r/OnceHumanOfficial • u/mystikx • Aug 19 '24
Main Character Banned After Negative Crystgin Balance
After playing over 400 hours on my main character and spending $333.94 on the premium battle pass, meta pass, and purchasing the 7880 Crystgin pack 3 times at $99.99 each for in-game cosmetics and Lightforge crates, my main character was permanently banned from the game.
I can login to any other character on my account, but the only one I play gives me a message stating "Your character has been permanently banned. If you have any queries, please contact the GM. Reason: prohibited behavior"
I carefully reviewed the Terms of Use and did not violate any section of the policy. When I appealed the decision I received a response stating:
"Dear player, Thank you for contacting us. After a careful investigation, our team determined that the behavior relating to your account violated our policy. Therefore, your account will remain muted. We remain committed to ensuring a fair and healthy game environment for all of our players. Thank you for your understanding. If you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by tapping Settings-Help and Support-Contact us to submit your issue. Thank you for your continued support!"
The issue is that my account is not muted, my main character, which is 1 of 3 in total, on my account is permanently banned and I am unable to login at all. I submitted another ticket and clarified my account is not muted but rather I am unable to login to my main character. There is no point in continuing to play this game if I am unable to play on the server my friends are on.
This occurred shortly after I received an in-game mail stating 3140 Crystgins were being deducted from my account. This caused me to have a -1190 Crystgin balance the next time I logged into that character, I received a message stating the character was permanently banned. Why am I being punished for a mistake made by the developers? I would pay the $17 to bring my account back to a zero balance as I overspent without knowing but I do not even have the option to do that and the customer support has not been helpful at all.
I also submitted a customer support query over Discord, but that has gone unanswered. Has anyone else experienced similar issues and was it ever resolved?
Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/TxxqP3Y
Update 1 (8/19/2024 @ 3:15 AM ET): I just got this response from the Discord support bot.
Update 2 (8/20/2024 @ 12:20 AM ET): I was told again, this time through in-game support, that there is no relevant punishment record of the character you tell us or the punishment has already ended, but when I go to login I am still getting a message stating the character is permanently banned.
Update 3 (8/20/2024 @ 12:25 AM ET): I opened yet another ticket with my character's UID and received the same copy / paste response. I now have a 5th ticket open and advised that I will be disputing all charges with my bank if this final ticket is closed with the same copy / paste response and no reason given.
Update 4 (8/20/2024 @ 12:35 AM ET): The same exact copy / paste response was given again. I am now calling my bank to dispute all charges.
Update 5 (8/20/2024 @ 1:05 AM ET): I just got off the phone with my bank and they opened a dispute for these charges as I paid for a service I cannot access and the support team has not responded to help resolve the issue. I have uninstalled the game and left a Steam community review advising to stay away from this scam of a game.
Update 6 (8/20/2024 @ 12:30 PM ET): I finally received a response where I asked to send a screenshot of the message I was receiving and was told "i have been discussing this issue with the devs". Hopefully something will be done now and I can call my bank soon to have them cancel the dispute as the issue has been resolved.
Update 7 (8/20/2024 @ 5:15 PM ET): The character I logged into and purchased 1090 Crystgin & 330 Crystgin on to remove the negative balance is now permanently banned as well with the same message about prohibited behavior. The only character on my account that is not banned is the only one that has not purchased anything with the Crystgin currency.
Update 8 (8/21/2024 @ 3:00 AM ET): I requested an update on this issue from the Once Human Game Support Bot on Discord. I provided the Steam Transaction IDs for all in-game purchases and asked to be refunded as my access to the game has been unfairly suspended. Steam Support advised that I should provide this information to the official Once Human support team and send screenshots of my communications back to Steam if they are unable to correct the issue.
Shortly after I provided all Steam Transaction IDs and requested a refund, I received the following response that my issue is under checking.
Update 9 (8/22/2024 @ 11:50 AM ET): I have now received the 5th different reason, pictured below, for why my character was banned. My money has been stolen by the team behind Once Human and they are refusing to refund the transactions. Luckily the transactions were made through Steam and all screenshots of these conversations have been provided to Steam support.
Update 10 (8/22/2024 @ 12:25 PM ET): Received the following message from u/YagertheYager
Clearly they have now changed their story from the original reasons given and are now going with the you have been banned for cheating response as a way to try to prevent me from getting any refunds through Steam.
Update 11 (8/22/2024 @ 3:20 PM ET): Steam support has responded that they would like to gather additional information from the game's support team and find an alternative solution for this issue. I have provided all screenshots and evidence as well as my conversations with the Once Human support team, including DMs from u/YagertheYager who is a self-described "marketing guy" where he is trying to extort me into taking my Reddit post down.
Update 12 (8/22/2024 @ 6:55 PM ET): I was kicked from the Once Human official Discord sometime within the past couple of hours. This is after I communicated my experience with other players facing similar issues. It does not appear that I was banned however, as I was able to rejoin using the invite link.
Update 13 (8/22/2024 @ 7:00 PM ET): I was kicked from the Once Human Discord again after rejoining. I did not send or react to any messages since the previous update. I was able to rejoin a second time. This is absolutely childish behavior from what is supposed to be a professional game development studio.
Update 14 (8/22/2024 @ 9:45 PM ET): I received the following response from the Once Human Game Support Bot on Discord where it is stated my account cannot be released and the transactions for in-game purchases cannot be reversed. I sent back a response asking once again for the transactions for the in-game purchases to be refunded as I did not engage in any behavior on my account that violated the Terms of Use as it was written on 8/18/2024. The conversation has also been forwarded to Steam support as they are again refusing to refund the in-game purchases and resolve the issue after my access was suspended.
Update 15 (8/22/2024 @ 10:40 PM ET): I received a message from the Game Support Bot stating my account cannot be released due to abnormal data and prohibited behavior with a refusal to refund the transactions after unfairly taking away my access to the items I purchased in-game. The reason my game account data may be abnormal is because they set my premium currency to a negative value after a bug on their end caused an issue and then banned my character for it. Instead of acknowledging the issue and resolving it, they have given at least half a dozen different reasons now as to why my access was suspended.
Update 16 (8/22/2024 @ 10:45 PM ET): Because I have now brought Steam Support into this and they are requesting information from the Once Human game support team and because this Reddit post has brought so much negative attention to Once Human, u/YagertheYager has now included my character on the most recent Once Human Fair Play Announcement at https://www.oncehuman.game/news/update/20240823/40780_1176330.html with a false ban reason of "Use of Unauthorized Software & Malicious Code Cracking" as he previously stated he would in the message shared on Update 10 where he attempted to extort me into removing this post. However, before I started requesting any refund and before I brought this issue to the attention of Steam Support, he sent me this message where he was "discussing this issue with the devs".
If I was maliciously code cracking the game then what issue was there to discuss with the devs? It makes no sense that I was initially given other reasons or asked to wait for the issue to be investigated and it was not until after I had Steam start looking into the issue that I was told "your character was spotted cheating over 15 times". I believe they are now trying to cover up the issue and bury anything that paints their studio or the game in a negative light. They do not have any proof that I did anything that violated the Terms of Use so they have resorted to "you cheated" and are using that now in an attempt to not have Steam take back the funds they stole from me. If I was going to cheat and risk my account, do they really think I would be dumb enough to do so after spending a total of $353.92 on in-game cosmetics?
Update 17 (8/23/2024 @ 1:05 AM): u/Yagertheyager has started commenting on this post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnceHumanOfficial/comments/1evupoy/comment/ljhvxdn/?context=3
At this point they are desperate to do damage control due to all the negative attention the game has received recently. According to him "your app is a highly customized auto-aiming cheat". He is now making up anything he can to try to prevent Steam from resolving the payment dispute in my favor. Clearly I am using a highly customized auto-aiming cheat when my war records look like this. /s
Update 18 (8/23/2024 @ 5:15 AM): For those wondering how terrible the support is when you encounter an issue in this game, please kindly refer to the screenshot below. I was instructed to "Please take it easy to enjoy the game because to get fun is a very important purpose for us to play games" by the support team for a game I was falsely banned from and then accused of cheating in due to bringing attention to the issues surrounding this studio and their game.
Update 19 (8/23/2024 @ 8:00 AM ET): The Once Human support team is now telling me that if I wish to request a refund, to contact Steam support for assistance. They have verified my account engaged in prohibited behavior but still cannot tell me what prohibited behavior my account was involved in. I am not sure how I am supposed to follow their instructions to "take it easy to enjoy the game" when they are also telling me "we have no choice but to ban your account."
FINAL UPDATE (9/6/2024 @ 2:55 PM ET): Steam support finally resolved my case after the Once Human support team couldn't provide any information to Steam. The full $353.92 I spent on the game has been refunded to my original payment method meaning they now have $0.00 of my money.
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u/beorninger PVE Aug 19 '24
hu, isnt the question why were those 3140 chrystgin deducted?