Support NeoGAF

[zychi]

Good luck getting reinstated. Hopefully Sony isn't as backwards stupid as MS. I had a similar issue with XBL a few years ago and COD BLOPS DLC. MS wouldn't even speak to me about what I did. turned out the LE owners of COD were banned because of a glitch of downloading maps that were included in the season pass.

MS told me they wouldn't reverse it, and I lost $100s of dollars in dlc, maybe $1000 in actual games and a 6 year old Live account.

I no longer purchase games digitally unless they are under $10 and on Steam. Physical everything for me.

 

[Tevious]

Why would you need to use magicjack? Are you in the US? Do you buy games outside of you region using a separate account? To my knowledge that is in violation of the TOS.

I'm a US citizen living abroad in South Korea until mid-October. Where does it say I can't make purchases from my US bank/credit card from the US PS Store and play my content temporarily overseas?

Also, another reason I go all digital is so I don't have to haul my collection halfway across the world.

 

[Solaire of Astora]

snip

snip

Two guys with Solaire avatars... I can't help but feel a little nervous.

 

[DancinSwayze]

OP I think you got banned because you won a Wii U through a Burger King contest. You should know better...Sony doesn't like Nintendo since the SNES CD partnership way back when.

 

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

"I used the PayPal option to buy a $50 card, but PayPal thought it was an unusual purchase from me, suspected it was fraud, and reversed the charge."


Yeah, that would do it.

Yea, this happened to me, but only the Paypal account I used got taken down, not my PSN account.

 

[OG Loc]

Keep calling. Also, keep trying to get in touch with PayPal.

PayPal chargebacks are absolute nightmares. I say this as a person who has been on both ends.

 

[CambriaRising]

I couldn't even get ahold of PayPal when that happened. I had problems verifying my account too because they thought my number was a cell phone and wouldn't let me use the automatic call option with my magicjack phone to receive a code. I eventually got it to work, but not until after they reversed the charge. But as I said, I already resolved that with Sony customer service, gave them another $50 PSN card (from amazon), had them restore my balance and un-ban my account, until now anyway.

You need to not give up, you have to keep calling and talk to someone as high as you can bro. Litigation is not the best course of action until you have completely exhausted every other avenue.

You also need to call paypal and double check that they erased the chargeback.

 

[andrerobot]

I know that one day being all digital for all this gears will bite me in the ass.

 

[Gaz_RB]

I didn't do any such thing. I honestly have no idea how to even do that. If that's the reason, then its because my account was hacked and someone else did it on a different console.

I'm sure you didn't. I was just reminiscing haha.
Good luck with your account.

Link?

Can I get a link to that, brah?

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=683505

Epic thread.
Title was changed after the truth came out.

 

[gogosox82]

Damn that sucks op. Was probably that chargeback paypal did that got your account banned. You will need to raise hell about it to get your account back. Use twitter, call everyday or whenever you can, write e mails, etc. Sony also needs to change their system. You can't deny someone access to content they paid for even if they violated tos. They should at least allow you to transfer content to a new account of find a way to let you download them.

 

[Cru]

I wonder if this thread will turn out like the XBL one and we'll find out OP was pirating games.

But really, that sucks. All those games gone in a second...

How about this one? http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438616

 

[phierce]

@Amboyes, @yosp

This x100.

 

[JaseC]

You need to not give up, you have to keep calling and talk to someone as high as you can bro. Litigation is not the best course of action until you have completely exhausted every other avenue.

You also need to call paypal and double check that they erased the chargeback.

I think PayPal is more or less irrelevant at this point. What's likely happened is that despite using the Amazon gift card to essentially reverse the chargeback, whoever he spoke to at the time failed to update his account history accordingly and now somebody else has suspended the account again because of an out-of-date detail.

 

[Loakum]

So today I tried to log into PSN and found out that my account was banned. I called PlayStation support and even spoke with the supervisor and the only thing they could tell me was that it was a Violation of Terms of Service and my account was permanently banned and cannot be retrieved. They couldn't put me in contact with anyone else to resolve the issue and they can't transfer my purchases to a new account or refund me for my purchases, so I'm basically SOL. I've gone over the list of reasons why an account would be suspended/banned and there is nothing that I did wrong. I 100% believe this to be an error on their part.

I had over 50 PS3 games, 12 Vita games, 12 PSP games, 15 PS1 games, 5 PS2 games, and 1 PS4 game invested into my PSN account; not to mention numerous DLC and PS+ games. I had a PS+ subscription good through November 2015. Probably thousands of dollars invested into my account (it'll take me some time to estimate this).

I just recently upgraded my PS3 hard drive to 1TB and the only thing I've been doing over the last couple weeks with my PS3 is that I've been redownloading most of my collection from PSN. I always have problems with the backup utility failing when I have too many files. So I've left my PS3 on at home and have been letting it redownload my games. Aside from that, I've only played a little bit of Ni No Kuni, some GTAV Online last weekend for the 4th of July weekend event, and most recently an old demo that I found in my Transaction History for TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. I haven't used my Vita anytime recently other than to install a game, and my PS4 is boxed up at my mother's house.

My account was previously banned a few weeks ago during a PSN sale when I tried to purchase the Mass Effect trilogy and DLC. The PSN checkout doesn't always work for me and gives me random errors, so sometimes I have to buy a PSN card. I used the PayPal option to buy a $50 card, but PayPal thought it was an unusual purchase from me, suspected it was fraud, and reversed the charge. I was unable to contact anyone at PayPal to resolve the issue and stop them from reversing the charge (their support center consists of automatic messages that looks for key words and just quotes the FAQ page). PlayStation customer support had me purchase another $50 card (which I got off amazon this time) and they applied the code to my account balance and unbanned my account. So I don't know if this is related and maybe they didn't inform someone of something that led to my account getting re-banned or what.

To add further details about my situation, I am a US citizen currently living abroad in South Korea. I return to the US in mid-October. So having a Korean IP address might have contributed to PayPal suspecting my account was compromised. I don't know if this would have led to PlayStation doing an investigation of their own since I am downloading many games through my awesome Korean internet and not my slow ass VPN connection (for when I need to use a US IP address).

Also, I should note that my account was suspiciously signed-out the moment I played the TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled demo and clicked the "Unlock Full Game" option which takes you to the PS Store. I got a message about a maintenance, so I thought that was why I couldn't log in. Apparently, the game isn't available for purchase anymore and I've read something online that apparently downloading demos in other regions can result in a suspension. So I don't know if this could be some kind of mix up on their part. I asked the customer service rep about it and he said that shouldn't have caused a problem.

I don't think I was hacked, but maybe it's possible... My PS3 has been on for the last couple weeks and I think I was disconnected from PSN maybe twice now. I didn't see any notifications about being signed in from another location, but then if that message disappears over time, it could have happened while I was at work and I missed it. I only use the same password with Steam, which I just changed to be on the safe side. Regardless, if someone got on my account and did something ban-worthy, Sony really shouldn't be permanently banning accounts on a whim like that.

So GAF, does anyone have any experience with recovering permanently banned PSN accounts? Is there someone else I can contact? The supervisor couldn't give me anyone else to contact, not even the accounting department that suspended my account. Do I need to take legal action against them for damages? My aunt is a lawyer, but she specializes in Guardianship Law.

I'd appreciate any help and advice.


TLDR: Account banned for violation of TOS when I didn't do anything abnormal. I lost maybe hundreds of purchases from the PS Store.

Besides repeatedly calling them. I would tweet @yosp on twitter, telling him what happened. I would also tell some gaming accounts of what happened. In other words, keep the heat on them, until this is resolved.

 

[Darren_z33]

If this was a simple issue with a charge back, then as others have said I'll never use PayPal on PSN.

Sony is doing so many great things right now but their lack of customer service is a complete drag and gives me anxiety. They really need a reform of their whole CS procedure and structure. Any support team who doesn't assume positive intent with their customers is doing their brand a disservice.

I have to agree. You can't even book a repair online or even via email, has to be done by phone "for security reasons". I've previously booked repairs with MS and Nintendo, online without speaking to a single person. It's much more convenient than the 20+ minute phone calls I had to make with PS support.

I emailed Sony intimating the above, hopefully they take notice.

 

[fedexpeon]

Is there a distrust for using y'all credit/debit card?
Visa/MC itself have a fraud policy to refund you if there were unauthorized activities against your card.
After that, the bank will has its own policy during their fraud investigation.

And beside, giving out your card numbers is much better than giving out your banking account numbers. If someone gets a hold of your Paypal/3rd party processing company with your saved account # on file...welp, have fun.
You can easily replace the card since it actually just a separate identity, but changing new account # can possibility alter your recourse history, negative notes to your account, and automatic payments/deposits will be harder to fix if they require a physical check/paper to redo the automatic transactions again.
And beside, you have less work to do since you don't need to talk to another company to file a dispute.

PS: Those notes can efff you up if the banks believe you are trying to scam them with a lot of chargeback claims. Those notes will be shared with all banks/brokers in the industry... Please use your card since they don't care due to insurance policy with Visa/MC.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Tweet Arthur Gies

 

[Tevious]

a similar situation happened to me a year, or less, ago.

I more or less had no idea why i was banned and the representatives wouldn't give me the reason why I was banned. They said something like "its in our terms of service to ban at will and not give you a reason why". Not sure if true or not, but that's what they told me. Being pissed as I was losing essentially over 100+ ps3 games, 50 PS1 games, and other games/dlc, I raised hell on the phone. I told them get me their supervisor. The person said they were the supervisor. I called their bluff and told them bullshit. I know my rights and I know i didn't violate the TOS. I kept raising hell until they disconnected me. I called them right back and got someone else. This person was confused about the situation. They said they aren't at liberty to discuss the reasons of a ban and i am suppose to get an email about it. I said I didn't want an email and I want to speak to someone In charge right that instant (I knew to keep pestering them because my old college roommate worked as one of these boneheads at Sony customer support. He basically said keep calling and complaining and things would eventually go your way if you sound convincing enough). I finally was going to be transferred to i guess a head guy at the CS department, I was also given some number in case. I explained the situation to the guy, I told him if I was banned for a legitimate reason, I want to know the reason. The guy said I was flagged for "denial" or a "refund" of funds while owning the games still. I had no idea what he meant, but it was a PayPal transaction. What had happened was when i guess PayPal was somewhat new to PSN (that should tell you when it was), I did a transaction 3 times (all the same amount), 2 of the transactions were refunded and considered fraud by PayPal. The third transaction went through and I got my stuff. Sony saw this as fraud, since PayPal claimed it was and I was supposedly refunded 104 bucks (transaction was 54 dollars). The issue here is while I did the transaction 3 times, it didn't go through 2 times, so the money never left my hands or my account until that 3rd attempt which was successful. PayPal claimed it was fraud and Sony thought i stole money (or exploited a glitch). they banned my account on that. After i told them this was not true at all and demanded that this should be investigated (I even provided the transaction numbers through on PayPal). They placed the account on review so it was more or less still banned for about a week. I gave my email and number so they can call me when its done being reviewed. After about 6 days, the boss/supervisor called me and told me that they were sorry about the inconvenience because the error was on PayPal's end and I never broke the TOS. They reinstated my account the next day, plus credited my account 50 dollars for the inconvenience.

that's how it went for me, so I wish you luck OP. Just keep being persistent about it.

tl;dr : I was banned, i raised hell until i got some help, account was reviewed, was found the error was on PayPal's end not mine, account reinstated and given 50 dollars store credit as a sorry gift.

I guess I will try contacting PayPal next. Sounds like maybe they informed Sony that it was fraud and Sony banned my account, even though we resolved the issue previously. Could be a problem of miscommunication on Sony's end.

 

[jtenma]

I'm sure you didn't. I was just reminiscing haha.
Good luck with your account.





http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=683505

Epic thread.
Title was changed after the truth came out.

Oh GOD thank you.

Gonna enjoy reading this.

 

[chaosaeon]

I just recently found out my account was being shared around and traded for gamesharing. I reset my active ps3s and almost instantly got a msg from some random dude telling me to free up a slot. I was like who the fuck is this?! PSN security is a joke.

I thought you could only have 2 systems active at one time now ?

 

[AlexBasch]

Ugh, I use paypal to add funds to my wallet because adding my debit card never works. I'll be more careful about using it I guess. :/

 

[seady]

At least have them give you the reason why you get banned. They can't just ban you without any reason and take all your properties away.

 

[Leafhopper]

Wait getting banned from PSN removes access to all of your digital games, how is that a thing LOL. What a terrible service.

All digital games are actually tied to your account much like PS+ when you run out of that you can't use the free games you got using it. If your account is banned you just cant do jack.

 

[...Scatter...]

It prevents me from playing PS+ games and I can't log in to download any games/DLC that I've purchased. I can play any games I've bought offline that are already installed. Maybe online with another account on the same PS3. I haven't tried this yet, but it would only be a temporary solution. If my PS3 breaks or hard drive fails, those games are gone forever.

Did you give your old HD to someone else to use?

 

[JaseC]

All digital games are actually tied to your account much like PS+ when you run out of that you can't use the free games you got using it. If your account is banned you just cant do jack.

Sure, but an account suspension preventing you from downloading content that you had purchased while in good standing is ridiculous. Even Valve no longer does this, and in fact in cases of chargebacks the functionality restrictions imposed drop off automatically after nine weeks.

 

[Solid Samus]

Keep calling and be nice and you'll eventually speak to someone cool who will actually help you out and sympathize with you

All there is to it

It sucks that that happened to you but you can't take no for an answer with this type of bullshit and someone on the other side will acknowledge that at some point

 

[McLovin]

I thought you could only have 2 systems active at one time now ?

Yeah my account had five on it from before the reset. I'm guessing they were deactivating and reactivating or something. I went in and deactivated everything, then quickly activated my two ps3s. I think that locked whoever was using it out. Changed my pw too.

 

[Leafhopper]

Sure, but an account suspension preventing you from downloading content that you had purchased while in good standing is ridiculous. Even Valve no longer does this, and in fact in cases of chargebacks the functionality restrictions imposed drop off automatically after nine weeks.

Oh I am by no mean defending it, I think its monumentally unfair as well. Its crazy that it is an automatic ban as well.

 

[Eppy Thatcher]

My take away from this thread? Fuck paypal. Fuck em right in the ear.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Assuming the OP is truthful, my sympathies, hope you get sorted it out. Seems like that Paypal chargeback thing is the culprit... really shitty if that's the case. :\

Two guys with Solaire avatars... I can't help but feel a little nervous.

lol, I was gonna say something about that. That avatar is cursed.

 

[ReignofSparrows]

I don't know how extraordinary my experience is, but in case it helps at all:

I owned a 360 only up until last year. A few years into my console's life, I got a red ring. It normally would have been out of warranty, but there was some exception for the red ring problem if I recall correctly. Anyway, I sent in the console, and about two weeks later I got it back with a letter saying there was 'evidence' that it had been tampered with, thus it had been returned with no repairs. I was furious because all I do is play games and never attempted a DIY fix or anything idiotic like that.

I called customer service so many times over the course of a week or so asking what the evidence could be, and more importantly, was it plausible that it could have been an honest mistake on their part. I got nowhere just like the OP, despite my best efforts at being reasonable and assertive. I was in law school at the time and asked my business professor about it, and he said my best last ditch effort was to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and word it as well as I could. I shit you not, two days after typing up the complaint, I got a call from a very nice guy who said he was from Microsoft. He apologized for my troubles, and I had my box fixed right away when I sent it back out.

Like I said, I have no clue if that's a viable avenue with Sony or how unlikely my story is, but it worked for me. It might be worth a shot.

EDIT: Seems like maybe this is more an issue with Paypal based on the more recent responses. I know a few people who have had terrible customer service experiences with them, so I wish the OP the best of luck regardless.

 

[BigDug13]

I don't really understand why people continue to use paypal after horror story after horror story. PayPal permanently banned me for buying condoms like 10 years ago. They said it violated their terms because the items they deemed to be "sexual in nature". They've escalated me to higher authority and I get the "they will call you" and I never get called. They wouldn't give me back my money until I called and called. Eventually they cut me a 4-6 week wait time check.

Don't....use....PayPal. The convenience is not worth the risk.

 

[JaseC]

Oh I am by no mean defending it, I think its monumentally unfair as well. Its crazy that it is an automatic ban as well.

Yeah, I was more making the point that Sony's current account setup is rather archaic, especially considering that PSN now supports pre-orders and pre-loading.

 

[Head.spawn]

I just recently found out my account was being shared around and traded for gamesharing. I reset my active ps3s and almost instantly got a msg from some random dude telling me to free up a slot. I was like who the fuck is this?! PSN security is a joke.

Holy shit.

 

[epmode]

Happens with Steam too, doesn't it?

Not since mid 2012. Valve's current nuclear option only prevents you from making new purchases in the store. Old purchases will install and run just fine.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Valve-Allows-Banned-Players-Games,15447.html

 

[Leafhopper]

Yeah, I was more making the point that Sony's current account setup is rather archaic, especially considering that PSN now supports pre-orders and pre-loading.

I don't have a PS4, is that exclusively a PS4 thing? I haven't been playing my PS3 much lately. That's crazy.

 

[Liberty4all]

OP what is your PSN name.

 

[molnizzle]

There will be a class action lawsuit over this within a decade.

You can't just take away access to content that customers paid for and not tell them why. Give me a break.

 

[Zabi]

People, don't let this scare you away from a all-digital future or buying digital copies of games. If you hate the idea of not owning your games and being threatened by PayPal, follow these steps:

1. Stop using PayPal
2. Only buy DRM-free games

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

I just recently found out my account was being shared around and traded for gamesharing. I reset my active ps3s and almost instantly got a msg from some random dude telling me to free up a slot. I was like who the fuck is this?! PSN security is a joke.

you sure it wasn't Jonah Hill?

 

[catmario]

I hope they fix that soon.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Companies ban your account just for charge backs? That's kinda ducked up and I never knew about it, bought most of my Steam games via PP... What a scary process if a chargeback happens which isn't your fault... Ugh.

 

[Lima]

If there is one thing that is always sure with these threads it's that the OP is rarely as innocent as they claim to be.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

OP what is your PSN name.

Answer this man!

 

[Leafhopper]

Also I just use prepaid cards for everything now a days, if possible.

 

[LinkToTheFuture]

That is really messed up... To just lose all of that in a flash must be devastating. really hope there is some way you can be resolved of this.

 

[Boss Mog]

Wait getting banned from PSN removes access to all of your digital games, how is that a thing LOL. What a terrible service.

It's the same with XBOX Live and Steam. If your account is permanently banned you lose access to all things tied to the account including full digital games, DLC etc...

This is why I try to avoid digital purchases as much as possible. Not only can you not resell it if you wanted to but you basically don't even really own it in the first place and yet publishers expect you to pay the same price at launch as a physical copy.

Digital is really the worst deal ever. I mean you're getting just digital code like a pirate would except the pirate gets to keep his digital code no matter what but you're at the mercy of the service provider hoping they don't ever ban your account by mistake.

Yeah physical media can be damaged and you do have to get up and change the disc when you want to play a different game but to me if those are the only drawbacks then I can definitely deal with it and keep going for physical versions of games that are actually mine.

 

[Infinite Xero]

This really puts things in perspective for me since I also "own" a lot of digital games for PS3 and Vita. How is it legal for Sony to ban you from downloading the games you purchased? I don't see how breaking a Terms of Service can give any company the right to take back their product without refunding you.

 

[Wreck-It Ralph]

Wait. If you get banned, you lose access to all your PSN games? Then can just take away all your games on a whim if they feel like it?

That seems... illegal.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Wait. If you get banned, you lose access to all your PSN games? Then can just take away all your games on a whim if they feel like it?

That seems... illegal.

Gotta read that agreement!