What action does EA take in deciding whose account it is?

[Jammin420]

I bought an account from someone a little over a year ago (Sadly not through their website), and now he has decided he wants it back. Somehow, he talked them into giving the account back to him over the phone. I then proceeded to call and get it back. However, now the account is under investigation, and I was wondering if anyone knows how EA determines who gets it back?

 

[Topsy Krett]

Damn that is rough dude, a load of BS if you ask me. I have no idea to your question, but I wish you the best in getting YOUR account back.

 

[Jammin420]

Thanks, posted full details on HOT-Guild boards, and everyone is on my side, sadly, Im not too confident about getting the account back. Ive paid by CC for the last year, however, he had the account and was paying for it before, so all he'd technically have to say is he didnt play for a year. And I've heard "You're definitely getting it back" and "You're definitely not getting it back" so i have no clue. Its taken EA 4 days so far of my paid time to figure this out, and still no verdict.

 

[Topsy Krett]

I just saw your post on the HOT forums and while you do compare it as a "car being sold..." the unfortunate thing is that there is no "bill of sale" in this situation.

You wouldn't expect someone to be such a "low-life" IMHO... Perhaps through investigation they will see that you have been paying with your C.C. and that will determine the outcome.

From my experience (law student), it doesn't look to fortunate, as I stated earlier, no BoS, etc.

GL tho...

 

[Jammin420]

I bought it over Paypal, maybe makes a difference?

 

[Topsy Krett]

Is it noted in the transaction through Paypal that the account was being sold?

For example is there a 'memo' in the transaction stating something like "UO Account" or description for it (I rarely use Paypal, so I wouldn't know)... If so you have a very good case of getting it back and perhaps a lawsuit against him for trying to reclaim property which in this case would be theft.

I am asking a friend if that could be proof as a BoS of some type, I'll def reply back when I know...

 

[Topsy Krett]

I found this on some WoW accounts, similar to your situation... but it seems like WoW is firmly against buying/selling accts. So it is against their ToS.

EA allows it (as far as I know), so you have a better chance of course.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/39309975/m/393002175831

 

[Jammin420]

Im curious as to how they decide. I've paid for the account for the last year, however he did before.

 

[Basara]

UO also has a pay feature that allows an account to be transferred over with no going back - the people that I know that have used that service swear by it.

 

[Lady Michelle]

I bought it over Paypal, maybe makes a difference?

Wouldnt hurt to turn the paypal info over to EA, and you should also contact paypal let them know what this person is doing after a year went by and now he is trying to reclaim his UO account after you bought it from him thru paypal.

 

[Silly Seadog]

Arrr, methinks PayPal will decline ta get involved since it be beyond their 30-day (or howe'er long) dispute window. Also, methinks EA likes ta decide things by piece o' eight-flip.

 

[Lady Michelle]

Arrr, methinks PayPal will decline ta get involved since it be beyond their 30-day (or howe'er long) dispute window. Also, methinks EA likes ta decide things by piece o' eight-flip.

Wouldnt hurt for him to try contact them about the situtation. Worst paypal can tell him there is nothing they can do. but then again the guy decided after a year not to honor his agreement thru paypal by taking the uo account back after accepting money thru them for the account.

 

[AesSedai]

- I can only recall hearing of a few ways that they use to try to determine the legitimate account owner:
One would be the person linked to the CC that paid for the account for several months most recently (& I think you're right in that after 1 year of paying for it, they consider it your account; might even be sooner).
The other would be the original CD key and/or other vital account/user information; potentially along with some sort of sob story.

(The truth is, EA should give the account back to the initial owner -even though it might have been sold, & as such was then stolen back- because the rules say that accounts are only recognized as being transfered, if they were done via the EA provided account transfer system. Once you trade without involving them, then they shouldn't have to spend much, if any, effort dealing with it. I truly have no idea which protocol takes precedence in this matter. But I am also trying to warn people that they should not buy game accounts they wish to keep unless they pay EA to make the trade official. Hope I'm wrong, for your sake. But stealing back an old account, that has been developed a bit more, seems like something some might resort to; and perhaps be able to succeed, if it was traded 'under the table'.)

To be placing a bet: I'd be willing to put a coint toss on the eventual outcome; so I wouldn't place a bet.

 

[Jammin420]

Hopefully they look at the few most recent payments

 

[MaryForUo]

hope all'll go fine for you.

Anyway, i'd suggest to use the account transfer program.
They'd put a "online form" to transfer an account, so
we dont have to call...fax..call again..etc...
expecially for non US players....

Its about 1 year i try to have more information on how
to transwer 1 of my account to my friend using
the account transfer program, but i still have to receive
an answer from the dev or someone of ea!

I dont come from US so i have problems calling in US
also because my english is not so good...

and this suck!

how hard is to build a "online form" to make this?

bhaaaaaaaa!

 

[Kratos Aurion]

If you can prove the evidence in which you bought his account for example

- money transaction
- conversation logs (icq/msg service)

That information can be used for EA's investigation purposes. If you have been sustaining the account on credit for over a year, you should be able to argue that case. Even legal purposes, if he admits to saying he sold you the account initially, he is not entitled to recieve it back through the method it occured.

 

[Magneto2272]

also, the EA account transfer costs 30.00 USD!!!! thats rediculous. and what's more is that both buyer and seller have to jump through a series of hoops on each end of the transaction to get EA to act. and even then it takes several days...

until this process is streamlined AND reduced in price to an affordable alternative to PayPal, this situation will happen again and again and again.

please keep us posted on what happens with your acount sir....

good luck!

 

[Jammin420]

Since EA couldnt decide whose it was and we both had info and credit cards attached to the account, they said "it is clear that a TOS violation has occured" and they dont want to give it to the wrong person, thus the account is perimintely banned. Free shards or WoW, here I come.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

Since EA couldnt decide whose it was and we both had info and credit cards attached to the account, they said "it is clear that a TOS violation has occured" and they dont want to give it to the wrong person, thus the account is perimintely banned. Free shards or WoW, here I come.

That sucks! we have two accounts that were gifts to us years ago, and if the old owners were to turn up I wonder what EA would do since we been paying for those accounts for years?

 

[dielock]

I would find out who the previous owner is that cheated you/ He would pay for his folly one way or the other.

 

[Silly Seadog]

Arrrr, leave it ta EA ta flip a coin and have it land on its edge!

 

[Jammin420]

Yep, im very disappointed. No way Im gonna restart a whole other account. I have a few decent ones but Im not about to pay for new suits, train them all the way back up. I had AWESOME stuff. Lookin into UOgamers right now. I hope someone from EA reads that

 

[Magneto2272]

score another win for the d-bags of the world. someone literally commits fraud which is an arrestable act in the real world, but because this is a digital crime, there are very few and even fewer enforcable laws to cover this...

of the few things i know to be asbolutely true in life is that what you put into it (or take out of it) always comes home.

and often magnified.

 

[Crysta]

The other would be the original CD key and/or other vital account/user information; potentially along with some sort of sob story.

They don't do that anymore. I found out when I tried to claim an account someone gave me the code for (because they didn't use the account anymore) last year.

 

[Experimental]

Yep, im very disappointed. No way Im gonna restart a whole other account. I have a few decent ones but Im not about to pay for new suits, train them all the way back up. I had AWESOME stuff. Lookin into UOgamers right now. I hope someone from EA reads that

Maybe a PM to Joann would help...

 

[Jammin420]

Who is that, where can I find her to PM her, and what can she help me with?

 

[woj1s]

If EA said they couldnt decide who's it was why not just copy the account character stats/money and give it to both? Its not hard to do for the programmers.......

And this way you have two CUSTOMERS who are PAYING the company money and are happy. I think its just common sense to me. Because they cant decide NO ONE wins.

 

[Jammin420]

OH, and a guildie said that when he had this same problem, he worked it out with the other guy, Where one guy allows the other to have the account. Do you think that would work. Was gonna call and ask if that can be done.

 

[Radun]

what you're supposed to do is tell the king that you would rather see the account go to the other guy than see it destroyed... then they will know you are the true owner.

 

[Experimental]

Who is that, where can I find her to PM her, and what can she help me with?

Joanne_Mythic is our community relations person. Just do an advanced search here on stratics for her username then send her a PM. Or appeal the decision thru EA/Mythic channels. You should find that process somewhere in the knowledge base on the uo website.

 

[Raina]

To the best of my knowledge EA has always determined account ownership by the owner of the original credit card. As in the very first credit card used when the account was created.

This is the basis for why they added the account transfer program, to reset this to the new owner. If you don't use their program and you purchase an account, you can loose it at any time if the original owner calls EA with the original CCard info.

I don't think this method of account ownership determination has ever changed.

~Rai

 

[Lord Vader]

I bought an account from someone a little over a year ago (Sadly not through their website), and now he has decided he wants it back. Somehow, he talked them into giving the account back to him over the phone. I then proceeded to call and get it back. However, now the account is under investigation, and I was wondering if anyone knows how EA determines who gets it back?

EA does take no action in deciding whos account it is.
Its the account of the very first creator.


Theres a service that lets an account holder transfer the ownership of an account to someone else.

Quote:
"Why should I use the official Account Access Transfer service to transfer access to a previously used account I just acquired?
Origin encourages players to take great care when transferring or trading access to accounts. If you’ve acquired access to an account without the assistance of our official transfer system, we have no record or proof that the account can be legitimately used by you, or that the player who created the account has given you permission to use the account name and password. So, we've created this process as a service to our players. By going through this transfer process, Origin can verify that the account is in your name (i.e. you have the former player's permission to use it)."


(See: http://www.uo.com/acct_xfer.html
for yourself)

 

[Rix/\]

There are good reasons why WoW is against buying and selling accounts, this is one of those. UO lets the players run the market, the market isn't safe this way. It leaves too many loop wholes and EA won't back up anyone unless they use their account transfer feature. SO if your buying, you buy at your own risk. And with a game that makes account age more important it makes this issue more of a problem. No one is going to want to start a new account they want to find an account with age to it in order to have the VET benefits. So unless EA has old accounts for sale, new players are going to buy outside EA and risk this same problem over and over again, eventually somethings gonna have to give. Either the banning of outside account sales or do away with vet rewards making a new account worth just as much as buying an old account.

 

[Experimental]

To the best of my knowledge EA has always determined account ownership by the owner of the original credit card. As in the very first credit card used when the account was created.

This is the basis for why they added the account transfer program, to reset this to the new owner. If you don't use their program and you purchase an account, you can loose it at any time if the original owner calls EA with the original CCard info.

I don't think this method of account ownership determination has ever changed.

~Rai

I had an incident several years ago where a friend asked if I would use my CC to pay for his account and he would supply me with the PW and pay me back in cash every month.
After about 4 months of doing this, he quit paying and changed the password on it. I called EA and asked them who owned the account, the person who created it and played it, or the person paying for it. The rep replied that it was the PERSON PAYING FOR IT who owned the account. After giving him the CC number on the account, along with other info, he then supplied me with the password. I then proceeded to cancel the account.

 

[Arcus]

I bought an account from someone a little over a year ago (Sadly not through their website), and now he has decided he wants it back. Somehow, he talked them into giving the account back to him over the phone. I then proceeded to call and get it back. However, now the account is under investigation, and I was wondering if anyone knows how EA determines who gets it back?

Was it worth the $20 savings?

 

[Jammin420]

Me and the other guy have now been in phone contact. The account has been banned (However it still says suspended on website), however, after calling in to EA, the guy got it to be moved to the hire ups since the other person is agreeing to allow the account to be mine. Hopefully they will simply ask us by email or some way to allow one of us to keep the account.

 

[christy1221]

Me and the other guy have now been in phone contact. The account has been banned (However it still says suspended on website), however, after calling in to EA, the guy got it to be moved to the hire ups since the other person is agreeing to allow the account to be mine. Hopefully they will simply ask us by email or some way to allow one of us to keep the account.

I hope all goes well and you get your account back.

 

[AdamD]

I had a similiar problem as yourself
My original account which would be nearly 9? years old by now, was stolen when I wasn't playing
Even though I got the community rep at the time involved and opened multiple tickets on the matter, EA refused to help, because the "new owner" had put his/her credit/debit card info on the account and it'd been there for more than 30 days
They didn't care that I still had the original CD key and had not sold, or authorised the transfer of my account to anyone

Due to them not giving a damn, I never came back to UO.

 

[Jammin420]

Aparently they dont look at the most recent payer, or if not this wouldnt be an issue. Now, me and the guy are talking on the phone and he wants to allow me to have the account, but now EA is being the difficult ones by not reasoning with both of us to allow the account to be unbanned to allow him to give it to me. The reason EA banned the account in the first place was because they couldnt decide who to give it to. Now that there is someone to give it to they arent allowing the account to be unbanned to give it to us. Im not going to stop calling until they agree. Next time I call I'll offer to use the account transfer to have the account officially in my name.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

whatever you do, don't try to talk sense into EA, they won't understand at all.

moral of the story. never buy an account without using account transfer. unless it is an IRL friend or family member. even then.......... there's no legal recourse, and EA doesn't care that much as long as somebody is paying for it.

i hate to be negative about this, but you have to realize you are dealing with a corporation and the people you are dealing with day to day probably make near minimum wage. they don't understand the game and they don't really care as long as they get their paycheck. in most cases, they probably hate the job. the Dev Team/Community Relations probably make 70-150k per year but even then you are looking at 20(devs, if there's even that many left) vs. 50k (players, if there's even that many left)

 

[Kith Kanan]

UO also has a pay feature that allows an account to be transferred over with no going back - the people that I know that have used that service swear by it.

yeah but its been working like shid the last many months... Took me several phone call's , 20+ emails and 2 months to get an account xfered....

 

[laurlo]

ick, thats just.. an awful situation altogether. Sorry to hear you're going through it.