As many of you know, PlayerAuctions is a site that use to be American, was sold to IGE, and then a Korean company bought it which has customer service now in China.
I bought an account from this company and everything went smooth as promised on the site.
After a few weeks, the original owner took back the account. I have been trying for a few weeks to get either a replacement account or a refund from either party and they do not respond anymore. After speaking with my guild members, it appears as if this is a common thing at PlayerAuctions and no different from buying an account from an ordinary forum website.
PlayerAuctions acts as an escrow service securing an account, and then takes 10% of the sellers payment, while guaranteeing delivery on your order. After that, you're on your own. If anything happens to the account, you're out money. It's a goldmine for selling scammers, and a disaster for buyers.
I have to say I am upset and urge everyone else to reconsider buying from them as if anything this is the riskiest site you could possibly buy from due to how they are setup.
Here are a few more links to their scams if you don't believe my story.
PlayerAuctions — false advertising
PlayerAuctions.com — false advertising
Seems it's happening to dozens of individuals as I keep reading more.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Ok, so I was owed around 400 bucks from PlayerAuctions.com, I recently switched to MoneyBookers as my pay out method and I had 8 pending payments that were due to me but before I asked to be switched I asked "Should I wait till I get paid via PP first to avoid confusion with the 8 payments you owe me" and good ol Friendly "Rowell" insured me they could change them there and there to MoneyBookers for me! I was like great... changed it over and they sent they sent the payments out asap. Long story short I checked today to see how much they sent me... and I only have 200 bucks, I am still owed 200 bucks and when I contact them they claim its "already been sent". They have really pissed me off.
The guarantee buyer protection from original account owners who steal account backs. However, all evidence points to the contrary. Their were other complaints on other boards saying the same thing the www.playerauctions.com does not live up to their promise. I sent in plenty of evidence to support my claims and they still refused credit.
A guy named Amine reportedly hacked this website. All account information was compromised and he even admitted to stealing all account information:
http://www.sythe.org/showthread.php?p=11616654
I'm one of the retired mods at sythe, warning for everyone!
I had been purchasing and selling on player auctions with out problem for about a year. I had purchased an account in Feb from player auctions. Last week I placed a sell ad on playerauctions. a buyer had purchased it. so the money goes to playerauctions. Then I sent the account information to playerauctions so they could inspect the account to make sure everything is as I posted it on their site. then once playerauctions inspect it they release the account information to the buyer. the buyer then uses the information to open the account change the information so that the seller no longer has control over the account. Then the buyer is to confirm the delivery. Then playerauctions is to release the funds to the seller. Instead of the transaction happening just like that. The buyer took over control of the account and then filed a dispute stating it was his son who was the buyer and without his knowledge he used his credit card and he wants a 25% discount stating there would be extra cost to the buyer to transfer characters to different servers on the account. I filed back a dispute saying there wouldn't be a discount because those added costs are expected. Then the buyer refiled stating he could no longer access the account and wanted a full refund. Playerauctions is giving the buyer a full refund. I am receiving nothing for my account and no way I can get my account back from the buyer because I wasn't the original owner I had bought it from playerauctions in Feb.
These A-holes won't fix anything. Your best bet is to dispute the charge with your bank, paypal or credit card company (however you paid). Good luck. This "Social Media" used to help but now they do nothing but sit there and post junk unhelpful to those of us who need HELP.
How do these folks get away with allowing people to sell other peoples intellectual property through you? You realize Torchlight II is copyright Runic Games, right? You also realize that the game comes with editing tools? People can just console spawn whatever they want? Not only is making a profit off of their game illegal..it's just stupid. Services like yours are a pox on gaming. How many sweatshops do you run, anyways?
To sell a runescape account on PA it asks you to upload a form of ID.
I was looking on the PA runescape accounts and (long story short)clicking just 1 button, was able to see the uploaded ID of the seller, I contacted 3 different members of their live support team but all 3 gave the same message, "its impossible". I gave them a printscreen of my computer and even recorded it on my phone but they just disconnect.
After about 20 attempts at it(wont disclose method but it simply involves clicking 1 button when viewing somebody else's account) I was able to see 5 uploaded ID's that contained Name, Address and other sensitive information.
Is this a big deal or not?
Buyers beware...I have been a loyal customer of playerauctions for many years because I believed they operated with integrity and held their sellers and buyers to the same level of integrity. I have 100% feedback and my integrity has never come into question. I purchased an account back in January 31, 2009 for a level 80 wizard on everquest. Over the years I have paid for all the expansions and monthly memberships fees. I also had a level 96 Berserker with over 4000 alternate advancement points that I worked very hard on. All toons on the account were geared well and the berserker had a mix of group and raid gear. There was a bazaar trader that had over 2 million in plat (game currency) and items as well. I tell you all of this because after nearly 4 years of owning this account and pouring time and cash into it...the original owner took it back. One thing Playerauctions will not tell you is that if the original owner of the account wants the account back..all they have to do is contact Sony and tell them that it was stolen. They still have all original info for account so there is no question in Sony's mind. Sony will not give any warning that the account is being taken back either. They de-guild the toons, take credit card info off of the account, change the e-mail registered to the account, and return it to the original owner. You get absolutely no info from Sony in the way of e-mails indicating account changes. What is worse is the guy is on the toons, playing the character I worked so hard on and even had the nerve to send me a private message, complaining that I moved his wizard to the FV server that he can't be transferred off of. This whole situation makes me sick, but not as sick as the e-mail I got from playerauctions. Playerauctions only suspended his playerauctions account..not banned. And since the original owner will not respond to them they are going to contact Sony and get the account banned instead of restoring it. Even worse...Playerauctions will not replace the 175.00 that I paid for the account at the time, which seems like the right thing to do since they profitted off of the seller's deception. 175.00 is not much money at all compared to what I have invested into the account. I guess for me it is the principle of the thing. I bought the account thinking all transactions were secured by PlayerGuardian Protection, but I guess they are only secured if you buy extra insurance on the account. They say I did not purchase the additional protection so they will not reimburse me anything I spent on the account. This is bad business as there are no warnings that these accounts can be taken back by the original owner at any time, which would have kept me from taking the risk in the first place. Sorry if I sound like I am just whining, but everyone who uses this site needs to be told the truth about account purchases. In the business world, loyal customers are valued, respected, rewarded, protected, and held onto no matter the cost. And before you judge, I made several recent purchases from Playerauctions at the end of last year before all of this happened. I purchased an account and platinum totaling nearly 600.00. Now you tell me...a loyal customer with perfect feedback spending a lot of cash with your company...would you blow them off like this? I told Playerauctions as much and will see if it gets them to change their handling of this situation, but I doubt it.
PS - Please don't be the next victim, protect yourself. I do not hold Playerauctions responsible for the actions of the original owner, but I do hold them responsible for representing themselves as safe and secure when representing crooked sellers. This is why I want market credit...I want them to take responsibility for representing the seller and taking some of my money themselves out of the crooked deal.
I ****ing hate PA but I make so much money off their platform. It feels like it is one or two guys who answer the chat all day and just use a different name. Their responses always have a thinly veiled go **** yourself to them. You swear, you get banned, you ask for your powerseller deposit back, you get banned and so on and so forth. Anyways, to vent, I am going to be posting my PA support run-ins.
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Operator Ralph has joined the chat.
Ralph13:41:37
Hi Adam! How may I help you?
Ticket S94701-T115979 is created. The chat transcript will be attached to this ticket after the transcript is saved by system.
Ralph13:41:44
Hello! How may I help you?
Adam13:42:14
Hi, my account name is Polis. I am having problems buying anything on PA with my credit card or paypal. When I try to use the credit card as a payment option, it says that I need to become verified to use this.
13:42:20
However, I am a verified powerseller
13:42:50
What do I need to do to get these options unlocked? It does not make sense that I can't even use paypal as you guys always pay me my disbursements through paypal
Ralph13:44:32
Could you please provide me with your PlayerAuctions account username?
Adam13:44:49
Polis
Ralph13:45:10
One moment please while I check the details for you.
13:46:42
Thanks for waiting.
13:47:04
As per checking, our relevant team are still working on your case.
13:47:18
I suggest you to kindly use different payment options sir.
Adam13:47:32
What does this mean even? It has been like this for two months and I Don't have access to a moneybookers account
13:47:38
All of my money from you guys is sent to PAYPAL
13:48:36
It doesn't make sense, it's like you don't want your company to make more money off of me. How much more reliable can a customer on your site get? I am verified and I am a powerseller and you guys keep screwing me for whatever reason
13:48:52
why did I pay $150 bucks for powerseller support when you guys just constantly tell me to use another payment option
Ralph13:49:55
Sorry for any inconveniences you may have experienced.
Adam13:50:03
Do you guys have a support phone number?
Ralph13:50:09
No sir.
13:50:25
We only answers in live chat.
Adam13:50:37
So when will these payment options be fixed for me?
13:50:41
Why are they even locked in the first place?
13:51:29
When I email support and powerseller support, is it you who answers the emails?
Ralph13:52:50
Our other members sir.
Adam13:53:40
Can you answer my other two questions? This is extremely inconvenient and I am getting no information out of you aside from go **** yourself, use another payment option
Ralph13:54:18
Please refrain from using profanity or acronyms for profanity in future responses. As part of our user agreement, we do not tolerate rude, harassing, or abusive correspondence under any circumstances. Your abusive language does nothing to help resolve your issue, which is first and foremost what I’d like to do.
Adam13:55:16
Well, I wasn't swearing at you. I was telling you how I feel. I have had this issue for two months and every time I talk to support you guys just tell me to use another payment option
Ralph13:55:51
Sorry about that sir but only our higher relevant team can answer you that.
Adam13:55:58
How do I contact them?
Ralph13:56:11
We dont have any control on your accounts or etc.
Adam13:56:19
Alright, how do I contact them
Ralph13:56:27
Kindly contact us again after 8 hours.
13:56:37
Im pretty sure our supervisors are available on that moment.
Adam13:57:00
k
Ralph13:57:25
If you have any further inquiries, please feel free to contact us. Have a nice day!
Operator Ralph has left the chat.
The chat is ended.
Their support is useless. Theres no managers or nothing. Just live support and other "teams" and none of these other teams ever handle your concern or read yuor whole email
My payments for playerauctions via paypal are going through, to quote paypal here is what they are saying: "Your order status is “Pending” because the merchant has received your order but hasn’t processed your payment yet. Most merchants will complete your order a few days after they receive it. Some merchants wait until they’re ready to ship your order. " Thus the problem is they can not go into their paypal account and simply click Accept next to the payment and manually push the process through. Customer support does not satisfy at all. Live support is unable to help with any payment issues as they are just given access to the same information I have. eMail support is not any better as they have been telling me the same thing over and over again. Phone support does not even exist.
Hi bought an account 90 chars, for League of legends, account name: Darkmagic 2, from a seller called thewerx. 4 days later, the account was reclaimed. Hence I have nothing left.
Very risky, sellers claim their account was stolen, and get it back from RIOT(league of legends). Beware.
Paid for an in-game item service. Playerauctions was not able to complete the order in the safe manner without getting the account banned/locked. I sent numerous emails to Tina and Support@playerauctions.com explaining my concern over my order. I also forwarded emails from blizzard showing them locking my account 3 times and banning it temporarily until I could prove account ownership by calling in. My account was on the verge of being permanently banned and the power level seller showed no disregard and wanted to continue with the service without considering the danger to my account. So I canceled the order and explained to the seller I would not be continuing with his service because of the activity such as account locks and banning were occurring. I sent multiple emails to support as well as to the seller explaining this and didn't get any response with the exception that he was willing to give me a 20% refund even though he was not able to deliver in safe manner. Tried many times to resolve this with playerauctions and the seller and feel that you did not uphold to our agreement. I've been well over $1000 on their service and expected much better customer service. I will no longer be using the service and will not recommend to anyone. The order was not complete and blizzard restored everything back.
Playerauction is a Scam. Seller stole back my account, i reported to them they took 4 weeks to completed the investigation, First email they said i will receive a coupon for the amount of i paid. Then i didnt get that, so i contacted them again. They answered that the answer in the last email was wrong, i will not get anything. The only thing they can say is SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENT because i didnt purchase their insurance which didnt offer in the sell. But before i buy i contacted their customer service 3 times and confirmed that even without insurance i still protected for a year. I have all the chat log and the email from those employees, so i used that to ask them why they said im protected but in the email said i'm not. Now they suspended my account so i cant get access to the order anymore.
Whoever get scammed please msg me and i will put your name on the class action suit for consumer fraud against playerauction.
Based on the information provided, we have determined that the seller is responsible for the loss of access to your account. As we are unable to restore your access to the account, a coupon code of $xxx will be issued to your PlayerAuctions account through on-site message. The PlayerAuctions Coupon may be used toward any valid offer posted on PlayerAuctions.com and should be used within two months starting today. Please note that PlayerAuctions Coupon are non-transferable and non-refundable. The minimal price of offer should be above $5 and the change will not be given if the offer price is lower than the coupon value. We appreciate your patience and cooperation during this period. For further inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
We are really sorry for wrong answer in the previous email.
For this case, we have tried to contact the seller to recover the game account but not receive any response yet. So, we have suspended his PA account and will ban the game account as well to prevent the potential fraud.
However, according to the record, you didn't buy any insurance when you placed this order, we are not able to give you any reimbursement at this stage.
Anyway, we are very sorry for any inconvenience you may experience.
[22:23:53] tommy: let me ask you a question
[22:24:03] tommy: when customer buy an acc from playerauction
[22:24:10] tommy: whether the insurance was purchased or not
[22:24:22] tommy: the buyer still protected right?
[22:24:44] tommy: if seller stole the account back does buyer get any type of protection at all?
[22:25:08] Godfrey: the buyer still protected right? yes
[22:25:17] Godfrey: if seller stole the account back does buyer get any type of protection at all? yes
[22:25:34] Godfrey: we will have a thoroughly investigation
[22:25:52] Godfrey: before that the buyer must fle a dispute case against the seller
contacted support today and they ignored my chat... worst customer service ever
The seller used bots on my account, I lost over $200 + the $50 I payed him. The customer support DID NOT REPLY.
DO NOT USE PLAYERAUCTIONS!
Extremely fraudulent company, after tonight I'm reporting them to the BBB because of the inhumanity offered by this company. I invested hundreds of dollars and years of play time to have my account recovered from me and to have this company mock and laugh at me about it. You just dug your own grave PlayerAuctions. Bye.
Your Question: ticket ID #305
Please wait and one of our operators will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with Hiro CS (Customer Support Officer) - Customer Support
03:09Hiro CS:
How may I help you today?
03:09Robert McKay:
Hi, I'm looking for a status on my ticket
03:09Robert McKay:
#305
03:09Robert McKay:
Thanks
03:10Hiro CS:
One moment please while I check the details for you.
03:10Robert McKay:
Thank you
03:11Hiro CS:
Give me 3-5 minutes to check this Robert
03:11Robert McKay:
ok thanks
03:13Hiro CS:
Thank you for waiting.
03:13Hiro CS:
As per checking your ticket, you were asking which email is the one you registered in playerauctions
03:13Robert McKay:
Yes
03:13Robert McKay:
And I gave him a list
03:14Hiro CS:
To verify this is the one that worked st**********37@hotmail.com
03:14Robert McKay:
Yes, that was my old one
03:14Hiro CS:
Username is stormrageg0ld
03:14Robert McKay:
Yes
03:14Robert McKay:
Sounds right
03:15Hiro CS:
This is the only account that worked with the lsit you gave us.
03:15Hiro CS:
list*
03:15Robert McKay:
Ok, cool, so I should be able to recover it?
03:15Robert McKay:
Via your website then I assume?
03:15Robert McKay:
My only issue is
03:15Hiro CS:
Do you still have access to the hotmail account?
03:15Robert McKay:
I have no clue of any of the info, like the email I don't even have access to
03:15Robert McKay:
Nope
03:15Robert McKay:
That's my issue :(
03:16Hiro CS:
But you gave me that email Robert on the ticket. Can you type here that email address I gave above that is censored?
03:16Robert McKay:
Yes
03:16Robert McKay:
stormragegold2637@hotmail.com
03:16Robert McKay:
But I can't actually log into it
03:17Robert McKay:
It's been years since I've had it
03:17Robert McKay:
It was my WoW gold selling account haha
03:17Robert McKay:
And I totally forgot all the info on it
03:17Robert McKay:
I can confirm anything else though if I can change it
03:19Hiro CS:
I suggest Robert to contact hotmail or microsoft for them to assist you on recovering your email address. Once you have recovered it with them you can do a forget password in our website
03:19Robert McKay:
Wow you wont believe this
03:19Robert McKay:
I remember the passport
03:19Hiro CS:
The temporary password then will be sent to your hot mail account
03:19Robert McKay:
password**
03:19Robert McKay:
I'm in
03:19Robert McKay:
Actually, I got lucky with that one
03:19Hiro CS:
really?
03:19Hiro CS:
Hahaha
03:19Hiro CS:
Try to change the email
03:19Hiro CS:
Do you mean in playerauctions?
03:19Robert McKay:
Ok, lol, yes
03:20Robert McKay:
Ok so yeah I'm in and I'll be updating all the contact info but he told me that he sent me a message
03:20Robert McKay:
But I have none
03:20Hiro CS:
I see.
03:20Hiro CS:
You can change your email there now in account settings
03:20Robert McKay:
I've been trying to reclaim my league account and or just get a refund because basically the original owner recovered the account
03:21Robert McKay:
And I was screwed
03:21Robert McKay:
But yes I can. I've been fighting this with you guys for like a year now
03:21Robert McKay:
No joke
03:21Robert McKay:
xD
03:22Hiro CS:
I'm really sorry to hear that Robert, in regards to your game account in LoL did you receive any email?
03:22Hiro CS:
Or you havent since you lost access to that email address?
03:23Robert McKay:
Well I lost it, so he told me he sent me an email, I assume that's where he sent it
03:23Robert McKay:
But I do not have access to it
03:23Robert McKay:
So I can't read it
03:23Robert McKay:
:(
03:23Hiro CS:
Oh I see.
03:23Hiro CS:
Have you changed the email address already?
03:23Robert McKay:
Not from League, the account itself is gone...
03:24Robert McKay:
All the security info on it changed and there's definitely no way I can get it back, I struggled with Riot for months about it
03:24Robert McKay:
Yes I updated the email
03:24Robert McKay:
Btw
03:24Hiro CS:
I'm really sorry to hear that Robert, well I play LoL since 2011 and playing up to day and they're really strict when it comes to bought accounts.
03:25Robert McKay:
Right, well that's why I was kind of screwed out of my $75 or whatever I paid for it
03:25Robert McKay:
I was raging about it for awhile, I mean losing that account like destroyed half my life, the least I wanted was my money back
03:25Robert McKay:
Haha
03:26Robert McKay:
It's depressing
03:26Robert McKay:
xD
03:27Robert McKay:
I mean, you guys can't offer at least that back? Odds are I'm just going buy more stuff from you guys...
03:28Robert McKay:
I just thought it would be moral for you guys to do that, because I think the whole situation was bs, I invested hundreds of dollars into that account for nothing
03:28Robert McKay:
I really wasn't asking for much in comparison to what I lost...
03:28Hiro CS:
and for refund, we really cannot provide one because we have your payment for that order sent already to the seller.
03:29Hiro CS:
What we can only do is when the account got recovered by a seller is to assist buyers to get it back from them.
03:29Robert McKay:
Well the problem is, obviously the original owner is going to give it back, he was clearly committing fraud in effort to screw people and steal money
03:30Robert McKay:
Which otherwise wouldn't have existed if you didn't allow him to sell fraudulent property
03:30Robert McKay:
That's where I'm going it with it...
03:30Hiro CS:
Upon checking as well Robert the seller has been already suspended
03:30Hiro CS:
To prevent him from commiting fraud with
03:31Hiro CS:
other members
03:31Robert McKay:
Well that's great but my account is still gone, that's what I'm saying, haha, not only that, the hundreds of hours invested are also gone with it, so I think it's a little crazy why I can't at least be refunded for something I never actually was sold...
03:32Robert McKay:
See what I mean? It's fraud... I know you guys aren't involved but you actually are, considering you get a cut from it all.
03:32Hiro CS:
I understand Robert, but if you have reported this before while the money is still with us we could have released you a refund if it was reported on time
03:33Robert McKay:
Well obviously I couldn't have reported this because he recovered his account after the fact
03:33Robert McKay:
I mean, it's not hard, he knew exactly what he was doing.
03:33Robert McKay:
Abusing your system to steal money and commit fraud...
03:33Robert McKay:
And you're telling me I have to pay for that?
03:33Robert McKay:
I beg to differ, truly.
03:34Robert McKay:
Tell your supervisor that I have bills too, I didn't expect to go on this site and enter my credit card to lose money.
03:35Robert McKay:
That's not right at all...
03:35Robert McKay:
$65 a month in my internet bill, I can't even go cheaper in the area I'm at, ask him how much he pays
03:35Robert McKay:
Maybe he wants the burden
03:36Robert McKay:
I surely don't, haha
03:36Hiro CS:
I suggest Robert to email them at supervisor@playerauctions.com. What we can only do here is to get a hold of him, contact him and to attempt to recover the account from him.
03:36Robert McKay:
And you really think he's going to just give it back?
03:36Hiro CS:
Our last resort would be to contact Riot that this member once sold this account to you but it would be best that if you're the one to contact them as they'll track your IP and it will be linked on that game account
03:37Robert McKay:
I mean, that's your plan? That's what you tell people? I disputed this with Riot for 9 months on end, and with this company for over a year now.
03:37Robert McKay:
Quite frustrating to be told you can skim me my $70
03:38Robert McKay:
If you want my left hand, I'll give you that too
03:38Robert McKay:
I need my right thought
03:39Robert McKay:
Lmfao
03:39Hiro CS:
Well, first of all is that you claimed that your account got reclaimed without giving us an accurate username or your playerauctions email that caused the delay of your dispute and you might want to read this to learn more why we cant help further And we're not the one who "skimmed" your money it was the seller. WE give all buyers 72 hours to gather all account info the game account they buy. You should know all the info you need when buying. not just spending right away without knowing the risk LMFAO
03:39Hiro CS:
As mentioned in our Secure Buyer Delivery Agreement under the Limitation clause, PlayerAuctions shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever resulting from actions of a game publisher. You can view this information at the link below: http://www.playerauctions.com/Help/HelpContent.aspx?
03:39Hiro CS:
Good bye and have a nice day.
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robert mckay...you are 100% at fault grats on outting yourself as not following rules lmao loser