Maybe it is time for an offical statement from SE.. Regarding the loss of gils..

[Aleksandr]

If your suspension was with merit but not serious enough for an outright ban, they aren't going to compensate you.

Alhanelem the complaint is that Square-Enix's investigation seems to be on par with yours.

1. Keff posted it was a real life friend's and not his. Keff was not suspended.

2. Square-Enix themselves posted they banned anyone that was found guilty.

3. Square-Enix suspended anyone they considered a suspect.

4. Square-Enix returned to play anyone who was not involved in RMT.

5. Square-Enix removed lot of gil from people who were not involved.

6. People want their gil back as they were cleared of any wrong doing

Disclaimer: I haven't had my account suspended have not lost any gil and as far as I know I do not know anyone who has. I have made some pretty decent money crafting, but am by any means rich (I put it into the free company bank along with other free company members as we want to buy a big ol free company house). I am just posting a summary and by no means mean to offend Mr. Alhanelem's or Square-Enix investigation skills. (Political Correctness<tm>)

[Keeff]

basiclly they dnt have to explain anything and you agreed to it, In your next game life do not buy gil and try to make others feel sorry for you when you get caught

No RMT activity was found but ok whatever

and thank you Alek for reading the whole post before responding.

[Zozorozo]

I had amassed quite a bit of gil, but I was not over the threshold of 8,000,000 which caused people to be flagged.

I was selling 1 item that was selling for 75,000 a stack and 1 item that was selling for 150,000 a stack. It was one of the advantages of being one of the first high level botanists.

Why did I have so many mats? Because SE did not allow a DOL Class to unlock leves and thus I could do nothing but grind, grind, grind. When you are getting 4 items for every 1200 xp, and you need 232,320 to level, that's 193 items. So you figure add 5 items to that, and you have 2 stacks. If that 2 stacks was selling for 150,000 that's 300,000. How long does it take to get 2 stacks? Somewhere around 16-20 mins depending on if there are +1 gather trees in the area you can use with your +2 gather ability (remember that ability is up every few mins and can net you 10 items vs 5).

So, say on the long side 300,000 per 20 mins x 3 for an hour = 900,000 in an hour if you grind on the same item. 900,000 *.95 (taxes) = 855,000 gil for 1 hours work. Game was out for what 5 weeks when they did the ban hammer? So over 5 weeks, 10 hours of farming isn't that insane, but if you weren't spending it, you'd have been banned.

As I am my FC Master, I felt it my responsibility to have a good pile of gil in stock for when housing is released, that is why for me Gil Collection was my priority over say leveling like other people did. As I've just shown, that's 1 totally legit way to have gotten that much gil.

I'm just glad I stopped gathering when I did, would have been the breaking point if I'd gotten banned from being a Botanist Primary Job.

[FatherKolgrim]

but is says clearly and bodly in all caps YOU ACQUIRE NO OWNERSHIP OR PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ANY CHARACTER OR OTHER IN-GAME VIRTUAL GOOD, AND ARE ONLY LICENSED TO USE SUCH CHARACTERS AND ASSETS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR FFXIV SERVICE ACCOUNT SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS SET FORTH IN THE AGREEMENTS. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR FFXIV SERVICE ACCOUNT AND ANY VIRTUAL GOODS AND CHARACTERS DO NOT HAVE ANY MONETARY VALUE. SQUARE ENIX MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE FFXIV SERVICE ACCOUNTS, CHARACTERS, VIRTUAL GOODS, OR THE SERVICE ALTOGETHER, AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE OR LIABILITY TO YOU.

also 2.2 Real Money Trading, Farming and Power-Leveling. You may not sell, purchase or exchange for real-world money or value any in-game currency, accounts, characters, in-game services, or in-game virtual items. You may not play the Game for the purpose of acquiring virtual items or advancement in game play on behalf of a third-party or for the purpose of selling any virtual assets to a third party for real-world money, specifically including "gold-farming" and power-leveling services.

[UBERHAXED]

No RMT activity was found but ok whatever

and thank you Alek for reading the whole post before responding.

Hehe... remember the UA that you agreed to? I don't know how you could have missed a statement that was bolded, underlined, in all caps, in it's own section, at the beginning.

YOU ACQUIRE NO OWNERSHIP OR PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ANY CHARACTER OR OTHER IN-GAME VIRTUAL GOOD, AND ARE ONLY LICENSED TO USE SUCH CHARACTERS AND ASSETS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR FFXIV SERVICE ACCOUNT SUBJECT TO THE CONDITIONS SET FORTH IN THE AGREEMENTS. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR FFXIV SERVICE ACCOUNT AND ANY VIRTUAL GOODS AND CHARACTERS DO NOT HAVE ANY MONETARY VALUE. SQUARE ENIX MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE FFXIV SERVICE ACCOUNTS, CHARACTERS, VIRTUAL GOODS, OR THE SERVICE ALTOGETHER, AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE OR LIABILITY TO YOU.

[Johnist]

They themselves may have been found cleared of guilt however if you follow the money as the sayin goes, the gil probably originated from a Bot or other RMT or exploit. Also, if SE decided they were Price Gouging, they could decide to confiscate the money.

[Alhanelem]

5. Square-Enix removed lot of gil from people who were not involved.

6. People want their gil back as they were cleared of any wrong doing

I'd like to see the proof that they weren't involved. If they weren't involved, their gil wouldn't have been taken, as there were people who were suspended for investigation but had nothing taken.

[Balbanes]

This is a very straightforward issue people... a lot of gil was introduced into the game by bots and hackers. This gil upsets and can potentially destroy a game's economy. It had to be removed. Even if you were just an innocent crafter/gatherer who did nothing but sold your items on the market.... the gil had to be removed to keep balance in the game's economy. It sucks, yeah... but it had to be done.

[UBERHAXED]

I had amassed quite a bit of gil, but I was not over the threshold of 8,000,000 which caused people to be flagged.

I was selling 1 item that was selling for 75,000 a stack and 1 item that was selling for 150,000 a stack. It was one of the advantages of being one of the first high level botanists.

Why did I have so many mats? Because SE did not allow a DOL Class to unlock leves and thus I could do nothing but grind, grind, grind.
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.
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Stopped reading there... Anyway, just to let you know, in the terms that you agreed to in order to use the service it clearly states that you can ban you for any reason without explanation, and even ban you for no reason. Reading comprehension is a lost art apparently.

[Phaylis]

Though your friend may have legitimately made the gil, but perhaps 9 mil of that gil earned was earned though people who took part in RMT activity. This would be part of the issue and so would be deleted. Now if this was the case your friend should put in a ticket and ask and if this was the case ask for items to be restored. Retainers have a transaction log so SE should be able to restore items that were purchased with gil that was not legitimately earned.