The Republic of Blizzard
So, thanks to a crappy Authenticator app on the iPhone by Blizzard (the makers of wow) - even when you make a backup copy of your iPhone in iTunes - and restore it, your Authenticator resets with a different number thus banning you from your own account. All other apps restore exactly as your backup, but not the Blizzard Authenticator.
Try calling customer support in English and be told for 20 hours that the lines are too busy, call back another time. Try the Spanish line and the guy tells you in perfect English he will only help you if you speak to him in Spanish. I habe no comprende in Spanish.
Try the French number.... nevermind (hangup), lol.Try the German line and voila! (oops french soz). And a friendly German woman is willing to help me...
"Sir, your passport doesn't match the name on your account - we can't unlock your account - sorry." (Note: I don't go by my birth name and that is the problem for them.)
Many emails later with attached photos of passport, gas bill, bank statement, credit card used to pay account, specific details of recent wow transactions, and password and secret question answer... I am still told "No".
Enter nice British guy who asks: "Sir, we are sorry but we take security very seriously and everyone else in the world has a name that matches their passport, why don't you?" I give him my long life history and why my names dont match - having to do with religious journey, life experience, lots of red governmental tape, blah blah blah, etc. He says he has to talk to someone else, and puts me on hold.
German woman finally comes back on and says, "Sorry sir, we can't unluck your account - your names don't match. We will make further queries and call you back."An hour later (impressive!) I get a call back and am told, "We need you to answer more questions." We do the "pet's names and other oddity questions" routine and then I am relieved when I am told, "Ok, we will, this one time only, take off the authenicator from your Blizzard account. If this happens again, you will be unable to access your account any more."So I ask, can I just change my account name (it's only my first name!) to match my passport, since your authenticator is at fault and your German rep said I will definitely be hacked if I don't have one?" "We will check into that and get back to you, sir."
This is the email I got back from them:"Thanks for the call. We have looked into the issue of your name on the account not matching the one on your passport. We have discussed this and will not be able to change the name on your account. We suggest that you contact (your respective) governments and arrange to change your name with them to Joseph."LOL!!!! So, the Republic of Blizzard wants me to change my name with 2 governments so that when their authenticator fails again they can prove it is me. Anyone have any better ideas than Blizzard's option?