Trial account limitations re: chat?

#0 - Oct. 20, 2010, 2:49 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Hello everyone, potential player here :)

I've heard good things about the role-playing community on World of Warcraft, so I thought I would make a trial account to see what all the fuss is about :)

However I don't seem to be able to talk in the game. Like, at all. I googled into the limitations and it said that I shouldn't be able to talk in public channels (like the General channel), or use whisper/party in an unsolicited manner, but I cannot even use /say (white text).

The error message that I get is that trial accounts "cannot send unlimited tells" and that I need to wait until I can send more, however I've waited for hours on end in a single session, to still be unable to say anything. I've tried this over the span of multiple days, to no avail.

I was wondering if this was working as intended? I'd really hope it isn't, since I'd really like to dip my toes into what the community's like before I consider purchasing the retail version, and I can't really do that if I'm essentially mute. :(

I've searched around the Internet and I haven't found many similar complaints to this, making me wonder if this is a new change (perhaps with the expansion patch that came out) or perhaps is a bug. If a Blizzard staff member could let me know on what the deal with this is, that would be really appreciated.

Jareis
#1 - Oct. 20, 2010, 3:13 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Trial accounts are not able to speak whatsoever, Jareis.

This is indeed intended and has been for quite some time. This feature was implemented due to the number of unsolicited whispers and mail that was being sent to our players.

If you wish to take advantage of the communication aspects of the game, you will need to upgrade the trial account. Keep in mind though that if you choose to upgrade online though the Direct Online Upgrade chat will still be limited until the transaction completes, usually within 72-hours. You can, however, upgrade using a copy of the game purchased from a retailer which would allow you to chat immediately.