whack a mole and opening new tickets, each trying to contain the context of the last.
The frustrating thing is I’m 99% sure 15 minutes on the phone with a human and the problem would already have been solved. Unless it’s Blizzard’s position that the person who has been paying for the account for years is now trying to steal it from themselves.
Account theft is, unfortunately, a very real thing. For that reason - as well as privacy - Blizzard must be very careful about what they communicate.
She should be able to update her post-authentication tickets without having to log in (as you’re quite right that this isn’t a unique situation), but I’m not personally familiar enough with the process to offer any guidance.
Anyway, I do wish you two luck. Just to set your expectations accordingly, I will note the forum is staffed Mon-Fri.
When I first created my world of warcraft account, I used my first and middle name instead of my first and last name. I was really paranoid of everything online back then.
When I went to get this changed - other than providing ID - I provided my CD keys from the boxes - I also have the old keyfob authenticator and I can’t remember if they required the serial number off the back of that or not - but it was relatively easy to get it changed back then with ID and CD keys. I would try that if she still has them as another option. I’m unsure if that’s enough these days as I had my name changed back before wow merged into battlenet but it’s something to keep in mind.
