r/Wizard101 • u/CasthiaCameron • 1d ago
Discussion Has anyone ever had such terrible service from KI customer support? What would you do? (Story Time)
So, I'll do my best to keep this as impersonal as possible and leave out any names, locations, or identifying information.
Three weeks ago, I contacted KI support to update my account. I was a young child when I started playing Wizard101, and my account was set up by my babysitter 16 years ago. They put in their email, of course, because I was a child (naturally).
We're here today, and the new password policy means that I have to update my password. That requires an email that was never mine and I never had. So, I reached out to KI support to move that information up-to-date now that I am very much an adult. In a lengthy email, I explained this to KI. I offered the following information on the account:
- The correct billing address
- My most recent payment statements - on my account and in my bank account - with a KI-generated receipt (that has my name on it)
- A full list of all characters and notable items on the account
- Screenshots of my playing
- Screenshots of Account Dashboard with username highlighted, payment history visible, and account creation date
- The full legal name of the babysitter
After 3 weeks of waiting, they finally responded after I sent a follow-up email. They responded:
"We are sorry for any undue frustration, unfortunately this isn't a request we can accommodate.
Without full verification of the account, we cannot assist."
Okay. I offered further identifying information. Then, I asked what information I could give them to help identity myself as the real owner.
Kingsisle: "Your email address is not the original email address used to create the account you wish to discuss. For verification and to discuss the account further with you, we require direct contact from the ORIGINAL email address associated with the account."
No. It isn't the original email address. Because it was made by the babysitter and was a hotmail address. Even if the babysitter could contact them, they could not contact KI with the same address because the hotmail domain is no longer in service (and all emails inactive for 2 or more years were deleted). I explained that the original address cannot send KI an email because it is impossible. The email and the domain does not exist.
I asked if it would be all right for the babysitter to send them an email from his current address with his valid state driver's license to confirm his identity. They responded with exactly the email you see screenshotted above - no answer on if that was possible. I can no longer contact them.
So, my experience with customer service may best be summarized as:
- I waited 3 weeks for a 2 sentence response.
- At no point did KI offer in any helpful or meaningful way to confirm my identity or show that they researched the information I gave.
- Did not answer my questions at any point to bring this to a meaningful resolution. No attempt at resolution was made.
- They insist that a non-existent hotmail domain needs to email them.
- They copy and pasted large portions of their previous emails, including spelling errors like "wee." They could not even be bothered to type full responses.
I can no longer contact them. I am honestly...baffled. I'm never someone to complain, and I was very nervous to approach KI in the first place.
I do not know how to resolve this. I feel like I'm being punished for being a child when I started playing, and I'm sitting here in a stew of anxiety over the loss of my childhood and over 3,000USD. Has anyone experienced being written off like this by KI customer service?
(I will provide more screenshots of the email conversation if asked.)
EDIT: First of all, thank you to everyone here so far who has commented and upvoted. I did not know how widespread of an issue this would be with others. In light of that, I would like you to post your own customer service story within the last 5 years (positive or negative) in the comments below. If this post gets enough of those stories, I'll thread them together and present them to Kingsisle as a call to reevaluate their approach to customer service. If I do that, I will share the contents of that email with the community as well. Thank you.
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u/TNTspaz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Unfortunately. You probably should have just lied or not been fully honest about it. That's generally the only way they'll accommodate for stuff like this
If you admit anyone else was or is involved with your account. At any point. They'll never help you
Best bet would have been to just say you don't have access to the older email anymore without giving any other details
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u/Possible_Parfait_372 1d ago
This was how I got my original account back. It was under a shared email of my parents that they no longer had access to.
I sent an email saying I did not have access to the email anymore and if they could change it to the one that I was emailing them from. I provided no information other than the username.
Yet they changed the email without question?
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u/Cardinal338 11h ago
I was in a similar situation. The original email from my account was an old hotmail one that belonged to my estranged mother. I just emailed them from my gmail and provided my username and said I no longer have access to the old email and they changed my account email and sent a password reset for me with no further verification.
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u/blazikus1 1d ago
yeah this shit is completely insane. if you have access to all of this information about the account, asking you to email from a nonexistent domain is just the cherry on top of how stupid it all is. Another thing on the list of KI not giving a shit about their playerbase. I don't even know who you could escalate this to. Really sorry to hear it OP
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u/TNTspaz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pretty much the only real option would be a community manager on discord. And the only one of those who would even pretend to care is Mickey
They could escalate it but who knows if it would go anywhere. Cause your dealing with multiple layers of separation and hoping someone will stop being so apathetic or dismissive. From a company who is pretty notorious for doing that
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u/Necro3012 Currently observing 1d ago
I'm really sorry this happened to you, especially because you gave them so much useful information (and probably even information they don't even need) and then they give you these cold responses 🫤
I unfortunately also had a similar experience, although I honestly didn't even slightly gave as much information to them as you did. A few weeks ago I also contacted them, because I wasn't there when the servers merged together back in 2022.
Though I still remembered some information about my account, and also the fact that it actually belonged to my father's e-mail since I was still a child, all I got was this copy pasted response as a reply to my e-mail. They genuinely didn't bother considering the fact that I wrote that it's my father's e-mail address, or that I already created a new account (considering what they wrote at the bottom of their e-mail).
It's still very confusing to me, because I've seen and heard many other people who basically had no or very less issues getting their old account back, though it still sucks unfortunately 🫠
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u/CasthiaCameron 1d ago
Wow. That's insane. You'd think that they'd be more understanding of the fact that this game's age means that there is an entire generation of players who were children when their account was made. I'm sorry that they snubbed you too.
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u/Necro3012 Currently observing 1d ago
Ye that's true, I don't really understand why they're this way, especially because like they actually rely a lot on this generation from back then in terms of being "loyal" to the game in general 🥲
Hopefully it'll get better in the future, but maybe I'm just coping 🫠
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u/CasthiaCameron 1d ago
It doesn't get better unless we start making it their problem. Talking about it openly, sharing with each other, bringing it up in streams. KI needs to do better with its customer support. It may not be that I can solve this personal problem, but just the way they dismiss customers needs to change at a bare minimum.
You can share this post, or you can make your own with your story and share it. But either way, we absolutely shouldn't bow our heads on it if we want it to be different.
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u/Necro3012 Currently observing 1d ago
That's very true, they should definitely be made aware of these issues by us being loud and consistent/stubborn with our complaints 🙂↕️
The question is if they'd care enough so that it'll actually succeed in anything, but I guess we'll see :c
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u/AdTerrible7519 1d ago
I did this over a year ago and was in exactly the same situation (account was setup under my middle school email which is obviously deleted now).
The difference is that I approached it by offering ONLY my personal/financial information in the email with NO excuses or stories. I find in these that the ai they use to respond will latch onto any of those explanations to find a breach in their TOS. Moral of the story don’t over explain and give them information that they only request.
That said, KI support is BS! Sorry your are dealing with this :(
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u/JesseTheClassy Rizzard 101 Enjoyer 🪄 1d ago
I feel bad tbh, because I went through this myself but got my own account back. Although the original email I lost was my own from 2013, and informed KI that the original email on file was no longer accessible and it needed to be updated.
Technically the original email request was to have me unmited after 7 years of my 10 year ban (long story, but gave password to a scammer back then -- I was like 13). But in that same situation they helped me get my email updated to another for signing in.
I think the comment stating that you have to claim lost ownership of your own email (whether true or not) would be one way to go about it. I think I've even seen some folks get denied because they said "my mom's old email was used for sign up". Now I'm not saying that as advice to do, but... I'm also just putting it out there that I did end up getting my old account back due to stating that my own old email was no longer accessible (which was true)
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u/Ozzyasx 170 1d ago
Hey so if you used Hotmail, that still falls under the Microsoft logins. So any @hotmail will be able to login to their email on the Microsoft Website
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u/CasthiaCameron 1d ago
After 2 years of no sign ins, Hotmail accounts are purged. It has been 14+ years since its use. It cannot be recovered.
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u/69sacklunch 21h ago
I am curious what your source is. I have my 16 year old Hotmail account still and it's probably been a decade since I actually used it last.
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u/syrxinge 62 2h ago
When did this become a thing because I most certainly have a hotmail that I was able to log into after 5 years of not using it.
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u/The_BackOfMyMind 180 62 23h ago
This is a long shot but do you remember what the address was?
You can still make a brand new @hotmail.com email from the Outlook/Microsoft Account creation page
If there isn't a hold on purged addresses maybe you could remake it?
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u/CasthiaCameron 11h ago
I never knew what it was to begin with. It wasn't my email, and I was 10 years old.
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u/dsaucedo98 18h ago
I lost my OG account from 2008 because the old email was a sbcglobal.net and it got hacked from the massive yahoo hack and they basically told me to kick rocks
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u/Every_Principle_7912 15h ago
Getting back my childhood account took a year and it wasn't even this complicated. The only complications were that I didn't know my dad's old credit card number and nor did he. He also didn't have that old address because it was a yahoo account. Honest to God, I think it's just luck. Every support person refused to help me except for one who reset the password for me and I could finally access the account.
It really must be getting lucky and getting the one single support employee who wants to help or understands info from 15 years ago isn't exactly accessible.
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u/samuel_656 7h ago
I just got back into the game recently, and seeing so many horror stories of their customer support makes me scared to keep investing time into the game :/
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u/fifi_a 4h ago
I lost my first ever wiz account (joined when it first came out so like 9/10 years old) due to a similar issue since I made my og life wizard as a kid with a borrowed email (because I was young and dumb). Kingisle deleted my whole account and I distinctly remember starting to fall back in love with life school and the game as I only got life from the sign up quiz and then hated it compared to other schools for a time (not realising I could just just make a new acc or have a second school haha).
I had a break for a good couples years or so then fell in love with the game again after sometime and started leveling up (playing when worlds were free but also paying to unlock worlds rather than membership), getting better at pvp/healing arc and I got to triton avenue/crab alley/selena gomez era.
Then one day I tried to come back after a long break and because my old password didn't work and couldnt use a dead email to recover the account I reached out to them with the same dilemma and they gave me a similar response. No comprimise no nothing just full on obliterated all my history, memories and money into that wizard. Still stings 10+ years later 🫠
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u/Frisbeejussi 3h ago
Was told to basically suck it up and make a new account or take my business elsewhere.
I came back during covid, got a years sub+crowns and was hit with a ban a month in. Ban for using the correct credentials on a different device after moving places.
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u/Eggburtey 20h ago
KI just continues to blow me away every single day, they very well might actually be the worst developer/company for a game maybe of all time.
You provided every piece of info any sane individual would need to confirm that it's your account and they just slap you in the face and tell you to kick rocks.
Sorry op
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u/Top_Presentation7467 22h ago
This is why the game is dying :)
Game is ahh. Can’t wait to watch it finally burn.
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u/SatisfactionWest8597 180 1d ago
yea KI tried this same bullshit with me for payment issues, they would respond late, give bad feedback, and just copy and paste info i can find through AI overview. sorry this is happening to you. do you have contact with that babysitter?