How can we make sure a character's name is returned?

[Carot]

My wife was hacked yesterday and moved to Bahamut server and after contacting the Information Center she got her character back, however her name had been changed. So her account is now currently under investigation for (what they said) 1 week, which will probably end up being like half a year lol.

It really means alot to her to have her old name back. We have considered making a mule on my account with her old name to keep it "on hold" so no one else would use it, then delete that mule before she is transfered back to Carbuncle when the investigation is over.

My question is, if we make this mule would there be a wait time after deleting it in which the name couldn't be used, in which case we'd just be hurting our chances? In which case, is there any other ways could save her name?

[Frenzy]

A name is immediately available again after the deletion of a character.
Yes, personal experience.

[montgomery]

Did she already get her character returned to her original server? If not make a mule with the name her character currently has and when she gets moved back she should get prompted to change her name, then she could pick her original name.

[Zsky]

^ Definitely works after SE changed the policy on character names when server transfers came out. It was not so when FFXI was first released.

Adding something to this thread~

I've had an experience when a friend of mine deleted his character, then made a new mule with the previous name, finally calling a GM to restore his deleted chara back. . . all within a timeframe of 1 hour, give or take.

Result = got character back while being able to rename it. Server transfers give you this option, but with a 90 days cooldown. Not 100% sure if he used the "return to vanadiel" program or not. Always wondered if this feature was allowed by the GM's since they can investigate your account for any false information. Anyone have any experiences with this?

Seems a nifty way to change your name on the fly, if not, it was probably abused with the character restore campaign.

[Vodevil]

^ Definitely works after SE changed the policy on character names when server transfers came out. It was not so when FFXI was first released.

Adding something to this thread~

I've had an experience when a friend of mine deleted his character, then made a new mule with the previous name, finally calling a GM to restore his deleted chara back. . . all within a timeframe of 1 hour, give or take.

Result = got character back while being able to rename it. Server transfers give you this option, but with a 90 days cooldown. Not 100% sure if he used the "return to vanadiel" program or not. Always wondered if this feature was allowed by the GM's since they can investigate your account for any false information. Anyone have any experiences with this?

Seems a nifty way to change your name on the fly, if not, it was probably abused with the character restore campaign.

Unless they drastically changed things in the last year, it doesn't quite work that way. The two character restorations I did, I had to call POL Customer Service to have the restorations initiated. The first restoration took about a week and a half. The other restoration took 2 days I believe. You're also only allowed to use this service once per account (I did it on different accounts). Lastly, if you create a character after you deleted one, the new character will occupy the first available content id, which more than likely was that main you just deleted. SE will warn you if you happen to do that, there's a possibility that they can't restore your character. Well, they'll tell you that regardless but creating new characters after a deletion is a big no no to them.