Account Hacked, Pillaged, and Deleted - Square Customer Support doesn't seem to care...
It's been well understood for a while now that Square Enix Customer Support is lacking in efficacy and efficiency but I'm in shock at how incredibly unhelpful they've been to me in my interactions with them. I'd like to share my story so that it may help spur change in their policy and open the discussion on their current practices. Screenshots regarding my experience will also be posted in an album at the end of my post. On June 26th, at 6:16 PM I received an e-mail saying that the e-mail tied my account was changed. A few moments later, I was booted from the game. None of my account info, nor any recovery procedures worked. I immediately contacted Support but could not get through the phoneline due to congestion. I relogged on another account and saw my main character was online and actively moving around. They had kicked over a hundred people from my Free Company and were in the process of deleting my gear, selling my items, and relinquishing my personal and Free Company house. They joined another FC and presumably siphoned off my money as well, over a billion gil. All while I was on phone support, completely locked out of my account. Later, I saw them go to Limsa, Rhaglrs, and several other places, spewing profanity in shout chat. This whole time, dozens of my friends were putting in ticket after ticket, begging a GM to intervene, to do something. By this time, phone support had closed for the day and I had no success in accessing chat or e-mail support.
I was beyond frustration but, eventually, my hacker logged out. I reached out to phone support the next day and finally got a representative on the line. I was informed that my account information was changed via Customer Support. Someone - which at this point I am sure was my ex-wife and her current boyfriend - had contacted Support, pretended to be me, and gained the clearance to change my login and recovery information. I know with the utmost certainty they schemed to do this together to spite me; largely due to our separation being ungraceful due to her repeated infidelity. They had deleted my characters AND service account. Completely gone. I logged into my Mog Station and confirmed the IPs logged in were not my own. Additionally, there was no Mog Station login during the time my e-mail was changed, confirming that this was done by Customer Support and not some sort of phishing scam. I was informed that this was a grievous error on their part and was recommended to put in a data recovery ticket to help rectify the damages, which I promptly did. And so, I waited, and waited, and waited. For three weeks with no response until last night. When I saw the e-mail pop up, I was elated. Finally! I may not be able to get everything back but, at least I'd have my account back. Except, the e-mail said they had investigated my claim and found no signs of account compromise and that nothing would be done. The decision was final. How? How is this possible? I provided time stamps, I called Customer Support who confirmed that the breach was an error, the IPs logged on were completely different from my usual IP, I put in a ticket instantly, my gil and items were sold off, my account was DELETED. What possible method of investigation could yield a result that this is not a breach? What manner of procedure is so narrow in it's scope that even such a totally clear chain of events leaves a negative result.
I'm extremely exhausted, I'm worn down beyond belief. This has been the most awful and tiresome experience I've been through in my decades of gaming. Years and years of work and memories gone. I don't know what else I can do, this has left me shattered. Square Enix, if you well and truly care for your players, please, please help your us and offer us real Customer Support. I really needed to get this off my chest, thanks for reading.
IMGUR albums with screenshots and chat logs: