When can I have my account back

[vampirechris]

Hi, I have around 1 year experience playing FFXI and both me and my wife enjoying it so much... unfortunately, my account was stolen by someone since 25-26 Dec 2008, I have filled in the FFXI data recovery form + photo ID and email to them in this 2 months, I tried email and fax many times, until now (Feburbery) , I receive no reply from them. I have already wasted 2 months monthly fee for nothing. I tried many times to asked for the help from the operator through online-chat service, and all of them just ask me to wait... and the funny is, when I asked can they contact the investigation team to see wheather they received my email or fax, they reply me as "sorry, this is not possible" ..... I also tried ring them, and they saying the same thing... ask me to wait for the email from the investigation team...

I have no idea why they cannot contact the investigation team and did they really need to speed 2 months to process my request? I DO NOT believe that those operators can't contact with S.E. staff, this doesn't make any sense...

I lose all hopes of seeking help from S.E. because both online chat operator and phone support are the same group of people. All I want to know is my email or fax has sent to the investigation team successfully no matter they start processing my request or not. Could anyone please share me some idea about what can I do? Thanks in advance.

By the way, since I am living in Australia, I can't really goto S.E. office and launch complain...

[Balfree]

Re: When can I have my account back

This happened with me.

Well not really me... a friend of mine who asked for my help after he was hacked and moved to another server.

He has a US account and he lives in Kuwait, so the timezone was not compatible... it was hard to communicate with SE for him so I offered to help since my timezone was more compatible.

It took almost 2 months of back and forth communication with SE through the live chat and faxing.

I had to send the fax THREE TIMES with his personal information... the first one was "illegible", the second one "never arrived", the third one finally made the cut when I mentioned that I was getting tired of the whole thing.

I found out that SE is NOT their customer service. Their customer service is basically at the hands of their employees and if they're in a good mood, they'll help you.

On the day we got the account back, I contacted them trying to find out if the third fax had been successfully received by them and if all the information was properly provided... the lady was incredibly rude and said something along the lines of "we can't actually tell that until we receive the fax" and at this point I'm flinging shit around like a crazed monkey and ask her to ... go check it or something because it's been a month already how hard can it be to go check the damn fax machine!... eventually she pulls the plug on me saying I have to just keep waiting.

I was infuriated o.o;

I opened up the chat thing again and this time it's a guy... I repeat the whole conversation again... but this guy was like "sure, let me check if we got the fax..." and right there in that moment after not even a minute had passed ... he confirmed that they had the fax and that the information was completely legible and valid and that he would give me the account in a minute and that he would move the character back to the original server.

I know a company is responsible for their customer service but when you're dealing with people that are just not doing their job responsibly ... it's not always the fault of the company... what you have to do is report those occurrences and I'm sure they will deal with it.

In any case... keep trying... if the account is important to you... just keep trying to contact them everyday through the live chat, keep pestering them and you will most likely get your stuff back. You have to take a more aggressive stance when talking with them without going overboard obviously.

It is worth mentioning that they DID take a month and a half to investigate the situation and that is probably absolutely necessary because its probably hard to track if its a scam or the real thing...

[TheGrandMom]

Re: When can I have my account back

Persistence is the key to success. Be firm but gracious and contact them religiously. It's hard not to lose your temper but try not to. Don't say nasty words or use a accusatory tone.

All of that also applies to dealing with insurance companies, doctors, etc. because if you think SE is bad, wait until you have to start going through other issues.

[vampirechris]

Re: When can I have my account back

Thanks so much for the replies. By the way, I would like to confirm the fax number, because email seems never work, since I am living in Australia, I used

0015 1 310 356 3833

as the fax number, just wondering did I put in the right one?

Thanks in advance.
______________________________

This happened with me...

I am absolutely agreed with you that the lady you mentioned have a very very bad manner... she just doesn't any patience against your question... many of my friends also not happy when dealing with her... and the lady we all complaining about was the same person called "SEI POL Melanie R" ... all of us is very pissed of her but we can't do anything to complain her bad attitude... even we complain her throguh the customer service feedback form, she still works as the same way. I doubt that there's no one read the feedback form actually. Is it all good staffs from FFXI went to work for WOW ?

On the hand, i would like to put some credit for the guy that you mentioned. Last time when I chat to him through web chat, although he told me that there's no update against my account, he "speaks" in a very good attitude and give me a some suggestions instead of just ask me to wait.

[ospeff]

Re: When can I have my account back

How was it stolen? Did you have a keylogger or spyware on your PC? Was your password simple? Like no mix of capitals/lowercase/numbers ?

[Omniblast]

Re: When can I have my account back

You said that your credit card is still being charged?!?!?

Have you tried to threaten them with a charge back?
Call your credit card company and tell them that you no longer have access to this account and that your information was stolen from you while they were still charging for your account services.

That should get SE's attention.

Money always talks.

[vampirechris]

Re: When can I have my account back

How was it stolen? Did you have a keylogger or spyware on your PC? Was your password simple? Like no mix of capitals/lowercase/numbers ?

My password is quite complex and I have installed Norton Antivirus... but my friends told me that it's because norton antivirus won't block adware/spyware, I have to install ZoneAlarm or any Anti-Malware program... maybe that is why my account password was stolen... Also, I have "auto-save" my password and I think this password was stored somewhere on my PC and the spyware "stole" it...

Following my friend's instructions, I have formatted my PC, install both antivirus and anti malware program, and NOT auto save my password + use MOUSE to input the password instead of keyboard input.
______________________________

You said that your credit card is still being charged?!?!?

Have you tried to threaten them with a charge back?
Call your credit card company and tell them that you no longer have access to this account and that your information was stolen from you while they were still charging for your account services.

That should get SE's attention.

Money always talks.

Actually, they have locked up my user account since I reported my account was stolen and they required me to send them a FFXI data recovery form + photo ID, although I tried many times in these 1 and half months, everytime the operator from web chat service told me that they didn't receive any of them. So, what I really pissed is they keep charging the monthly fee while didn't telling you they are processing or not.

So, which means if they not solving their email account/fax machine, I have to keep paying the money... who know? Because the damn operator just said they can't contact to the department that maintain email account and fax machine.