Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I have been emailing Guild Wars 2 support for the last week because all of my gems disappeared for no reason (nothing to do with account hacking). Even though the staff can see that the disappearance of my gems is their fault, they refuse to reimburse me due to the “limitation of their tools”.

Since I got this game I have been investing everything I have into gems. I had over 3k. The idea that a company can allow them to just disappear without any kind of compensation is disgusting. What’s to say next time you don’t delete my character next time. You might as well have.

Sorry if this is coming across quite aggressive but this whole thing is pretty despicable.

Here is my email correspondence with GW2 support as it requires a little more information:

Customer By Web Form
This morning I had 3300 gems. Now I have none. No record of any purchases and no changes in my other currencies.

Thank you.

Customer By Email
I bought more while prices are low and once again they’ve disappeared.

Customer By Web Form
Bought another 400 gems.

So total: 3300 + 130 = 3430 gems have disappeared. However the 400 still remain.

Thank you.

Response Via Email (Bethany)
Hello,

We understand how scary it can be to have your account accessed by someone other than you, and we are sorry you had to experience it. Below we’ve included links to a couple of Account Security web-pages. They both have tips and tricks to help improve your computer and account security.

https://help.ncsoft.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/993
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/tips-for-keeping-your-guild-wars-2-account-secure/

In regards to missing gold, characters and items – Due to the tools that we currently have, we are unable to provide restorations or any direct assistance with reclaiming what was lost.

I am now transferring your ticket to the team that will assist you with your missing Gems.

Kind Regards,
GM Smirk
Guild Wars Support Team

Customer By Email
As gems are non transferable, the problem is not my account security. I am also using a different account name and email from what I have ever used online before.

I am a bit confused. Are you saying that there is no way of getting it back. Or are you saying this is simply the wrong department I am messaging? If the latter, who should I direct this to and would it just be easier if I called someone up. I’d really like to get this sorted as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Response Via Email (GM Bunni3)
Hi there,

Thank you for contacting us! In order to better assist you with your issue, I need to gather a bit more information. Did you convert gold into Gems? Or did you purchase Gems? If you purchased Gems could you please provide the following information:

— Your Guild Wars 2 Gem purchase Order ID provided in the receipt of the purchase(s). (if available)
— Your Guild Wars 2 account name/e-mail address or the serial code you used to register your account.
— If the payment was attempted by credit/debit card, please provide the last 4 digits of the credit/debit card used ONLY.
— If the payment was attempted using PayPal®, the invoice ID or transaction ID from your PayPal® payment history for the transaction.
— Your billing zip code or postal code.

We look forward to your reply.

Regards,
GM Bunni3
NCsoft Account Support

Customer By Email
I bought them with in-game gold. I was planning on buying some with real money but I’m sure you understand I’m now a bit concerned to do so. Do you have a record of my gems disappearing?

Thank you.

Response Via Email (GM Bunni3)
Hello,

Thank you for providing that information. Due to the limitation of our tools, we currently are unable to return Gems that were acquired through the Currency Exchange.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Regards,
GM Bunni3
NCsoft Account Support
—-

Customer By Email
I’m sorry but I’ve just lost the equivalent of 35 pounds of your product through no fault of my own. You must be able to see that this is caused by a bug.

Presumably you would be able to reimburse the gems if I had paid real money, so why can it not be the case if the cause is exactly the same. Clearly this isn’t because of any ‘limitations’ besides a technical loophole. I’ve spent the better part of a month playing this game and every bit of monetary progress has gone into collecting gems (which can be bought for real money). For you to be aware that the gems have disappeared due to your own fault but not be able reimburse me is absolutely ridiculous.

Response Via Email (Eric G.)
Hello,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to suggest this to us. We really appreciate it. The best way to have your feedback or suggestions for Guild Wars 2 reach someone in development is to post it on our official forums under the suggestions sub-forum. The more people who view and comment on it, the more likely developers will take notice.

Here is a link to the Guild Wars 2 suggestions sub-forum: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions

Thanks again,

[GM] Zowa
Guild Wars Support Team
http://support.guildwars2.com/

Sorry for the third post but if anyone reads this can you please post your opinion. Even if you disagree with me. Apparently the more feedback I get, the more likely the developers will actually read this.

Thanks in advance.

I don’t not dis-disagree.

I have no idea why these tools are not there. I assume they can if you had paid with real life money they would just refund the money not the gems. Why such a basic support feature is not in the game just baffles me.

"I have no idea why these tools are not there. "

I have. So Arena can have an universally transparent excuse for their horrible lack of customer support anytime it comes handy (which is like, every time).

Just my uneducated guess after reading these forums for some while.

If they can restore lost gems that you paid for with real money, it makes no sense that they couldn’t do so because they were bought with gold instead. Simple solution to the problem already exists in the details listed here:

http://en.support.guildwars2.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9175/~/guild-wars-2-gems

All they need to do is supply you with a code that you redeem for the amount of gems you lost. Even if that means they give you an amount rounded up over the amount actually lost as an apology for whatever causes the gems to disappear. They have to have logs that show how many you obtained and would be able to see that none were spent or sold for gold. Or if your account was somehow hacked and the gems sold for gold and that gold transferred from your account there would be logs of that as well. Either way they can give you the gems back with a code to redeem for the gems. I hope this helps in getting you the gems back.

This is another lapse in customer service that should be unacceptable in an MMO of this magnitude. I bought this game a couple weeks after launch to give them time to iron out some of the kinks, knowing full well from what I’d read that the game had a bumpy start and ANet’s service was less-than-professional in many cases, but I just thought I’d cross my fingers and hope it didn’t happen to me. I haven’t purchased a single gem yet — through real money or gold exchange — and I don’t plan on it until I know they’ve implemented the tools and services to handle customer issues on par with the other, larger studios currently running high-population MMOs. First two things on that list: semi-frequent character saves with tools for individual character rollbacks, and staff with a bit more empathy and respect for the players, who care enough to do their job of helping the players resolve their issues without sending out canned e-mail responses or giving guilt-trips about who was at fault.

Of course they CAN reimburse you, it’s only an integer in the user database. They should have logs of your converting gold into gems, and should be able to see that no gems were used.

The question is: WILL they?

Thanks for the support guys. I agree with what you’ve said: they more than likely have the capability to do so but someone higher up has not given GMs authority to give gems back. It’s not a technical problem at all.

The only problem now is, who in development actually cares? What am I supposed to do now? I feel like I’ve lost a lot of motivation to play this game which is pretty crap as I really enjoy it.

Does anyone that can fix this even visit the forums or is this all futile?

A lot of people I know now won’t buy gems unless this happens. Maybe I should spread the word a little further to my guild or something and see if we can make a change it policy.

What do you think?

The sad part is, they might NOT have logs of converting gold into gems. That might be the “limitation” they’re speaking of. It might seem like a major oversight to not have such a tool, but it’s possible that the same thing that caused your gems to disappear also broke the tool that was logging the gem exchange.

They can’t just reimburse you on your word alone, because they most likely get hundreds or thousands of tickets regularly from people pretending they “mysteriously” lost gems and want to get reimbursed. Without logs to verify that these players had them and didn’t lose them through some legitimate exchange, they can’t do anything to help you. Don’t blame customer service, blame the people who are in charge of making their tools.

When I accused them of having records of my incident but not helping, they didn’t disagree. I see what you’re saying but another thing, it seemed like they were going to reimburse me if I had paid with card. But then I guess then I have further proof on my side.

If it is the case they can’t even track gems (which just sounds too unbelievable to me) firstly, they should acknowledge that fact, fix the bloody problem and at least show some kind of sympathy to those that have lost gems prior to that announcements.

Basically so far all I can read into their ‘support’ is “unlucky, get lost”. They have shown no intention of making the situation better for me, or for anyone else that will inevitably fall into the same situation. Also I can’t imagine too many people have falsely claimed a loss of gems. I mean, it would be like people claiming that they have had their character deleted, you would imagine that they would have records of these things.

If they don’t have any kind of records on how many gems/gold you have then this is either a massive oversight or as someone else said an easy excuse for them to use. Either way it’s a joke and it needs sorting.

If customer support does not have access to this information then we need a response from someone who does. What’s the point in playing this game if you can’t be sure your items will be there next time you log in?

this is pretty unbelievable. not sure if i will ever be able to justify paying real money for gems if things like this can happen and i’m sure many other players will feel the same

Personally I’d like to hear an official response to this issue here on the forums. I’m sure someone official is reading this and can if not answer the issue refer it to someone who can so they can answer the issue. I’d also like to know if there are others out there who also mysteriously lost gems. I’ve been watching mine closely since reading your post to make sure mine don’t mysteriously disappear.

Regardless of any issues or limitations on their part, they should restore your gems as a matter of good faith. If people then try to take advantage of that and claim they lost gems when they did not, then ArenaNet should pull their head out of the sand and resolve their technical limitations.

I agree. If any official representative could at least confirm that they have read and understood my problem I’d be appreciative. Right now it just feels like tech support are sending me in circles giving me no real opinion because they just can’t be bothered to deal with it. I have seen a lot of other threads get official responses and I feel this issue deserves to be addressed as well.

This really sucks :c
Maybe they can reimburse you with gold which you can then convert back into gems?

It’s a nice thought but they seem quite committed to not giving me anything unfortunately. We’ll see when they eventually respond in this thread.

Come on guys, can’t I get a single official response to this?

I’ve gotta say, the worse service is definitely no service. Your own support team is sending me here because they have no power and now from here no one even reads what I say. I guess you’ve already made your sales so why should you need to keep your product in acceptable condition or even relate to the buyers of an unmaintained product.

Lazy.2389:

Come on guys, can’t I get a single official response to this?

If you want your bug fixed then you should be posting on the bug forum, not as a suggestion. I very much doubt you’ll get a reply here.

They probably need to investigate if someone logged into your account, from where, what they did with the gems and whatnot.

A have to weigh in supporting Lazy’s conclusion; while this is by far the very best game I have played (and the list is awfully long) and the dev’s to my knowledge have been wonderful with respect to content issues, I am stunned by the absolute zero-response Anet seems to offer regarding business matters. I had an issue regarding credit card security which I approached first via online channels then direct business correspondence to the President of Arenanet. I have in the past written to company presidents on the scale of Sony and Apple and while it is rare that one will respond directly (save Steve Jobs back in the day, who literally dropped an email saying “problem fixed”) the Prez will normally have an executive assistant who hands it down to a manager who at least offers the courtesy of a response and some effort to treat a customer as a customer. Arenanet has no public phone number according to 411 and has, sadly in my opinion, walled itself off from traditional access. Given that their business model is based on having our trust to use our credit card number for ongoing transactions, and our word-of-mouth endorsement of the game to others, even a modicom of effort to respond like a normal business seems to be in order.

With respect to the specifics of Lazy’s request; the entire world of GW2 is at its core a database. Arena has 100% control of its contents and a 100% ability to track every single transaction in or out. I find it disingenuous to suggest that they are unable (as opposed to unwilling) to modify any record in that database. If they have created an online commodity, i.e. gems, which have a direct real-world monetary value, and do not police or explain the random disappearance of that commodity, they sadly open themselves to at least the allegation of fraud (i.e. “we took your money and your product vanished”) and that would be bad for company and players alike. I hope they find a way to separate the “it is just a game” issues from those that clearly need to serve customers who have paid for a product and who, ideally to Arena, will continue to patronize their business through online microtransactions.

Hate to say this but your getting the Round the Robin when it comes to buying GEMs with in Game Gold. If you don’t pay with $$ they tend to get ticked off and have nothing to do with you. They are a Money first and Customer Last, it’s happened before in many Korean made F2P games.

My Suggestion : Talk to the Manager at least or look into a lawsuit into this .. your being ripped off in every way.
- They won’t comply with and keep sending complaints about how they can’t help you. They are GM’s what can a GM do .. nothing .. they are the bottom of the help list.
- If they don’t intend to help you with this matter, more ppl are gonna find this happening in the future.
- Setup a Major Petition – Force them to Look at your Problems or end up with everyone else that will support you. If they respond with complaints again, they legally can’t.. IT’s AMERICA! .. Sue them All!

I say sue them!

Remember that kid that got robbed at knife point from kids so they can take everything from his Runescape account?

Although this is not the case but if i remember correctly, he had a real case because of all his time spent earning everything he got in runescape was conisidered time invested and there for was robbed of as if he was actually working and was robbed of real cash money.

Seeing that you invested your time earning gold for gems and were “robbed” (not by actually people but maybe a game glitch?) you should there for be compensated for your time invested earning gold for gems.

That’s not fair!
We trusted them first as we bought the game for real cash.
I assumed that the game will be playable (which it is indeed for me, although it has some bugs which need to be fixed) and that if in any case I am guiltlessly effected by a bug (or whatever) of this dimension that I feel ripped off, they would sort this out for me as soon as possible.
If they failed to implement a function to track these losses back before, they now need to have the same FAITH in their customers/ players that we had as we bought their game and their service (a game and its service are closely linked to each other, otherwise a game cannot be established for the long term).

To Anet:
Please give him/ her his ingame gold or the gems back!!

If you do not care about the honest players, you will loose them and keep the botters and gold sellers and spammers… (yeah well, you keep the money of these players, too.) ^^

How would you feel if that would happen to you? Ingame or in real life? You earn money → purchase something nice → it disappears during delivery → the other side will not give you your money or your purchased item back
=> no company can allow that to themselves (if they want to succeed on the market), they need to keep track of the shipment AND in the worst case they have to compensate for the loss
again: it is not the fault of the player, who honestly plays under your rules

We are your lovely customers, you need to care for us and service us well. We are the people who will invest real cash into your company by using the gemstore/ buying expansions/ etc..

One thing which could be also used for restoring gems seems for me the soon coming Account Restoration Service. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Account-Roll-backs-Replacement-Questions-merged/first#post161231)

I feel really sad for you and cannot understand how you are treated. My sense of justice is quite high and I really hope there will be a reasonable solution and a nice response from the Anet team.
I have to believe in that!

thats lame man, you got ganked
at least stop buying them

Thank you for all your replies. I really do appreciate it.

A petition sounds like a smart move to raise awareness of the more and more frequent cases of ridiculous customer support I have recently been hearing from people. However I would not know where to start.

All I wanted was my gems back, but now I’d even accept a public apology and a reason why they have no power. Maybe even a promise that they will show more ‘support’ in future incidences for other players.

I feel like anymore I see will just go around in circles. This is a terrible organisation.

I’ve contacted support a few times about various thing’s nothing like but different stuff each time and I’ll get the same copy/paste response.

One of my issue they copy/pasted a response telling me how to fix my connection issue, even though I didn’t and still don’t have a connection issue. My issue was never resolved and I gave up since it didn’t cost me any real money.

Arena Net support is a bad joke in my opinion.