Blizzard at thier best.

[Rodstorm]

My son who plays Wow as well decided to have a brain fade the other day and purchased some gold from a online gold vendor.
Usually that wouldnt worry me as its his problem if he gets caught however he thought as it was his first time he didnt want to jeopardise his account he would send the gold to my account to see if it would work or not.
Well yes it did, Blizzard saw the transaction and has now banned my account.
Not bad considering I didnt do anything wrong myself but I do understand all they saw was a breach and didnt know the full story.
Cant blame them for that.
This all took place only hours after my son checked my mailbox to see if it had worked or not.
Its been 3 days later and 5 emails later to Blizzard trying to explain the situation to them in an attempt to get my account back but not once have they replied.
They were quick to ban but not quite so quick to listen and respond.
I do accept responsibility for giving my son my account details, something I did a long time ago to see if he liked the game before he brought it, so that is my fault for giving out my details although the terms and agreement do say I can do so.
Its just real frustrating that I cant play the game through no immediate fault of my own but even more frustrating when Blizzard wont reply to me one way or another where I have made every effort to contact them.
I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.
Sure its great to have bug fixes and improvements to the game but I'am paying them to do it anyway by paying for the game each month.
When you buy a car you dont get 2 tyres on it, you pay for 4.
So I dont think I'am getting my money's worth out of them either.
I love WoW, I eat,drink,breath and sleep it....its just Blizzard make it really hard at times.

[Stigg]

Usually that wouldnt worry me as its his problem if he gets caught however he thought as it was his first time he didnt want to jeopardise his account he would send the gold to my account to see if it would work or not.

First mistake. Your son is a moron and screwed up. Punish him.

I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.
Sure its great to have bug fixes and improvements to the game but I'am paying them to do it anyway by paying for the game each month.
When you buy a car you dont get 2 tyres on it, you pay for 4.
So I dont think I'am getting my money's worth out of them either.

Then quit playing

[Foonyak]

If you don't have your son's account info, I have no advice to give.

If you do have your son's account info; vendor everything, and buy stuff from and sell the stuff right back to the vendors. Leave every character buck-nekid and penniless, and when he tells you about it, tell him that it was the gold sellers getting their profit margin back under control.

EDIT:I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.

Imagine not being able to buy game time, but having to pay $10 a month and have the servers down 4+ days a month. It happened almost every month when I played Asheron's Call, and we were happy that they did a content patch monthly and fixed the bugs as quick as they did. All this crying on WoW forums about the amount of downtime (~6-8 hrs a week) really doesn't make sense to me.

[Rodstorm]

Yes my son is a moron, he cant play WoW anymore because I took his pc.
What, dont play WoW because I dont think i'am getting my money's worth because of all the downtime?
Now who's the moron?

[sycamore]

Blizzard saw the transaction and has now banned my account.
Not bad considering I didnt do anything wrong myself but I do understand all they saw was a breach and didnt know the full story.
Cant blame them for that.
This all took place only hours after my son checked my mailbox to see if it had worked or not.
Its been 3 days later and 5 emails later to Blizzard trying to explain the situation to them in an attempt to get my account back but not once have they replied.
They were quick to ban but not quite so quick to listen and respond.
But you must realise that any goldbuyer who gets caught could claim to have a child who shares the account with them who did the bad thing that the account's been banned for? As the owner of the account, you're responsible for what happens on it, whether it's you or your child that does it. As you acknowledge, it was a breach of their EULA, and the account has been banned as a result.

I do accept responsibility for giving my son my account details, something I did a long time ago to see if he liked the game before he brought it, so that is my fault for giving out my details although the terms and agreement do say I can do so.
True; but if you're son's now over 18 then you should have changed your password to prevent another adult accessing your account, which is against the EULA; and if he's under 18 then you're the adult responsible for the account and for your son's activities.

Its just real frustrating that I cant play the game through no immediate fault of my own but even more frustrating when Blizzard wont reply to me one way or another where I have made every effort to contact them.
If you've tried to use the webform then don't expect a reply for quite a while, you'd be much better contacting them by phone. But you'd be lucky to get the decision overturned.

I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.
Sure its great to have bug fixes and improvements to the game but I'am paying them to do it anyway by paying for the game each month.
When you buy a car you dont get 2 tyres on it, you pay for 4.
Yes, but you can't drive a car with only 50% of its tyres for 58 whole days out of every 60 :smiley:

So I dont think I'am getting my money's worth out of them either.
I love WoW, I eat,drink,breath and sleep it....its just Blizzard make it really hard at times.
As Stigg says, if you're not satisfied with the service, don't pay for it and go elsewhere.

[Rodstorm]

My son is under 18 and yes the rules do say I'am allowed to share my details with one family member, have a look.
You guys are happy when the server goes down and you cant play anymore, wow, thats amazing.
Nothing better to logon and see the server will be down notice looking straight at you.
And yes I do have my own account, well hopefully I still will, and he has his own although without his pc he will struggle to play for awhile.
I average around 4 to 6 hours a day on WoW, I play by the rules and love the game...I dont people to tell me go elsewhere or accuse me of being a gold buyer.
The purpose of my post was to see if anyone else had a similar experience and what was the outcome.
The other purpose was to see if I'am the only person who thinks when I pay for 60 days gameplay I should get 60 days gameplay...at this stage it looks like I'am.
No I havent filled out any online form to Blizzard, to my knowledge they dont have one for the account admin department...the best I can do is email them again and again like I have.
As for phoning them, I dont live in the US and my phone doesnt support international so that wont be happening either.
Does anyone know is it me who is banned or just my character that is banned?
Have I lost my level 50 Paladin but can start a new character or am I just a dead duck?
Does this mean I cant use the serials for my WoW and BC games anymore and they are now just drink coasters or can I create a new account with these numbers and start again if I have to?
Ideally all will be good and I can keep going with my Paladin but its the not knowing whats happening that is killing me.

[sycamore]

My son is under 18 and yes the rules do say I'am allowed to share my details with one family member, have a look.
Yes, I know, but you're still the account holder and therefore responsible for what activity happens on that account.

You guys are happy when the server goes down and you cant play anymore, wow, thats amazing.
Nothing better to logon and see the server will be down notice looking straight at you.
Not happy when it's outside scheduled maintenance, maybe I've been lucky but I've only had a handful of times when I couldn't play on my chosen server, and there were always other servers available. If you've had a different experience then I agree you've been very unlucky.

And yes I do have my own account, well hopefully I still will, and he has his own although without his pc he will struggle to play for awhile.
I average around 4 to 6 hours a day on WoW, I play by the rules and love the game...I dont people to tell me go elsewhere or accuse me of being a gold buyer.
No one's accusing you of goldbuying, but you're the one that came here saying that goldbuying had happened on your account, for which you're responsible (edit: responsible for the account, not the gold buying). You're really unlucky, and it's a rotten situation, but you'll be lucky to get them to overturn it.

The purpose of my post was to see if anyone else had a similar experience and what was the outcome.
This site's *very* anti goldbuying/anti bot/etc, so you might not get much useful info here, despite the fact that it wasn't you doing it - I doubt that many people have experience of this situation (or wouldn't admit to it if they did...) Personal messages are maybe different...

The other purpose was to see if I'am the only person who thinks when I pay for 60 days gameplay I should get 60 days gameplay...at this stage it looks like I'am.
You agree when you sign up that they're allowed to take the servers down for maintenance, so you technically don't sign up for 60 uninterrupted days...

No I havent filled out any online form to Blizzard, to my knowledge they dont have one for the account admin department...the best I can do is email them again and again like I have.
As for phoning them, I dont live in the US and my phone doesnt support international so that wont be happening either.

I'm on the EU servers so know nothing about billing and support on the US servers, they do I think have some numbers for access outside the states but if you're not one of them then it's not good. I agree completely that customer support is unacceptably slow.

[Kalos]

Blizzard at the best? No, just their usual. They see illigal gold transaction, they take the account down. There's no proof that it wasn't you that inacted the gold transfer to show them, and in any case the EULA still covers it. Any activity by anyone, no matter who, traced to an account gets a banning.

My question is, why did you let your son both have access to your account and a creditcard to buy gold from, he's under 18 and is clearly unable to spend wisely (or legitimatly)? I'd have changed the password when he was done testing it for security, and entered my credit details to whatever he wanted to buy personally, not let him run wild E-buying with the numbers themselves. This was a double failure in security, and a failure in banging common sense into his head. Starting with reading Blizzard's own front page. Hundreds of thousands of accounts are banned for this offense, what did he suspect was going to happen?

[sheepe2004]

sorry but i think your account is gone for good along with all its characters. All blizzard can tell is that someone on the account has bought gold so they will ban you for that.

unless you have some very good proof that it wasn't you who bought it and your willing to go into a very long argument that you aren't likely to win just buy a new copy of wow and tell your son never ever to buy gold or try to use bots or powerleveling.

[Rodstorm]

sorry but i think your account is gone for good along with all its characters. All blizzard can tell is that someone on the account has bought gold so they will ban you for that.

unless you have some very good proof that it wasn't you who bought it and your willing to go into a very long argument that you aren't likely to win just buy a new copy of wow and tell your son never ever to buy gold or try to use bots or powerleveling.

That last bit was interesting, I cant use the serials from my copy of WoW or BC anymore?
I have to buy both games again?????
This isnt getting much better.

[sycamore]

That last bit was interesting, I cant use the serials from my copy of WoW or BC anymore?
I have to buy both games again?????
This isnt getting much better.
Rodstorm, check your personal messages (top right of the page).

Yes, you'd have to buy the game again, when you register your account you use the one time key you get with the CDs, and you'd need to buy the game again to get a new account. I don't know, but you might be able to get it cheaper from the wow site since you're not paying for the media again.

[Tanitha]

This seems like an uncanny repeat of a thread we see every few weeks. What is missing is the threat of legal action - so credit goes for that. As to the rest of it - I feel sorry for you, but this is what happens when one traffics with gold sellers.

[Rodstorm]

One last question, can you start a new account by using a pre-paid card instead of a creditcard?
Thanks.

[DarthMuffin]

One last question, can you start a new account by using a pre-paid card instead of a creditcard?
Thanks.

Yes. At least you could a year and half ago.

[Tanitha]

In October 2006 I needed a credit card to create my US account. Even though I was using a game-card at the time.

[amgyn]

lol... this made me laugh.



and yes you can.

[sycamore]

lol... this made me laugh.
I actually believe him, so I'm not laughing, I can appreciate how utterly frustrated he must be. I hope he can manage to resolve it.

- not that I think he can, but I hope he can

[caldepen]

Why doesn't you use your sons old account, apt punishment for the son and you get to play. The original story does not add up tho... Your son was worried he'd get busted so he sent it to your account? If it worked was he planning on logging in as you and then mailing it to himself? Seems like a lot of trouble plus when I was a kid I was more scared of my dad then some far off big company. Maybe try a little thing called discipline...

C

[Kalos]

Why doesn't you use your sons old account, apt punishment for the son and you get to play. The original story does not add up tho... Your son was worried he'd get busted so he sent it to your account? If it worked was he planning on logging in as you and then mailing it to himself? Seems like a lot of trouble plus when I was a kid I was more scared of my dad then some far off big company. Maybe try a little thing called discipline...

C
Yep, it did strike me as a bit stupid. He could have got the gold sent to his account, gotten banned for it, but concealed the real reason for it. You would have never keow, no family damage or punishments taken. Seems like he valued his own account over yours. His logic is only stupid TBH. "I don't wat to get in trouble, so instead of just pissing of Blizzard, I'll piss them off and my Dad so I get to keep my account" He doesn't deserve a WoW account, take it from him permanantly. Show him some good disipline and hopefully he'll learn A. Respect for other people's belongings B. Misusing your finances, I'd never let my children spend my cash on illigal goods without a severe penalty C. If you're not willing to gamble your own stuff (His own account) why on earth should he gamble someone else's? He values his own personal playtime more than your own. That's selfish, underhand, deceiptive, disrespectful, and treacherous. He has in some fashion showed through his actions that he cares more for what he has than for what you have.

This is truely unacceptable. I hate my sister's artwork mostly, I think it's just cheap knockoffs of a mass manufacturered and childish style, but I'd never be prepared to trade them in the place of my own artwork. Not only would possessions be lost, but the relationship I share damaged. And that is worth more than a few peices of paper...or a game account. He has basically showed you that his account is worth more to him than you are, your effort and enjoyment. Call me a tyrant, but that behaviour is unacceptable.

[Rodstorm]

Well basically I think he thought he'd get away with it.
He was going to transfer the gold to his account before I found out but Blizzard beat him to it.
He didnt think I'd get banned, just a warning, so his judgement wasnt at its best.
He cant play WoW for now as I have his pc and i'am not sure what my next step is but we've had a few loud discussions about it since.
What I dont know wont hurt me right???
He used my paypal account details which arent to hard to find at my house so again if it works hey great no harm done and hey if it doesnt well dad will think his done something wrong.
Disrespect, trust and honesty are all things we have talked about since.
Apart from having to buy both games again, thats bad enough, its the time I invested into getting to level 50 that hurts the most.
Its the fact I have to do all those quests again, get all those flightplans again, wait to level 40 to get my mount, save my money again and do it all over again.
3 monthes down the drain because someone tried to make a shortcut.

[Kalos]

If he thought he was going to get away with it he would have used his own account. At some point, he evaluated the situation, and decided he'd rather gamble with your account (And increase the risk that you'd notice) than his own. He prefered you took the hit if it was coming than he himself, dispite it was his whole idea and initative to engage in illigal activity. He did the crime, and set someone up, his own family member, to take the fall for it. He'd make a good business man, ruthless and self minded.

Just keep his account. When he asks for it back, remind him that he destroyed your account, you're keeping his as recompense. Then remind him you're far from equal after the deception he displayed.

[Hegemony]

Tough lesson to learn.

Blizzard has went darn near Nazi with account issues. And you know that they've closed down accounts that did nothing wrong (like mass IP sweeps).

This really isn't a WoW issue, it's a parenting issue--and that's best kept for another forum.

[Gealach]

I hope that during all that time you put into the game levelling to 50 that you made some friends in game. Having high level friends helping you out can really take the sting out of levelling a new character, especially if some can twink your character with better than average gear to level in.

Prolly the single best thing you can do to speed your levelling (in the case of a paladin) is to have your friends help you speed through the quests for Verigan's Fist at the minimum level, then have a good enchant like fiery put on it. Fiery isn't too expensive in my experience, and it can go on items of any level. That hammer should last you quite a while that way, and is already powerful to begin with.

[SadaraK]

Blizzard has not one jot of responsibility to do anything about this situation but ban you. Your son did it not you? Doesn't matter, your fault for trusting someone who would do something so stupid on your account. Your breached a legal agreement with Blizzard, thats all they care about.

I'm sure that sounds harsh after you have had your account banned, but the fault is with you, its that simple. The reason they haven't bothered replying is because theres nothing you can say that can make them change their minds.

You could be saying someone broke into your house and accessed your account to buy gold and they still wouldn't reply or care, because (a) Its still your fault for letting a stranger get your password and (b) they have no reason to believe you and they have likley heard it all from all the other people who have been banned for contract breach activity.

I'm all for this approach to btw, if they gave people nice little 'warnings' when they were caught breaching how many more people do you think would go and buy gold and other things knowing they can do it at least once and get away with it?

[Gormidan]

I'll tell you this, if I was younger and did something like this to my father, man, I'd probably be disowned. And that's if I'm lucky.
Anyways, you can't make up for the loss of your time but you could make up for the loss of the money. Tell him to get a part time job or do a lot of chores around the home. Mow lawns, wash windows, clean toilets, etcetera. This would mean an amount of money equal to the cost of a new copy of the game, a few months of account use, costs of shipping the game to your home, internet service provider fees, and the value of your entertainment time spent in game.
Hard work has a tendency to make one appreciate the finer things in life. Atleast you won't have to worry about him trying to "buy" a way out of responsibility.

[Eid]

I have to admit that I love the idea of his account now being yours. Let your son being the one who needs to buy the game and expansion again. Let him level his character and no shortcuts this time. Oh and PLEASE tell us he's not one of these kids who sit round stormwind asking to be boosted through Deadmines or for 1 gld pls. If he is, do us all a favor and burn his pc. :)

Eid

[cyradis2003]

so he stole your money to buy gold (your paypal info - just like stealing) and in the process got your account closed?

I am in agreement with a few of the other posts, take his account and change the password and make it your very own. If you have been paying for both accounts on the same credit card you are actually very lucky his account wasn't closed. If he has been paying for his own account make him save that money and repay you for your copy of the game and expansion BEFORE he rebuys his own copy of the game.

[lordbigchang]

well, i dont blame blizz for that. they cant set up a new rule for each person trying to explain their reason or wtv.

If u dont wanna get banned, stay out of that and play without breaking any rule.

[northwestdakota]

Oh a side note, I thought it was against Blizz T & C's to sell gold not buy it, or am I mistaken. Surely if it is a banable offence to buy gold anyone could buy gold for someone they dont like just to get them banned.

[Twoflower]

you played 4 - 6 hours a day for 3 months and are only lvl 50 ? holy moly...


anyway, for your account : it is gone. bye bye. Your CD keys are invalid. Bye BYe. The only thing you can do is to buy both games again and start from zero. And to be honest, i like it like that. You had gold on your acount which was sent to you from some gold seller. that is enugh.

It could have been your son, daugther, grandma, your dog or your hamster, i dont care. Your acount is your responsability and giving away the password to someone who, obviously, isnt worth the trust, is your own mistake.

So, bottom line, i wouldnt even expect a answer from blizzard, and again, i agree whit them. Something whit your acount was fishy, and they closed it, end of story.

[Thumbtack]

My son who plays Wow as well decided to have a brain fade the other day and purchased some gold from a online gold vendor.
Usually that wouldnt worry me as its his problem if he gets caught however he thought as it was his first time he didnt want to jeopardise his account he would send the gold to my account to see if it would work or not.
Well yes it did, Blizzard saw the transaction and has now banned my account.
Not bad considering I didnt do anything wrong myself but I do understand all they saw was a breach and didnt know the full story.
Cant blame them for that.
This all took place only hours after my son checked my mailbox to see if it had worked or not.
Its been 3 days later and 5 emails later to Blizzard trying to explain the situation to them in an attempt to get my account back but not once have they replied.
They were quick to ban but not quite so quick to listen and respond.
I do accept responsibility for giving my son my account details, something I did a long time ago to see if he liked the game before he brought it, so that is my fault for giving out my details although the terms and agreement do say I can do so.
Its just real frustrating that I cant play the game through no immediate fault of my own but even more frustrating when Blizzard wont reply to me one way or another where I have made every effort to contact them.
I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.
Sure its great to have bug fixes and improvements to the game but I'am paying them to do it anyway by paying for the game each month.
When you buy a car you dont get 2 tyres on it, you pay for 4.
So I dont think I'am getting my money's worth out of them either.
I love WoW, I eat,drink,breath and sleep it....its just Blizzard make it really hard at times.

I dont support gold buying, but I question them taking immediate action in the banning, especially now if the gold amount was below 500. Do they really know you bought the gold or someone was sending you the gold to borrow or something? Plus I have wondered why it was straight up ban, I have always understood blizzards process to fight gold farmers and sellers where it was to Ban the account of the seller and the bot farmers who farm the gold, but the buyer got only strikes (warnings) against the account, never I have heard of a gold buyer being banned unless of course this happened several times.

Oh a side note, I thought it was against Blizz T & C's to sell gold not buy it, or am I mistaken. Surely if it is a banable offence to buy gold anyone could buy gold for someone they dont like just to get them banned.

Yeah I dont get it either. I would be glad to spend a hundered dollars to get someone banned. Its almost the perfect crime in WOW since Blizzard supposely bans a gold buyers account immediately.

[Rodstorm]

Thanks guys for the help and feedback, really appeciate it.
I ended up re-buying both games and starting a new account up.
I got in touch with my guild and all going well I should get some help there as well.
As for my son well thats another issue, he wont see his pc for a long time plus we've "chatted" about a few other things that wont be happening anymore.
Hopefully he'll learn from this but with teenager's who knows.
Hopefully I can put some more time into the game to get back where I was, its frustrating and disheartening when a lvl8 mob kills you these days but I'am sure it will only get better.
Thanks again for the responses and advice.

[Proverbs]

Give your son his PC back, damn nut it's just a game,......but make him grind your guys when your not playing them. Eh?


Yeah you should have just called them and said you have no clue who purchased the gold for your account. Ask them how they know you purchased the gold at all. Hell I could def. see some super nerds having gold sent to one of their enemies, what all you need is a charachter name? That's ridiculous. They can't just ban people for receiving gold.

[kevagron]

If it was my son he'd be grounded until he was 30 :grin:

Plus no computer (except for monitored schoolwork) for 6 months, with all that free time he'd have he would probably get to help out around the house/garden/car a fair bit also. :thumbsup:

[Renata]

Change your PayPal password while you're at it. Change all your passwords. In fact, set it up so you have to input a password even to get into your machine at all.

Obviously anything involving money is not a situation where you can trust him.

...Ren

[Kalos]

Sell all but 256MB of his Ram, and if possible his decrete graphics card and use the motherboard's onboard. It'll be a practical machine forr schoolwork, but any major gaming it shall suck at.

[laffncry]

My son who plays Wow as well decided to have a brain fade the other day and purchased some gold from a online gold vendor.
Usually that wouldnt worry me as its his problem if he gets caught however he thought as it was his first time he didnt want to jeopardise his account he would send the gold to my account to see if it would work or not.
Well yes it did, Blizzard saw the transaction and has now banned my account.
Not bad considering I didnt do anything wrong myself but I do understand all they saw was a breach and didnt know the full story.
Cant blame them for that.
This all took place only hours after my son checked my mailbox to see if it had worked or not.
Its been 3 days later and 5 emails later to Blizzard trying to explain the situation to them in an attempt to get my account back but not once have they replied.
They were quick to ban but not quite so quick to listen and respond.
I do accept responsibility for giving my son my account details, something I did a long time ago to see if he liked the game before he brought it, so that is my fault for giving out my details although the terms and agreement do say I can do so.
Its just real frustrating that I cant play the game through no immediate fault of my own but even more frustrating when Blizzard wont reply to me one way or another where I have made every effort to contact them.
I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.
Sure its great to have bug fixes and improvements to the game but I'am paying them to do it anyway by paying for the game each month.
When you buy a car you dont get 2 tyres on it, you pay for 4.
So I dont think I'am getting my money's worth out of them either.
I love WoW, I eat,drink,breath and sleep it....its just Blizzard make it really hard at times.

for one, bliz has many many players so it really won't affect them is one of us quits playing. we are just a little mole for them. in your case, with the banning, you're right. it really is your fault to pass acct info even if it's your son. worse, the gold passing. that's just the rule we have to follow. it really is sad to face the truth that they are quick on banning but don't give a dime on hearing our side. i guess we just have to live with that if we still want to play the game.:wink:

[unbdm]

ah, IMHO, live and learn... All these people that call your son a moron based on the informaiton in this thread are being far to harsh, and I would be offended somebody called my son a moron.

The biggest problem isn't that a young person wanted to cheat in the game, it's that he cheated, but to your account not his own.

Personally, I would discipline my son however I saw fit to make sure he learned his lesson, if that means a week off a wow, or never letting him play again, or taking away car... whatever, that's your job.

Honestly, cheating in a game is a character concern any parent wants to address, but it's not a damning offense. If that's the worst he ever does, you should feel blessed. Beets the heck out of taking your car without permission.

Just my thoughts as a parent.

Barry

[Stigg]

Fine, not moron....but disrespectful.

Using your credit card to buy gold (complete waste of money) and jeapordizing something you own....

If I had a son, he wouldn't be on teh internetz for quite some time.

[Justinledwards]

This thread should be stickied...

"Read this before you QQ post about buying gold, powerleveling or <insert shortcut here>"

It sucks... teenagers are strange beasts... the consequence of him buying the gold and deflecting the ban to your account... well now he has learnt a lesson in consequences, a teenage WoW addict without his PC... well that's a lesson!

Can you set up parental controls for his WoW account? 1 hour a day.

I'd also recommend he read this thread as well.

[Thumbtack]

My question is how will the account recieving gold get banned? Their had to be more to this then that. Its the perfect crime and I can take out a bunch of idiots for a few hundred dollars if blizzard is going to do that.

[Justinledwards]

No... you get banned because you are a gold-buyer

as to the rest of your post Thumbtack.... *shakes head* ... go your hardest.

[mesonm]

Why doesn't you use your sons old account, apt punishment for the son and you get to play.

C

Do you have kids?

One wonders how important the game must be, to warrant having to decide to possibly take your kids account...as your own...

WOW....

If you don't want the kid to play for some reason, fine....But he'll hate you forever if you wave it in his face all of the time by playing his account.

[unbdm]

My question is how will the account recieving gold get banned? Their had to be more to this then that. Its the perfect crime and I can take out a bunch of idiots for a few hundred dollars if blizzard is going to do that.

I have no idea, but my guess is it's easier to have an algorythm spot a gold seller than a one time buyer. Then once the seller is identified, the log file can be reviewed to determine who has bought from him. Based on this, it seems very unlikely to me anyone would get caught buying gold right when they buy it.

That is the fishiest thing about this story to me... but I'm only guessing at what is easiest for blizzard to detect.

I loaned a guildy 90g to get an epic not long ago... I almost didn't to it, just for fear it would trigger some detection monitor...

Just my thoughts,
Barry

[Tomar]

Teenage boys are inconsiderate, self centered, decieving, Aholes. I know because I was one. So were all my friends. And a teenage boy is capable of justifying anything. I'm sure he justified it a million different ways. I am sympathetic, but sympathy doesnt amount to much. Have fun relevelling.

[Gealach]

Blizzard has pretty decent investigative techniques at their disposal. Likely they were already watching the gold seller's account. The gold transfer was just the final piece they needed, and I bet its standard policy at that point to ban both seller and recipient.

Its unlikely that it was just the one transaction that clinched the bans, it just happened to be the end point of an investigative process. What we don't get to see is all the other data Blizz had gathered on the gold selling account prior to the transaction.

[Thumbtack]

Most of it ranged into recording IP addresses. Blizzard though seems to jump to conclusions too early and many people who play on LAN parties and have a network of players going seem to all get the ban if 1 person in that bunch does something illegal.

in the end..... this game this company, its just an immature bunch of dweebs with a bunch of idiotic players on it, WOW is becomming the game that gives MMO's a bad name.

[siggboy]

The only thing you can do is to buy both games again and start from zero. And to be honest, i like it like that. You had gold on your acount which was sent to you from some gold seller. that is enugh.
Well, then buying gold for somebody else is the ultimate griefing weapon in WoW. I spend 5 dollas to buy 100 gold for someone I really despise, and chances are his account will be banned with no response from Blizz and no chance to take remorse, as the victim doesn't even know who brought that unexpected gift.

Nice.

Edit: No I'm not going to do it, but I wanted to point out the possibility, as some others here did as well.

[inkmva]

As I've posted in these sorts of threads before; there is no way bliz is banning anyone based just on getting X amount of gold.

Why?

Simply because it would be far, far, FAR too easy to grief other players. I'm not talking naked-running-into-kazzak griefing but proper account bans grief.

That's hardcore. As someone else said, I'd gladly pay a few dollars to properly grief some known scammers ingame or whatever (actually I wouldnt, but you can see my point).

If they somehow mistook your account for a gold selling proxy, that's a different story. They ban gold sellers very fast.

[construct]

You are an accessory to gold buying. Now you have to deal with the consequences, as stupid as it might be to you. =/

[Penny]

Live and learn.

Chalk this up to the damage gold sellers do to the game. If you love WoW as much as you say you do, then understand that this is blizzard doing what it feels is best to keep the game as enjoyable as it is.

[djiss]

I just hope it won't translate from "I steal money from dad's paypal to buy gold" to a "I steal money from dad's wallet to buy [Insert any stuff teen like to buy]."
He did once...

[PlayThemAll]

Unfortunatly you (the OP) are a participant by association.

I doubt they got you for just having the gold, they musy have traced it back to a known gold seller. Either way, odds are not in your favor.

I'd take your son's account over and make him work to get a new on of his own. He's the one that screwed up, make him suffer the consequences. Yes, it was a stupid mistake but hey, he's a kid. Hopefully he'll learn fom his mistake.

I find it kind of disturbing that someone could use this tactic as a form of griefing. One more reason not to accept in game mail from anyone you don't know (if this would even help). Man this game is getting more and more like RL.

[unbdm]

Blizzards our-way-or-the-highway attititude used to really concern me when I read about what seemed to be unfair bannings (not the case in this thread however). It still does, but basicaly, I just don't get so attached to my tune to the point that it would bother me too much if they unfairly banned my account. Thats a hard thing for something that takes so much time, that is why I think there is a flaw in how this works, and there is room for consumer rights arguments to pressure Blizz.

That said, I would rather volunteer at church or my kids school with extra time than argue over a video game. So I jut plan to play clean, and hope I don't become a rare statistic that gets unfairly banned.

Best Regards,
Barry

[JoeMuggs]

As ppl have said lets hope your son learned something, but let also hope you learned a few things...

The title of the post says 'blizzard at its best' I'm sure this was meant sarcastically but frankly I think it is accurate the action they took was entirely appropriate. Your account was used for illegal activity that is very damaging to the game so that account was banned. This is perfectly fair and reasonable, what else would you expect them to do if they over turned it based on your story how could they ever ban anyone. I understand your frustration and believe it was an honest mistake on your part but just like your son has to learn you have to learn as well because you allowed it to happen (created the situation where it was able to happen). Frankly just having to rebuy the game and start over seems to be a very reasonable punishment to fit the crime.

If your son one day decides to 'borrow' your car while you are asleep or away and he is a minor you still bear some legal responsibility for want happens with the car. What blizz is doing is no different. I do not think you are a terrible person or a bad parent, but you need to accept this as fair punishment. If they had done something else how would it be fair to the rest of us your account was used to do something damaging to the game so it was banned.

P.S. - I remember a period a year and a half ago where the servers used to go down all the time and it was really a problem and I complained alot. But even I have to admitt resently (last 6 months) the server performance has been outstanding. Think about the addition of BC and how few problems and how little down time there has been. I personally was expecting it to be much much worse. So i hope your words about the down time were just in frustartion over the other situation, but if you really feel like it is so bad then like others have said, don't play, and i recommend not playing any online games becaue frankly you are not going to find it any better than the current wow anywhere, and a lot worse some places.

[Fursphere]

Wait.

You got banned for someone else buying you gold?

/evil thoughts come to mind

[djiss]

Wait.

You got banned for someone else buying you gold?

/evil thoughts come to mind

I thought same here... :laughing:

could be a good way to force a friend to "leave" wow... :ponder:

[JoeMuggs]

Wait.

You got banned for someone else buying you gold?

/evil thoughts come to mind

No his account got banned for buy gold. Some one else was using the account, there is a difference ie those evil thoughts would have to be accompanied with the account info of the targeted person.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Blizzard has pretty decent investigative techniques at their disposal. Likely they were already watching the gold seller's account. The gold transfer was just the final piece they needed, and I bet its standard policy at that point to ban both seller and recipient.

Its unlikely that it was just the one transaction that clinched the bans, it just happened to be the end point of an investigative process. What we don't get to see is all the other data Blizz had gathered on the gold selling account prior to the transaction.

This seems the most likely scenario for me to swallow. People need to understand that gold selling & gold buying are violations of the ToU/EULA, just as much as using any 3rd party software (I don't mean UI mods -- those are internally processed within WoW's framework, not working from the outside in), exploitive UI Mods, or using a powerleveling service. These things get you banned. And Blizzard is very quick with the ban-stick. I would chalk this all up as a big lesson for your son to learn, and possibly require he pays for the new account himself.

Most of it ranged into recording IP addresses. Blizzard though seems to jump to conclusions too early and many people who play on LAN parties and have a network of players going seem to all get the ban if 1 person in that bunch does something illegal.

in the end..... this game this company, its just an immature bunch of dweebs with a bunch of idiotic players on it, WOW is becomming the game that gives MMO's a bad name.

Do you have some sort of angst against WoW? Between this thread and others I've seen, you've been rather markedly negative in your comments about WoW, Blizzard, and even to an extent, those who like to play it.

[rgirty]

My son who plays Wow as well decided to have a brain fade the other day and purchased some gold from a online gold vendor.
Usually that wouldnt worry me as its his problem if he gets caught however he thought as it was his first time he didnt want to jeopardise his account he would send the gold to my account to see if it would work or not.
Well yes it did, Blizzard saw the transaction and has now banned my account.
Not bad considering I didnt do anything wrong myself but I do understand all they saw was a breach and didnt know the full story.
Cant blame them for that.
This all took place only hours after my son checked my mailbox to see if it had worked or not.
Its been 3 days later and 5 emails later to Blizzard trying to explain the situation to them in an attempt to get my account back but not once have they replied.
They were quick to ban but not quite so quick to listen and respond.
I do accept responsibility for giving my son my account details, something I did a long time ago to see if he liked the game before he brought it, so that is my fault for giving out my details although the terms and agreement do say I can do so.
Its just real frustrating that I cant play the game through no immediate fault of my own but even more frustrating when Blizzard wont reply to me one way or another where I have made every effort to contact them.
I also pay for 60 days of gameplay on my prepaid card, I reckon I maybe get 58 days at best will all the downtime to the servers Blizzard does.
Sure its great to have bug fixes and improvements to the game but I'am paying them to do it anyway by paying for the game each month.
When you buy a car you dont get 2 tyres on it, you pay for 4.
So I dont think I'am getting my money's worth out of them either.
I love WoW, I eat,drink,breath and sleep it....its just Blizzard make it really hard at times.

If you read the tos and eula then hit accept you lose the right to complain when the rules are enforced.

They may not be fair, it may not be good. But you agreed to it, thats pretty much the end of the story.

[djiss]

No his account got banned for buy gold. Some one else was using the account, there is a difference ie those evil thoughts would have to be accompanied with the account info of the targeted person.

Yeah but the goldseller don't need to know your account info/password, only the character name where you want them to send the money.

[Fursphere]

No his account got banned for buy gold. Some one else was using the account, there is a difference ie those evil thoughts would have to be accompanied with the account info of the targeted person.

IIRC, The EULA allows a "one" family member to share the account with the other (parent - child). So the "some one else" using his account agrument is grey / fuzzy and doesnt' hold weight in this conversation, since its allowed by Blizzard to begin with.

The OP said his son bought gold, and sent it to his (the parents) account.

Blizzard banned the account that received the gold. When you buy gold, the only thing that happens "in game" is you get the gold mailed to you from some random account. Nothing else "in game" happens. Friend of mine used to buy gold all the time before he quit playing.

So, per the original post, if you receive "bought gold" in WoW mail, and accept it, you risk having your account banned.

That's where the "evil thought" entered my mind. Think its fun to spawn camp me? muhahahaha

[mesonm]

I thought same here... :laughing:

could be a good way to force a friend to "leave" wow... :ponder:

That you actually would do this to someone you call friend boggles the mind...

No his account got banned for buy gold. Some one else was using the account, there is a difference ie those evil thoughts would have to be accompanied with the account info of the targeted person.


Do you make this up?

All someone needs is the name of your toon, and the server he is on.

[DrOsmius]

ah, IMHO, live and learn... All these people that call your son a moron based on the informaiton in this thread are being far to harsh, and I would be offended somebody called my son a moron.

The biggest problem isn't that a young person wanted to cheat in the game, it's that he cheated, but to your account not his own.

Personally, I would discipline my son however I saw fit to make sure he learned his lesson, if that means a week off a wow, or never letting him play again, or taking away car... whatever, that's your job.

Honestly, cheating in a game is a character concern any parent wants to address, but it's not a damning offense. If that's the worst he ever does, you should feel blessed. Beets the heck out of taking your car without permission.

Just my thoughts as a parent.

Barry

I'm gonna echo this too. All kids do dumb things, and learn from them...can any of you throwing stones here claim to have never made some kind of dumb decision like this? I know I can't...

Sounds like it was an excellent opportunity to give your kid a correction you didn't know he needed, and all you lost was some money & a few hours of gaming time to relevel.

[Thumbtack]

This seems the most likely scenario for me to swallow. People need to understand that gold selling & gold buying are violations of the ToU/EULA, just as much as using any 3rd party software (I don't mean UI mods -- those are internally processed within WoW's framework, not working from the outside in), exploitive UI Mods, or using a powerleveling service. These things get you banned. And Blizzard is very quick with the ban-stick. I would chalk this all up as a big lesson for your son to learn, and possibly require he pays for the new account himself.



Do you have some sort of angst against WoW? Between this thread and others I've seen, you've been rather markedly negative in your comments about WoW, Blizzard, and even to an extent, those who like to play it.

Ive never liked Blizzard, plain in simple, this goes back when I was in Diablo II and during that time span Blizz banned several thousand accounts for hacking in the game only to see what they have done was ban mostly straight players and completely left the hackers untouched. Blizzard has a wide array of problems, First off they dont know wtf they doing with a game this big, 2nd off this game has attracted nothing but gold farmers and hackers (funny Counter strike a free game to play online uses VAC which prevents hacking) Then you got WOW $15 a month with no gurantee's. Expansion sucks, plain and simple. No more 40 man raids, yeah so that means less recruiting by guilds, some guilds throw away some players, when its all said in the done, this game has running out of uniqueness, before long everyone is going to have the same thing you worked hard for. But you know where all of this starts? Fires of Heavens and such guilds which has idiots like Furor who influence heavily on what happens in this game, who gets nerfed, how something should be, while they dont completely run the game and make every decision, they are the ones that influence heavily on what goes on, in the end its screwed this game up to another degree, now they going to be on Vanguard, it will be about 2 years and that game will fall at the hands of them.

If people like this game, ok nothing against you, but you will soon learn after a lenghty play time that in the end, its not worth it. Best days of this game was before the Expansion, before the 60-70 grind. All the 60-70 grind was cause class imbalance. Maybe when fires of heaven complains about warlocks is when they get nerfed by blizz.

[Xmcdaniel]

My son is under 18 and yes the rules do say I'am allowed to share my details with one family member, have a look.
You guys are happy when the server goes down and you cant play anymore, wow, thats amazing.
Nothing better to logon and see the server will be down notice looking straight at you.
And yes I do have my own account, well hopefully I still will, and he has his own although without his pc he will struggle to play for awhile.
I average around 4 to 6 hours a day on WoW, I play by the rules and love the game...I dont people to tell me go elsewhere or accuse me of being a gold buyer.
The purpose of my post was to see if anyone else had a similar experience and what was the outcome.
The other purpose was to see if I'am the only person who thinks when I pay for 60 days gameplay I should get 60 days gameplay...at this stage it looks like I'am.
No I havent filled out any online form to Blizzard, to my knowledge they dont have one for the account admin department...the best I can do is email them again and again like I have.
As for phoning them, I dont live in the US and my phone doesnt support international so that wont be happening either.
Does anyone know is it me who is banned or just my character that is banned?
Have I lost my level 50 Paladin but can start a new character or am I just a dead duck?
Does this mean I cant use the serials for my WoW and BC games anymore and they are now just drink coasters or can I create a new account with these numbers and start again if I have to?
Ideally all will be good and I can keep going with my Paladin but its the not knowing whats happening that is killing me.

I'm sorry...but this all sounds really fishy to me. You're saying that you have a kid living in your home who is under 18, happened to purchase gold, and used your account info to transfer the gold, huh? And, on top of that, he thought that he could ask you to transfer the gold to his account?

First of all, how did he purchase the gold? Does he have his own credit card already, even though he's under 18?

Secondly, why in the world would he have it sent you your account. Any number of bad things could have happened, including you not giving him his gold!

There's so many fishy variables here, that I'm lead to believe that you bought the gold yourself and you're trying to convince Blizz that your son did it. Don't hold you breath...I'm sure that Blizz is thinking the exact same thing.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Ive never liked Blizzard, plain in simple, this goes back when I was in Diablo II and during that time span Blizz banned several thousand accounts for hacking in the game only to see what they have done was ban mostly straight players and completely left the hackers untouched. Blizzard has a wide array of problems, First off they dont know wtf they doing with a game this big, 2nd off this game has attracted nothing but gold farmers and hackers (funny Counter strike a free game to play online uses VAC which prevents hacking) Then you got WOW $15 a month with no gurantee's. Expansion sucks, plain and simple. No more 40 man raids, yeah so that means less recruiting by guilds, some guilds throw away some players, when its all said in the done, this game has running out of uniqueness, before long everyone is going to have the same thing you worked hard for. But you know where all of this starts? Fires of Heavens and such guilds which has idiots like Furor who influence heavily on what happens in this game, who gets nerfed, how something should be, while they dont completely run the game and make every decision, they are the ones that influence heavily on what goes on, in the end its screwed this game up to another degree, now they going to be on Vanguard, it will be about 2 years and that game will fall at the hands of them.

Wow, angst anyone? Sheesh, didn't want a wall-of-text dissertation. Minor suggestion -- breaking something like this up into a couple paragraphs would have been nice.

Seriously, FoH hasn't impacted my gameplay in WoW. FoH didn't impact my gameplay in EQ. I've liked Blizzard's games and philosophy since Warcraft: Orcs & Humans forward. I still like what they are doing, and think that they are rather even-handed, and tend to be the most up-front and honest of the gaming companies I've seen yet. So pardon me if I'm going to respectfully disagree with your sentiments here. Pointing to FoH and other guilds like them, what they do, and then blaming Blizzard for it seems rather pointless to me.

If people like this game, ok nothing against you, but you will soon learn after a lenghty play time that in the end, its not worth it. Best days of this game was before the Expansion, before the 60-70 grind. All the 60-70 grind was cause class imbalance. Maybe when fires of heaven complains about warlocks is when they get nerfed by blizz.

Ok, opinionated much? Personally, I loved WoW pre-TBC. I love WoW post-TBC. The expansion did not make it worse for me.

[Fursphere]

If people like this game, ok nothing against you, but you will soon learn after a lenghty play time that in the end, its not worth it. Best days of this game was before the Expansion, before the 60-70 grind. All the 60-70 grind was cause class imbalance. Maybe when fires of heaven complains about warlocks is when they get nerfed by blizz.

Coming from a person that makes the extra effort to go to a WoW specific forum and rant about WoW?

Seriously dude, OCD? Bi-Polar? Both?

[Tanitha]

Ok, opinionated much? Personally, I loved WoW pre-TBC. I love WoW post-TBC. The expansion did not make it worse for me.

That is my impression too. If all I ever get out of TBC is my Blood Elf warlock I'm happy. That's money well spent to me. My advice would be - ignore him. He has a Vanguard fixation and a seeming hatred for Blizzard. Eventually he'll move along and the forum will be for fans once more.

[Thumbtack]

Havent impacted? FOH killed EQ.

Do you think blizz's mishaps, nerfs and buffs in this game is just from them?

FOH is the reason:

Cthun was nerfed
Hunters was nerfed
Shamans stayed over powered (FOH is a horde guild)
Warlocks continue to be over powered

I can go on and on, but that mentioned is souly based on what FOH wanted. They did the same thing in EQ and you see where that game ended up.

[Tanitha]

Havent impacted? FOH killed EQ.

Do you think blizz's mishaps, nerfs and buffs in this game is just from them?

FOH is the reason:

Cthun was nerfed
Hunters was nerfed
Shamans stayed over powered (FOH is a horde guild)
Warlocks continue to be over powered

I can go on and on, but that mentioned is souly based on what FOH wanted. They did the same thing in EQ and you see where that game ended up.

Screenshot or it didn't happen.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Havent impacted? FOH killed EQ.

No, SOE killed EQ. FoH was just along for the ride. FoH isn't on my server, nor are they in my battlegroup. I honestly could care less what that guild does or doesn't do, period. Blizzard doesn't have high-end guild leader summits like SOE did to help guide the course of WoW. Blizzard tends to pay more attention to legitimate concerns from their playerbase. FoH doesn't even account for 0.01% of the playerbase.

Do you think blizz's mishaps, nerfs and buffs in this game is just from them?

Considering how familiar I am with software development, design, and the intense barely-controlled chaos that is known as developing an MMO, I would say there is a lot of ways things can slip up. There isn't exactly a guidebook on how to build a good MMO, and Blizzard's done wonders with WoW. 8,000,000+ players means they are getting something right.

My advice would be - ignore him. He has a Vanguard fixation and a seeming hatred for Blizzard. Eventually he'll move along and the forum will be for fans once more.

Agreed, putting him on ignore right now.

Screenshot or it didn't happen.

No kidding, rofl.

[Thumbtack]

btw how many windrunner goons can everyone summon here to this board?

[Tanitha]

What is a Windrunner Goon? Google is no help. But I'm a Warlock. I can summon pretty much anything. I'll need two to assist though, and you must remember to right-click the portal, okay?

Seriously though dude - from day one your posts have come across with an incredible amount of latent hostility in them. Constructive criticism is one thing but reading your posts make my eyes bleed. If it isn't the Guild Leaders out to get you it's Blizzard. Or the "Windrunner Goons". I know the Felhunter has Paranoia but you might want to think about summoning another pet.

Or - find a game that makes you happy. Getting this worked up over a series of ephemereal pixels is counter productive. You seem to have a love affair with Vanguard. Why not simply wave goodbye to World of Warcraft and play that?

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

I like your style, Tanitha.

[Fursphere]

What is FoH and SoE in regards to EQ?

/never played it

[Valas Azuviir]

:annoyed:

*Polishes the Baka Hammer*

:annoyed:

What is FoH and SoE in regards to EQ?

/never played it

FoH = Fires of Heaven, former raiding guild from EQ. Some of the members are old friends of some of the Blizzard Devs.

SoE = Sony Online Entertainment, owners of EQ. They have a similar role as Blizzard/VU have with WoW.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

What is FoH and SoE in regards to EQ?

/never played it

(mind you, this is an opinionated view of them)

EQ -- EverQuest, a game originally developed by Sony's subsidiary company called Verant Interactive, that got absorbed by Sony, restructured (namely everyone in Verant either quit or was fired and then replaced with people from Sony Corporation), which was rechristened as Sony Online Entertainment, or SOE.

SOE -- the branch of Sony responsible for abyssmal failure after failure in the MMO market. Ran EverQuest to the ground with a 4 - 6 month release schedule on expansions then made EverQuest II, which never caught on nearly as much as SOE was hyping it up to be. An important thing to note is... I want to say that Vanguard has connections to SOE as well.

FoH -- a "high end" guild that started on EverQuest. Was noted for spreading the word of their existence across all EverQuest fansites, in an effort to convince everyone that they were the superior guild. When WoW launched, they moved operations to World of Warcraft. I forgot, and really don't care what server they are on.

[Fursphere]

Thanks for the explanations. I try to stay up on the acronyms... but there are just too many! :)

FoH sounds (imo) like a religous cult... spreading the word... heh

Never heard of them before this, but sounds like it has tires to the Furor & Tigole devs that have been accused of "EQing" WoW in the past. (world of raidquest and all that jazz).

So, what was this thread about again? hehe

[Tanitha]

So, what was this thread about again? hehe

A guy who had his account banned because his son used it to buy gold. There's been some parenting advice and other adds though.

[Valas Azuviir]

An important thing to note is... I want to say that Vanguard has connections to SOE as well.


Co-Publisher from what a quick online scan tells me.
Vanguard was also pushed out the door early, because they ran out of development cash. From what I'm hearing over at GU Comics though, they're quickly playing catch-up with nailing the various bugs which went live.

(Then again, to be fully honest, WoW was pushed out the door too soon as well, but that was VU's doing as opposed to Blizzard not having enough dosh for some more spit and polish work.)

[Aerath]

in the end..... this game this company, its just an immature bunch of dweebs with a bunch of idiotic players on it, WOW is becomming the game that gives MMO's a bad name.

Thank you for refering to yourself here, as I'm sure our users must be unlike what you say here.

Anyway - keep the insults n rants n raving off of these forums.