User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Rants/Unreasonable appeals

“

Getting your ban reversed has more to do with being intelligent, calm and patient than innocence.

— Misery

Unreasonable appeals of player bans

So, you got banned and the first tier of support seems to have slow-tracked your appeal. Remember that getting your ban reversed has more to do with being intelligent, calm and patient than on your innocence. Consider whether your expectations are reasonable:

Talk to the hand

Is it fair? No.

1. The company has all the power:
   • The way EULAs work (in MMO games) is that the company is the judge/jury/executioner; it's entirely up to them to decide if there's a violation, what type of punishment applies, and it's up to them to decide how to resolve an appeal.
   • Is this fair? Doesn't matter: we paid our money and now take our chances.
2. The company cannot provide us with details that would help our appeal:
   • The way anti-bot, anti-real money trading works is that the company will never be able to give you specifics. If they do, then they compromise their process and make it easier for evil-doers to take advantage of the game.
   • Does that make appealing a ban much more difficult? Sure. Is that fair? See above.
3. Some appeals are illegitimate. How do they know whether yours is or is not?
   • There are bans that no reasonable person could question. That will not stop some of the affected players from appealing, telling a good story about why they should be treated differently. The company has to figure out some way to distinguish the legitimate from the spurious appeal. There are inevitably going to be borderline cases where a person was (by the company's own standards) unfairly banned, but (by the company's own appeal process) will have no way to reverse the situation. We will have no way to assess how frequently this happens.

How can I improve the chances of successfully appealing?

1. Be nice. Since the company holds all the power, it's all the more important when appealing a punishment to be polite and gracious. At best, disrespecting the people who respond to is going to have no effect. At worst, it will slow things down and reduce the likelihood that staff will investigate beyond the call of duty (even though, in a good customer service department, it should not).
2. Present facts neutrally. Since the company has access to data that we do not, it is critical to present your situation as clearly and neutrally as possible.
   • Focus on facts, not conclusions.
     • For example, if accused of using a 3rd party program, don't tell them you never did (or would), but instead present them with a log of your anti-virus scanner (which should show programs installed) around the time of the violation. Show them the range of IPs that you have logged in with (available from your router's software).
     • Don't claim that your account was hacked, but give them dates on which they can compare behavior. Most of us follow certain patterns when we logon and just before we logoff; provide that information.
3. Your fate is in ANet's hands. Trust the company to do the right thing...or don't bother appealing your appeal.
   • Your only two choices are: trust them or not. There's no court of higher appeal or court of reason. It doesn't matter if ANet is being reasonable are not; they hold all the power.
   • If you think the appeals process is rigged, the support team incompetent, or the company lacks access to the data needed to clear your name, don't bother wasting your time following up on a denial of your appeal.
   • Put another way, it's not unreasonable to appeal, but it's unreasonable to expect that you will succeed simply because you believe that facts are on your side.