Paid Service Transaction Issues - 10/13/10

Update: 8:49PM - 10/20/10
Anyone else who experiences these issues should submit an in-game petition for additional assistance, as our Game Masters are now equipped to handle the outstanding issues as a result of this particular situation. I'll be unstickying this thread now as a result. Thanks again everyone!

Update: 5:18PM - 10/19/10
All remaining cases report to us should have now been fully addressed. Thanks again for everyone's patience and understanding while we worked through this issue!

Update: 7:30PM - 10/16/10
It appears most cases have now been fully resolved by the fixes that have gone through. Again, if you are not seeing any change, please fully exit out of World of Warcraft and complete a Reset UI as listed below. If you received some kind of assistance from our Game Masters or Billing department, and are still not seeing a return of lost currency, please let us know so we can investigate further.

Thanks for everyone's continued patience while we resolved this issue!

Update: 5:37PM - 10/16/10
Another big shiny button was pushed, guys. For those of you still having any kind of issue, please log out entirely from the game and back in, and/or trying a Reset UI. Then let me know if there are any persistent issues.

Update: 5:24PM - 10/16/10
Those of you who are still unable to transfer - it appears one of the fixes should resolve your issue if you complete a Reset UI (delete your Cache, WTF, and Interface Folders from your World of Warcraft folder). Thanks to Emiley for experimenting with this and pointing it out!

Full Reset UI instructions here:
Reset UI
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20377

Update: 2:23PM - 10/16/10

The fix for lost currency has been tweaked and pushed through a second time. Please log out and back in and double check to ensure your currency is made available. If you do not see it displayed, you may need to perform a Reset UI to ensure that it is not a client-side display error.

Reset UI
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20377

Update: 7:48pm - 10/15/10

The fix for missing currency should have now gone through. Please log completely out of the game client (close World of Warcraft) and log back in! If for some reason you are still missing your alternate currency, please post here so I can forward your information on to the appropriate party! I'm afraid I do not have absolutely certain confirmation as to whether or not this fixed existing guild issues. Please inform me of the current status of your faction/server change so I might forward that along as well.

Update: 1:04pm - 10/15/10

Good afternoon folks --

We have yet to be provided an update, but we wanted you all to know that we haven't forgotten about you all.

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Update: 7:50am - 10/15/10

Good morning everyone –

Thank you for your continued patience. I wanted to make you aware that the rolling restarts this morning were not intended to resolve this issue. We are still awaiting a more detailed update and will pass along the information as soon as possible.

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Update: 9:26PM PDT - This issue has been escalated beyond Quality Assurance for further troubleshooting and resolution. This is for both those of you who have lost currency as well as those of you who are "trapped in guild," and unable to transfer. I am, unfortunately, still unable to provide an ETA at this time, but this is a high priority issue for us and those working on it directly.

Update: 3:13PM PDT - There is currently a hotfix in the works to address the alternate currency being lost after a paid service completes. No ETA on when this will be available. The guild issue for those of you who are currently "stuck in guild" is still being investigated.

UPDATE: 1:54pm PDT:

This issue is still under investigation. At this time, several players have reported they were able to resolve the issue by contacting Account Services by phone.

After some additional research it was determined that this workaround could cause further complications.

Moving forward, neither Account Services nor Technical Support will be able to assist with this issue.

Thank you for your continued patience, everyone.

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UPDATE: 11:43am PDT:
Still no word folks. We are just as anxious for a resolution as you all. Please continue to hang in there.

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UPDATE: 9:07am PDT:
We still do not have any additional information to provide concerning the issues with characters still showing in a guild but they are not, and missing currency.

Rest assured we are working diligently on this matter and will provide additional updates as they become available to us.

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*Update* 11:55 PDT: There is currently no additional information on the following two issues:

Paid Faction Changes providing the error "This Character is still in a guild' after the character has left the guild."
Missing Currency after completing a Paid Faction change or Paid Character Transfer

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*Update* 11:55 PDT: Paid Service Transfer page is currently available. Please continue to report any additional issues with the page.

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*Update* 9:07PM PDT: Players should no longer experience becoming 'trapped' in a guild after a transfer. However, we are still working on a fix for those of you who are currently experiencing this issue.

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8:33 PM PDT: Paid Faction Changes and Paid Character Transfers appear to no longer be sharing a cool-down. Please let us know if you still encounter this error. The issue regarding being stuck in a guild is still being investigated at this time, as is the missing currency after a transfer.

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7:52 PM PDT: If you have had a transfer complete, and you are currently missing currency, try logging out and back in after the transfer has completed. Let me know if this resolves the issue or not, so we can steer our investigation in the right direction. >^.^<

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7:44 PM PDT: Paid Service Transfers have been re-investigated, and should be online again for use. As per the previous update, they may take longer than originally estimated to complete.

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5:41 PM PDT: At this time, both Paid Character Transfers and Faction Changes should be completing, though they may be taking longer to complete than estimated. Please let us know if you continue to have issues completing these services!

We are currently aware of several issues regarding Paid Transactions at this time. These include:

-Paid Character/Faction Changes not completing properly
-Paid Faction Changes and Paid Character Transfers appear to share the same cool-down
-Paid Faction Changes providing the error 'This Character is still in a guild' after the character has left the guild.

These issues have been reported directly to those able to investigate these issues, and any updates received will be posted here as soon as possible. As always, thanks for your continued understanding and patience while we investigate and resolve these issues!

Troubleshooting FAQ:

Q: Am I being charged for this?
A: No. We will not claim any funds until the service has been fully delivered to you!

Q: Why do I see a withdrawal in my account, then?
A: The withdrawal that you see is referred to has a "hold" - your financial institution is holding the money off to the side, waiting for the go ahead from us to say "Yes, they received service, we should be paid now."

Q: Can I play the character that is currently stuck?
A: Yes! The fix currently being worked on should enable your character to transfer, but otherwise will not change your character in any way.

Q: I can't spend the new points I'm earning!
A: The fix to allow you to spend currency as well as return the currency lost will go in at the same time characters will be able to transfer again.

Q u o t e:
All currency and honor have been removed from character that is transferred even though FAQ says they will not be. I had about 7.5k honor saved up that is now just gone.

Squanki, we gave a try with a shiny red button on our end - can you log out/back in and see if you are still having the guild issue?

Appears the shiny red button did not work. =>.<= I've passed on the information and they're looking into other solutions at this time.

If you have had a transfer complete, and you are currently missing currency, try logging out and back in after the transfer has completed. Let me know if this resolves the issue or not, so we can steer our investigation in the right direction. >^.^<

Q u o t e:
Have tried multiple relogs, currency has not restored itself.

Thanks for the info, Ikazuchi. I'm collecting what I can to forward it along, it's much appreciated!

Updated: Paid Faction Changes and Paid Character Transfers appear to no longer be sharing a cool-down. Please let us know if you still encounter this error. The issue regarding being stuck in a guild is still being investigated at this time, as is the missing currency after a transfer.

Update! Players should no longer experience becoming 'trapped' in a guild after a transfer. However, we are still working on a fix for those of you who are currently experiencing this issue.

Reposition, the charges you are seeing are actually "holds." Unless the Faction Change completes, you won't be charged for the service. This is just your financial institutions way of putting that money aside so it cannot be used elsewhere if/when the transaction requested completes.

They should clear naturally in a couple of days. If they do not, you may want to first contact your financial institution regarding the holds before contacting our Billing Department to see if a refund is required (but again, that should ONLY be necessary if you end up having 3 completed faction transfers, which shouldn't happen with the same character simultaneously).

Q u o t e:
Bah now i get what you're saying lol. Hopefully this Faction Switch goes through. Is it taking longer then it usally does? Jw since i don't wanna wait for a day or 2 wondering if it's still working or not :P

At this time, paid services should be completing, though it may take longer than the system is currently estimating.

Q u o t e:
Do i have to name my character who is stuck with this guild issue to get it sorted? Or has everyone just started doing it for some other reason.

You don't have to, but it does add to the information we can use while investigating this issue, as we have a larger pool of examples to look at. >^.^<

Q u o t e:
For those of us waiting to get guild unstuck, do you want us to stay logged in or what?

Not necessary, Bloodclan. Regardless of your online status, we should be able to investigate/resolve this issue.

Q u o t e:
i cancelled mine and the money is still pending...what do i do?

The funds should be returned by your financial institution over time, Soflez. This varies per financial institution on how long, but typically it's 2-5 business days. You might be able to contact them to speed up the process, but again, not all banks/credit card companies have similar policies.

For those of you specifically encountering issues where you are receiving the Unable to transfer due to ARENA TEAMS post the name/realm of the character you are trying to transfer as well as what kind of transfer you are attempting? This information would be very helpful. >^.^<

The paid character transfer page is once again available.

There is currently no additional update on the following issues:

• Paid Faction Changes providing the error "This Character is still in a guild' after the character has left the guild."
• Missing Currency after completing a Paid Faction change or Paid Character Transfer

Additional updates will be posted on page 1 of this thread. Thanks guys.

Q u o t e:
More hours past. Still no blue???

We are here, Strobelight. No further updates as of yet though.

Q u o t e:


Roraks, is the loss of honor/justice points a bug? Will putting in a ticket help me get them back?

If it's related to any of the paid services then its part of it.

Q u o t e:
Well, I am now removed from my guild.

However, the Faction Transfer button next to my character at the character selection screen is GONE.

So uh...what gives? Do I need to pay for it again? o.O I tried relogging and restarting computer, but the transfer icon has just disappeared.

It appears as though the Faction Change was rolled back to address the guild issue. Keep in mind we will not officially charge your credit card until the transaction completes successfully.

Please try to perform the Faction Change again.

Squarewave, Tchocky, Rahtof --

Please don't troll and fill the thread with unnecessary banter.

Thanks

Update: 3:13PM, 10/14/10 - There is currently a hotfix in the works to address the alternate currency being lost after a paid service completes. No ETA on when this will be available. The guild issue for those of you who are currently "stuck in guild" is still being investigated.

To address those of you who have concerns that this process is "backwards" - even if we provided a fix for being able to push through your current transfer, this would NOT address the missing currency issue, which would still happen if the paid service goes through. Sometimes it takes a bit of an inside look to understand the method to the madness, so I hope that provides the insight you might be looking for.

To address a few concerns:

Once the hotfix is live for the lost currency issue, it should be safe to complete new Faction and Realm Transfers. However, at this time, we ask that those of you who are experiencing the guild issue hang tight. While there was a "fix" available earlier, and it could cause more harm, we are not sure if this hotfix will address those concerns. Obviously, if I hear differently, I'll let you all know ASAP. >^.^<

Q u o t e:
So after getting off the phone and having the rep roll back my faction transfer, I log in and find I'm no longer in a guild. The account info page does not list the glitched up faction transfer. The second transfer went smooth and took about 20 minutes.

I did lose about 350 JP, but at least I got my transfer.

Just pick up the phone guys, you can get it settled in like 30 minutes.

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS! This is exactly what we don't want players doing right now, in part because of the currency issue amongst other concerns.

We should NOT be providing these roll-backs at this time.

Q u o t e:


My concern is, do i HAVE to cancel and redo my faction change after you fix the currency?

Or can i still continue you wait til you guys fix the guild thing.

Because I dont wanna wait 30 days for my prepaid credit card company to reimburse me.

I'm afraid I don't have concrete info on what may or may not be necessary once the appropriate hotfix is deployed. In the most ideal situation, you should not need to cancel anything or re-do anything, but I'm not sure what exact steps are going to be taken to provide the overall resolution.

Q u o t e:
Question my currency is missing from when I paid for a faction change on my dk but called customer service and they reverted and gave my money back cause of the guild stuck issue . Currency still missing and gm in game said too bad too sad aboutit. Question is if and when u restore currency will I still getmine back also

As has been stated in two posts previous, please DO NOT request a rollback on these issues - this may complicate issues, and we should not be providing assistance with this at this time.

Our Game Masters are unable to assist with this issue as it is currently being investigated by our Quality Assurance folks. This should no longer be occurring with new transfers, and a fix for those who have already lost currency is being investigated at this time.

I understand you may not have known, Beefyweefy, I just want to emphasize how important it is to those who may come across this thread first. >^.~<

Renay, I am unable to provide you information I do not have. If I had this information available, I would post it immediately. Unfortunately, I do not.

Q u o t e:
With all that said, the real problem most people have with this issue is the fact that WE PAID FOR A SERVICE WE DIDNT RECEIVE.

This point of contention continues to be brought up, and repeatedly both Harlsoco and I have responded with an answer that either seems to be immediately forgotten or ignored - if the action does not complete, we will not claim funds from your bank. The withdrawal that you see is referred to has a "hold" - your bank is holding the money off to the side, waiting for the go ahead from us to say "Yes, they received service, we should be paid now."

This thread is for updates and information as it is made available. If you cannot post constructively in it, then I ask that you refrain from posting.

This is not a warning to just one person - please keep this conversation on topic and constructive. I don't want to have to lock down this thread to be able to provide information on the issue at hand.

If you feel that the way this issue is being addressed is inappropriate or we should change our policies, the Suggestions forums are the best place for that constructive feedback.

Q u o t e:
the terminology hotfix - does that mean a realm shutdown while a sort of patch is plugged in?

Not always. Some can be pushed live without a shutdown, some may only require a restart, some may require a maintenance (though, that's not really a hotfix at that point). It varies widely depending on the code, but I'm not savvy enough to know which would be necessary in this situation.

Update!

This issue has been escalated beyond Quality Assurance for further troubleshooting and resolution. This is for both those of you who have lost currency as well as those of you who are "trapped in guild," and unable to transfer. I am, unfortunately, still unable to provide an ETA at this time, but this is a high priority issue for us and those working on it directly.

Q u o t e:


I would still like an answer to this i havent seen one yet. it would be good to know so i dont waste a bunch of time farming.

Was working on obtaining this info for you guys. >^.^< I've added the below FAQ to the first post.

Troubleshooting FAQ:

Q: Am I being charged for this?
A: No. We will not claim any funds until the service has been fully delivered to you!

Q: Why do I see a withdrawal in my account, then?
A: The withdrawal that you see is referred to has a "hold" - your financial institution is holding the money off to the side, waiting for the go ahead from us to say "Yes, they received service, we should be paid now."

Q: Can I play the character that is currently stuck?
A: Yes! The fix currently being worked on should enable your character to transfer, but otherwise will not change your character in any way.

Q: I can't spend the new points I'm earning!
A: This should also be resolved once your character is able to transfer.

Q u o t e:
Q: I can't spend the new points I'm earning!
A: This should also be resolved once your character is able to transfer.


To the last q/a my faction change is already completed and it is not resolved i can't use my new justice points nor have i received the ones i had prior to the transfer please help me or at least a response would be great (posting on affected character) also in game at the moment with a ticket open trying hard to wait patiently =\

Sorry, allow me to clarify this a bit. I'll also go edit the Q&A to make it a little more clear.

The fix for missing/unusable currency will go in at the same time the fix goes in for those who are currently unable to transfer.

Q u o t e:
And the problem with this, we dont know what is the problem, we dont know when it will be fix, we dont know anything about the situation, we dont know why some of us got rolled back , other spoke with a Gm and did their transfer. It's like, if u have a nice gm, u can solve your problem, if you dont,m just wait a other 3 days before u can play... it seems not profesionnal at all... (sorry for grammar errors)

We are providing updates as they become available, Noyou.

As you can see by the updates posted on page 1, we are doing our very best to keep everyone informed of the situation. I can understand that "we do not have an ETA at this time" is not exactly what most of you would like to hear. You all want the issue resolved. So do we. But we would much rather provide you that sort of an update than no update at all.

And yes, a few players were able to get their characters unstuck by speaking to a Game Master or a phone representative. This has also been emphasized by Nevalistis that requests of this nature will no longer be granted:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27188066183&sid=1&pageNo=27#538

Q u o t e:
As has been stated in two posts previous, please DO NOT request a rollback on these issues - this may complicate issues, and we should not be providing assistance with this at this time.

Our Game Masters are unable to assist with this issue as it is currently being investigated by our Quality Assurance folks. This should no longer be occurring with new transfers, and a fix for those who have already lost currency is being investigated at this time.

I understand you may not have known, Beefyweefy, I just want to emphasize how important it is to those who may come across this thread first. >^.~<

Q u o t e:
would you recommend doing this?

NO. See above.

Updated on the first page as well:

Q u o t e:

Good morning everyone –

Thank you for your continued patience. I wanted to make you aware that the rolling restarts this morning were not intended to resolve this issue. We are still awaiting a more detailed update and will pass along the information as soon as possible.

Main page updated as well.

Q u o t e:
Update: 1:04pm - 10/15/10

Good afternoon folks --

We have yet to be provided an update, but we wanted you all to know that we haven't forgotten about you all.

Q u o t e:
Stop trolling the CS forums. this is a place for people to complain about a bad experience with the company and to request a timely fix for the issue, and it's exactly what's going on.

No, the Customer Service Forum is NOT the complaint forum, I beg to differ with you, Capnblue.

I know you are all frustrated at the situation. And if we had an update for you we would happily provide it.

We hope we won't need to work on this issue through the weekend - because we hope that the issue will be resolved prior to then.

I'm sorry that I am unable to provide further information, but I can only provide the information that is given to me. The moment I arrived at the office this morning, I've made this topic and investigating into this topic for more information my priority (as I have since the issue popped up, passing on all information to my trusted colleagues here on the forums when I am unable to post). However, the information currently being requested is simply unavailable to me at this time. =>.<=

The moment I hear something new, I'll be back here to update you all. I really do appreciate the patience and understanding that is within this thread, and while I know it may be a lot to ask, I do hope you can continue to provide me that patience while I work as diligently as I can to bring you more news.

We wanted to snag a couple of you experiencing this issue to see if we could find the root of the cause. Please don't advise this as a course of action - we won't be able to contact everyone this way, just a random batch.

Sorry if this brought up any hopes, and please don't post about it individually, but it is helping us to find a larger, more absolute solution in the end.

Q u o t e:

Oh! Sorry! D:
I thought this was the solution.
My apologies Kitty<3

No worries you had no way of knowing. No harm, no foul. >^.~<

Q u o t e:
kind of a stupid question, but do we need to be posting here for you to know who is still affected by this?

It's not absolutely necessary, but we may use your information for further investigation. Couldn't hurt. >^.^<

Update: The fix for missing currency should have now gone through. Please log completely out of the game client (close World of Warcraft) and log back in! If for some reason you are still missing your alternate currency, please post here so I can forward your information on to the appropriate party! I'm afraid I do not have absolutely certain confirmation as to whether or not this fixed existing guild issues. Please inform me of the current status of your faction/server change so I might forward that along as well.

Thanks for the info guys! Please keep it coming, it's immensely helpful to our team for investigation. <3

Q u o t e:
How is providing 100's of names anymore helpful than ... lets say 5? (random numbers here) It's obviously the SAME bug effecting everyone!

I've garnered some information from it, as some players have, indeed, gotten their currency back, but others haven't.

Q u o t e:
We already know the ETA on a fix isn't coming quickly ... why can't a real technical person just give us a little insight on what happened?

Our "technical people" as you put it are unable to post on the forums as they are diligently working on resolving the issue. Even if they were able to post directly, it's likely that due to the sensitive nature of the programming at hand, they'd be unable to share more than I've already provided. =>.<=

As many times as I have said this, I will reiterate it again - as soon as I have more information provided, I will post it here for all to see. <3 Thanks.

We are trying to update everyone with relevant information as often as we can. While I understand you would like to see us update this thread more often than we have been there is simply no new information to provide at this time.

I know tempers can flare due to the frustrations, however please be mindful that this thread is being used to compile information on those who are still experiencing being stuck in a guild and/or missing currency. Keep it civilized and on topic.

Q u o t e:
Well, still stuck since Tuesday. Just got off the phone with costumer service and spoke with a very nice person and she told me that is is a known issue and should be resolved in a couple of days and to please just hang tight. I am frustrated and angry but that phone call gave me more and an easy feeling then the updates here.

Just to reiterate, we do not have an ETA as to when this issue will be resolved. It very well may be resolved in "a couple days" but this has yet to be determined.

Update: The fix for lost currency has been tweaked and pushed through a second time. Please log out and back in and double check to ensure your currency is made available. If you do not see it displayed, you may need to perform a Reset UI to ensure that it is not a client-side display error.

Reset UI
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20377

Q u o t e:
I didn't see any prior posts about Character Re-customization, but does anyone know if that service would face any currency/guild issues? I wouldn't think so, as I'm just looking to give this toon a sex change instead of transferring it to a different server or faction, but I thought I'd ask :)

All transfers going forward should not experience any of these issues, Haniel. Most of the issue that are ongoing are from those who initiated transfers a few days ago.

Thanks for the information, guys! I'm pulling some data here and there and sending that off to our investigating team to help out as much as I'm able to - I may not be able to provide the fix myself, but hopefully these examples help!

Q u o t e:
i love you flying kitty but your company is ticking me off something fierce... "All transfers going forward should not experience any of these issues" so there are new transfers that have went thru say today for example and there fine yet we are still in limbo this is wrong on so many levels unless i am misinterpreting your post

It was integral to make sure that the bug that caused this issue was fixed right away, so as not to create a larger backlog of cases where we had to go back and fix more players. That step has been completed - the steps on fixing those of you that the bug already affected is what we are currently working on, but it's been a lot trickier to fix than just preventing it from happening to future requests. >Q.Q<

Q u o t e:


You guys are all welcome! Hehe

Adding your response to the current update, Emiley. Seems that the fix might not be going through client-side without a Reset UI.

Glad to hear it's working for a lot of you! Please let me know if you are still experiencing any issues.

Another big shiny button was pushed, guys. For those of you still having any kind of issue, please log out entirely from the game and back in, and/or trying a Reset UI. Then let me know if there are any persistent issues.

Ryujon, your Death Knight appears to have the proper amount of currency on my end - I've checked on both sides of the transfer and it seems everything went across okay. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be displaying properly if you have already completed a Reset UI and logged into and out of the game entirely (closing World of Warcraft completely).

Minlow, it looks like your mage has the appropriate amount of currency, but not your priest. Checking into this now.

It appears most cases have now been fully resolved by the fixes that have gone through. Again, if you are not seeing any change, please fully exit out of World of Warcraft and complete a Reset UI as listed below. If you received some kind of assistance from our Game Masters or Billing department, and are still not seeing a return of lost currency, please let us know so we can investigate further.

Thanks for everyone's continued patience while we resolved this issue!

Forwarded your info on, Beefyweefy. It does seem to be a special case. If I hear anything back, I'll let you know ASAP.

Greetings everyone. >^.^< Did you miss me?

For those of you still experiencing missing currency, I have forwarded on a list of all the outstanding cases to a team who will address these individually. This seems to have only occurred for those of you who were assisted by our Billing & Account Services department before the issues were fully resolved.

For those of you who seem to be unable to transfer, please visit the first page of this thread and try the troubleshooting errors listed there. You will want to close down your World of Warcraft client, complete a full Reset UI, and log back in to the characte to ensure that the latest fix has "taken" and that your unable to transfer issue is addressed.

Reset UI
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20377

The list I forwarded along was expanded to include all players who were still having an issue - so those of you who didn't call billing before were included in that list and should have been or will be addressed shortly.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!

Q u o t e:


I literally just got mine in the middle of a Winter Grasp, i was like "WTF" then I saw a mail icon appear. Thanks =)

Excellent to hear!

Update: All remaining cases report to us should have now been fully addressed. Thanks again for everyone's patience and understanding while we worked through this issue!

Forwarded you on, Surefirè. Give it a little bit of time, should be taken care of fairly quickly. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this. >^.^<

Beefyweefy, looks like you should have been fixed up by a Game Master already! >^.^<

Furycrusade, your issue is unrelated to these issues. You will want to contact Billing & Account Services regarding your Paid Character Transfers.

Billing & Account Services

Hours: 7 AM to 8 PM Pacific Standard Time

How to contact:
Phone: 1-800-592-5499
Argentina: 0800-333-0778
Australia: 1-800-041-378
Chile: 1230-020-5554
Mexico: 001-888-578-7628

E-mail: billing@blizzard.com
Web form: https://us.blizzard.com/support/webform.xml

Iarka, I've forwarded on your information to our team who is handling these issues directly. Should be resolved shortly.

Update: Anyone else who experiences these issues should submit an in-game petition for additional assistance, as our Game Masters are now equipped to handle the outstanding issues as a result of this particular situation. I'll be unstickying this thread now as a result. Thanks again everyone!