Off of NP for years, thinking of returning.

[Rejam]

Hello! :D

 

I cannot express myself as freely as I'd like on Neopets proper so I'm here to look for advice.

 

I left Neopets several years ago after playing since the first year the site was open (I had a Macy Grey and a Jibjib! I remember when you could read books several times! etc. etc. lol). After pouring years of love and obession and devotion and MONEY into the site (my merch collection was HUGE!) I became disenchanted with it.

 

At the time Neopets' BBB rating was an F. As a premium member my account was frozen because I was cookie grabbed (confirmed; got the script injection off the page afterwards! I was targeted along with several other AG winners from that week) which Neopets was at the time denying was possible. This is when there was a tiny little media furor over the fact that cookie grabbing/potential exploits were taking place on a site aimed at children, and Neopets was in full lockdown-and-denial mode.

 

I had webcam photos of redeemed merch codes on tags, I had credit card records showing my premium payments, I had notepad copies of messages I'd sent and received, and I remained frozen because, as "customer service" told me repeatedly, I could not adequately verify that I was myself and not my hacker. At the time several other people were reporting similar situations in which they'd gotten cookie grabbed and made the mistake of acknowledging that this was the case. I even called premium CS hotline repeatedly, and at one point was so desperate to get my pets back that I sent certified mail documenting all my attachment to the account. It was rejected, returned unopened.

 

My account was eventually restored to me because I have a friend in Silicon Valley who was, coincidentally, drinking buddies with Viacom's at-the-time VP of customer service. Nepotism! :D

 

Unfortunately the event, and the general mismanagement of the site, left me with a sour taste in my mouth, and I pretty much never played again.

 

I started playing GaiaOnline, and recently a friend linked me to a news article discussing Neopets' inflationary problems. If you play Gaia you know that the site is experiencing severe inflation, so she linked it to me because of that--but what I got out of it was that Neopets is now bought out by JumpStart.

 

All of this long rambling introduction leads me to this: I would love, love, love to live in Neopia again. Some of my fondest internet memories ever all rotate around Neopets. Nothing would make me happier. But I know that a lot of the same TNT members that made me decide to leave are still around, and I'm sure management is much the same.

 

I am here to ask this: is Neopets' management taking a different direction? Have things lightened up over the past few years? Is customer service for frozen and suspended accounts still as abyssmal as it used to be? In short, is it safe for me to come back without leaving super disappointed? I remember being afraid to post ANYTHING on the forums, even the most innocent, innocuous stuff (ads for pet trades, mostly, which were legal at the time but newly so), because the freezing was so rampant and the recourse so dismal.

 

I really want to come back. But I would like to know what the state of the site's customer service is, before I do.

 

Thank you! :D

[Velvaden]

Hey there, nice to see you return! Mmph, that really sucks about the freezing, I think I remember that the whole cookie grabbing thing, too, on my old account. D: That was pretty terrible, but I'm glad you got everything figured out! And I believe we had a guy that's been helping return accounts quicker, his name was Tony or Toby or something? And sadly, otherwise Neopets management is still pretty much the same from what I can see. :/

 

And oh, GaiaOnline, I left that place when they took away the Meebo chatbar. I dared to come back a while later and I saw that inflation was just...oh my gosh, that was the worst case of inflation I have ever seen.

[teeniem55]

I was frozen for a really long time for some unknown reason. I tried to get my account back several years ago and got no response. I just gave up. In April I tried again and finally got it back in May. I'd say just try it. You never know. If you don't like it, you can always leave again. I'm just having fun playing the games, trying my luck at avatars, and working on my gallery. Good luck.

[Ranaki]

I don't socialize much on Neopets (or anywhere else for that matter <.< ). Word restrictions are condemnable and being "Silenced" for a mere child-mannered word, or even a typo is laughable. I got my old account back after years of being on hiatus within the month (May, I think?) I asked about it. I've never been frozen or silenced due to my lack of communication there though, so I can not be of much help in that area.

[chubit]

I can't really say about freezing, but I did get locked out of my account and emailed them, in which they got back to me within a week and restored everything, which was amazing because I remember the horror stories of people who lost their details, and then their accounts got frozen because it was "hacked" - when really it was just them trying to get back in.

 

There's still a few scares, someone I know has recently been silenced because they broke a rule - that she acknowledges - and because she received a warning two years ago, they deem that enough for permanent silencing. But she's appealing it, and they actually got back to her straight away (as in, not an automatic response) and said that they're considering her case, so who knows.

 

Also, there's the fact that you can now talk about facebook and even verified sites like this one! So, there's definitely more freedom.

 

I'd take a chance. If you're worried about discussion boards, you should join a really good guild run by veteran users. They normally know what to watch out for & help keep things on topic. ^_^

[esem17]

I get worried too sometimes with the case being my second account, but active for around 9 years. It was frozen sometime during which I was taking a two month hiatus from the site. I logged back in, found a frozen account, to this day I still have not gotten a reaosn why it was frozen. I remember a while back now that there was an email saying account could be reactivated, BUT at the time I was so done with neopets I said screw it and moved on. Who would've guessed I'd be back though! Idon't think it's an issue, and as long as you are careful, there shouldn't be an issue

[Koralis]

As with Ranaki, I don't socialize much on the Neopets site itself. You still constantly hear the horror stories from people having been frozen for ludacris reasons and struggling for months upon years to regain their account. I'm a very mild-mannered player and I just prefer to keep out on situations that could get me silenced/frozen for a misunderstanding.

 

The only time I have interacted with TNT is upon the return of my last hiatus, I had been locked out of my account (fearing someone else had gotten into it because I still knew my password - luckily, that was not the case) So I sent in a ticket and I have no idea who I was dealing with, but I received an answer and solution within a few days. It was definitely less than a week and I was not only impressed by the speed at which they handled the problem, after hearing other people's grievances about customer service in situations along similar lines, but they also admitted to having changed my password themselves.

 

There is room for immense improvement within TNT's customer service. However, since I've always been pleased with the service I've received, the problem is also that there's no consistency with the quality of service they provide. I don't think you'll really know if the management and customer service now-a-days meets your standards until you encounter a problem yourself.

 

I hope you do decide to return, and chubit's suggestion about joining a veteran's guild is a great idea, try checking it out!