Square Enix Special Task Force Investigations (A Story)

[nitsuj]

So a while back, with the gardening banning a good friend of mine got hit with the banstick. She's a stay at home mom and her main social interaction is FFXI and she's always been a good player/friend for the 5+ years she's leveled her character in Vana'diel.

After 2-3 attempts at customer service to get some more information, she was finally told by a GM "The account is banned, you cheated, get a life and move on."

Personally, I didn't appreciate a friend of mine being told to "get a life and move on" when she stays at home for medical/family reasons so I called up a buddy at Square Enix and forwarded him the GM's name and all the information from my friend's conversation with him.

Within 48 hours the account was unbanned with an apology from the head of customer service and she was back in the game with us. Seems fair, right? Logic of banning someone who DID NOT cheat by mistake should come with an apology and a reinstatement.

My faith in SE had been renewed.

Then now, a few weeks later after she was reinstated, she gets a response from the infamous "William Bisby". I was under the impression that he was meant to be our "White Knight". When we were falsely accused and banned from a game/product/life that we have devoted so much time/emotion/money to... William Bisby was the guy we could appeal to and he'd realize their mistake and get us our account (life) back, right?

Wrong.

Mr. Bisby was kind enough to send back a letter, signed with his signature, explaining the situation to her in more detail.

He let us know:

Dear [Name Withheld]

I have received your letter attempting to dispute the recent banning of your accounts with PlayOnline. When action such as this is taken, it is due to the violations of the Terms of Service of PlayOnline or Final Fantasy XI. After further investigation into your claim, it has been found that the action taken against your account was proper. In the case of your account, the bannings stand and will not be reversed under any circumstances.

At this time we consider this issue closed and further correspondence in regards to this is unnecessary. your understanding in this matter is appreciated.

Sincerely,

William Bisby
Account Manager

This letter was dated 7/30/09. Her account was banned on the 5th of July, and was returned to her on July 10th. 20 Days later he did further investigation into the issue?

If he had simply entered her POL id or name into his system, he would see that her account was active and in good standing, so obviously there was no investigation done. Yet he signed his name to this, implying the he supervised this investigation into the unfortunate removal of a character she had poured 5 years of her life (and at least 1000 dollars of her life into, with a lot of mules)

When it happened before, I quietly alerted my friend because I figured the powers that be sit around in their offices thinking "God, we here at Square Enix are amazing! We have an amazing MMO with amazing GM's and customer service that keep our people happy!" because all the bad news gets filtered out by SGM's on a power trip at the low level and never gets to the higher-ups (And I was right to an extent. The head of customer service who got her account back seemed very interested in talking to the GM that told her to 'get a life').

But now this is ridiculous. I'm going to once again forward this info to my friend at Square for him to forward to his Customer Service contact, but I wanted to make it public for people to have a bit more proof to their assumptions.

I did what I could to "change the world" by quietly alerting them last time. But this is a bit much, and I wanted to be a little "less quiet" this time. People deserve to know that there is fact *no* investigation given when your account is banned and you appeal.

Copy of Mr Bisby's letter is attached as proof.

Please Square Enix. Realize that deceptive business practices and bad customer service can ruin a company. We still play your game because, contrary to what you might think by reading this forum, it's a damn good MMORPG.

But if you can't get your customer service in order and get them

1) Being polite
2) telling the truth
3) talking to each other enough to realize the difference between a banned account and an active account (or a real player and an RMT)

Then you're going to lose more and more players and get an even worse reputation in the MMO industry.

Please fix this.

- justin "nitsuj". Summoner of Unicorn.

[Sephiroth_Owa 13]

Oh and lookie here Square Enix Community is reading this...makes you wonder if they really read this or click anything that has Square Enix in the title and click out just so they show up on the active views.....

Cause nothing other then the 90 day wait for gardening has been done and still no "We're sorry for banning you."

[Eanae]

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 36 (19 members and 17 guests) Eanae, Bungee, Byrd, Casey_, Cream Soda, Devilace, flamingacier, fry11, Funkworkz, Lilswitche, Lionsheartt, Nefarious, nitsuj, Nynaeve, Quedari, Square Enix Community, TacoTaru, thetruepandagod


Big brother is watching and still doesn't give a shit~

[Rektify]

Anyone else amused by Square Enix Community's lack of friends?

[Fistandantilus]

SE reps prolly read these threads on their lunchbreaks for the laughs, not to actually gain insight into the FFXI community.

[Sephiroth_Owa 13]

lmao prob, because now they're gone.

[Pergo]

i thought it was common knowledge that SE doesn't actually do a thorough(if at all) investigation when people ask for it?

i think the real eye-opener here is that you actually managed to get an account unbanned via a contact at SE? even though I'm sure it's out of your hands, I think a lot of people here would find that interesting.

ps:

excuse my ignorance here but do we have any credible information stating that "Square Enix Community" is really an SE rep? seems to me like someone likes to have fun getting a rise out of bg whenever a semi-interesting thread pops up.

[Mayareira]

excuse my ignorance here but do we have any credible information stating that "Square Enix Community" is really an SE rep? seems to me like someone likes to have fun getting a rise out of bg whenever a semi-interesting thread pops up.

Pretty sure he is a SE rep. Sonomaa mentioned that a while ago in a thread(asked him to say/post something, I don't remember).

After 2-3 attempts at customer service to get some more information, she was finally told by a GM "The account is banned, you cheated, get a life and move on."

What a dick.

[nitsuj]

i thought it was common knowledge that SE doesn't actually do a thorough(if at all) investigation when people ask for it?

Common assumption, yes. Everyone wants to hate on SE. This letter is a bit further in the direction of actual proof, though.

i think the real eye-opener here is that you actually managed to get an account unbanned via a contact at SE? even though I'm sure it's out of your hands, I think a lot of people here would find that interesting.

Yeah, I didn't want to say too much before but I don't care anymore. But no, I will not contact SE on anyone else's behalf (unless you know me in real life and have bought me drinks). Then maybe we can talk.

The truth is, the Customer Service rep DID care. He was pissed and I wouldn't be surprised if the GM that told her off got fired. But there apparently not only is a lack of communication between the GM's on the floor and the Customer Rep. Manager who did the unbanning as well as the Manager and people like Mr Bisby.

This system needs to be unified.

do we have any credible information stating that "Square Enix Community" is really an SE rep? .

I dont' believe we have any proof, beyond a post that was made on alla forums under the same name.

[setzer]

I feel really bad for your friend but none of this shit surprises me anymore. SE has no consideration for the years of hard work we put into these toons.

[nitsuj]

I feel really bad for your friend but none of this shit surprises me anymore. SE has no consideration for the years of hard work we put into these toons.

Don't feel bad. She's back in game and enjoying her time again. Feel bad for Mr Bisby who's investigation didn't involve anything beyond signing a stack of "GTFO CHEATER" papers put in front of him.

Poor guy :/

[vagus]

William Bisby needs to be fired. Time to put Horatio into that role. YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAH.

[Cutriss]

Do we know that William Bisby actually exists and is a real person?

Call me crazy, but the style/font in that letter makes me think it's just a canned response that someone in Japan wrote up and attached an "American"-sounding name.

[Sephiroth_Owa 13]

I wonder what would happen if the CSR's, GMs and the other teams just you know, sat down and talked and looked at accounts before the ban hammer...

[Aksannyi]

But that might actually make sense!

[Sephiroth_Owa 13]

But that might actually make sense!

That's too much to ask from SE huh?

Oh well we can dream!

[Aksannyi]

Unrelated, but love your avatar.

[Silenka]

But there apparently not only is a lack of communication between the GM's on the floor and the Customer Rep. Manager who did the unbanning as well as the Manager and people like Mr Bisby.

This system needs to be unified.

Bingo. After all, how many times have GMs given players conflicting info? They don't have one story, they have many, and they bullshit it as they go along.
There is a lack of communication throughout the SE establishment that needs to be fixed from the ground up. However, it probably won't happen, unless they decide to freshen up the roster for 14 (which, again, probably won't happen).

My honest guess is that they just don't care anymore and are weeding people out from 11 in hopes they'll move to 14 when it comes out.

[Silenka]

Do we know that William Bisby actually exists and is a real person?

Call me crazy, but the style/font in that letter makes me think it's just a canned response that someone in Japan wrote up and attached an "American"-sounding name.

Bingo again, we don't know if he is even a real person, although I find it hard to believe he would be Japanese (possible, I suppose). The address on the letter is correct, but the lack of any other contact information (email, title and so on) is incredibly fishy.

Anyone else have any info on him?

[Sephiroth_Owa 13]

Bingo. After all, how many times have GMs given players conflicting info? They don't have one story, they have many, and they bullshit it as they go along.
There is a lack of communication throughout the SE establishment that needs to be fixed from the ground up. However, it probably won't happen, unless they decide to freshen up the roster for 14 (which, again, probably won't happen).

My honest guess is that they just don't care anymore and are weeding people out from 11 in hopes they'll move to 14 when it comes out.

It's really starting to feel like that, but be honest here? How of many of the banned people or those that are just fed up with SE's bull shit will even pick up XIV?

I mean yes you'll have some, hell maybe even a good number...but it's like going back to a abusive boyfriend or girlfriend...you think they love you when they do the random nice things, give you a kiss or a quickie here and there but whenever they feel like it the abuse starts right back up.

Or is that us Americans love the "crack" that our Japanese friends put out as games that we keep coming back for more bull shit?

And btw, thank you Aksannyi.