Reply To: A big "ban" is coming

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DisAB.ed
@schmock

Hi Jeremy Wilson (who posted in this thread about 5 days ago): You’re not alone in your anger!

Like you, I have made substantial payments to Rovio in the past (and spent hundreds of hours in playing this game) and, like you, I have been ‚permanently banned‘ by Rovio (at the very end of the first MEBC season) on the grounds of having used a ‚cheat‘, although I never did or applied anything in my gameplay, which – also in the opinion of a befriended legal specialist, who took a close look at the way this app is programmed  – could be clearly qualified as a cheat (or exploit, or hack, or mod, …  or whatever else is listed as a breach in Rovio’s EULA) in legal terms.

It’s not only this (unfounded) ban of my account on it’s own, that makes me angry, but also other – highly irritating – consequences and implications of the ban:

(1) Rovio does not offer/provide any useful customer support in this respect (because they on principle refuse to „reveal details of specific cases“).

(2) With the ban resp. it’s programming Rovio prevent their customers from accessing online playmodes (Clan + MEBC) any longer, but do not prevent them from spending their (real) money for further online purchases (of gems). In other words: With the ban the end user’s licence is not terminated‚ but is simply being replaced by another licence: Instead of ‚PAY + PLAY‘ online it’s now ‚PAY, but  NOT PLAY‘ online!

(3) I founded an open clan some time ago and appointed only a co-leader (instead of a second – fully fledged – clan leader). With Rovio‘s blocking of my account all other (49) clan members got compromised and the whole clan is doomed, since Rovio seems not to be able and/or willing to offer any solution for them to get rid of their banned leader. Thus, with this ‚out of the blue‘ banning of my account (whether justified or not on it’s own) Rovio not only ‚punishes‘ me personally, but also all their other (49) customers who happen to be in the same clan (‚clan liability‘!).

There is no denying that Rovio is under heavy pressure caused by ongoing hacks of their software, which may explain ‚overreactions‘ by Rovio in the case of a supposedly detected cheat. BUT: If Rovio want to keep (at least some of) their credibility in terms of customer-friendliness, they need to be willing and prepared to review their own countermeasures and appropriated remedies (at least when required by an affected customer) in terms of both substance and equitability and to (immediately) take back such measures and remedies if these do not turn out to be indisputably justified and/or equitable in the case at hand.

I have not yet given up the hope that Rovio will either lift the ban of my account (this seemed to have happened frequently in the past) or at least resort to dealing seriously with my respective complaint within the next days. Otherwise I consider handing my ‚case‘ over to a friend working with a consumer protection association, and let those guys figure out whether this is something worth of being further pursued (under my home country’s jurisdiction, consumer protection standards are generally very high; EULA terms are only deemed to be valid and binding for a customer, if they have been brought to the customer’s attention prior to his purchase, which in practice never is the case).