Crown Store Gifting Update – October 2023

YetAnotherLinuxUser

I would certainly hope that this situation will resolve itself not by people jumping through hoops to gift items but by people losing interest in gifting items. Begging to spend money to gift items is ridiculous.

reefjunkie

My appeal ticket status has stated "Agent researching"for over 24 hours. - After waiting for over a week for any activity.

If any of my employees had to spend more than 24 hours looking into whether an end user was a saboteur / inside attacker, my director/CEO would be questioning why I'm wasting resources hunting for problems that don't exist and likely recommending I see a therapist about my paranoia issues.

Apparently I need to rattle the cage from a different direction.

YetAnotherLinuxUser

OR you could just resign yourself to not giving them more of your money?

Elsonso

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YetAnotherLinuxUser wrote: »

OR you could just resign yourself to not giving them more of your money?

Winner!

Ezhh

YetAnotherLinuxUser wrote: »

OR you could just resign yourself to not giving them more of your money?

Some of us buy ESO+ for reasons entirely unrelated to crowns, then have some spare around the end of the year. We're not all spending anything on the game we wouldn't otherwise.

reefjunkie

Ezhh wrote: »

YetAnotherLinuxUser wrote: »

OR you could just resign yourself to not giving them more of your money?

Some of us buy ESO+ for reasons entirely unrelated to crowns, then have some spare around the end of the year. We're not all spending anything on the game we wouldn't otherwise.

Correct. And the others have a valid point as well. [snip]

This is customer service at pretty much its worst. I would hate myself if I worked for an organization doing this and I sat quietly and allowed it to happen.

[edited for petition/protest]

Elsonso

reefjunkie wrote: »

This is customer service at pretty much its worst. I would hate myself if I worked for an organization doing this and I sat quietly and allowed it to happen.

I blame the gaming industry. Live services need good customer support. Responsive. Helpful. Empathic. [snip]

Unfortunately, that is like garlic and crosses for a lot of games

[edited for bashing]

CrashTest

Can we still contact support to unlock gifting on our alt accounts if our main account has it unlocked?

Elsonso

CrashTest wrote: »

Can we still contact support to unlock gifting on our alt accounts if our main account has it unlocked?

You can, but what I found out is that your main account does not count towards your alt accounts. Your alt account must be all the things they want, without benefit from your main account.

edit: fixed grammatical mistake

althangoran

@ZOS_Kevin

How long should a ticket requesting that gifting be enabled take to be resolved?

I know that as a community we will never know the complete list of requirements that an account must meet in order to have this service enabled if it wasn't done automatically on October 11th. However, this account has been active since December 6th, 2018 and has been part of an active guild for that entire period. I am currently an ESO+ member and have been, save one month, since April 7th, 2021. I have purchased multiple crown packages as well. This account has never had any actions taken against it so I'm at a loss as to why this was never enabled in the first place.

I submitted ticket 231116-004679 and as of this morning that status is still "waiting on an agent". I was hoping to have this done before the crown store sale on DLC's ends, presumably at 10:00am EST on Monday, November 20th. It may not seem like much to some but to others, including myself, the 40% that can be saved currently on DLC's is to good a deal to pass up.

If you could review this it would be greatly appreciated.

Althangoran

derkaiserliche

y

Elsonso

althangoran wrote: »

I submitted ticket 231116-004679 and as of this morning that status is still "waiting on an agent". I was hoping to have this done before the crown store sale on DLC's ends, presumably at 10:00am EST on Monday, November 20th. It may not seem like much to some but to others, including myself, the 40% that can be saved currently on DLC's is to good a deal to pass up.

They have previously stated: 7 - 10 days.

In my experience, this is not an exaggeration.

Shara_Wynn

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

I keep getting told that I do not have an active account or enough activity on my account. I am guessing because they are just looking at ESO website login activity.

I have sent screengrabs of my billing history via Steam, of the number of hours I have played via Steam and when I last played with the most recent event in the screengrab for context. I have sent screenshots of my account on the ESO website where it states that I have an active ESO subscription/account via Steam. I don't know what else to do to prove I have an active account.

I am really frustrated and disappointed. I would have thought that ZOS would have had someone in customer support who was capable of verifying customers who use different platforms to log in to their account and manage their in game purchases and subscriptions.

Any advice welcome.

Ilsabet

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

I'm on Steam, and my gifting was enabled 9 days after submitting a ticket without having to jump through any further hoops. Not sure what to tell you about making it happen, other than to keep responding to the ticket as some other people have had to do.

Shara_Wynn

Ilsabet wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

I'm on Steam, and my gifting was enabled 9 days after submitting a ticket without having to jump through any further hoops. Not sure what to tell you about making it happen, other than to keep responding to the ticket as some other people have had to do.

Happy for you.

May I ask if you are a member of a guild and if so if you regularly partake in guild activities? I am wondering if this is the reason people are being refused?

As for me they keep closing my tickets and saying that I can no longer reply to them

I am a member of two guilds in the game but I don't really do any in game guild stuff so maybe if you play this game solo, then you cannot have gifting enabled?

Is there anyone who isn't a member of a guild in the game who has had gifting enabled?

Ezhh

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

I'm on Steam. It took me about two weeks of back and forth with support to get it unlocked, during which I received only copy/paste replies (other people showed me they had identical replies), and my ticket was closed with them saying I am not eligible. I simply replied to reopen the ticket over and over stating that I would like to appeal, and listing off requirements that have been stated and how I meet them. They eventually told me I was now eligible, though I didn't change any of my behavior or activity in that time, and I didn't try to send them any proof of activity.

I am active in in-game guilds, both selling from a guild trader and doing trials with people I am in guilds with. But I was also doing these things through all the time they said I wasn't eligible.

Shara_Wynn

Ezhh wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

I'm on Steam. It took me about two weeks of back and forth with support to get it unlocked, during which I received only copy/paste replies (other people showed me they had identical replies), and my ticket was closed with them saying I am not eligible. I simply replied to reopen the ticket over and over stating that I would like to appeal, and listing off requirements that have been stated and how I meet them. They eventually told me I was now eligible, though I didn't change any of my behavior or activity in that time, and I didn't try to send them any proof of activity.

I am active in in-game guilds, both selling from a guild trader and doing trials with people I am in guilds with. But I was also doing these things through all the time they said I wasn't eligible.

Thanks for your reply, glad you got it enabled eventually!

I guess I will just keep trying, other than selling items in guild trader, I don't really do much with my guild, though I should as they do lots of cool stuff! I just never seem to have the time to commit to things at the times they are planned. I just hope this isn't what is stopping me from being able to gift as I think that would be pretty poor if it were.

Ilsabet

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Ilsabet wrote: »

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

I'm on Steam, and my gifting was enabled 9 days after submitting a ticket without having to jump through any further hoops. Not sure what to tell you about making it happen, other than to keep responding to the ticket as some other people have had to do.

May I ask if you are a member of a guild and if so if you regularly partake in guild activities? I am wondering if this is the reason people are being refused?

I'm in a couple of trade guilds, although my activity is largely limited to store listings, sending in gold for raffles each week, and chatting in guild chat occasionally. I'm not sure how much of that ZOS would track, and I agree with you that being "active" in-game shouldn't be tied to guild membership.

I hope you'll be able to get through to them eventually.

valenwood_vegan

Shara_Wynn wrote: »

Has anyone who plays ESO via Steam managed to get Crown Store gifting enabled and if so what did you do to get it enabled?

Similar to what others have reported, it took weeks of back-and-forth with support. My first ticket was very rudely closed after I was told I was ineligible. I opened a new one and added an update to the ticket to very specifically list the reasons why I thought I should be eligible (like, hours played; eso plus sub; crown pack purchases; active in multiple guilds)... and about a week after that I was approved. Not the best process. Def keep trying until you get an adequate response!

DovNiky

@ZOS
What is an: "in-game ESO community"?
Does something like that even exist on Playstation?
I know about Discord but that's not "in-game"...
And what for should I talk with people in another different applications...
Only to recive the right to send my friends some Crowns!?
I mean I play the game like 6+ hours a day have ESO+ since 2 years or longer and can't gift Crownstuff to friends!? Doesn't make sense to me...

So I just bought 14k Crowns on Playstation to have no use for it... nice, realy nice...

My Playstation-ESO Account was created 2021 or even earlier and has some hard titles, why should I risk to lose this Account by trying to scam someone?

I realy dont get it...

Elsonso

DovNiky wrote: »

@ZOS
What is an: "in-game ESO community"?

I realy dont get it...

I don't think anyone does, and we have been asked to not speculate. What I do know is that at least one account that poses no risk for gifting is being denied approval to gift. It is an interesting business model.

Edit: That account has since been granted gifting authority.

Trundik

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Trundik wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin 7-10 days is way to long. Why don't you extend current store goods list? Nearly impossible to find people with enabled gifting in less than a day untill october set will disappear. Thats not fair at all.

As for the concern around Crown Store items leaving, while we understand the frustration, a lot of this is on a schedule that is more or less set in stone, as any changes will impact the rest of the calendar year. That being said, we will pass this concern on to our teams incase there is any room for an extension. No promises, but we will pass it on.

So how about bringing it back? Will it be possible under Christmas spirit inspiration?
@ZOS_Kevin

Ardaghion

I'm not hopeful that my wife's account will be enabled for Crown gifting. My wife hasn't played for a few years and probably won't play again but has over 85k Crowns. Being that inactive likely means no gifting.

I haven't played for 18 months and restarted a new toon after doing a fresh start. As a returning player I would appreciate her gifting me so that all the money put into her Crowns won't go to waste. I would hate to see those Crowns just sitting there unused until the game shuts down.

I could play on her account but I don't want to try to play both accounts. Plus we are both on Xbox and when she's not working she's playing BDO, about 6 hours a day. That doesn't give me much time to play her account, not to mention that I also put in time on Starfield and BDO as well.

Edit: I had my wife respond to the ticket explaining the situation and gifting on her account was enabled soon after.

Arunei

Wow, nice to see that even after all this time, there's been no actual communication about why people are having so many problems. The only question that was actually answered was one to do with removing gifting from an account.

Hey ZOS, remember how you keep telling us you're working on communication? To the point where it's basically a meme? It's things like this whole debacle that make it clear those are just empty words.

"We don't want bad actors to know how to circumvent the new list of criteria" really feels like just an excuse. Certain criteria aren't going to be able to be faked no matter if people know the whole list or not. The 6 month rule for example. Even if I knew there was a rule saying "account must log in for 10 hours minimum every week", and I used a bot to achieve that...I still can't fake the 6 month criteria. I can't fake "engaging with the in-game community", whatever that means (and makes it sound like solo players are going to ALWAYS be excluded for the ""crime"" of not wanting to interact with others).

So you really do need to make the whole list of new criteria clear, and just go from there. CS can (I'm assuming) track every criteria on the list, from account age to transaction history to chat history and so on. I will admit I don't know how long that info is held on to, but they should be able to tell just by comparing what people are saying in the tickets against the account history to tell if someone is trying to lie and get gifting turned back on.

If someone claiming they play X hours a week, spend Y amount of in-game currency, always have a year-long sub active, have been playing since 2019, do X number of Y dailies every day/week, and other specific details...then you should be able to verify all that. And if the account reflects all that, stuff that can't be faked...then why would that account not be able to gift? Someone trying to commit fraudulent activity isn't going to be able to fake any of that in order to get around those criteria, even if they know all of them. So the secrecy really is pointless and just making this whole thing more complicated and terrible than it should be.

For the record I don't know if I can gift or not, haven't tried. My billing account doesn't have the whole "crown gifting enabled" banner, but in my transaction history shows gifting as being added, so...I'm assuming I can. I should probably try but I never remember to do it whenever I'm logged on.

karthrag_inak

So, there is my main account, started in Beta in November 2013, 20 full cp 2801+ characters, gm of small but active trading guild, over 15,800hours playing, ~40k achievement points. And probably ~$5k spent on this game through all chapters and expansions, 7+ years of eso+ and an ungodly number of crown purchases.

And then there is the alt account, started a few years ago with the thought that perhaps expanding would be great fun - if 1 account is fun, perhaps 2 would be more fun. After 35 levels, becoming the gm of -another- guild, and 2+ years of a 2nd eso+ account, it became abundantly apparent that no, this was not going to be fun at all, and I was not interested in doing all of this all over again. So there's a balance on this account of 20k crowns, but I cannot gift them to my main. I was told this twice, in no uncertain terms and with no room for further appeal - kinda rudely actually (basically "We're not going to grant this for you and so we're going to close this ticket"), that apparently I do not show consistent game play activity and/or be active in an in-game ESO community prior to submitting your application to have this privilege on my alt account.

Because, and get this....apparently I may be a "BAD ACTOR". and so should not be given the "privilege" of spending the imaginary game money I purchased with very real actual money on the account I want to play on instead of the account I took an obviously ill-considered chance on.

Because, you know, it's impossible to review my purchases and playing habits on these accounts - it's so arcane and unfathomable how two accounts using the RL same address and credit card, and emails that are only different by a single character, could -possibly- belong to the same person.


This is all really insulting, to be honest.

karthrag_inak

@ZOS_Kevin If I have an alt account that I do not wish to play anymore, and I want to gift the 20k crowns from that account to my main (15.8k hour+ account) how can I go about this?

liliub17_ESO

It seems my main account had gift-giving re-enabled in October. My second account (only 4 years old, practically brand new ), however, doesn't regardless of daily login, multiple characters, and frequent play, - and to be honest, I never thought to check since I did not request it disabled. I'm not feeling optimistic about reinstatement given the above-mentioned, unresolved issues.

To disable a feature for the entire player base because some people were taking advantage of an in-game currency policy seems a bit ........ counter-productive and user-unfriendly.

Seriously, ZOS. I run two accounts, both ESO+. I'd think it would have been automatic to have enabled a service which never should have been disabled unless at the customer's request.

@ZOS_Kevin

Note: My alt account has a single line item in its billing history - the redemption of a pet code. I play through Steam exclusively, so my purchase history shows there. My main account has all sorts of transactions in the ESO billing history here, primarily because I was a Beta tester!

Aerin

Okay, so I bought ESO Plus on my alternate account, and now I can't gift the crowns to my main account because the account is from April 2023. Is this correct?
Is this April Fool's, out of season?

Elsonso

Aerin wrote: »

Okay, so I bought ESO Plus on my alternate account, and now I can't gift the crowns to my main account because the account is from April 2023. Is this correct?

You have to request access to the Crown Store gifting on the alternate account.

Fair warning... If the alternate account is lacking in the last criteria, which is probably normal for alternate accounts, it may get rejected.

If it is rejected, it might work to make the case for the alternate account based on the main account, but expect to have to lay it out in detail to help them see it clearly. Even with that, it might not work. We don't really know what the criteria they are looking for consists of, and we have been asked to not speculate.

On my second attempt, I got my second account authorized, so I know it is possible.

liliub17_ESO

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

........ we are in the process of manually re-enabling Crown Store gifting access for select players who meet our specific criteria.(snip)

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. (snip)

If you do not have access to Crown Store gifting after it is re-enabled on October 11, 2023, and wish for a review of your account, please visit https://help.elderscrollsonline.com and submit a Customer Support ticket. Please choose the Billing / Purchase / Code category then Platform > I have a question about a sale / offer > I want to send gift items from this account. (snip)

This tells me that there really isn't a set criteria, it's being at least partially made up as they go. Of course, they're also not going to let all the criteria out because invariably there will be dishonest clowns who will turn around and ruin it again for the rest of us.