Okay, so I posted a bug report on the Blizzard forums over a year ago, looking for a solution to this problem (see: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/diablo-immortal/t/have-waited-96-hours-4-days-to-use-eternal-orbs-but-shop-still-unavailable-due-to-pending-transactions-all-other-options-exhausted/8852 ), yet the problem persists today, despite my repeated efforts to have it resolved.
Basically, I can make purchases at the in-game shop, no problems at all. As far as bundles go, I can buy as many as I like. Transactions go through, money is deducted from my bank account, and the items successfully transfer over into my stash. If I purchase any eternal orbs or if the orbs are included in a bundle, they are credited to my account. Works like a well-oiled machine, exactly as you'd expect it to.
Here's where things get weird, however. If I want to use any orbs credited to my account, I can only use them in certain instances. For example, if I want to buy Dawning Echoes or Astral Plumes, no problemo. Buy as many as you want. I can shop to my heart's content. If I somehow had access to an unlimited supply of orbs, I could buy as many Plumes and Dawning Echoes as I like. I could keep clicking the buy button until the day I die. Millions and millions of them if I wanted to and had that sort of spending power.
The same goes for limited-time events. When cosmetic draw events pop up, like the Revenant Market or the Phantom Market, I can spend my orbs however I please. I can spin the wheel freely and test my luck against the horrid odds as many times as I like, trying to get a coveted item from the prize pool. The only restriction on the number of times I can pull the lever is the amount of orbs I have available to me.
Yet, as you can see in the images I've uploaded, the moment I try to use eternal orbs to buy platinum or make any in-game purchases, I am immediately barred and locked out in the cold.
If I try purchasing platinum from the shop, for instance, I get a lockout message saying, "You can't make this purchase because of unusual activity" or "You can't make this purchase due to pending transactions". The same goes for when I try buying things at the in-game market.
So, in other words, some sort of fault or bug is restricting what I can and can't spend my money on. I can spend orbs on some of the game's features, like Dawning Echoes, but not on others, and especially not on those features and content that I really want to invest in.
I am at a loss as to why this is happening. Why can I spend my orbs on some things, but not others? If I have transactions pending, why are my purchases still successful? If I am engaging in usual activity, why am I not barred from making any purchases at all, and why is Blizzard and NetEase still taking my money?
The lockout has limited my spending power and made my purchases highly selective. I cannot make any purchases involving platinum or platinum0related activities (i.e. buying things from the market). Yet if I accumulate platinum through in-game adventures or by redeeming tokens at the end of an event, I can use that platinum as I see fit (except at the market). I am thinking that there is some little security glitch that has identified me as a threat or has identified my account as engaging in suspicious activity, so it is locking me out - yet the lockout is only partial and only applies to instances where I try and use/buy platinum (and the threat identification completely inaccurate).
As you can imagine, this is extremely frustrating as a player who wants to invest more into the game. It has significantly stunted my character growth, handicapped me when it comes to PvP environments, and severely limited my buying power. Sometimes, out of desperation, it has influenced me to make absurd purchases that I never would have made if I'd been able to buy platinum. For example, I once spent around 1500-2000 orbs just trying to score a few Echo Crystals from a limited-time mini-lottery event because I needed to upgrade some normal gems. I couldn't buy Echo Crystals directly from the gem shop, so I resorted to gambling in a bid to obtain them, essentially paying 10-15x more than their true market value.
I estimate I have probably spent $250-$350 in real currency making these sorts of desperate purchases (sad, I know).
I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue and how they have gone about resolving it. Or, indeed, if they have managed to resolve it at all.
I have raised bug reports on the Blizzard forums and gone back and forth with the Battle.net support team dozens of times. I have waited patiently and followed every step technical support has offered me. And yet here I am, almost a year and a half later, still struggling with this issue.
I feel like there is a complete lack of accountability from Blizzard and NetEase on this matter. Every desk in their customer service department must have an empty chair at it, because I have not had a blip of recognition from anyone regarding this issue, except AI bots giving me the usual troubleshooting suggestions and ending our conversation with "maybe just wait a while and see if the issue resolves itself". The quality of customer service and level of technical support is, in my opinion, abysmal.
These guys happily take my hard-earned money, but make no effort to address my concerns when I report a malfunctioning or faulty product that is not delivering on its promises and leading to customer dissatisfaction. All up, I have spent around $1200 on Diablo Immortal, which is a significant amount of money for me. Once upon a time, I would have spent $100 on a game from a store, and the quality assurance would have been top-notch. If the game was faulty, they would have replaced it for me or compensated me. But now? Nothing of the sort. Just crickets and tumbleweeds. I would expect some level of customer service for investing this amount of money into a game, and am appalled at the complete absence of it.
I have included a series of screenshots in this post, which show eternal orbs being deducted from my account for cosmetic wing purchases, but the lockout mechanism kicking in when I try to use them to purchase platinum or eternal crests. I made these purchases to demonstrate what is happening. If anyone can help me with this issue or help me raise its profile so Blizzard will take more notice, I'd very much appreciate it.