Now, I had nothing to do with this sudden password change, and knew something was up. Obviouslly someone had hacked my account just to play someone else’s Pokémon Go game that they’d spent a month working on. Normally whenever I get a message like this from somewhere, I am usually allowed to reply right back to fix the problem. But here, as you can see, I am instructed to write to their support email. In fact, the customer support page on the Pokémon website advises me to write to their tech email for Pokémon Trainer Club account matters. So, I emailed both on the matter.
For a few days straight.
Until eventually I got a big clump of THESE emails:
Now, someone suggested that I simply try contacting Niantic, the makers of Pokémon Go on the matter, but as the Pokémon customer service clearly states:
Incidentally, I went with Pokémon Trainers Club instead of Google for my Pokémon Go game because I have already used it with the actual Nintendo games such as Black and X, as well as the TCG computer game, so it just made sense to have everything together.
So anyway.
As you can see, the support page has an Ask a Question feature which allows you to submit a question and check up on its status. The hilarious thing about this is it requires you to sign in to do so. But, the whole source of this problem is that my my password AND EMAIL (as in NO password recovery. IE total theft of my account) have been changed without my consent. What a joke.
So I had to create a whole new Pokémon Trainers Club account just to use this feature.
That was on the 10th of August.
Currently, the status reads as “OPEN”.
And what does “OPEN” mean?
Sorry, what's that?
…so, in other words, a week later, and NO ONE HAS EVEN READ IT YET.
Oh but it gets better. When I submitted this question, I received this automated response:
I'm sorry, what was that, again?
…..uh…huh…
And, uh, what day is today?
No, this is inexcusable. You “strive to respond within 48 hours”, but a whole week later no one has even LOOKED at my question?!
You know, two months ago, my Microsoft account got hacked, and the hacker tried to use it to buy $300 worth of “FIFA points” with it. I got right on the phone with Microsoft about it, and they were able to fix everything up in a couple of days.
But Pokémon Company International doesn’t even have a phone number so I can speak to someone about this!
Oh, wait, it DOES have a phone number. Know what it says?
“Please write to our support email.”
The Nintendo rep I spoke to, a sane, rational HUMAN BEING, was fully sympathetic with my plight, and even he found it very strange that Pokémon Company doesn’t have a more user-friendly customer support service, so he wrote to them, telling them that they have a VERY disgruntled customer on their hands, in the hopes of getting another set of eyes on this matter.
A week later, and STILL NOTHING!!!
THIS IS A JOKE! A CRUEL, SICK, TWISTED JOKE! Somewhere, some evil supervillain hacker who would rather put their skills to breaking the law and stealing from others is sitting going:
while the VICTIMS are constantly faced with THIS from the people that are supposed to HELP them:
I have NEVER seen such incompetence from customer service! It’s like no one is even THERE! It’s like the customer service is just a FORMALITY, believing “pfft, as if customers actually NEED service.” It’s like the MST3K joke: “THEY JUST DON’T CARE!” It’s so bad that if I had the money, I would try to take them to court!
Now some might be thinking “why are you getting so worked up over a free game?” Except, no, Pokémon Go isn’t THAT free. It’s free to PLAY, sure, but unless you have Pokémon strong enough to capture and hold gyms, you have to resort to buying new Pokéballs with your own money should you run out. Money which is as good as stolen if your account gets hacked.
“Well, why not just start a new game”? As I said, my Pokémon Trainers Club account is tied in with the actual Pokémon games. Plus there’s the principle of the thing. Game data is VERY important to gamers, cuz they put a lot of effort into them. Sure in the grand scheme of things, game data is ultimately worthless, but NO ONE likes hard work stolen from them, or worse, deleted.
And it’s not just ME I’m worried about. Suppose, and you can almost bet this is the case somewhere, some KID gets their account hacked. “Mom! Dad! Someone stole my Pokémon account!!” A lot of parents will probably just shrug them off with “relax, it’s just a game.” MY parents sure as hell would have. And if they DO try to help them out by trying to contact customer support…then they’re up the sh*t creek without a paddle, because it may as well not even EXIST. Poor kid. Hacker wins.
So yea, at this point, I am becoming more and more convinced that Pokémon Company simply DOESN’T CARE about its customers, and if this inexcusable period of silence and non-contact continues, I may just have to put my foot down and boycott Pokémon altogether. No Sun/Moon, no anything afterwards, nothing, Pokémon would become dead to me.Screw you, Pokémon Company. You’ve certainly screwed ME so far.
CRISIS OVER!!
Thanks SO much to the Smith family, I'm forever in your gratitude! And thanks as well to my awesome brother Brandon, who somehow received a tip-off that this family was trying to reach us!
And thanks as well to everyone who offered help and support!
Crisis...
Around 3am this morning/last night, I let my dog Indiana, a black and white Springer Spaniel, outside as I got ready for bed. 5 minutes later, I went to check on him, and I saw that the back yard gate had been blown open by wind. He was nowhere to be found.
I have searched high and low around my neighborhood, and still no sign of him. He is around 15-16 years old, deaf, and suffering dementia. It amazes me how he appears to have vanished off the face of the earth within 5 minutes when he doesn't even run anymore.
I'm going to be calling animal control and putting out fliers. If anyone's ever had to put their pet down, this feels worse, because I have no idea what's become of him at this moment, whether he's been killed by a car or the cold weather, whether someone has taken him, or if he's curled up somewhere trying to survive. The most painful part is I'm afraid that when I put him outside and nudged him down the porch stairs (he has trouble getting down them), that may have been the last time I'll ever see my dog...