I am a multi-year daily ESO player. I abundantly meet all of the criteria to unlock crown store gifting. Account in good standing, no safety or TOS violations or issues, the only incident. was over a year ago, an auto-ban for buying too many crowns through the Epic store in one day with real money which was fixed upon review by a human. I am a daily player with 20 chars which I have unlocked and are all maxed or near-max with all crafting skills and riding proficiency. I’m active in 2 guilds (Nahfahlaar’s Horde and Just the Gear, Ma’am), support guild events, chat, help other guildies, and am a regular trader contributing to guild treasury.

I’m also one of Zenimax’s best customers, having spent more than $10K US on authorized crown purchases with big purchases at each quarterly crown sale. And ESO Plus, of course. Despite this, multiple requests to unlock crown store gifting have been denied without explanation. I’ve asked for clarity to understand what criterion I allegedly do not meet in appeals. The response? No clarification or explanation, just a broken record that the request will not be granted.

Being a builder/trader is a main part of my in-game persona. Not being able to gift crown store items to other players has become a limiting factor impeding my ability to progress in this role. Others who have played far shorter times and who have contributed less to their guilds and the online ESO community have been granted crown store gifting privileges.

I have not been able to obtain any coherent explanation for the denials, despite multiple requests. If “your account must show consistent game play activity and/or be active in an in-game ESO community” has some kind of secret meaning to the ZeniMax team outside of the standard and ordinary sense – daily player, active in guild events, chat, trading, donations, help other players over time, etc., please share. I’m not big on mind reading.

Frequently, I see people complaining online on Reddit or YouTube that ESO is dying and the census is dropping. I’ve actually been happy with the game world and content and have been a loyal player for years. But the inability to get a basic and normative service element unlocked, despite abundantly meeting the stated criteria in every way, is limiting. I’ve grown frustrated with the lack of competency and reasonableness from customer support in addressing this matter, and certainly see the basis for the forum complaints about the company falling behind because of not listening to players and not addressing community needs. It’s not clear how they believe that this is a successful business strategy, how the game will remain viable and the livelihood of employees will remain stable without responsive and reasonable behavior.

Ultimately, how ZeniMax wants to run its business is up to them. But I won’t continue to beat my head against the wall against arbitrary conduct with no progress or sign of responsiveness. If they are willing to lose their best customers by refusing to allow qualified players to gift cosmetic items with no impact on gameplay – despite advertising this feature and granting it to far less active players – so be it.

So I’m making my final appeal on this forum. I would ask ZeniMax to either (1) unlock crown store gifting for my account, as should have occurred long ago, or (2) to provide a clear, specific description of what I need to do to unlock gifting that they will honor. Should this occur, we’re good, and I will continue to play and support ESO. Conversely, if the company does not understand its own interests and the need to adhere to its own stated policies, then we’re at the end of the road. I will take my business to competitors and will discontinue any further purchases from ZeniMax.

Current ticket number is 260131-001090. Thank you.