Good customer service is very important to me. It is how I decide where to spend my dollars and reading reviews can be helpful in the process so I would like to share my family’s experience with Ubisoft’s customer support. This will be especially relevant to parents with children that want to spend their money in the game, Growtopia. In addition to the possible financial loss, please take into consideration the emotional impact it might have on your child if they were to receive a lifetime ban from a world they have been invested in. It can be very confusing for a young mind. My daughter used the game Growtopia as a bonding activity with her father, siblings, and friends. She is now the only one left out after receiving a lifetime ban for a “crime” we know she didn’t commit. She is devasted by the loss and sense of injustice. We experienced the following with this company: • Support gives the illusion of good customer service (kind regards, etc.), but is heavily dismissive and laced with condescension. • Support refuses to provide real evidence to back up their claims of game misconduct. They expect us to trust their word while refusing to trust ours. • Support completely ignored all requests for refunds as if we didn’t even make them. This includes a “gem pack” that was purchased just days before my daughter's ban. They take money and provide no goods or services in exchange. • Support has no technical way to look for hacking methods. Their method consisted of moving my daughter's character for “about 20 seconds” to watch for a reaction. This is hardly foolproof and does not allow for possibilities of glitches, iPad/computer malfunction, accounts being hacked, or in my daughter's case watching a show while playing and not paying attention. • Support does not take players history into consideration. My daughter has been playing for six years, never been banned for anything, and has purchased several gem packs over the years. This was irrelevant in the decision to hand out a lifetime ban. • Support does not give second chances. A lifetime ban from a game; people have murdered and been back on the street in less time! This policy is especially cruel when you consider Growtopia’s key demographic – children! • Growtopia has no set of standards in place for moderators to prevent an abuse of power. They do not even have a minimum age requirement. • Growtopia has the following rule in place: “Sending a false claim to the Support Staff can create a suspension on your account or increase further the current penalty.”. In other words, do not dare question their poor decision-making skills. • Support will close out support tickets without reaching customer satisfaction. No other company will do this. Other companies ask questions like “Did I help you with your problem today?” or “Is there anything else I can do for you?” They never severe lines of communications until the customer is satisfied. I understand that hacking and scamming are a big problem in online worlds like Growtopia. However, it is up to the company to come up with a fair solution that does not assume the worst of honest, paying customers. Having blanket rules with a “don’t question our authority” policy is just plain laziness. If you don’t want to deal with children don’t run a game intended for children. Not to mention it fosters an environment for cheaters. Bad customer service aside, it’s just poor business sense to hand out lifetime bans to paying customers. Can you imagine how much money my daughter might have spent in the game had she continued to play into adulthood? Not to mention my other family members that will no longer be purchasing gem packs in Growtopia or buying any more Ubisoft titles for our PS4 or Switch. If Ubisoft wants to continue to run Growtopia with draconian laws they can expect to see positive game reviews and number of game players continue their rapid decline.