CUSTOMER SERVICE IS STILL HARD, BUT WE WON’T BAN YOU NOW [Author: Tick]
A couple of days ago, we told you about a hacking incident involving EverQuest servers. In the good natured (and sometimes not so good-natured) ribbing that followed, there were many suggestions for how to make their security policy appear a little less draconian. Some of the suggestions were good, some of the suggestions were bad.
One of the suggestions was taken.
When John Smedley, of Sony Online Entertainment began posting to the thread, Flex had this to say to him:
Do this:
Account Security
As the population of Norrath increases, so too do issues regarding stolen or compromised accounts, and/or accounts that have been transferred from one player to another in violation of the User Agreement. These issues – and the time it takes to investigate and attempt to resolve them – hugely detract from the time that SOE’s customer service staff have to devote to providing quality customer service to issues that impact upon the gameplay experience. Accordingly, SOE must remind all players that:
(1) Account security — whether it be password protection, running virus checks, disabling file sharing, or any other element of making sure accounts are not stolen or compromised — is the sole responsibility of the account owner.
(2)Any and all stolen and/or compromised accounts that are reported to SOE will be *suspended*, and no items will be reimbursed. Any player found to be involved in an account theft will have any and all of his/her accounts banned.
Prior to banning any accounts reported as compromised, we will conduct a thorough review of the accounts in question and determine the appropriate course of action on those accounts. Accounts will only be banned based on information gathered through our investigation and not merely as a result of external allegations.
– The EverQuest Customer Service Team
____________
See the difference?
The response was brief and to the point:
You know what.
I do see the difference.
I’ll actually bring it up on Tuesday. Maybe this statement can be reworded.
John
Well, it’s Tuesday, and the new policy (right down to the asterisks) is up.
Mad props to Flex for saying it straight and to Verant for taking a suggestion and doing something with it (I still want to know if Aradune’s account was in danger, though).