SONY just broke my heart! (Unexpected ban)

Sorry for boring you with another "sony banned me" thread, but im freaking out here.

I just got back from a 5 month deployment this past friday, and was looking forward to unwinding with some video game time, however that was quickly put to a stop when I tried to log in to PSN. I was greeted by a "Your account has been banned or suspended" message.

I contacted them, and was given very little information. Was told there was nothing that could be done, and that they had no information as to why I was banned. Starting to feel upset, I decided to end the conversation before getting confrontational.

I called at a later time and was told that the reason was due to a publisher putting in a complaint due to exploitation of some bug. Wouldnt tell me the name of the game or the publisher, stating they had no details. I was referred to make a post in forums.playstation.com to see if i could get more help. And i did as much, only to find out they couldnt help, as it is community support, not so much actual SONY support. They just wanted me off the phone.

I called a third time, and was told that there were no specifics about the reason for the ban. Not even any mention of the exploitation accusation made earlier. I spoke with a supervisor this time, and was told that the only thing on file was a message saying "permanently banned. Do not reinstate under any circumstances." I was then asked to write to SCEA consumer affairs.

I do plan on writing them, but I feel it is just going to end up in snail mail limbo, even if i send it via certified mail.

Im very frustrated about this issue. Ive had my account for over 7 years without a single issue, or warning for any wrong doing. I own 2 PS3s and a PS4. My account is password protected, and my wife has her own account. Also, due to this Ive effectively lost over $500 in games and additional content that I cannot access. At this time I don't even want to look at any of my systems bc it just upsets me that much.

I just want information from SONY at this time, since I was not able to access my account while deployed, with the exception of one night in Japan. Maybe someone in here has a contact or could be pointed to a better direction. Im being treated like a criminal here with no rights.

Thanks all.

Have you requested a transfer to a Customer Service supervisor? I used to work at a call center, and the truth of the matter is that we as representatives had next to no power when it comes to situations like this. Push for a supervisor, they usually have enough tools to work through the system and make changes, or at the very least, get things moving.

Yeah i spoke with supervisors who told me they had no control over this. They couldnt even escalate the issue to anyone else.... which is worrysome. Ussually there are two or three tiers of support available.

Have you tried to contact a lawyer or anything? I'm pretty sure they will have to explain everything to a judge if you took them to court over this and you would find out why you were banned and stuff.

I've heard horror stories like this before. Please be persistent and take this issue to consumer affairs / better business monitors. I have ZERO issue with them taking a firm hard stance on bad behavior on their network, but they need to have total control over these decisions and mechanisms in place to evaluate whether the decisions were fair or not. It sounds like they are claiming another company (the game company) told them to ban you and not ask questions. They are taking that at face value, have zero knowledge of why to share with you, and claim no way of appealing or reversing the decision. What if it's a mistake? What if you were hacked and it is someone else's problem? They NEED a way to accommodate that.

@xantufrog: thats what i was told at first, but there was no record of that being the case the last time i called

Oh... and @askplaystation is ignoring my tweets

Well do you remember doing anything in a game? If not talk to a supervisor and keep asking to talk to their supervisor. If they are unwilling to cooperate, you sir have a lawsuit on your hands. Get yourself a lawyer and sue them!

He can't sue Sony and win, just keep complaining to customer services this does sound horrible

Lawyer's cost a significant amount of money. An issue as small this is not worth an attorney, court costs, etc....

Go w/ the hig1 on this. Just keep complaining. Eventually things will workout. Unless someone got into your account and messed things up for you.

@gopre: what they are doing is illegal and it really depends.

@Mighty-Lu-Bu: I'm not saying what Sony is doing is legal. He just needs to consider a number of things before filing a lawsuit towards Sony. Now, if he were to seek Sony's coverage of attorney fees, court costs, etc... it'd be a different story. That however is not a guarantee. He could win the case, but that doesn't mean Sony will have cover all of the costs. It's something his attorney could pursue. A gamble really.

Ah, you posted this on IGN as well. This is why I won't go full digital. I'm too afraid for getting banned and losing all of my stuff.

@gopre: Well this would be a small claims case most likely, but anyways, the party being sued is usually responsible for filing and court fees. You don't really need a lawyer, many cities including the one I live in which is small, offer free legal information (advice). They locked his account which is illegal. They aren't trying to remedy the situation which is illegal. If they can't prove he did anything, he has a lawsuit. In the lawsuit he should speficially ask for his account to be unbanned, for them to pay legal fees and for Sony to give him like a year of PS plus free or something.

@Mighty-Lu-Bu: People are strongly advised to not represent themselves in the court of law. Even lawyers hire an attorney when they for whatever reason are in court. Even though it'd be in a small claims court, if he were to lose the case, he'd be responsible for x amount of fees created. If Sony had one their attorney's go agains the guy, he'd lose. It's not as easy as it looks.

I'd go back to them and tell them after they say nothing can be done that your no longer buying their products. Tell them your going to the competition because you don't feel safe buying their products any longer. Only thing that truly gets shit done on the phone is making it abundantly clear that 500 they took from you is the last 500 your ever going to give them, instead offering it up to the competition.

If he goes to court he will def be spending money, not worth it. Buy an X1. Maybe it had something to do with signing in when in Japan and the publisher linked this to hacker activity being you live in the states, just wildly guessing.

What games do you play, maybe contact the publishers one by one of these games if the list is not too big. Or at least just the games you play most often online. I would be pretty furious also but it will not help getting emotionally crazy on the phone with these people.

@juboner: You mean the company that took 3 months of multiple calls to remove a hacker xbl subscription on my account, then telling me they'll have to call me back to refund? Then after waiting a month you call them back and they mysteriously do not have a record of any refund? Then they say they'll call you back about it....again and again? Going to XBL is not putting yourself in better hands.

Well, that sounds very serious

Banning players is a serious "commitment" possibly at the end of a serious "crime". When it comes to banning/pausing players' accounts who have done wrongful deeds - I applaude them! If this happened to me however, I would be seriously gutted aswell.

Are you a hacker? You MUST have some sort of idea of what you did wrong? Surely! Eveybody does...was it that one time you "hacked" GTA? Was it that other time you cheated/glitched in other online games?

My FIFA/EA/Origin account was banned for 24 hours after some gifting trouble. When I got the e-mail from Origin/EA, I was puzzled at first (even to this day, I don't see any harm in what I did), but the e-mail stated why.

@twizded: So what did you do?

Well, started calling again, after taking a break due to comic con. This time i was told it was defenitely for "exploitation of a bug in a game to gain an advantage".

When i asked what game, they coukdnt give me an answer, just that it occured in June.

I havent played any games since january. I logged onto the network in japan, but i wasnt able to play any games due to an update that took too long to download because of very low bandwidth.

Additionally, the last time i played an online game was watchdogs and that was about a year ago.

The last game i played before leaving was the new gundam game for the ps3.

They told me this time to file a complaint via np.us.playstation.com however that form keeps redirecting me to the main playstation site.

I need to find some person i can speak with who i can escalate this issue with before i consider going through the legal system.

Latest news, once again, im told that there is no specific information about the violation. Today's tech told me that there is no mention about exploitation of anything.

He told me that there is no information I can be given, no IP address for the offending system, no time and date, or the actual offense.

The rep then suggested, after telling me he shouldnt, that the only way I can make any headway is by using the legal system. He suggested that I seek a subpoena and get this situation worked out in that manner.

Sounds terrible, if you actually didn't do anything bad. Horror stories like this is one of the many reasons I'm glad I still buy almost all my games in physical form. Had the TC done that, he could easily just make a new PSN account with no skin off his nose.

May not work but often people go to their local news outlet with a sob sorry and a simple call from a reporter can get results that a normal person could not. Before you do though, maybe make sure someone else in your household didn't use your account while you were gone.

If your claim is legit, you might want to try contacting Microsoft. I'm sure a Microsoft marketing rep would love the free publicity of giving you an account with some games when Sony dumped you for no good reason.

If you can't get any results by being persistent with Customer Support, your next step is filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. If you check the BBB's site, there are numerous instances of complaints of similar issues that have been investiagted by Sony or Microsoft and in some cases reversed.

-Byshop

Another update:

A rep from SCEA called me on Thursday and left me a voicemail. He again said that there is no way to reverse the ban, and that the ban came to be because network engineers found that I downloaded something onto one of my systems that broke ToS.

This is the third different reason for the violation that Ive been given.

Seriously, why just give me some made up reason? Why not just tell me exactly what happened.

Oh.. seems some reporters are interested in my developments. Cant share details at this time.

I am also in talks with a lawyer.

thanks for all your support!

Would it perhaps be worth taking this up in petty claims? Sony would be forced to make a case with concrete facts.

Nothing new to report. Just letting you know this is still on going.

sounds like a load of crap, like you work for Microsoft and this a typical smear campaign to damage Sony's popularity. Why would you show up here with this endless drama? like we can help you? come on. If you really have issues with Sony deal with Sony not us. We aren't lawyers. Post some proof while you're at this nonsense.

@yixingtpot honestly, were I in his shoes I would felt the same way and would have wanted to vent my frustration, and what better way to vent such frustrations to a gaming community who'd understand my situation. Your speculations may be true, but unless confirmed, remain speculations (same applies to the level of truth to @traku's situation, but if it's true I'd rather be supportive then speculative, and if it's not, it doesn't really matter).

any update on this situation, It really got my attention to know that.

It is either a dumb way to hurt Sony's image in the eyes of the public.

Or

A very bad bad bad approach on how to deal with clients and customers & users that use PSN, where SONY bans them for no reason, and doesn't help them on solving the problem, its really a bad way to work like this.

To Topic Creator, I don't think you are lying to us, but posting some emails would really be a good proof on what you are dealing with, and you don't know, maybe this could reach the Gaff Forums or kotaku, or some other Game Website, and someone out there might be able to help you.

Im really interested in your story. And in all cases, it is better to talk about it to us gamers who have faced similar problems, rather than deal with it alone, maybe you can get some advises or ideas, and get help from someone else, who have faced the problem, and in the worst case scenario an bad life experience in gaming. It happens.

Good luck

I've been a member and user of Steam for 12 years, even longer than its public client has existed, and if there is one thing I have learned over the past decade plus, it is to take what people like the OP say on a grain of salt no matter how convincing. Ever since Valve introduced VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) in version 1.4 of Counter-Strike in 2002 I've heard some of the most ridiculous stories of how people were banned for no reason. Even today people make up the most incredible VAC ban stories as if to convince themselves or others they did nothing wrong.

If you got banned there is a 99.99∞ chance that you brought it down upon yourself, just like the VAC banned people who got banned for no reason but really cheated or violated the VAC ToS in some degree. I'm sure some people, very, very few slip through the cracks and are not actually responsible, however you need to remember that it's your account and it's your responsibility. If someone else violates the ToS on your account, you violated the ToS on your account all the same. If someone hijacks your account and cheats or violates the ToS the responsibility still falls upon your head, your account security is your responsibility and only yours.

I doubt severely that you were erroneously banned, your account was used in some capacity to violate the ToS whether you were involved or not.

This is a pretty common type of story. I have been banned a few times from online games over the years for either a BS reason or no reason given. I always say this every time some ban wave happens on a popular game and everybody is laughing and celebrating: Bans are like hemorrhoids, hilarious until it happens to you.

And make no mistake, bans can *happen* to you. I know quite a few people who were banned from WoW from Warden flagging their account because of an addon they were using, for example. Or people buying gear from a merchant on Guild Wars 2 who just happened to be bugged by a recent patch.

And yes, I have felt the sting of losing what amounts to an investment of time and money based on some overeager mod dropping the ban hammer. This is a big reason why I hesitate to buy anything digitally. Buying digitally is just a long rental.

My lawyer has approached SONY. Now to wait for their response...

I wonder if when you downloaded the update in Japan, if that somehow is against ToS if your PSN account is from a different country?

Its not against ToS, I have taken my PS3 to multiple countries.

@traku did you share your account to someone else? I used to know someone who did, & got his Playstation 3 bricked too.

Good luck!

he did. i remember as well... sup fuhgeddit

@nyadc: Well said.

Sorry for lack of updates. Nothing new to add :/ Sony has not responded to my lawyer yet, and he wanta to give them a littlw more time... very frustrating...

SONYs lawyers finally contacted my lawyer. Good news! My account was restored... but I still dont know why it happened on the first place.

@traku: Great news - well done and happy gaming!

Justice Prevails !!!..... Eventually.

Still though... I'm surprised they had the nerve to ban you and then act like they don't atleast owe you an explanation..... or worse..... they didn't have an explanation to give.

I think what everyone is forgetting here is the similarities and experiences they are have with these big corporations like Sony, XBOX, Treyarch, Activision, Rockstar Games, to name a few.

Gamers in general are a minority, and the Federal courts will not recognize this until people like us go out there seriously enough as petitioners and activist for our rights that are being exploited.

Right now company's like the ones I listed above feel as if they can fully absolve themselves from these situations. These major corporations feed off the life of other human beings, taking their money, time, and ultimately in a very real way their freedom. It is just as bad as the cigarette company's and industries have done to their victims. They know we'll still buy even though we resent them and how they exploit us for our weakness and honesty.

People that like to play games, play them to release from daily pressures and activities, do they not? So with this said gamers being a minority they have no rights until we fight for them and take this atrocity in gaming serious. Majority of gamers ages 16-48 are younger people, and younger people also are a minority and are not represented equally as seniors are. This is why the way things are the way are and definite issues will and do come about regarding this. Nobody says anything together, but alone...

People these company's are robbing us, it is an injustice that they survive like they do, but they do! So if I haven't said enough and you personally like being treated like a prisoner and have big entities ruin your life and politically get a way with murder, then sure go ahead, but these issues that we are experiencing will not stop until we raise public awareness of this fraud and be recognized as human beings with lives, natural rights with authorities.

We are paying them, we should own them and make the rules, not the other way around, am I right? That's what I thought.

It all makes too much sense to disagree because at heart we are all of humanity and decency enough to see when one being or entity over another in evilness is not right for the victim or anyone else unless they deserve it honestly.

These company's insult their supporters with their corporate procedures and legal or technical loop-holes, just as the governments do.

Therefore we need to use social media to get this too an extreme of public attention and boycott until these company's realize that they've fucked up for treating people like nothing and cold hard steel over the phone and support chat rooms.

They literally told me that it's not their fault that I decided to pay them money and support them, well I'll be damned if they'll walk away Scott-free and smelling like roses. They will burn America! These companies have no respect or sympathy for any who support them, so what does this tell us of they're real agendas and concerns? To make money! These company's are in it to take money and keep it by any means necessary. They're close competition also drives them to be this way, but ultimately people should realize that they are losing because of how they treat they're supporters which are regular people like you and me.

NOTE: I found this page by typing "Sony Gamer Exploitation" on the internet and I found this article through "GAMESPOT", so I certainly can see that my ideas are not emotional or alone, this is obviously a real issue that is just as bad as basic murder or thievery.

@alastair_darke: And no-one cares what you said, cos this thread is 3 years old, welcome to the internet.

@GTR12: Haha! :D

Yes my friend this is how it would be if we were in space and I came across a lost ship drifting ghostly out in time forgotten.

But that would still not stop me from trying my best to bring justice and resolution to the unfortunate of that craft. So here I am as one and who has arrived rescue.

That is humanity and what is decent no matter how old.

"your account security is your own"

Nope, if it's like a friend on your ps4 sure, but sony and microsoft have very insecure security, someone getting into your account is entirely their fault.