FC Member who bought a ticket for FC House left the FC

As an FC, we put 5 tickets on an Ishgard FC plot we were 100% the only people to put in tickets for this plot. All 5 people got affected by the housing bug so we were unable to get the house when the lotto officially "ended".

The issue at hand:

One of the FC members who bought a ticket for the FC house had an unexpected falling out with another member of the FC and left the FC. They withdrew their ticket and returned the money for it. They have since joined a different FC.

My questions:

1.) What happens to the plot if they had the winning ticket?
2.) Does it go to someone else on the list?
3.) Does the plot stay empty until the next reroll?
4.) Do I need to contact a GM about this or file a ticket with the help desk?

I tried finding some information about this on the Housing Lotto page, but I didn't see anything. I don't know if I missed it or if this kind of situation wasn't addressed.

In theory, if it's their ticket that's the winner they'd get 50% of it refunded for not picking up the plot and the plot would go back up in the next lotto. But since they already took all their gil back, I have no idea how they'd handle this.

The plot goes back up for sale again in the next lottery period if it is not claimed by the holder of the winning entry.

Your FC is not the holder/owner of the entry. The former member is. If they had the winning ticket, you're out of luck. You'll have to try again once the lottery resumes (hopefully a different member of your FC has the winning entry and that won't be necessary).

If they did have the winning entry, they wouldn't be able to use it for a different FC unless they've passed the 30 day waiting period before the claim period expires and came up with the gil to pay for it (since you said they took the refund already). Under normal circumstances, this would be impossible (the claim period is only supposed to be 4 days).

Considering how long the claim period has been extended as SE works to implement the fix, there's a slight chance that anyone that had purchased an entry for a FC in the initial lottery then left and joined a new FC as the claim period began may have opportunity to purchase for their new FC if they had the winning ticket.

Contacting the GMs wouldn't accomplish anything since they don't have the power to transfer ownership of an entry to another player. The most they could do would be investigate if the former member did have the winning entry and was able to purchase the plot for a different FC due to the extended claim period. It's anyone's guess how SE would choose to handle such an event on the remote chance it happens. But it still wouldn't get your FC that plot.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

Your FC is not the holder/owner of the entry. The former member is. If they had the winning ticket, you're out of luck. You'll have to try again once the lottery resumes (hopefully a different member of your FC has the winning entry and that won't be necessary).

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They have (or should have) the logs of who was in which FC at the point in time of the drawing. It is completely possible that they look at which FC's they were bidding on behalf of. I also suspect that resolving the problems with the first lottery is going to involve a lot of manual GM effort anyway to recover funds from those that refunded.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

They have (or should have) the logs of who was in which FC at the point in time of the drawing. It is completely possible that they look at which FC's they were bidding on behalf of. I also suspect that resolving the problems with the first lottery is going to involve a lot of manual GM effort anyway to recover funds from those that refunded.

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Yeah, but that's still not going to help the OP's FC if the person who left had the winning ticket.

GMs might have the ability to collect gil from winners that already obtained refunds but they can't restore eligibility to a player that left their FC or transfer the entry to a different player. SE warned us that players need to make certain we meet the eligibility requirements both when entering and when it's time to finalize purchase.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

GMs might have the ability to collect gil from winners that already obtained refunds but they can't restore eligibility to a player that left their FC or transfer the entry to a different player.

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We know they're going to be re-injecting the missing results of the first lottery to the housing server. We also know that they have some plan to collect money from those that already accepted their refund. They need some means to inform the housing server that those tickets are still eligible. If they can fix the funding issue they should be able to fix other deficiencies or select another ticket if the original winner is no longer eligible.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

SE warned us that players need to make certain we meet the eligibility requirements both when entering and when it's time to finalize purchase.

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That sounds like something said prior to the automated lottery to deal with the limitations of said automation. Human involvement should afford them much more flexibility in how the issue that they admitted fault is addressed and they sound very committed to ensuring that FC's that won an FC plot get it. (And individuals that won a personal plot get their plot)

While it's not a guarantee it is also not hopeless.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

That sounds like something said prior to the automated lottery to deal with the limitations of said automation. Human involvement should afford them much more flexibility in how the issue that they admitted fault is addressed and they sound very committed to ensuring that FC's that won an FC plot get it. (And individuals that won a personal plot get their plot)

While it's not a guarantee it is also not hopeless.

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That was actually part of the Lodestone announcement regarding the housing changes and they put it in bold red font to emphasize it.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...796b3f56abbd28

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Please note that all requirements listed above must be fulfilled at the time of both entry and purchase.

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Human involvement can only go so far in bypassing how the system is programmed to operate. The GMs have even less ability since they are not programmers.

The entry did not belong to the FC. It belonged to the player - and the player decided they were no longer interested in helping the FC get their house. Are the GMs supposed to disrespect that player's decision? Nothing is owed the FC if a member was treated so badly they choose to leave.

At this point, the best hope for the OP's FC is that one of the other 4 entries they had was the winner.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

That was actually part of the Lodestone announcement regarding the housing changes and they put it in bold red font to emphasize it.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...796b3f56abbd28

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Again, that's the initial announcement describing the requirements during normal operation of the system. That statement in particular does not apply to the current situation otherwise those that took their refunds would also become ineligible. The 0-bug was a major embarrassment and they are making every effort to correct it.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

The GMs have even less ability since they are not programmers.

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In any other industry that involves customer service they have a console or application that allows them to do things unavailable to players. Often there are tiers of access with wider permissions granted to higher seniority GM's. They should not need to be programmers to be able to do their job.

Even if whatever additional access the GM's have cannot adjust the results of the lottery Square has already committed programmer and IT resources to correcting the issue. The GM's don't need to be programmers because the actual programmers are involved.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

At this point, the best hope for the OP's FC is that one of the other 4 entries they had was the winner.

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Or that the system was designed to select another ticket if the winning ticket-holder is no longer eligible.

We can only guess and assume that they are going to basically restore the data up to a certain point - most likely the day of selection, which would mean if the person left the FC who the winner was, would get a refund and either no one would win, and it goes back into the lottery, or another number would be picked if the FC became ineligible.

Because we don't know all the intracacies of how they run the lottery with specific such as this, I would guess they need to contact support for the details.

This is actually a pretty serious situation that I didn't think of until I read this. If a FC pooled money and gave it to a person who won, and then left after a bug that was Square's fault, then that's just awful.

Bumping this hoping they will at least see it.

A suggestion I would have going forward is being able to use Gil directly from the FC chest during these lotteries that is then refunded back to the FC if they didn't win it for the free company. Which would also necessitate a new authorization in the FC ranks so that it could be separated from allowing everyone to take gil out manually.

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Originally Posted by Ludicious

This is actually a pretty serious situation that I didn't think of until I read this. If a FC pooled money and gave it to a person who won, and then left after a bug that was Square's fault, then that's just awful.

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It's not that different to what will happen when the lottery operates normally too. Just on a 9 day timer and not a ~18 day - in this case. It's part of the bad side of the design (which of course is due to SE not providing enough housing for all needs due to whatever reason they have)

While FCs have the ability to enter more than once, that is balanced against trusting the member enough to know they won't just do a runner with 50% to 100% of the money given to them by dropping FC, being kicked for bad behaviour, not logging in for 89 days (accident or purpose), just being an arse, or whatever drama happens.

This will happen again, and again as the lottery progresses... just on a 9 day basis, not ~18.

UPDATE:

We were on the winning side of the lottery and got our FC house.

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Originally Posted by Licent_Marquis

UPDATE:

We were on the winning side of the lottery and got our FC house.

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Good for you and your FC! Grats.

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Originally Posted by Licent_Marquis

UPDATE:

We were on the winning side of the lottery and got our FC house.

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Gratz! Somebody in a similar situation was not so lucky. Clearly I gave Square more credit than they deserved.

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Originally Posted by GeminiReed

Gratz! Somebody in a similar situation was not so lucky. Clearly I gave Square more credit than they deserved.

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Thats awful. What we went through, I hoped others wouldn't have to go through as well. I know a lot of plots are still available (at least on Brynhildr) I hope they can get their house.