Devastated (EDIT: Happy ending!)

[Mistress Morbid]

Thanks everyone. It makes me smile to see my userlookup and have him back on it again.

In regards to Sensation, the way I see it is I wasn't all that attached to the name. I thought of a wicked character/design for him, but I can save that and use it on another Krawk in the future if I wished to. The character is still my own, so I try not to think of it as losing something. ^^ It's a little different from Eerie where I was attached to his name and the fact that he was my first Krawk.


EDIT: I've transferred Eerie over to my side account just to ensure that I always have a slot open for Wythorn in case I get him back. *crosses fingers* I'm scared to have 4 pets on my main account in case TNT decided to give Wythorn back, only to discover that I'm 'full'. I could see them just being like 'Oh well, too bad for her' and never trying again. x_x

[mellaka]

Congrats on getting one of your pets back =)

[Mistress Morbid]

Now for some updates of a less-than-happy nature. -____-

This fucking Emily is pissing me off, I can't believe what she just said to me:

It is your responsibility to keep your account information safe. We cannot go through and retrieve items or pets that may have been funneled through other accounts and ended up on an innocent users account because you could not keep your information safe, I'm afraid.

Emily T.

For the tenth fucking time, I've EXPLAINED to you in a damn long detailed email with proof that I was hacked and not scammed.

They don't even fucking read.

[TCStarwind]

Warning: the following paragraph is a bunch of strewn about suggestions that may or may not be of any help.

Oh dear. Maybe now is the time to start copying and pasing everything? And make sure the first line is in bold red print of "I was hacked not scammed"? Remind them of the fact that a well known news source has publicly said they've been hacked and that they'll protect "other users" who just had the same thing happen to them without a second thought? Ugh. You could even send the whole thing to the editorial (if anything, it'll get some more attention). :/ I really have no faith in these people.

At least you've gotten one of the pets back, though. Even if you did have to trade for him.

[AngharadTy]

And make sure the first line is in bold red print of "I was hacked not scammed"?

Good point, except that you should use purple comic sans.

[Mistress Morbid]

I wrote a reply both to Emily and submitted a new Account Access form from the main site.

In both I expressed my absolute disgust at the terrible customer service, and mentioned in both that I have filed a complaint with the BBB. The fuckers better not underestimate me, because I am furious and even more determined to follow this through forever if I have to. I'm literally stunned at how a company can manage to run like this, I can't even get through to a real person or someone higher up in charge, it's absolutely ridiculous and inexcusable.

Does anyone have websites that I can link to pointing out proof in the whole hacking thing?

Also, I am currently writing a complaint into Viacom itself.

[Rakumel]

I've been hunting for proof that Neopets was indeed hacked into, but so far all I can find is discussion. The few news articles I found talk about a different problem; a recent scam where kids click on a link that goes to an external site. That's what the online Fox News (cringe) article reported on. And here is the blog entry by one of the people they quote in the article. Scamming, but not hacking.

However, if the discussion is true and Neopets was hacked at some point via SQL injection - which I think it was, because based on what I understand from the explanations here (more detailed) and from a thread on JellyNeo (a bit simpler), it sounds EXACTLY like what happened to your account, since the person using it wouldn't need to know your password or rely on any external links to get in - anyway, if that's true, then surely staff would know about that technique? Surely they could at least consider the POSSIBILITY that that's what happened to you? Maybe the programmers on staff know, but didn't pass the word along to the helpdesk - I don't know. I'm just taking stabs in the dark here.

I don't get why they keep insisting it's your fault. It's stupid. Not to mention insult to injury.

[Usul_Princess]

Ugh. What does it take for them to be convinced? I think they're ignoring you, personally. They know exactly what happened, but I think that if they were to concede that your pets really were stolen, it might cause an uproar of all the paying customers, declining overall interest in the site, and the like. If they'd just admit the truth FFS and tell the other users your pets had been stolen and they have to get over it because they belong to you.

A couple years back, TNT had a glitch where people's usernames began with a number/underscore all the way through C, you receieved 250K. To stop all the bitching from people who didn't benefit from the glitch, they took away all the NP. Which I thought was fair. Another glitch was last Advent Year 10 when if you clicked on a daily gift, it didn't give out the present, but it said "you've already collected". Later that same day the glitch was fixed, but people capitalized on it so much (selling advent gifts for 80K each), that TNT issued the prizes in everyone's inventory who clicked that day.

In short, they're perfectly capable of fixing this dilemma, they just won't.

[Silver Link]

I'm sure we can all agree that the people at TNT (or at least the people in charge of this kind of stuff) are dumb pricks with thick heads so just keep giving them hell and I just hope that they'll do the decent thing and return your pets

[varii]

I can't find any real solid discussion about what went down, just a lot of conjecture. What really irks me is that I saw them dealing with people whose pets were indeed stolen and they did return them. I feel like you are getting screwed so hard because you're dealing with it AFTER people clued in to the fact that this wasn't just another round of CGers and they are trying to cover their asses with denial.

[Mistress Morbid]

It really is frustrating how two-faced they are.

I mean, the 'elite' users always get protected - their accounts are usually frozen for safety, so obviously TNT is aware that something malicious is going on. Yet for the average user they just don't give a shit. And I still don't comprehend their view of 'If an innocent third party received your pet unknowingly we cannot take that away from them'. Okay, so you can't take the pet away from them because they'd be upset...well what the hell about me? I'm pretty damn more upset than they are seeing as how I've owned the pet for years longer and created it. Either way you have someone who's upset, so why not return it to the rightful owner?

I'm hoping maybe the message I sent to Viacom will get me somewhere. They got a piece of my mind over the customer service at Neopets, and I asked to be forwarded to some sort of higher up in charge over there.

[covet]

Sometimes it really is a matter of persistence. They froze my side account once, apparently as protection as it seemed like someone was hacking it. Then they wouldn't let me have it back as I couldn't message them from the email - it was an ancient account I no longer had.

This was despite the fact that my side 1) is an anagrm of my main (stariell and astriell), linked to my main on it's profile, and was listed as a secondary account on premium.

No email, no dice. It took me months of mailing but I eventually got it back. Good luck getting at the very least the frozen pets back on your account, that's just absurd.

[Mistress Morbid]

OMFG....

Big news...really big news.

Wythorn is back on my account. ;____; I'm practically hyperventilating at this moment, I can't really type anymore for now.

[bonecrivain]

Aghhhhhhhhhhhh what happened! How! That's awesome!

[Mistress Morbid]

*trying to form coherent sentences*

All I can say is that something finally worked. I received an email just moments ago from Heidi stating simply:

Hi,

Your Neopet should be back in your account now.

Thanks!

And I went and checked. And he was there in all his unconverted awesomeness.