If you're tired of hearing about people losing money in the Real-Money Auction House, imagine how tired I am of writing about it? Well, here's another one for you: A guy who frequently visits Vietnam but plays on the American server but actually hails from Germany, found out that he just lost $50 to a grey area of the RMAH.
So here's the thing, if you travel, if you have more than one location you visit at any point in your life and you plan on playing Diablo III do not use the Real-Money Auction House. The case in point is somewhat similar to what happened to another guy who lost $200 due to the loose policies associated with region restrictions. The guy whose $200 was paid to Blizzard and is unable to get a return on it without having his entire account banned, which means he can either lose $200 in the region change procedure or lose the $60 he paid for the game enacting a charge back. Tough call, eh?
In this new case, as recounted on the Diablo III forum board (as if it could possibly happen anywhere else?) he details how he's always played on the American server even though he isn't from the U.S. He decided to load his Battle.net account with $50 and purchase something from the Real-Money Auction House (I bet a lot of you already see where this is going). After making a purchase from the RMAH he later receives an e-mail saying that his account is suspended and access to the RMAH is banned. Bam.
Now, as usual the guy goes through the proper channels to get things resolved even though he can't, yadda, yadda, yadda. But the thing that really gets to me is how the fanboys attack this guy for not reading the Terms of Service, for breaking Blizzard's policies and for not thoroughly reading the End User License Agreement. The dumb part about it, though, is that this guy is in the right. Vietnam is considered part of Southeast Asia, and check this part out from the Diablo III Global Play FAQ...
With Battle.net’s Global Play functionality, you’ll have access to Diablo III game servers in regions outside your own, making it easy to play with your friends in other parts of the world.In general, you’ll be playing in your “home” game region, defined as follows:The Americas for players in North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast AsiaEurope for players in the European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and the United Arab EmiratesAsia for players in South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau
But that's actually besides the point. The real scam is that Blizzard allows people to deposit money into a Battle.net account and then afterwards initiates a ban if they try to use it in the Real-Money Auction House when their regions don't match up.
Accounts should automatically be flagged when adding money to a Battle.net account from a different region, before a deposit is approved.
It baffles me how Blizzard can let people add money to an account but ban them after they try to use it. It shouldn't be allowed in the first place.
If you think that's bad, another guy was also banned for spending too much money in the Real-Money Auction House. According to him, after spending large sums on the RMAH he was sent an e-mail saying that his account was suspended due to an auction house related issue and his access to the RMAH has been banned, which you can check out in a screenshot right here. You can check out the e-mail he received below.
Quite naturally, the Diablo III forum goers instantaneously jumped on the guy saying he was obviously trying to game the system potentially by buying an item off the RMAH for a low price and trying to sell it for a high price, known as using the RMAH as an investment vehicle, which is prohibited. A list of the things you can't do in the RMAH are listed below, courtesy of the RMAH Terms of Service...
You will not:• (i) obtain or attempt to obtain any information from the Auction Houses or Diablo using any method not expressly permitted by Blizzard;• (ii) intercept, examine or otherwise observe any proprietary communications or protocols used by Diablo or the Auction Houses, including, without limitation, through the use of a network analyzer, packet sniffer or other type of software or hardware device;• (iii) use the Auction Houses as an investment vehicle;• (iv) use any third-party software to collect information from or through Diablo or the Auction Houses;• (v) use cheats, automation software (bots), mods, hacks, or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify or automate any Auction House process;• (vi) violate any applicable law or regulation in connection with your use of Diablo or the Auction Houses; or• (vii) connect to or use the Auction Houses in any way not expressly permitted by this Auction House TOU.
There's no point linking to the actual thread as it devolved into a victim-bashing fest with most forum members resulting in defending Blizzard and the RMAH's TOS as being infallible. Obviously, if you're banned it must be your fault, right?
The user claims he's quitting because Blizzard won't take his money anymore. It's pretty stupid...so stupid in fact, you might just want to actually read it for yourself right here.
Like all the other cases, he was given the runaround and whatnot and no clarification for the cause of his ban. That seems to be the trend when dealing with Blizzard's customer support.
On the bright side -- because sometimes money-grubbing, pro-corporate, anti-consumerist greed-mongers do have bright sides...sometimes -- a guy who lost $250 to one of those grey areas of the RMAH actually managed to get his money back, after only having to wait nearly a month.
On a Reddit thread and on the Diablo III forums, Jeff Wubalo claims that Blizzard and Paypal finally gave him his money after a GM named Aaron gave him a call and let him know that they approved the transfer and the issue is related to something they need to look into (which means it's obviously happening to more than just a few people). Blizzard's finance department handled the case and waived the 15% deduction fee, so after waiting 20 days Wubalo has his money...all $250.00 of it.
I guess some people do get happy endings...sometimes.
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