Why I Hate Gold Sellers

Yesterday morning, it was my turn. When I tried to log on to my World of Warcraft account, I was asked for an Authenticator number. Perplexed, I tried to log on again, thinking it was some glitch or hic-cup in the server. No such luck. I immediately attempted to contact Blizzard, who are not exactly the easiest people to get a hold of. 11 million people pony up 12-15 dollars a month, and they can only hire three people to man their phones?

Once the authenticator issue was resolved, I was able to log on, and of course, my guild bank was stripped of gold, my characters were stripped down and the items sold. Strangely, there were two characters untouched...my warrior who is the oldest character I had, and the Horde side hunter. Two of the lowest level characters, one each Horde and Alliance were transferred away.

Overall, I took it in stride. I sent an in-game ticket, which was never answered, because the ALWAYS have a large volume of tickets. Alas, an hour or so later, I was kicked off the server. When I attempted to re-log, I learned my account had been closed for gold-selling. I was assured it would take "about a day" by the other Customer Service operator. The day is up, and surprise!!!! no account access. Not all that shocking, as it is the weekend.

I guess my main beef isn't with the assholes who stole my account, were able to put an authenticator on it, and get me banned for gold-selling, but with Blizzard itself and the way they are (mis)handling the situation. A cursory glance at the forums has revealed a stunning turn of events...I was not the only person who was hit. The forums are getting more and more posts from other players who were also hit. Since my account was closed, I am unable to warn others that they can lose their account...not even the guy who claims to see his old character farming in Borean Tundra.

What amazes me the most, though? In the space of about 25 hours or so, my account was stolen, and I was banned for gold selling, even after I had called Blizzard to warn them what had happened. So, I am out all my in-game gear, a day's play, and if this isn't resolved, another several bucks for the game. Sorry Blizz, you are FAIL! Fail for your inability to detect a problem from reading your forums, fail for having 3, maybe 4 operators for your customer service, fail for not better verifying the owner of the accounts that request authenticators. Didn't the shipment of 10,000 to Shanghai give it away? Right now, I am more pissed at you than the dickheads who did this.