Locked out by mistake!

[Adhara]

Alright here's the story that happened to a friend of ours. He's been playing for a few years and never got a warning or anything. At the end of the summer he decided to cancel his account because he was starting college and decided that he wouldn't have time for GS. He said he wouldn't be coming back. My boyfriend and I suspected he might change his mind so we offered to take his two main characters on our premie accounts as locker chars in case he changed his mind. So his two chars have been in our care for a couple months.

Last month he changed his mind and decided to come back. He created a new account with a new character while the character transfer was in process. A couple days ago, his two characters were transferred back to his new account. Last night he was pulled up by a GM and informed that he would be from then on locked out. The reason: his account had been traced to one that was already locked out. Utterly confused and shocked, he repeated that this could only be a mistake but the GM wouldn't hear of it. All he kept repeating was to write all his concerns/requests to the email for lockouts.

We have no idea what could have happened. He plays from college. The only thing we can see is someone else from the same college that was banned and the IPs were similar. He already emailed about it but I was wondering if any of you ever had anything similar happen and how it was resolved. I told him that when they finally realize it was a mistake, he should ask for compensation. I have in mind the lost days of experience multiplier among other things.

Advice? Suggestions?

[Silleck]

Wait it out and see how lockout handles this problem.

[HarmNone]

Might help if you guys wrote to lockout with a letter of support for him. One question....Has he ever shared his password? That could be a real stopper for him, if he has. :(

HarmNone

[Back]

I dunno Adhara... we've heard this a thousand times before. "Boo-Hoo! I was locked out! Damn GMs!"

Now, thats not to say that this might be an exception to that rule. Are we getting both sides of the story here?

The college IP thing might be a factor if all parties are innocent. You might ask your friend if he might not have left his account running as he left, as we've seen some people in libraries will take advantage of AIM in such a way.

[Adhara]

I know a lot of people have posted saying "I was locked out for no reason" while there was a very good reason they conveniently kept in the dark. I expected it would be brought up.

Let me assure you this is not a case like this. He only opened a new account a few days ago and got his characters transferred from our accounts about 2 max 3 days ago and he was locked out last night. While it is possible that he forgot to sign off from a public computer, I think the wording of the GM indicates that this is not the case. The GM didn't say he was locked out for violating a policy with any character of his account. He said they found a link between his new account and an account already locked up that made them think they were the same people, hence why we thought of IPs. I have no idea how they search for this kind of thing, if they use account info in combination with IP and credit card or what. If they ban users with IPs similar to already locked out ones, how does one prove his innocence?

[Back]

I've heard of places banning all AOL IPs, so, perhaps they are banning all IPs from his college. That majorly sucks.

[Xcalibur]

Is it illegal to keep credit card information when you terminate a service with a compagny?

I mean, if he left 3 years ago, all his personal details should just be erased, huh?

There must be an other reason, i.p. aren't a good reason enough to ban someone

[Adhara]

He didn't leave 3 years ago he left in september 2003 with a perfect record. I don't know if he created his new account with the same credit card or not but aside from that the only difference would be that up to september he played from home and now he plays from college.

[LordSagan]

3rd party emails about someone who has been suspended or banned do nothing. They are a waste of time, literally. The company cannot discuss their account with you, and someone's friend writing in and saying "but he's a good guy" doesn't help his case.

Adhara, I can give you some advice in this situation...but am hesitant to do it publically. If you're interested in my thoughts and advice on the matter, U2U me.

[Caramia]

Was someone else paying for his account before, and they got locked out? Sure he didn't share passwords?

A GM only requests a lockout. They've posted many times on the Simu boards that an SGM investigates the claim and then approves it.

[Adhara]

I'm sure he didn't share passwords and I'm sure nobody did anything with his characters.

As for billing, I don't know who paid before and who pays now, and who officially owns the account. So far, billing info and IP are the only leads we might have. My friend went home for thanksgiving so I haven't been able to ask him more questions but I will as soon as possible. The thing is, if the staff doesn't give him the precise reason he was locked out he won't be able to prove it has nothing to do with him and so far the GM in game refused to give any detail. When you go to jail in life you at least know what you're accused of so why is this different?

Edit: Also for those of you who wonder what he might have done to get the attention of the staff, the only answer we can think of is the character transfer. When he opened the account, all went well. He put in the transfer request to transfer his chars from our accounts to his and that is probably what prompted further investigation. Note, however that they DID approve the transfer. The day after the chars were transferred, THEN he was locked out.

[Edited on 11-28-2003 by Adhara]

[Xcalibur]

So he was charged 15 bucks per character and THEN they banned him?

AHHAHAH simu simu... all for the money.

Seriously it sucks for him, when you want to return to something you loved and you can't, it really blows.

[Parkbandit]

If I was indeed as innocent as this post claims... I would email billing@simutronics.com and give them the facts. Let them know where he plays, what his ISP is, everything.

Simutronics is a place where people work and people do sometimes make mistakes. If he really is innocent, then it's a simple case of probably having the same IP address as someone that was already banned. Hopefully, they will look into it deeper and let him play.

Good luck!

[Artha]

If he closed down his account, it's possible that the person doing it was really tired or new and locked it out.

[Adhara]

Artha it's his original account that was closed. The characters on it were transferred to me and my boyfriend and the account (then empty) was closed. There was nothing to try to reactivate so he made a new one.

He did write to lockout to find out more about it and I'm sure it will be resolved quickly. I didn't post about this to bash the staff. I know they can make mistakes. I was just wondering if it had happened to anyone here so I could hear about their experience and know more what to expect from lockout.

Thanks to all who took time to write I appreciate it.

[Edited on 11-28-2003 by Adhara]

[Adhara]

Well good news, it was in fact nothing my friend did. Bad news, he's still banned and there's nothing he can do about it. Huh?

My friend had agreed to put his roommate's account on his credit card. I assume the roomie didn't have one so he was giving cash to my friend. Said roommate was banned and consequently, so was my friend.

Fortunately it is only for 60 days. A fair price to learn a valuable lesson, I think.

May this story prevent you from doing anything stupid!

[Trinitis]

Ooof, now that sucks.

-Adredrin

[Caramia]

When you go to jail in life you at least know what you're accused of so why is this different?

Sadly, the papers are full of stories about people who were arrested, never given a reason why, strip-searched, beaten, and denied their right to a phone call.

I'd certainly prefer no access to a game for three or four days, than spending one night in jail in the above instances!

Based on what you said, since it's a billing issue, I'd encourage your friend to appeal the lockout with Feedback.

[AkMan]

Appealing will do no good. Hard lesson, but I guess that's what simu has to do. Moral of the story? Don't put anyone elses GS accounts on your credit card. Obviously it can affect your account also.

[Mistomeer]

Lucky it was only 60 days. I know someone that was banned permanently right off the bat. Simu is stupid about that stuff. What the first GM says and puts in the report goes, feedback and lockout are just for show as far as I can tell. Once, they fucked up on IP's, said I was the same as another character, and gave me a warning. I wrote feedback, at which point they realized we didn't have the same IP, and the warning still stuck, even though all the evidence they based it on was gone.

[Caramia]

I can't think of a single warning that would stick on two characters just because of an IP link.

I could see where they would only warn the specific character involved that used a vulgarity, that harassed people, that abused game mechanics, that was disruptive, that was scripting -- there's no justification for giving warnings to characters on other accounts just because they thought they were the same person. A lockout perhaps, yes, but a warning?

[Skirmisher]

I assume he is removing or has removed the "friend" from his account? Perhaps billing could do that much for him even before the ban is up so as to avoid any future entanglements.

[Adhara]

I haven't asked if it's done already or not but you bet he'll cancel that account and change his credit card if needed.

I wouldn't want to generalize but I'd be suspicious of the sense of responsibility of someone who can't have a credit card. Sounds like a hint to me!