Blizzard and Chargebacks...

#0 - April 20, 2010, 9:09 p.m.
Blizzard Post
OK so this is the retarded crap that has been happening.

My husband's wow account was down, he was working a lot and going to school and didn't have time to play. so we canceled his account, in November I believe. I myself was still playing, and while I was online, two months later, in January, I saw my husband's Death Knight log on, which I knew couldn't have been him, since we had canceled it, and because my husband had JUST gotten in the door from working. We called Blizzard Billing and Account Services and we managed to get his account back. While my husband was speaking the Customer Service dude on speakerphone (so I could hear what was being said) he asked if his account would be playable since someone had paid for it, and the rep said it would be playable and that my husband should change the email/password on the account. (please note this was back in January)

After that he switched jobs and had a lot more free time, so we started playing the game together again, and were leveling characters together and in March, while we were questing, he was randomly kicked off his account. He thought it was just our internet down, (cuz our router needs to be replaced) but I wasn't booted, so he tried logging on again and received an error message upon trying to get on. It said his account was being banned...

We immediately call Blizzard again to see what was going on and we are informed that there was a chargeback (or w/e) on his account because a credit card was challenged and there was a negative balance on the account in question. OK..... We don't use credit cards, we use game-cards or PayPal to pay for our time to play. We inquired on when the negative balance happened, and lo and behold, it was from when it was hacked. We stated this to the guy on the phone, and he said normally it wouldn't have affected the account, since it had indeed been hacked, but since my husband played the time remaining on the account (paid by the hacker) and that charge was disputed, we owed Blizz the 14.99 for that month of time.

No big deal, I guess we misunderstood what the original guy had said, the guy on the phone said we would be sent an email about what was going on and what to do, waited on the phone to ask if we had received it, end of that story. We had to send a money order for the 14.99 to their P.O box in Irvine California. (lame)

Well, we sent the money order in the next day (after the phone call) and it's been weeks since, and we still have not received any notification that the money order has even gotten there, I'm getting seriously frustrated. The only place to even purchase a money order here was the local post office, and we went there (with receipts and everything) to see if it was cashed, and they said we have to pay an additional 5.40 to even see if it was...

I understand that with Blizzard, chargebacks usually mean that they were screwed over the 14.99 originally supposed to be paid for the account to be played, and they make everyone pay in money order to assure that the same thing will not happen, but seriously.... this was not something my husband and I even did. The account was hacked, we ASKED if my husband could play on the time left over from when the hacker paid, and we were told he could... that is NOT our fault, that someone who WORKS for Blizzard was wrong, and it's ridiculous that this issue is taking so long to get handled.

We can't afford to send a second money order, we couldn't afford to pay for tracking, the post office wanted to charge us 2.50 for tracking to California (which seemed WAY high). We have a very set budget which allows us to save money for a house and still be able to spend the 30 dollars to play (which is why we were able to send the 14.99 money order, since we still had it in our bank account) and yea, we should have tracked it, but jeez... for something that was not our fault, we're having to have to spend the extra money and have it fixed. It's unfair.
#9 - April 20, 2010, 10:06 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Was the money order in question shipped with the address that is currently registered to the account in question as the return address, Auralia?
#13 - April 20, 2010, 10:21 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Due to possible delays in shipping, and the fact that we generally process all in coming requests in the order they are received, it can often take several weeks for a money order to be fully processed.

As it appears that you may have already been waiting a few weeks for this request, I've sent this specific situation up for further review to see if we can confirm if your money order was received. Please continue to check the e-mail address that is currently registered to the account in question as you should receive an update there as soon as one is available.

Thank you both for your patience, and we hope to see your husband back online as soon as possible.
#17 - April 20, 2010, 11:44 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:
I'm wondering if this is a current trend going on. I've seen several postings where people's accounts have been hacked and stolen CC's have been used to pay for the game. Once the original owner of the account gets it back, Billing and Accounting (via phone calls) have been telling people it's OK to play on the account when it wasn't them that paid for it. This is a mistake on part of Blizzard employees, not consumers. Had my husband been made aware that he would have to deal with everything going on, he simply would have decided to not play for the remainder or the charge, and then resubscribed when the hack payment was over. And I have seen postings/replies (in this thread as well) where people have claimed that Billing will waive the 14.99 money order when it's PROVEN it was an account hack and stolen CC used.


As each of these types of issues can be quite unique, they are addressed on a case by case basis, Auralia. In your husband's case, it was found that we would indeed need to have those funds repaid in order for access to be restored to the account. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing, and I assure you that we will do all that we can to get him back online as soon as possible.