Character Reactivation

Does anyone know if the service is back up yet?

I probably shouldn't post this here, but I actually canceled my main's account in order to change the name- since returning I've realized the old name was quite stupid...

When I went to create a character with the same name, so that I would be forced to change my main's name upon reactivation, it didn't work. Does anyone know if it's because I have to actually delete the main character (as opposed to just canceling the ID)? I'm just worried about deleting my main without being able to get him back.

Thanks for the replies, and please don't say "Pay for the server transfer and do it". $25 and 180 days to get back to my server is a ridiculous price to change my character's name. Really wish SE would just allow you to pay a smaller fee to change the name.

Pretty sure in order to change your name they way you are trying to you need to delete the character, not just deactivate. So many people in the server mergers had to change their names because someone who deactivated years before had the same name, but the name was still unavailable. In order to get back a deleted character, you'd probably have to use your one-time restore, which can take some time.

My husband was Jetblack on Ramuh. The Jetblack on Bahamut had not played since 2007, but when Ramuh merged with Bahamut a few months ago my husband had to change his name. I had 5 mules whose names I also had to change.

If they made name changes as easy as deactivating and reactivating, people would be losing their names ALL THE TIME, when they accidentally didn't have enough space on their credit card, or forgot to add Crysta.