Buggy pet cages - no GM restore

[Teamgreen]

Hi guys, long time lurker first time poster.

I'll try to keep this tale short, I am looking for advice.

Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning I was hacked, several of my toons transferred and faction changed without consent, and my bank alt cleaned out of cash and worldly possessions. Put in a ticket and account recovery.

Several hours later, all my stuff was mailed back to me and my toons restored. On my bank alt, I noticed a great many "Pet Cages" (thirty three, to be exact) in the mail.

In the kerfuffle, I had not even thought to check my pet tab. But it did appear that whoever hijacked my account had 'withdrawn' 33 of my pets to trade/mail elsewhere, hence why they are now sitting in my mailbox in anonymous cages.

The GM has told me there is nothing he can do to restore any of them, on the basis that they were caged "too long ago". What I am here to ask you is if anybody has encountered my situation and had their pets restored. Specifically, after a hacking, as I know there has been success in the occasional restore of an AH or mail-bugged Pet Cage.

33 pets is just way more than I can be bothered to collect and level again. Thanks ahead for your assistance.

[Melmo]

How awful, I'm so sorry Blizz in my opinion used to have one of the best customer service around, but I've noticed since MoP was released they have become not as caring. I've not personally had pets restored but they've always been kinda weird about it--like not restoring pets that glitched after a realm transfer, etc. The pet cages bugging through the mail is a known issue and one they haven't put in the needed time to fix and it angers me as well. I hope you bug them to death--it's not like THEY'RE out anything, pets are just pixels for pete's sake. Best of luck to you, keep us posted!

[Ziboo]

That's pretty crap CS on Blizzard's part. Known issues are known issues, so to say too bad too sad, is just wrong. I had that a few years back with some BoA gear that didn't make server transfer. They said they couldn't find it so tough. I said you want the screenshots with the tooltip open? argh.

Keep bugging them. That's too big of a number to have to redo and you should be able to prove you did have them as evidenced by the empty cages.

That is something to consider though, account safety as some of the cageable pets are $$$ on some servers.

[Peanutty]

The GM has told me there is nothing he can do to restore any of them, on the basis that they were caged "too long ago". What I am here to ask you is if anybody has encountered my situation and had their pets restored. Specifically, after a hacking, as I know there has been success in the occasional restore of an AH or mail-bugged Pet Cage.

Were the pets caged during the hack? I don't see how that would be "too long ago" to restore when it just happened!

As far as I know they won't fix Pet Cage bugged pets (I never had it happen luckily so I can't say for sure) however I think you should try and open another ticket (be civil of course) and see if perhaps another GM would be more helpful.

It would probably also help if you can figure out which pets are missing. I wish you'd imported your collection here, as you could do a comparison of your current stable of pets to what was previously recorded. You can also try wowprogress - http://www.wowprogress.com/petscore/ - if you're lucky your collection hasn't been updated in a few days and so it might still have a record of what you had before you were hacked.

[Badpathing]

I seem to be the only one confused here. You say the pets are in cages, on your alt..so just learn them again? I do not see what the problem is, and I reread this multiple times.

[Teamgreen]

I seem to be the only one confused here. You say the pets are in cages, on your alt..so just learn them again? I do not see what the problem is, and I reread this multiple times.

What was restored to me are 33 of these; [EDIT: can't share links yet. You can search them on Wowhead under "Pet Cage"]

They do not contain anything. Attempting to open them will yield an 'Internal Error'. They are a bug that has existed since Pet Battling was implemented, and can occur when pets are mailed or exchanged on the AH.

It would probably also help if you can figure out which pets are missing. I wish you'd imported your collection here, as you could do a comparison of your current stable of pets to what was previously recorded. You can also try wowprogress - if you're lucky your collection hasn't been updated in a few days and so it might still have a record of what you had before you were hacked.

Had a look at wowprogress, I have never visited it before, it actually has not updated my toon since WotLK! So unfortunately no help. I have appealed the decision with a new ticket and will let you know how it goes.

[Tiggindy]

I seem to be the only one confused here. You say the pets are in cages, on your alt..so just learn them again? I do not see what the problem is, and I reread this multiple times.

There's a "known issue" with caged pets in that sometimes they become "pet cage" rather than what they were supposed to be. The "pet cage" is a bugged item. It is unlearnable, and there's no way to tell what's actually in it.

To the OP: The restore should have put you back to a point just before the hack, which includes characters on the correct realms, and all items (and pets) returned to you. They have a record of what you have/had, so there should be no problem putting you back to where you were.
File a new ticket. Explain the situation, and if they give you the same story, ask for the actual name of the representative you deal with, or some method of specific identification. This is for your notes, because you'll want to keep track of any/all information (time, date, who you spoke to, &ct.)
Then ask for the actual name of their supervisor, and how to contact them directly (there will be a way, regardless of what they claim, but it may involve not using their 800 number).
Then thank the person you're dealing with for their time, but since they have not been properly trained on how to do their job, you need to speak to their supervisor.
Rinse and repeat if you get pushback. This stuff I keep hearing is ridiculous.

[Tayoftheice]

I had the same thing happen to me during WoLTK. I got hacked, they said they restored my stuff, but half of my raiding gear wasn't there. They said they couldn't fix it, so i called them and B*tched and asked to talk to a supervisor who got it fixed for me. you have to be very persistant, because really, they don't seem to care..

[Ravnhawk]

Some very good advice here so don't give up. Keep notes. It will get frustrating but they will eventually replace the stuff.

Good luck I am rooting for you. Do you have any idea what the pets were? If so list them as well.

[Teamgreen]

Hi guys,

I had my third response to my request last night while I was playing, again they have refused to restore. The GM and I had a long talk about the actual bug and I can now understand why they can't track what they were. But IMO I can't understand why they can't replace at least some which I obviously have had (tracking via Raiding with Leashes achieves and whatnot).

I've included a screenshot of something he said that I found interesting. I asked him to elaborate on the early GMs that "shouldn't have" restored pets. He told me that in the early stages of the bug a few GMs replaced the odd mail-bugged pet, something that they were never supposed to do, reason being they cannot track what they were ever, and are going on the word of the player, which could obviously be exploited. This is why they are vigilant about it now. They've offered me 250g apiece, and I think the only reason I got that deal is because it was a lotta freakin' pets.

I don't think it's worth trying any more tickets given what I know about the issue now, even though yes, it sucks, and I don't feel like it's my fault. If I take the gold I can least buy some back.

Good luck I am rooting for you. Do you have any idea what the pets were? If so list them as well.

Hi. Went through last night and could only recall 26 of them! But I'm sure I'll remember the rest when I really really need them, lol.

[Teamgreen]

Spoke too soon, guess I will be putting another ticket in. I don't think I have enough gold to buy ALL my stuff back, lol.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt but JESUS! What a bunch of numpties.

[Ravnhawk]

So wait they are charging you 250g per pet to restore them?

Ok now that's just seems wrong to me.

[Telsek]

So wait they are charging you 250g per pet to restore them?

Ok now that's just seems wrong to me.

No, I think they are offering him 250g per pet. That's still pretty poor restitution.

[Kiella]

Why are they not able to check the log of your guild bank to see which pets were removed? I have successfully had pets restored in the past using this method.

[Tiggindy]

I had my third response to my request last night while I was playing, again they have refused to restore.

Did you ask for that person's identification and the name of their supervisor so you could speak to them?

If you/they can identify when the hack happened (and they can, by simply noting when/where an "odd" login occurred), they will be able to do a complete restore from before that point. You'd lose one day worth of quest/xp/raid/loot/whatever, plus what you've done since then, but it's a darn sight better than what you have if you're missing that many pets.

Seriously, start taking notes and asking for supervisors. This is absurd.

The GM and I had a long talk about the actual bug and I can now understand why they can't track what they were.

You were lied to, they can do it, but it's potentially complicated and involved, which means not cost effective, which means they don't want to do it if they don't have to.