EPTI guess I have had so many issues with Blizzard lately, that I just have to shout out about it (aka bitch about it).
The whole story begun about a month ago. Normally I would play SC2 everyday and every now and then (could be awhile) I would login for some mindless D3 hacking and slashing.
One beautiful day decided to play some D3, but for more surprise I was treated with "Your account has displayed suspicious activity. You have to reset your password.". Okay, I knew there was issues with hackers in D3 (witch it's kinda assumable in the beginning of most high-interest products". So, after quick confirmation, that I can not login into SC2 either I headed to battle.net to reset my password.
There I was given two choices: use your secret question&answer or enter one of the game codes. After few tries with the secret question/answer it become apparent, that something it's not quite right and it doesn't work. Ok..plan B, here we come. After some digging I found my SC2 cover and used the game key to reset my password.
One would thing at this point my problem is over ... unfortunately, that was just the beginning of a quest, that is as of this moment far from over.
Time to test..heading back to D3..and trying to login again: Account is locked, due to suspicious activity. Hmm...only reasonable options would be:
1. it takes some time for the client to refresh it's database or;
2.the process didn't work as intended for whatever reason.
Since it was already quite late into the night, I kinda just let it be and went to sleep. Next evening it become visable, that probable reason is not...well...the reason, at which point I had to cover reason 2.
Few more successful attempts to reset my password showed, that even I am able to reset my password and login into account management afterwards, every attempt to actually play the game would finish "Your account is locked".
Here is the moment, that it's very important to understand, that once your account is locked you can NOT login into battle.net. Upon entering your password one is forwarded automatically to "Reset your password screen". It's actually impossible to manage your account, create a ticket from within your account or anything else until the "Reset password" process is completed.
At this moment of time I knew there was a bigger issue going on. I headed for battle.net's support, where I was surprised with the lack of obviousness of what my next action.
Another few hours of fight with the ticket system I managed to figured out, that:
1. I can not use the pre-made question as neither of them reflect the essence of my problem;
2. There is no possible way to actually address the correct department/office/person for my problem specifically
3. Any way I try to cheat the site into submitting the information I deem important into explaining what is going on my end of the cable is impossible within the fields and the limitations, they have provided (like ala twitter's max character limit for text fields).
After dealing with this task, witch turned way more complicated then it ever should be I submitted my ticket and started waiting. Btw, as of the moment of writing this, that ticket can not be found on battle.net site. I submitted everything requested, including some dxdiag and other technical information.
The next day I had email in my box with witch the support requested a proof of an identity, with some quick instructions. So far, so reasonable... Afterwards, looked from their perspectives, It must appear pretty shady with all those attempts to reset passwords etc.
And here is where the shit really ht the fan.
I prepared all the information as requested...jpg/png pictures with a word document (as requested) and went back to email to submit the information.
Surprise one: The email has come from "noreply@blizzard.com" with instructions NOT to email back. Ok...reasonable so far. I clicked on the provided link to the ticket on their site, when I was given surprise two: One has to logged into their account in order to respond to the ticket. If you remember correctly, once the "Reset your password" is initiated, one can not do anything else...including responding to tickets.
Hmm...I need a solution... Ok...let's reset the password again, so I can finish the process, login with the new password and submit my proof. Oh well... here come...[b]surprise three{/b]: My account was locked further more and "reset password' process was denied until submitting the proof".
Here is where I kinda hit the wall...Okay let me try some alternatives...
Every attempt to submit a ticket as non-logged user (mind you at this point I can't login to the site) would fail, because blizzard's support site restricts uploading documents and pictures for visitors.
Yeah...right... I had to be logged in, so I can submit the proof, that I am myself, so I can login...
Uhhhhhh?
Needlessly to say, few day have passed already I was becoming pretty agrivated at the situation in hand. Few message to the Blizzard EU account on twitter went into deep silence. Only option left after hours of browsing the support site, revealed that the only option left is phone support.
So, if you don't actually speak English or any of the languages that the support covers you are fucked at this point.. Alright, I do speak English, let's go call that support. Blizzard has a free skype support in the UK and the number is on their site. It's not easy to find, but with some persistence and swearing I managed to get to it.
After I finally managed to get to speak with the Representative and I explained my inability to submit the requested informaion I was given the following instructions:
READ THIS CAREFULLY:
Option one:
- Go to the support site;
-Create a ticket to remove you authenticator, which I don't have
- that was the system will allow you to submit pictures]
Option two:
-Register with different username, so you would be able to post on the forums about your problem.
It appears that even their employees know the shit ain't right...
Ok...since I don't really have a choice, let's try option one. Nevertheless, back in the real life I am a military officer and I have never ever be ashamed of my name. Even the very basic action of registering as somebody else It's against the honor system I have choose to live my life by and for this was unacceptable choice. It's not the right choice anyway, regardless of who am I and what I do. That's the only option I haven't tried yet.
Anyway back to problem at hand. It turned out that task cna no be completed through "Remove authenticator" feature on battle.net. The text fields are with such gross limitations of how many characters I may use and the size of the documents I can upload actually makes impossible submitting any relevant amount of information. Like try to explain your issues within 22 characters and 10kb of documents - I really don't remmeber the exact figures, but they are not of importance anyway.
So.....what's next...I guess back to the support. After another hour trying to get back to the skype support, I was barely holding my nerves. When I get to talk to her and explained that impossible to cheat the system in her way I got the above mentioned option two thrown at my face again. Since I don't want this option and it has been few very fruitless days I simply told her, that it's apparent, that doesn't have the abilities to help me I need to speak with somebody who can...like her manager.
A very short "Wait a second to look into your account" announced a sudden change in the climate.
(Not sure what she was looking at when she was talking with me right before that.)
Oh boy....does magic exist? Withing 5 minutes I was aware how exactly I have misspelled my secret Q&A and according to this lady in question, she had placed a special marker on my account, so the next two weeks, the system won't think I am cheater.
Everything went back normal. I was thinking what I can do on my side to prevent further issues of this sort. So with my account restored I submitted a ticket to change my secret Q&A to what it should be, instead of the misspelled version on record.
Let's just say, that they hit me back with "You must change your question and answer". Whatever, I simply don't have the nerves to deal with blizzard any longer...don't really care, as long as I just can play the game.
Few days later, I recieved another email from Blizzard:
Dear Yavor Behar,
The status of your Customer Support ticket #29456594 has changed to “Resolved.”
You can view your ticket details or check its status by clicking the link below:
<http://eu.battle.net/support/ticket/thread/29456594>
If you can’t click the link above, copy and paste the entire URL into your browser.
This is the latest response from Customer Support:
Hail and Well Met, *bows*
o()xxxx[{::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::> <::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::} ]xxxx()
Thank you for contacting Blizzard Entertainment regarding this. I apologize for the wait, we are experiencing a larger than normal ticket volume.
I had a chance to go over the issue here and I think I can help. I see that you are having issues with not being able to log in due to your password being incorrect when we know it is not. This has been a problem recently, we have found a quick fix though. What we will need to do here is change you email address. Please list the email you wish to post on your account in the replying ticket.
If you have any additional questions or concerns please reply to this ticket.If you would rather speak with a representative directly, please contact Account & Technical Services. Our contact information can be found at http://blizzard.com/support/article/cs.
Sincerely,
David N.
Account & Technical Services
Blizzard Entertainment
Allright...here is something that (perhaps) needs some explanation. My email is very old. It was created long, long time ago..Think BBS times. Back in days I used to barely know few English words. So, my email contains the word "darky" in itself. Now, nowadays I know this word is not quite "politcaly correct", but back in the days that used to be my nickname, as myself and my friends used it in the most literate way - I used to dress in black only. Now I am aware of the possible confusion, although never really cared to fix it. IMO, people, who might get offended from such a thing most likely have other issues with me.
So, I came to the only possible conclusion from this mess: That the system has started picking my email as "bad" and it wouldn't let me log in no matter what. In such light the request seem logical - it's more practical to change few people's emails, rather than the system. Or at very least that's what corporate logic dictates.
I would give you the fact, if my theory is correct, then perhaps there is some fault to be found in myself for inappropriate email address. Although, really a leap of imagination is needed.
So without saying a word, I complied: Using the misspelled Secret Q&A, I changed the email address associated with my account, to something that can not possibly be offensive under any circumstances. Oh, and by the way - had to change the password again.
So now we are at the stage of no more problems, everything works etc. Another few days later all open tickets were marked as "Resolved". So You may think my problems end here...Big, big misconception.
I don't really care , but the sake of chronology, let's assume a month has passed by. Couple days ago I realized I haven't played Diablo3 and the last time I tryed I got in this whole mess. (I haven't even tryed to play since).
This time, remembering the issues I had the last time, I had prepared myself with a simple trick -
went to battle.net and logged in IN ADVANCE on the site, before ever trying to login inside the game client. The idea of this is rather simple and it lays upon something I noticed the last time. There is a bug, which allows authenticated users to stay on the site forever, regardless if their status has meanwhile changed.
So, when I tryed to authenticate in game and got "You account is locked. Reset your password", just went back to my browser and submitted a ticket, because I was still logged in on the site.
Let's the cut the story short. From this point on, it includes:
-A lot of different attempts to explain the issue in hand. Not just mine, but the bigger issue as well.
-Some misc. CAPS LOCK.
-Few tickets back and forth.
-Another few fruitless explantions, that If I had not logged onto the site in advance, I won't ever have the ability to actually to respond to those tickets.
-This picture was refused on the ground of not enough resolution. Mind you the version I uploaded to Blizzard had nothing covered.I have left my names in Bulgarian clean. You decide if you'd be able to read the English text as well (now covered).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/aM857.jpg)
At this point, (and since I submitted a new picture, which by itself was a tricky business - in the end I don't have professional equipment on hand at home), I have given hope.
Yes, that is correct - If it doesn't work for whatever reason, I see no way to save my account from here on now.
I guess, I would just have to buy all the games AGAIN and play under fake name/account. Furthermore, I guess, I am done with "online only experience, for your own safety and protection".
If you had the patience, to reach to here, congratulations - you are more patient than me, even if I wrote it. I feel the same way - way too much for something that shouldn't be there to begin with.
---------------
TL,DR: No short version for you, naughty cheater
/edit:
Update 1:
I forgot to mention, that I haven't turn my PC off for the last 4 days. And I have been extremely careful no to close browser.
If I (even unintentionally) log off from battle.net I won't be able to respond to the emails. Which means I would be simply fucked.
Hey If electricity stops right now...even for a sec...I am ...simply fucked.
/Update 2:
Account is locked again! If only curses would help.
/Update 3:
After few more conversations and chronological order:
- Advice to be careful about dynamic IP. Replied back, that I am on static I have never logged fron anywhere else.
- Demand from Blizzard to attach Authernticator to my account:
Hello,
Thank you for your ticket regarding the account locks.
I am sorry how you feel about the whole situation and our security system.
Unfortunately the only way you can prevent the locks is to add a token to the account, I am sorry but this is the only way for you to solve the issue.
Should you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Best regards,
Bo M.
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment Europe
http://eu.blizzard.com/support
-Turned this down for the obvious reasons.
Whoever called this the bad end of customer support, I disagree. This is the worst support I have ever had to deal with in my life.
