Maintenance for the week of March 25:
• [COMPLETE] ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – March 28, 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EDT (16:00 UTC)

Dear ZoS - We appreciate the public apology on the Mistaken Bans. Thank you!

Kyotee0071
Kyotee0071
✭✭✭
Edit ** They apologized publicly, and that is all I feel a lot of us wanted (opinion).

Thank your ZoS for admitting your mistake:

That was a professional and classy move.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/82921/information-on-recent-account-bans

Edit End **




Original PostJust curious. My account was reinstated today. I was unjustly banned, then reinstated. I just received this:

"
Greetings!

After reviewing all of the necessary information, we have verified that you have not done anything to constitute a violation of our terms of service.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this misplaced ban has caused you. However, I am happy to tell you that the ban on your account has been lifted. There will be no disciplinary actions on your account and your remaining game time will be unaffected.

We hope that from this point on, you continue to enjoy your time in Tamriel.

Warm Regards,

The Elder Scrolls Online Team


I'm thankful to be back and playing.

But it seems that ZoS very quickly posted a Sticky thread about Mass Banning all the cheaters, and they got what they deserved. When in fact many innocent people were banned who did nothing wrong.

A public acknowledgment from the Company would be great for the innocent bystanders caught up in the mayhem. I could care less about loss game, it's being accused while being innocent that shocked most of us, from both ZoS - and the general community on the forums.

I am enjoying the game, and will continue my support

Regards,

Kyo Original Post
I didn't think my hangover was that bad this morning until I spent 10 minutes trying to log into my old Etch-A-Sketch

  • Miezi
    Miezi
    Interesting text there, but no word on a compensation of lost gaming time or for hours of trouble trying to get their customer support contacted in a way they actually grasp ?
    Edited by Miezi on 19 April 2014 14:25
  • Seroczynski
    Seroczynski
    ✭✭✭
    Looks to me like they "personally" apologize to you. While I am also intrigued by the lack of mentioning of compensation for your lost game time (or did it freeze?), I would say that a public apology isn't needed.
    “To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.” ― Homer J. Simpson
  • Holycannoli
    Holycannoli
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭
    They're gonna need more than a simple forum apology. It would be different if this was the only time it happened or if problems were rare, but compound this with all the other problems since early access and you see they need to do more.

    Not that they will do more.
  • Kyotee0071
    Kyotee0071
    ✭✭✭
    Again I'm not worried at all about the lost game time.

    I'm glad to have my account back.

    A public acknowledgment of their mistake to the community as a whole would be the correct thing to do.
    I didn't think my hangover was that bad this morning until I spent 10 minutes trying to log into my old Etch-A-Sketch

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    ✭✭✭
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Talarias
    Talarias
    Kyotee0071 wrote: »
    Just curious. My account was reinstated today. I was unjustly banned, then reinstated. I just received this:

    At least you got some kind of response; I was never told that my account was reinstated after an unjust ban. I had to attempt to sign in today to find out if my account was back up.

  • butterfly442
    butterfly442
    ✭✭✭
    I'm still banned after 20 hours and 6 tickets and counting. Never joined a guild, never traded anyone, never chatted. VR3 and no clue when this ban will end.

    I do need to add that I have not been given any notification why I was banned, or that they received any of my tickets asking why.
    Edited by butterfly442 on 19 April 2014 14:49
  • vstadenerwb17_ESO
    Kyotee0071 wrote: »
    Again I'm not worried at all about the lost game time.

    I'm glad to have my account back.

    A public acknowledgment of their mistake to the community as a whole would be the correct thing to do.

    They apologize to you personally and you want more? Do you really think they didn't send that same apology to all the other "innocent people" as well? Of course they did. Now you want more? Are you kidding me?
  • butterfly442
    butterfly442
    ✭✭✭
    He wants them to acknowledge this publicly. Admit their mistake, and move on.
  • Seroczynski
    Seroczynski
    ✭✭✭
    Talarias wrote: »
    At least you got some kind of response; I was never told that my account was reinstated after an unjust ban. I had to attempt to sign in today to find out if my account was back up.
    I have to come back from my initial stand on this. If they just ban / unban without any notice than they should at least let it know they are investigating something. But to be honest, so far the communicative level of ZOS is about 5 or so.
    “To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.” ― Homer J. Simpson
  • Kyotee0071
    Kyotee0071
    ✭✭✭
    Kyotee0071 wrote: »
    Again I'm not worried at all about the lost game time.

    I'm glad to have my account back.

    A public acknowledgment of their mistake to the community as a whole would be the correct thing to do.

    They apologize to you personally and you want more? Do you really think they didn't send that same apology to all the other "innocent people" as well? Of course they did. Now you want more? Are you kidding me?

    Yes I want more. If they can come out and say "Everyone caught with the ban hammer got what they deserved", publicly - then they should be able to also do the same admitting they made a huge mistake to a large chunk of their player base.

    Not kidding! /honest
    Edited by Kyotee0071 on 19 April 2014 14:52
    I didn't think my hangover was that bad this morning until I spent 10 minutes trying to log into my old Etch-A-Sketch

  • Miezi
    Miezi
    They apologize to you personally and you want more? Do you really think they didn't send that same apology to all the other "innocent people" as well? Of course they did. Now you want more? Are you kidding me?
    Sorry to say, but the one kidding people here is you since clearly the vast majority never received any response at all. This is more than obvious if you read the recent forum entries, and that despite the fact that many banned (and even unbanned) players cannot even post anymore.

    Thus I agree that a public apology is more than due. And yes, compensation is too - this is buiness afterall, and taking away payed gaming days via wrong bans is cheating on customers.
  • XDem
    XDem
    ✭✭✭
    It is done.
  • crush83
    crush83
    ✭✭✭✭
    Where are all of those kids on the forums who were crucifying you yesterday, calling you a liar and a cheater? How about they get on here and eat some words.
  • MissyJ
    MissyJ
    ✭✭
    My account was restored too this morning, but I only just now got the exact same email as the OP.
    I am happy to have my account back and I also don't care about lost game time or having money refunded. But I agree that they ought to offer up a public apology.

    Would be nice to have all the trolls and other ppl told off that they were wrong when they said, that we all deserved the ban. But no...it's okay that they kept trashing the banned playerbase even after the rest of us got banned from the forums too.

    My concern here was the lack of communication on Zenimax' part. They couldn't even be bothered to give a general update as to what was going on. But they had time for closing down individual threads about the issue and telling us that we weren't allowed to post about an issue requireing costumer support. They even had time responding to individual players reports of other issues on facebook. But no time making a single general statement regarding an issue affecting a huge part of the playerbase?????

    With that said....in other games the entire playerbase have been offered some kind of compensation in cases of many bugs and deslike. After one of the latest patches following a lot of bugs in Rift, they mailed every single player a box containing xp and rep boost vials and such. I was subbing at that time, so I had no real use for the "apology gift", but atleast they acknowledged that there had been an issue affecting a big part of the playerbase and hence they gave a small compensation to everyone for that. These are virtual items that cost them nothing, apart from the time it took to compose the email text and attach an item and sending out a systemwide email. And in that case we are talking about a f2p game....
  • Rantog
    Rantog
    ✭✭✭✭
    They apologize to you personally and you want more? Do you really think they didn't send that same apology to all the other "innocent people" as well? Of course they did. Now you want more? Are you kidding me?

    Personally? It's a Canned apology being sent to Everyone they realized wasn't breaking any rules, myself included.

    And no, an apology isn't adequate after being accused of Cheating/Breaking a contract - denied access to a service we Paid for, and left without any answers for 20+ hours.

    An apology is what you expect when they accidentally bump you off the game, and you can log right back in... or some other, similar, Purely Accidental thing.

    Banning us - and making a public statement that the bans were Not Automated, but done Manually -- is not an Accident.

    It is an outright accusation of guilt - and a followup that further enforces the idea that the guilt was Established.
  • Rantog
    Rantog
    ✭✭✭✭
    crush83 wrote: »
    Where are all of those kids on the forums who were crucifying you yesterday, calling you a liar and a cheater? How about they get on here and eat some words.

    Hopefully some of them are now BANNED themselves - at least from the forums, for too many flags on them for Trolling. ;)
  • Miezi
    Miezi
    XDem wrote: »
    It is done.

    Way to make an innocent-looking post about having "...discovered some legitimate accounts got caught up..." - I am sure there were a couple of thousand accounts affected, enough for them to even take the help system down during the matter.

    Do I sense them not caring for "minorities" here, while the visible game breakers are more than ever ?

    Also, since it's not explicitly named that they're trying to prevent this to happen again, I guess we'll have to get used to it in the future. You know, an apology is pointless if you do not promise to prevent the undesired action in the future; it makes all the ZOS post sound like "Yeh well, sorry for this, may I do it again next week ?"

    How I hate such shallow apologies. But maybe it helps clearing up for all of us how much they care about the problem...
    Edited by Miezi on 19 April 2014 15:37
  • crush83
    crush83
    ✭✭✭✭
    Meanwhile, the suits are likely off enjoying their yacht thinking that their grand business decision of outsourcing customer support, and having zero in-game GMs to police bots is really paying off.
  • Lisyonok
    Lisyonok
    ✭✭
    Well, posting this for my gf.
    Finally got her back in game, then a few hours after that we finally got the canned apologies for the bans. Now how do we go about getting her forum account unbanned?
    http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/profile/2737544/magdalina157eb17_ESO
    Still banned here. Reversing one but not the other? Don't want to hear about how you screwed up?
  • Kyotee0071
    Kyotee0071
    ✭✭✭
    Guys they apologized publicly.

    http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/82921/information-on-recent-account-bans

    Thank you ZoS. Thanks for your hard work. Thanks for your response.

    You personally have me as a paying customer - even if I was caught up in the ban unjustly. Your public apology was a class act if you ask me.

    As far as I am concerned, this thread can end.

    Thanks again

    Kyo
    Edited by Kyotee0071 on 19 April 2014 15:48
    I didn't think my hangover was that bad this morning until I spent 10 minutes trying to log into my old Etch-A-Sketch

  • Srugzal
    Srugzal
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    He wants them to acknowledge this publicly. Admit their mistake, and move on.

    I agree that is what OP wants, but no corporation will publicly admit fault for liability reasons unless they're under a court order to do so--and even then, probably not.

    EDIT: I'm glad that I was mistaken. The apology is here.
    Edited by Srugzal on 19 April 2014 15:50
  • Miezi
    Miezi
    Lisyonok wrote: »
    Finally got her back in game, then a few hours after that we finally got the canned apologies for the bans. Now how do we go about getting her forum account unbanned?

    Exactly same issue here, after my friend's game account silently was unbanned, he appealed again to get his forum account unbanned again; just to get a canned reply (which has like 10 typos in it - wtf?!) that he's unbanned now - which clearly was not the case.

    A while later he got the exact same canned crap mail, and this time he actually got unbanned in the forum. If I was ZOS, that's what I'd call a professional customer support that represents my company. NOT.

    Do they learn of this ever ? I mean... I doubt they'll want to look amateurish due to both the support's and the "ban department's" performance. Or so I hope.

    Anyhow, now that his (well, our - we only play together!) last problem is solved, we only wait for compensation - we lost a whole day together, afterall.

    P.S.: To their defence, I shall add that after even more time they finally sent a mail on all the open support cases, one of which actually was a non-canned mail (!) which indeed replied to the mail. So, seems they CAN do it - why not like that right away ?
    Edited by Miezi on 19 April 2014 15:54
  • Nehemia
    Nehemia
    ✭✭✭
    "Banned innocent people"

    Don't download youtube speed hacks so your account cannot be turned into a mindless bot of a gold seller.
  • Kyotee0071
    Kyotee0071
    ✭✭✭
    Nehemia wrote: »
    "Banned innocent people"

    Don't download youtube speed hacks so your account cannot be turned into a mindless bot of a gold seller.

    I guess you missed the link to them admitting legitimate accounts were caught up in the ban..and after further investigation they were found of no issues breaking anything to do with the ToS.

    Keep patting yourself on the back "grasshopper"...hopefully one day you fall of your high horse and learn some compassion.

    Edited by Kyotee0071 on 19 April 2014 16:01
    I didn't think my hangover was that bad this morning until I spent 10 minutes trying to log into my old Etch-A-Sketch

  • Cozy
    Cozy
    I wonder how stupid all the negative and downright ignorant trolls feel right now.
  • crush83
    crush83
    ✭✭✭✭
    Cozy wrote: »
    I wonder how stupid all the negative and downright ignorant trolls feel right now.

    They'll never admit it, or they will deflect saying stupid crap like "I never technically said that you were a cheater."

  • bwilson.homeb16_ESO
    Nehemia wrote: »
    "Banned innocent people"

    Don't download youtube speed hacks so your account cannot be turned into a mindless bot of a gold seller.

    1) Get a grown up to read the dev post to you saying people were banned innocently

    2) Apologise
  • fromtesonlineb16_ESO
    fromtesonlineb16_ESO
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    Of course, since ZOS_Jessica posted that the bans were MANUAL and not a ban-bot gone rouge it begs the question why was this done so incompetently by CRs MANUALLY looking at the 'facts' and hitting the 'ban' button?

    Notice they give no explanation for this massive screw-up. Fine, they apologised .. it was the least they could do .. but without an explanation everyone affected yesterday and everyone else can't rest easy it won't happen again, can they? Of course, for some who got hit yesterday it wasn't frist time, as they reported in the threads that got locked.
  • ZOS_JessicaFolsom
    ZOS_JessicaFolsom
    Community Manager
    Hi @Miezi,

    We made a mistake, and we're sincerely sorry about it. We've unbanned all accounts that we wrongfully identified as having cheated. The amount of people impacted by this was not in the thousands, though the number doesn't really matter--this happening to a single one is too many. We do understand what led to this unfortunate error, and have already taken measures to improve our process.

    The help portal going down last night was due to a maintenance. We did not take it down to keep people from submitting help requests. The timing was regrettable, and we got the help portal back up as quickly as possible.

    We hope that additional info helps, and we appreciate you giving us a chance to answer your questions.
    Edited by ZOS_JessicaFolsom on 19 April 2014 16:17
    Jessica Folsom
    Lead Community Manager - ZeniMax Online Studios
    Facebook | Twitter | Twitch | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube | Support
    Staff Post
Sign In or Register to comment.