Question Regarding Bans on Compromised Accounts

[Gramboozle]

Hello,

I am wondering why Square Enix's account recovery process is so abysmal when an account was compromised. My husbands account was compromised last thursday, and they did nothing but spam malicious links in chat for an hour, and then logged off, soon after my husband was able to change his PW and recover his account (without ANY notification to the subscribed email)

After recovering his account he was able to play as normal for two days, and then suddenly a total account ban, probably due to report for the hackers spam.

Now because of that the account is banned, and we are not able to recover any of the subscription time or game payment. How exactly is this legal business practice? They are still charging us...even though the account is suspended, while they "take their time to investigate the issue."

Customer support around these issues are a widely complained about issue (if you can even get a hold of anyone), and I am looking for answers. We have given this company thousands of dollars over several years, and not an OUNCE of professional assistance has been received. This is unacceptable.

What else can we do?

[Kes13a]

you can really do.. nothing.

This is completely in the domain of customer service and they have to do the investigating before anything is done. what that investigation entails is known to them. and they need to check all their boxes, it sucks, but unfortunately, most cases of accounts being compromised are self instigated. I know doesnt help much, but they do have to make sure before they remove the banned status.

moral of the story is, do not go to external links where you enter your information.

[Gramboozle]

Totally understand they have a process to their investigation, but they shouldnt be charging us for playtime when the account is unplayable while they complete whatever investigation they need to do.

We cant even get into the account to pause or cancel the payments...and if/when they recover the account, that lost playtime is not compensated. That is literal theft.

Regardless of how an account is compromised, a business should not be charging for services that are unavailable to the client. ON TOP of ignoring customer communications regarding the problem, and making it incredibly difficult to even get in contact with someone.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Totally understand they have a process to their investigation, but they shouldnt be charging us for playtime when the account is unplayable while they complete whatever investigation they need to do.

We cant even get into the account to pause or cancel the payments...and if/when they recover the account, that lost playtime is not compensated. That is literal theft.

Regardless of how an account is compromised, a business should not be charging for services that are unavailable to the client. ON TOP of ignoring customer communications regarding the problem, and making it incredibly difficult to even get in contact with someone.

Suspended accounts can't pay for a subscription AFAIK, so you should be charged future months when the cycle rolls around.


And they don't refund current months, that's just not a thing that happens.

No company I know of refunds a current month on software subscriptions if you lose access to the account.

[Gramboozle]

Suspended accounts can't pay for a subscription AFAIK, so you should be charged future months when the cycle rolls around.


And they don't refund current months, that's just not a thing that happens.

No company I know of refunds a current month on software subscriptions if you lose access to the account.

Except the sub renewed TODAY and the account has been suspended since Saturday, so they definitely are charging us while the account is suspended.

[Arazehl]

There is no assumption when you stated yourself that they spammed from his account for hours. The only reason they do that is when they are phishing and they always do it from a phished account. it's common knowledge. SE also didn't select your choice to auto pay either. In the meantime until such time you can access the account back, then you'll have to wait. Sorry if you don't like that answer.

[Gramboozle]

There is no assumption when you stated yourself that they spammed from his account for hours. The only reason they do that is when they are phishing and they always do it from a phished account. it's common knowledge. SE also didn't select your choice to auto pay either. In the meantime until such time you can access the account back, then you'll have to wait. Sorry if you don't like that answer.

I think your reading comprehension may be impaired. Just because something is "common knowledge" doesn't guarantee an outcome. Correlation does not equal causation and you are absolutely making an assumption. You are simply being rude for the hell of it, and its not really appreciated. No matter what you think you know, its not ethical to charge consumers for services that aren't accessible. Your apology is not genuine or accepted.

[Kes13a]

I think your reading comprehension may be impaired. Just because something is "common knowledge" doesn't guarantee an outcome. Correlation does not equal causation and you are absolutely making an assumption. You are simply being rude for the hell of it, and its not really appreciated. No matter what you think you know, its not ethical to charge consumers for services that aren't accessible. Your apology is not genuine or accepted.

lets put it this way.

account billing and customer service are not the same people. if your account is set up to auto pay, it auto pays. doesnt care if you are banned or not unless the account is terminated by customer service.

a temporary suspension will not stop the billing process. you may not like it, but regardless of the circumstances, the account was banned for activities, not terminated. for that reason, the billed "play time" continues, whether you can access the account or not. if you can refrain from the way you put things in this particular reply, they may even credit time, who knows. but venting all over them will ultimately solve little.

ethics has little to do with it

[Gramboozle]

lets put it this way.

account billing and customer service are not the same people. if your account is set up to auto pay, it auto pays. doesnt care if you are banned or not unless the account is terminated by customer service.

a temporary suspension will not stop the billing process. you may not like it, but regardless of the circumstances, the account was banned for activities, not terminated. for that reason, the billed "play time" continues, whether you can access the account or not. if you can refrain from the way you put things in this particular reply, they may even credit time, who knows. but venting all over them will ultimately solve little.

ethics has little to do with it

Ethics has a lot to do with it actually. Regardless if a business's departments are separate, they are still the same company, and should be aligned operationally. If you are going to charge consumers for services they do not have access to (whether its common practice or not) is not ethical..no matter how your account billing is set up, ESPECIALLY, if there is no way to cancel those payments, or contact anyone to resolve it.

[Arazehl]

I think your reading comprehension may be impaired. Just because something is "common knowledge" doesn't guarantee an outcome. Correlation does not equal causation and you are absolutely making an assumption. You are simply being rude for the hell of it, and its not really appreciated. No matter what you think you know, its not ethical to charge consumers for services that aren't accessible. Your apology is not genuine or accepted.

The only thing I apologized for is your lack of acceptance of a well known fact. If you couldn't handle it, there's nothing I can do. What I stated may felt a bit blunt, and you have the right to like it or not. However, if you don't want a response that may not coddle to you in a way that you may wish to hear, than I suggest you don't post in the official forums and just take the matter directly to "Support" where you'll get an official response you can't argue with.