Accounts Closed due to "Billing Discrepancy"

[Vyndree]

I have always wondered though, what would happen if someone took Blizzard to court over getting banned. It would only be able to be small claims court really, but given that we pay in advance and get no refund if banned it could be possible for someone to take them to get a refund and use that as a way of getting info on what they were banned for or how they were detected.

If Blizzard fell back onto the "we can ban you if we feel like it for no reason" then one would assume that there should be a pro-rata reimbursement of money paid in advance since they just decided to discontinue their contract with you through no fault of your own, while if they banned someone for exploiting then it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone to decide to take them to small claims to get a refund or for Blizzard to prove they exploited and it's during that phase that info could be gleaned.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

Termination.
This Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate this Agreement by terminating the Account and deleting the Program. In the event that you terminate or breach this Agreement, you will forfeit your right to any and all payments you may have made for pre-purchased game access to World of Warcraft. You agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any refund for any amounts which were pre-paid on behalf of the Account prior to any termination of this Agreement. Blizzard may terminate this Agreement with or without notice by terminating your Account. The provisions of Sections 2, 4 and Sections 6-17 shall survive any termination of this Agreement.

I'm not sure if that would work or not... The wording of the agreement is somewhat ambiguous. In the event of account termination, you forfeit your right to any and all payments you may have made for pre-purchased game access... Right after that line "Blizzard may terminate this Agreement with or without notice..."

Not sure if that means "when Blizzard terminates the account, you forfeit your right to any and all payments".... It's just not worded very clear.

[Knytestorme]

That's the thing though...if they terminate the agreement because they feel like it without claiming wrongdoing by the player then it should stand to reason that the player is entitled to a refund and I don't think they'd have an issue with that, easy to get around by never banning someone without a reason

If however they ban an account through claims of exploitation then I don't think it's unreasonable that someone who is adamant they did nothing wrong (say someone that got keylogged and has too much time on their hands) to take Blizzard to court and get them to prove that they breached the agreement. Doesn't mean they are disputing that they clicked OK to agree to the terms, just that they are disputing they actually broke the terms and thus invoked that clause to forfeit their rights to the remaining funds.

I agree with you, it's badly worded there, but I think there could be a case made for looking at it either way. How far it went would depends on the judge and how biligerent Blizzard wanted to be, but I still think that if anyone took them to court over this that it would be limited to small claims and Blizzard would just allow a summary judgement against them so as to make it all go away quietly with no extra cost to themselves.

[Otlecs]

That's pretty petty of them to be honest. By the book, but petty.

If anyone else is in the position of taking over a spouse's account, I suggest you do the following:

- Go out and buy a new box.
- Register it in your personal name.
- Transfer the characters you want to keep to the new account - only the surnames need to be the same.

If there are multiple characters involved then it gets expensive, but it's the only safe way apart from starting from scratch.

Of course, if you don't share a surname then you've no choice but to start over.

[Majestic_Clown]

That's pretty petty of them to be honest. By the book, but petty.

If anyone else is in the position of taking over a spouse's account, I suggest you do the following:

- Go out and buy a new box.
- Register it in your personal name.
- Transfer the characters you want to keep to the new account - only the surnames need to be the same.

If there are multiple characters involved then it gets expensive, but it's the only safe way apart from starting from scratch.

Of course, if you don't share a surname then you've no choice but to start over.

Just want to highlight something about the above statement.

Transfering a character from one account to another account where you are not the registered account owner also is a break of the Terms too. You do the PCT at your OWN RISK

Before someone else posts...regardless of friends, family etc

[Coltimar]

This post made me a bit nervous. One of my toons is on an account I made for my 7 year old. It actually has his name on the account. He has moved on to T-Ball, Swimming and chasing little girls around town on his bike (as 7 year boys should be doing) so I just assumed his account for myself. I started another trial last night and leveled a new warlock to 7. We'll see what happens.

[-silencer-]

In any case, as a customer I don't like that policy. But that's just me, and I DID click "I agree" every time the ToU/Eula pop up so it's my own fault for agreeing to it with my dollars.

Don't you love the fact that you're *forced* to click "I Agree" since you can't returned opened software to virtually any store? Sounds fair to the consumer.

[Awbee]

Here is what you have to do to have your child's account changed to your name.



Thank you for inquiring with Blizzard Entertainment. We have incorporated a Parental Control feature into our Account Management system. You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest in activating our Parental Controls system.

Upon receipt of the following information, we will update the account to reflect the contact information of the parent and provide you with the security information necessary to create your own parental control schedule and to modify voice chat privileges. Be sure your email filter is set to receive emails from "billing@blizzard.com".

If any of the requested information is missing, incomplete, or illegible, you may be asked to resubmit, please take care to review your fax before you send it. We would like to process this information as quickly as possible, but inaccurate or unreadable information may result in delays.

If the account in question is under the name of the **MINOR** please FAX the following to (949) 725-0701:

1.) A legible photocopy of the identification of the current registered account user. Acceptable forms of identification for the child are: Birth Certificate, Passport, or any other government issued ID which displays the date of birth. (School IDs are *not* accepted.)

2.) A legible photocopy of the identification of the account user's guardian. Only a government issued photo ID will be accepted for the guardian.

3.) A copy of the Terms of Use Form (found here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/artic...rticleId=21469) completed by the guardian (please be sure to provide an email address to which your child DOES NOT have access).

Alternatively, you may mail these materials to our office at the following address:

ATTN: Parental Controls
Billing & Account Services
Blizzard Entertainment
PO Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92623

Once you have received this information, you will be able to log into the account and schedule or restrict access time as needed. You will also be able to enable or block the voice chat function.

Our Parental Control FAQ is located here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...faq-small.html.

If you have any questions about this process or are having trouble navigating the website, please give us a call that we may assist you directly. Billing Representatives are on hand to take your call Monday thru Friday between 8am and 8pm Pacific Time, at 1-800-59-BLIZZARD (800-592-5499). Customers in Australia should call 1-800-041-378.

[Coltimar]

Thank you Awbee, this takes a load off.

[Vyndree]

In any case, as a customer I don't like that policy. But that's just me, and I DID click "I agree" every time the ToU/Eula pop up so it's my own fault for agreeing to it with my dollars.

Don't you love the fact that you're *forced* to click "I Agree" since you can't returned opened software to virtually any store? Sounds fair to the consumer.

Actually, you can returned the opened software as per the terms of use...
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/termsofuse.html

YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING WORLD OF WARCRAFT TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT (THE "TERMS OF USE" OR "AGREEMENT"). IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU MUST CLICK "REJECT." IF YOU REJECT THIS AGREEMENT WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER FIRST PURCHASING THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT SOFTWARE, YOU MAY CALL (800)757-7707 TO REQUEST A FULL REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE. ONCE YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF USE AND THE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA), YOU WILL NO LONGER BE ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND.

That's why people should ALWAYS fully read and understand legal contracts before they sign them. Although this particular portion of the agreement is written in caps at the very top of the document so there's no excuse for not knowing this one.

[dRiN]

Thread number 123123213 made me finally decide to play all accounts "legal". No more characters on my GF account (bye lvl 60+). No more characters from an account that is mine but not in my lastname holding a lvl 70 and some 60+ : ( stupid stupid and Blizz won't change it for me. Contacted them in several ways.

So now I have 7 accounts to pay for and allot of time needed to get back on track

Go Me!