After a period of two weeks had passed and numerous attempts to resolve this through Blizzard's support system, the user, Welshers, took matters into his own hands and reported the company for fraud.
I sold an item for 49.99 on the RMAH. I am notified the item sold, but my account never receives the money. This happened roughly two weeks ago. I call Blizz four times, and file a ticket once, and they tell me contacting them multiple times will not help the situation and that its being looked into. Nothing has happened after two weeks.
So I called the FBI on Blizzard, and I do realize this is a stretch, but reported them for wire fraud.
So I called the FBI on Blizzard, and I do realize this is a stretch, but reported them for wire fraud.
Though the FBI was fairly vague in their response, they did state that this is not the first report made against Blizzard. This, however, does not mean that an investigation is taking place. The user is still out the money he is owed from the completed transaction and there has been no resolution from Blizzard on this issue.
The worst part is that this is apparently not an isolated incident with the RMAH. Others are reporting how they were scammed out of money. One for $149.99 and another for $200. Here are their stories.
I bid on an item with a display bug that showed $0.00, I used my AMEX. I end up with a $149.99 bid the next day. Guess I am going to call Amex and anyone else I can think of. This is literally fraud/theft.
This user also found no help through Blizzard's support system. Support stated repeatedly that they are "completely hands off with the RMAH" and that there is nothing they can do. Essentially, a flaw in Blizzard's software resulted in a user losing $149.99 of actual currency.
The final bit of RMAH nastyness comes from Xres who claims that Blizzard not only locked his account for 12 days but also took $200 from him. After depositing $200 into his Battle.net account, the transaction was approved by Blizzard after a period of one day. He then started to use his funds to purchase a few items when suddenly he found his account was suspended.
The email he received stated that it was locked due to an "auction-house related issue." As such, his entire Diablo 3 account was locked, not just restricting his access to the auction house but to the entire game.
A ticket was then opened and a response finally given 36 hours after the initial request. Support claims that his account "failed an audit review" when attempting to purchase items within the RMAH. Ten days and eight phone calls later, he was finally able to get through the phone support to speak with someone. Here is where his story takes off.
The answer I got from them was that my account is registered in the North America region, yet I am currently not playing from that region (I've moved since the days when I first started the account with Blizzard). That was the reason behind the failed audit. And they suggested me to change my account's region to the region where I am currently at. I asked them, if this was a problem, why didn't it stop me from depositing money in the first place? The support person told me they only check for this when you try to “spend” the balance, and not when you “deposit” it. How convenient on their part.
In order for him to recover his locked account, he had to request a change of region. Ah, but there's a catch!
Requirements for Country Changes
There are certain criteria that your account must meet in order to qualify for a country change:
Your Battle.net Balance must be less than 20 (for players who purchased Battle.net Balance using US currency)
Note: Active Battle.net Balance may be lost and all Battle.net Balance may be set to 0 when a country change is completed. Customer Support will not be able to convert Battle.net Balance purchased using one country's denomination to Battle.net Balance for another region. If you require other assistance with your active balance, please contact Customer Support.
There are certain criteria that your account must meet in order to qualify for a country change:
Your Battle.net Balance must be less than 20 (for players who purchased Battle.net Balance using US currency)
Note: Active Battle.net Balance may be lost and all Battle.net Balance may be set to 0 when a country change is completed. Customer Support will not be able to convert Battle.net Balance purchased using one country's denomination to Battle.net Balance for another region. If you require other assistance with your active balance, please contact Customer Support.
As such, a catch-22 is in place here. If the user attempts to change his region, he loses the money he just deposited into his Battle.net account but will then be able to add more funds and use it without issue later. If he doesn't change his region, he's still unable to access and use the funds he deposited.
Keep in mind that no such audit was apparently made prior to the funds being approved for deposit. Needless to say, there are some very irate players out there and really, with how this is being handled, can you really blame them?
(Called the FBI on Blizz for Wire Fraud)
(Blizzard Scammed me on RMAH, Literally)
(Reason behind my RMAH account lock explained)
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