Habbo Hostile

Well, I tried to get onto Habbo Hotel today to attend the Mobile Youth Virtual Networking 2006 session this afternoon.

Hah!

After going through the nannying Habbo setup screens (can't use these characters, we don't like your username, don't like that password - the one I always use) I finally got to the "done" section - hit the key, and lo - before I even got into the Habbo Hotel I was banned by a moderator with no reason being given! Tried my private email address and agreed to get the spam mail just in case, same result. I even reduced my age to see if the auto assumption is that any older guy is a pervert (or just not wanted), but still the banned result (thankfully, in a way).

Went back after confirming my email address (even though there was no sign that this was a prerequisite), got a congrats you are confirmed - but was still banned.

I let my 11 year old son enter himself, same process, same issue - he is also now banned from Habbo. They clearly don't like Runescape Wizards in Habbo Hotel !

We had, according to the Banning Order, apparently contravened the "Habbo Way". Not that we ever got into the system, so we hadn't a clue what we did wrong. So, off we trotted to the "Contact Us" bit (deeply hidden in the site), and found that there is a 48 hour turnaround to even reply to a query, and a 7 day bar cycle for being banned.

So, net net, thanks Habbo - I missed the meeting, missed an opportunity to try a virtual conference, and my son and I are both totally disenchanted with our treatment - a "room full" or "we have a problem" would have been a bit nicer way to tell us we could not enter - and certainly a better remedy to problems than "you are banned - now FAQ Off" - is required.

Seems like some things never change, rude customer service remains in virtual worlds. Fortunately there is choice - back to Runescape and 2nd Life for us.

Maybe we were unlucky, maybe we are digital untouchables, maybe the system was down, maybe the moderator had a bad hair day, maybe it can't handle Firefox 2.0 - who knows, the system didn't tell us anything - but this is not the way to treat customers, especially online. We have blogs now, and we can talk about this stuff - online, globally.

Cave Customer

Postscript - my son eventually got in on IE 6.0 using the same email address (his) for both his parental guardian and his character, so heaven knows what security checking system they use

Post-Postscript - have traded 3 emails so far with Habbo, the basic response (after 2 queries for the same basic details) is that I was been banned for not following the Habbo Way. I have sought clarification as to how I could have done that, having never got as far as getting into the site - maybe, as in the famous Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch, my character's shirt choice was too loud?