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Problems with Open Chat for My Account

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Jun 03, 2009
2
Okay, I've reached my boiling point with this Open Chat feature. I've done everything in my power to show customer support that I am over 18 and they can' do anything.

I submitted two tickets and none provided more than 5 lines of space when I typed an entire essay to explain situation. So, since they can't help I wanted to reach out to the community for support and hopefully explain someone else's issue.

To make things simpler, I will just provide my ticket I submitted a few hours ago:
"Hello, I just recently subscribed to Wizard101 again and I found out about the feature called "Open Chat". I purchased my subscription with my own debit card and the "Open Chat" feature does not show up when I go into the parental controls section of "My Accounts". I did some research as to why this is occurring and found out a few things.
First of all, this is my second time subscribing in about 3 years. I registered my account "***********" in the summer of 2009 and I quit a few months later. I got back into playing the game and I really enjoyed it. When I found out about the 18+ open chat, I wanted to enable it to make communication easier. However, I think the main reason I can't enable it is because when I registered, I put my age from 2009 which was not 18 of course. Now I'm over 18, but my age is set in stone from when I registered in 2009.
I read various articles and some people have the same problem as me. I read that I could submit a "ticket" to Customer Support to enable the open chat feature. This is what I am doing now, of course. I also read that to enable the open chat, you have to buy a subscription or purchase at least $10 worth of crowns with a valid credit/debit card. As stated above, I subscribed for the second time in three years and I purchased my subscription with my own debit card. So, since I've done BOTH of the things I read to enable open chat, I am requesting for you to enable open chat on my account "*********". If applicable, I can show you my bank statements or the purchase summary of your transaction into my account. I just want to make it easier for you to verify that I am actually 18+. Also, under the "My Accounts" section, in the summary tab, it shows that I have a valid credit card registered to my account "********". Thank you for reading this and I hope you can help out a loyal customer."

Now, if you read all this you must be able to say that I made my point very clear and even provided evidence to assist the matter. As stated above, I learned from message boards and forums that I could fix my problem by having a registered credit/debit card and purchasing my subscription to verify I was at least 18. I am subscribe currently, and purchased crowns as well and I also submitted that ticket above to customer support.

Here is their response:

"Hello,

I am very sorry, but dates of birth cannot be changed.

We're sorry for any frustration, but it's a non-edit field.

Just like your name, we cannot change your date of birth.

Regards,
KingsIsle Support"

Now after reading this, I was VERY exasperated. I wrote a 3-paragraph concerning letter and I all I get is 4 lines of text. They also didn't answer my question! I never asked for my date of birth to be changed, I asked about having open chat enabled on my account. They didn't even touch on or mention other parts of my letter regarding the open chat or the debit/credit card ordeal.
I hope the community (mostly adult players) can understand my frustration and I hope I can get some feedback. I also hope KI looks into this matter so no one has to go through what I did. In my opinion, this is an unstable system for using open chat. it specifically states in their "F.A.Q." page that "18+ Open Chat can only be unlocked by players over the age of 18 who have a current Membership paid for with a valid credit card. Gift Cards cannot be used to unlock Open Chat." I HAVE a credit card attached to my account, but the open chat feature does not show up. And I did purchase my subscription with the same card.
I am really looking for some positive feedback from the community and I just want to enable open chat on my account. I'm trying to go about this in an insightful way, meaning I want to learn as much as I can about my problem and how to fix it. I also feel that customer support message was not helpful at all and this whole issue needs to be addressed seriously. Thanks for reading this and if you've read this entire page, congratulations and thank you for you support.

Best wishes and regards,

Tyler Hawkblade, Balance Student


Administrator
Dear JewishNinja777,

Your well punctuated plea was read & understood (no sarcasm intended, wallotexts are painful!). At the end of the letter though, our response & position is the same to you, and everyone else that requests the same; your account is under 18 years old, we will not bestow Open Chat. Period.

There are 2 criteria to receive Open Chat (not Filtered Chat) on an account:

1) Your account must be set up with an age of 18 years old or older.
2) You must have made a purchase on our site with a valid Credit Card.

This is KingsIsle’s policy and is in line with COPPA requirements & intent – we will not bend our policy or federal law to appease a player’s wants, nor will we make an exception just for you.

We’re very sorry if you have the inconvenience of a bad choice made when initially setting up an account (selecting a false age) and now want to fix the account. We can/will not make exceptions by adjusting a date of birth on an account which is what would be required to allow the Open Chat feature (and no, we will not take faxed or scanned copies of birth certificates or drivers licenses or letters from mom).

The filtered chat, which is available to your account (assuming it’s not found being abused), is entirely viable for enjoying Wizard101 gameplay. Open Chat does not allow any deviations from the Terms of Use, nor does it suddenly allow you to see other filtered chat users misspellings, etc. The net change in chat ability is nominal between the 2 options (filtered v open).

We trust, as an adult, you understand our position.

Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
I feel for you, OP~ never have I been so happy to have opened this account in my mid-20s.

Mr Lincoln wrote:
We’re very sorry if you have the inconvenience of a bad choice made when initially setting up an account (selecting a false age) and now want to fix the account. We can/will not make exceptions by adjusting a date of birth on an account which is what would be required to allow the Open Chat feature (and no, we will not take faxed or scanned copies of birth certificates or drivers licenses or letters from mom).


Bad choice? Now, I'm confused~ what proof does Support have, that the OP lied about his/her age?To me, it just sounds like s/he was underage at the time of account creation (because people have birthdays, right?), recently turned 18, and wants access to the features enjoyed by other adult players.

It sounds like the system doesn't track birthdays. By that logic, someone who was 11 or 12 when they joined will be stuck with menu-chat forever~ at 14, at 24... which is kinda silly.

I'm a mod on another site, and here's our policy:

You set your age when you join~ anyone under 14 requires parental permission to register; 15+ can read "mature" content, and anything with explicit language/content is restricted to members 18+. Before the overhaul, members were allowed to edit their own ages, but they were on the honour-system~ lying about your age was a severe offense, which resulted in site bans.

The new policy~ you enter your age at signup; this date cannot be changed, but the system tracks your birthday and will change your age every year. If you made a mistake/put the numbers in the wrong order, the only way to fix it would be to contact us, with proof of your age. I don't see why KI can't implement something like this~ child-protection laws are important to follow, but they don't apply to adults, which is precisely the OP's issue.

Thanks for hearing me out, KI, & hang in there, OP! It's time for me to peace out!

Happy trails,
El Veeb

Survivor
Jun 03, 2009
2
Okay thank you for clearing that up for me. I was really confused by the message boards, the help pages, and forums about this issue. I read many different opinions/arguments from players having the same issues. I just didn't know if it was because of my age or the credit card. And yes, I fully accept your stance on this issue. However, is there any possible way I could go about on how to find out what my age was when I signed up? I just would like to see how long I need to wait to enable the open chat. Thanks again for helping explain this matter in more depth. Best wishes and I will continue to support KI and be a loyal subscriber.

Best regards,

Tyler Hawkblade, Balance Student

Survivor
Aug 28, 2010
10
Hi there, I have an idea that just might work.
Create a new account with a new corrected age.
Place your old and new accounts into the "family of accounts".
Send in ticket to support politely asking to move a character from one account to the other.
First do some research here on the boards to see what is needed for the transfer.

Hope this works, have fun and cya in the spiral.