Suspended for Trading Gold to Myself

#0 - June 27, 2010, 11:20 a.m.

Q1: Why are you posting this thread?
A1: To illustrate a growing and disgustingly unjust trend in Blizzard suspensions.

Q2. What happened?
A2. My account was suspended for 72 hours on June 24, 2010 for "Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy" after I transferred 20k gold from my bank alt to my other character on the same account.

Q3. What's "Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy" mean?
A3. According to Blizzard it means involvement in gold selling or gold buying.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&tag=exploitfaq&rhtml=true

Q4: How'd you make that much gold?
A4: I've been trading on the AH 2-5 times per day since March 2008. I run a twink guild and twinking is very expensive. (Some AH traders have far and away more gold than 20k.)

Q5: Why'd you transfer the gold to your other character?
A5: Some of my real life friends play WoW and 3 of them were hacked in the last 7 days. I was trying to hide some of my gold on a different character on the off chance that I got hacked.

Q6: Do you really have real life friends?
A6: Yes, but 1 of those 3 is my friend's husband.

Q7: Did you appeal the suspension?
A7: Yes, immediately by emailing [email protected] and also through the web form. I also requested updates by email on 6/25 and 6/26. My girlfriend was kind enough to post a thread requesting assistance on 6/25 in the Customer Service forum.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626572486&sid=1

Q8: Did Blizzard ever respond to the appeals?
A8: Yes, about 60 hours into the 72 hour suspension Blizzard responded. A GM kindly reversed the suspension and apologized.

Q9: So you're blaming the GMs?
A9: No, the GMs are the kind helpers that hear our complaints because of decisions made by Blizzard executives and directors above. Furthermore, there's every reason to believe that they're just as overworked and understaffed as Blizzard's telephone billing department.

Q10: Does this kind of wrongful suspension happen often?
A10: Another player named "Sauril" reported the same issue here.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626572486&sid=1

Yet another player named "Ooid" reported the same issue here.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=25560017719

â€¦While a 3rd player named "Sciatic" and a 4th player named "Xtda" reported the same issue (separate instances) in the link above. Then there's my case.

Here's a 6th case.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626183317

Here's a 7th case.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20437377492

Now these occurrences were found without any searches. Random players came out of the woodwork to volunteer this information.

Here's an 8th case.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23767163174

Q11: Does Blizzard reimburse game time for wrongful suspensions?
A11: I've requested reimbursement but no response yet.

Q12: Aren't you happy that Blizzard is aggressively pursuing gold sellers and buyers?
A12: Hippocrates said, "As to diseases make a habit of two things - to help, or at least, to do no harm." By punishing the innocent, Blizzard is hardly helping the World of Warcraft be a better place.

Q13. Doesn't Blizzard generally have good customer service though?
A13: "Blizzard gets an F at the Better Business Bureau" (April 20, 2009)
http://www.wow.com/2009/04/20/blizzard-gets-an-f-at-the-better-business-bureau/

Q14. What could Blizzard do to improve this situation?
A14: Blizzard could do a lot. It's fabulously wealthy which affords it many options.

It appears that Blizzard has implemented an automatic script to ban suspected gold sellers and buyers. Blizzard could stop skimping on manpower, do away with the terrible script and hire humans to do a better job.

Shockingly, Blizzard boasts quarterly profits of $381 million (1). That's $127 million per month after all taxes and expenses are taken out. Blizzard could spend a few extra dollars on customer service to address appeals more quickly, not to mention phone calls to the 800 #.

(1) http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=467461

Now back to my auctions! :)

#25 - June 28, 2010, 7:40 p.m.

I'm sorry to hear that your account might have been suspended by accident, Howard. I understand how disconcerting and frustrating that this might have been for you, and why you might feel a need to express that frustration.

This forum is not an appropriate means to do so, however. If you have concerns regarding the detection methods used to help prevent and eliminate exploitation within World of Warcraft, then I invite you to provide feedback constructively via our Suggestions forum.

I would also like to point out that this is not a common occurrence, nor is it a 'growing trend', despite the threads you pointed out. We strive for a 0% error rate, but when you consider a handful of potential misfires amongst thousands of investigations, the rate of 'duds' is quite low. These actions aren't taken blindly, either. It's just that on extremely rare occasions something that looks like a duck and walks like a duck, is actually a platypus. Our staff is happy to review these issues should the case be brought to our attention, though.

In fact, this is precisely why we have provided our players a means to dispute account actions. It seems that you've already contacted our staff and recovered your account, which is a good thing. Hopefully you won't run afoul of this kind of issue in the future either.

We appreciate your understanding as we continue to strive to make World of Warcraft the kind of place our players want to share with us.