Original Post — Direct link

Edit: I have to get some sleep before work tomorrow so I can't continue to respond as frequently as I have, but I just wanted to say thank you SO MUCH everyone for all the support and sharing your stories. Even if I never get this figured out, I feel a lot better knowing that most of the community is behind me and understands what I'm going through.

I do realize it's just a game, but this game was such a huge part of my childhood, helped me develop lifelong friendships, and has been a major source of happiness in my life well into adulthood. I'm a very sentimental person and it would be such a major bummer to have to start over from the beginning. Not to mention all the time and money spent that would have been for nothing. Anyone can just start a new account sure, but I'm not getting those thousands of dollars back... thousands of dollars that should in part, be going to fund better customer support to begin with.

I will come back to check on everything tomorrow and still greatly appreciate your replies, advice, and upvotes. Thanks again.

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First I want to start off by saying I am a huge fan of this game, and have been using my same, original, account that I made when I was in grade school. I will try my best to make this concise but I am very frustrated and scared I will lose my account for no reason other than poor customer service.

TLDR: I am going to lose access to my account because Jagex's account recovery is not designed in a way that make sense for legacy players and I have no support avenues to reach out to. I understand this is partially my responsibility too, but I am trying to meet in the middle. I am willing to provide any and all information I can to recover the account including transaction info and photo ID, etc.

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Currently, I still have access to my account and I know my password. I can log in fine, and I play regularly. Yet I have been battling account recovery with Jagex for the better half of a year because of an old email from highschool that I attached at some point, in hopes of making my account more secure. That is what stronghold of security says anyway, right? This has been the single biggest regret in my life even outside of RuneScape. I really wish I were being dramatic but I am dead serious.

I no longer have access to this email and I will never be able to gain access to it. The email by itself is going on 9 or 10 years old. I have filled out the account recovery forum several times with as much detailed information I can provide to try and get this stupid email removed. Granted, my account is very old, I don't remember all the account creation details. I don't know my original ISP from 16 years ago. I don't know my mom's credit card from when I was a child. I don't remember my very first password. The fact that any legacy player would be expected to remember that stuff is a huge joke. But still, I understand the need to verify account ownership.

I can provide the date my account was created - the city state zip code and country! The city state zip code and country I live currently! Tons of current transactions, including date, time, dollar amount, transaction ID, payment method, for about 6 or 7 different transactions. I can provide my current password! There isn't even enough room in the account recovery forum for all of the valid verifying information I can provide.

Yet, every single time I try to fill out the account recovery forum, which Jagex claims to review on an individual basis, I am denied, pretty much instantly. There is no way a human being is reviewing the information I'm entering that fast, absolutely no way. To add insult to injury, I get a cheeky email to the recovery email I'm entering saying that my password reset is denied. I'm not trying to change my dang password. That's the one thing I have held onto well all these years, and thank goodness that's the case. I need my email removed. I have reached out to support on Twitter too and I am always given a generic response about using the account recovery forum. I so I go in circles over and over again.

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Until recently, all of this has been frustrating, but I could push it aside just knowing I would never be able to change my password. At least by always remembering my current password, I could get into the account, play the game, purchase membership, buy bonds, whatever.

This came to a screeching halt upon breaking my phone. I have now just lost access to Google Authenticator, with no way to remove it without... ha, the Google Authenticator code. And no way to unlink Google Authenticator without removing that old, erroneous email tied to my account.

I've just come to the realization that my more than a decade old account, that I have probably spent close to a thousand dollars or more on, is going to become completely inaccessible and unplayable to me in the near future. And I really don't know what else to do except cry and wish that Jagex would get me in contact with a real human to hear me out. Seriously. I hate to be like this and I hate that I probably sound like a Karen but I am just heartbroken. Do you even care about your player base? Is there ANYONE I can contact???

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over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Challenge here is if we reply to you here it reinforces the opinion that the only way to get help is by being upvoted here, when in reality it sounds like you need to use the support options we provide.

Accepted that might be tricky to get resolved if you have moved countries, forgotten your early passwords, can't access your recovery email and have broken your phone. If we can help we will, but I do sense a bit of a perfect storm brewing here.

On the flip, if we don't reply we get accused of ignoring players who might need help.

Anyway ... if you can let me know your RSN I can advise on what is going wrong, but we can't conduct account recovery here - you will still need to use the contact options we provide.

That said I can give you a steer of how to strengthen your requests - which I'll happily do once I have the RSN.

Edit: have now received RSN and supplied relevant advice.

Edit: another recovery request has been submitted, tweaked with the advice I provided, and the player is now sorted.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by BroBaked

Perfect storm? There's a ton of people that created accounts with school/job emails and they encountered the same problem as OP. That's actually a recurring problem and actually not that rare.

If that was the only issue it would be easier, my take on it is he has moved countries, can't access the email, can't recall early info and has lost access to his auth - but as I said, if we can help we will - but we need to carry out due diligence checks, and that is what happens in the recovery process.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by dogkcits

If they had a phone customer service line he would be able to show that he has been paying for membership with his credit card that’s linked to his name for nearly a decade. I’m sure he could even get a hold of his birth certificate that shows his moms name to show she was paying for the membership with her credit card back in grade school. He could even submit a picture of his state I’d held next to his face with his credit card in hand in a video emailed to customer support asking for his account to be remedied. He could show his address is linked to the IP address he uses and that he’s the person that uses that IP address and pays for the internet through his isp. There’s so many ways he could prove it’s his account. That is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt and would be grounds enough for retrieving real life bank account access. The truth is jagex won’t do stuff like this because they simply don’t care enough and will only allow for account recovery through their very specific avenues of information that account stealers could easily access through a keylogger. They need a call support center or a least an email line.

There is something in your comments, but to provide some balance I would say we have never seen the players birth certificate, state ID and so on ... so what would we actually verify it against? Side note, many players have no ID.

Bank details sure .. which is why we do ask for that in the recovery process. IP address? I think he has moved countries, not sure how he would provide evidence to link himself to creation IP ..

I'm not dismissing your comments, just providing wider context.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by dogkcits

I think that’s fair, but you could reference against years of credit card transactions that match ID cards. Proof that is used often at many stores to authenticate someone before they can even swipe a credit card.

Indeed - billing details is the route I am hoping to take here ... doesn't help people who do not use credit cards but might be the save here :)

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by Mageofpie

Hey mate, I know it doesn't fall on your shoulders, but can you recommend to the higher ups to stop blatantly lying about appeals and such being checked by actual people since it is well beyond proven that they aren't. I have a feeling there's a good chance if that system was improved a real person reading the appeals may have accepted them instead of your bot saying no because it doesn't meet certain criteria.

Most are read by staff, auto denys are only in situations where the appeal would not be granted by a human anyway - typically when people appeal for the wrong account

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by xN00dzx

Thank you so much for your reply. The RSN is NoodleLoMein. I'm happy to give any other information you need via email or DM. I don't expect you to conduct account recovery via reddit but I feel like there has got to be a way I can send you the information I have. Transaction IDs, photos of my CC statements, things like that?

There is no way to send photos through your existing account recovery methods and I don't even think that my account recovery attempts are being reviewed by a real person which is really frustrating.

Edit: I haven't moved countries, but I moved states (in the US). The thing is I moved to my current location years ago and have been continuing to use the account for all that time with no issue besides never being able to change out the email. I understand under normal circumstances using a different IP/location would be suspicious, but we're talking an IP I used when I was a child and lived with my parents, vs consistently using the same IP I make purchases on.

Feel free to edit out your RSN now - OK general advice having looked at your most recent attempt - it's not just one of these things, but in combination they are providing an overall 'deny' - any you can strengthen would be useful, I've put them in rough priority order for you:

  • There are more than 10 passwords on the account but you are only matching 1, the pass you know was set from a different geo location than the appeal
  • The IP of your appeal is vastly different to the last good IP on Auth check
  • There are a significant number of card payments linked to the account but you are nor providing any of these billing details in your recovery request
  • We have a number full names and real world address on file and you have not referenced them at all
  • The IP of your appeal only appears on one game login, and that was from many months ago
  • You have provided a billing contact email but it is not the oldest contact email on the account (you don't need to be able to access this just know what it is)
  • The zip/postal code you have provided does not match our records (you are probably putting your current code, put the one you had when you created the account)
  • The current recovery email is not a school/work email, it is from a common provider and you should be able to recover access to the email (in most cases)
  • You are only matching 1 security answer

Hope that helps a bit.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by i_h_s_o_y

I got 2 appeals denied within 30 minutes after appealing them on a sunday.

There is absolute no way how somehow jagex support lacks on every level but is able to respond on sundays in under a hour.

They do, auto denys are within seconds, 1 minute tops - if it takes longer than that it has been manually reviewed

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by ImOneLetter

So why is his appeal being auto denied? Clearly not the wrong account, and if he can prove what he claims he can prove any human would side with him.

I would say his situation is the exact type of situation a human needs to read and determine. The system doesn’t work.

The appeal I looked at (and provided advice on) was reviewed by staff, not auto denied.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

If they denied your request you should have been given a steer on how to improve future requests, that isn't incompetent it is simply seeking enough information to confidently grant access to the account.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by kontulangangsta

i mean i just tried to recover my childhood account writing in the full amount of characters thats allowed into the info section, 30seconds i get email that my appeal has been carefully reviewed and denied.

following the links of the email pressing link ''SUBMIT ANOTHER APPEL'' comes to a dead end to https://secure.runescape.com/m=weblogin/cant_log_in

so idk about the ''support options u provide''

30 seconds sounds like an auto deny, check you are trying to recover the correct account

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by kontulangangsta

of course its an auto deny yet it proudly declares

''Denied

A member of our Player Support staff has carefully reviewed your appeal and unfortunately, your appeal has been denied.''

the account name is correct it is soon a 20year old account, its not any sort of life or death situation for me if i can acces it again but im fairly certain i can provide enough info

care to suggest the ''support options we provide'' that i should follow to continue?

I accept that message is misleading, my guess is still that you are trying to recover the wrong account but if you let me know the rsn I can tell you why it is auto deny

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by jreed12

I've got an account which I've had since around 2006, the email address was hijacked over a decade ago and I can't recreate it, I can't change the password as it sends an email and the email address can't be changed, and I have an authenticator on there that I can't remove if I wanted or needed to, which means if I ever have an issue where I can't access the authenticator my account is lost. I have gone through the "support options we provide." and it has never been helpful, always ignored or I get a bot reply saying "sorry we can't help" that looks a lot like "f**k off" to me.

The customer service has always been a joke, and the idea that being upvoted on reddit gets you help is less of an opinion and more of re-accruing reality.

I'm sorta just waiting for the day when I lose access to it forever.

Maybe you can help me out?

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by jreed12

Well I'm unable to recover the email, it was lost over a decade ago and I have tried to recover it multiple times, the recovery emails had even been changed on that email account when it was first hacked in the early 2000's.

So I clicked this link at the bottom on that page - https://support.runescape.com/hc/en-gb/articles/205980401-Forgotten-registered-email

Its tells me to login to see my email, which I already know what it is, or it tells me to click this link to change it, which I do - https://support.runescape.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207555905

Head over to Change email and log in

Hit 'Change Email' to send a confirmation email to your current registered email address

Click the link in that email and follow the instructions

well I don't have access to the email, hence why I have a problem.

So it tells me to recover the account, which as I said always gets me a bot response no matter what information I give saying I was unable to recover the account.

No offence but I have gone through the support links before, its feels a little condescending to be given a link that ultimately just tells me to "recover the account".

yep but that is how to set a new email to the account, just like the OP of this thread did. If the request is being denied, it means the info isn't strong enough - but regardless you should get some suggestions back on the info you need to improve.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by Osrs-Deep-Squat

Please help me recover my account RSN - Deep Squat , I’ve sent numerous requests the account was hacked and is literally being sold on player auctions I reached out on Twitter and email with multiple screenshots and proof to no avail. Please look in to it. Please help!! I don’t care that my bank was most likely wiped I just want all my hard work back! Even when I made a Reddit post about it was taken down. Please help!

The account is secured, we are waiting for a recovery request from the person who created it.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by jreed12

Well I just send another request in and it got accepted and I never got some immediate auto reply from a bot either so it looks like things have improved. Kudos and thanks.

Cool - thanks for letting us know.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by Prilosac

After being in this community for a few years, it's pretty obvious that almost all support tickets/recovery requests/etc. are auto denied until someone makes a stink on social media. Seeing a Jagex employee trying to dispute what we see happen time and time again is a frustrating attempt at gaslighting.

I think that is confirmation bias. We receive about 500,000 contacts a year. It might feel automated in some situations because we do use template replies (can you imagine how inefficient it would be for J Mods to manually type a response to every account recovery request they deal with) - but in the vast majority of cases a human has dealt with the enquiry and then choses an automated response to send.

In terms of Player Support processes that are fully automated there are very few - denying recovery requests where the info is so poor that it would never be granted anyway, is one of them, and is often caused by people recovering the wrong account. A quick reply allows the player to check they have the details right, or if that have 100% got it right, strengthen up the info they have provided.

over 2 years ago - /u/Mod_Stevew - Direct link

Originally posted by Remote_Drink8793

Mod Stevew you saved my account froma false ban on the community forums a few months ago I just want to remind you how grateful I am for you. Love you ❤️❤️❤️

OK - glad things worked out :)