Confused about frozen account

[ashley1988]

I've had my account for about 2 months and the account on neopets is ashleyjcochran. I got logged out during keyquest today and when I tried to log back in got a message saying my account was frozen for an inappropriate name and to review the TOS and report if I think it was wrong. I looked at the TOS and did find something that says you shouldn't share any personal information such as last name, etc. and I guess since cochran is a REAL last name either a person.. or the neopets system.. assumed it is my last name, but it isnt. i submitted the support ticket explaining why i chose my username to be the way it is (my first name and middle initial match one of my favorite book characters of all time and the book character's last name is cochran, + it was hard coming up with a name that wasn't already taken so i went with it) and i also pointed out how my registered email is comprised of a full name (first middle and last) which is my real name. the reason i'm posting about this is because i want some second opinions. Do you think my name is inappropriate? Knowing that isn't not my own last name I mean. And from everything i've ever heard about TNT i've heard they're very unreasonable and don't usually care about circumstances in which something was done wrongfully. This is my first incident and I haven't been playing that long so I don't know how true that is but.. do you think they will care to consider what I said and unfreeze my account? Maybe it's silly but I even offered to send a copy of my ID to prove what my last name actually is. Anyways what do you think?

[Mozzy]

I don't think your account name is inappropriate at all! Seeing as how you went to a lot of trouble to try and prove to TNT that your name isn't appropriate, they should unfreeze you. Sometimes TNT mess up, not sure why they thought it was inappropriate. Good luck with regaining your account!

[ashley1988]

Thank you for your input I appreciate it, i'm hoping they unfreeze me as well it's driving me crazy cause i haven't done anything wrong =/ lol

[The Bandit]

*bashes head against a brick wall*

 

Although I love neopets, things like this make me so frustrated. No, your username isn't inappropriate, and to freeze you without even a warning or a proper explanation seems utterly ridiculous.

 

I can only think of two reasons why - firstly, like you say, they might have thought it was your real name, but to freeze an account without checking... in any case, although for children it isn't wise to use your real name, I get the feeling you're an adult (correct me if I'm wrong) in which case it's up to you want you want to do. Although as it isn't actually your real name, this is irrelevant anyway.

 

The other reason, which I think is more likely, is that the 'coch' part is only one letter away from a rude word. However, anyone with more than one brain cell should be able to tell that it isn't meant to be deliberately rude or offensive. Also, anyone actually offended by that would be clearly retarded in some way.

 

My hope would be that you got automatically frozen because of the second reason, and that, if this is looked at by a real person, they will quickly rectify it and unfreeze your account. If you don't get any success the first time, do try again - some members of the TNT team are far more reasonable than others, from what I've heard.

 

Fingers crossed for you - hope this gets sorted soon.

[ashley1988]

Thanks >.< and yeah.. the reason it bothered me most is I've never gotten so much as a warning about this or ANYTHING else since I started playing. I lay low, barely talk on message boards, nothing like that. So my first thought was what the heck is going on here lol. Yes I'm an adult :P I'm 24. And the thought about "coch" crossed my mind too but I disregarded it immediately because I mean.. come on.. everyone and their mother's heard that last name at least once in their life. It's a very common name in the US which is where (unless I'm mistaken) TNT office/main office/whatever is located. It's just so ridiculous I can't even put it into words =/ but I'm very mad! lol. Thanks for the response I'm really hoping it works out too =/

[Nimphal]

In your case they should unfreeze and pretty quickly as well, once they get to your ticket, that is. Which might take longer. I don't think you are in the wrong in any way, all you can do now is wait for their response :)

[ashley1988]

Phew with 3 of you pretty much agreeing with my thoughts that it's absurd and thinking I should be unfrozen I think I can finally relax enough to get some sleep. Thank you guys so much! Keep your fingers crossed for me, I'll keep checking here of course and will also let you all know what happens whenever it happens.. I'm so glad I found this forum ^^ such nice people and helpful info :) I hope you dont mind me sticking around :P cause I plan to

[Viridian]

Sorry for not replying here earlier, I had a bus to catch and only got to read your PM now.

 

As for the being frozen part, the best thing you can do (and have done) is send in a ticket explaining the situation. I've never been frozen because of my username before, even though my last username was my full name (and so apparently against their rules). I got frozen later on for 'scamming' someone, which I never did. I don't think your username is inappropriate at all and hpefully TNT returns your account to you swiftly.

[coltom]

The local version of that name around chere does pronounce the "ch" with a rather hard "c" sound, not at all like "standard" American English that was used during the O.J. Simpson trial. So it may be on some list that the name sounds a little too much like synonym for a rooster running.

 

Personally, it took me five minutes to figure what the potential objection could be.

[ashley1988]

It is pronounced exactly like that yes but it still, in my opinion at least, isn't an inappropriate name because Cochran is a name. Surely they should see how crazy it is to expect for anyone to look at it any different within a reasonable manner. It certainly never crossed my mind when choosing the name oh hey this real legitimate last name is going to be construed as obscene by TNT =/ myself, nor my children will ever play neopets again if i lose 2 months worth of progress and 3 million NP over this >.< the purpose of this account was to build up a nice account for my daughter to give her when she turns 7 later this year. For TNT to take that away for such a ridiculous reason is enough to ruin it for a lifetime for me

[Lydia Trebond]

TNT will not allow people to say "grape" in neomails (or they didn't used to this may have changed) because it had the word rape. SoMETHing was another. (That one got changed). Teddy bear was also a no-go.

 

Also, Ashley, the giving of accounts is STRICTLY forbidden. Doesn't matter to whom or for what reason. It's a no go, period.

[ashley1988]

Well as for the account thing actually I made the account for her in the first place so it is her account, just not accessible to her yet. And I followed this rule in starting that:

 

10. Do Not Share Your Account. You shall not share your account
with anyone or allow anyone else other than you personally to
access or use your account, other than your parent(s) or
guardian(s) who have rights to access and manage your account if you are
a minor.

[Viridian]

Yes, it's perfectly acceptable to have supervision over your child's account.

[ashley1988]

Just in case I caused any confusion in mentioning my daughter let me explain a little further. She has been asking to play neopets for about a year now and her father and I decided that 7 is the right age to allow her to start because we're a little scared of her venturing into any part of the internet, even an age-safe one like Neopets claims to be. She expressed worry a couple of months ago that her friends have started playing and she will be so far behind them when she starts. So I compromised with her and asked her how about we go ahead and make your account and mommy will work on it a little for you until your birthday and she was happy about that idea. We made the account together in a sense that I let her choose the color and species of her Neopet and she chose that her neopets likes reading and learning and tries to make friends. When I created the NeoHome on this account we made for her I let her choose where to put everything. There are a few games I will open for her and let her play for awhile. It is 100% her account, but I am the only one freely accessing it until her birthday. So it follows rule number 10 in the terms of service that I pasted into my previous post.

[Alishkah]

I don't think you've done any wrong. And am sorry that's your first experience with neo, kinda sad since it can so enjoyable.

Hopefully they unfreeze your account soon.

[ashley1988]

Just an update.. or lack of rather =/ I still haven't heard anything and its been a week now. I'm going to give it another week then submit another ticket if I still haven't heard anything =[

[coltom]

I have found that neopets is a pretty safe place as long as you use their age restricted account. My daughter got her first pet, TiggieMilo at about eight. However, watch out for that dang poptropica, that game is hurting her grades.

[ashley1988]

Well here we are over a month later and still not a single reply or acknowledgement that they even bothered reading my support ticket. I also emailed all the contactus emails, including the legal department one since it was on the list, and still no reply from anyone anywhere to be found. Any suggestions as to what else I should do? One of the support ticket questions is "Have you purchased NeoCash?" so I wonder if perhaps the fact I haven't is why I am being ignored. It definitely would not surprise me at this point, it's gotten completely ridiculous. Anyways, any suggestions? =/

[siniri]

Unfortunately they seem to process account freezings in batches, and I know it's taken most people a month (at least) to get theirs back. Have you made sure you get e-mail updates regarding the ticket? Or logged in to see what the current status is? (You can see if TNT has even read the thing, or if they've closed it without comment... which they shouldn't have done, but it at least lets you know where in the process it is. Go to "help" and then click on "My support" to view your tickets.) I hope you get the account back soon. Just keep trying. TNT's customer service is notoriously bad regarding things like freezings; they've gotten better for a lot of other things, but I guess it takes more manpower to review and reactivate accounts, and it seems like they're always backlogged (thanks to them being in constant battle with cheaters, who waste time appealing legitimate freezings, and hackers who steal accounts, which need to be returned to their rightful owners). Since you're at that 1-month mark, hopefully you'll hear soon!

[~Xandria]

You know I'm pretty curious why you can't say "Teddy Bear" either. :P I stared at the word for awhile trying to find something wrong with it but couldn't think of anything. :mellow:

 

Ashley, I really do hope you can get your account back soon. I've never had my account frozen or anything so it's kind of hard for me to give any advice on the matter. May I ask how often you send these emails as well as a summary of what you are saying? Perhaps there is someway you could reword things to get your message across better... I do believe that after two weeks they erase the ticket off their servers. As Sinri stated it does take them a long time to get back to people with frozen accounts and I have known some other neopets players to get their accounts back after a month, two months, etc. Don't give up hope just yet, but in the meantime maybe you should consider making another account for your daughter to play games on/create another neopet? (If you haven't already) I'm going to assume you have though since you would need a way to track your ticket. The entire TNT team has been super busy with the war and in regards to that there have been a lot of nasty people on the neoboards who have been frozen because of profane words and taunting others. War brings that out of people I guess? Lol.

 

My suggestions are to be persistent with them but not overly so. I'd say send an email every 5-7 days and submit a new ticket after 7 days or so. Perhaps you should also try putting in your new accounts description. "This is my new account that I am currently rebuilding on until my old account -insert name here- gets unfrozen after being frozen unfairly".

 

Do keep in mind that a lot of neopians have had their accounts frozen and it has took them a good 2-6 months or more before they get them back. If you are willing to continue going through the hassle of getting it back, then go for it! It is a shame to lose all of those np's. However, you did say you were able to make a good chunk of np's in only two months time. I'm wondering if perhaps that was suspicious to TNT in some way. I'm not implying that you did anything wrong, just a thought on how they may see things. My main point though, was that if you were able to do that in two months time I'm sure you could do it again and just maybe it would be easier than fighting for this account?

 

Best of luck to you hun!

[Spritzie]

I really wouldn't recommend bombarding them with new tickets.

 

In my experience, I submitted a ticket for an incorrect warning message over a year ago. When it was still open after 11 months, I submitted a second ticket, and it was almost immediately closed as a duplicate.

 

The best you can do is be patient and keep checking the status.

 

Also, on the subject of the NC question. TNT has stated in an Editorial that it helps them identify the account owner and in no way gives NC buyers priority over non-NC buyers. You can find the question asked as the first one HERE.

[siniri]

Maybe because "teddy" is a type of lingerie? I've gotten stuck on "accumulated" before. And "kill" (though "murder" is fine) -- I was referencing making a killing in my shop, not the deaths of people or even Neopets (though seriously, on NQ or in the BD, I sometimes say I "killed" someone instead of "defeated"). Other websites have much smarter filters; it's time TNT joined the 21st century.

 

Another thought: technically, if the name is copyrighted, it would be a violation of the ToS. Usually they don't enforce that, but if they received a Cease & Desist from the copyright holder, they would have to comply, which would mean freezing (and eventually deleting) the account since they won't change account names. Or maybe, because of the craziness of copyright lawsuits recently, they've gotten stricter with new accounts -- as they change the ToS over the years, some account names have been grandfathered in that violate the new ToS but didn't at the time of creation (because that wouldn't be fair), but since it's a new account, they'd enforce the current ToS, which definitely mention copyright infringement. This might fall under "fair use," and a google search for "Ashley Cochran" told me nothing about the book, so I would think the author would want someone to advertise a bit for them! (By the way, what is the book? Just curious.)

 

Anyway, keep checking on the tickets/e-mails, asking why it was frozen and re-iterating that this is not your own name. (Don't even mention the copyright thing, since you don't want to give TNT any ideas...), but as Spritzie said, don't duplicate tickets. (In general, the ticket system is the way to get help, so just keep checking the status.) I hope TNT at least gives you an explanation.

[ashley1988]

The book is called Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani, she's a local author here where I live. Also, as for the copyright thing, I went to school with an Ashley Cochran and there was another Ashley Cochran at one of the schools our sports teams played against. There's also dozens on facebook and the internet so I don't think the name can be copyrighted. It isn't a very uncommon name although it isn't my own name. I don't think that a name that so many people have can be considered copyrighted, especially not to an extent of accounts on the internet having said name in them violating any copyright laws because it's so many people's actual name, I'm sure they can't possibly get into any kind of trouble for using their own name and identity. That just doesn't seem possible at all.

 

As for the tickets it was over a month before I submitted another one. If the other ticket is still in effect somewhere out there in lalaland and it deleted my 2nd one I'm fine with that. It's just the principle of knowing something's still there for someone to hopefully look at. =/

[siniri]

Have you checked the ticket system to see the status of your ticket? Click on "help" at the bottom of any Neopets page, then choose "My Support" at the top. You'll see a list of tickets and their status, which will be one of the following:

 

Open Ticket has not been addressed yet. Work In Progress Ticket has been assigned to a technician and is in process. Need More Info We require additional information in order to solve your issue. Reopened The ticket requires a revision for the solution posted. Solution Suggested A solution has been suggested for your issue. Closed This ticket has been closed.

[ashley1988]

Is there a way to check the status of it without being logged in? =/ Cause when I go to try to log in I get the frozen message