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  #1  
Old 03-30-2018, 01:16 AM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
Default When will something be done about the flawed SMS system?

I personally (Verizon customer) am having issues with this SMS system. I set one up on my account on April 12, 2016 and haven't been able to retrieve my account.

After going through seemingly endless posts of the same people experiencing the same exact problems, I think it's about time something is done about this.


Months, years of peoples hard work and dedication in this project have amounted to a retrieval process that is obviously very flawed.

Don't get me wrong: this is not aimed at people who have sold & are trying to get back their accounts, people who are trying to steal accounts. This is dedicated to the people who registered numbers they no longer have anymore, work phones they no longer have, or verizon customers like me, who simply do not receive the text. (I've tested this, made several new accounts and added the SMS to and still have yet to receive a confirmation number on 4 seperate accounts).


Is there a petition we can sign to end this system? Perhaps a way to change the number associated with the account? Was the unchangeable email not enough?


I've petitioned for help resolving this issue several times over the last year, basically being told sucks for you & only roegan can help. I now have a petition that is 4 months old without a single response. Please guys, please fix this. All I want to do is simply play the character that i've spent endless nights and weekends creating.


I guess all those who agree or want to "sign" my petition, comment below. Perhaps we could get rid of this crap and get back on our characters!
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  #2  
Old 03-30-2018, 02:39 AM
GRUMPY
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 445
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This is just my own "bias" opinion on this topic that has been the subject of dismay for many years now.
Password retrieval is common in many facets of life, but I don't understand why so many people go through
phones and emails like oil changes on cars, haha. I've had a hotmail address I started in the year 2000 and
I still use it with the same login/password. I don't get into the worrysome woes of fretting over hackers, etc.
I don't keep any important personal info, anywhere on this puter, let alone the internet and I definately
don't worry about anyone maliciously getting into trivial little forum accounts like this one. It's only a game,
so go ahead, hack my account, I'll just start up a new one. I know it can be frustrating when a player puts
countless weeks, (or months) into progressing a toon, then expect to come back to that toon after a long
hiatus away from the game, but at the same time, I have seen some former players, on one post they will
rant about wanting servers without any kind of a time sync, or significant grind but at the same time,
spending a year, trying to retrieve an account that they put a lot of time into, when they could of raised
a new toon in less time.

On the other side of the fence - I do agree, it would be nice to have something in place, BUT ......

This gaming community is nothing more than a non-profit free game project, full of volunteers contributing
what they can with unselfish motives. Speaking for myself, I've never had any expectations from this, or the
people running it. There is some sites and projects on the internet that tell you when you sign up, you get
a stern message about not forgetting your password, it can never be retrieved. I personally think this
whole SMS system should of never been implemented in the first place, simply because, nothing is ever perfect
and I definately would of anticipated the high expectations that players have now over the whole thing.
I don't think anyone should be expecting any perfect development of any kind, in this whole project, nor
should they expect the "volunteers" to pick up the slack for the players own mistakes and mishaps in
their personal lives that caused the barrier between them and their accounts. If we were all paying monthy,
(like live), then yes, we would have full right to complain.
When you think about it, there has to be some kind of deterrent that encourages members to start
taking responsibility for their end of the account info. The volunteers, they have personal lives and real
jobs besides all the tedious dev work in this project.

Phone service is not perfect either. Last year, I had a relative sign on with a totally different provider and
when she tried sending me text messages, I wasn't getting any of them. She had to change providers
again, because I wasn't the only one who wasn't receiving any from her. It had something to do with
the different providers and their own cheesy systems. But even now, I have a friend that sends me a text
once in awhile with a 30-45 minute delay on average. It's frustrating, but I tell everyone in my personal life,
Got something to say, or want to talk, pick up the damn phone and dial my number, otherwise, send me
a quick note through email and I will read it when I get to it. I don't care for "text conversations", simply
because I don't want to spend my day babysitting a cell phone. Just sayin ..... :P
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  #3  
Old 03-30-2018, 07:45 PM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
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Yes, I've had the same emails since I was around age 12, and I'm 28 now. I use a combo over 4 different passwords with different capital letters and punctuation. I've gone through all of those which leads me to believe I may have used a different password (I changed info on mostly everything before I deployed) As far as phone - I was previously with Alltel, but Verizon bought out Alltel and I was forced to switch - but my number remained the same. Ive seen atleast 15-20 different Verizon customers who have experienced issues with this specific SMS retrieval system. While I can see the text pending on "MyVerizon" it doesn't actually get sent to my phone. I've called the company to try to resolve this and they've said it's not a problem on their end, it's a problem on this end. They also cannot show me the contents of the text due to privacy laws. It's just a really crappy situation which in my opinion could all be avoided if they just went with a double email confirmation or like EQLive does with having to send in proof of picture ID or something of the sort since original emails cannot be changed.

I'm sure this system wasn't really coded by the people at EQEmu or P1999, maybe used from a different source, but something in the code is clearly wrong, or incomplete.


Like I said, maybe if we get enough people who have issues with this to comment with their issue, hopefully we can convince devs to either let us change the number or do away with it entirely. Seems to have caused more bad than good. What was meant to keep scammers at bay has ended up keeping owners out of their own accounts :/

Sort of a last ditch effort, ya know? I do appreciate your input though and I hope you have an awesome day
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  #4  
Old 03-30-2018, 07:51 PM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
Default

Also, I do agree that the people involved with this project do so on a non-profit basis. I also firmly believe that without a community to help guide them on important issues a lot of this would not exist. I'm just doing my part in bringing up an issue that if fixed, in my opinion, would be for the better.
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  #5  
Old 03-30-2018, 08:35 PM
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c0ncrete
Dragon
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 719
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This sticky covers the reasons why this is a futile effort. It also suggests reasonable work-arounds. Character data can be moved from account to account by server admins, if they are willing.
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  #6  
Old 03-30-2018, 09:40 PM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
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If character data could actually be transfered, that would fix all of my problems. But I highly doubt they actually do that. And nothing works around the SMS system. I've tried everything. Petitions to admins and devs, they've basically told me sucks for you
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  #7  
Old 03-31-2018, 01:06 AM
GRUMPY
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 445
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oppressive View Post
could all be avoided if they just went with a double email confirmation
Oh definately, I agree that email confirmation would be more feasible, but there is still
"some" members out there who don't have access to the original email they used, so
it ends up the same scenario. If you read through all the back-dated issues of passwords
and accounts here, you would notice many indicating they "don't have that email anymore",
or "can't get into it". No matter what kind of system is in place, even if it is working
smoothly, it's going to involve players needing to remember passwords, and/or maintaining
email access. The big percentage of this issue is with players who quit for a long time
and came back without remembering anything, lost account info, don't have same email,
don't have same phone. etc.
Something I do myself, (just in case), I go into my email and send an email to myself
with all my accounts and some "hints" at what the passwords are. Although I have a
great memory and have never needed to reference it, it's there, just in case I need it.
But to do it that way, one only has to remember one email, one password and keep it
active. It's a no-fail solution. But again, if one forgets that email/password, it's back
to the drawing board, haha
Of course the biggest problem here, is convincing the admin's of who you really are,
if you can't give enough info to prove you're the owner of the account. So that's an
obvious security in place. Anyone can be anybody on the internet.
Even, back when I played on live, I had a few accounts and there was some info that
one was (very strictly enforced), not able to be changed, so the owner of the account
could easily identify him/herself. I like that concept myself.
I know some people don't have as good of memory as others, mine does ok. Last month
I logged into an old, old yahoo email I had in 2001'ish but any and all accounts and
passwords, for everything I do, (online banking, etc), there is none of those important
personal logins written or typed anywhere. It's all just in memory.
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  #8  
Old 03-31-2018, 02:02 AM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
Default

I agree - another good option is security questions, those have always worked with me. And of course the scanned picture of the ID.


Also, yeah people lose email accounts (.edu's, .govs, .mil) but I would say half of the time people who 'forgot their emails' are people just trying to fluff the system. I have access to the same email accounts i've had since grade school, but thats only because I was able to retrieve them with security questions. While I do see that losing information to accounts with time is inevitable, I just think this whole SMS sytem is really, really flawed. Not being able to update the number upon getting a new phone, people simply not getting the text, not being able to see what number its even going to (or atleast last 4). Like I said originally, this entire process has just been extremely frustrating and not getting any feedback from the admins or devs about it just adds insult to injury...Basically "yeah we made the sms to protect your account, but if the sms system doesnt work for you, then that sucks"


I just want them to atleast buff out the scratches in the system, at the very least. Or now that problems are arising in the hundreds due to it, maybe do a reset, people can choose not to add on now that they know it doesnt work for them.

But above, the guy said admins could transfer character data, that would also be an easy fix for people in which this system doesnt work for, transfer their data to an account that doesnt have SMS, atleast now we will know not to use it.


I've kept all of my passwords and account names for any game or website in a composition book for years, nearly 20 pages of nothing but passwords, account names but I've moved so many times in the last 7 years I've lost half of my belongings in transit

Hopefully something comes of this, if not, at the very least, i would like to bring strict awareness of the problem to devs and admins.
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  #9  
Old 03-31-2018, 02:16 AM
GRUMPY
Discordant
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 445
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Transferring character data could be an option. But keeping in mind, if that's on servers like P99, EZ Server,
PEQTGC, etc., those server admins are some of the same people this thread is directed at, haha
(Rogean, Akka, etc.)
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  #10  
Old 03-31-2018, 03:37 AM
c0ncrete's Avatar
c0ncrete
Dragon
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 719
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But... There is no "they" or "them" involved in the data or decisions on this issue. It's a single person, as the sticky I referred to is abundantly clear about. The reason you keep hearing the same answer is that is the only answer there is. I'm not sure why you think this isn't a well-known issue that needs to be brought up. It's more of a dead horse (the age of the sticky should make that obvious).

Regardless, if you're going to ignore possible resolutions like contacting server admins to petition for character transfers for no reason other than you want it done your way, you should expect a similar response to your crusade.
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  #11  
Old 03-31-2018, 06:35 AM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
Default

Concrete - I've petitioned this topic several times. P1999 told me to come here and ask EQEmu to resolve it. They told me they do not have the ability to do so, told me to go back to P1999. Again, p1999 told me they don't deal with these issues and sent me BACK here. Then, a kind admin from here told me that Roegan is the only person that can handle this specific issue, so now I have an active petition on P1999 waiting for roegan to have time to address the issue. Mind you, the back and forth petitions have taken more than 2 years.


I've gotten no clear answer except from an extremely rude guide, and other people who haven't dealt with this issue. I was one of the first with this problem when the SMS was first released.

I'm not sure what you are expecting me to find in that sticky that I haven't done already. You keep referring to it like its the answer to all my questions. Trust me. I've read that sticky 1,000 times trying to fix this.
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  #12  
Old 03-31-2018, 06:40 AM
Oppressive
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 19
Default

The issue here is. From my original P1999 petition post, they told me EQEmu were the ONLY PEOPLE able to assist with the SMS system. Once i came here they told me NO, we DO NOT deal with the SMS system. I went BACK to P1999. They again told me nothing could be done and to ask EQEmu AGAIN. THAT is when the admin here (Akka) told me that Roegan was the ONLY one who could mess with the SMS stuff. Thats where my active petition is now.

This post is in no form a way to RECOVER my account, as I already know Roegan is the only one who can. This post is to GATHER SUPPORT to see who else has this issue and a way to GRAB DEV ATTENTION on how flawed the SMS SYSTEM IS.


Do you get it now? Do you need more caps?


ALSO: The sticky DOES NOT REFER to the SMS system as the SMS system was not out at the time of that sticky.

Look at the sticky he says, it has all your SMS answers he says...But it doesnt refer to SMS once? okk...lol...
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