LM-17 wtf

[Mistress Stowastiq]

Its been a month or two since they sent those charge back email, which I resolved with the chat customer service by giving my ID and credit card (2 days after the chargeback ban emails). (Present day 8/13/09)So I wanted to keep in touch with a people on my friendlist and I log on to POL to message them and lo-behold I see LM-17 again. WTF is going on with SE? If this crap follows onto FF14 they can keep the game and shove it up their ass.

Back on topic anyone have any update?

Edit: Added timeline.

I think they are attempting to prevent this kind of thing in 14 with S.E.A.M.S by making a new verification system that requires people to register with their real id and not their dog's name etc. As for new info, only thing I saw recent is the stuff about the new chat that krazy posted about above. Check Allakazham also because there is a thread like this there. Good to see people still getting accounts back.

[cpu]

If this thread is not abuzz with activity then it's most likely a very small number of people being affected. The majority of credit card issue LM-17s so far have been at the end of the month when payments start being processed.

[Hanayaka]

A friend of mine had to change his credit card information last week (August 11, 2009), and yesterday (August 16, 23:00 PST) he received an automated email (while playing) stating his account has been suspended for irregular activity due to credit card issues. He was then immediately kicked from the server. The email stated that he could contact POL to reinstate his account with no flags.

12 hours later he contacted POL via chat support, and the agent told him that his account was permanently banned and there was no way to reverse it. My friend then quoted the email stating that his account was suspended due to credit card issues, and the agent responded that he can petition to have the ban "investigated," that he would hear back from POL within 2 weeks. If he doesn't hear back, then his account is permanently banned.

My friend then requested to escalate the call, and speak to the representative's supervisor. The representative refused, and ended the call. [wtf?]

He then waited 5 hours and called POL directly, and the new representative stated that his account was still undergoing investigation and is not necessarily permanently banned. Two different representatives, two different stories.

Has anyone else who was banned for "irregular activity" been informed via a representative that their account was permanently banned? If so, did they mention that you could have your ban "inspected" and "contact you within two weeks"? If so, how were you contacted? Has anyone else had a representative refuse to let you speak to their supervisor?

Thanks in advance, trying to collect as much information for my buddy as I can.

[Gadritan]

That's nearly exactly what happened to me. I ended up with 3 different stories. If you go back one page you'll see how that stuff went down for me.

I still haven't contacted them since then, but I think I'll do that tomorrow and see where it goes. I was told that my account would be unbanned with no strikes and there would be no investigation by the last supervisor I spoke with. We'll see tomorrow...

[Sephiroth_Owa 13]

This is making me wanna call them and see if my banned then unbanned account has any strikes on it. And fyi...no I never got a e-mail from them saying my account was reinstated.

[Gadritan]

For those of you that have gone through the process of faxing a photo ID, how long did it take for them to contact you after doing so?

[WyldFyre]

Go to the Special Issues chat on the playonline page & ask them directly. I was told permaban after I faxed in the info, but the special issues chat rep I talked to a couple weeks later lifted the ban immediately.

[Gadritan]

I already talked to them. They said to wait until I was contacted. Since they let so much slip through the cracks I was just wondering what kind of a time line I was looking at to contact them again.

Also, I already got the go ahead on the ban being lifted by a supervisor there, so I'm just waiting for this to get processed. Though I'm sure some out of touch dickhead up there will say it's perma again and I'll have to go through that stupid shit again.

Edit: Just checked on my pre-paid CC I've always used for FF and noticed they charged me 3 days after my suspension and them stating that it would not be charged during the suspension. God damn. That's what started this whole thing. They charged me when they shouldn't have and I had to request a charge back and it got my account suspended. wtf wtf wtf.

[lovehatehero]

I got a hold of the reps yesterday after sending in the ID like they told me. They told it doesn't matter the policy has changed your account is perma'd end of story. I then asked them how can you tell me that if i send in an ID to verify my ID i will receive my account back and then tell me not even a week later just kidding shit's cahnged.He then told me to stop spamming the chat log...After one question lol. Im done with dealing with these idiots.

[acheronn]

Got an LM-17 aswell as an email saying charge back crap.. I never chargebacked anything >.>

After waiting 2 hours on the phone a rep finally picked up and after verifying my CC he told me its not banned due to a chargeback but because of irregular activities.

WTF then why send me an email stating:

"You are being sent this notice to inform you that since you previously requested a credit card chargeback for PlayOnline, the PlayOnline account linked to your credit card has been suspended.
To reactivate the PlayOnline account, which will not incur any negative strikes against it, please contact the PlayOnline Information Center"

Now it may be a perma bann >.> fuk you SE

[Thuronn]

I sense confused asians in Japan, going "maybe if we makeadem quit, they'll all play final fantasy XVI!"

[WyldFyre]

I sense confused asians in Japan, going "maybe if we makeadem quit, they'll all play final fantasy XVI!"

Depends on whether it will be an offline game or not. The way their customer (lack of) service representatives treat people, I can tell you I'm not likely to touch XIV.

[cpu]

This is only a secondary account but still a huge pain to have to deal with, here's my transcript with a supervisor which may provide some insight to others dealing with chargeback LM-17 nonsense:

SEI POL Nathan: I will transferring you to a supervisor at this time. Just another moment.
Me: thank you
SEI Tier III James has entered the session.
SEI POL Nathan has left the session.
SEI Tier III James: Hello, please give me a moment while I familiarize myself with this chat session.
SEI Tier III James: How can I help you today?
Me: Hi, I've contacted you guys a few times before about the fact that I cannot access my account with an LM-17 error after receiving an e-mail stating that my account had a potential creditcard chageback on it although I've never authorized one.
Me: I need to find out why/how/what can be done about this
SEI Tier III James: And those three questions, "why," "how," and "what" have been answered already, actually.
SEI Tier III James: The why was the reason provided to you in that email.
SEI Tier III James: How falls under the Terms of Service, that Square Enix reserves the right to suspend or terminate service at any time, for any reason.
SEI Tier III James: And what to do now is the ban complaint, which has been submitted already.
Me: I agree, but the e-mail stated that I could be quickly unlocked with no negative strikes against my account by contacting customer service
Me: I can give you the verbatim of the e-mail if it will help
SEI Tier III James: You do not agree with the action we've taken against this account, and we're reviewing that claim. If the action will be reversed, you'll be contacted.
SEI Tier III James: No, I do not need you to provide me that email, I'm well aware of what it states.
SEI Tier III James: However that is simply a form email, sent out en masse for this action.
SEI Tier III James: Each account is handled on an individual basis from there out, and for this particular account the action is a final one.
Me: Ok, and what does "irregular activities" mean?
SEI Tier III James: It means just that. Activity that is irregular for the norm. Unfortunately we're not at liberty to discuss specifics.
Me: Ok I see... and do the ban complaints have a standard process once they've been filed? I believe it's been a month since I filed my first one with no contact of any form so I continue to contact SE incase mine has been forgotten about, etc.
SEI Tier III James: The standard process is once the complaint has been registered, you will only be contacted if the decision is made to reverse the action.
SEI Tier III James: As no guarantee is given that the decision to terminate this account will be reversed.
SEI Tier III James: If you are not contacted, then the decision stands, and the account remains terminated.
Me: Ok, and if the decision is made to not reverse the action, will I be informed of that upon contacting SE again to file a new complaint/check on the old one?
SEI Tier III James: Yes, you can inquire as to the status of an open complaint, and if there is a resolution, you will be informed of that resolution.
Me: Ok I see, last question, are you able to view previous chat sessions and/or inquiries I've made regarding this account?
SEI Tier III James: We do keep notes as to the various contacts we receive, yes.
Me: The first time I contacted you guys, I was told to fax an ID somewhere, do you know why I was told that and if there's any purpose in doing so now?
SEI Tier III James: Some agents were confused as to procedure.
SEI Tier III James: And providing customers with the wrong instruction.
SEI Tier III James: I do apologize for any confusion that caused.
Me: Alright, well at least I understand the process now, thanks for your help I guess I'll keep waiting.
SEI Tier III James: You're welcome.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

I also submitted feedback when the chat session ended stating that the obfuscation of this process with longstanding customers is ridiculous and that the problem was only compounded by, as James stated, "Some agents were confused as to procedure. And providing customers with the wrong instruction." and when I hit submit I was taken to some random SOE page with a football banner at the top and a 404 in the body.

Also, I never had a chargeback on my account, I contacted my creditcard company to verify that no chargeback was made. I had simply cancelled the card due to temporarily losing my wallet and the payment attempted to process and was declined.

[ringthree]

This is only a secondary account but still a huge pain to have to deal with, here's my transcript with a supervisor which may provide some insight to others dealing with chargeback LM-17 nonsense:

LONG CHAT HERE.

I also submitted feedback when the chat session ended stating that the obfuscation of this process with longstanding customers is ridiculous and that the problem was only compounded by, as James stated, "Some agents were confused as to procedure. And providing customers with the wrong instruction." and when I hit submit I was taken to some random SOE page with a football banner at the top and a 404 in the body.

Is there another reason that you could have been banned? Just curious.

[Neoscrilla]

I wonder if that GM could have been a dick about it any more. Ive seen worse from these "customer service reps", but they should still ACT like they care about the people who have been supplying them with money. Its easy to fake the funk over the phone. You can be nice as hell to someone in voice and be wrapping the phone cord around your neck at the same time with disgust towards the person, it just seems that most of these reps have been thrown to the wolves. Imagine being the rep for a company who does not communicate with their playerbase. I'd assume they prolly communicate with their reps about the same as they communicate with us!

[cpu]

Is there another reason that you could have been banned? Just curious.

No, he verified during the chat that the "why" was explained in the e-mail I was given (although he did later state that those emails were only sent out en masse and had no validity). I was disconnected at the exact same time as everyone else who had this happen on August 28th and my primary account (which was banned at the exact same time and which I received an identical e-mail for) was unbanned 5 days later when I contacted SE via the "Special Chat".

[Gadritan]

I had simply cancelled the card due to temporarily losing my wallet and the payment attempted to process and was declined.

That's what it was. If I understood the last Tier III that I talked to correctly, it's an automated system that does the bannings when payment is refused as well, not just charge backs.

Hard to tell really since you can get a totally different story from each employee.

That chat log makes me nervous though since I was told by said Tier III that if my information matched on my ID and account, that it would be reinstated np.

Waiting to talk to someone on chat support atm to check up on it...

[Aksannyi]

No, he verified during the chat that the "why" was explained in the e-mail I was given (although he did later state that those emails were only sent out en masse and had no validity). I was disconnected at the exact same time as everyone else who had this happen on August 28th and my primary account (which was banned at the exact same time and which I received an identical e-mail for) was unbanned 5 days later when I contacted SE via the "Special Chat".

I had a similar situation, it struck me as really funny that they banned my mule but not my main. Same name, same credit card, one had illegal activity, one didn't.

Whatever. They've proven they're incompetent.

[Thorny]

Perhaps the mules people are losing access to are because they aren't the original owner of the account? Someone quits, you take over their account as a mule, credit card doesn't match the name on the account, chargeback investigation lets them realize that, they decide not to give it back?

[Aksannyi]

Not in my case. That account was mine from day one.