Don't expect SE to get your account back if you get hacked

[Angeli]

Hello everyone.
Not trying to start a flame war or anything but just giving you a heads up if you ever become one of the unfortunate few that has your account compromised by a 3rd party (I'm on my wife’s account right now to post this)

My account was hacked mid-November 2010 and everything was changed including my password, email, ect. I immediately notified Square-Enix via the support center and they said they will investigate the issue and they would email me in 3 weeks when it is complete and they locked my account. 6 weeks later, I contacted them again seeing what the progress was because I haven't heard anything. The rep told me that I was misinformed by the last rep I spoke to and said that there is no set time frame on when they will recover my account. I politely said I understood and I will continue waiting.

It's now mid-March 2011, 4 months later and I still haven't heard anything nor have my account back. Seriously? What kind of customer service is this? It's pathetic. I could have already made a character twice in level than my previous one by one but instead I was "misinformed" and I've just been waiting all these months for nothing.

I heard if you get hacked in WoW, it only takes 24 hours for Blizzard to get your account back. Maybe that's why they have 12 million subscribers and FF14 is a pathetically dying MMO. It's too bad because I was one of those FF "fanboys" who was always the one saying "don't worry, the game will get better!!! just keep playing!!!" and I was one of the last few people in my linkshell of 70+ members who all end up quitting within the first 1-2 months of release cause the game was a joke.

And yes, my computer was clean during the time I got hacked. I've been playing MMO's since 2003 and I've never had any issues before. Not sure what it was. Anyway sorry I had to vent. I really did want to stick it out and keep my fingers crossed because the game will get better. So please just take my advice. If you ever get hacked, don’t expect SE to do anything for you. Either buy another account and start up a new character or just quit the game entirely. I decided to quit entirely because I don’t think I could stomach it if my account gets hacked on a 3 year long character or something and I would have to start all over again.

[Eekiki]

Not trying to start a flame war or anything...

Yes you are.

(I'm on my wife’s account right now to post this)

No you're not.

And yes, my computer was clean during the time I got hacked.

No it wasn't.

Take your trolling somewhere else, troll.

[Angeli]

Well…I was going to write a long retaliation post about how yes I actually do have a wife and how many different programs I used to detect if my computer was clean but I don’t feel like getting into a flame war with some little kid. I guess the harsh reality of how bad SE’s customers support is and the state of the game is too much for your virgin ears to handle. You win. Don’t stay up too late trolling forums kiddo you got school in the morning (see how personal attacks don't really get anywhere)

[Grit]

Did you have a security token?

[Deviant1]

Well you cant blame the customer support for sucking too much, not like they are getting paid...

Sucks to lose the account though. Keep calling them and harrassing them until they fix it. GL

[Issac]

Hey, sorry that your account was compromised.

About your complaints, though.

My account was hacked mid-November 2010 and everything was changed including my password, email, ect. I immediately notified Square-Enix via the support center and they said they will investigate the issue and they would email me in 3 weeks when it is complete and they locked my account. 6 weeks later, I contacted them again seeing what the progress was because I haven't heard anything. The rep told me that I was misinformed by the last rep I spoke to and said that there is no set time frame on when they will recover my account. I politely said I understood and I will continue waiting.

It's now mid-March 2011, 4 months later and I still haven't heard anything nor have my account back. Seriously? What kind of customer service is this? It's pathetic. I could have already made a character twice in level than my previous one by one but instead I was "misinformed" and I've just been waiting all these months for nothing.

First off, losing what you have worked on is certainly horrible, and I won't discredit your experience. But let's look at a couple points, here. Towards the end you said that you could have already made another character, implying that you were willing to buy another game for a new key. Don't get me wrong, being forced to buy the game twice is unfair. You also said that you were hacked and lost access mid-November. If I remember correctly, that would mean you were playing for 2 months or less. There have been 4 months since then as you said, right?

If I were in your position, I would have cut my losses. By the end of the first month of no help from SE, I would have just started a new character or quit. If you were as active at me, you probably would have had passed rank 40 by the time you were hacked. I have to be honest and say that it's not that bad. I know I'm not you, and it did not happen to me, however... After a month, I would have grieved enough over it.

Now, a little on how you were hacked as well as some about SE's customer service.
Generally speaking, there are a few common ways you can be hacked. One, it could have been a keylogger of sorts hidden in third party software. Second, you may have used a similar ID and password on a different website or MMO that was compromised, and they moved on to try it for your FFXIV account. Third, you may have fallen victim to a phishing website made to look exactly like the lodestone. Fourth, and not to judge your character, you may have used a RMT website. Fifth, you let a friend use your account and they're not being very truthful. Last, and the least likely, SE's database was compromised.

Now, I'm sure there's plenty of other ways to hack an account. Am I saying one of the above absolutely apply to you? No, just that it's likely. In any case, in all of the situations above except for the last, it's not SE's fault. I am sure you are aware of that. In all of the above situations, and just about any situation other than those I mentioned, a security token would have protected your account, and this would not have happened. Following this vein, if you do choose to make another character, please get a token from SE. It's application will protect you from virtually any compromising tactic.

Now... A little on customer service. I worked in a call center for three years and I can tell you why, possibly, you got the run-around. Poor customer service is 100% SE's fault. When you call into a support center, you're being connected to a person who doesn't care in the least about you, take it from me. More often than not, they will be jaded from the months of the same old same old. Now, whether the problem will be handled correctly or not- This depends on the over disconnect between corporate SE, management, middle-management, and the reps regarding call-handling policies. From my experience working in a call center, the disconnects are HUGE. To explain, not all of the reps will have the exact same idea of what the policy is and how to escalate the issue correctly to the proper department. Many will fill the tickets incorrectly. Many won't email the correct department with your issue. Why is this? Lack of proper training.

Call centers tend to be stingy on how much time they take their reps off the phone. It translates directly to lost money. If they ramp up training efforts, that's less people on the phone and a higher call volume waiting. This turns into a need to hire more reps and spend more money on payroll so they can sufficiently train their staff, half of which quit later on anyway. So what generally happens is a lack of training. If you call in and get a new rep, he won't know what to do but isn't jaded yet so he puts you on hold and gets up to ask for help. If you get an old rep, he's jaded as hell and possibly doesn't know new policies and only the old, so he says all set to get you off the phone then proceeds to do it incorrectly. Reps that know what they're doing in every call are rare. In call centers, new policies come out weekly, updating old ones. It's ever-changing.

Why is this SE's fault? They are not funding their CS departments enough. They aren't paying their reps enough for them to care to try, nor are they paying into incentives to get their reps motivated to want to help and do it as efficiently as they can. I don't know this for sure, but this is usually the case for most companies. Why wouldn't SE pay more into their CS sect? Because it's already a 100% loss to them, whatever they put into it. You're not paying to speak to these people. There's a rent bill for the call center building, electric bill, payroll, phone/internet bill, all of which are epic in price. It costs hundreds of thousands, if not more, to run a call center- MONTHLY. With the game currently free (Again, to their own fault,) they don't have much to spare.

It's a bit of a vicious cycle, I know. With a situation like that, your best bet would be to call over and over again, and escalate beyond the rep, no matter how rude it feels to you. It's unfortunate, but that's just how it is. I only wish you had this advice before you waited for so long.

I heard if you get hacked in WoW, it only takes 24 hours for Blizzard to get your account back. Maybe that's why they have 12 million subscribers and FF14 is a pathetically dying MMO. It's too bad because I was one of those FF "fanboys" who was always the one saying "don't worry, the game will get better!!! just keep playing!!!" and I was one of the last few people in my linkshell of 70+ members who all end up quitting within the first 1-2 months of release cause the game was a joke.

Blizzard has better customer service because of the very thing you mentioned- Multi-million subs. They have the profit to spare to invest more in their CS departments. Of course, this also means SE needs to line up their priorities and take a serious look at investing more into their CS. You retain a lot of subs that way. But before they can dream of doing that, they need to fix the game.

And yes, my computer was clean during the time I got hacked. I've been playing MMO's since 2003 and I've never had any issues before. Not sure what it was. Anyway sorry I had to vent. I really did want to stick it out and keep my fingers crossed because the game will get better. So please just take my advice. If you ever get hacked, don’t expect SE to do anything for you. Either buy another account and start up a new character or just quit the game entirely. I decided to quit entirely because I don’t think I could stomach it if my account gets hacked on a 3 year long character or something and I would have to start all over again.

I have some good news for you. If you do decide to start a new character, SE has made many improvements to the game while you were gone. I'll even go as far to say that you are better off. Winds of change are blowing, and it is slowly but surely turning into a better game for each month that passes.

But if you do start another character...
Get a security token. I cannot stress this enough. With one, your chances of getting hacked are absolutely floored to almost nothing. Personally, I feel the game is great and is getting better. Many don't agree, but many also do agree. I strongly suggest you give it another shot with a security token.

I do hope you get this message, and I wish the best of luck to you.

[PeppinoTuna]

Customer support was fantastic the first time I got hacked in FF11. However, the 2nd and final time they refused to help in any way. I lost everything I had farmed for four solid years. I really started to be careful of what websites I visited after that point.

Ever since then, I've come to terms with SE's customer support. They aren't bright and incredibly slow.

This is what really set me off: They refused to help me since they rolled back my account in the past once before. So I informed them that I "forgot" to whom I sent the millions of gil and multiple irreplaceable items to and I'd appreciate it if they would refresh my memory. They still wouldn't help. No positive action was taken, only a "I'm sorry." I tried "rewording" the situation to try and benefit myself, but I still could not receive any source of information or recovery.

Consider yourself lucky. You only lost something that hadn't taken a long time to acquire while I on the other hand lost something that I had spent 12-14 hours per day for 4 years acquiring.

Sometimes it happens just for going to the wrong place just for a split second. It really wasn't something that someone such as myself, a non-computer savvy person, expected. I hope you'll be more careful in the future since it isn't only Final Fantasy accounts that hackers are after.


Just make a new account or quit like I did FF11. Or, get yourself a security token. I don't want to take any chances so I went for the security token for this game. I'd rather pay a little bit extra for protection than to know in the back of my head that SE isn't going to do a thing to help me if I get hacked. You might want to accept the inevitable that you'll never get your account back.






Or, call Customer Service every single day, literally every single day and constantly bug them about it. Every day. Every. Day.

And on that note, I'd like to know why you hadn't checked up on your account with customer support? You just decided, "Ooooh, I'm going to go AFK for four months... Maybe they'll have it by then?"??

[Issachar]

Yes you are.

No you're not.

No it wasn't.

Take your trolling somewhere else, troll.

Just because you can't get any doesn't mean others don't have wives

Anyways, I strongly suggest that you get a security token, OP. They're well worth the investment.

[Angeli]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry for the harsh words in the original post. I'm just a little upset over the whole situation. We all know FF14 is losing its subscribers but it's not really a pathetic game. Yes I did not use my security token but I do have one. I probably will start over but man I GRINDED every single day from like the second I got home from work until the second I went to bed and weekends were 24/7 marathons… I had my main job and my craft in the upper 30's when I got hacked and lots of sub jobs...I'll probably try next week a few more times on the customer service and if that doesn't work I’ll just start over. I heard the leveling is way easier anyway now

[Zeref]

We can help with technical stuff on the software by providing tweaks we used to circumvent the issues, but we're not customer service, and trying to rally us to raise hell for you is annoying to say the least, fight your own battles.