Cannot Connect to Playonline, Error code:POL-0206

[Alhanelem]

wouldn't refund the subscription if it didn't work.

Well like most similar such services, there are no refunds of subscriptions except where required by law, so yes, doing so is at your own risk.

That said in such circumstances, the action I would take is to (again, politely) request escalation to a senior/lead GM. They will have more discretion in how to handle these situations, and it might be possible to work something out with them on a one-time courtesy/goodwill basis.

But as I said, the general policy is they will not take any actions from a request made by anyone other than the person who owns the account. Even in cases where someone's account is compromised by RMT, for instance, I have done that, they lost all access to the account, but still the original account must contact them, the will not do anything (like disable the account temporarily or any similar such action) otherwise. Their position is this can potentially be abused for harm toward someone else.

This is true across Square Enix, not just FFXI. The policy is the same in FFXIV or online mobile games etc.