Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned

@uluckyhitreg
Mind me for asking, but where did you purchase that redeemable code from? Cuz that's one thing you didn't mention in your post. Don't mention specifically, as that would most likely be breaking forum rules, but instead clarify if it was from a non-official source.

Cuz if it was a non-official 3rd party site, there's always a high chance of something like that happening. You're pretty much asking for it, if that was the case. Especially nowadays.

It looks like you've inherited the MAC ban (since it's tied to hardware now - your PC, and not the account itself, from what I understood from your post), and that's gonna be pretty hard to lift.

Anyways, I'd first be contacting support from the site I purchased that code from if I were you. Any info you can get out of them could be valuable in case you decide to give another go at SoT support. Get all the evidence you can get.

But I wouldn't get my hopes up tbh. Such cases are particularly difficult to solve, and most gaming companies won't be going an extra mile to do it, for plenty of reasons.

I would know, cuz I worked in Epic and Rocket League support, and banned/shared/sold account cases were always particularly nasty lol, same as 3rd party site redemptions (for Vbucks, DLCs, etc).

Any issues with 3rd party (non-partner) sites were almost automatic deny and redirect. Majority of gaming companies just don't wanna deal with it.

@r3vanns Third party sites are not listed as bannable offenses. If he bought the game, then this is definitely a liftable ban.

But it sounds like he bought an account, which is bannable to my knowledge.

@uluckyhitreg I just sent you a forum DM, as I don't want you to publicize some information in case the wrong people get to it.

@karminiumsot said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@r3vanns Third party sites are not listed as bannable offenses. If he bought the game, then this is definitely a liftable ban.

But it sounds like he bought an account, which is bannable to my knowledge.

Never implied that. What I said is that companies won't support you in majority of cases if what you've purchased was from a 3rd party. Especially when it's a non-official 3rd party, which is what I focused my reply around.

They don't care if it was your fault or not. Won't ban you for, let's say, admitting you've purchased a DLC from --insert site--, but also won't grant you stuff in game even though you've showed them a receipt of that purchase.

That's what I'm trying to explain, and that's also applicable to game redemptions.

Bottom line is - always try to avoid non-partner 3rd party websites/retails. Especially for online games. There are tons of scammers.

@karminiumsot said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

But it sounds like he bought an account, which is bannable to my knowledge.

Sorry, but what part makes it sound like I bought an account? I’m sure I said I bought a digital code, and yes, it was from a third-party site that I’ve used for 12 years and never had a problem like this with any game.

@R3vanNS
My account has never been banned or sold to anyone, and I am sure it has never been shared, as I have never allowed that.

As the digital codes have already been redeemed, both the third party and Microsoft will not refund me. It should have only been one code, but Sea of Thieves told me to buy another code from Microsoft and said it would work LOL

@uluckyhitreg said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@karminiumsot said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

But it sounds like he bought an account, which is bannable to my knowledge.

Sorry, but what part makes it sound like I bought an account? I’m sure I said I bought a digital code, and yes, it was from a third-party site that I’ve used for 12 years and never had a problem like this with any game.

@R3vanNS
My account has never been banned or sold to anyone, and I am sure it has never been shared, as I have never allowed that.

As the digital codes have already been redeemed, both the third party and Microsoft will not refund me. It should have only been one code, but Sea of Thieves told me to buy another code from Microsoft and said it would work LOL

So there's the answer... it's always "never" until it happens 😅

I'm sorry to hear that. I actually don't even suspect you did anything wrong, or that you've been banned. I know tons of people that ended up in your situation.

Yep, you didn't share or got banned on yours, but the used licence account was. Which was used for hacking, got banned, you inherited the ban...

...and that's exactly the scenario I described before - support won't lift a finger. As it was, at the end of the day, your choice to risk a purchase from a non-official source. If only you purchased from MS first as support suggested (although already late), instead of that 3rd party site, none of this would've happened.

Your only bet is a possible escalation to a support manager, since support told you to buy another licence without checking to which account (banned one) previous licence was linked with. But again, that's 1/1000000 chance that they will want to make an exception and lift the ban.

Best case scenario, you get a refund from MS, with enough push. Or from that lame site.

But this is 99% deny case for SoT PC unban. Sorry mate, tough lesson to learn, and I really mean it. 🙁 #uNluckyhitreg

@r3vanns

But I am not banned, and you do understand that a digital code can only be used once. If anybody else had used that code before me, it would not have allowed me to use it, or at least should not have allowed me to use it.

@uluckyhitreg said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@r3vanns

But I am not banned, and you do understand that a digital code can only be used once. If anybody else had used that code before me, it would not have allowed me to use it, or at least should not have allowed me to use it.

You're not banned, but the account that used that licence is. The same still applies sadly. You said it yourself that licence was shared.

All this sounds to me like a family licence some games have (let's say 4 people can redeem it) - idk if SoT has it honestly - and one of the PCs that used that licence got banned.

Such licence was placed online and sold as it can be redeemed more times. You bought it, redeemed it, inherited the ban from the banned account on PC (as the ban was on PC).

Again, that's not Rare's fault, nor their worry, and won't bother lifting the ban. If this happened after you bought from an official/partnered retail, be sure they'd be investigating and most likely lift the PC ban. Or at least fully refund you.

@r3vanns said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@uluckyhitreg said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@r3vanns

But I am not banned, and you do understand that a digital code can only be used once. If anybody else had used that code before me, it would not have allowed me to use it, or at least should not have allowed me to use it.

You're not banned, but the account that used that licence is. The same still applies sadly. You said it yourself that licence was shared.

All this to me sounds like a family licence some games have (let's say 4 people can redeem it) - idk if SoT has it honestly - and one of the PCs that used that licence got banned.

Such licence was placed online and sold. You bought it, redeemed it, inherited the ban.

---

Again, that's not Rare's fault, nor their worry, and won't bother lifting the ban.

I never said it was shared. Sea of Thieves is saying that.

I keep having to point this out, but here it is again: I used a one-time digital gift code that can only be used once, so nobody else should have been using the license that code was linked to. Are you not seeing the problem here?

@uluckyhitreg

I keep having to point this out, but here it is again: I used a one-time digital gift code that can only be used once, so nobody else should have been using the license that code was linked to. Are you not seeing the problem here?

And I keep having to point this out - you bought it from a non-official source, something went wrong, and you won't get a support for it. 😅 Every single gaming company ever.

Doesn't matter if it's a redeemable code. If it's an item. If it's a DLC. If it's whatever you wanna imagine. If it's bought from a non-partner, and it's not working and something goes wrong, you ain't getting support.

You don't see the wood for the trees. Again, I'm sorry you had to learn this the hard way. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm on your side, and I do empathize. I've seen tons of cases like this, and the bottom line is always the same.

As mentioned, try escalating to support manager, see how it goes. All I was doing was just setting your expectations - don't expect much, or anything at all.

@d3adst1ck said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@karminiumsot said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@r3vanns Third party sites are not listed as bannable offenses. If he bought the game, then this is definitely a liftable ban.

But it sounds like he bought an account, which is bannable to my knowledge.

If the key seller was selling a code obtained via fraud (ie. stolen credit card), and that key gets revoked when the credit card company does a chargeback, that could definitely appear as a ban. They'd have to ban the key to prevent being able to use it.

Yup, chargeback and family frauds are also a thing. We had cases with few scam sites for Vbucks cards, and tons of similar issues. People redeem the code - seller does a chargeback as themselves flag the purchase as fraud- people lose content/vbucks.

Basically key resellers are always risky, even if you've used them a lot and never had a problem.

300% this. Because you can't even blame the reseller site, as they have no means to check if a code that's being sold is legit. They can only ban the seller afterwards, but the damage is already done.

Everybody gets the money and have 0 accountability, and consumer always gets the shorter end of the stick.

@uluckyhitreg Ok, correct me if I'm wrong. That redeem code you purchased from from a license that came from someone initially purchasing sea of thieves who didn't want to give the code to anyone else so instead sold it to a third-party. Those accounts are linked, regardless of whether you shared them or not. Since cheaters use these third party sites ALOT to get new alt accounts its pretty understandable that the sibling account was sold to someone who used cheats, got banned and flagged the whole license.

@itzeggward said in Unable to Access Sea of Thieves on PC Despite Not Being Banned:

@uluckyhitreg Ok, correct me if I'm wrong. That redeem code you purchased from from a license that came from someone initially purchasing sea of thieves who didn't want to give the code to anyone else so instead sold it to a third-party. Those accounts are linked, regardless of whether you shared them or not. Since cheaters use these third party sites ALOT to get new alt accounts its pretty understandable that the sibling account was sold to someone who used cheats, got banned and flagged the whole license.

I get my keys from Loaded (formerly CDKeys). As far as I know, they buy in bulk from wholesalers and distributors in regions where the game is cheaper, as well as from authorized publishers. While it is possible for a bad key to get into the mix, their system is designed to minimize the risk of fraudulent or stolen keys. Unlike other sites, they don't allow individual third-party sellers, so it is unlikly i would of been buying someone's "unwanted" code.