harassment and blizz's answer to it...

#1 - July 6, 2011, 1:33 a.m.
Blizzard Post
ok, heres my story of harassment.

We had a member named guild, was a great member for a long long time, everyone liked him, and he got along with everyone in guild, admittedly though he did have a bit of attitude, we cut him some slack even after being rude to people...anyways, one night he decided to leave for no apparent reason and started abusing us, apparently i had done something to him (to this day his reasoning is still a mystery to us). He took the issue to trade and then personal attacks on me in trade and in whisper. used my personal details in trade, my husbands details, my guild mates details etc you get the picture. (it is still unknown how he got our details, he knew our names but thats about it) this went on for weeks before i realized that he just wasn't going to drop the subject, so i contacted blizz...

Their standard reply, ignore him. and he would make another toon and do it all again, over and over and over again and it just wasnt trolling either, he had passed the point of troll completely, it was death threats towards me and my family, also threatened to have me loose my job, the list goes on. This guy is a psycho. He also started abusing my guildies in trade and in whisper, they all reported and ignored. And it still didn't stop him. He'd just make another toon and keep going.
With every report the reply from blizz was "ignore them" "he is being investigated" "blah blah blah" nothing was done at all because he still does it.

i ended up getting name changes on my 3 most played toons about a month after it all started just so i could enjoy the game without the death threats...that lasted about a week before someone who i thought i could trust told him that i had name changes, he didn't know the names but worked it out for himself...so again the reporting cycle was put into place. Im not usually someone who just stands back when things like this happen but this guy is a psycho and i refused to talk to him...

all this happened about 6 months ago, roughly...im having an extended break from the game at the moment to get away from all that crap...i dont even know if i want to go back...blizz did absolutely nothing about it and i cant enjoy the game anymore. it affected me heaps, i got the shakes and every time i saw him in a capital city i would freak out, i know it sounds stupid, but it affected me that much...blizz knew this, and still did nothing.

so basically what i have to say here is "gg blizz for your so called help" aren't death threats a bannable offence? same with harassment? and defamation? and using peoples personal details on a public channel? Because of this guy and your incompetence to do what you are meant to do in these circumstances, you are loosing out on my subscription and paid services that i use, and i am loosing out on my passtime...i used to play wow to relax, lately playing wow has been a chore.

EDIT: i have just come back from game after 8 months off, he seems to be gone from server which is a good thing, but his BS gave my guild a bad name to everyone in trade....but i guess its better than having him there.
#1 - July 6, 2011, 1:33 a.m.
Blizzard Post
ok, heres my story of harassment.

We had a member named guild, was a great member for a long long time, everyone liked him, and he got along with everyone in guild, admittedly though he did have a bit of attitude, we cut him some slack even after being rude to people...anyways, one night he decided to leave for no apparent reason and started abusing us, apparently i had done something to him (to this day his reasoning is still a mystery to us). He took the issue to trade and then personal attacks on me in trade and in whisper. used my personal details in trade, my husbands details, my guild mates details etc you get the picture. (it is still unknown how he got our details, he knew our names but thats about it) this went on for weeks before i realized that he just wasn't going to drop the subject, so i contacted blizz...

Their standard reply, ignore him. and he would make another toon and do it all again, over and over and over again and it just wasnt trolling either, he had passed the point of troll completely, it was death threats towards me and my family, also threatened to have me loose my job, the list goes on. This guy is a psycho. He also started abusing my guildies in trade and in whisper, they all reported and ignored. And it still didn't stop him. He'd just make another toon and keep going.
With every report the reply from blizz was "ignore them" "he is being investigated" "blah blah blah" nothing was done at all because he still does it.

i ended up getting name changes on my 3 most played toons about a month after it all started just so i could enjoy the game without the death threats...that lasted about a week before someone who i thought i could trust told him that i had name changes, he didn't know the names but worked it out for himself...so again the reporting cycle was put into place. Im not usually someone who just stands back when things like this happen but this guy is a psycho and i refused to talk to him...

all this happened about 6 months ago, roughly...im having an extended break from the game at the moment to get away from all that crap...i dont even know if i want to go back...blizz did absolutely nothing about it and i cant enjoy the game anymore. it affected me heaps, i got the shakes and every time i saw him in a capital city i would freak out, i know it sounds stupid, but it affected me that much...blizz knew this, and still did nothing.

so basically what i have to say here is "gg blizz for your so called help" aren't death threats a bannable offence? same with harassment? and defamation? and using peoples personal details on a public channel? Because of this guy and your incompetence to do what you are meant to do in these circumstances, you are loosing out on my subscription and paid services that i use, and i am loosing out on my passtime...i used to play wow to relax, lately playing wow has been a chore.

EDIT: i have just come back from game after 8 months off, he seems to be gone from server which is a good thing, but his BS gave my guild a bad name to everyone in trade....but i guess its better than having him there.
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Support Forum Agent
#19 - July 6, 2011, 3:36 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Milkbank,

Let me first start by saying that we take life threats very seriously. Any time you come across an individual who threatens to hurt themselves, you or your family, you need to report it to your local authorities immediately. In your case, the logs that our GM's were able to gather did not show any life threats being made. That's not to say that it didn't happen, but again if you feel that your life is in any kind of danger, please report it to the authorities and we will gladly work with them to investigate those concerns.

Now, allow me to add a bit of clarification on the reports you made. From what I can see, both of the GM's you spoke with stated that the issue was being looked into and that the appropriate actions would be taken. They go on with their conversation recommending that you continue to place this individual on ignore rather than engaging in a dispute as it can eventually lead to both players being actioned.

The fact that you may have seen them in game a couple days after is no indication that no action was taken. Please understand that we do not disclose what actions we take and bear in mind that depending on the severity of the issue, there are different levels of account penalties.

You may learn more about our account penalty policies here:

Account Penalties
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20221

07/05/2011 07:23 PMPosted by Milkbank
my feelings towards blizz and their actions about this whole thing are fairly low...they looked into it i know that much, but nothing was DONE about it and thats what dissapointed me
I'm sorry you feel that way.

Looking at your ticket history, it appears that you reported this individual twice. While I am unable to go into details, I can assure you that the proper actions were taken. If there was any additional ongoing harassment thereafter, we were not made aware of it by you.

07/05/2011 06:40 PMPosted by Yamm
Wow – that’s pretty terrible on Blizzards side tbh
It would be, if no actions were taken. As mentioned above though, the situation was handled and there we received no additional reports.
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Support Forum Agent
#19 - July 6, 2011, 3:36 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Milkbank,

Let me first start by saying that we take life threats very seriously. Any time you come across an individual who threatens to hurt themselves, you or your family, you need to report it to your local authorities immediately. In your case, the logs that our GM's were able to gather did not show any life threats being made. That's not to say that it didn't happen, but again if you feel that your life is in any kind of danger, please report it to the authorities and we will gladly work with them to investigate those concerns.

Now, allow me to add a bit of clarification on the reports you made. From what I can see, both of the GM's you spoke with stated that the issue was being looked into and that the appropriate actions would be taken. They go on with their conversation recommending that you continue to place this individual on ignore rather than engaging in a dispute as it can eventually lead to both players being actioned.

The fact that you may have seen them in game a couple days after is no indication that no action was taken. Please understand that we do not disclose what actions we take and bear in mind that depending on the severity of the issue, there are different levels of account penalties.

You may learn more about our account penalty policies here:

Account Penalties
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20221

07/05/2011 07:23 PMPosted by Milkbank
my feelings towards blizz and their actions about this whole thing are fairly low...they looked into it i know that much, but nothing was DONE about it and thats what dissapointed me
I'm sorry you feel that way.

Looking at your ticket history, it appears that you reported this individual twice. While I am unable to go into details, I can assure you that the proper actions were taken. If there was any additional ongoing harassment thereafter, we were not made aware of it by you.

07/05/2011 06:40 PMPosted by Yamm
Wow – that’s pretty terrible on Blizzards side tbh
It would be, if no actions were taken. As mentioned above though, the situation was handled and there we received no additional reports.
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Support Forum Agent
#62 - July 6, 2011, 9:19 a.m.
Blizzard Post
I hate to lock this folks, but it was answered very well back in post 19 by Roraks.

Given we don't seem to be breaking any new ground, I'll be retiring this thread now.

Thanks for all the input!