(Resolved) My account was banned by non-existing charge, and GW2 support just ignored my request of checking my data to find out the truth

My account was banned for non-existing reason in the early morning 22nd Pacific Standard Time while I was in the pvp bank previewing heavy armor sets. I asked help from support system immediately and I recieved responds a few hours later. And since then, no more responds recieved.

Here is the whole thing that had happened:

I was disconnected from game at about 4am 22th, and I thought it might be a network problem, so I turned to do some other things for a while. About less than one hour later, I tried to log the game, but it was telling me that:
"You guild wars 2 account has been terminated due to botting, extended unattended play, using macros, or similar behavior. Attempting to automate gameplay through any means or attempting to circumvent idle-time restrictions in any way is in violation of the User Agreement and Rules of Conduct. The account closure is permanent."
Error Code: 45:6:3:2114

I can swear by my soul that I have never done such things, and will never even think about it!

Then I logged my game account on website and headed to support system. I was confused game account with support account, and created my first ticket without registering any support account (had my game account logged in on website, but it did not count). when I wanted to update it, I can not find it (did not check my mail box at that time) I created another ticket after registered an support account. Well, this is my first time using the support system, and I apologize for having two tickets on the same problem.

I checked my email about 12 hours later, and found that both my tickets got replied (they arrived at my mailbox just a few hours afterI sent the tickets). The agent from GW2 support team in the first ticket asked me further information, and I replied what was needed. The agent from NC support team in the second ticket just told me:
"This account has been closed for using an illegal third-party program. I want you to know that we take great care when analyzing accounts prior to termination. We are both diligent and conservative in determining which accounts are using these programs, and we only terminate an account after we are certain that such use has occurred. "
So I replied to tell them that I had really done nothing illegal and asked them to check my date and record to find out the truth.

Some time later, I noticed that my first ticket's status became "closed", so I was wondering if this is because that I was using two support account with two tickets for the same problem. Then I explained why I created two tickets in the first ticket.

About 12 hours later, I checked both my tickets. The first ticket was marked as "Duplicate", and an agent copied the last reply in it to the second ticket. Though no respond recieved.

That is everything happened.

About what had happened right before the account termination:

Before I got disconnected, I was standing at the pvp bank in the heart of the mist. I was previewing all the heavy armor sets. My computer input was that: right clicked on an item and then clicked "preview", and repeated on and on. There were a lot of armor so I repeated this a lot, I cannot finish previewing all of them before I got disconnected. I forgot to check the information on the pop-up window of DC because I thought it may be normal DC.
So I was wondering if I triggered the detecting system by largely repeating "RMB-LMB"? Because this long and simply repeating looked like non-human? It was 4am, so I think the termination was done by automatic system if this was the cause.

Before I went into the heart of the mist, I was at cursed shore. I was doing dynamic events there. There was one event I joined maybe suspicious. That event was defending something until it got repaired. Undead swarm kept coming and fought several waves of them. And then I noticed that the processing bar did not move at all. So I thought this may be another bugged event, and then I left.
The point here is that this bugged event got mob swarm constantly coming. So I suspect it may be a bot spot, and I got involved there by accident. Is this the reason that I got banned mistakenly? I did not stay there for long, all the items I got from loot there worth less then 20s (or even less than 10s, I remember one or two green items looted). So I did not even exploit this bugged event at all.

The problem is still unsolved, and I got no respond since the first two I mentioned above.

The first reply I got was just few hours after I sent the support ticket. So the queue was not that long, right? But it was almost three days since then, were they too busy to solve other tickets that there was suddenly a long queue ahead of me? Or did they ignore me because they just held that once something was done by them, they were always right?

The last reply: "I want you to know that we take great care when analyzing accounts prior to termination." Is that means if " we take great care when doing every thing, then we will never ever make any mistakes"?

I understood that this problem was caused by their effort of trying to make a better game environment by terminating all the cheaters and gold-framers. I always appreciate that. In my view Anet is a very good game company conpared to many others, because They design the game system to a form that makes everyone would willing to help each other, but not fight agaist. The reviving system makes people always glad to give a hand to those who have downed. And the looting system will never cause people to fight each other by arguing how to distribute rewards. Very few company would do so much on improving the player environment, and this is why I always speak high of them.

But on this problem, I am really really very disoppointed. It really hurt me a lot by being charged guilty with non-existing reason. while the reply I got was so haughty and they just ignored me. I am really sad and angry. If it was just a normal problem, like the account system was bugged or something, I could wait patiently. But it is really hard to endure of carrying such false charge for long.

Because the game account is banned, I can not even speak on the official forum.

What can I do now?

So helpless......

Any chance your account was hacked in that short time you got booted? If you are able, log in to your account and verify if a different IP had used your account at any point (go MY ACCOUNT, then SECURITY). There you should be able to see the IP ranges that have accessed your account recently. Also, it doesn't appear that the reasons were the group you joined in cursed shore. The reasoning given for your perma ban were boting and use of a 3rd party program. That makes it appear that at some point they received (or thought they did) some flag on your account that made it appear to be a bot account. If there are IP ranges that are out of the normal, then you could use that as a basis to debate the perma ban.

If I logged in immediately after I got disconnected, I would know whether I was banned or hacked at that time. But a friend of mine was calling me on IM, so we had talked for a while. My internet provider using random IP service, and I found 10 IP ranges in my Authorized Networks of GW2 account. All of them are located in the city I am living. Because the IP range is a bit large, if the hacker lived in the same city, or they used proxy, then it may be possible of hacking. There is no logging history in the information of GW2 account. If there is, it could easily tell that if any different IP logged in that short time. But the point is that I am very careful with security, I have even reinforced my security software with advanced firewall rule that gives high restriction on the network traffic. And I am also very careful about avoiding suspicious website. My computer haven't been hacked or infected for many years. So I just think it is not likely to be hacked.

" Response GM Talon via Email 03/25/2013 04:27 AM Hi there, After reviewing the issue, it appears that your account was blocked in error. Your account has been released and you should be able to log in to Guild Wars 2 once again. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please let us know if we can assist you with anything else. Cheers, GM Talon Guild Wars Support Team " The problem has finally been solved, and everything in my account is just unchanged. I am sorry for being irritable, and sorry for posting my own problem here.

I'd be upset too if they banned my account when I had done nothing wrong. It seems that this company likes to ban accounts "without taking the great care" first as stated in their emails. So having this post will help others who find themselves in the same situation. Glad you got it resolved.

Nice to know they were able to find their mistake and let you back into your account. Congrats on the unbanning =)

Its good to post things like this, so people can see the process and not spend 3 days stressing out about thier account. I myself like to spend a lot of time previewing armor in the Mists, and if I end up banned one day, I can turn around and say "Well, Patchouli had this happen and it took this many days to resolve" and worry a bit less. I also saw that event in Cursed Shore. The NPCs are supposed to be repairing some walls, but I didn't see any NPCs working or dead NPCs wanting rezzing. I was trying to complete my daily Events, so this was around 5:30 server time last night, maybe 6. My thoughts are somehow, people know how to either bug out these events, or lure off the NPCs far enough to die way outside the immediate area, so nobody ever finds them to res them and complete the event (this way they can farm the spawn indefinitely). I'm glad it all got sorted out in the end, and you can play again!

Glad it got worked out. Now if you do see bugged events like this, do /bug and report it. I know now and then when they do mini patches some events do get hung up shortly after for some reason. I reported three after the last little patch we had in two different zones. It automatically takes a screen shot of where you are when you do a bug report as well.

No one really knows "why" this happened. He may have been reported for botting during his run in the "neverending" event as he was spotted by someone who just started reporting everyone there - botters and normal players as well. Somethimes I don't think they take "the great care" that they emphasize - but it does seem they get the issues resolved although I would have been more than a tad upset myself if it happened to me. ... but glad you are back in. Safe Journ

Thanks, everyone! And They solved this problem just right before the new update of The Razing, so I won't miss it :)

Glad to hear you got access back. I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but I will only watch suspect botting players for only so long, before I decide to leave it up to the GMs to decide. I realize that sometimes I probably report legitimate players, but I'll tell you this... folks need to learn how to not behave like a bot, and not run the same path patterns, over and over again. Sadly its an inconvenience to Patch, but I bet they nabbed a few real bots out of the reports he might have been included in.

"(Resolved)My account was banned by non-existing charge, and GW2 support just ignored my request of checking my data to find out the truth"

Glad you're back, I got banned once myself =D

Say what you will about WoW, but my WoW account was mistakenly banned last night and it literally took three minutes to get it restored. Went online, filled out a support ticket and within three minutes I had a really funny email from a Blizzard GM apologising and my account was working again. I <3 ArenaNet, but there's a lot they could learn from Blizzard's approach to Customer Service (imo).

Aethena, if you think about that from a business point of view you would understand why Blizzard would have better customer service. They have more money, which means they can afford to dedicate a decent portion of their budget to employ more staff, which means the customer service experience is fast and reliable. ANet/NCSOFT is still a very small fish compared to the shark that is Blizzard/Activision.

I agree, Elth, that Blizzard has lots more resources. But I feel that if Blizzard had taken what seems to be ArenaNet's standard approach, I would have gotten a 'form letter' reply to my ticket upholding the ban and would have had to go back again to get them to look at it a second time. As it was, they looked at my ticket (and I'm assuming had a quick look at my account activity) and restored my account. It seems to be a difference in approach as well as pure speed. ArenaNet needs to deal with these kinds of requests much quicker than they seem to, regardless of their size. To me it's part of the cost of doing business in this category.

I am glad you got your account problems solved. Unfortunately this is a very common problem of ArenaNet all the way back to GW 1 they have one of the worst customer service ratings out there. You would think after all the false bans and garbage that went on with guild wars 1 they would modify there customer service. I had a friend in gw2 got banned 3 times for so called bot use and never did. Come to find out he was being harassed it was a person who had a grudge against him on him and a few of that persons friends. They kept reporting him for bot use whenever they saw him. I think the whole system is flawed. They take the word of people reporting others too much without any confirmation. There should never be an automated account ban solely in the hands of the customers like the /report function in guild wars.

» Edited on: 2013-03-28 06:25:16

I think there's some differences in philosophy for customer support. Blizzard and Trion, my experiences they think of customer support from a customer service point of view, "how can we help you enjoy our game better." NCSoft, my experience they think of GM staff more as a police force. So interacting w/ em feels more like getting pulled over for a ticket versus approaching the concierge at a hotel.

Without a doubt the worst thing about GW2 is the lack of customer service. It is truly appalling by anyone's standards. It is a shame that they have not sorted it out, and that they spoil an otherwise great game and come from a place of "no" where restoring accounts is concerned. It puts the player in a position of "guilty until proven innocent" when all the tools for proving your innocence are locked up behind a customer dis-service stonewall of form letters, ignored requests and a system that wears down even the most stoic gamer. I am so glad you withstood the epic "get my account back" grind, and emerged victorious!! Well done!

I've been banned from GW2 somewhere around 26 times =O I don't take it personal since in my case,every time I've been banned, it's been a script that does it to me, not a person. There's been times that it's been because GW2's scripts could have used some tweaking, but I try to be nice to the people helping me since they're not the ones that wrote the script that auto-banned me. This actually helped me alot down the road, and Ive made friends with GM's in the process. Most of the time I was back in the game in 6 hours or less, but once it took 6 days, once it took 4 days, and once it took 3 days. Those 3 times I got kinda frustrated, so i feel your pain. Fortunately lasershark helped me keep my head cool :/ The other 23 times it wasn't so bad :p I know in general for time savers, the most important thing is that the ticket is routed to the correct department. Otherwise, that's about it, duplicate tickets dont help at all :/ Glad you made it back in :) Sorry it was so painful :(

» Edited on: 2013-03-31 13:56:40

doh! banned 27 times XD

Yea, I was going to ask how many times you've been banned, Denji. ANet seems willing to work with people after the fact very well and to be honest I can't blame them, as the game is free to play I wager there are a lot of ghost accounts that can be put to nefarious ends and only the active players are going to complain. Therefor it seems like it would lessen the work load for them to take action and then sort it out. They were pretty good about giving me access back to my account, it took about a day of email and most of that was due to my inability to find what they were asking for (which incidentally was easy to find once I figured out where to look). I actually had worse problems communicating with Trion's customer support after the fact than that of ArenaNet.

I gotta admit, they've been really good with me. Turnaround time for me is usually 4-6 hours or so. And I've been "busted" so many times that I've got to meet some really nice GM's along the way. I like to have fun with my tickets, and they have fun back. My most recent ticket went in this morning and Im back in again =D _________________ Customer By Web Form (Denji) 10:18 AM Hi GM's It's me, you're favorite player, Denji =D Lasershark says hi O.o Im back with my 27th or so ticket (do i get a prize at 30?) for making too much gold at the marketplace =O I promise, I only made like....2 or 3 gold profit this time. Really! Im innocent! O.O Lasershark on the other hand... he made a bundle =O Could you check on my account and verify me again please =) As always: *raises right hand* -I Denji Twoblades do solemnly swear in the name of Kormir....goddess of truth, that I am not a chinese gold seller. -_-

» Edited on: 2013-05-14 22:59:11

LOL How I've missed your gold-en charm and wit, Denji. I need to kidnap Lasershark, put him to work for me, Daddy needs some nice stuff for his girls. Oh wait, did I say that out loud?

@Sekkerhund glad you're still around =) Hope you're doing well with this horrible market >_< You have to be doing at least better than average with all those math formula things you can do... and those math statistics and big math words you know that make me feel dumb, lol =p I'd send lasershark over to help, but im pretty sure Anet is on to him O.o A handful of GM's have known about lasershark for awhile, and have addressed him in my tickets :/ I think they realize that he's the REAL brains behind my gold operation, and they are no longer fooled by his squeaky toy cuteness :/ quote"*raises right hand* -I Denji Twoblades do solemnly swear in the name of Kormir....goddess of truth, that I am not a chinese gold seller -_-" I've tried to get Lasershark to raise his right flipper and do the pledge with me. Squeak once for "yes he's a chinese gold farmer" or squeak twice for "no he's not a chinse gold farmer". He always squeaks 3 times...... and I have no idea what that means!!! O.O It doesn't help that when I flip him over I see "Made In China" printed on his belly =O And once when I was heating up a hot pocket, I could have sworn I overheard him put on my headset and start talking to somebody.... and he was squeaking in Chinese!!! =O Anywho's, Ill be popping in every so often to help kick up the guild funds, so....see you at my next ban XD -Denji =D

» Edited on: 2013-05-14 16:28:16

heheh well I have not been banned yet, so I don't think I'm doing that well. I was about to make bank on Globs when Anet threw an anchor at me in the form of "guaranteed rare loot" for everyone. But I managed to finally break 100g in bank for the first time just a couple of weeks ago. Not that I've made, just 100g that I haven't spent. Once I finish key farming for a Fused Weapon ticket, if RNG will have have some pity on me for a change, I'll have to start trying to figure out your method. If I get banned, I'll know I hit it. :D

I hope you come up with something, no use figuring out my method since it's dependent on what ecto is doing on the market. Ecto drop has been my kryptonite. Ive been affected by all the nerfs as well. I no longer have any gold making superpowers, I've been reduced to normal everyday market trader :p I got banned because I have to pump so much money into the market just to make 100 gold in a day,(vs the speed it took before, which has thoroughly humbled me O.o) that if I take all the gold out at once (investment gold+profit gold) the total amount i take out is so large, that I get flagged :P