Warning to Players SE is STILL Banning!Follow

@Thayos

I sent the e-mail to you with all the chat logs and BBB response, including links to some other places I've been discussing this issue. Thank you for your interest in this.

Something for people in the UK, but you can make a Subject Access Request against SE for information relating to your account. They can charge a fee for this, but they must provide the information or a valid reason for not doing so, or they can be hit with heavy fines by the ICO.

I've today put in a request, wanting all transcripts, copies of any logs relating to my account, along with discussions as to why I have been jailed. SE have 40 days to respond.

Funnily enough though, I telephoned their customer support office today, and they have no knowledge of the DPA and planned to refuse this. Consulted with legal team where I work though, and they need a good reason not to provide it.

If you would keep us informed, I would appreciate it.

I followed the advice of TaiStyle, and telephoned SE this morning to make enquiries.

I was told that SE will not disclose this information becaues it is not their policy to do so, before I was cut off.

Following this, I telephoned the Information Comissioners Office, www.ico.gov.uk, to get them to clarify things for me. Basically, what they have said is that SE's policy is irrelevent, and that they must comply with the law. I'll be writing to them today, and will put up a template letter if anyone wanted to borrow it. I work in another government department, and have friends in our legal team who can possibly help if needbe.

Edited, Jul 30th 2009 6:44am by Tissera

Thayos,

I will be sending you a copy of letters my friend had mailed to SE. He never got back a direct response, even calling the POL Center to inquire they did not want to help him.

I feel sad to feel glad...

However, how can corporations learn to listen to customers? By being dragged to court by them.

Square-Enix, you have squandered whatever good will you had on poor business decisions without due consideration you've had on your consumers. I sincerely hope you can bounce back from this and become wiser for it. I hope you can learn to respect the laws of the land you operate in.

And I hope you learn that running customer-affecting-decisions through local 3rd party legal and marketing consultants, who understand the laws and public opinion of acceptable corporate behaviour, despite the high cost saves a lot more money than having the company on front page news, dragged through court and loss of business.

Just updated the first post with Thayos's post about gathering information and added #10 which I confirmed today calling POL that they are indeed auto banning ips with more then one trial account. (IP ban is only for trial accounts)

Our JP members in our linkshell have submitted long letters to the Special Task Force regarding our linkshell mule and the destruction this has caused in our 6 years of gaming together.

I am confused, is this new cards? Or ALL cards like if I cant get this changed over by tomorrow then Im screwed?

It's almost as if SE is trying to get us to quit.

I imagine them staring in disbelief and saying "My god, you people are still here? Why won't you quit, WHY WON'T YOU QUIT!?!"

Then they crank it up another notch.

To help translate the current situation into something they can sympathise with, here's an illustration:

You joined a Japanese miniature golf club, with fancy wheels and mini-Disneyland, fun stuff, you made friends there, win inter-team competitions and earned some prizes.

The miniature golf club has had a problem, recently members have been taking to selling points/tickets/etc, with some members playing 24-hr a day, obviously via impersonation. People complain, and management forms a special task force that for awhile does very well in removing such cheats.


But the problem never goes away, its reduced but not removed. Then one day, instead of looking for such "touts", the management decides that if members fit certain behaviors of cheats, therefore that member IS a cheat.

One day, you find that you've been banned from the club. All your clubs, trophies, friends and points are now inaccesible. The membership refuses to explain WHY you were banned and refuse to return any of your belongings citing that they belong to the club and your monthly subscription does not constitute ownership.

It is this similar situation that you are in... except its virtual and on the internet.


Hopefully this will help you in speaking with AG and staff w/o going into the complications of what an MMO is and what's Final Fantasy, etc.

I won't be surprised if they do. Japanese Management is traditionally hands-off, traditionally siding with their employees in disputes. Simply put, whoever is in charge of FFXI can essentially BS his way out of this one and continue to keep his job... unless shareholders in Japan get wind of this then there might be an epic sh*tstorm of Godzilla proportions.

I just got a response different from what Phallucy got:

We appreciate this customer’s concern and can guarantee this matter has been brought to the attention of our management team. The customer is welcome to pursue a ban complaint with proper verification with the PlayOnline Information Center. However, in the end we need to alert this customer that SQUARE ENIX, INC. may suspend, terminate, modify, or delete any PlayOnline account at anytime, with any reason or no reason, with or without notice (PlayOnline Member Agreement, Article 3.2). We apologize that this customer feels like they were treated unfairly in any way. We must make it clear to this customer that there is nothing the BBB or management can do that will result in the reversal of the action taken on this account.

Something really bothers me about this response... If you read closely it says "We must make it clear to this customer that there is nothing the BBB or management can do that will result in the reversal of the action taken on this account." Square Enix of Japan has full control of this situation...