Curse

Mr Corpser · Nov 03, 2009, 04:02 PM // 16:02

well i currently reside in germany so guildwars is really my only source of entertainment

and yes i knew they were not in thier offics

flammanga · Nov 03, 2009, 04:18 PM // 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Corpser

well i currently reside in germany so guildwars is really my only source of entertainment

and yes i knew they were not in thier offics

as your western neighbour i can agnolage that GW is the germans only source of entertainment is GW.
Lckily in Holland we have pot and shrooms.

All the crazy things aside my account also has been blocked, probly cause of sharing a creditcard with my girlfriend who has 2 acoounts and a lot of expansions.
the crazy thing is that i haent been blocked at the first of november, but just today (the third).

I really hope this is fixed real quick, cause a. i cant play guildwars and b. its real bad for arenanet to have such bad commentaries about buying addons.

Even when this is fixed, im going to be very suspicious about adding anything on.

i thought, cause of having to many 100k+ things, stacks of goodies and mats that a few storagepanes would help, but most certainly ill just (if this is fixed) sell all my expensive crap, and just stack up ectos, to make sure i have enough storagespace

ForgetAboutIt · Nov 03, 2009, 04:25 PM // 16:25

I'm still waiting. No emails since that last one I posted yesterday. Someone posted on here an email they got from someone named "Flip" that I still haven't gotten. It's definitely a slow process.

There are several things about this situation that are just wrong. One thing I'd like to point out that I don't think has been pointed out yet is that one of the posts said they have to modify each of the keys manually. As a former programmer, a flag is just a single bit that is set somewhere, and it's amazingly simple and easy to change it from a 1 to a 0. Even if you have to pull an entire string of bytes into a register to do it, registers work at the full speed of the cpu, so how many millions of keys could be flipped from odd to even in a single tick of the clock?

It's hard to believe that these databases can't have queries run against them that would perform the necessary arithmetic or logical modifications to the data in seconds. Seriously, if keys can be flagged in an instant, it can be reversed in the same amount of time. The worst case should be that someone has to write a query to do it, which shouldn't take more than a few minutes or they shouldn't have a job working with databases.

I don't mean to bash them, but it does seem rather ridiculous that it takes this long to undo something that was done in a matter of seconds.

Lensor · Nov 03, 2009, 04:56 PM // 16:56

I suppose they have to go through each one manually to make *really really sure* that they deserve the un-ban.

Honestly though, would it not be the more customer friendly way to do it to just just flip-of-the-switch un-ban *everyone* banned over the weekend, and then take their jolly time to manually re-ban the ones who actually did deserve a ban in the first place?

coreyrm21 · Nov 03, 2009, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lensor

I suppose they have to go through each one manually to make *really really sure* that they deserve the un-ban.

Honestly though, would it not be the more customer friendly way to do it to just just flip-of-the-switch un-ban *everyone* banned over the weekend, and then take their jolly time to manually re-ban the ones who actually did deserve a ban in the first place?

my thoughts exactly, how many actual payment frauds could there have been in the one or two days this happened. Instead of eating all the free upgrades there giving out for this taking so long, could have just unbanned everyone, still charged us. and eaten whatever fraud actually happened and re banned those people after they've gone through everything.

I'd much rather of had my account back two days ago then have to wait and get a $7 refund for the storage pane purchase that caused this all

ForgetAboutIt · Nov 03, 2009, 05:57 PM // 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreyrm21

my thoughts exactly, how many actual payment frauds could there have been in the one or two days this happened. Instead of eating all the free upgrades there giving out for this taking so long, could have just unbanned everyone, still charged us. and eaten whatever fraud actually happened and re banned those people after they've gone through everything.

I'd much rather of had my account back two days ago then have to wait and get a $7 refund for the storage pane purchase that caused this all

Hey now, speak for yourself! My purchase was 4 Xunlai storage panes and 5 skill unlock packs to the tune of $79.91! I'm rather glad to get it for free!

Like they told me on the phone, I'm a very valued customer!

coreyrm21 · Nov 03, 2009, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForgetAboutIt

Hey now, speak for yourself! My purchase was 4 Xunlai storage panes and 5 skill unlock packs to the tune of $79.91! I'm rather glad to get it for free!

Like they told me on the phone, I'm a very valued customer!

I spent $30 in total, but most are probably just getting 7 from a storage pane. I'd still rather of had my account back two days ago then $30 refund.

The fact our purchases are so high, only proves my point even more.. How much actual fraud could there have been compared to how much money they are going to be refunding? just un-flag all the accounts that were flagged during the problem from the in-game store and then go through to re ban actual problems.
Why should you have to sit on hold for an hour to be told your a valued customer lol, thats crap imo

I'm mostly just annoyed the only response I've actually gotten from them without having to search through wiki or on these forums, is Lance is researching the issue. Which I've found out was just a mass email they sent to everyone that is having the same problem. Never has there been an official answer from anet, ncsoft or support about what is going on. Why should we have to search through forums to find out it is being worked on to be fixed?

Bled4dayz · Nov 03, 2009, 07:16 PM // 19:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreyrm21

my thoughts exactly, how many actual payment frauds could there have been in the one or two days this happened. Instead of eating all the free upgrades there giving out for this taking so long, could have just unbanned everyone, still charged us. and eaten whatever fraud actually happened and re banned those people after they've gone through everything.

I'd much rather of had my account back two days ago then have to wait and get a $7 refund for the storage pane purchase that caused this all

I'd rather of had my account than the free $10 also.

Like I said before they should be giving you more than just your money back, because I got banned with 2 days of Halloween left...now I would have to wait till next year Halloween. I think that is worth more than your money back for missing a event when the problem was on their end.

Nemo the Capitalist · Nov 03, 2009, 07:27 PM // 19:27

Yet another reason Why I am glad i took a few months break from Guildwars : My CRACK and replaced it with women. Better and real. Although I do miss alliance faction grinding

johnleonard1979 · Nov 03, 2009, 07:32 PM // 19:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by coreyrm21

The fact our purchases are so high, only proves my point even more.. How much actual fraud could there have been compared to how much money they are going to be refunding? just un-flag all the accounts that were flagged during the problem from the in-game store and then go through to re ban actual problems.
Why should you have to sit on hold for an hour to be told your a valued customer lol, thats crap imo

I'm mostly just annoyed the only response I've actually gotten from them without having to search through wiki or on these forums, is Lance is researching the issue. Which I've found out was just a mass email they sent to everyone that is having the same problem. Never has there been an official answer from anet, ncsoft or support about what is going on. Why should we have to search through forums to find out it is being worked on to be fixed?

Not to mention the amount of people that are likely to never use the in-game store again due to this mistake, or the people who aren't posting in this forum that have officially passed their boiling point and given up on Guild Wars altogether now.

I think this might be the reason ArenaNet hasn't posted anything about this issue on the log-in announcements page. They don't want word to get out to everyone else that this kind of thing could possibly happen to them. It feels like they are trying to isolate this incident to the Guild Wars Guru forums, since it's the only well-known place we can vent and talk about it publicly.

When their accounts got banned two days ago, I will still a great supporter of ArenaNet (I'm always telling people how awesome it is that they host holiday festivities and weekend events), and I told my friends that the actual incident doesn't reflect upon ArenaNet as much as how they respond to it is going to. Well, they have responded to it terribly.

One of the people whose accounts has been terminated is my mother, and she is in her 70s. Guild Wars is the only game she plays anymore. She might not understand the full dynamic of weapon upgrades and PvP battles, but she loves waking up in the morning to sit in front of her computer and kill monsters with her giant hammer. To her, the game is more than just a liesurely way to kill time, as she probably has more hours logged into the game than most of the people on this forum, even if she's not an elite player.

If it weren't for me Googling this situation and stumbling across this very thread, she would have no idea what this situation is all about. She would simply stare at the screen informing her that her account has been permanently terminated and her heart would sink into her stomach because all of the effort she's put into the game has been lost without reason.

Absolute shame on you, ArenaNet ... for not even offering a public explanation to those affected people who don't use Guild Wars Guru.

Despite your fanboys and supporters who believe you can do no wrong, your reputation as a well-respected developer has dropped to the near bottom of the list in my book.

I am going to pass up Guild Wars 2 in favor of Star Trek Online.

Edit: I know I am going to take some flame for being the negative voice of reason now, but please keep in mind that this is my personal opinion. I am entitled to it and I somehow doubt I am the only person here who shares it.

AngelWJedi · Nov 03, 2009, 08:01 PM // 20:01

i am on the fence about anet. part of me is mad they slammed the hammer down on me and the others without warning/proof. But i still have hope i will get my account back soon and in intact. At this point i only want my account back in tact and a sorry issued from them but the longer i wait the more i loose faith in anet. when gaile talk page on wiki worked last night she said she would look into my issue. but now its down, does she have another page i can go to?

fritz300 · Nov 03, 2009, 08:09 PM // 20:09

Just making a post to state I'm also suffering from this situation. I will post when there's an update on my account status.. but it's locked out at the moment.

coreyrm21 · Nov 03, 2009, 08:15 PM // 20:15

Well, my fiance finally got a reply wanting the last four #'s of the credit card we used as well as the name on the account in question. Hopefully they have it resolved soon, might send this information into your ticket to hopefully speed up their process of fixing it.

edit: after giving them that information both our accounts are back up with access to everything, good luck to everyone

Mr Corpser · Nov 03, 2009, 08:32 PM // 20:32

IM STILL WAITING ITS BEEN ALMOST 24 HRS

hurry hurry

im a actionscript programmer i can write a program to edit the flag out if u want grr its taking them to long

ForgetAboutIt · Nov 03, 2009, 09:05 PM // 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnleonard1979

I know I am going to take some flame for being the negative voice of reason now, but please keep in mind that this is my personal opinion. I am entitled to it and I somehow doubt I am the only person here who shares it.

I guess I'll take up the mantle of being first to reply directly to JohnLeonard.

First of all, like you said, it is your opinion and you are entitled to it. To take it a step further, this is a forum, so every opinion that is expressed enriches the forum as a whole, so thank you for posting it.

However, just because I'm not as unhappy with Arena.net and NCSoft as you are does not make me a "fanboy." Because I thank them "profusely" on the phone does not mean that I am enamored with them. What it does mean is that I am not taking my frustration and anger out on the poor guy who answers when I call tech support. As I stated, a little courtesy goes a long way.

While I was on the phone with them I did bring up how that error message caused a whole range of emotion ranging from panic, to confusion, to anger and even some rage mixed in there for good measure. It was extremely distressing. So they are aware now of the need to change the error message you get when you try to log in. Will they change it? That's not within the power of the tech support guys, but hopefully they will. Something much more accurate and soothing would be helpful. Something that says "Access to this account has been temporarily removed while we review it for potential payment fraud. Please send a support request to ncsoft for more detailed information, of if you believe this to be an error."

I agree with you that it definitely could have been handled better. I see no reason at all (as I stated in an earlier post and echoed by the multitudes) why they couldn't have run a query to "un-flag" all the accounts that got flagged, and then review each by hand and re-flag those that are much more likely to actually be fraud.

I also believe they should post something on GuildWars.com about what is going on, and they need to make sure it is very detailed. They need to state exactly how many accounts were affected, and how long it will take them to get it resolved. They may have a legal department that is wrangling with exactly how to word something like that as we speak, but that doesn't mean we'll ever see it. There's a lot of stuff that happens in corporations that we as the general public will never see.

I try to imagine what I would do if I were in charge of the company. I have millions of subscribers in several countries on several different continents. I have literally hundreds of crises on any given day, from servers being down for maintenance, regional weather causing network outages, legal departments wanting action on their recommendation to put out a new EULA in Korea, the HR department needing a decision on which health insurance provider to go with next year, the accounting department with some bad news about a spike in fraud in the on-line store, the marketing department with a new schedule for releasing information about GW2, and who knows what else. If this is a problem that affected less than 1000 accounts, then from the top down, it's a small problem that doesn't warrant all that much attention. You tell one of the supervisors to shift some manpower and get it resolved as quickly as you can without the legal and accounting departments taking too much of a hit for the credit card processing. You know they had to pay fees on every one of those transactions, so giving you the stuff you ordered for free actually costs them real money. To me, this is a good way to make amends. It's also more than Blizzard would have done.

You can't please all the people all the time. They're not making all the best possible moves, but they are at least moving and trying to keep the customers happy. Unfortunately, this is better than 75% of the companies out there.

lilDeath · Nov 03, 2009, 09:31 PM // 21:31

So, the modus operandi of Anet has spread to NCSoft... pretty standard NON-operating procedure I guess. This is pretty bad.

You are supposed to trust a company with your credit card transactions ONLINE and they must make sure not to RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO something up.
Who is to say all the clients registered on NCSoft, that their credit card information has not been compromised?
Credit card fraud is rife on the Internet and something like this is certainly not helping.

I have thought about buying some panes, but sure as hell will not be doing it now.

On a side note, it sure is interesting to see how many people actually bought the storage panes, after the initial launch and the ruckus with quite a few threads popping up about how ridiculously priced it is.
Guess ANet is smiling all the way to the bank after all.

johnleonard1979 · Nov 03, 2009, 09:46 PM // 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForgetAboutIt

I guess I'll take up the mantle of being first to reply directly to JohnLeonard.

Since I am not an employee of ArenaNet nor NCSoft, the inner workings of their studios doesn't really interest me nor should it be my concern since I am not on their payroll. While I have no doubt that your explanation of their day-to-day crisis routine might be accurate, it cannot be used as an excuse or an explanation to the fact that someone seriously dropped the ball.

Sure, I could take the nice guy route and say, "Well, mistakes happen. No big deal as long as they get it fixed soon enough."

However, I can't bring it upon myself to take that stance seeing as how they are still going about this situation in a terrible fashion. About an hour ago, a new set of log-in announcements were posted, and there is still no mention of this incident. There is nothing informing the non-Guru victims that they haven't done anything wrong. It's as if they simply don't care that they could potentially lose a lot of customers over this one little mishap.

You seem like a nice guy, Forget. I mean you no disrespect nor do I wish to get into an uncivil argument with you. But ArenaNet and NCSoft is ****ing this one up pretty badly despite your politeness, and they're just going to have to accept the fact that some of their loyal-until-now customers are going to be pissed, regardless of any excuses or explanations no matter how supposedly valid.

Edit: I should probably point out that when I say "ArenaNet and NCSoft," I am actually refering to whichever one is responsible for this nonsense. I don't actually know which one deserves to have a finger pointed at them. In all fairness, since they both have their name on the box, they are both likely to take the heat together.

Zodiac Meteor · Nov 03, 2009, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Email

Thank you for your patience as we worked to resolve this issue for you.

After further reviewing this issue, it appears that your NCsoft master and Guild Wars game accounts were blocked in error. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Your NCsoft master and Guild Wars game accounts are now unblocked and you should be able to successfully log into them.

As part of this error, the Guild Wars Access Key you purchased (2 storage panes) was disabled and the charge for the online purchase was voided/not captured by our billing system, meaning that you were not billed for this purchase attempt.

As compensation for our error, we are replacing the access keys which were disabled by mistake, free of charge. We have applied the following access keys to your accounts to replace each that were mistakenly disabled:

It's fixed, I can get on!

Mr Corpser · Nov 03, 2009, 09:53 PM // 21:53

good for u at least they are working on it still

retroflow · Nov 03, 2009, 10:19 PM // 22:19

Anyone else get an email or have been unbanned yet? I still haven't gotten a response other than the one saying that they were looking into the matter from Lance.