CustomerServiceForum
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Smacked with the banhammer, or: It came from the Customer Service Forum
Like most online games, Blizzard has the power to suspend or ban people from WOW, and they're not shy about using it. Half of the Customer Service Forum is full of people complaining about their banninations. Bannations? Bans. Of course, no one in the CSF has ever, ever done anything wrong with their account, and tend to go to ludicrous extremes to deny they've ever cursed, shared accounts, or gone AFK in the battlegrounds. The simple 3-hour or 3-day suspension is probably the most common form of ban. So you swore at someone, discussed the uses of a [Huge Brown Sack] in trade channel, or threatened to sic your homophobic congressman dad on them -- you get three hours or days to think about what you did wrong, and probably plot some revenge. There's also the "temporary permanent ban," which is what Blizzard uses when someone's account is hacked. You're "permanently banned" until they can figure out who really owns the account and how it was accessed. Then the ban is usually reversed, and stolen items are restored. The latter has happened to a couple guildmates of mine, and most were just happy to get their stuff back. The true permabans are usually reserved for the worst of the worst offenders -- although theoretically, any number of common activities (like account-sharing) can result in a permaban. Speedhacking, botting, gold farming, powerleveling, and of course removing walls in dungeons can get your account banned forever. Note: screaming, threatening, quoting the Bill of Rights, or being hideously rude to Blizzard will not get you your account back. Have you ever been banned, suspended, or warned for your in-game behavior? Do you have any funny or sad banning stories from your realm? Do you think Blizzard is too tough or too lenient with their banhammer?
New Customer Service Forum
Questions are frequently asked on the official forums that only receive a response saying that it's an issue that needs to be reported to a GM in-game rather than on the forums. Well, now people have a place to ask such questions on the forums, where everyone can see them - the customer service forum. The forum is frequented by Blizzard GMs and is littered with official Blizzard responses. There are already some helpful sticky posts here - one listing solutions to common problems and another displaying this week's most common issues. Technical issues should still posted about in the technical support forum (or the Mac technical support forum) and the bug report forum remains the best place to report specific bugs, but the customer service forum provides a place to discuss in-game issues that are not technical in nature.
