Spacetime support - handling scams/loss of items

[Bless]

"If there is a ToS and rules for everything in game, and if Support always quotes the ToS whilst refusing a recovery when a player gets scammed, then should they even handle scams?"

Above is basically a summary of my thesis.

Hundreds of times I have seen innocent players denied of ANY help whatsoever when they get scammed or lend an item. Yes, we know that all trades are final, people should be more careful and all that. But support handles cases which are SPECIAL, so they should be treated as such - giving some leniency. Yet, the representative does nothing except quote the ToS and give a copy paste message: "Unfortunately we are not able to complete your request at this time. While we strive to satisfy every player request, somethings are outside of the scope of the Customer Support department." They do sometimes ban the scammer, but that is the most obvious thing seen to be as moral in every mmo...

The ONLY case where I have seen a player get back their items after getting scammed (lending) was in PL; the player got their dragon vanity set returned when they countlessly appealed for it. That player was a GoA. I have yet to hear of a normal player actually given back items from STS when the scammer took them.

Even if the scammer is banned, support won't return scammed items! So ultimately, the item itself is banned....

Most cases nowadays prove my thesis, take for example this:
Limsyoker's Arcane ring - it was lent to a person and that person is banned. WHY is support not returning it? They can check the chat log and see that Limsy lent the Arcane ring, yet they deny her the recovery. 100m - a years earning, down the drain.

● Will refusing a return of the victims items profit STS? No.
● Will it profit players? Yeah, as they can keep playing. It can increase their quality of life.
● Will it give STS a loss? Why should it? After all the item is just being circulated between a player and a scammer, so by going backwards, STS won't lose anything. Infact, by doing this STS gains a lot of money because players continue playing and continue to buy lots of platinum.

To synthesise, most of the AL community would agree with me that STS should become more lenient when handling scam or item loss cases. STS support representatives should try to recover items if the victim has been scammed (or lent an item) and the person/scammer is banned - why not I mean? All it does is collect dust in a locked inventory. This service should only be allowed ONCE on an account. So for example, if I lent an item to a friend and he ran away with it then support can ban him and lastly return the item to me again, with a warning etc. If I lose any item from my account again, then it cannot be recovered (except in special circumstances). Sure, even this may be harsh as items can only be returned from one scam but it is a better system than now where almost every case is rejected. STS support should use IP address tracking to aid them in checking for legitimacy of stolen item scam reports. If you look at other MMOs like RIFT, their support developers investigate much more into the case and do help return lost/stolen items.

I'll sign off with this closing statement: Support does a good job with a lot of type of cases, STS in general is doing a great job advancing as it develops AL especially considering it has under 50 members of staff, but just this change can make thousands of people who quit want to play again and it can make AL better :)

Of course, constructive criticism is welcome but please keep off-topic or inflammatory posts out.

- Bless

[Peer]

"HELP! I'VE BEEN SCAM! MY QUARTERSTAFF IS LOST!"

Btw +1!

[Tendirin]

so whats the point of this statement

[Bless]

so whats the point of this statement I'm not trying to be rude but do you even know what a thesis is?

Online Dictionary: 1. a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against.

[Raregem]

I agree, if someone gets banned while in possession of a lent item the owner should get that item back. Why keep it from them? The lender did not do anything wrong, and had no warning of what was to come. In these cases support should be willing to recover the item, since it is in fact sts who has made the item disappear.

If the person lost an item to a trade scam or a player that they thought they could trust maybe one free pass is the way to handle it. I think the issue with leaving this open ended with unlimited returns is that people will try to cheat the system unfortunately.

When I played WOW I got hacked, they stole everything (no I didn't give out my username or password) and support returned everything to me. I was told that was my one free pass and to get an authenticator on my account otherwise they could not help me again. Once was enough for me, so I think giving the one free pass will really help many of the new players that find themselves in a bad situation.

[Crowsfoot]

I'm not trying to be rude but do you even know what a thesis is?

Online Dictionary: 1. a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against.
Thesis

The sis

The sister

My sister

---

Nailed it

[Int]

Support is trying to make players become more broke basically if they don't handle scams and such xD I guess they have their "reasons"

[Tendirin]

I know what a thesis is bless..


Sent from my iPhone using tapatalk,Ign Vploit

[Jack O Reaper]

Me think this is good.

+1

[Warlord0520]

Because people who got scammed will now scam other people to get their scammed items back. It's a stupid rule STS has in place, all it does is promote scamming through an endless cycle. If I got scammed a mythic, and STS can't give me the mythic back, then I guess people either 1. Deal with it. 2. Quit 3. Work hard for it again 4. Scam someone for "said item" to gain back money.

[Andrisber]

+1, i`d like to get my heraldic set and dws back

[Zylx]

I understand why STS doesn't reimburse scammed items/gold.

If STS gave items back, then scams wouldn't be so bad. People would not exercise caution when trading with others. In other words, more scams would take place because there is no risk in lending items.

The support team would be hard pressed dealing with more scam reports added to the already-long response time. It would waste their time dealing with all these extra scam reports.

There needs to be a consequence. A lesson to learn from. Otherwise it would happen again and again.

[epicrrr]

I think the bottom line is, if STS do it to one person then they'll be force to comply with others request like those and that's potentially disruptive to the game.

[Limsi]

Wait what? A GoA had his item returned? How do I get this title in order for me to receive the same treatment *sarcasm*

[Bless]

I think the bottom line is, if STS do it to one person then they'll be force to comply with others request like those and that's potentially disruptive to the game. Well DUH! I said everyone can get one and only one chance of item recovery after scam/loss

[Classychic]

I understand why STS doesn't reimburse scammed items/gold.

If STS gave items back, then scams wouldn't be so bad. People would not exercise caution when trading with others. In other words, more scams would take place because there is no risk in lending items.

The support team would be hard pressed dealing with more scam reports added to the already-long response time. It would waste their time dealing with all these extra scam reports.

There needs to be a consequence. A lesson to learn from. Otherwise it would happen again and again.

Limsy's ring wasn't scammed off her. STS banned the person she lent the ring to while he was in possession of it. That is a totally different case from having an item scammed off you. In this case there is no transfer of ownership, the item just stays locked in a banned account. Something that neither Lims nor the person she lent it to were expecting.

[Zylx]

Limsy's ring wasn't scammed off her. STS banned the person she lent the ring to while he was in possession of it. That is a totally different case from having an item scammed off you. In this case there is no transfer of ownership, the item just stays locked in a banned account. Something that neither Lims nor the person she lent it to were expecting.

All trades are final. You arent supposed to give anything to anyone that you might want back. I've ignored this rule a few times (still got my things back from the players), but i understand the risk and accept responsibility for the decision.

I can see it both ways. I too think that if you "lend" an item to someone and they are unable to return it beyond their means, it should be returned to you any other way.

It doesn't matter if you get scammed or not, a trade's a trade.

What STS needs to implement is a "lending" feature where items will get returned to you after a certain time. But we all know this will make STS lose profit (people sharing stuff instead of buying).

[Kraze]

so whats the point of this statement I'm not trying to be rude but do you even know what a thesis is?

Online Dictionary: 1. a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against.
Perhaps one should look up the difference between synthesize and summarize while they are in the online dictionary.

[Crowsfoot]

Perhaps one should look up the difference between synthesize and summarize while they are in the online dictionary.
In academic writing:

A synthesis is a brief listing of the main points in a paragraph format.

A summary is a brief listing of the main ideas ​in a paragraph format.

[Zeus]

Thesis

The sis

The sister

My sister

---

Nailed it

Erm.."nailed it is referring to what exactly? :)

[Crowsfoot]

I hope "nailed" wasn't directed towards the sister...
And you call me a dirty birdy? Smh

[Zeus]

And you call me a dirty birdy? Smh

I don't think I've ever called you that! Although, it is your fault for making an ambiguity error and letting my mind wander. ;)

[Ehrzaa]

I got banned , and i dont know why they banned me... i dont do anything weird or break rules , but they banned me ...

Sent from my GT-I8262 using Tapatalk

[Tendirin]

Lol has this turned into english class? stay on topic please


Sent from my iPhone using tapatalk,Ign Vploit

[nelson131]

i agree with lim"s situation. 100m just doesnt drop from the sky. besides, that wasnt scamming. the 1 chance per ip is better than 1 chance per character as it could be exploited.

[Serancha]

If sts support investigated all "scams" to decide whether to give the person's items back, the wait time for any and all support would increase from 1-3 days to 3-6 months. How many people would claim to have been scammed in hopes the support team will give them free stuff? Anyone who has ever been an officer or gm in a guild knows how many ridiculous stories are told by people hoping to get handouts. If sts said "ok we'll give people's stuff back when scammed" they would be innundated with this stuff and not be able to help those who actually need it.

Now, the case where someone gets banned when they have an overly valuable item in their posession that belongs to someone else, this is totally different. When that person is banned, the company should already have all that person's data on hand.

If the owner of that overly valuable item then contacts them and requests it back, this should be granted. It is not the lender's fault the other person was banned. There is no scam involved, and the ownership of something like that should be easy to verify if the lender has the transfer date. I can't imagine this situation would be something to happen more than once in a blue moon, so would not be at all draining on the resources of support. It would also not set the unwanted precedent of returning scammed goods, since it is a totally different scenereo.

That being said, if you know someone well enough to be loaning them something worth a year's savings, you should know them well enough to be aware if they are participating in nefarious activities. I imagine this is the company's perspective, and likely an additional attempt at deterring tos violators. If they make it so loaning to bannable people is an even higher risk, those people will have a harder time succeeding in their whatevers. I would agree with this except that we continue to see certain people making a sport out of getting others banned to eliminate their "competition". The fact that this behaviour is catered to results in good people like Lim getting punished as collateral damage, which is just wrong.

[Andrisber]

Sts can see what you had, have ;)

[Bless]

@Serancha If the Vindication of ToS > Player's happiness, then why does support even reply to scam reports? Why do they even bother pasting the message? They shouldn't even be dealing with scams and just continue refunding accidental plat purchases or whatever. Isn't the support supposed to be bending ToS a little bit and helping players in special circumstances? Well that is how it is in other mmos like WoW and by doing so I haven't seen WoW crash. Sts makes thousands of $ a day, yet they cannot hire around two or three support representatives dedicated to solely handling scam cases?





Perhaps one should look up the difference between synthesize and summarize while they are in the online dictionary.
In academic writing:

A synthesis is a brief listing of the main points in a paragraph format.

A summary is a brief listing of the main ideas ​in a paragraph format. I did do a mixture of both actually.

@Kraze I know perfectly well what a Synthesis is.

[Serancha]

I don't know the answer, Bless. I can see both sides and the reasons for making either decision. I do admin and tech support as part of my business, so know first hand that there is no way to make everyone happy. You need to make decisions and stick to them, and this usually goes over best if there is an explanation for those decisions stated publicly. Yes, there are exceptions to rules, and policies should be reviewed and amended as time goes by and things evolve.

My experience with STS support has been excellent. They are prompt, courteous and take care of issues well. I have never gotten a pasted response, but then I don't call them often. I would also not presume to ask sts to reimburse me if I loaned someone a mythic or arcane item and that person took off with it. (An example only. I have a strict no-loan policy)

[Remiem]

Hi all,

Bless, I appreciate you taking the time to write us about this. Scamming is a terrible thing and can be really devastating, especially if you lose an item or items that you worked really hard or even paid real money for. Here is the difficulty with these situations: The trade and gifting functions, as we've mentioned, are meant for passing items to another character without the intent of receiving it back. For this reason, there is limited tracking that we can do once an item has been sent to another player. Support does all that they can to investigate each scam report, but sometimes it is just not possible for us to recover the item(s). I know that sometimes the copy and paste response can be frustrating. It can seem impersonal when you're dealing with a crisis, but you have to understand that we get tons of these reports every day. That is why we try our best to equip everyone with the tools to recognize and avoid scams.

I hope this helps clear some things up. :) Locking this one down.

Remiem