That was sarcasm, by the way. A week ago, I wanted to change my name on Battle.net. It was currently using my old name “Yaw Hann”, and I wanted to update it to reflect my current name, “Yawhann”. Unfortunately, Blizzard removed any kind of self serve option to change your name. If you go into Contact & Shipping Addresses from the Settings menu on Battle.net and try to edit your Contact Address, your name will be shown in text boxes, but the text boxes are disabled from input. This is probably because of Blizzard’s Real ID system that they put in place shortly before StarCraft II’s launch. The system makes sense to mitigate identity theft due to their experience from World of Warcraft. However, it affected the minority of people that made minor changes to their name like me. Also, you can’t have a fun name like Princess Consuella Bananahammock.
Anyway, I submitted a ticket to Blizzard Support to get my name changed. They responded and said I needed to fill out and sign their Terms of Use form, provide government issued photo ID, and provide the answer to my secret question and a game key from either World of Warcraft or Starcraft II. Umm. What? That wasn’t all. When I went to fill out the TOU form, it had completely different instructions on there, and they wanted TWO pieces of government issued photo ID. Okay, I’m used to submitting crazy government forms like this. After all, I filled out a passport application recently, and another one just two years ago (under my old name – they also didn’t want to change my name without making me resubmit an application and pay them more money, but that’s a whole other rage-fest). So, I submitted a new ticket while referencing the other ticket, giving them my driver’s license, birth certificate, and submitted my TOU. I do admit to one mistake; I forgot about the secret question answer and game key because I was focused on what was being requested on the TOU. That’s fine, and they mentioned it in their response. However, they said my birth certificate wasn’t valid because I was an adult. So, wait… only minors can submit birth certificates? That makes no sense at all. What about a passport? It’s not on their list for name change requests in the TOU form. At this point, I was livid about everything – the whole process and all. Yes, I let my emotions get the best of me and I responded, asking why a birth certificate cannot be accepted, and clearly stating my reasons for being upset. Four days later and no response. They did close my original ticket, which had me wondering at first if they had the audacity to close my second ticket. When I checked out my original ticket, there was a button to take a satisfaction survey. Hmm. Well, here’s what I almost put down.
I was asking to have my name changed only in a minor way – remove the space between my first two names. Is that so hard? Instead, I have to submit all these crazy forms like the government would require just to prove my identity. Not only that, but you don’t accept birth certificates for adults. Hello? What is the reasoning behind THAT? I mean, it’s not like I’m trying to change my name to something mischievous or offensive like Crap Bag (Friends reference, look it up). Blizzard, you guys are trolling us. Seriously.
Want to make this a better experience for me? CHANGE. MY. NAME. ALREADY. No questions asked. Just do it. Am I really who I say I am? Why don’t you try googling “Yawhann Chong” and then see if you still need the answer? There aren’t a lot of other names like mine in Canada.
In short, am I upset about this experience? You bet your Crap Bag I am.
Do you think this would have been too much? It sucks to be dumped on as a company or employee, but it also sucks to be treated like this as a customer. There is no right or wrong when it comes to business. It’s about compromise. Would Blizzard lose money by granting my request? No. Do you think I could be a little less OCPD and just let my name stay the way it is? Probably. But as people, we’re not perfect. Companies also aren’t perfect. I could have also dumped on Blizzard about how Diablo III wasn’t worth the 12 year wait for me, but that had nothing to do with my customer experience regarding this request.
UPDATE: I finally just called support and they changed my name after I explained my situation. I swear; the more technology improves, the more everything else declines.
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