3 days ago (on a saturday no less

) I opened my launcher and entered my user name and password only to get a little message in the bottom stating that my account had been disabled.
I don't know how but I am guessing that my account somehow got TRIBBLE. I am quite good at IT so I know what to open and what not to open. I do sometimes check and I have no viruses, spyware or malware.
This is annoying of course... but not quite as annoying as not getting an e-mail about my account beeing banned or why it was banned. So far the only word I have recieved from Cryptic is an automated response e-mail from billing support.
Billing support is the only ones I could contact because I could not log into the webpage either or recieve a new password for my cryptic account!
When I try to get a new password I get a message saying "mail could not be sent. Please contact site admin"
It looks like I have been totally locked down.
This is a second account I had to make, just to write on the forum.
I really like this game, but all I have ever done is pay for the game! and yet I can't even get one e-mail telling me the reason why I have been banned.
I know it is a snowballs chance in a very hot place that someone from cryptic sees this or does something about it, but right now it seems like a better chance than wait for customer support.
Comments
This was a sidenote however..
From many years of experience playing MMO's, there are two golden rules when it comes to banning accounts Cryptic..
1. Let ppl know why they have been banned and option them a way of support, have they had their accounts TRIBBLE or alike..
2. DONT ban ppl AT ALL, if you don't have the manpower and the speed to adress issues of ppl who have been wronfully banned or had their accounts TRIBBLE!
Simple really.. it's called customer service..
Considering my account maybe in the hands of a goldseller who uses my name to spam chats or someone ripping me off, I would actually prefer them to ban my account.
In case that happens though, all I really care about is knowing what is going on!
Not beeing able to play a brand new game I pay for is bad enough, but I have absolutely no idea about the state of my characters that I spent a lot of time to build, what the heck happened to get me banned or an ETA on a possible solution.
I just don't understand why there isn't an automated e-mail system if you get banned, stating what described above. I know you are busy with a new game, but problems like this is very bad.
On the bright side though, at least I haven't been playing for several months.
Do not try and throw out accusations, when you dont know what their policies are.
If you want to contact cryptic, you will need to call one of the following numbers. they will NOT discuss account actions on the forums.
(USA)
+1-408-404-1714
(UK)
0870 490 0617
I'm sorry to hear about this. Keep in mind that if someone else got ahold of your account details they can easily change the email that these warnings would have gone to. So please, don't blame Cryptic.
I wont go as far as blaming you; but what virus scanning malware scanning software are you using?
World of Warcraft had a mass account hackage at one time; an information site sold add space to a hacker and anytime someone moused over the add it started a keylogger; then if you logged into the game while the site was open you were done.
Unfortunately you will need to wait patiently; took me over 2 weeks for my WoW account to be reenabled when that happened.
Accusations sounds a bit harsh, don't you think?
I think there is a valid point to this kind of debate. If ppl get hit by keyloggers or such, there needs to be an easy option for redeeming your account, a safteynet if you will, instead of you also being locked out of the forum and the webpage in general, especially the "support" part of the page.
All it lets you do really, is send an un-subscribed ticked, not bound to your "account", and we all know where those kinds of tickets go?
Buttom of the pile.. :P
So really, in this guys case, there's little hope of a valid time-line to when he'll be able to play again..
Fair to say, that that just isn't good enough?
I myself got keylogget playing wow on my 2. year, and not that Im trying to credit Blizzard in that situation at all. It took them about 2 weeks to fully review and restore my account as well, tho I had acces to it after 4 days, yet, at least they had fairly good options for reporting the issue and knowing the issue would be handled, unlike here unfortunatly.
I guess it's all a matter of opinion, yet I tend to feel, that the greatest feat of a gaming-company as Cryptic or any other, is to make the player feel safe, even in cases like this.
If you think it's an accusation when I write that they haven't contacted me in any way, I might not have been clear enough that I sent a ticked to billing support as soon as I found out what had happened. That one is on me.
It is true that my e-mail could have been changed but I would imagine that 3 days should be enough to answer back at such a serious issue. Even in a ticket.
True I hadn't seen those phone numbers, but should it really be nessesary to call them? It would be quite expensive from my country.
These were my thoughts exactly.
I can't help to think that in most cases, you get an email sent to the old email account had you changed it to a new one, just not sure if this happens on the Cryptic webpage? Would be adviced for reasons like this tho.
Well it took me much searching to find the appropriate channels at Blizzard to even start the 2 week proceedure of getting my World of Warcraft account back. The OP's best bet is to contact billing support at Cryptic, just like Tedgp123 mentions.
There has always been an easy solution to this. Allow the end-user to lock down their accounts to IP or MAC addresses.
Basically when you activate the account it looks at both on that computer and adds them to your registered list. Then it allows you to add more or partials to the list if needed.
This will restrict account hacks down to being on the ISP level instead of world wide level then.
I've made this suggestion to Blizzard and SOE, and both rather sale you those keyfobs than make your account safer.
I don't believe that I am invulnerable to this stuff (almost seem to be proven now ), but I do only visit pages I trust and as you can see with my track record, it has served me well so far.
There must be a keylogger somewhere in my system that hasn't been included in the programs yet.
I will try different programs to see if any of those can find anything
I was banned once from Facebook without explanation after years of use. I didn't do anything new or different, and I just signed up again under another e-mail and never had another issue years later.
I lost all my account information is that 5 minute ban.
I feel your pain,
Unless of course your a Digital Product Pirate spamming me with Energy Credit Sales...
Keep in mind that a keylogger can be embedded in add space on websites. I typically wont log into anything with a website open that is not directly associated with that software I'm using.
Try www.microsoft.com/security_essentials
Good Luck and hopefully you will have you account back asap!
Except in the contract that you sign, you fully agree that they can ban you for anything at anytime. A notice why is purely a courtesy that they dont need to make. It sucks, but thats MMO rules for ya.
Cryptic is more than willing to discuss the action with him, and him alone. They will get this sorted out; just going to take time since their support representative are backlogged at the moment.
1. You make it seem like it's a new idea, brilliantly crafted by Tedgp123, to contact Cryptic's billing department. It's not. Pharal mentioned in his original message that he had already contacted them.
2. I can't speak for "SOE" (I don't even know who that is), but Blizzard most definitely would not rather sell you a mobile authenticator. Blizzard knows that in the long run, it's cheaper to offer an additional layer of security that is practically unbreakable and can be used anywhere, on any computer. They charge a very small fee to cover the cost of authenticators that cost them money to make and distribute (the physical keyfob ones) and they give away for free the ones they can make and distribute for free (the software versions for mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and probably some others now as well). I don't know much about hacking and cracking but I do know that a client computer's IP address can be faked or spoofed, but it seems to me it'd be much, much more difficult to get around the authenticator code.
Oh I am fullly aware they have the RIGHT to ban you for any reason at anytime, but that ability is to prevent legaleese fluent Pirates from wiggling their way around bans. Though the occasional wrongful ban does occur and it is important for correspond with someone who feels they are banned without reason.
I'm not accusing Cryptic of not being communicative like that, I have no idea, I've never been in that situation with them and this is the first time I've heard of anyone being banned and complaining about it. My personal experiences with Cryptic amount to supportive help; Provided they aren't swamped with work and unable to get to me. heh.
Your facts are correct. Now please allow me to explain what they mean. The type of customer service you are describing is, "We make this product that you want to use and we will have full control over it and how you interact with it, and we will do anything we want, at any time, for any reason, just because we feel like it, because we can."
Let me remind you of another type of customer service: "The customer is always right."
Some companies fail, and some companies succeed. Care to guess which customer service model is more often subscribed to by those that fail? Care to guess which customer service model is more often subscribed to by those that succeed?
The point here is now whether or not Facebook or Cryptic or anyone else had the right to do what they did. We all know they had the right. No, I believe the real point here is that people, whether they get banned from Facebook or from this game or some other game or whatever, they just want to know WHY. If it's something that wasn't their fault, they want the ban reversed, and they want to learn how to help prevent it from happening again, such as if their account was TRIBBLE or whatever. If it was their fault, they want to know what it was they did wrong, so when they make another account and come back later, they don't make the same mistake again. Nobody can learn from their mistakes if they don't know what their mistakes are. Humans are curious and will always want to know why. Finally, even though the service provider may have the right to ban someone at any time for any (or even no) reason, don't forget that the banned person also has the right to complain about it as loudly as they want and demand answers and justification. They might not get it, but they do have the right to demand it.
Well... I wouldn't go THAT far. heh.
1. Cryptic can ban at any point they like, without any reason or aparent motive whatsoever!
2. Banning like this will bring many, loud and unsatisfied customers.
3. In MMO's, keeping the loud angry mob at a minimal is always a good thing, not always possible, yet, a thing to aim for.
4. A happy customer can usually be found by; customer service. At least it will keep the customer bound to the product longer than if you lack the same.
5. It is therefor in both Cryptics and the customers best interest, to let the customer know WHY, and allow an easy option to reverse this, should a wrongful ban (ban due to hack or such) be the reason.
By easy I mean, a way to reverse, by giving specific info, only the real owner of the account will have, or so.
Im sure Cryptic aims for the best possible service, and have not put the OP in this situation by purpose, yet, the dropped the ball bad connecting the "support" and the "forum" part of STO to the in-game account, thereby shutting a banned customer out completely.. :P
In actual practice, it's not really a literal rule, it's more of a philosophy. For it to work, the service provider needs to understand that the customer gives the provider money in exchange for a service, and if the service is not delivered to the customer's expectations, the money will stop coming in. (In the case of something like Facebook, the money doesn't come directly from the customer, but if the customers go away, so too will the advertising dollars.) Once the service provider understand that, then the philosophy of "the customer is always right" is meant to get the provider to consider service from the customer's point of view. The point is for the service provider to analyze whether an action (or lack of action) will result in the customer continuing to give him money.
Obviouslly, there's a lot more to it than that, because of course it can happen that the cost of keeping the customer willing to pay for a service is more than the customer is actually paying for the service. Even then, it is sometimes in the best interest to keep the customer happy than to let him go.
I don't care about gear or the money I had... I can get standard gear and start over. Money isn't the big problem in this game but the time I have spent on building my character can never be replaced.
I must say that never in any game...ever... have I tried waiting 5 days for help.
Spoken as a true consumer and not someone who has ever worked in any kind of service capacity.
The customer often an uninformed, spoiled, litigious brat with entitlement issues. This mistaken belief that the customer is always right only perpetuates that kind of behavior.
After being abused by the average customer for over 15 years, I now sit in a cubicle and fix computer problems -- for the most part remotely. It's a breath of fresh air!
I'm not saying ALL people are like this, but I'm more than willing to say that MANY are rude, obnoxious and occasionally abusive (sometimes physically).
You could not be more wrong.
I worked for about ten years as a fast-food restaurant manager, and aside from those years in management, almost all the jobs I've ever had have involved face-to-face interaction with customers. (I'm 34 years old.)
Do not get me wrong. I was not speaking from a customer's point of view, whining, "Wah wah wah, I'm a paying customer so I should get whatever I want and you should bend over and smile when I stick it to you." Please read the rest of what I said in that message.
As a manager and customer service provider, I know "the customer is always right" is not something to be taken as literal, that whatever the customer says, goes, and that we give them whatever they ask for. No, as I said before, it's a philosophy meant improve the way service providers interact with their customers.
As a former customer service provider and manager, I know all to well that the customer usually isn't right, just as you've said. But "the customer is always right" is meant to help us deal with a "uninformed, spoiled, litigious brat with entitlement issues" in a way that is mutually beneficial.
So tell me, when a customer comes up to you and says, "Hey, you guys just did something really stupid. You really screwed this up and I'm very angry about it," what is your response? A customer service provider who does not take to heart the philosophy of "the customer is always right" can very easily say, "Well, that's the way we do it here, because this is our store [or our service, our restaurant, or whatever], we own it, and we'll do it any way we want to because we can and we feel like it." On the other hand, a customer service provider who understands and embraces the philosophy of "the customer is always right" will respond, "I'm very sorry to hear that. Please, tell me what it was you wanted, and tell me how we failed to live up to your expectations. I'm sure it was just a simple error on our part that we can easily solve if we work together to get you want."
Contempt begets contempt. If you go with the first response, you **** off the customer, then they begin to make unreasonable demands and get belligerent. If you go with the second response, most customers will, in my experience, see you are trying to be reasonable, and will respond in kind.
What happens after that is the beauty of "the customer is always right". Suppose the customer is actually wrong. Suppose the customer asked for a crunchy taco, and the customer gets a crunchy taco. Then the customer comes at you and says, "Hey, I asked for a soft taco, what is this TRIBBLE?" If you say, "Well, you asked for a crunchy taco so that's what you got. Now I guess I'll have to make you a soft taco, and throw away this crunchy one you asked for, because that's the owner's policy, just replace any item some dumbass customer says is wrong, even if we know it's what they asked for. It's people like you that cause us to lose money...etc., etc., etc.," even though you wind up giving the customer the soft taco that he says (wrongly) that he asked for, does he leave happy? No. On the other hand, suppose your response is, "I'm sorry, I'll get you your soft taco as quickly as possible. Here, have a bag of cinnamon twists on us for your inconvenience," will that customer leave happy? Yes. Even though you knew he was wrong, even though you gave away another food item, a customer that leaves happy is always a profitable experience First of all, the 89-cent cost of a taco is enough to be able to give out two tacos and a cinnamon twists and still have about 40 cents left over, trust me, I was in management at Taco Bell and know their profit margins. Profit margin notwithstanding, the real profit comes from the way the customer leaves. A customer that leaves angry will tell ten people he knows about the horrible customer service he just experienced at the hands of stupid, incompetent jackasses. Neither that customer, nor most of those ten people, are likely to visit your restaurant any time soon. On the other hand, the customer that leaves happy will tell a few people (not as many as ten) about how you accidentally gave him the wrong kind of taco at first, but how you graciously, quickly, and politely fixed the problem, about how everyone in that restaurant is always so nice and it's always so clean there, etc. Do you see the difference? You may have lost a few cents on some food, but the transaction itself was still profitable, and not only that, but you've made the customer want to come back, and even better, might brings some new business with him, too.
Now keep in mind that all of this is not a direct response to anything that Cryptic is doing, that I know of. My response was originally to someone who suggested or implied that Cryptic should follow the "it's our game, if you don't like it, move along" customer service model in response to the original poster's complaint. All of this is meant to educate the person who wrote that response on the fallacy of that customer service model, to illustrate why it fails, and to show why "the customer is always right" philosophy is better, even if we who have worked in customer service know it's not literally true and is more often wrong than right.
Lol i'd love to know who died and made you king