WoW Classic bans are a bit out of hand - GameMaster staff absolutely no help

WoW Classic WoW Classic Hardcore
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I am coming here hoping to get a resolution. I am not sure if Game Masters are simply bots or if they are overseas Call Center reps who have very little accountability in their actions but they have been no help to me.

I joined the new WoW Classic servers and made a warlock alt in hopes to make enough money for my mount right at 40. Selling summons is a service many on the server appreciate and a very efficient way to farm gold (nearly everyone who plays this game, plays to be as efficient as possible). I am happy to pay for 3 subs to achieve this.

What I did wrong was advertise my summons in LFG. Of course there is a collection (I’d argue the minority) of players that do not partake in summons and feel this clutters up a channel they’d rather use solely for group finding. I now understand there were maybe patch notes or forum posts about Services such as summons needing to be made in the new Services channel

I may have even checked a box “I agree” to such update. I think it is no news to any Blizzard employee of “GameMAster” that checking the box without reading is common practice for 99.9% all ToS on the planet Earth.

I was issued a warning via email for Abusive Language and no other context. Being that I have no idea to Blizzard it was too much work to update the category for my offense I did not connect this warning to my selling summons in LFG; so I continued to do so. I later get an email for a 7 day silence for all in game communication for the same “abusive Language”. I open an appeal and get a cookie cutter email saying I violated this article: https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/42673. They marked it resolved and so I could not even reply to reopen it.

So I open another ticket and get a response with more info saying they verified I indeed advertised Summons in LFG, as if hahah gotcha. But that is the first I am hearing that was even an issue. I explain I was given no warning for this behavior or I would have gladly stopped. I thought some troll(s) had reported me for abusive language falsely and thought nothing of the initial warning.

I then respond again asking for an exception and if not to refund my additional subscriptions prorated to when they silenced me. I obviously have no need for the additional subs if I cannot advertise for summons. I continue to get the same response over and over not even commenting on my request for a refund

“Greetings,
This action has been taken in accordance with our Terms of Use and our In-game Policies ( https://blizzard.com/support/article/42673 ), which all players acknowledge and agree to prior to playing. These policies and conditions allow us to maintain a fun and safe game environment for all of our players.”

The above article doesn’t even mention anything about services. This just reinforces there is not genuine desire to help by the Gamemaster staff (bots?) . I have hopes that a Blue will see this arealize this was a very flawed experience. And maybe help me with getting a refund on the appropriate subs (Please do not blindly cancel any of the subs without discussing somewhere private so I can share the proper account names. ) I play hardcore and if you cancel the main account while I’m playing I would be very sad to die.

Those that read this far and think I am just another complainer for nothing. The Silence was much harsher punishment than I anticipated. Much of WoW relies on communicating with your peers for Group Quests, Dungeon and even just trading. I thought I’d ride out the ban and move on but it nearly ruined the WoW experience for me entirely. It left such a poor taste on a part of the game I have loved for many years.

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they were very clear about the new services channel in the very first update describing all the changes they were doing to the anniversary realms :expressionless: ignorance of the law is no excuse.

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I already admitted fault to missing this change. Thank you for not contributing anything helpful anyways.

My feedback is that the Gamemasters are acting like untrained bots in there responses. And also that they are / have been neglectful in my request for a refund.

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I thought warlocks got a free mount at 40?

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First your in the HC channel, this might be better in the normal channel, but then again you will probably get less grief here. Either way though, you violated the policy, which they were quite clear about. The thing is the excuse, I didn’t read the rules is a bad excuse, especially when you then try to black mail them into getting your account unblocked. Your story also is a bit questionable since as someone mentioned also, you get a free mount at 40 as a warlock.

Either way, Blizzard tends to not reverse bans for obvious violations which yours was.

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Disagree with Eyr here. Blizzard customer service and the ban appeals are really too strict. It’s funny you have players openly botting, summon botting, obvious hunter bots running in the exact same path. But then you have genuine players getting suspended or banned for minor infractions like talking in a wrong channel that they were ignorant of, etc.

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Better coomunication would have solved the problem - from Blizz I mean.
First warning for Language, when the problem actually was wrong channel. I too would have disregarded this warning.

That said, be happy it’s only 7 days, suck it up, read a bit better what you accept next time. Even I had heard about this new channel, and I am normally not super informed in these matters :wink:

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Yeah, while I agree with the others that not knowing about it and “i didnt read the tos” isnt an excuse to do things that are against tos (or any other rules in the game), i’ll also agree that marking it as “abusive language” with no other context is definitely the wrong move from blizz (assuming this is accurate and there was no actual abusive language, of course). I think there are very few people that play this game that would genuinely even have it cross their mind that something along the lines of “selling ports to x” would count as abusive language, since it is allowed elsewhere in the game. So what will people do when they get that warning? “Oh? Guess i told someone off? I’ll be careful not to do that. Anyway… selling ports to x!” Maybe “Misuse of Chat” would be a broader term they could use for this and similar things that arent quite berating fellow players or spewing obscenities (you know, the things people tend to think of with “abusive language”).

I understand why they dont tell people what they did when they think they are cheating/hacking, but i’ll never understand not sending a screenshot for stuff like chat violations. Seems like it would have prevented continued violations in this case at least.

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Disagree. I’m embarassed that admit that I’ve received two 6-month suspensions for “hacking” and one permanent ban for “hacking” - while only in two of these actions was I actually hacking. Ironically, I do not like any cheating or hacking but I was under a lot of pressure from my rated PvP leader to use a hacking program. The problem is one of these times I was genuinely not hacking nor using any third party software besides basic addons from Curse Forge. It’s a really horrible experience when Bliz is in the wrong.

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“I didn’t bother reading the rules and then got punished for my laziness”

qq. Shoulda been a permaban.

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I’m not sure how you attempt to appeal such a thing but I’m certain posting here will do nothing.

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Appeals usually only result in them deleting your ticket with no response.

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the crazy part is, if you look at any LookingForGroup chat lately, it’s all off-topic and obscene topics. Really funny (sarcastic) to think players are sitting suspensions for making such a small misstep.

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this :expressionless:

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not on nightslayer :expressionless: LFG is all business

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I don’t understand why every time I have an issue that requires help I get actual human intervention and interaction, but every time someone “accidentally breaks the rules through no fault of their own oh my god it’s so unfair” it’s a series of robotic replies that would make them cancel their 15 subs but they’re still posting here to complain about it.

I must be lucky.

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Yes the mass reporters on Hardcore are out of control, best to avoid guilds for a while

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I was ban for no reason on Defias and no one believed me. I was simply mass reported then since there was a prior ban on my account, they just decided to perma ban me. I don’t think any of this would have ever happened if I wasn’t hosting so many dungeon groups.

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I had a warlock banned on SoD 5 minutes after I made the character and I didnt even summon or message anyone. as lvl 1 undead warlock with literally nobody around at 3 AM for 3 days blizzard email said I had been reported by several of my fellow players I guess I was mass reported by the summoning mafia to stop competition early was very bizarre.

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They were helpful though? They made you aware that ignorance is not an excuse. AKA you’ll still reap what you sow.
There’s nothing more to contribute to this situation.

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