Could SE work on their customer service a little?

[Urbanmyth]

Hi,

Before I went to forum boards and such I thought I would come right to the source.

As of late I have attempted to re-obtain a hacked account. It was successful which was great! I log in- but to my surprise, find my character is on another server and stripped of all belongings.

Alright.. well.. I got the account back- maybe SE will help me restore back to a specified date?

This was my thought approximately 3 months ago.

Ever since starting this adventure I have sent off a total of 37 emails asking for a reply on how my rollback is going. To which I am met with several strange replies such as:

"This matter is too difficult to explain over email please call out hotlines.." (Note: The Square enix customer support phone line has been down since Coronavirus, stating they are "on Holiday")

"This matter has already been resolved, goodbye!" (It was not)


"Please use our live webchat to speak with a representative.." (Live webchat also down)



Okay.. so months have passed. I have no clue where I am with my game account restoration. The only thing I can do in FFXI is farm gil.. any progress I make on RP, or farming an Aeonic weapon tier, or skilling up crafts.. all of that will be wiped away if I get an account restoration as I asked.. so I bide my time.



Now it's important to note some of the valuables I lost.. things like Orph. sash which clocks in at 200m on my server.. Stauntch +1, Stinky +1, all these super expensive items AND liquid gil of around 300+mil.


Thus far in my time back I have been farming and crafting like a mad man. I have tried doing every solo event possible to farm, and I am just now hitting 200m. That's a drop in the bucket compared to what I have lost.. and I just don't have the heart in me to continue farming like this JUST TO GET BACK WHAT I LOST.


I reach out to a GM today.. he was kind enough to at least chase down an answer, but read for yourself what he had to say:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CszspsD43ADWNyehtKiY1XGr6n4XBpVj/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rcZRq1nxiZLb5znrMCnFQGiMNC5uhlqI/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yZlvmCcEzcGZj9tZ0b9vEOOj5lD6xioc/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10fgW1yTISe1B166Ftt7eDIUUSD4QwVM_/view?usp=sharing


Your image tags don't work.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CszspsD43ADWNyehtKiY1XGr6n4XBpVj/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rcZRq1nxiZLb5znrMCnFQGiMNC5uhlqI/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yZlvmCcEzcGZj9tZ0b9vEOOj5lD6xioc/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10fgW1yTISe1B166Ftt7eDIUUSD4QwVM_/view?usp=sharing

So, SE.. my advice to you would be to treat your customers like you value them before it's too late. This was wrong and you know it. No explanation to what occurred. No rationale why you couldn't help me.. and you PLAYED GAMES for 3 months while I sat on pins and needles expecting something from you.


I can't believe y'all. You should be ashamed.

[Urbanmyth]

Note:
That GM's name was Ranisseile who dismissed me at the end there.
The various email signatures I received state: Alfred, Jon, Vilma, Anthony

[Ruf]

I do not know how that story happened to you but if I have something to say it is: do not give your account infos to anyone and Square-Enix did give players a way to protect their account with a security token and by the date that you claimed that this happened, the one time password existed already. On another note tho, I do agree that customer service could and should be better.

[Urbanmyth]

Yeah, one time password and all that on my account already. :( Been a player since 2002, none of this is new to me... just never thought the company I'd spent so much time and effort with would do me dirty like this..

[Sirmarki]

How was your account 'hacked'?

It's nigh-on-impossible for somebody to access your account given the multiple layers of protection, especially an external Securekey.

[Gwydion]

How was your account 'hacked'?

It's nigh-on-impossible for somebody to access your account given the multiple layers of protection, especially an external Securekey.

Long story short, before SE IDs were a thing (2002-~2008?), tricking people into entering their POL credentials into a faked "playonline.com" site was a very real security problem (called 'phishing'). Especially on early mobile phone browsers, where it was difficult to quickly verify the URL you clicked was genuine.

OP, I'm really sorry this happened to you. My original account was stolen via phishing in 2004-2005 and SE wanted a copy of my utility bill and driver's license. I didn't feel safe doing that at the time for a video game, so I just gave up, quit and started over a few years later.

I really hope SE gives you a straight answer instead of the run-around you've currently been receiving. :(

[Alhanelem]

I have had little issue with my interactions with support, with the exception for my attempts to appeal my ffxiv forum ban lol...



Anyway. From your GM conversation, it seems you were asking for an item restoration.

Unfortunately there is a statute of limitations on this. You have to file the report within a week of the suspected compromise or the discarded/sold item happening.
Secondly, there's a one time limit on these restorations. One time ever, unless you had a security token on your account. Then you get a free pass because it is difficult to compromise an account with a secruity token. But you still have to report it quickly enough.

SE's phone support isn't available (not just for FFXI) because of the pandemic. Its support staff are working from home so there's nobody in their call center.

(Also... do you not know how to take screenshots or something? Why are you taking photos of your screen)

Also, you were pretty rude to the GM, who by my analysis did what he could within the scope of what GMs were allowed to do (and even a little beyond that tbh). Being a jerk to support staff doesn't help get cases resolved.

[Urbanmyth]

The mentality of most of y'all perplexes me. You seem to be more defensive of the strange company practices than empathetic of a fellow player who has been wronged and nothing explained to him. It comes from a strange place of privilege that are glaringly obvious from comments like:

"How was your account 'hacked'?"
"It's nigh-on-impossible for somebody to access your account given the multiple layers of protection, especially an external Securekey."
"You have to file a week after the suspected compromise.."
"SE's phone support isn't available because.."
"LOL ur dumb returning player u don't know how to take screenshots that please me!"


It pretty much goes to show the maturity level of most of you (with a rare few exceptions); as you appear to be a community of victim blamers. But hey, continue appeasing your invisible moderators in hopes you'll get a like or a pat on the head.



I don't hold any real grudge against those who didn't bother to read all the facts I presented and the futility I faced... I just kind of wish you didn't post for the sake of increasing your post count and just read through everything and made an attempt at rationalizing a sincere argument.. not just a string of "derrrr this didn't happen to me must be you" that this community tends to have (Shown by posters like above). I sincerely hope you never find yourself in this situation... but if you do.. I hope you are met with the exact same type of people responding to your plea like yourself so you un-empathetic individuals can understand why I am disheartened at this entire ordeal.

[Sirmarki]

"How was your account 'hacked'?"

It was a legitimate question.

What do you want them to do, and what do you expect they can do given the situation?

[Urbanmyth]

How was my account hacked, what date exactly was it accessed, and why my character cannot be restored would be a good start.


I wouldn't be even close to as upset as I am if I weren't continuously being led in a circle for multiple months and at the very end of it being told that they do not know why I cannot be restored. I just want an explanation. I could swallow that at least, but to be told "Help is on the way" and then eventually be told "Oh, no help is coming and we aren't sure why but good luck" is a strange response for any company- especially after the GM mentioned oversight in this process. No one wrote down why, no one bothered to explain to me anything, and no one attempted to make anything right despite me paying for the past few months of my subscription. I hope this clarifies my reasoning for being displeased with how SE handled this.

[Alhanelem]

The mentality of most of y'all perplexes me. You seem to be more defensive of the strange company practices than empathetic of a fellow player who has been wronged and nothing explained to him. It comes from a strange place of privilege that are glaringly obvious from comments like:Have you gone back and read your chat log at all? You were honestly pretty rude throughout the whole thing. I'm not trying to white knight SE, I can only tell you the truth: Most of my encounters with SE support (There have been many, I might have more GM calls than almost anybody lol) have been positive. There have been some snags along the way, however, being calm and courteous to someone who is clearly trying their best to help while following the rules they are bound by, goes a long way towards getting a more positive resolution.

I'm not saying that being nicer would have magically gotten you what you wanted, but you're basically shooting the messenger. If you want to say you think there's a problem with SE's policies, that's fine, but being disrespectful to the support rep isn't.

He told you what you were asking is beyond the scope of what he is able to provide. That's not giving you the runaround, that's just telling you the truth. They can't make special exceptions for one person, because then they'll be inundated with trivial calls from people who may try to abuse the support system.

I think SE's policies on this issue should be re-examined, I agree with you on that. But being disrespectful is no way to get your point across. This wasn't a case of bad support, this was a case of questionable policies that support honestly and earnestly upheld.

As far as your questions in the above post:

"how was my account compromised"- There's no way they could tell you this. While a security token does improve security, it is still not 100% impervious to compromise. SE doesn't scan people's computers (in many countries that would be breaking the law) for tools or anything, so whatever method was used to gain access would be unknown to them, other than "they logged in."

"What date"
They should at least be able to tell you when a character was deleted if that happened. I'll give you that.

"Why can't it be restored"
The most probable answer is the one I already gave you: More than a week had passed between when you were compromised (Though again, they should at least be able to give you a date on character deletion in order to make this determination). Item/account restorations must be requested promptly after an incident.

(I don't entirely agree with that policy, but if there is no limitation on how far back you can go, this could be abused to undo game activity for reasons other than "I lost something", and they're probably unwilling to roll someone back more than so far, or are unable to (i.e. they likely only keep a certain number of backups.)

And I think it's really disrespectful of you to paint me / us "victim blamers." We're simply informing you of the policies surrounding your issue, and pointing out some facts. I'm very sorry this happened to you, and I'd agree with the notion that they should examine their policies about this sort of thing for possible improvement. But the support rep did the best they could with the rules they were bound by. I wouldn't wish your situation on my worst enemy, but I also understand why you didn't get the outcome you were hoping for.

All I can suggest is that you take a lesson from this because it will apply to any online game you play: You are responsible for whatever happens to or with your accounts, even if you aren't the one using them, and you alone bear the consequences if anything happens. i.e. if you let someone use your account in a game and they do something to get that account banned, you have to accept the consequences of that. If your account is compromised and the person who did it gets you in trouble... Well long story short is you're responsible for the security of your account. If the conditions are right they can fix things for you, but don't count on it. Practice good security as your first line of defense.

[Urbanmyth]

Sure, I'll give you that I was a tad upset in my conversation with him up to a point. I did not go full blown Karen. I never said anything to him and infact called him a kind GM when addressing him if you read my logs. The only time I was close to rude was when I was being condescending (rightfully so?) regarding the "oversight" he eluded to.

That being said I ain't about to fight a guy who seems to be known for being "contentious" on these boards as pointed out by other members. Seems like a waste of time and effort. Instead let me try to paint this in a slightly different tone:

Throughout my questions, emails, and run arounds (submitting my photo ID 3x, getting 3 different state licensed notaries to sign the account recovery forms, etc) I was nothing but compliant and patient in my tone. Imagine following the procedures exactly as the company details and then getting back strange email replies like "This is being handled by another team" and "This has already been handled" or "Call our phone lines as this is too complicated to reply back via email".

I even mentioned I was grateful that I got my account back... but I was also very insistent that I would like to have my character rolled back prior to when I was stripped of all belongings. I did not think I was asking for much truthfully. I was told this was possible and directed to the account recovery form I mentioned above.

I'm to the point where I just don't care anymore. It's not about getting my stuff back. It's just a message I think SE needs to hear; These policies are unfair and need to be more transparent and/or reworked. No one should lose years worth of progress and have no rationale as to why the parent company cannot help in some way/shape/form. Could we at least agree there?

[Mouriveha]

Greetings, Urbanmyth!

I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and appreciate you bringing your concerns to our attention. As an update, your request was escalated and is currently under review. I will be closing this thread, however if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!