Housing Item Woes (long story)

I've been a player since ARR Beta (and technically, for a little while in 1.0 beta and launch), and have had an active subscription from the beginning of ARR. I bought a Medium house in Limsa soon as I was able to, got nearly every housing item from every event, had my house decorated lovely, things dyed and placed, etc etc. I took time and made my house a house. I even bought a few items from the mogstation to put in my house because I liked them.

Well in May 2017, when I was pumped for the upcoming SB (which I had already pre-orderd the CE at this point), some really bad irl stuff happened and I'm not going to get into everything (but among the things that happenend, I lost my job). Needless to say, also during all of this, my computer went on the fritz.

While going through all of this personal ordeal, I still paid my subscription (since it's set up auto on my credit card). I get a crap job but it helps enough to pay my mounting bills, but not much else. A few more months pass and I land a decent job, catch up my bills and work at being good at my job (so I can keep it since I was hired as a temporary position). Tax time rolls around and I get a nice bonus at work, plus income tax return, so I am finally able to get the parts needed to build a new and improved PC.

At this point it's now the end of Feb. 2018 and I finally install FFXIV on my newly built PC and log in. Now I figured my house got demolished and that much I can live with, as long as I could get my housing items back when I bought a new house. I heard that now there's a storage in houses (which is awesome). But come to find out there is currently no way to get my housing items back that I had previously (I tried the Resident Caretaker npc). Millions of gil worth of items and limited event items you can't get anymore (or without paying real world $$$ for them), as well as a few MogStation statues/lamps that I did buy with real money.

I think that's pretty screwed up. Now, I have put in a ticket to see if I can get my items back, and I pray they are able to return them to me. I don't care about the 1/4 gil refund of my house that was taken from me. I just want the housing items back so I can redecorate my new house. It took a long time to collect all of those things, and they should never be taken away from players just because they can't log in. I mean, it's one thing if I had quit playing. But I did not quit, and believe me I wanted to play terribly bad.

I missed out on SB launch (even though the CE was delivered to me on launch day) because I had no system to play it on. Hell, I just recently hit 70 on Thursday on my first job and beat the SB MSQ (for 4.0).

But I just want my housing items back. The items I collected as a faithful fan, subscriber and player for years. There should be no reason I shouldn't be given my items back.

Ticket Number: 8122195
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Update: tl;dr version:
Received an email about my ticket, GM's state it's "outside of the scope of their service". Not sure what else to do, this post should count as feedback. Vote it up.
In short: Only players who do not have active subscriptions should have their houses demolished and items removed.
Ultimately all I want are my items back. Please SE, help me.

Made a Feedback post here please vote it up as well to hopefully raise some awareness.

+1 I agree they should stop deleting your items- you already lose your house and free the plot up for someone else. No need to rub salt in the wound with some petty free to play game crap >.>

Sorry to hear, best of luck on getting your stuff back, whether you get a response or get it back thru other means.

I mean you were gone for nearly a year and SE tells you how long you can be away for, sucks what happens but at that point SE considers that you quit at that point and delete your items.

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Originally Posted by Pastahnak

I mean you were gone for nearly a year and SE tells you how long you can be away for, sucks what happens but at that point SE considers that you quit at that point and delete your items.

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I don't know of any other MMO that deletes your items when you aren't playing or even when you aren't subbed.

In this case the OP was subbed for the entire length of time they couldn't log in and they still lost their items. I really don't get how people can just accept such a low level of customer service. FtP games treat people better than this.

There is absolutely no justification for deleting a person's items when their house is demolished. It just shouldn't happen.

@ OP I hope you get some joy from your ticket

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Originally Posted by Solarra

I don't know of any other MMO that deletes your items when you aren't playing or even when you aren't subbed.

In this case the OP was subbed for the entire length of time they couldn't log in and they still lost their items. I really don't get how people can just accept such a low level of customer service. FtP games treat people better than this.

There is absolutely no justification for deleting a person's items when their house is demolished. It just shouldn't happen.

@ OP I hope you get some joy from your ticket

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I'm just trying to make sense of it from the other side of it, obviously I hope OP gets their things back and I think the item demo should be extended greatly.

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Originally Posted by Pastahnak

I mean you were gone for nearly a year and SE tells you how long you can be away for, sucks what happens but at that point SE considers that you quit at that point and delete your items.

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"That's how it is sucks for you but deal" is awful to say to someone who cares about the game enough that they'll stay subbed even when they can't play. The dude isn't even peeved about losing his house that he worked so hard to decorate and even after the latest housing update it's still a rare commodity. Why can't SE treat him better than this? I can see having an item demo timer if you're unsubbed for a long period of time, but if you're paying you should get to at least keep all the items you've collected. It's absolute nonsense that SE lets this sort of stuff happen.

There's just no excuse for deleting the items - none. full stop.

Agreed. The caretaker should hold your items forever, especially things you paid real money for. >.> I'm sorry OP, that's so shitty. I hope they can do something for you.

Thanks for the support, but at least via the ticket I put it, it doesn't appear the GMs can help me. According to the email I got today.

"Hello and thank you for your GM call.

We understand that you are reaching out to the GM team for assistance, but unfortunately we are unable to address your request as it falls outside the scope of our services. For a list of issues that GMs are able to assist with, please visit our support site at http://support.na.square-enix.com, choose FINAL FANTASY XIV and review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). You then can click on In Game and then select Game Master Services to review commonly asked questions. You may also use the Search feature to find possible resolutions to your request. "

It goes on to say I can basically put feedback in here on the forums, but doesn't tell me who is able to address my request and who to make it to. Nothing else on the support desk matches this kind of issue for in-game items other than a GM request.
This is beyond frustrating. I honestly wish I hadn't bought a new house now if all I time I put into collecting the items in my old house is for naught. I bet I could probably log into FFXI and all my Mog House items would probably still be there. (and the last time I played that game was nearly 10 years ago)

I can understand if I had unsubbed for the length of time needed to demo everything, but simply not being able to log in? Square you seriously need to revise your demolition policy or whatever you call it, to only include players who are no longer paying a monthly subscription fees for the time required to lose land.

I guess I can try doing a feedback. Though I doubt that will actually help me at all.

Same thing happened to me. It's ridiculous. I did a support ticket, intended as feedback, but they just told me to contact an in game GM (Didn't bother) Where do you see the option to actually submit feedback? Forums just gets you people trying to earn brownie points with SE or something defending its most idiotic policies lol

The ability to retain the information might be a technical limitation with how they've designed housing since it's instanced and stored separately from character data. I doubt they can just take the items out of storage and move them to your character/retainer inventory (you may not even have room there).

Is it something that could be changed? I have no idea. I don't know how everything works on their end.

At least most of what you lost can be acquired again. I don't know what to suggest about the seasonal items since the Calamity Salvager seems to be limited to items that can be equipped. Sometimes things we've earned in a game are taken away and there's no much we can do about since in the long run, we don't own anything in the game. We're only "renting" use of it.

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Originally Posted by Enlial

Same thing happened to me. It's ridiculous. I did a support ticket, intended as feedback, but they just told me to contact an in game GM (Didn't bother) Where do you see the option to actually submit feedback? Forums just gets you people trying to earn brownie points with SE or something defending its most idiotic policies lol

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While in game:

System->Support Desk -> Contact Us -> Leave a Suggestion.

As far as I know, if your FC kicks you and you have a room, your furniture is stored indefinitely (please correct me if I'm wrong). So why houseowners should be treated worse I do not know.
We haven't had Housing Demolition for very long. It was implemented with a timer on gil and storage of items and I suspect that's where the problem is, they tied those two things together. However, that does not let them off the hook. Somebody made a conscious decision to delete players' items after a certain period of time with no chance of restore. I find it appalling that a new feature should be designed like that.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Sometimes things we've earned in a game are taken away and there's no much we can do about since in the long run, we don't own anything in the game. We're only "renting" use of it.

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Technically you are right, but let's be real here, nobody would pay for a game that only gave players access to the servers and nothing else.

As to things being taken away in FFXIV, can you give me an example? What else can we earn in game or buy from the mog-shop that will be deleted if we don't log in? Heck, I'll make it easier, what else can we lose if we don't sub?
Your gear is stored indefinitely, your mounts, your minions, your achievements even your Peach Confetti and your fireworks, they will all be waiting for you if you take a break.

I love this game, but their customer service is way behind the competition in some respects, and defending policies like this or trying to make excuses for them does not give the company any incentive to improve.

I have to agree that the customer service for SE isn't top notch. It's just redirectly questions here and there. The in game wait time for a GM is very long too and both sides seem to push the case to one another sometime. And the service is cold when you use the online chat function.

I hope the OP will get his stuff eventually. No client should be treated badly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Enlial

Same thing happened to me. It's ridiculous. I did a support ticket, intended as feedback, but they just told me to contact an in game GM (Didn't bother) Where do you see the option to actually submit feedback? Forums just gets you people trying to earn brownie points with SE or something defending its most idiotic policies lol

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There is an actual "Feedback" section of the forum. Aside from putting in a support ticket (which I did) I don't know what else to do.

Also I edited the main post to add a link to the Feedback post I posted in the Feedback section of the forums. I can only ask that those who agree that this is wrong and should be fix (not just for me, but everyone in a similar situation) go and give it a rep up. If you are maintaining your subscription, you shouldn't lose your items.

They do tell and e-mail a person though. If you don't care for the warning that you have like 30 days to get the items from a NPC then idk. Sure would be nice if the NPC kept the items forever kinda like retainers but SE sucks that way.

Kabump. Still a thing that needs to be fixed, not just for myself, but in general.

Active subscribers should not lose their housing items (or houses too, honestly, let's be real). The demolition policy should only apply to people who cancel their subscription (or otherwise stop paying for it) and also meet the current demolition timeframe of not using their housing.

Sorry to hear about your situation. I hope in some way you can get back the items you lost. Items lost is fairly common. If you do not check your items often then you are bound to forget what you had and they "disappeared".

Personal opinion, SE's support service (e.g. GM support ticket, forum bug) is horrible at best when it comes to responding to a player in a proper manner.

While I sympathize with the fact that RL happens, I also understand that warnings are set in place regardless. We as consumers come up with excuses after excuse and think nothing is within our control. Some may hate to read this, it is our sole responsibility regardless of situations. Companies can only help to an extend.

Example natural disaster; SE stopped demolition to help.

Losing your job, death in family, relocation, incarceration, and things that we can control are not a valid reason. No company is responsible for you and if think about it why save information on a server if your not paying your subscription? In terms of housing when you first purchase it it makes it clear and gives plenty of warning. They email you with plenty of time. How did SE fail?

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Originally Posted by ManuelBravo

Losing your job, death in family, relocation, incarceration, and things that we can control are not a valid reason. No company is responsible for you and if think about it why save information on a server if your not paying your subscription? In terms of housing when you first purchase it it makes it clear and gives plenty of warning. They email you with plenty of time. How did SE fail?

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By having restrictions and item demo timers even for people who pay the monthly sub. Losing a house is one thing, since they are in high demand with not enough supply to satisfy all people. But items that players have accrued over years of play are not impacting anyone else's enjoyment of the game or access to features. We should be able to keep them indefinitely, and (in my opinion) doubly so if someone is still paying a sub. Destroying held items seems like a careless and insensitive move on the company's part.

SE's item destruction policy is in place so they technically did not do anything wrong in that regard. But it can and should be better, which is what this thread is about.

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Originally Posted by ManuelBravo

No company is responsible for you and if think about it why save information on a server if your not paying your subscription? In terms of housing when you first purchase it it makes it clear and gives plenty of warning. They email you with plenty of time. How did SE fail?

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The thing is, I WAS paying my subscription. I was just unable to log on to the game. My whole thing here is, if you are paying for your subscription you should not have your house demolished and housing items destroyed. Specially if you bought items off the Mog Station, at the absolute very least, those (Mog Station) items should have been returned to me.

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Originally Posted by Ecks007

The thing is, I WAS paying my subscription. I was just unable to log on to the game. My whole thing here is, if you are paying for your subscription you should not have your house demolished and housing items destroyed. Specially if you bought items off the Mog Station, at the absolute very least, those (Mog Station) items should have been returned to me.

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Your mog station items have a physical receipt on your credit card or some transaction record of your payment. You should be able to fight for those items at the very least. Otherwise, file a claim to your credit card company and fight for a refund stating that the goods you purchased were forcefully destroyed or never 'delivered' and you are no longer receiving what you paid for.

Unless they have something in the long Terms of Service agreement that also throw auto-demolished items under non-recoverable under any circumstance, I would image you have a fighting chance here?

Housing demolition was re-activated after being off a long time so that other people could enjoy the houses left unused by players most likely in a similar or away-situation like yourself.

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Originally Posted by k99

Unless they have something in the long Terms of Service agreement that also throw auto-demolished items under non-recoverable under any circumstance, I would image you have a fighting chance here?

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I'm afraid there's no chance at all because when you go to purchase the items, on that very page it specifically says about all the ways you can lose the item. Estate demolition being one of them. It's impossible to purchase the housing items without that page coming up.

(I used one of the trees in this example, but it's on all housing items)

https://i.imgur.com/ZW7NTjK.png