Can someone explain banning to me?

[graygables]

My 10yo DD has played VMK religiously, daily since it opened. I signed up for an account and that is how she plays. She is autistic and DEPENDS on VMK daily for social outlet and entertainment. It is how we get ANYTHING done..."when you finish x, you can go on VMK"

So, she's chatting with a friend about the new costumes yesterday when out of the blue, she gets banned for a WEEK?!? WTHeck??? She is despondent and doesn't have any idea what happened. I've gone through the "help" (yeah, right) link, but got a pat response that they couldn't talk to me, since I'm the parent. WHAT?!? It's *MY* stinkin' account, my email, I want to know what happened, A) so she won't do it again, and B) so she can understand and stop making the rest of our lives a living h-e-you know what. Today was my 8yo's b-day and 10yo had planned to "buy" her b-day present on VMK today. Well, obviously THAT didn't happen and it has been a very un-happy birthday all around.

Is there any way to talk to a "real" person about this? What recourse do I have, if any?

 

[Maleficent2]

Oh dear...I am so sorry this happened to your DD.

VMK needs to have a phone number or a 24 hour response time for parents.

Hopefully some of the others who have been banned and had those bannings reversed will PM you with some help.


I really feel that the way VMK bans needs to be reworked so you receive a warning for the offense first and then a letter including why you were banned and who may be contacted. So parents are included in the process and the player knows exactly why they are being banned and will not repeat that in the future.

Good Luck.

And Happy Birthday to your 8yo.

Mal

 

[Pirate-Emery]

Man, that just stinks!

My prayers go out that you can get this ban overturned. Is there a way that I can get the Birthday Gift for her?

 

[dizanimator]

Oh dear...I am so sorry this happened to your DD.

VMK needs to have a phone number or a 24 hour response time for parents.

Hopefully some of the others who have been banned and had those bannings reversed will PM you with some help.


I really feel that the way VMK bans needs to be reworked so you receive a warning for the offense first and then a letter including why you were banned and who may be contacted. So parents are included in the process and the player knows exactly why they are being banned and will not repeat that in the future.

Good Luck.

And Happy Birthday to your 8yo.

Mal

I thought that VMK had our e-mail addresses from either disney.com accounts or VMK. Couldn't it just become standard that when an account is banned that an e-mail be sent to the address with an explanation for the ban? Then the reason for the ban would be known and if there was an error the banned person could try to explain why they don't think what they did was a reason for a ban. The e-mail could say something like the account whoeverwasbanned was banned for a week because they didwhatever on september 12 at 5:05 pm. Then it would be known what happened so the person would be less likely to repeat the offence.

That's just my idea, I don't know how well it could be done

 

[mtlhddoc2]

As a parent, if I got a message that they could not talk to me about what they did to my child. I would be abso-frickin-lutely livid. You should contact every single person you can find within Disney and tell them your story. Take it all the way to the board of directors if you have to. And failing that, go to teh papers. and I would keep doing this until I got some sort of apology from Disney. So far, VMK is threatening children and they banning them without notification, seriously damaging some of them. someone needs some serious sensetivity training in the "advertising" department known as VMK.

 

[caribbound]

I thought that VMK had our e-mail addresses from either disney.com accounts or VMK. Couldn't it just become standard that when an account is banned that an e-mail be sent to the address with an explanation for the ban? Then the reason for the ban would be known and if there was an error the banned person could try to explain why they don't think what they did was a reason for a ban. The e-mail could say something like the account whoeverwasbanned was banned for a week because they didwhatever on september 12 at 5:05 pm. Then it would be known what happened so the person would be less likely to repeat the offence.

That's just my idea, I don't know how well it could be done

I agree this is necessary. When my son got banned for a MONTH! it knocked out all of us because they tag your ip(?) address so none of the rest of us could play either. I didn't know who did what to cause it and using the contact us gave the in contact response of "too much information". It happened that we were changing to cable phone so our ip address changed with that about 5 days later and we didn't allhave to suffer for the month.

If the account is in the child's name, the email is still hooked up to the parent and parents have the right to know what the child did to help them learn NOT to do it again. Good luck with your week, and try to make a plan with someone who has enough credits to spare to buy this week's costumes or magic that you can then repay by buying next weeks costumes for them.

 

[mtlhddoc2]

To follow up on Carib's post.

forget repayment, just tell me what you need from this weeks buyables and I will get them to you. I am also going to work up a list of contacts for you to call or write at Disney. You should not, ever, have to put up with that kind of behavior towards you and your children from any company, much less the "kid friendliest place in the world".

 

[rcpratt3]

I would be more than happy to get anything new that comes out so she does not miss anything. I really wish they would give more specific details to why people are banned. How are they supposed to learn from their mistakes if vmk won't tell them what they did wrong. The whole parent communication with vmk is terrible. For example, I had a girl on my friend list tell me that she was going to kill herself. I reported it to staff, and wrote to vmk about it. Staff's response was "they are not responsible for, nor can they help with things in real life." I asked if the parents would be notified and got no response. As a parent myself, I was absolutely livid.