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Character Restore, Lack of support given
Ajaxduo
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Hello I'm writing here to get a better response and advancement with my ongoing Ticket (Question Reference # 140523-012607) with CS as I am in short unhappy with the results so far. I am picked up by a different CS member each time and given mixed messages. I'm past being infuriated with the whole process, This isn't a topic about how bad the CS is or anything of the sort. I am just stressed and want to get to the bottom of it and have it resolved so I can get back to playing my character.
On 21/5/14 - My account was 'hacked', I use this term loosely as I honestly have no idea how it happened. I have never shared my information, followed links to insecure websites, or anything else of the sort and after using multiple anti viruses my system checked out clean. Whether this is related to the ongoing bots/gold sellers, I was receiving up to 20 spam mails a day from bots. Around the same time I lost access to the Hotmail account tied to the game account. The next morning when I tried to log in to my E-mail I was warned with the 'it looks like someone else might be using your account' message. Luckily I was able to change the password via the use of a back up mail and using the forgotten password process. In doing so I was able to change my game accounts details to make it secure again. I then proceeded to log into the game and found that I had lost the majority of my characters including placeholders for names but most importantly my main Veteran Rank 2 Sorcerer, Aerre. In short I was furious.
So it has been a total of 23 days and no results, nothing. Almost an entire months sub wasted on being told to wait. Yet it is evident that others have had their characters restored whether it was their fault or not, example. So I am posting here in hopes of getting some feedback and to get this ticket ironed out and to finally get this character restored. I want to play this game, but your giving me a hard time doing so.
Edited by Ajaxduo on June 14, 2014 11:14PM On 21/5/14 - My account was 'hacked', I use this term loosely as I honestly have no idea how it happened. I have never shared my information, followed links to insecure websites, or anything else of the sort and after using multiple anti viruses my system checked out clean. Whether this is related to the ongoing bots/gold sellers, I was receiving up to 20 spam mails a day from bots. Around the same time I lost access to the Hotmail account tied to the game account. The next morning when I tried to log in to my E-mail I was warned with the 'it looks like someone else might be using your account' message. Luckily I was able to change the password via the use of a back up mail and using the forgotten password process. In doing so I was able to change my game accounts details to make it secure again. I then proceeded to log into the game and found that I had lost the majority of my characters including placeholders for names but most importantly my main Veteran Rank 2 Sorcerer, Aerre. In short I was furious.
22/5/14 - I submitted my first ticket asking for a character restore, I was asked by CS member MariaHelena for relevant character information which in my response I gave plenty of.
22/5/14 - The same day I'm told by CS member Andre that the it is being investigated.
23/5/14 - I am sent a E-mail by CS member Calvin advising me how to secure my account if I am concerned that the account maybe compromised.
23/5/14 - On the same day I am contacted by CS member Sara that the characters original name is being used (I made a placeholder copy as I did not want to lose the name) and I was advised that I would need to choose a new name for the character to be restored with. Telling me that "However, there are several workarounds to this issue, such as give Aerre a last name or a cognomen (I used this workaround when making my first character as my normal handle was being used at that moment), add special symbols like underscore, and use variations of the original name.".
23/5/14 - After stating multiple names that could be used as a replacement for the character to be restored, CS member Andrea forwards my ticket to the 'Elite Team' to begin the restore process.
23/5/14 - I send in a ticket inquiring if there has been any advancement with my character, I am sent a completely unrelated reply by CS member Connor. "Thank you for contacting the Elder Scrolls online Customer Support team!
It is with much regret that I have to inform you that we cannot restore your character." "I can look into this further but there is no facility available to restore the character, I really am sorry I know the effort that has gone into the development of this character and the frustration you now feel due to this but unfortunately there is nothing further we can do.". Yes clearly I am frustrated but how does this make sense? I've already been told a character restore was possible as it was being forwarded to the Elite Team. Either this is a mistake or someone just wanted to carelessly close my ticket.
24/5/14 - I send in another ticket asking if there had been any progress, this time I am given a polite reply by CS member Bruno.
"I am sorry to hear that you have lost your character. :C
This issue is still being investigated, as soon as we have an answer, we will contact you. Allow me to apologize for the whole situation and the delay.
"In the end everything is alright. If it's not alright, it is not yet the end."
"
27/5/14 - After patiently waiting and being put off playing the game I send in yet another ticket asking if there had been any changes, CS member Dafala replies to me. "I am sorry about your issue, I have read all of your emails back and forth with our customer service team. Your character is currently under investigation, but I am sure you have heard that before. I just want you to know that in the meantime while we try and restore your character, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to level up your other characters and obtain vet content with them. I know that this form of advice is not the news you would like to hear, but to be honest I would rather you enjoy the game and explore the new content of Craglorn while you are patiently awaiting news on your character restoration. If you have any other questions I will be more than happy to assist you."
28/5/14 - I receive a new ticket response from CS member Ronald! They are ready to restore my character. "I apologize for the long wait in receiving this response regarding your issue. We now have the ability to restore your character back to its former glory. We can restore it now and you can chose a new name, or you can respond to this email once you have deleted the placeholder so that you can keep the same name."
28/5/14 - I reply and send in a ticket stating the new name I would like them to use and CS member Ronald replies. "Thank you for the quick response. We are still working out this process so we will go through all the steps we can to get this character restored. Thank you for the information."
29/5/14 - I send in a ticket asking about the progress of the character restore, it has been over a week without being able to play my main with my friends and level in Vet content. CS member Ian replies to me. "Thank you for following up! As a citizen of Tamriel, it warms my heart to see such zeal from our heroes! Reviewing your previous tickets, I am seeing your original ticket (140523-012607) is currently being handled by our mages. Rest assured, They are working diligently to re materialize your dearly departed Sorcerer."
31/5/14 - I left the issue for a couple of days to let them work on the issue, so I send in another ticket asking about the progress of my character restore. CS member Hayden replies. "After going through your contact history, I am incredibly sorry to hear of the fate of your Sorcerer Aerre. I also would like to thank you for all of your patience and courtesy while trying to get this issue resolved. I completely relate to your feelings on losing your character, I know how much time and effort that is put into a main character. Most importantly thank you for your time, as we get this resolved."
2/6/14 - Again I have given CS a couple of days to work on my character restore, CS member Telmo replies. "I can confirm that this situation is being investigated right now and your previous submitted ticket (140531-000656) was sent to the appropriate team it is just a matter of time until they contact you regarding your situation.
I apologize for not taking a more active approach but it is not possible at all for me to do that right now, I will update your case and let the "Elite Team" know that you have contacted us again and that you are waiting for an update."
4/6/14 - Another 2 days...CS member Francisco replies. "What i would kindly ask you to speed things up is to provide us with three different names for your new "Aerre" character so we can rename that one for you. After this process we will be able to restore your deleted sorcerer. Apologies again on our side for experiencing this, rest assure we will solve this issue for you." I had already given alternative names...
5/6/14 - CS member Patricia updates the original ticket and closes my inquires about the progress with the restore.
10/6/14 -13 days after being told my character was ready to be restored CS member Paulo updates and merges tickets to the original ticket and closes my inquiry ticket. Still nothing...
10/6/14 - 40 minutes later CS member Candice tells me that she has restored my character and that I will prompted to rename it when I log into the game. Hurray! I log into the game to find a random Lvl 7 character that I can't even remember creating with an entirely different name, lost for words. I reply and alert Candice that she has restoring the incorrect character and she replies "In order to assist you properly, I am escalating your concern for more specialized investigation. We are working hard to make sure you are completely satisfied with your experience, and I am not passing your concern off where it will be lost in the void of a Daedric portal."
10/6/14 - Late that day CS member Ronald contacts me again and tells me that there was complications with the restore and they are working on it and he will keep me updated.
13/6/14 - I ask if there has been any luck with fixing the process or if there is any alternative method to the restore. Ronald replies that they are working hard to fix the fault with the character restore process and will update me accordingly.
13/6/14 - Ronald and I discuss an alternative method to using a direct character restore. By viewing the character information he can set a new Sorcerer to the same level, skill levels, etc as the one which was lost. I created a new Sorcerer ready for this.
13/6/14 - Ronald tells me that he needs to "jump a few hoops"? and prepare the blank slate character. He asks for a time we can meet in game the following game to begin the process. I gave him a open time frame I could be on, but received no reply.
14/6/14 - Ronald replies to me, "I apologize for the amount of time it has taken to get further information. Like I mentioned, I had to jump through a few hoops. Unfortunately, at this time we can not move forward with just setting you up as a template of your old character. We will need to wait for the correct ability to restore the character completely as there are just too many things can cause issue with this process. This was found after extensive testing of the process in a test environment. "
22/5/14 - The same day I'm told by CS member Andre that the it is being investigated.
23/5/14 - I am sent a E-mail by CS member Calvin advising me how to secure my account if I am concerned that the account maybe compromised.
23/5/14 - On the same day I am contacted by CS member Sara that the characters original name is being used (I made a placeholder copy as I did not want to lose the name) and I was advised that I would need to choose a new name for the character to be restored with. Telling me that "However, there are several workarounds to this issue, such as give Aerre a last name or a cognomen (I used this workaround when making my first character as my normal handle was being used at that moment), add special symbols like underscore, and use variations of the original name.".
23/5/14 - After stating multiple names that could be used as a replacement for the character to be restored, CS member Andrea forwards my ticket to the 'Elite Team' to begin the restore process.
23/5/14 - I send in a ticket inquiring if there has been any advancement with my character, I am sent a completely unrelated reply by CS member Connor. "Thank you for contacting the Elder Scrolls online Customer Support team!
It is with much regret that I have to inform you that we cannot restore your character." "I can look into this further but there is no facility available to restore the character, I really am sorry I know the effort that has gone into the development of this character and the frustration you now feel due to this but unfortunately there is nothing further we can do.". Yes clearly I am frustrated but how does this make sense? I've already been told a character restore was possible as it was being forwarded to the Elite Team. Either this is a mistake or someone just wanted to carelessly close my ticket.
24/5/14 - I send in another ticket asking if there had been any progress, this time I am given a polite reply by CS member Bruno.
"I am sorry to hear that you have lost your character. :C
This issue is still being investigated, as soon as we have an answer, we will contact you. Allow me to apologize for the whole situation and the delay.
"In the end everything is alright. If it's not alright, it is not yet the end."
"27/5/14 - After patiently waiting and being put off playing the game I send in yet another ticket asking if there had been any changes, CS member Dafala replies to me. "I am sorry about your issue, I have read all of your emails back and forth with our customer service team. Your character is currently under investigation, but I am sure you have heard that before. I just want you to know that in the meantime while we try and restore your character, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to level up your other characters and obtain vet content with them. I know that this form of advice is not the news you would like to hear, but to be honest I would rather you enjoy the game and explore the new content of Craglorn while you are patiently awaiting news on your character restoration. If you have any other questions I will be more than happy to assist you."
28/5/14 - I receive a new ticket response from CS member Ronald! They are ready to restore my character. "I apologize for the long wait in receiving this response regarding your issue. We now have the ability to restore your character back to its former glory. We can restore it now and you can chose a new name, or you can respond to this email once you have deleted the placeholder so that you can keep the same name."
28/5/14 - I reply and send in a ticket stating the new name I would like them to use and CS member Ronald replies. "Thank you for the quick response. We are still working out this process so we will go through all the steps we can to get this character restored. Thank you for the information."
29/5/14 - I send in a ticket asking about the progress of the character restore, it has been over a week without being able to play my main with my friends and level in Vet content. CS member Ian replies to me. "Thank you for following up! As a citizen of Tamriel, it warms my heart to see such zeal from our heroes! Reviewing your previous tickets, I am seeing your original ticket (140523-012607) is currently being handled by our mages. Rest assured, They are working diligently to re materialize your dearly departed Sorcerer."
31/5/14 - I left the issue for a couple of days to let them work on the issue, so I send in another ticket asking about the progress of my character restore. CS member Hayden replies. "After going through your contact history, I am incredibly sorry to hear of the fate of your Sorcerer Aerre. I also would like to thank you for all of your patience and courtesy while trying to get this issue resolved. I completely relate to your feelings on losing your character, I know how much time and effort that is put into a main character. Most importantly thank you for your time, as we get this resolved."
2/6/14 - Again I have given CS a couple of days to work on my character restore, CS member Telmo replies. "I can confirm that this situation is being investigated right now and your previous submitted ticket (140531-000656) was sent to the appropriate team it is just a matter of time until they contact you regarding your situation.
I apologize for not taking a more active approach but it is not possible at all for me to do that right now, I will update your case and let the "Elite Team" know that you have contacted us again and that you are waiting for an update."
4/6/14 - Another 2 days...CS member Francisco replies. "What i would kindly ask you to speed things up is to provide us with three different names for your new "Aerre" character so we can rename that one for you. After this process we will be able to restore your deleted sorcerer. Apologies again on our side for experiencing this, rest assure we will solve this issue for you." I had already given alternative names...
5/6/14 - CS member Patricia updates the original ticket and closes my inquires about the progress with the restore.
10/6/14 -13 days after being told my character was ready to be restored CS member Paulo updates and merges tickets to the original ticket and closes my inquiry ticket. Still nothing...
10/6/14 - 40 minutes later CS member Candice tells me that she has restored my character and that I will prompted to rename it when I log into the game. Hurray! I log into the game to find a random Lvl 7 character that I can't even remember creating with an entirely different name, lost for words. I reply and alert Candice that she has restoring the incorrect character and she replies "In order to assist you properly, I am escalating your concern for more specialized investigation. We are working hard to make sure you are completely satisfied with your experience, and I am not passing your concern off where it will be lost in the void of a Daedric portal."
10/6/14 - Late that day CS member Ronald contacts me again and tells me that there was complications with the restore and they are working on it and he will keep me updated.
13/6/14 - I ask if there has been any luck with fixing the process or if there is any alternative method to the restore. Ronald replies that they are working hard to fix the fault with the character restore process and will update me accordingly.
13/6/14 - Ronald and I discuss an alternative method to using a direct character restore. By viewing the character information he can set a new Sorcerer to the same level, skill levels, etc as the one which was lost. I created a new Sorcerer ready for this.
13/6/14 - Ronald tells me that he needs to "jump a few hoops"? and prepare the blank slate character. He asks for a time we can meet in game the following game to begin the process. I gave him a open time frame I could be on, but received no reply.
14/6/14 - Ronald replies to me, "I apologize for the amount of time it has taken to get further information. Like I mentioned, I had to jump through a few hoops. Unfortunately, at this time we can not move forward with just setting you up as a template of your old character. We will need to wait for the correct ability to restore the character completely as there are just too many things can cause issue with this process. This was found after extensive testing of the process in a test environment. "
So it has been a total of 23 days and no results, nothing. Almost an entire months sub wasted on being told to wait. Yet it is evident that others have had their characters restored whether it was their fault or not, example. So I am posting here in hopes of getting some feedback and to get this ticket ironed out and to finally get this character restored. I want to play this game, but your giving me a hard time doing so.
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GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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GossiTheDog✭✭✭✭✭As far as I know they have no character restore method. The linked thread, they made a new character and upped it to level 34 by looks of it.0 -
Nebthet78✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Customer Service is getting worse and worse for this company ...
I have been waiting for over a month now for them to resolve my issue with the account of a friend who passed away after only playing 4 hours of the game and I am the one that purchased the game and time card for him and still have the codes.
Far too many characters to list any more.1 -
Mallow✭✭✭OMG what a nightmare. So sorry, OP.
I can't imagine a modern MMO not having a character restore function and not having a CS department see to it PROMPTLY. I used to play Rift and once I deleted a character I thought I'd never want to play again. A couple of months later, I decided I wanted to. Sent in a ticket and the next day my character was restored. They did tell me this was something they only did once per account, but that seemed fair.
ESO, get your act together please.4 -
Ajaxduo✭✭✭✭✭GossiTheDog wrote: »As far as I know they have no character restore method. The linked thread, they made a new character and upped it to level 34 by looks of it.
This is what I was lead to believe until several CS members stated that they could do it. But as you said there is an alternative available...OMG what a nightmare. So sorry, OP.
I can't imagine a modern MMO not having a character restore function and not having a CS department see to it PROMPTLY. I used to play Rift and once I deleted a character I thought I'd never want to play again. A couple of months later, I decided I wanted to. Sent in a ticket and the next day my character was restored. They did tell me this was something they only did once per account, but that seemed fair.
ESO, get your act together please.
I am a NiM raider on SWTOR and burnt out on content recently, ESO was supposed to be my way to relax and take a break from it all. I know from experience that SWTOR has a very smooth, fast restore with no issues whatsoever with restoring lost characters. As does DCUO. Like you said Rift does to and I'm guessing the same goes for the many other MMO's. So...why not ESO? Even though the claim they can do it, then some CS members claim they can't. It's confusing and misleading. It's been a very stressful process and in all honesty I know it's an often used phrase but it seriously makes me question as to why I am keeping my Sub running. QQ I know...
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GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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Leesha✭✭✭I'm not trying to be a smart ass here or come off as rude so please don't take this the wrong way. In those 23 days, you could have leveled another character and jumped right back in where you left off.
I completely understand how frustrating this is but if it were me, knowing how slow these things can be, I wouldn't wait around for them to fix it. You are paying for the time, may as well make good use of it.
Until they get some sort of authenticator system in place for us to protect our accounts, they definitely need to get a stable character restore in place.2 -
Ajaxduo✭✭✭✭✭I'm not trying to be a smart ass here or come off as rude so please don't take this the wrong way. In those 23 days, you could have leveled another character and jumped right back in where you left off.
I completely understand how frustrating this is but if it were me, knowing how slow these things can be, I wouldn't wait around for them to fix it. You are paying for the time, may as well make good use of it.
Until they get some sort of authenticator system in place for us to protect our accounts, they definitely need to get a stable character restore in place.
I understand your approach, leveling a character is one thing but doing so knowing I put hours into character progression, farming skill points, leveling crafting skills, skill trees, weapon trees, guild and world trees, questing, achievement hunting, etc. I'm instantly put off starting from scratch. It's not an option I would take honestly, I put a lot more than 23 hours into the character itself. ><Edited by Ajaxduo on June 15, 2014 2:28AM- - -
GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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GossiTheDog✭✭✭✭✭This is what I was lead to believe until several CS members stated that they could do it.
Yeah, CS need to stop telling people they can do things which I don't believe they can.0 -
Ajaxduo✭✭✭✭✭GossiTheDog wrote: »This is what I was lead to believe until several CS members stated that they could do it.
Yeah, CS need to stop telling people they can do things which I don't believe they can.
Well it's evident they can as you can find posts of cases where people characters have been restored or a template copy made. I think it's just that a large portion of the CS are inexperienced or not forwarding issues to the correct department.- - -
GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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Heinzy✭✭GossiTheDog wrote: »This is what I was lead to believe until several CS members stated that they could do it.
Yeah, CS need to stop telling people they can do things which I don't believe they can.
Well it's evident they can as you can find posts of cases where people characters have been restored or a template copy made. I think it's just that a large portion of the CS are inexperienced or not forwarding issues to the correct department.
You are probably right, and the support we deal with is probably not official (100$ the support we deal with doesn't have ZoS on their pay stubs.)
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Fairydragon3✭✭✭✭I was looking through your situation and found a flaw in you strategy. Don't expect to get the same representative when opening a new ticket, CST's don't work like that. You can however reply to the emails you get from representatives to keep in contact with them. This is most likely what happened to some tickets of yours. It's possible that they are waiting for your reply. Personally if this issue lasted a week I would call, but calling only gets you so far in a single conversation. Looks like the issue is now, ZOS need to fix their own tools0
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Ajaxduo✭✭✭✭✭Fairydragon3 wrote: »I was looking through your situation and found a flaw in you strategy. Don't expect to get the same representative when opening a new ticket, CST's don't work like that. You can however reply to the emails you get from representatives to keep in contact with them. This is most likely what happened to some tickets of yours. It's possible that they are waiting for your reply. Personally if this issue lasted a week I would call, but calling only gets you so far in a single conversation. Looks like the issue is now, ZOS need to fix their own tools
Almost all of the replies are done to the initial ticket via mail. I only recall 2 be doing in game to get other CS members to chase up the situation. But yeah I agree if it continues I will call them, in the meanwhile I'm forced to wait for an undetermined time until they fix this 'issue' they are having. I've never had a ticket exceed a waiting period if a week in all my mmo gaming, it's very disappointing to be honest. Especially for a sub only game.- - -
GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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Ajaxduo✭✭✭✭✭Another day goes by and I hear nothing. Come on CS for the love of God.- - -
GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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Mallow✭✭✭I'm surprised one of the CMs hasn't stepped in to this thread to help. Maybe you could try sending the bat signal to Gina Bruno or Jessica Folsom?2
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Ajaxduo✭✭✭✭✭Big props to CS Ronald! He stayed in touch with me for the whole period and personally oversaw my character restore. They finally have a character restore function in place. I was also re credited my lost subscription time. Now all we need is a security key function or something similar to add an extra layer of security to our accounts!Edited by Ajaxduo on June 22, 2014 3:36PM- - -
GM of Verum Aeternus, PC EU
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Alliel✭✭Good to hear it worked out for you. After over a month waiting they still didn't restore my character. It is really frustrating to wait over a month for something other mmos can do in hours...Edited by Alliel on June 23, 2014 12:39PM0 -
tst✭✭i just want to say using the email ticket system is like asking to be set aside..... call the 24/7 phone number try not being rude and ask for your game time to be restored.... as for hackers hackers are hackers u cant get around it sry for your lose but if your system was hacked u might want to try protecting your pc better there are things u can do.... the internet is a nasty place make strong passwords2
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Fairydragon3✭✭✭✭i just want to say using the email ticket system is like asking to be set aside..... call the 24/7 phone number try not being rude and ask for your game time to be restored.... as for hackers hackers are hackers u cant get around it sry for your lose but if your system was hacked u might want to try protecting your pc better there are things u can do.... the internet is a nasty place make strong passwords
agreed, i've started to call CS's more often now even if it's just a question. was recently impressed by how easy the Blizzard CS was when I got the wow itch a while back0