Crown Crate Gifting Temporary Solution Process

irswat

Buying crown crates is part of my eso dopamine loop. If I cant buy crown crates with my gold I have no use for gold in the amounts I earn it and as such have no reason to engage in carries or trade guild. The only reason I log in at this point is for my 2 core raid nights and for daily endeavors. I am sure I am not the only person like this. On the bright side division 2 is fun!

Vulkunne

Support finally responded to my ticket.

I'm not going to post any of that here however judging by what was said, I think its safe to conclude this is just meant as a Token system to allow Crown Crates to still be gifted. It exists so they can keep the gifting option 'alive' for Crown Crates. That's it and I have since then just backed off from this hot madness entirely, as I said before. Its just something to send gifts for a friend or guild mate or whatever.

This is like a small cup of unsweetened Tea, not a 6 pack of red bull or that one weekend in Vegas with empty liquor bottles (of all kinds) strewn *everywhere* the following morning. No where near as fun, however without this system no one would get anything. My only remaining gripe about this is it would have been better to have more concise information posted sooner rather than later and not just assumed so many people were intending to break TOS.

Fontecc

Thought I'd share my experience with customer support while attempting to gift crown crates to 4 friends.

Mind you, I have no history of ever selling crowns on my account. I did buy some QoL uopgrades from Crown Store with gold (the banker, assistant, inventory expansion pets), that's pretty much it.

So I filled the form as @ZOS_Kevin said in post #1. The gifts are:
-1x Crown Crate (400 crowns each) each for 3 people that won a guild contest;
-4x Crown Crate (1500 crowns) for a stream giveaway;

So in total 4 requests using this system. I have proof that everything is a gift.

For the 4x Crown Crate I got this answer


Still no idea what the issue was/is. We both meet the requirements.

For the 1x Crown Crate (so, this answer 3 times):


Every answer (and my requests too) after that were copy+paste:



Just some bolded text and that I was suspicious lol. Based on what?


Please get this system sorted. There's clearly some different guidances these automatic replies or CS agents are following. It's incredibly frustrating - I am trying to buy a product from you, spending money, and something is preventing it!

EDIT: UPDATE HERE

DragonRacer

In the height of absolute irony, the Zeal of Zenithar event just went live and there is a GIFTING PROMOTION in the Crown Store right now, where gifting 5 event tickets will get you 4 Unfeathered Crates.

Just thought that was wildly funny given current events.

Soraka

Maybe support is holding a protest due to the increased load of crate gifting requests lol.

Arunei

GooGa592 wrote: »

With all this hubub and back and forth it seems like people should just stop trying to force the issue.

Just stop trying to use this system to "gift" crown crates. Maybe if crown sales slow down enough ZOS will decide to re-enable crown crate gifting.

I fear if this situation is harped on too much they will just remove the ability to gift anything from the crown store.

Who's forcing the issue? We're asking for much needed clarification because of vague and accusatory phrasing from CS that's making it sound like there was an unannounced policy change regarding buying and selling Crates (or anything else) for gold.

There's no option from what I've been told for people filling out the form to type anything in, it's all drop-down selections. Yet people keep getting these responses that using the system we were TOLD BY ZOS to use is against the ToS. There's no way to even specify if you're trying to sell Crates yet people are getting responses back like they are, and some of the responses are making it almost seem like you can't even gift things in general, which we KNOW isn't the case since gifting itself isn't disabled, and there's even a Ticket gifting event going now.

So at this point what we want from them is to clarify if buying or selling things from the CS for gold in general is allowed still, or if there's been a policy change. It should be an easy question to answer, and there's no reason why we shouldn't have gotten that answer by now.

MachineGod

Has anyone actually been able to use this system yet and have it "just work"?

valenwood_vegan

To me it really suggests a lack of leadership in regard to ESO. Different teams possibly not communicating, not on the same page, saying contradictory things, and no one at the top coordinating.

This thread and all the associated rumors being allowed to spiral on and on for over a week now.

Customers attempting to use the system they've been told to use being given confusing, accusatory, and imo almost threatening responses. (While apparently a select few are being allowed to gift crates? How is this even being decided?).

And even though we can't seem to get an answer here, there's now a gifting promotion running, lol. Can't someone at ZoS just clear this up and put it to rest? Silence doesn't solve problems.

RicAlmighty

What a trainwreck. Would have been better had they not put this “workaround” in place at all.

mattaeus01b16_ESO

Fontecc wrote: »

Thought I'd share my experience with customer support while attempting to gift crown crates to 4 friends.

Mind you, I have no history of ever selling crowns on my account. I did buy some QoL uopgrades from Crown Store with gold (the banker, assistant, inventory expansion pets), that's pretty much it.

So I filled the form as @ZOS_Kevin said in post #1. The gifts are:
-1x Crown Crate (400 crowns each) each for 3 people that won a guild contest;
-4x Crown Crate (1500 crowns) for a stream giveaway;

So in total 4 requests using this system. I have proof that everything is a gift.

For the 4x Crown Crate I got this answer


Still no idea what the issue was/is. We both meet the requirements.

For the 1x Crown Crate (so, this answer 3 times):


Every answer (and my requests too) after that were copy+paste:



Just some bolded text and that I was suspicious lol. Based on what?


Please get this system sorted. There's clearly some different guidances these automatic replies or CS agents are following. It's incredibly frustrating - I am trying to buy a product from you, spending money, and something is preventing it!

My guild leader just gave away some free crates for an event they held. I'll ask them if they have done it successfully or not.
Also, non of this surprises most people.

Zalathorm

Putting the ToS wording aside for a moment...

The biggest remaining question is what specifically is flagging people?

We have Person A gifting to Person B

- Is Person A ineligible to send or is Person B ineligible to receive?
- Is it just that particular combination of people (like who have a past history of deals), or would person A be denied in sending crates to ANYONE? Or would person B be denied in receiving crates from ANYONE?
- How far back is customer support looking to find cause for denials?
- Is there anything person A or person B can do to become eligible if they are currently flagged?

Katheriah

I'm sorry, this is kinda sad but also hilariously predictable...

RedrunnerFred

To people who want to use the system don't bother or you will be punished. Earlier today I got in contact with one of my friends I tried to get the crates gifted from. This was my third attempt. I noticed upon grouping that the only text I could see from him was on guild chat. The methods of group, zone, and whispers ceased to work. Both he and I had "Trading Disabled" and could not mail anybody in game. Upon looking this up I noticed that it was called a social ban.

Apparently, customer service thought that we were engaged in fraudulent activity. That is the only explanation that makes sense. If you assume it is a bug it is extremely unlikely that two people would suffer the same thing at the same time. So, if you want to dare use this system then beware because you may be shadow banned indefinitely.

DragonRacer

Really cannot understand why @ZOS_Kevin hasn't weighed in on this again. We have major questions regarding something that was allowed in the game for years that we now question if a TOS change has occurred or is imminent due to the replies and behavior of customer support.

And now you have people like the above poster being given SOCIAL BANS IN-GAME for trying to simply use this gifting system that we were literally officially told to use.

That's pretty unacceptable.

Either some rules overall in this game have changed that nobody has been informed about via an updated TOS to sign or customer service has had horrible miscommunication and is now PUNISHING PEOPLE for trying to us the very system we were told to use.

This is a full week of fear and chaos left completely unanswered.

Soraka

It seems like usually when he goes oddly radio silent it means some behind the scenes sorting out is having to happen.

MachineGod

It's beginning to sound more and more like this system needs to be taken offline and a review done to improve or simply outright disabled because it is simply not working for the majority as voiced here (Unless ZOS wants to tell us otherwise).

Once again one of the key issues ZOS is facing again is communication, within a service industry (for example enterprise IT) even a "we are still working to improve/investigate" or even "we have seen the reports" is better than a silence like this. This is a common practice.

Kirawolfe

Arunei

DragonRacer wrote: »

Really cannot understand why @ZOS_Kevin hasn't weighed in on this again. We have major questions regarding something that was allowed in the game for years that we now question if a TOS change has occurred or is imminent due to the replies and behavior of customer support.

And now you have people like the above poster being given SOCIAL BANS IN-GAME for trying to simply use this gifting system that we were literally officially told to use.

That's pretty unacceptable.

Either some rules overall in this game have changed that nobody has been informed about via an updated TOS to sign or customer service has had horrible miscommunication and is now PUNISHING PEOPLE for trying to us the very system we were told to use.

This is a full week of fear and chaos left completely unanswered.

Because he can only say what he's allowed to say, and also if he hadn't been given anything to tell us, there isn't really anything he CAN say. Everyone has to keep in mind that he and the other Community Managers are middlemen, they can only tell us the information that they have to begin with.

The ones we should be directing our ire at are the people who haven't given them the info to pass to us. This situation is getting more and more out of hand, and still nothing, no official word on any of the questions or matters that have come up since Kevin posted last.

muscle_witch

Soraka wrote: »

It seems like usually when he goes oddly radio silent it means some behind the scenes sorting out is having to happen.

Not necessarily - I've been following the old thread since March and he also just goes radio silent when the answer is a big ol' sad trombone noise of "we're looking into it, I promise"

ETA: Basically, the radio silence is indicative of nothing other than the fact that ZOS' customer communication would have to improve significantly to be called abysmal

DragonRacer

Arunei wrote: »

DragonRacer wrote: »

Really cannot understand why @ZOS_Kevin hasn't weighed in on this again. We have major questions regarding something that was allowed in the game for years that we now question if a TOS change has occurred or is imminent due to the replies and behavior of customer support.

And now you have people like the above poster being given SOCIAL BANS IN-GAME for trying to simply use this gifting system that we were literally officially told to use.

That's pretty unacceptable.

Either some rules overall in this game have changed that nobody has been informed about via an updated TOS to sign or customer service has had horrible miscommunication and is now PUNISHING PEOPLE for trying to us the very system we were told to use.

This is a full week of fear and chaos left completely unanswered.

Because he can only say what he's allowed to say, and also if he hadn't been given anything to tell us, there isn't really anything he CAN say. Everyone has to keep in mind that he and the other Community Managers are middlemen, they can only tell us the information that they have to begin with.

The ones we should be directing our ire at are the people who haven't given them the info to pass to us. This situation is getting more and more out of hand, and still nothing, no official word on any of the questions or matters that have come up since Kevin posted last.

Absolutely and I have the utmost respect for Kevin.

But by this point, a "this is being looked into" is kinda what I at least would have hoped for. I perfectly understand he can only comment when he has permission and directives from above to provide. But radio silence while players are now being given social bans for utilizing the system we were specifically given to use should at least merit a "this situation is being looked into" simply to know it has been heard/acknowledged.

Without that at bare minimum, we are all wallowing in the dark as concerns grow.

valenwood_vegan

I wasn't going to post this since I'm not directly involved with the question and answer... but since they still won't say anything to us here, this has been circulating in social media and guilds.

DragonRacer

Let me elaborate a bit more on why this new social ban situation is especially egregious.

There are GMs out there who have offered Crown Crates as part of guild prizes before. Think I even saw one or two of that nature be mentioned in here. Literally a GM donating their own Crowns they paid real life money for to furnish a Crate prize to a supportive guildmate.

Crate gifting gets shut off. ZOS says "use this form". They are gifting the crates, not exchanging money in the transaction (presumably, any of the such already occurred it is was, say, a raffle prize and now all they are doing is the prize distribution). GM fills out the form, ZOS goes "STOP, CRIMINAL SCUM! THAT'S A TOS VIOLATION NOW BECAUSE WE RANDOMLY DECIDED IT WOULD BE TODAY. THIS IS CALVINBALL, WHERE THE ONLY RULE IS THAT THE RULES CONSTANTLY CHANGE!"

GM and/or recipient get social bans in-game because they are terrible, awful people following the rules ZOS gave after the rug was pulled out from under them. A GM who now cannot list things in their own guild trader (during the biggest selling event of the year - Zeal of Zenithar), cannot send mail or trade to anyone (have fun running a guild auction or raffle like that), and who knows what else - does it stop them from speaking in guild chat at all? Stop them from placing trader bids? From editing Message of the Day?

That would be crippling. To the GM and their guild. All because they tried to gift crates from a prize that was ongoing before Crate gifting was turned off.

I'm sorry, but this is messed up. Everyone going through in-game punishments for simply trying to use this system they were directed to use is messed up.

Sorry to be upset about this, it's not even something that has affected me personally (and Lord knows I will NEVER offer crates for any reason to anyone whatsoever after this), but that post about social bans shows it can happen and probably is happening right now and it makes me seethe.

valenwood_vegan

And yes, if people are getting punished in-game for attempting to use the crate gifting system, the entire system should be shut off and it should be reassessed. Unacceptable.

Vulkunne

Kirawolfe wrote: »

Its not a trap. *Mumbles angrily to self*

Why does everyone always think its a trap.

These are not the Crowns you've been looking for.

muscle_witch

Vulkunne wrote: »

Kirawolfe wrote: »

Its not a trap. *Mumbles angrily to self*

Why does everyone always think its a trap.

These are not the Crowns you've been looking for.

Eh, at this point it's really just a question of malice versus incompetence - coin flip in my opinion

Vulkunne

muscle_witch wrote: »

Vulkunne wrote: »

Kirawolfe wrote: »

Its not a trap. *Mumbles angrily to self*

Why does everyone always think its a trap.

These are not the Crowns you've been looking for.

Eh, at this point it's really just a question of malice versus incompetence - coin flip in my opinion

That ... kind of sounds like gambling. And clearly, gambling is bad, not what's going on here. Make no mistake.

muscle_witch

Vulkunne wrote: »

muscle_witch wrote: »

Vulkunne wrote: »

Kirawolfe wrote: »

Its not a trap. *Mumbles angrily to self*

Why does everyone always think its a trap.

These are not the Crowns you've been looking for.

Eh, at this point it's really just a question of malice versus incompetence - coin flip in my opinion

That ... kind of sounds like gambling. And clearly, gambling is bad, not what's going on here. Make no mistake.

Oh goodness me, no! We wouldn't want gambling of any kind - luckily, in this case it's not gambling because heads or tails you're still getting screwed : )

Vulkunne

muscle_witch wrote: »

Vulkunne wrote: »

muscle_witch wrote: »

Vulkunne wrote: »

Kirawolfe wrote: »

Its not a trap. *Mumbles angrily to self*

Why does everyone always think its a trap.

These are not the Crowns you've been looking for.

Eh, at this point it's really just a question of malice versus incompetence - coin flip in my opinion

That ... kind of sounds like gambling. And clearly, gambling is bad, not what's going on here. Make no mistake.

Oh goodness me, no! We wouldn't want gambling of any kind - luckily, in this case it's not gambling because heads or tails you're still getting screwed : )

Yo Dawg... The house always wins... as they say.

SimonThesis

Honestly we can't trust anything they say anymore.

Necrotech_Master

after first hearing about this process to gift crates, my first thought was "this is terrible, going to have significant problems, and be way too much work to actually bother with" lol

and over the course of this thread i want to hate to say that i was right (i even predicted in my head that people wouldnt use this for randoms such as the larger crown/gold trading services lol)

i am not at all surprised about this, considering it feels like this process was instituted at the last minute because people were angry about the crate gifting being disabled for 4 months (prior to this process) and the last month with this process not making it any easier and getting a lot of mixed results lol