FFXI-3001 when trying to log in with any character

My wife and I have played FFXI together since 2008. Back then I had terrible social anxiety, so I convinced her to get an account too so that we could engage in some of the social aspects of the game together. We have currently eight characters active, covering the eight original crafts. Everyone fishes. She goes to work five days a week, and I do not. As such, it's part of my duties to log in with each of the eight characters and set/complete various ROE objectives, maintain AH sales, etc. etc. This morning when I attempted to log in at 1000CST, I had some trouble getting past the POL viewer, but eventually FFXI connected, but every time I tried to log in with a character, I got FFXI-3001. I looked it up on google and found that they may be a sign of a DNS problem. I pulled up my Windows command prompt and pinged the address the post I read on the forum said that ffxi00.pol.com SHOULD be at, and it pinged with no problem, so I don't think it's that. I tried to contact Squenix directly, but of course, that's near impossible. I don't think they actually HAVE a customer service department. That business decision probably keeps their costs down. Good for the shareholders, bad for the customers. Either way, if I still can't get in by this weekend, I am finding a phone number for them and I am cancelling both my account and my wife's too. In my opinion, nothing is worth the stress of dealing with the problems this game presents me with. I should have unsubscribed years ago. Of course, if I had known what I was getting into, I never would have done it in the first place, but that's rather beside the point...

UPDATE:

I tried tonight at about 2100CST. I got in. I was able to access all eight of our characters. I saw someone in the LS griping about how they missed all of today's events and someone else said something about a typhoon in Japan causing trouble with the servers this morning.

It's a global issue for everyone at the moment and not just yourself. I've had my account since 2003 and it's insanely rare they have these problems. You will most likely see explanations from their support team soon. 1-858-790-7529 is the number you can also call but you won't be able to get through after 5PM CST since the help desk closes. They fire up at 8am. They'll tell you the same thing though. Hang tight and everything will come up. We've got another thread located at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...-20-9-16/page2 FFXIAH Thead is at http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/49...ame/4/#3163649