Forum Discussion

sHAYMAN83's avatar
sHAYMAN83
2 years ago

Re: What to do if your Apex Legends account got banned or suspended

This is a really poor process @EA_Mako and its quite obvious how badly it is being abused.

For the background.  My account was seemingly instantly banned last week after my nephews friend reacted via text chat when they were submitted to several death threats over voice chat.  Rightly or wrongly their responses were 2 messages simple messages of 3 letters - abbreviations of common swear words that to be honest I see far worse in the content of your actual games.  Being afraid of letting me know they tried to appeal the ban themselves (I had been decorating all week and assumed they would be fine playing the game) all attempts were denied.  My follow up appeal this morning was also denied with no explanation, the support staff I spoke to on this account via chat said they totally understood the issue, that they wish they could overturn the ban, but it has reached a threshold whereby no further appeals will be listened to.  The whole process is being abused to goad people by the very people you are supposed to be targeting and this over the top nanny culture is ridiculous.  I haven't personally played Apex in a long time, and mostly play racing games these days, but cant even do that now with any of the EA titles.  The obvious toxicity over mic chat is far worse than any of the bans being issued for really minor offences here.

An instant ban on all my devices with no way of unlinking my PS5 (I really had just purchased EA WRC and found I couldn't even play that thanks to this ridiculous ban).

All seems a lovely way of EA yet again making more coin by forcing players into a situation where they need to repurchase content they have owned the license for for years & in my 30 years of gaming have never seen anything so ludicrous as the automated banning system & appeals service you run here.  Not only is it bad enough that EA continues to push new games out in a completely broken or unfinished state (Battlefield, EA WRC, Anthem, FIFA) that you actively sell produced games with pay to win features (Battlefront, FIFA) but then you have the audacity to expect players to pay again because the automated bot service you have devised is on obvious commission for the amount of new accounts & repurchases it can help to push your way.

Truly an awful company, with highly dubious ethics all based around lining the pockets of your shareholders, whatever the cost to your customers, fans of the franchises or studios you have sadly taken over or indeed the gaming industry at large.  

8 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • EA_Mako's avatar
    EA_Mako
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 years ago
    Hi @sHAYMAN83,

    Please keep in mind we do not support account sharing in large part for this very reason, as the registered account owner is responsible for any activity that takes place on the account. Sorry to hear how that's impacted you in this case.

    To clarify, an appeal is simply a request for our Terms of Service team to take another look at a situation to see whether an action was applied correctly.

    Our ToS team is not here to be a mediator in conversations and try to determine who was in the right or wrong, or which violation was worse.

    If both are violations, then both will result in an action, though the severity will depend on what was said as well as the history of the account. Death threats would absolutely be taken more seriously than cursing at someone, but that doesn't mean there's no penalty for cursing at another individual. Harassment of any form is not acceptable in our games.

    This would be why, rather than sending insults back at someone, it is generally best to simply report and then place them on ignore. That way their account is brought to our attention to review and yours is not in jeopardy.
  • TheCaustOfHavoc's avatar
    TheCaustOfHavoc
    2 years ago
     @EA_Mako  I was just told by support chat to reach out to a community manager after asking to have all connections unlinked and EA account closed. I was told none of this was possible due to a ban on my account. This ban was originally labeled a suspension and explained to me as such back in September and i appealed it as i was not the person logged in playing violating terms of service. My account was hacked through origin launcher and that is how the violators got access without me being aware as i have been logging in only through steam for years now and only used origin to play apex during early seasons. Support told me they could see that the origin logins were from a different location/IP than mine which comes through steam. I provided detailed info and was told suspension would be lifted and was temporary. After weeks went by and I could still not access my account I filed follow up appeals and started being told my account was not suspended but banned and EA would not be reversing this no matter what i said or screenshots provided of first chat. I was also unaware that i would only be allowed 3 appeals even though every case i opened was not given due diligence and closed without much effort from the TOS team. I was told to reach out here to have a community manager review my case and allow me to appeal again. At this point my faith in anyone working for EA actually taking the time to comb through the circumstances of my ban and ALL evidence at EA's disposal that can prove I (the owner and only person with rightful access of the account) did not violate the TOS and was the victim of someone gaining unauthorized access through origin then doing whatever they did to violate ToS is lost along with my hundreds spent. All i want is to be able to unlink all connections and close my account. If a community manager assisting is possible please let me know what is needed on my end. I don't think I saved all of my chat logs but i do have some screenshots still if they cannot be seen when reviewing my appeals/cases.
  • AlphaCraft9658's avatar
    AlphaCraft9658
    2 years ago

    If a community manager, for some reason, can review the case and allow further appeals somehow, I'd like them to do that with the information I provided. I don't know how though. But I doubt that this will help at all,

  • EA_Mako's avatar
    EA_Mako
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 years ago

    Hey @TheCaustOfHavoc,

    I'm really sorry to hear that you were directed here as we're not able to assist with these issues.

    As the forums are public boards, we cannot review or investigate any account actions here. The only team that's able to take another look at a ban or suspension will be our Terms of Service team, through an appeal with these steps.

    From what you've mentioned here, it sounds like you've gone through that process multiple times already. If the ToS team has completed multiple reviews and declined to remove an account action, that is not something we'll be able to change here either.

    While I'll do what I can to have that incorrect advice addressed on this end, you're also welcome to leave any feedback about a previous advisor in your case history page here.

  • girlslovea's avatar
    girlslovea
    2 years ago

    Got banned for randomly being placed with cheaters. what do i do?

  • malvinoq's avatar
    malvinoq
    2 years ago

    Hello, I’m filing a second appeal regarding the ban of my apex account for no reason, I’ll tell you the situation in more detail, I played apex on February 12 in a party with my friends, I didn’t insult anyone, I didn’t flame, I didn’t even use voice or text chat. I have never used any third-party programs that provide any advantage, much less various kinds of cheats. I received a block right during the game, without explanation, I also did not receive an email explaining the reason for the ban, and on the EA website, in my blocking history, the reason for the ban in the apex game is also not indicated. I have read EA's policies and all community rules, and I can confidently say that I did not violate any of them because I respect the company's policies. I ask you to reconsider your views regarding the blocking of my account, and I consider this ban to be as unfair as possible.

  • EA_Mako's avatar
    EA_Mako
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    2 years ago

    Hey @malvinoq, please be aware that you cannot file an appeal via the forums here.

    If you'd like to appeal an account action, you will need to do so using these steps to have our Terms of Service team take another look. 

    @girlslovea 

    If you believe an action was taken on your account incorrectly, please create an appeal here so our Terms of Service team can review that situation for you, thanks!

  • kucfa's avatar
    kucfa
    2 years ago

    @EA_Mako  My APEX account has been banned for 2 years! It's because my account was stolen by hackers. I have confirmed that it was done by hackers, but you still banned my account. Contacting customer service was also perfunctory, and now I can't find customer service! What is your attitude towards players? Do you think players are all idiots? I still think that banning your account is just a casual matter, but do you know how much effort a player puts into an account? I need a response! A satisfactory answer for me! It's not that your backend data detection is abnormal!