SWTOR & My Unexplained Ban: The Resolution

Okay. This, for real, should be the last post about this, but I make no promises, because that’s what I said last time.

If you’ve followed my story (Part 1 & Part 2), you know that the most recent update was an email from a representative at Customer Service, telling me they were trying to get in touch with me.

About 20 minutes ago, I got a call from Johnathan, and the first thing he offered was a profuse apology immediately followed with the answer to the one question I’d had: in this instance, the program they use to catch ToS infractions brought back a false positive, not once but three times.

The computer said I was hacking. Out of respect for their policies, which I will explain in a sec, I won’t say exactly how. Eventually they realized the computer was wrong–it was our persistence (yes, all of you are included), that kept them looking at it, so thank you.

On a personal level, my account has been reactivated and I’ve been given free play time. In a couple of weeks, they’ll call me back to make sure everything is still going well.

I was also assured that this experience, my honesty in my blog, and I’m sure your input, as well, has made them take a new look at how they handle these types of situations in the future. The reason they didn’t want to tell me exactly what I had done is because (as many of you suggested) the developers who make the third party programs look for clues like that to improve their programs and make them harder to detect.

However, that doesn’t excuse the impersonal, form-letter replies, or the amount of time and effort it took to get someone to really figure out what was going on, and he agreed. I told him that if I could pass on anything from this situation, it would be that anyone who appeals, especially repeatedly, deserves the courtesy of a personal email, even if it says, “This might take a little while, but I promise we’re looking into it and we’ll let you know as soon as we know something.” And then actually do. Keep that line of communication open, because in the end, we just really want to know we’re being heard.

This was a customer service fiasco. I won’t say that this makes any of what happened this past week okay. What I will say is that I am grateful that they kept looking, even if it did take some prompting, and I’m grateful that I received personal resolution.

What I’m most pleased with, however, is the news that they have taken this as a wake-up call to remember that there’s a person behind the coding. I will be keeping up with other people who are dealing with violations and appeals in the coming weeks to see if this takes root and actually effects a change in the way they handle their customer service.

Thank you, guys, for being an AWESOME community, for supporting me, for giving me advice, for keeping @SWTOR very, very busy and getting the attention here so that, hopefully, things will be handled differently in the future. You guys rock.

I look forward to seeing you in-game. I’m still coming for you, Cordo Repubs. 😉

Cipher Nine, out.