Seriously Mesanna?!?

[Dances With Newbs]

Greetings,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Happy Gilmore / Kilo and I run a very old stone on Atlantic shard. The guild is called Dread Pirates of Sosaria and was founded by Chance about 14 years ago.
About 9 months ago a player came to me privately and asked that I keep all his players in the guild and allow him to keep his status no matter what happens. He is an awsome guy so I did not hesitate to say, "sure". I followed this by asking why did he need to ask this of me. He then informed me that he had received orders to deploy to Afghanistan and would be out for 9 months, given that he would return. We all wished him safe travels and he was off to do what the brave men and women do to preserve this great nation. While he was in the sand pit of hell he often got in our Discord channel because as he put it, "hearing us and talking about Ultima Online comforted him".
So a couple days ago we all got to breathe a big sigh of relief when we learned by hearing his voice again that he had indeed returned to his family and our guild safe and sound. This sigh of relief was very quickly followed by a mix of many emotions, because he logged into his account that he made sure was paid for and all his stuff and his house had fallen. I told him to message Broadsword and Mesanna directly, confident that they would understand and would help our soldier. Well this has thus far not been the case. Mesanna responded to his email with the most basic and unhelpful information that could possibly be sent. After he explained everything and included statements of his paid account she replied simply, "the server has been down over the weekend try logging in again". I mean seriously did you even read the email explaining that the account was paid for including proof? I have quite a few members, all with multiple accounts and if this dont get fixed we have all vowed to stop paying for most if not all the accounts. If there is anyone out there that can help us please let me know. I am very sad that in his darkest hours he dreamed of Ultima Online, only to be completely heart broken when returning to it.

***If we fail our men and women who take up arms to defend our freedom, then we fail in the worst way you can possibly fail.***

-Happy Gilmore

 

[Suelynn]

I think we all need to be paying very close attention here to how this is handled. If a man has proof he paid and you don't make it right, then I need to stop wasting my time and money here also. Tell him, "WE APPRECIATE HIS SERVICE!!" None of us would enjoy what freedom we have left if it were not for men and like him.

 

[frankenchicken]

I'm also a member of Dred and feel strongly that this situation needs to be resolved. I can attest to everything Kilo said. We spent hours in discord while he was overseas chatting up what we were going to do when he was back in the game, character improvements, templates, gear. Once home he was excited to be back in the game just to be heartbroken. It's touched everyone in our guild as UO guilds are like families. We'd appreciate this being looked into. While he may not be able to get his in game possessions back, we hope some reasonable resolution can be found to compensate him for what he lost.

Sincerely,

James

 

[Dot_Warner]

You need to post this on the official forum as the devs don't really respond here anymore.

Mesanna hasn't even logged in here since February.

 

[hardy-]

dread is one of the biggest idoc guilds of atlantic, how anyone saw when his house go idoc?

 

[Finley Grant]

questions:

1. was the account active and he was able to login right away without any needs to go to mythic acc management to add payment or reset password?
(i ask because if the account was closed something went wrong / if the account was open but password wrong it was maybe compromised and someone took his stuff)
2. how did he pay? with game time or CC? (maybe something wrong with the CC / does he have the email confirmation of 1. buying the GTC 2. that it was applied to his account)
3. what is now gone? only house? or house AND stuff from toons / bank?

i dont want to accuse him for anything here but your post is kinda missing a bit of detail, i would not wonder if it was presented like this to the support it may looked not that great and "true"

however i fully agree with @Dot_Warner thats this needs to be posted on official forum.
tell him to make forum account, then present his case in detail (ofc without giving private information) then tag (if possible there) at least kyronix and mesanna and request a statement how this can happen.

DO IT FAST! and hope that they have proper log on their system which go back long enough. (depending on law and amount of data they could be maybe only stored a month)

i would request 3 things.
1. that they check the acc mgmt logs to validate that his payment is correct (he can back this up with the emails from EA/BS)
2. IF 1. is fine: request to check the login servers for logins during the time he was not around (if the toons and banks are empty too / check the housing warehouse WHEN and WHY the house did fall if toons and banks OK
3. IF 1, is fine and 2. dont bring up any "fancy crap" request statement why/how your **** got lost as you obviousely sucessfully paid for it and your account was not compromised. then ask for compensation (which they will deny but then you can expose them for not having they **** under control)

however i dont see any chance that you get anything back if the account got compromized. maybe you are lucky and they can restore something from backup but i would not want to make you hope....

OTHER THING: was the house by any chance a atlantic fel castle near cove? if yes PM me because there is another Mesanna story i initially didn want to share....

 

[t0r1n]

I think we all need to be paying very close attention here to how this is handled. If a man has proof he paid and you don't make it right, then I need to stop wasting my time and money here also. Tell him, "WE APPRECIATE HIS SERVICE!!" None of us would enjoy what freedom we have left if it were not for men and like him.

Agreed! Make this right!

 

[Dances With Newbs]

You need to post this on the official forum as the devs don't really respond here anymore.

Mesanna hasn't even logged in here since February.

Do you honestly think I am going to risk logging in to that place and put something inflammatory so I can be harassed? Not trying to sound crappy about it, but I have always thought that using my account user name and password is a bit too much on the controlling side. How can someone log a complaint without fear of retaliation if all of their information is right there?

 

[Cymidei]

The whole house decay system is very punitive and should be changed. I know people love IDOCs but in my opinion only the house spot should open up. All the inactive player's items should go into a warehouse until they reactivate their account. It's cruel to lose everything you've earned, especially when you are a veteran player or in this case both a veteran player and military veteran with a critical job. I had this happen to me too, there was a glitch with payment, was busy and poof, a decade's worth of stuff lost, much of it irreplaceable. I hope there will be compassion not only for this player but for all players.

 

[Dances With Newbs]

dread is one of the biggest idoc guilds of atlantic, how anyone saw when his house go idoc?

As I do appreciate the assistance in this matter, we have not done idocs in over 5 years man. Please get your facts straight before you log a response implying we are too incompetent to catch our own guild members falling house if we were doing idocs.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Do you honestly think I am going to risk logging in to that place and put something inflammatory so I can be harassed? Not trying to sound crappy about it, but I have always thought that using my account user name and password is a bit too much on the controlling side. How can someone log a complaint without fear of retaliation if all of their information is right there?

Since you're lodging a complaint about an account (mis)management issue, you'd have to give your account name to reach a resolution anyway... So that's a bit of a catch 22. Post here and be ignored by the devs, or post there and possibly get a better response. As long as you post with a minimum of snark/hyperbole and stick to the objective facts, you should be ok.

You can post on the official forum using a pseudonym, just like here. The only one(s) able to see any kind of account info would be the administrators (not the Mods).

You could also try re-emailing Mesanna using the fewest words possible without losing the meaning of the message. Have your friend include proof of payments made while deployed, don't wait for her to ask. Burry her with facts so she has no choice but to do the right thing.

 

[Dances With Newbs]

Since you're lodging a complaint about an account (mis)management issue, you'd have to give your account name to reach a resolution anyway... So that's a bit of a catch 22. Post here and be ignored by the devs, or post there and possibly get a better response. As long as you post with a minimum of snark/hyperbole and stick to the objective facts, you should be ok.

You can post on the official forum using a pseudonym, just like here. The only one(s) able to see any kind of account info would be the administrators (not the Mods).

You could also try re-emailing Mesanna using the fewest words possible without losing the meaning of the message. Have your friend include proof of payments made while deployed, don't wait for her to ask. Burry her with facts so she has no choice but to do the right thing.

Thanks for your words of advice, and I do agree with you completely. If they are not checking this forum it doesn't do much good to post here. Just didn't know where to start and I knew someone would point me in the right direction. Not many people care too much about things like this, but at my company I support our troops and fight for them as they do us. If he was done wrong it needs to be fixed. Soldiers like that young man are my hero.

 

[OREOGL]

Thanks for your words of advice, and I do agree with you completely. If they are not checking this forum it doesn't do much good to post here. Just didn't know where to start and I knew someone would point me in the right direction. Not many people care too much about things like this, but at my company I support our troops and fight for them as they do us. If he was done wrong it needs to be fixed. Soldiers like that young man are my hero.

Bleak and kyronix still lurk on the forums.

I suspect they discuss things with mesanna but I would have your buddy keep emailing her.

Based on my experience of talking with her through email she often needs things repeated and repetitive facts.

Though despite this she has been pretty good with most in regards to customer service.

I have no doubts she will help how she can.

 

[Fridgster]

10 bucks says their post is locked in under 1 hr.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Do you honestly think I am going to risk logging in to that place and put something inflammatory so I can be harassed? Not trying to sound crappy about it, but I have always thought that using my account user name and password is a bit too much on the controlling side. How can someone log a complaint without fear of retaliation if all of their information is right there?

Alls you are doing is asking for help or are you going to go off on them from the get go. Have you even been to the new forum or are you just paranoid by nature.

 

[Uriah Heep]

10 bucks says their post is locked in under 1 hr.

Or disappears

 

[GarthGrey]

Ok I seriously do have sympathy, especially being a veteran myself. But I have to say, if I were deployed for 9 months and I cared enough about my UO stuff, my account would either stay on a CC, or I would purchase some gametime. It's 9 months, 120.00 , if money is that tight , well......

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

@Dances With Newbs FIRST, Thank your friend for his service! Now, a couple of things came to mind after I read your original post. 1) I Was his account was active the entire time he was gone? If so, then the next question becomes, did ANYONE have his account information? If his account was still active when he logged in, then it "sounds" like he either got hacked, someone looted his house then either dropped it or sold it. OR, someone with his account access did so. 2) Were his characters still equipped the same as when he left, and were his bank boxes the same? If not, then I would bet on hacked/looted. (see #1). 3) How did he pay for his game time? Did he pay for it with a credit/debit card? If so, then he will have a record of the charge. Did he buy game time codes? If codes, hopefully he bought them DIRECTLY from Origin, not from anywhere else. If they came from anywhere else, then he is probably out of luck. It seems like I saw a post/transcript of @Mesanna mentioning something about codes from "other sources", and them not being allowed/valid/acceptable. Lastly, when did the house actually fall? That might help pinpoint what happened as well.

The answers to these, and other, questions might help to figure out what happened.

Just my thoughts.

Oh, and is there currently a house where his was located? If so, who owns it, and when they placed, might be of some help as well.

 

[Blackie]

If he's suggesting his house fell while the account was still active and paid for that would indeed be cause for concern but somehow that seems highly unlikely.

All of the guild stuff and his deployment and the rest is totally irrelevant, there is either a bug, or there isn't. So far I've never heard of this happening before.

All of the entitled talk, threats, promises to quit and social activism in general is pointless. It's a game, did a bug get this guy or didn't it, I'm sure Mesanna will fix it if he can provide evidence of it... and I'm equally sure she'll totaly ignore the rest, as she should. In 2018 it's like everyone gets offended on behalf of others over absolutely everything, it's not constructive.

Let us know if this bug has been confirmed.

 

[petemage]

Never heard of an house drop while having an active account. Might not be the popular opinion, but I'm pretty sure the error is at the user's end here.

 

[THP]

i was thinking didnt the guy ask u to keep an eye on his house?? i would have if i had been away 6 months.....i would have gladly told friends account name and password to refresh a decaying house... just saying...hey i think its crap... the guy deserves better...but surely ''keep an eye on my house'' even if its paid for...aka credit cards expire and this is most likely whats happened here etc etc

 

[ShriNayne]

Was the account paid every month or was your friend playing the 90 day game? I do have sympathy for anyone who loses their house, but I've never heard of a house falling on a paid account. If he paid every month then that is very odd indeed!
Did he lose ALL his stuff or just his house and contents? Are his bank boxes still intact? Did nobody do a run past his house in 9 months to check that all was okay? Although that would only have helped if they happened past when it started to decay, quite a small window I suppose. I only ask because I know quite a few people who have vanished for months and I do check out their house occasionally to see that all is well, they might be reachable on ICQ etc. if things go awry.

 

[DanteSignas]

Never heard of an house drop while having an active account. Might not be the popular opinion, but I'm pretty sure the error is at the user's end here.

I agree totally on this. If there were a problem going on like this, I would think that we would have heard about it already. The other part of this is what exactly are you looking for them to do? I am not saying anyone is being fishy but I feel like there is a part of this puzzle being overlooked.

 

[Finley Grant]

well, several persons including keith pete and me already started to ask fancy questions about the background to get a picture but obviousely OP and the affected guy dont really give us accurate input.

we can speculate now for hours and hours without getting any more clear picture.

therefore i join the opinion of the fraction who say never seen a house falling on paid account and as said as it is the affected person somehow made a mistake.

 

[MalagAste]

It's possible that while deployed he hasn't been able to check emails... which his CC may have expired during the 9month leave and he may not have noticed that or thought of that and it may have just gone into decay as his CC couldn't be billed... It's also possible that if he's married etc... that the "wife" might have dipped the account low for a time and bounced a payment... or any number of factors including the bank thinking it's fraud because they know he's overseas and blocked the payment... banks are stupid that way sometimes. Especially where EA Games is concerned... too many fraudulent POGO charges has flagged EA Games as BAD in the eyes of many CC companies... I know I had to call mine and raise hell when they decided to block all charges to EA Games...

At any rate an email to @Mesanna is always the best route... I hope this is cleared up and wish the best for your friend... His service to this country is GREATLY appreciated.

Prayers be with him.

 

[petemage]

well, several persons including keith pete and me already started to ask fancy questions about the background to get a picture but obviousely OP and the affected guy dont really give us accurate input.

we can speculate now for hours and hours without getting any more clear picture.

therefore i join the opinion of the fraction who say never seen a house falling on paid account and as said as it is the affected person somehow made a mistake.

Wouldn't be the first one to try to play Mesanna with some emotional backstory. OP seems more worried to make this guy stand out as some poor victim than giving any helpful details. Would be happy to be wrong though.

 

[Finley Grant]

Wouldn't be the first one to try to play Mesanna with some emotional backstory. OP seems more worried to make this guy stand out as some poor victim than giving any helpful details. Would be happy to be wrong though.

i would not go that far but misstakes happend an alsoi bugs happen. maybe we get some news

 

[Mervyn]

Even if true, what exactly do you expect Mesanna to be able to do? It's in the Ts and Cs that they cannot replace any lost items.

 

[Archnight]

I think the OP is referencing this thread Ea and uo team ****ed up (could be wrong but it seems very similar), however I also think there's important details left out but fear that regardless all those items are sadly lost with the house

 

[petemage]

I think the OP is referencing this thread Ea and uo team ****ed up (could be wrong but it seems very similar), however I also think there's important details left out but fear that regardless all those items are sadly lost with the house

What a pain to read. I hope his email was better.

 

[DJAd]

It's gone. Forget about it.

Either suck it up and start over or quit.

You will be extremely lucky to get anything. As already mentioned I've also never heard of anyone's house falling with an active account.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I think the OP is referencing this thread Ea and uo team ****ed up (could be wrong but it seems very similar), however I also think there's important details left out but fear that regardless all those items are sadly lost with the house

So his account was at least inactive for 120 days and what is really strange is that his brother was checking on my account for me logging in about few times a month to make sure was fine. Something is missing here.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

I've been down the "how some player was horribly abused" road many many times around here. Always turns out they screwed up. The last big situation I remember similar to this a guy was playing the 90 day game and got his dates wrong. But he was screaming to the heavens before the truth came out. My gut tells me he screwed up. I've never heard of a house dropping on a paid account. Ever. Not overly fond of people trying to give UO a black eye when they hose something up. This smells of a buy one get 3 free deal gone wrong to me. I could see where someone would think this would be a perfect solution in this situation. If there were a credible situation where an actual house fell on a paid account I'd be up in arms but I'm 99.9% sure that is not what happened here. On the bright side I've quit twice before and even gave everything away. Naturally I'm back now and my account, possessions,skills etc have never been better. So it's not impossible to bounce back and I've had fun doing it. In a passive aggressive manner I suppose... I am sorry this happened but I'm real sure where the problem was.

 

[Uriah Heep]

This smells of a buy one get 3 free deal gone wrong

That's why you shouldn't be greedy, its better to do buy one get two!

 

[Slayvite]

Strange....people seem to think we have moved to a Liberal collective where each voice is heard and looked at since the launch of EJ.......

....FOOLS!

You justade yourselves look like newbs!!

This is still the dictatorship it was before EJ where one person is in controll and rules change to suit "the dark ones" mood.

 

[Victim of Siege]

 

[Picus at the office]

His email should have a note saying they went in-active. I have had my accounts up and running for the last 2+ years with the odd login here and there, all 3 houses are fine. This said, if he was paying and can show it was a mistake I can't see what they can do but he is owed something.

Let's assume the best and not talk about the worst.

 

[elster]

If houses can disappear from active accounts, we'd have a lot more people complaining that their houses went missing.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

No responses from @Dances With Newbs to several questions/suggestions . It is looking like there is a whole lot more to the story. But a reply with an update would be nice.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

Do you honestly think I am going to risk logging in to that place and put something inflammatory so I can be harassed? Not trying to sound crappy about it, but I have always thought that using my account user name and password is a bit too much on the controlling side. How can someone log a complaint without fear of retaliation if all of their information is right there?

How do you get your account/stuff back etc without that information? Posting here is an easy way for them to ignore you.

 

[Anon McDougle]

as far as i can see nothing posted about this on the official forum .......

 

[Dances With Newbs]

No responses from @Dances With Newbs to several questions/suggestions . It is looking like there is a whole lot more to the story. But a reply with an update would be nice.

In response to most of you, the point of the article was not to play detective nor to try and figure out his situation. Bottom line is when he told me of the situation I only heard one thing, and that is no one was trying to help him resolve his problem. In the video game I am the guild leader of his guild, not his father. The thing that bothered me the most is that a soldier who risked his life for our freedom is given no more respect than he received. Who knows you hateful people are possibly right and it is his fault. The point is treatment of people in general is deteriorating, I just don't want to see our soldiers treated like a second class citizen. No one should be treated badly in general, and certainly not someone who just got back from wondering day to day if he would live to see tomorrow in service of liberty.

 

[Dances With Newbs]

If he's suggesting his house fell while the account was still active and paid for that would indeed be cause for concern but somehow that seems highly unlikely.

All of the guild stuff and his deployment and the rest is totally irrelevant, there is either a bug, or there isn't. So far I've never heard of this happening before.

All of the entitled talk, threats, promises to quit and social activism in general is pointless. It's a game, did a bug get this guy or didn't it, I'm sure Mesanna will fix it if he can provide evidence of it... and I'm equally sure she'll totaly ignore the rest, as she should. In 2018 it's like everyone gets offended on behalf of others over absolutely everything, it's not constructive.

Let us know if this bug has been confirmed.

"His deployment and the rest is totally irrelevant" Is that so? I hope you are not a veteran, because if you are you bring disgrace to the uniform you wore. If you are not, then your opinion means absolutely nothing.

 

[elster]

All the respect in the world to our soldiers, however if we start to make exceptions for this type of thing based on someone being a soldier, it just opens the door for anyone to social engineer their way to special treatment.

 

[Riyana]

Okay, that's enough.

The person in question needs to email [email protected] and [email protected] and/or post on the official forum. If EA was charging him, then he may also need to contact EA to determine exactly what those charges were if his UO account closed. He should also check with any and all who had access to his account and the status of any other accounts he had.

No one here at Stratics can help with this matter. I suggest he make his emails and titles very clear, simple, and precise, because they are probably wading through a lot of account-related emails right now due to the introduction of EJ and the recent outage.

Since this thread is quickly turning both personal and political, it is now closed.