Account Suspension

Vanathi

I recently discovered I had an active ESO account through Steam as well as through Bethesda. I contacted Steam and requested they cancel that account as I hadn't been using it. They did so and my Bethesda account was cancelled at the same time.... I cannot log in to the game and when I try and log in to the account page it tells me my account has been suspended from the site.

I received an email stating my Bethesda account had been cancelled. A request I NEVER made. I am waiting to hear back from them. It was recommended that I log in and create a new subscription; however, I cannot log in to my account as it has been suspended. o.O I feel like this is going in vicious little auto reply circles. Hence my creating a post after responding to the automated cancellation message.

I've had this account for almost 10 years. I've never caused a problem in game or on the forum so I'm assuming this cancellation/suspension is related to the Steam cancellation. I knew linking accounts was going to be a bad idea.

Eight hour maintenance followed by a suspension of my account.... y'all are hosing me out of the Undaunted event altogether.

ZOS_Kraken

@Vanathi Did you only make a ticket with steam support or did you make a ticket with Bethesda support? If you did not, please make a ticket with support here. If you have made a ticket, please let me know the ticket number.

Vanathi

I filed one with Bethesda Support too. I don't see an email that has the ticket number and I can't log in to access my support page. I sense a flaw there...

Vanathi

I found a message that says my account has been permanently deactivated due to multiple chargebacks.... I have no idea what they're talking about. STEAM refunded ONE charge because I don't use Steam to play ESO.

The only thing that looks like a ticket number is Question Reference # 230910-006857 is that it?

Vanathi

I find this completely unfair. Almost 10 years playing this game off and on. I requested a refund from Steam the same day the charge was created. The last six months I've only played on Bethesda. The reason? Buying crown store crates from Steam costs more than buying them from Bethesda.

So, one chargeback on Steam and I get permanently deactivated?

ZOS_Kraken

@Vanathi I have sent you a private message on Forums about your ticket.

Vanathi

No chargeback on my credit card. Again, I accidentally had two accounts. One through Steam and one through Bethesda. The account through steam I did not know was still active. I received a message that my three month sub with Steam had renewed. As my account with Bethesda still had a bit less than 60 days left on it I then had two accounts. I did not realize I had been playing for six months with two accounts since I never launch Steam anymore. I only log into the Bethesda account which is why Steam (who are very picky about these types of refunds) agreed to refund my renewal subscription with them.
When Steam refunded my duplicate account Bethesda issued a permanent deactivation. Please reinstate my account.

It looks to me like this response was automated. I am getting tired of explaining the same thing over and over. It's not that complicated. I had two active accounts. I cancelled the one I didn't know was active. *sigh* You would think a permanent deactivation would be looked at a little closer before implementing it.

ZOS_Bill

@Vanathi

Your most recent replies on your ticket have been received. Support is currently experiencing high volume leading to delays, so your patience is appreciated.

Vanathi

Thank you. Hope it's soon.

ZOS_Bill

@Vanathi

You're welcome.

Vanathi

Banning me from access to my account information is absolutely assinine. For one it denies me the ability to compare Steam renewal to Bethesda renewal or to see my account history. Every response I've had to my ticket has been an automated piece of garbage. All of the responses appear to completely automated which is incredibly frustrating.

Here is Steam's response:

"Our records show you have a recurring The Elder Scrolls Online: Plus 3 Month Membership on Steam. It was renewed recently because it was last renewed on 2023-06-08 00:02:04 PST which was 3 months prior.

Based on what you're advising, it sounds like you may also have a subscription directly through ESO which may be why you still show you have time available. However, that is only speculation on my end, so please contact the game support team if you have any questions about your game account. You can reach The Elder Scrolls Online support by using the information from the Official Support section here.

With that said, I do see you haven't played ESO since this most recent renewal, so I have refunded it as an exception though this content is typically not eligible for a refund. Approved funds may take up to 7 business days to be returned to your card account.

Our records don't show the subscription was cancelled recently on our end, but this refund should have effectively cancelled it for you. To cancel your recurring subscriptions on Steam in the future, you can do that through your "Account Details" as my colleague mentioned.

If we can assist you further, please let us know. Thank you!

Steam Support
Cailen

WHY can't Bethesda get this?!

wilykcat

Try contacting Zenimax Elderscrolls Online support instead?

https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/home

Vanathi

I think I already did that after I read that you should only submit one ticket. I didn't realise at the time that there were two support options. They both say the same thing. My account won't be reinstated until the chargeback is removed. Which I'm not going to do since the subscription directly through ESO still had 56 days on it.

Right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. And I had just bought crowns so I could get the Gonfalon Bay house and/or Jode's Embrace.

Guess I'll be saving money against my will. I don't think this was a decision by anyone other than an automated system. None of the responses is signed by anyone and each one has exactly the same language. BS customer service.

FantasticFreddie

Vanathi wrote: »

I recently discovered I had an active ESO account through Steam as well as through Bethesda. I contacted Steam and requested they cancel that account as I hadn't been using it. They did so and my Bethesda account was cancelled at the same time.... I cannot log in to the game and when I try and log in to the account page it tells me my account has been suspended from the site.

I received an email stating my Bethesda account had been cancelled. A request I NEVER made. I am waiting to hear back from them. It was recommended that I log in and create a new subscription; however, I cannot log in to my account as it has been suspended. o.O I feel like this is going in vicious little auto reply circles. Hence my creating a post after responding to the automated cancellation message.

I've had this account for almost 10 years. I've never caused a problem in game or on the forum so I'm assuming this cancellation/suspension is related to the Steam cancellation. I knew linking accounts was going to be a bad idea.

Eight hour maintenance followed by a suspension of my account.... y'all are hosing me out of the Undaunted event altogether.

This is confusing to me because my steam account and Bethesda account are the same thing. I originally bought the game on Steam, had trouble with the launcher, and then bought it again on the ESO website using the same email, they have the same login info, same characters, etc. It's the same account whether or not I use steam to access it. I canceled my ESO+ via steam, let it expire, and then purchased it via the official site.
This is how a lot of people do it. Did you make an entirely new account when you bought the game via the official site? What, exactly, did you ask steam to cancel?

Vanathi

I played beta. I initially had my account through ESO. Then Steam had some sort of sale or something (I don't remember exactly what for) when ESO became available there so I switched to Steam. Took some time off every now and then and most recently came back about six or seven months ago. I started by playing through Steam. At the same time my husband and I had someone try and steal our identities. They got caught when they tried to withdraw $3,000 from our bank. We also discovered they had been approved for a loan to buy a house in another country we've never even set foot in. Just about every way they could financially benefit by pretending to being us they tried (and ultimately failed) to get away with. I have Steam on one credit card and ESO on another. Both of those cards had to be reissued. One of them managed to get swallowed in snail mail hell. Since I was buying crowns twice a month and the card I have on my ESO account had been reissued and received I decided to just use my ESO account. Since card No 2 also had to be reissued I thought nothing about Steam renewing my subscription. I figured it wouldn't go through. I missed the first notice that my three month sub was auto renewing. So, I had two three month subs for one subscription period. I caught the sub notice for the second three month period the same day it was issued. Contacted Steam not believing for a second that they would actually refund anything. To my shock they did. Then ESO cancelled my sub through ESO because Steam cancelled and refunded their subscription. At no time did I ever consider asking for a refund for the period I had two subscriptions. I didn't play the Steam account at all. Still haven't.

Did you link your accounts? Several months ago I discovered I could download a free in game mount if I linked my Steam, Amazon, and ESO account. I have no idea how that works. I'd like to know how they justify permanently suspending my account without refunding the 56 days left on my subscription or allowing it to run its course and then hang me out to dry. I don't know if I'm going to keep playing once this is sorted out. I'm kinda irritated with the way this has all gone down. I really don't think anyone but the people at Steam have looked at the situation. Based on the responses from ESO they're just an automated message. The only difference is they say "upon reviewing your account" when I reply to the response. The rest of the message is exactly the same as the previous messages. Rage inducing in and of itself. >< Trying to maintain my sense of humor.

I've been living this little saga long enough that it's not the least bit confusing to me. Lemme know if there's a better way I can explain the situation going forward. :P

Vani

Vanathi

Probably more info than needed, but I think the background helps clarify why things happened on my end the way they did.

fizl101

Can you evidence to the team the two concurrent payments through your different credit card statements?

Vanathi

@fizl101 I could. I'm not going to. They "permenently deactivated" my account without anyone looking at it. Their automated system did it. If they can't be bothered to actually provide some customer service to a customer of almost 10 years then I no longer want to do business with them. It's not like they provide a service no one else can. It may not be the world of Tamriel, which sucks, but oh well. I've been a Bethesda customer longer than that. I've played all the Elder Scrolls games. I recently tried to play Battlespire and Redguard again. They were on sale on Steam. I just couldn't get past the graphics >< I grew up with crap graphics I ain't goin back I haven't played Morrowind or Skyrim lately. OH, speaking of... it would be awesome to have random Woolley Mammoths drop from the sky in ESO like they did in Skyrim. Always made me laugh.

jaws343

Vanathi wrote: »

@fizl101 I could. I'm not going to. They "permenently deactivated" my account without anyone looking at it. Their automated system did it. If they can't be bothered to actually provide some customer service to a customer of almost 10 years then I no longer want to do business with them. It's not like they provide a service no one else can. It may not be the world of Tamriel, which sucks, but oh well. I've been a Bethesda customer longer than that. I've played all the Elder Scrolls games. I recently tried to play Battlespire and Redguard again. They were on sale on Steam. I just couldn't get past the graphics >< I grew up with crap graphics I ain't goin back I haven't played Morrowind or Skyrim lately. OH, speaking of... it would be awesome to have random Woolley Mammoths drop from the sky in ESO like they did in Skyrim. Always made me laugh.

Pretty sure they treat any chargeback as immediate fraud and close accounts since it is basically taking money out of their pocket when it occurs.

Amottica

jaws343 wrote: »

Vanathi wrote: »

@fizl101 I could. I'm not going to. They "permenently deactivated" my account without anyone looking at it. Their automated system did it. If they can't be bothered to actually provide some customer service to a customer of almost 10 years then I no longer want to do business with them. It's not like they provide a service no one else can. It may not be the world of Tamriel, which sucks, but oh well. I've been a Bethesda customer longer than that. I've played all the Elder Scrolls games. I recently tried to play Battlespire and Redguard again. They were on sale on Steam. I just couldn't get past the graphics >< I grew up with crap graphics I ain't goin back I haven't played Morrowind or Skyrim lately. OH, speaking of... it would be awesome to have random Woolley Mammoths drop from the sky in ESO like they did in Skyrim. Always made me laugh.

Pretty sure they treat any chargeback as immediate fraud and close accounts since it is basically taking money out of their pocket when it occurs.

This is correct. Anything that looks like this automatically triggers the ban on the account.

From what OP has said, they assumed charges would not go through on one of the accounts which is never a good idea to assume what will happen with a financial situation. Granted, we are only hearing one side of the story and will never have the full picture for privacy reasons.

Vanathi wrote: »

@fizl101 I could. I'm not going to. They "permenently deactivated" my account without anyone looking at it. Their automated system did it. If they can't be bothered to actually provide some customer service to a customer of almost 10 years then I no longer want to do business with them.

This is a choice. While I hate to see someone go through financial crimes as you have, assumptions were made that were incorrect which seems to be part of the situation.

Vanathi wrote: »

I'd like to know how they justify permanently suspending my account without refunding the 56 days left on my subscription or allowing it to run its course and then hang me out to dry.

It is spelled out in the TOS. When there is reason to ban an account they do not have to issue a refund.

In the end, Zenimax is clearly trying to work with you per the history of this thread. Not wanting to work with them as you indicated in one of the posts I quoted does not help the situation. If you want to play your account again it is best to help them help you. Again, this is a choice.

Good luck whichever direction you go.