Complaint Review: Runescape By Jagex

I was banned after 3 days of playing itand I was also banned at a time when I was in my bed asleep at 9:50am. They aid my username of EarlFaulk was offensive to some players and gave me several black marks over the time I wasnt even online for 'offensive language'. Well getting banned from this game may be a blessing because if they are this PC to the max it may not even be worth appealing, since they trot out some line at me anyways its a good thing I never gave them any money. That and I have to start school again in a month and need to cut down on playing games.

First off let me explain I am a computer consultant and if I gave customer support the way Jagex does I would have no clients very quickly. I tried to install the Runescape loader desktop access program from a Clean install of XP Professional with all the updates and Kypernsky Antivirus and as soon as I clicked the download Kypernsky went wild with activity and showed me another secondary java exploit trying to install itself on the computer.

Since this computer had no personal information on it and I had been hacked once before I allowed it to install I then traced the Java exploit/ keylogger using whois to an IP address in China. Now as you may be aware before the crackdown on RS Gold sites most of the gold mining and item selling had been off sites originating in China. So before you state that Jagex servers are secure I would actually want to verify this personally using my own testing on the physical server. Therefore your statement is without merit and should be rejected until you can prove beyond a doubt to me that Jagex servers are Hacker proof which would be amazing because even the CIA track intruders on their systems from time to time.

Janet, I sympathise with your plight, but I highly suggest that you have your computer properly scanned for keylogger viruses. Jagex's site IS secure, unfortunately they cannot guarantee the security of fansites and other sites that gamers typically visit or are duped into visiting. Dubious sites are what got your son "hacked" and subsequently banned, as well as compromising your Paypal account and anything else you type in your password for.

Jagex has provided a page devoted to safety and security, complete with links to sites that offer firewalls, free virus scanning and information on how to remove trojan viruses. The even have forums for members where you can get interactive help from the community on technical issues. So try as they might, short of going to our homes and holding our hands, there isn't a lot they can do when the security breach happens on our end. They don't have access to your computer, they cannot scan it for you, and they cannot *make* gamers or their parents read the rules and cautions.

Jagex has also provided a "Parent's Guide" that would have been useful for you to read before or at least during all this. I didn't see you mention that you had sent a query in through the customer support system, but that would have been useful as well. I am a long time customer of Jagex, owning 5 member accounts and have never had one moments trouble with security because I was diligent in both reading the Knowledge Base as well as making sure my anti-virus protection is up to date and comprehensive.

In conclusion, I will agree that there are areas that Jagex needs to improve with regard to customer service such as response time, perhaps the addition of "live chat" like so many other companies do. But the responsibilty of securing your computer is yours and yours alone and there isn't a single thing Jagex can do in your home to control that. If your son is still gaming, I hope that you have a look at better computer protection, because in the gaming world, this sort of thing is NOT limited to Runescape. It could have happened and will..on any game.

Respectfully,
Sim

The only Jagex e-mail I could find due to lack of customer support and guess what it's for billing only, surprise not really when you consider this company seems only to be interested in money bottom line. Anyway the email I have is billingsupport@jagex.com

Seeing as how this email is hidden within the pages of their website I can imagine how little it gets used.

would you be kind enough to give me their email address so that I may also be able to settle my issue with the said company?

thanks!

I did go through the Runescape pages, all of them, and found out that the occurance which got the account banned happened while my son was sleeping. I know this for a FACT. He had nothing but problems in this game and now that I have received the payment back, thanks to Paypal, that game site is no longer allowed in our home.

Good luck being a mod on such a non-business like game site.

This will be my last update as this matter is now closed.

Thank goodness for Paypal. On June 13, 2007, Paypal, after sending Jagex many emails to find out their side of the story and getting no response, refunded my money. I wanted to update this report with this information.

Hello, I have been a paying RuneScape member for about a year and a half, I have studied the rules and I am training to be a player moderator. Jagex does not bann anyone for nothing, you have to have several offences or break rule 12. Also the only way your account is hacked is if they say the password, there is no way oterwise. If you really want to know what your kids account is banned for, go to the RuneScape homepage and go to apeal a bann, I Garentee you will have an offence there.