I'm going through and giving responses to comments I missed and will try to provide more details...
Pro tip: The "highest person" you can talk by phone is total bullshit. Any person who has worked tele-CS for a company can tell you this. At the time they start pulling that, threaten that they are infringing your goodwill, that you will not ever do business with them again, and tell them that you'll let others know of your horrible business. At the very-last scenario, tell them that you'd report his name as to not being helpful and uncooperative with your issue.
They should, at the very least, give you a back-door number or schedule a time in which you can speak with the higher-ups/someone who is in charge of that.
I did ask repeatedly to give me any contact information to anyone higher up and he wouldn't budge. I asked him what it is I am supposed to do if its an error on their part and he said there's nothing they can do; the account was permanently deleted. I told him that I would be informing the gaming press about this (so far just GAF) and would seek legal action if necessary for damages.
I mean, did you specifically speak with US Sony customer service? Did they give any indication of what specific reason it could be you were blocked? Did you try going through technical support as opposed to billing support or vice versa?
I spoke with the US Sony PlayStation Customer Service at 1-800-345-7669; a number that was given to me by a useless chat rep that couldn't do anything. It is my understanding they use the same phone number and have different departments that they transfer between.
That really wasn't my point though was it. I'm not trying to argue what should or shouldn't be in the TOS. Just don't pretend you don't know why you were banned when you can already list some things, and who knows how many other things you aren't going to willfully give up in a pity thread you make on a forum. If you are using a VPN to mask your IP I imagine you already know about region locking/region blocking.
The bigger point to me at least is yes, this is the problem with a digital future. You don't own anything just like pubs and devs want, you are just licensing/renting code from them like they want it to be.
But I don't know why I was banned. They haven't told me yet. Again, the things I listed that could be reasons are complete bullshit reasons on Sony's part to have an account permanently banned.
Also, I know how to configure my router per the instructions of the VPN company so I could watch Netflix/Amazon, which I pay for myself and am not sharing with anyone other than my mother who uses my old Fat PS3 for said services with her own PSN account. I don't think there's anything illegal about that.
Customer service: 1 (888) 221-1161
Paypal
Tell them an incorrect chargeback got you in trouble with Sony and see if they can help
Next on my to do list.
I would raise a shitstorm.
Did you share your account?
No, I do not share my PSN account. My mother accidentally signed on it once for a minute when I forgot to turn off auto-log in on my old Fat PS3 before I left to Korea. That's the extent of anyone else being on my account as far as I know.
This.
Yes we all know the BBB is technically a powerless toothless organization. The thing is, it still matters to companies like Sony and MS. If you try calling again, threaten them about taking it to the BBB. If they don't help after that. *Actually* take it to the BBB. I had to do that after MS refused to refund me money after my account got hacked a few years back and what do you know, they fixed that real quickly.
I will look into this too, thanks.
Sony is doing so many great things right now but their lack of customer service is a complete drag and gives me anxiety. They really need a reform of their whole CS procedure and structure. Any support team who doesn't assume positive intent with their customers is doing their brand a disservice.
Agreed. And they absolutely need to get something worked out with "permanently" banning accounts. If my account is truly irreversible even if they agree they were in the wrong and I have to get a new account, even with all my lost purchases restored, that's still really messed up. I don't care that much about Trophies, but to lose that, online progress, or even to lose access to past PS+ games that are not available anymore is fucked up.
Is there a distrust for using y'all credit/debit card?
Visa/MC itself have a fraud policy to refund you if there were unauthorized activities against your card.
After that, the bank will has its own policy during their fraud investigation.
And beside, giving out your card numbers is much better than giving out your banking account numbers. If someone gets a hold of your Paypal/3rd party processing company with your saved account # on file...welp, have fun.
You can easily replace the card since it actually just a separate identity, but changing new account # can possibility alter your recourse history, negative notes to your account, and automatic payments/deposits will be harder to fix if they require a physical check/paper to redo the automatic transactions again.
And beside, you have less work to do since you don't need to talk to another company to file a dispute.
PS: Those notes can efff you up if the banks believe you are trying to scam them with a lot of chargeback claims. Those notes will be shared with all banks/brokers in the industry... Please use your card since they don't care due to insurance policy with Visa/MC.
As I said in the OP, I used the PayPal option only because PSN was giving me errors at checkout. Sometimes it goes through with my card, other times it doesn't. The PS Store is really finicky and I've had the occasional problems with them for years. Although, I really regret not just going on amazon for a PS digital card like I usually do when I get this problem. I just saw the PayPal option conveniently there and just thought, "What the hell. Sure why not?" Little did I know what a fucking mess that would be.
Ugh, I use paypal to add funds to my wallet because adding my debit card never works. I'll be more careful about using it I guess. :/
NEVER USE THE PAYPAL OPTION, GUYS!
Did you give your old HD to someone else to use?
I reformatted it and use it as an external drive now. As far as I know, you can't just plug it into another PS3. The PS3 will know its a different drive and will reformat it. So its not like that would be a problem if I just gave it away.
Keep calling and be nice and you'll eventually speak to someone cool who will actually help you out and sympathize with you
All there is to it
It sucks that that happened to you but you can't take no for an answer with this type of bullshit and someone on the other side will acknowledge that at some point
I kept my cool with them and they still couldn't do anything for me.
OP what is your PSN name.
Same as here. Tevious
Sounds like you broke TOS by using a VPN to circumvent the digital region lock.
So I can't purchase games from the US store as a US citizen when traveling overseas? Even when using PS Cards to make said purchases from other sites? This somehow results in a permanent ban and deletion of my account? How has this not been a common problem for US citizens working abroad and military personal? I don't understand why this would even be an issue. And aren't PS3 games region free, anyway? Could they have banned me under concerns that I am a Korean using a US PSN account to bypass the Asian PS Store and download games cheaper or something? I don't even have any other PSN accounts, let alone for other regions.
