Crown Store Gifting Update – October 2023

aza_sel

YetAnotherLinuxUser wrote: »

Security through obscurity is historically bad business.

a six month old account does seem useful for a criteria. The actual level of the gifting player seems like it would be a better criteria though. Players with high levels, 500 or 1000 or more certainly have a lot more to lose if you shut down their accounts for fraud, though i guess a dedicated player could reach cp 1k in a couple months if they had no job but had an income.. so maybe a 6 month old account is a better determiner after all.

I play since 2016, eso plus from the beginning, log in every day cp more than 2500 and cannot gift.
OK, i dont mind, cause i save up my crowns from eso plus for houses, but its frustrating, that you dont find sellers. Not sure if that does pay of for ZOS.
Who needs gold?
guildmasters in need of traders or new players in need of gold

Trundik

aza_sel wrote: »

Who needs gold?
guildmasters in need of traders or new players in need of gold

also carry runners, they take a lot of gold as reward, bc later they may convert it to items or donations or whatever. Or house decorators

Ezhh

Second reply from support ticket:

We are unable to grant your request to activate Gifting on this account at this time. We will now be closing your ticket. If you wish to appeal this decision, please submit a new request.

No name signed at the end, so this again looks like a copy-paste affair with no actual review of my account info. But again took days to get this reply after the first one. I've responded to reopen it saying yes, I want to appeal and wish to know why I am not eligible. I am hoping that works instead of opening a new request because if I do that the process will just start over.

@ZOS_Kevin I don't like to ping people here, so my apologies, but can we please get a meaningful update or some kind of assistance with this.

I believe my account is around 5 years old, on ESO+ almost the entire time, purchased every chapter, played on both PC EU and PC NA (2.3k/900CP respectively), 54k+ achievement points on main server, never been informed of any violation, very active in the ESO community, have almost every trifecta (dungeon and trial) completed, and I log in almost every single day. I don't gift often (Christmas was the last time I did), but I believe it's not unrealistic for me to want to have the option, instead of being left feeling like I have done something wrong.

I am clearly not the only one in this situation, so some more info, be it from you or better support responses, would be really appreciated.

xosaara137ox

Ezhh wrote: »

Second reply from support ticket:

We are unable to grant your request to activate Gifting on this account at this time. We will now be closing your ticket. If you wish to appeal this decision, please submit a new request.

No name signed at the end, so this again looks like a copy-paste affair with no actual review of my account info. But again took days to get this reply after the first one. I've responded to reopen it saying yes, I want to appeal and wish to know why I am not eligible. I am hoping that works instead of opening a new request because if I do that the process will just start over.

@ZOS_Kevin I don't like to ping people here, so my apologies, but can we please get a meaningful update or some kind of assistance with this.

I believe my account is around 5 years old, on ESO+ almost the entire time, purchased every chapter, played on both PC EU and PC NA (2.3k/900CP respectively), 54k+ achievement points on main server, never been informed of any violation, very active in the ESO community, have almost every trifecta (dungeon and trial) completed, and I log in almost every single day. I don't gift often (Christmas was the last time I did), but I believe it's not unrealistic for me to want to have the option, instead of being left feeling like I have done something wrong.

I am clearly not the only one in this situation, so some more info, be it from you or better support responses, would be really appreciated.

Just open a new one, I did what you did and got that exact message again, after another 3-4 days waiting.

Not sure if opening a new one will actually work either, I’m in the same boat as you, but replying to this one did nothing for me. I’ve sent another few replies to the same one, I’ll keep you posted on if it’s worth bothering or I get the same copy/paste a 3rd time, but I am burnt out and disheartened that a company I’ve invested so much time and money into is treating me like a criminal money launderer.

ShadowWolf44

If you are not initially eligible, you are welcome to contact Customer Support after we re-enable Crown Store gifting functionality tomorrow.

[/quote]

Ok, so I've met the criteria for some time- Yet, I can't even gift a simple item to my gamertag on the same Xbox. So I contacted Customer Support. Then again. Zero responses. Nothing's "good to go".

And I've seen a few people ask if this includes gifting crown crates- you never responded to any of those questions, why?

In addition, I created a post about how ESO should use "ESO Plus" as a guide, to get gifting back, at least for those of us who pay for this service- as most "scammers" are not going to be ESO Plus members, (they wouldn't waste the money), plus, it would give a "roadmap" TO THEM.

There were many things that could have been done for this massive ESO screw up. Yes, unlike others, I'm not going to gush praise for something that was NEVER the LOYAL PLAYERS fault, but for which, we've all had to pay the price. I mean, we PAY for ESO Plus- yet, a valuable, important aspect of the game was stripped from us, because ESO didn't have the foresight to see this problem developing... something that HAD to be visible for some time one would think.

Many of us lost items we really wanted to have, because of this. And yet? All I see are very rare "updates", yet never a formal apology to those of us who've had to pay the overall price for this. Just a "Thanks for your patience & understanding". Something we've always had, yet many times are FORCED to have, while not having any part in the problems YOU'RE dealing with. It's like it's just assumed that we're going to take stuff like this, because it's our job to do so.

I assure you, it's NOT. The sad part are all the people that heap praise upon y'all, when it's not deserved. As you said yourself, your last update was over a MONTH ago. So you've been "working hard".... that's YOUR JOB. It is NOT OUR JOB, to have to deal with this- we're the consumer, we pay your salaries- keep you employed.

Yet LOYAL players? Are the most over-looked, taken-advantage-of group in this game... anyway, that said:

I DID notice ESO was able to up prices on many things in the store, and re-configure things, so that the player would have to invest even more, if they wished to achieve certain items.

Also, things like reducing the number of Crown Gems we get from crates- I'm guessing because you "gave us" the Endeavor system. Basically, just taking away crown gems, to pay for the system- I mean, if this WASN'T the plan? It's still a "thing".

Sorry to post truth, I know I get a lot of hate for doing such horrible things, and have my "stars" stripped because I'm honest, and still stay w/in the TOS, but hey, we can't all be perfect, right?

Ezhh

xosaara137ox wrote: »

but I am burnt out and disheartened that a company I’ve invested so much time and money into is treating me like a criminal money launderer.

Yes, this is it exactly.

I'm someone who has even banned people from my ESO guild Discord server for promoting things that break ToS. If there is something about my account they find suspicious I'd like the chance to discuss and clear my name.

Please do keep me updated if the new ticket helps. I am worried if I go that route it will just drop me into an infinite loop with the same thing repeating again.

tincanman

It's the shame induction that seems to bite: people wondering what on earth they're falsely perceived to have done wrong (with zero infractions, actually have made multiple reports of bugs/gold sellers, playing various aspects of the game, daily log ins, substantial achievement pts etc) to be dismissed as lower class, pseudo-criminalised riff-raff by what is increasingly looking like yet another broken system.

@ZOS_Kevin this is producing too many false positives for comfort. Posting because I/we still care enough - a little less implicit blame-shifting and shaming of customers denied this 'privilege' and a little more exposition and explantion would be both helpful and appreciated.

Also, actual real human customer support rather than broken bots rubber-stamping these false positives please.

YetAnotherLinuxUser

Well i could speculate but that would probably be regarded as spreading conspiracy facts, regarded as theories. I can tell you though that none of my accounts seem able to gift, though none of the ones i am playing are more than a few months old so i def havent hit the six month mark on the ones i'm playing now. But i am over cp 700 and do sub presently on eso+. Also i have bought crowns before and never had a problem with any transaction.

HedgeHugger

I can gift.
My OH, who has the same game time as me (maybe one day less), can't.
He makes lots more money than me through guild shops.
All dungeons, story etc, we've ever done has been as a pair.
Apart from farming, all our game time has been done together, joined at the hip.
Our accounts would look extremely similar if you looked at content done.
He put in a ticket, on the first day gifting was re-enabled.
He hasn't had a single reply yet.

As an update...
As of the 20th, gifting was enabled.

tincanman

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We are not publishing the full criteria list as that just gives a roadmap for bad actors to look like real players...

It seems to me that, ironically, this is exactly what will be achieved as all those honest players affected as false positives share their experiences and empirically determine in a sort of distributed system way exactly what those criteria are quite by accident.

aussie500

Since there was NO reason to exclude most of the players from gifting, I doubt any potential rip off merchants will be working out much, other than ZOS is plain lazy, and who ever dreamed this disaster up is not too bright. All they are going to do is anger yet more players

BahometZ

Curious about how this is supposed to work for all the console players who have no functional billing history on their Bethesda account, regardless of crown purchases and eso+ subscription. If I have to jump through too many hoops I'm probably not going to bother. ESO is on the downward slope.

baconaura

still unable to gift crowns which is sad, and frustrating at the same time. @ZOS_Kevin can you help out? I've met all the initial published criteria, and if there are additional criterias, you guys need to be more clear or provide some sort of timeline when gifting will be re-enabled for everyone. or let us know why we can no longer gift.

I've had my account since 2018 on xbox. played on PC since 2021, bought the game multiple times on different platforms( steam, stadia, dmm, regular version). have had ESO+ throughout, and spent atleast $1500 on crowns on PC via their crown store, and probably similar amount on xbox over the years during crown sales on the ZOS store, in USD currency. I havent had a CoC violation since 2021 when a few character names were forced to change. I've bought all the chapters so far, and active raiding weekly, and spent money on crowns a few times this year. So I dont understand what else is missing here. It feels like customer service isnt helping, and just auto rejecting and not bothering to help.

I've tried to appeal, and got a canned response, where it feels like they dont even look into my account(account is opened since 2018 on xbox, 2021 on PC, so definitely more than 180 days). What are these in game features? I've bought crowns, I've spent crowns, I've raided, i've sold stuff on traders, quested, did dailys, participated in events, talked in guild chat, and zone chat.


There needs to be more clarity and transparency please



the response I got after appealing:

Greetings!

Gifting eligibility is determined by an evolving list of factors including but not limited to the account being at least 180 days past its first login and previous engagement with in-game features. We are unable to disclose what the eligibility criteria are. Gifting will remain disabled by default for all accounts who did not meet our initial criteria until further notice.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Sarannah

xosaara137ox wrote: »

but I am burnt out and disheartened that a company I’ve invested so much time and money into is treating me like a criminal money launderer.

Agreed with this. ZOS should manually check every account above a certain spending, maybe 100$. Without the need for a ticket.

If they don't trust the source, they shouldn't have accepted the money in the first place.

Morrowstars

I sent a ticket in on the 12th and I still haven't received a reply. Meanwhile I hear people have had several replies or been rejected with accounts that are 7+ years old.

I just want to reiterate the point some of have made here of how wonderful it feels to be a loyal customer of multiple years, to have spent hundreds of dollars with said company, to be an active member of the community, have an account in perfect standing and yet to be treated like a criminal.

Truly a lovely experience.

As someone that truly loves this game, it is very disheartening and worrying to see this kind of behavior. There is no way these fraudsters have old accounts with a history of valid transactions. There's just no way. And yet those of us with said accounts are being treated like criminals.

I'm worried about all the people that will leave the game because of this and it's really heartbreaking to see.

RMW

After a back and forth with support they re-anabled my ability to gift (rather reluctantly I have to say but oh well). I had to explain what I wanted and why I should have gifting enabled a couple of times with each new person I talked to.
As others have stated this should not be the way. I get that you have to find a way to fight of the scammers. But when you communicate that we can write support and they should re-able gifting and then it is not the case it is bad communication between ZOS employees and you have to do better. This should not be a customers problem. Just talk to each other and then to us.

Ezhh

baconaura wrote: »

Greetings!

Gifting eligibility is determined by an evolving list of factors including but not limited to the account being at least 180 days past its first login and previous engagement with in-game features. We are unable to disclose what the eligibility criteria are. Gifting will remain disabled by default for all accounts who did not meet our initial criteria until further notice.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

I received this reply last night as well, exact same wording, as my third response from support. They keep trying to close my ticket. I keep replying to re-open it. I feel like nothing I have said has actually been read by anyone and that this system is designed to frustrate people into giving up. (As you can see from so many replies in this thread - it's working. Many people who do want gifting access are simply not bothering due to how useless support replies are and the hassle it takes to get through to someone.)

@ZOS_Kevin I am sorry, but pinging you once again. This isn't an acceptable way for customers of many years to be treated. Please can you follow up and try to do something to assist us?

valenwood_vegan

I 1000% agree, this is not an acceptable way to treat customers. We are replied to with a list of criteria that our account already meets or exceeds, and then just given the same copy-paste responses. I'm not looking for the "secret list" of criteria here, but it feels like the tickets aren't even being read / my account isn't actually being looked at and they're just auto-replying trying to get rid of me.

This is almost exactly the same thing that happened with the "temporary crown crate gifting solution" that required going through support - where many people were rejected with no explanation and generic and irrelevant information about the terms of service. Now long-time players are being rejected for gifting with generic copy-pasted responses and support seems completely unwilling to help.

The message I get from all of this frustration is "we don't want you here." And you know, I increasingly don't want to be here anymore either so maybe it's for the best.

Wolfkeks

Second account got approved today after finally talking to a person instead of getting an unholy amount of automated messages reciting the criteria you need.

There definitely needs a follow up regarding the mixed messages of getting approved and how support handles it.

Hoghorn

long time player, got my gifting rejection email this morning, i won't pursue it further after seeing here how much effort it takes to overturn the denial. less cash for zos.

Elsonso

.

Wolfkeks wrote: »

Second account got approved today after finally talking to a person instead of getting an unholy amount of automated messages reciting the criteria you need.

There definitely needs a follow up regarding the mixed messages of getting approved and how support handles it.

You would think a second account would be rubber stamped if they already approved the owner.

They are squandering time.

YetAnotherLinuxUser

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

I 1000% agree, this is not an acceptable way to treat customers.

We are dealing with a corporation. we are not their customers, the shareholders are their customers, we are their viable assets. And yes it's a crap way to treat your viable assets.

valenwood_vegan

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_MattFiror

Does this meet your expectations for how someone with many thousands of hours in your game... subbed to plus... buys chapters and crowns every year... never had an action taken against their account... active in large guilds and many aspects of the game... should be treated? Serious question.

"Greetings,

We are unable to grant your request to activate Gifting on this account at this time. We will now be closing your ticket. If you wish to appeal this decision, please submit a new request.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team"

I mean this is the equivalent of say, showing up at the registry of motor vehicles to resolve a registration issue and having the window slammed shut in my face. Absolutely wild.

virtus753

YetAnotherLinuxUser wrote: »

valenwood_vegan wrote: »

I 1000% agree, this is not an acceptable way to treat customers.

We are dealing with a corporation. we are not their customers, the shareholders are their customers, we are their viable assets. And yes it's a crap way to treat your viable assets.

Some of us are both. Not big enough to matter in either respect, of course.

Belegnole

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_MattFiror

Funny thing. I've had an account just shy of ten years. I am ESO+, play almost daily, don't get in trouble, etc. But I'm not allowed to gift others....

I find this highly offensive, and though I wish you cared. I know you don't care at all.

aussie500

I am happy now, all three accounts can gift, I do not think it was going through the recommended way that did it though, I logged in on my main account that had gifting, chose the other option rather than gifting and asked if I could have gifting enable on my other two accounts. Finally gifted myself that Necrom furnishing pack, time had almost run out.

Thank you Elder Scrolls Online Team.

Grimmhawk

My ticket still has "Waiting on agent" and this is 8th day ,but checked my account just for hell of it and it now has gifting enabled tonight.

So ,could be a delay on people getting it enabled back from first day it was turned back on.

Elsonso

.

aussie500 wrote: »

I am happy now, all three accounts can gift, I do not think it was going through the recommended way that did it though, I logged in on my main account that had gifting, chose the other option rather than gifting and asked if I could have gifting enable on my other two accounts. Finally gifted myself that Necrom furnishing pack, time had almost run out.

I am actually sort of surprised they responded to that. It is not The Procedure.

xosaara137ox

Ezhh wrote: »

I received this reply last night as well, exact same wording, as my third response from support. They keep trying to close my ticket. I keep replying to re-open it.

Keep trying on your current ticket thread! My gifting is enabled this morning, it took more replies than I would have liked, but I did get there eventually with the 1 ticket.

Malonyi

They just enabled me to gift too. Just gotta be patient.