To be honest I don't really see the point of what this is meant to achieve, but Customer Support suggested I post the situation here at the forums and what was done i.e thier responses or in this case, wasnt done.
So here is the situation...
During the course of usual play I became friends with a new player, he was new to the game (less than a month) and was in every way what people would commonly refer to as a noob. However, he expressed a great deal of enthusiasm and as I have often done in the past I took it upon myself to include him in activites in the game, make him feel welcome and involved, explained the game and its various facets and intricacies, helped him out with funds, recipes, enhancements etc.. and basically spent the best part of a month (every single day) helping this guy and later hsi girlfried who started playing out also.
During this time he and later his girlfriend asked to join my SG I signed him up and gave him a rank which was above normal but had few actual priveliges. He on a couple of occasions expressed a desire to have more responsibilities.. indeed he wanted carte blanche access to all aspects of the SG but I explained to him I had only known him a short while and although I appreciated his enthusiasm I would not give him total access.. I did however give him a little more he could do, though nothing that could potentially wreck the SG if for some reason he took it upon himself to do such a thing, which he seemd at the time very unlikely to do.
At any rate he seemed happy and stopped asking for more control after our chat. and things continued happily as ever. In due course of me introducing him to things I introduced him to the Villains side of the game, which as It happens I also have an SG on albeit less aged and developed than the one on the hero side of things, so there was less to lose if things went pear shaped.
As he seemed to take much more to the Villains side of the game than he had the hero side and started spending most of his time there, I re-arranged the structure of the "SG" ranks and priveliges on the villains side of things so he could have a lot more control and responsibility in things (again trying to help him and so he could experience more of the game).. indeed on that side of the equation the only things he couldnt do was increase a rank of another member above his own, kick people from the "SG"m modify the base and change the main components of the SG (description, logo etc..). As part of his new responsibilities he could however access th 2 base Salavage Racks. An area all members of the SG could access and place things (wasnt really any point limiting access to it on the villains side before, as the SG had only me and my alts in it and as I didnt play villains much compared to heroes initially there wasnt a lot in the racks). However, he and his girlfriend were playing on villains all the time ao I paid out some of my own real £££ to transfer a couple of my villains over from one server to the one they were on who had a lot of salvage on them to put in the racks that would be used later to improve the base and thereby provide more facilities for us all to use.
I didnt do this immediately, I waited three weeks during which I was talking, and playing every day for considerable periods with him and his girlfriend and felt they were trustworthy enough that I would feel comfortable putting stuff in the racks without undue fear of them taking it, they understood it was used only for improving the base and as such it was in thier best interests to leae things in storage. He even contributed some items to this himself albeit a tiny amount being so new and all.
Then I logged off one night in the early hours as usual and went to sleep...
Logging n the next night I sent him a tell again to say Evning, and got no response, I didnt think too much of it as he had had troubles with his ability to chat in the game before (The chatban duration bug). So after a while I sent him another tell... this time however the message came up telling me I was being globally ignored??? Confused and suddenly feeling the bottom drop out of my stomach, I logged across to villans.. maybe it was a communication problem in the game? Once on the other side of the game however, I saw instantly that both he and his girlfriend had left the SG. At this point I was getting a horrible feeling, I knew what was coming, I entered the SG Base and indeed the contents of it had been ransacked and as much as his character could carry was taken the salavage racks had been robbed of around 350ish items that had take me and my alts months to gather on my own (remember the Sg was essentially just me and my alts before that time).
I immediately reported it to the Customer Support people, who later responded asking me to send them a list of what was taken along with the time, date etc.. and any screenshots, all of which was very easily provided (except screenshots, for some reason salvage rack logs dont appear in screenshots), but they could enter and see for themselves so wasn really an issue as far as proving the theft went.
Something the thief in his Noobish'ness didnt realise is that anything put in or taken out of the SG is listed on a storage log that shows the exact time, date and what was put in or taken out. So this information was quickly sent to the support staff who assured me the issue would be looked into.
However this is when problems started..
Over the ourse of the next few days however, nothing happened, I could (and still can) still see when him and his girlfriend were online playing as usual. I had another friend in the game send him a tell to let him know his theft had been reported at which point he took me off ignore briefly and tried to act surprised and deny, and avoid the topic of his theft (of course he didnt know I had the logs proving it) he then tried to make out like I had offended him though couldnt quite tell me how despite my numerous attempts to find out. And even if we had had a falling out, which NEVER ever happened it would not justify his theft. Worse still he was smug in his action convinced that the company in question would be more interested in his subscription fees than doing something about it. And after that he placed me back on ignore and that was that.
I was left waiting for the customer support staff to resolve the issue (one response per 24 hours seemingly all they can manage), punish the thief and return my poperty... however this is where things hit a wall.
The customer support staff effectively took the following stance...
Due to thier privacy policy they may or may not take some action against this thief bob (its important to note the thief's girlfriend took no part in his thieving however) and "IF" they did, despite the irrefutable proof I would not be told the outcome of any investigation and/or action against him. Secondly what he had stolen would not be replaced as this was company policy, people could be claiming things stolen when they werent in order to get "FREE" stuff in game... which as utter nonsesne.. OBVIOUSLY this was not such a situation, proof had been provided that was as previously stated irrefutable, not to mention the fact I was not asking for extra items or duplications, all I expected was that what was taken be removed from him and returned to me a perfectly understandable and reasonable request.
I also wanted to know that something had been done against him, not necessarily details, just that "something" had, for my own sense of justice and right or wrong, in order that I could continue to play the game in the knowledge that a thief hadnt gotten away with it, and that he had had to answered for is actions.
Apparently however the games customer support staff did not aggree as far as they were concerned in so much as thier responses indicated every situation was essentially the same, and shouldnt be judged on its individual circumstance/merits/flaws as common sense would dictate (and why I might add most people would assume there actually ARE people in customer support as opposed to an automated answerphone services dispensing incompassionate unalterable, same every time responses).
But thier stance was unwavering and indeed after what has esentially now been over a week of many cut and paste replies and some personal direct responses I got so frustrated I demanded to speak to someone in autority/ I got a Senior GM who straight away gave me another cut and paste response, false platitudes about my situation and a continued refusal to bend on any point even stating that it was essentially my fault I had been robbed because I gave the individual access and the company put policies in place as they did not wish to interfere with what is essentially a player run organisdation (even though noone is asking them to interefer with how it is run, just to adjudicate when someone blatanly abuses the systems they provided us with).. unbelievable.
Essentially the system they have in place protects thieves and other morally bankrupt players who by intent or circumstances end up ruining other peoples enjoyment of a game in such dispicable manners at the expense of thier victims for whom they will provide no understandng, compassion, justice or peace of mind.
Appalled I have ended my three and a half year subscription enough is enough I will no longer give my hard earned money to such a reprehensible company that would allow such a circumstance to go unchallenged. My feelngs and experience with the companies support staff being such that as far as im concerned I will never touch another game from this company now or EVER again, on principle of them being as dispicable and morally bankrupt as him and his thieving habits.
The basic crux of it is that there is a basic moral principle here someone has stolen rom me and the companies policies essentially protect the thief and not the victim. In no way is or can that ever by anyone with any shade of decency consider that acceptable or allowable.. it MUST be changed, not just for me but for all of us, who are all essentially vulnerable to such activities without anyone from the company taking any form of stance to prevent it.
Im not quite sure what Support hoped to achieve by having me post the circumstance and responses here.. but if it helps to enact some cange to this blissfullygnorant policies they have that protect thieves then hopefully sme good can come of it.
As for character [Edited: naming is against the forum rules], hopefully naming and shaming him will at least protect others from his morally bankrupt antics.
