Many of us have encountered it in one form or another, probably. In my case it was a player who portrayed him/herself as a member of Oblivion Boosting Community. My gold was asked for, taken and the boost never happened. Classic pdumptsss
With much faith and calm I wrote to Customer Support just like I did in a similar situation during WoTLK times, years ago (and it worked perfectly) asking to deal with the person and to return my funds, because 100k is not something id like to throw away in the Nether since I’m playing less hardcore than before. I didn’t raid much in 8.3, focussing on Classic adventures, and rather than begging for a spot in heroic groups, I thought that the price is low enough these days to get the achievement and be done with it.
To my great surprise Support informed me that while the person will be “severely punished” and “the gold will be taken away from person’s account” they cannot return the gold to me. Blizzard gave me a link which explains nothing of the reasoning behind it and only states what was already said in the ticket: We allow the boosting, but won’t support it. Well, since you allow it, but don’t support it, why do you punish your customers in trouble for it and do nothing about the boosting services? You have a clear traceable proof that a person is scammed, gold is there, you take it back from the scammer and just don’t copy paste it to the person who literally didn’t do anything which is not allowed. Where is the logic and where is this customer support going to? This by all means only motivates me to exit the game for good. Instead of not using the boosting services, I would just prefer to quit WoW as a whole, because Support has been giving an excuse after an excuse for not providing any real help, hiding behind “it is out of our hands”. Nothing about any product, especially online, is as important in long-term as after-sales support and nothing can discourage further purchases as unreliable service does. After a decade of being a loyal customer, seeing how writing team works their backs cough off to make this game a lore masterpiece, it pains me to see how poorly the organising element around the game is becoming.
It’s because boosting isn’t a supported transaction. They will refund anything that can be traded in the trading window with agreement made in the ingame chat … eg someone agreeing to craft something for you but then running off with the mats. It’s been like that for a very long time, if not always.
My transaction has also been agreed in the game chat with the other player and paid through trading window so not much difference there.
The transaction is not deemed supported as the “boost” is not traded in the trade window, only the gold. Essentially unsupported thus and “your own risk” type trade.
Edit3: The crucial difference thus is whether if something is supported or not, in your case due it being a boost. (Fixed typo)
Yeah, look, people, I get it that boost is not traded in the trade window, but a scam is a scam. Boost or boe item, gold is taken and the promise by another player is not fulfilled. My problem in the whole situation is that somehow there is a difference between the two, while you can trace both and you can technically refund both. Either forbid boosting or support all its components as they are a part of the game. Unreliable support, when customer is also kind of being punished for other player’s scam is not a norm.
You do not understand what an unsupported transaction is, you are not getting an item but a service. That is the difference. Imagine this scenario, you pay someone to dance ingame, and they don’t, would you expect Blizzard to return that gold?
Is dancing for gold something that has been a part of the game for years? Do people spam ads about it in trade chat 24/7? Are there dancing for gold discord communities? No, probably because the message is wrong. On the other hand, should it be totally normal for everyone around, if I’d feel kinky and someone was selling it and scamming people, wouldn’t hurt to return that gold, yes. Moral of the story is: WoW has thousands of boosting transactions on a daily basis, boosting works and is not going away any time soon. This is where my point begins: make it supported, Blizzard 
Since Vanilla. Just because something is advertised often doesn’t make it supported. How do they make boosting supported? A lot of boosting negotiations are done outside of the game. It’s not something that should be supported, the man hours alone to police it would be huge. Not to mention the programmers time to create a system.
Well, that’s where the “negotiations done in-game” part comes in. Just like with the ninja-looting a while ago: If you can trace it in-game, from making the deal(stating the Loot Rules as an example) to going or not going through with it, you should be protected from any basic scam. Transactions done in the game from A to Z are perfectly transparent, just like mine here was, you can see who/what/when. All the negotiations outside the game should be treated as such as well, making those ones not supported, just as mentioned - they are outside the game. Seems very clear to me. Boosters can spam their ads, which people react upon, make the deal and get their boosts. Blizzard would only spend hours policing what they should - the game.
The problem is a boost is not like ninja looting, where an actual item is involved.
You have to understand boosting is huge grey area, the argument I would have used if I was you was since the gold is being removed from the player anyway is why can’t it be returned to me?
Actually this is not correct for a couple expansions. In the case of a “ninja loot” dispute, any items or gold will not be redistributed. Which is the same policy as boost scams.
Indeed what i asked in the ticket, mate, wrote it almost exactly in the same words - same copy paste answer with the same link to no explanation what-so-ever. This was the reason i moved it here.
The point here, is that the GM’s are not our personal lawyers. You chose to place your trust in another player and they betrayed that trust, I get that this stings, but the Game Masters are not there to rectify our choices. I know that sounds cold, but it’s how it is and how it has always been when it’s not a trade that can be performed by the trade window, i.e. gold for mats, mats for crafting etc.
It may not be so nowadays, but when I last ticketed it, indeed a long time ago, GM informed me that stating loots rules and breaking them by Raid Leader afterwards gives players the right to claim an item which was rolled for. Otherwise there were no rules that anyone broke and case was closed. Back then GMs had the authority to return the items to the winner, which since Pandaria or WoD has been taken away. Exact time of that is not known to me since I was lucky enough to only get involved with ninja’s only once or twice. With Personal Loot this problem has been greatly reduced anyway, I used the analogy only to explain how boosting can become, at least partially, a supported transaction.
That never happened, it was taken from the ninja looter, that is all. It happened to me in Vanilla, loot rules said one thing, the ML did something else and the loot was not given to the person who won.
That is not true.
It cannot as the rules would need to be clearly stated and any ambiguity would work in the favour of the booster. I remember if you said loot rules in a certain way you could do what you wanted.
Look, it is true, because I had this resolved this way, its not a wishful thinking, its a fact. I know that past years it changed a lot, but it was like that at one point. No need to tell me if its true or not, I’ve been there to experience it. No idea about Vanilla, but certainly in WoTLK. I even had a ticket response in Cataclysm or so saying that that authority has been taken away.
Mate, you don’t see it happen and it’s clear, I do. Stating Loot Rules does not and did not allow you to do whatever you want. Scamming people has always been a big risk in WoW, this post is more about what happens to the victim of it afterwards. Scammers will be there, nothing to do about it, but making game transactions supported because they happen inside the game is something to think about.
Hey Skinnable.
It looks like the correct solution was provided, including various support article links that confirm our stance on this and what actions are taken. If you have any thoughts about this or would like to see changes to any aspect of that approach then you’re welcome to follow our recommendations on how to best do so.
Neither the Customer Support forum, nor the Technical Support forum are the right place for feedback and suggestions about our games.