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#27 Sep 11 2013 at 7:27 PM Rating: Good
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1,313 posts
Thanks for the support guys!

Lol so far I've received one e-mail..

Quote:
If you are unable to join a server when attempting to access FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn, please try again later. This error simply means that the server is congested and you will need to keep trying until you are able to log in. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.


So that must be the automated response. It did however contain a real Los Angeles area code phone number to get support though! Officer hours are 9-6 and I got my email after 6 :( I'll call them tomorrow.
#28 Sep 11 2013 at 7:37 PM Rating: Excellent
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3,737 posts
Transmigration the Charming wrote:
Thanks for the support guys!

Lol so far I've received one e-mail..

Quote:
If you are unable to join a server when attempting to access FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn, please try again later. This error simply means that the server is congested and you will need to keep trying until you are able to log in. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.


So that must be the automated response. It did however contain a real Los Angeles area code phone number to get support though! Officer hours are 9-6 and I got my email after 6 :( I'll call them tomorrow.


Oh well there you go, that whole thing about your account being hacked was just a full server..

Obviously. Smiley: disappointed

SE's customer service needs some help, especially if they're going to support a mainstream title like this is becoming.
____________________________
svlyons wrote:
If random outcomes aren't acceptable to you, then don't play with random people.
#29 Sep 11 2013 at 9:09 PM Rating: Good
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1,313 posts
Remember when I said first they'd treat me like a criminal? It seems it came to fruition. I'll highlight the parts that irritate me.

Quote:
Dear Customer, I messaged you through my account and you can't even call me by my name?

Regarding your request for account support. Please find your answer below. Ok, lol.

If the SQUARE ENIX Account has been temporarily suspended or received a notification about account termination, then it is possible that the account was suspended or terminated due to a violation of the User Agreement. A notification was sent to the email address registered to the SQUARE ENIX Account that will explain the violation in detail. Please refer to that notication for more details. I never received an e-mail regarding anything. I deduced this all myself. Thanks @#%^s.

If you have no recollection of violating the User Agreement as mentioned in the email or notification, we may be able to assist you. However we cannot provide any further assistance for this issue via email. So as long as I can't remember the violation that you never notified me of, you might be able to help me.

In order to further assist you, we will need you to contact us via phone or chat, and the SQUARE ENIX Support Center will be happy to assist you.
Somehow I doubt that.

If I was their customer service manager, I would rewrite their whole process on day 1. I work at a place where we bend over backwards to make our customers happy. This e-mail is absolute bull sh*t.

Edited, Sep 11th 2013 11:09pm by Transmigration
#30 Sep 11 2013 at 9:18 PM Rating: Good
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1,313 posts
In fact, here, I'll even write a new email they can send out with nothing to change but two names so that their customers feel a bit more appreciated in the future.

Quote:
Dear Jonathan(Or whatever customer name goes here),

We have received your inquiry regarding the suspension of your account. We're very sorry we were not able to respond more quickly. Unfortunately due to the lack of security in our servers, many others have been affected and have had their accounts compromised by third parties as well. We are well aware of this and are working around the clock to remedy this issue.

We are currently reviewing your account during the times your provided us in order to ensure that any of your data that was lost will be restored as soon as possible. Unfortunately during this time your account must be locked to prevent further data loss confusion while we identify the IP that your account was logged in to by. We please ask that you have patience with us while we resolve this matter.

Our office hours are 9:00AM to 6:00PM Pacific. Please feel free to give us a call so that we may hopefully solve this issue in a more timely fashion.

Regards,
(A ******* name)
Square-Enix Account Services Team.
#31 Sep 11 2013 at 10:03 PM Rating: Excellent
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131 posts
Transmigration the Charming wrote:
KojiroSoma wrote:
That sucks, hope it gets fixed soon.

Any idea how it happened? Did you give your login info to anyone? Logged in to anything weird?

I really hope they didnt simply hack into the Lodestone again...


I've never logged in from another device other than my own PC.
No one knows my account information.
The only programs I have on my PC are WoW and ARR.
The only websites I access on this PC are ZAM, my e-mail, and my350z.com (lol).
I do not type my PW out, it's copy pasted.
I regularly sweep for malicious programs and keyloggers.

The last time I got an account compromised was about 5 years ago, so I'm not sure how it happened.


Most account compromises happen one of five ways in situations like this:

1> Phishing. You are, in some manner, convinced to enter your login credentials or other PII into a website run by a malicious intruder, often disguised as a legitimate website to which you'd normally login. For example, if someone knows you have a yahoo account, they may make a website that looks like yahoo and even contains the string "yahoo.com" in the url (such as "www.yahoo.com.malicious-jerk.com") and email or otherwise notify you that you need to visit it and login. Be careful what websites you visit, be mindful of the SSL certificates issued by the websites you're planning to enter any authentication details into, and don't click links in email purporting to be from someone you trust - you never know who really sent it.

2> Weak password. A lot of people use weak passwords that can be brute-forced by simply trying large amounts of strings in rapid succession, usually by way of an automated process. Others use passwords based on publicly-available information such as a spouse's, child's, or pet's name, birthday, etc. Instead, spice it up. Phrases are easy to remember and mathematically more secure than simple, shorters strings of random characters! https://xkcd.com/936/

3> Another account you have is compromised. This could be as bad as an email account, but you may have also unwhittingly signed up for a website or other service that stores your password in plaintext. If their database server has been compromised - and if they're storing passwords in plaintext, their databases probably aren't going to be secured properly! - those who compromise it would then have access to that password and anything else stored in that database such as your email address, etc. If you've used that password and username or email address combination elsewhere, it can easily be used to compromise more of your accounts as well.

4> Account resets. A lot of services provide a password reset mechanism whereby a malicious intruder can reset your password easily if they have access to your email account, or perhaps even simply to a variety of public-available personal information (such as those sites which ask for "security questions" like what school your went to, and use information which is frequently non-private.) Nonsense/false/non-guessable answers should always be used to answer these questions.

5> Your computer has been infected with malware. In this case, you're pretty well up a creek, as anything from key loggers to screen caps could've been employed against you in addition to things like simply grabbing files from your hard drive - and if you stored passwords in files that weren't encrypted, you're even further up a creek! The answer here isn't simple. Be careful what software you run, be careful what websites you visit. Anti-virus/anti-malware products are far less effective than their vendors would have you believe.
#32 Sep 11 2013 at 11:59 PM Rating: Excellent
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492 posts
Sad to see a fellow player get shafted by these Gil selling whores, hope everything gets sorted :-( you may want to get yourself the one time password app if you dont have it already.
#33 Sep 12 2013 at 12:11 AM Rating: Excellent
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4,153 posts
svlyons wrote:
Transmigration the Charming wrote:
LucasNox wrote:
That's pretty normal for them to suspend the account while they investigate. The hacker will get cut off from selling and transferring your stuff.

Lol it was a sh*tty account to hack really. I only had like 36k from selling silver quest rewards haha. Whoever it was didn't get anything worthy of their time.

It would be interesting to find out if they used your character to spam /shout with gil selling website info. Once you do get your account back, you may find that you've been blisted by players on your server.

They did, because I blacklisted someone with that name.
____________________________
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FFXIV: ARR - Ghost Bear, Balmung server
#34 Sep 12 2013 at 1:30 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,556 posts
It's sad to see that,while the development team has gone leaps and bounds past the XI crew, their customer service department has seen little to no improvement. :\

I hope you get this resolved. I know that when I had an issue like this back in WoW 4 or 5 years back, a GM contacted me within 4 hours and I had my account back in 2. No phone call. No email. Just in-game GM help.

There really is no reason why they cannot at least provide this type of support in 14. If they had active GMs, much of the spam in the 3 main cities would be done away with I think.
#35 Sep 12 2013 at 1:43 AM Rating: Good
34 posts
That just blows!

Aint there some sort of way to see that the account always logged in from IP XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. Or always same internet hosting provider? I think 99% of the players always plays at home/always same machine? Ie it wouldnt be too hard for SE to "see" if something weird happened to said account.




Anyway Im using the software token on my Andriod-device as well. Its free and very easy.


Hope you can log in asap.

*keeps fingers crossed
#36 Sep 12 2013 at 4:53 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,313 posts
More criminal treatment, with no benefit of the doubt whatsoever.

Quote:
Dear Customer:
This notice is to inform you that we have suspended the FINAL FANTASY XIV service account registered to this e-mail for one or more violations of the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement that occurred on 9/12/2013. Specifically, you have violated following Section(s) of the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement.

------------------
SQUARE ENIX ACCOUNT TERMS OF USE
1. Registered Users
Use of the Website or Services is limited to those satisfying the following conditions:
(b)You represent and warrant that you will not use the Website or Services in any manner that is in violation of this Agreement or of any applicable law or regulation;

FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement
2.2 Real Money Trading, Farming and Power-Leveling. You may not sell,purchase or exchange for real-world money or value any in-game currency,accounts, characters, in-game services, or in-game virtual items. Youmay not play the Game for the purpose of acquiring virtual items or advancement in game play on behalf of a third-party or for the purpose of selling any virtual assets to a third party for real-world money, specifically including $B!H(Bgold-farming$B!I(Band power-leveling services.
------------------
Every action we issue is based on conclusive evidence of a violation and is reviewed for accuracy. Here is an excerpt from the activity log regarding this termination:

Based on the actions in this most recent incident and any prior record on the service account, we have terminated the FINAL FANTASY XIV service account registered to this e-mail in accordance with the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement. To best understand the penalties taken against the service account, please review the Account Penalty Policy section on the Support Center at the following link:
http://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=5382&la=1

For information on prohibited activities in FINAL FANTASY XIV, please refer to the Square Enix Account Terms of Use, the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement, and the following URL:
http://support.na.square-enix.com/faqarticle.php?id=5382&la=1&kid=68216

As your account has been terminated due to a violation, you will be unable to create another FINAL FANTASY XIV service account.
Unfortunately, you have shown yourself to be unwilling to follow the rules of the FINAL FANTASY XIV community. If we find that you have created another FINAL FANTASY XIV service account, we reserve the right to terminate that account as well in our sole discretion.


This is the most offensive email I've ever received from an MMO provider. Not one mention of the account possibly being compromised.

Quote:
Every action we issue is based on conclusive evidence of a violation and is reviewed for accuracy.

Yet, you didn't review the 4 emails and forms I filled out prior to you even getting around to banning my account. This is really poor service.

Edited, Sep 12th 2013 6:55am by Transmigration
#37 Sep 12 2013 at 6:18 AM Rating: Excellent
My security token was broken and I couldn't get into my account, I know this is a different situation, but I still had to get ahold of square-enix support center, so let me tell you the best way to get ahold of them.

You should fill out for an email ticket, though don't expect it to be answered. Even though they say they'll get back to you within 1-2 business days, it'll be more like 1-2 weeks, if you're lucky. Instead, try to get ahold of them via live chat and phone.

Their phone number is 1-858-790-7529.
Call during their business times, if you get a busy signal (which you will) then hang up and immediately call back, if you get another busy single, rinse-repeat. It took me 150 calls to finally get through their busy signal, then I was on hold for 3 hours, but I did get ahold of them.

The live-chat website is https://support.na.square-enix.com/contact.php?id=496&la=1
For the first drop-down box, pick "Account/Billing" for the second drop-down box pick "Compromised SQEX ID", in the contact details box type "Hacked account", then click the next button, it'll take you to a page giving suggestions, scroll down and click the next button again. It'll take you to a page for email support and live-chat support, click the button for live-chat support. Once again you'll have to do this during their business hours. Fill out all your info and get your ticket number, you'll be put on a wait list. Usually you'll be ticket number 300~ish and have to wait about 1-2 hours before you're received. When it is your turn and it says there are no SE support agents to help you at this time, try again, it took me 3 tries to get ahold of them via live-chat

ALWAYS make sure that you're talking to an official Sqaure-Enix employee, weather it is through phone call or live-chat. They'll ask for your name, account name, password, address, phone number, security question, and other stuff to verify who you are so that they can help you with your account. You do NOT want to be giving all that information to someone who doesn't work for Square-Enix.

Edited, Sep 12th 2013 8:20am by OrinValeth
#38 Sep 12 2013 at 6:22 AM Rating: Excellent
Wow, that's appalling.
#39 Sep 12 2013 at 6:26 AM Rating: Excellent
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79 posts
Im so sorry to hear all the BS you have to go through.. Though after reading your thread and seeing what was done to you I instantly got the Phone app and registered a One time Password for my account and it took less than 5 min. Anyone else who has not done this already I suggest you do it ASAP. Its free and it basically puts a Bank safe on your account.
#40 Sep 12 2013 at 8:58 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,313 posts
Ap0stle234 wrote:
Im so sorry to hear all the BS you have to go through.. Though after reading your thread and seeing what was done to you I instantly got the Phone app and registered a One time Password for my account and it took less than 5 min. Anyone else who has not done this already I suggest you do it ASAP. Its free and it basically puts a Bank safe on your account.


That's good to hear. Hopefully people will learn from my situation.

I'm not an entitled person. I have a lot of patience with business in general and I understand it takes time to get things done. The manner in which you handle it is important though. My case is so obviously a case of a malicious third party gaining control over my account. The available in game funds I was in possession of alone would show that there is no way on earth I was dealing or buying in-game currency. My character was broke as a joke and all log ins except for the one done where ever this RMT person is were done from my personal computer at the same IP each time. Yet they so blatantly terminated my entire identity from the game now and in the future without even taking 10 minutes to review that information. It's insane, really.
#41 Sep 12 2013 at 10:21 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,622 posts
Wow, this is terrible. I sympathize with you. If it happened to me, I doubt I'd come back to the game at all. SE can make good a game, but they are absolutely inept at managing it.

Once, my wife's WoW account was compromised (re-used password, she didn't get hacked). Her character was found naked on another server. Within an hour of submitting a ticket, she was back on our server with all her gear, exactly as it was before she had logged out before.

THAT is the kind of treatment what we have a right to expect from any game company.
____________________________

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Nuit the Insane! - Retired Druid on Sentinels.
Ombre - Retired Dragoon/bard on Phoenix.
#42 Sep 12 2013 at 10:36 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,313 posts
PhoenixOmbre wrote:
Wow, this is terrible. I sympathize with you. If it happened to me, I doubt I'd come back to the game at all. SE can make good a game, but they are absolutely inept at managing it.

Once, my wife's WoW account was compromised (re-used password, she didn't get hacked). Her character was found naked on another server. Within an hour of submitting a ticket, she was back on our server with all her gear, exactly as it was before she had logged out before.

THAT is the kind of treatment what we have a right to expect from any game company.


I'm definitely considering not coming back based on principle alone. I'm on hold for a support agent at the moment. If this doesn't solve it, I'm done with SE indefinitely. Thousands of dollars spent on every Final Fantasy, Crono Trigger, Crono Cross, Subscription fees, etc. and I'm treated like an RMT with no recourse. I bought two copies of this game at full price, one being the $80 CE. They have access to this information. They can see that I spent hours beta testing and giving feedback. They may not know me personally, but every player should be treated as a fan that supported them through the last 3 *********** years.

Blizzard always took care of me. When my account was compromised years ago, within 2 days I had it back up and running, with all my gear, and they even gave me 5,000g (like 500,000gil) to "help me get back in to the game!". I even submitted a ticket once to ask if they could restore an item I had dropped just so I could use it for a vanity set. It was in my mailbox the next day. ARR may be a wonderful game, but when it comes to service they are not only nowhere near Blizzard, they're on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. To me it seems as if they literally do not give a ****. If I didn't attempt to recover my account, I wouldn't even be given the option or pursued as a customer.

Maybe they need to hire more service representatives? Skeleton crew is going to sink the ship.
#43 Sep 12 2013 at 10:56 AM Rating: Excellent
Pretty sure that NA customer service got trimmed down about the same time as NA Marketing last spring, when SE was doing a lot of layoffs. CS didn't get hit as much as marketing, though. I think half the marketing department got canned. (To be fair, it seems it was only the bad half of marketing. The rest of the guys are doing great.)

What SE ought to have done is hired a third party call center for a temporary CS campaign, just to help handle the call volume. I know for a fact you can hire a call center short term that will only bill you for the time reps spend on the phone, usually at $30/hour or so. (The phone reps get between $10-15$ of that. Not a very glamorous job.) They could have handled the 75% of issues that were simple to fix and routed the 25% more complex issues over to actual SE reps.

They would have only needed a major budget for the campaign for these first few months, and then the call center could have stayed on as an overflow to avoid excessively long hold times.
#44 Sep 12 2013 at 11:00 AM Rating: Good
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2,550 posts
Better than Sega. Apparantly they canned their entire North American division.
#45 Sep 12 2013 at 11:02 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,313 posts
I agree Catwho.

Sorry if it seems like I'm venting to you guys. I just a bit screwed right now.
#46 Sep 12 2013 at 11:06 AM Rating: Excellent
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2,550 posts
Transmigration the Charming wrote:
I agree Catwho.

Sorry if it seems like I'm venting to you guys. I just a bit screwed right now.


Really sorry to hear that. My offer to help with items when you get back on still stands. SE seems to be posting that many of the compromised accounts were due to other sites being compromised (storing passwords as real text) and users using a common password for all accounts. Did you ever determine what could have caused the issue?
#47 Sep 12 2013 at 11:13 AM Rating: Good
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1,313 posts
My passwords for other things are completely different. My WoW account has been frozen for 3 months too. The only thing I log in to is my e-mail, for which the password is totally different as well. So no, it was not that.

btw, I was on hold for over an hour and then they disconnected me just now.

I'm pretty close to done status right now. I'd give you guys my stuff, but SE deleted it.

***Wow, I got connected again and I literally heard a phone slam and got disconnected again. This is unreal.

Edited, Sep 12th 2013 1:17pm by Transmigration
#48 Sep 12 2013 at 2:18 PM Rating: Excellent
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1,313 posts
3 hours of waiting. 4 disconnects. I'm done guys. If they ever get around actually reviewing my ticket and reactivating my account, cool. If they don't, they can have it. Some other things just came up outside of the game that have to be dealt with and I don't have time to sit around on the phone trying to prove my innocence.

Thanks for the good times. I'll be back at some point if it works itself out, but I'm not wasting more of my time or energy on this.
#49 Sep 12 2013 at 2:25 PM Rating: Excellent
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362 posts
This is sad, SE did everything they could to put themselves in a good position to reap the benefit of a relaunch, and they keep shooting themselves in the feet. It would be sad to see you go permanently so I hope it works itself out, but customer service has to actually mean "customer service" at some point right?
#50 Sep 12 2013 at 2:42 PM Rating: Excellent
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132 posts
I feel for you, but I'm not sure what's wrong with their emails. Your account WAS selling gil whether or not it was actually you and I would prefer them to ban gil sellers immediately (which will automatically generate those emails) than wait and see if someone by chance put in a support ticket for that account claiming they got hacked first.

However, the issues you are having contacting them on the phone is a shame. I would expect extended hold times at this stage, but there is no excuse for any customer service rep in any industry to disconnect a customer without speaking to them and attempting to solve the problem they are having. I have had this happen to me a ton over the years and it seriously bothers me.

Based on SE speaking of issues with other sites being compromised, I am wondering if it had anything to do with the company they used for digital downloads.. Did you happen to use the digital download option?
#51 Sep 12 2013 at 3:06 PM Rating: Excellent
Just to play devil's advocate, sometimes it's not the phone rep deliberately hanging up on you. Major voice systems, especially older ones, are notorious for dropping calls during transfers. More modern VoIP systems have the problem a lot less, but it can still happen.

And as a phone rep, I hit the "disconnect" button instead of "accept" button a few times because of terrible phone design where the buttons were too close to one another. Smiley: frown

Edited, Sep 12th 2013 5:08pm by Catwho
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