WoW...

So, I restarted on WoW last week. This would be after 2 years of hiatus, and so I fell behind just a little bit, and am stuck in Wrath of the Lich King content, when I really should be enjoying the Cataclysm with the others.

This is entirely Blizzard's fault.

Allow me to elaborate. I tried to rejoin the game a full month ago. Plenty of time to catch up to everyone, reach level 80, and then join the Cataclysm alongside everyone else, albeit less well geared than they - which really wouldn't matter since by level 85 that gear would be obsolete anyway.

I log into Account Management, and find that I cannot actually log into Account Management. Blizzard had removed my access to my account.
An email, and 3 days later (yes, it really did take them that long to get back to me), I get told to fill out a form, scan my driver's license for ID, and email that stuff to them. I oblige, and get an email back a few days later announcing that my account was returned to me.

So I log into the Battle.net website, to find that while I could log into account management, the actual WoW account was locked and I could not add WotLK, and Cataclysm to my account.

Another email, and this time a week in between replies, and I receive a message saying that the form was not received, and that I needed to resubmit it. This thoroughly confused me, since I had actually forwarded the email that had told me they received it and fixed me account to them! I reply to this email, and a few days later, they tell me that somebody else's account was compromised.

I find this utterly bizarre. I ask about my account (beginning with the letter D) and they reply to me about an account beginning with the letter B. This is not my account. I do not care about somebody else's account. /golfclap Blizzard

In between all of this, Paul, a good friend of mine, offers to speak to a GM in game for me, since his account was working (and he was one of the big reasons I was returning). After speaking to the GM, all they could tell him was to tell me to call their billing services line. He suggested resubmitting the form.

I resubmit the form (I'll be damned if I'm going to spend money on an international phone call over this), to receive an email a few days later, saying something along the lines of "we checked your account, there's nothing wrong with it you dummy!".

I log into Account Management, and sure enough, they had unlocked it somewhere along the lines there. Without actually bothering to tell me. Bastards.

So I log in, and find that all the old gear I had fought to recover my account for was gone! My full Dragonstalker gear! Most of the Zandalar equipment I had won from Zul Gurub back in the days of ye olde WoW! The Bloodsail Admiral equipment that I had spent months killing goblins in Booty Bay for!

Upon sending a ticket to the GMs about this, I get a quick reply, amounting to "You can't tell us when it happened because you stopped playing for two years. Too bad. Sucks to be you". So after a month of arguing with those beaureaucratic buggers to get my account back, I find it mostly cleaned out. Gah!

At least my Netherdrake, and rare Zul Gurub Raptor mount are still there.

And this is why, almost a week after Cataclysm is released, I am still only level 72.