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Reddit user:"Sony Banned me for a common nickname in my culture."

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Nintendo

Nintendo

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,383
Okay guys I need some help. I switched to PS4 a little over a year ago. I created my online ID, added one of my credit cards and debit card. Fast forward to today, I've spent a couple hundred if not a thousand or more in games, content, etc. I randomly got an email today that I was permanently banned. At first I thought it was one of those fake emails people do to steal accounts. But I looked at the sender and it was official Sony email. I chat with support and they said it was because my Online ID was offensive.

My online ID is/was: Kike_0615. Kike is short for my real name, Enrique, and in Mexico a lot of people call guys with that name "Kike". It is also pronounced "KEE-KAY". After I did some research it's apparently used as an offensive way of calling Jewish people. Sort of like the N word for my African Americans. Btw I'm really sorry if I offend anyone by posting my nickname, I swear to god that's my nickname since I was little, I even have soccer and high school track/XC shirts/sweaters with my nickname.

I'm not sure who else to contact, the support lady I contacted said she recommends to just make a new one. And then what? Spend another couple hundred dollars on buying all my games again? That seems like a really bad move from Sony, especially since online ID changing is in beta. I'm not sure if they can do that to my account, since I've been participating in beta programs since the 5.0 and for some reason they didn't let me update to 6.10 to test it.

If anyone has been through this and it was fixed please help a fellow PS4 user out. I'd really appreciate it and I'd be more than willing to compensate. Thank you.
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EDIT 1: After 45 min on the phone a supervisor basically said they can't do anything about it and won't do anything about it. To try in a FEW MONTHS" when and if PSN name change is public to see if they can do something there. Guess I'm out of the cash and no games until and if Sony ever releases name change.

EDIT 2: 4th supervisor, they all say they won't and can't do anything at the moment

EDIT 3: been on the phone with few reps and superiors. None want to help me. I was going to try my luck with chat, they won't even let me request a chat, all it says is:

"Back again so soon? Unfortunately, our Chat support has not been effective for you. If you would like to try our phone support, please call (800) 345-7669. Monday through Friday, 6AM - 6PM PST"

EDIT 4: for those of you confused No I am absolutely NOT asking Sony to keep my current online ID name. I understood it's offensive and just like I don't like it when someone calls me an offensive name, I wouldn't want to offend anyone I play with. All I asked from Sony was to let me change my name since it's in beta, or transfer my purchases to a new account without that name.

Ps: I'm trying to keep up with all the replies, thank you for understanding and support!

IF ANY SONY REP IS READING THIS PLEASE HELP ME OUT.
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EDIT 5: thank you all for your support, I have sent emails and @ several people on twitter, but so far no luck and no response from even Sony twitter support. And yes I have made a twitter post but due to rules I can't post links. I have also seen several people not believe that's the reason I was banned and say I was probably being toxic. I assure you I wasn't. Here's
a screenshot of them email clearly stating it was because of my name. Have a good day everyone!
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5T4qD1R.jpg
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https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/9zaddy/sony_banned_me_for_a_common_nickname_in_my_culture/

 
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TheInfinityGauntlet

TheInfinityGauntlet

Member
Nov 3, 2017
4,393
The fact that even though it's an entirely different thing he understands why it does need to be changed is very mature of him, I hope they can work it out but for them to say they can't do anything when they have done before is ridiculous
 
DrDeckard

DrDeckard

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,109
UK
Sony should do the right thing here and let him change his name. If they allowed it in the first place they should allow him to change it.
 

zektbach

Member
Oct 28, 2017
184
Will never understand why they'd ban him after creation. Surely if a name is banworthy it shouldn't be allowed to be created in the first place. I'm definitely sure they have a blacklist of names in place already, so this is just shitty.
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,673
The Milky Way
Is it really the case that you can no longer access your purchased digital games when you get a PSN ban?

That's really scary if true. I can understand a console ban if it's been used for piracy, and an online gaming ban or username censorship if those are being abused. But the idea that someone loses all their purchases without any way to get access again seems crazy.

They should have different ban tiers like I believe both Microsoft and Nintendo operate, where they can ban certain elements of the service depending on the violation.

It wouldn't concern me, but I see stories online all the time about Sony being too trigger happy and issuing full bans with no clear reason, and then no way of being able to resolve it. Thousands of pounds worth of purchases down the drain then I assume. That's one good argument against digital I suppose.
 
Razor Mom

Razor Mom

Member
Jan 2, 2018
2,547
United Kingdom
From my Latin family I know this is definitely a thing. My girlfriend is Spanish and has friends who use the nickname, too. Feel pretty bad for the guy - the world is filled with things that don't mean the same in different languages, or have very different cultural connotations. The Spanish word for the colour black comes to mind. One of my friends at uni had the surname "Spick".
 
OP
OP
Nintendo

Nintendo

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,383
pswii60 said:
Is it really the case that you can no longer access your purchased digital games when you get a PSN ban?

That's really scary if true. I can understand a console ban if it's been used for piracy, an online gaming ban or username censorship of those are being abused. But the idea that someone loses all their purchases without any way to get access again seems crazy.

They should have different ban tiers like I believe both Microsoft and Nintendo operate, where they can ban certain elements of the service depending on the violation.
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Yes, he lost access to all his digital games. It's stupid! He even says he'd be okay if they just transferred his games to a new account, but they won't help him.
 
Hong

Hong

Member
Oct 30, 2017
775
Why don't they just request him to change his name? They're already working on a name change feature, so this shouldn't be a problem at all. Banning him outright is so stupid, and this isn't first time either.

At least on Steam you get to keep your games. I think the same goes for Microsoft.
 
TheSyldat

TheSyldat

Banned
Nov 4, 2018
1,127
Gonna call bullshit on this one, generaly the slur bot is region based , and therefore uses a dictionary of slurs in accordance to the customer's region of play.

So unless Sony was real stupid and applied a universal dictionary to everybody this wouldn't fly ...
 
Montresor

Montresor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,235
What Sony should do in situations like this is: let the customer create a new PSN ID, and copy over a) the user's friends list, and b) the user's trophies, and c) the user's purchases.

A and B I could see being difficult (depending on how Sony's database is designed). C shouldn't be difficult.

Edit: Didn't see exactly how the PSN ID was spelled initially. Thought it was spelled like Kee-Kay.
 
kami_sama

kami_sama

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,004
As a Spaniard I didn't make the connection between Kike (Enrique) and the hate word.
But yeah, banning hi outright instead of changing his name like (iirc) xbox live does is pretty shitty.
 
Atolm

Atolm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,829
I'm like WTF. Kike is a very common way to adress those called Enrique in Spanish, the same way Paco is used for Francisco or Pepe for José. How can Sony be this shallow. Cultures aren't an inseparable, monolithic entity.
 
saenima

saenima

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,892
I've said this before and i'll say it again. This is stealing. Sony is stealing the shit he bought. We need better protections for digital customers like yesterday.
 
OP
OP
Nintendo

Nintendo

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,383
TheSyldat said:
Gonna call bullshit on this one, generaly the slur bot is region based , and therefore uses a dictionary of slurs in accordance to the customer's region of play.

So unless Sony was real stupid and applied a universal dictionary to everybody this wouldn't fly ...
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He seems to be in the US since he's calling the US support number.

Montresor said:
What Sony should do in situations like this is: let the customer create a new PSN ID, and copy over a) the user's friends list, and b) the user's trophies, and c) the user's purchases.

A and B I could see being difficult (depending on how Sony's database is designed). C shouldn't be difficult.

Edit: Didn't see exactly how the PSN ID was spelled initially. Thought it was spelled like Kee-Kay.
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They should just force him to change his username. That feature is already out for the public. Anyone on the beta firmware can change his/her username.
 
Wing Scarab

Wing Scarab

Banned
Nov 1, 2017
1,757
That bright digital future. A future where a company can lock you out of your purchases at their descreation.
 
tolkir

tolkir

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,252
Atolm said:
I'm like WTF. Kike is a very common way to adress those called Enrique in Spanish, the same way Paco is used for Francisco or Pepe for José. How can Sony be this shallow. Cultures aren't an unseparains, monolithic entity.
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In theory, it's Quique, but with the modern technologies, it was transformed to Kike.
 
TheSyldat

TheSyldat

Banned
Nov 4, 2018
1,127
Nintendo said:
He seems to be in the US since he's calling the US support number.
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You do realize that some (if not a large portion) of big tech companies are considering Mexico to be part of their "North America" commerce zone, and therefore in terms of the hotline you call to , yes you do land on the US hotline right ????

And those two things are completly unrelated in terms of decision making once again , I'm calling bullshit on this one because regionnal slur detection has been a thing for decades now. So unless somehow Sony decided to go from "legit moderation" to full on "grammar nazi" I doubt his story and so far from what I'm reading I'm seeing no damn reason to believe him...
 
Windrunner

Windrunner

Sly
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,500
Poor show Sony. They allowed him to make the username in the first place and rack up digital purchases, they need to take responsibility and allow him to change his username at the very least.
 
Tregard

Tregard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,221
My sister once got banned from Club Penguin for having the name "Midget Gem", which is a type of sweet available in the UK. Context is often lost when usernames are on large shared spaces like this, hopefully it can get sorted.
 
llehuty

llehuty

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,238
What the fuck? Kike is a super common nickname with people called Enrique. I actually didn't even know it was a slur.

There has to be some limits to this nonsense. It reminds me of a popular kpop song getting "naega" (which means "I am") censored when it was aired in NA radio stations because it sounded lile the racial slur.
 
Polygatari

Polygatari

Banned
Sep 29, 2018
217
User Banned (Permanent): Rationalising the use of bigoted slurs, history of downplaying serious issues. Account in junior phase.
The classically recurring attitude that American political correctness should apply to the whole World.

A lot of Era posters have the same mentality in threads that argue about these kind of things.
 
Railgun

Railgun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,148
Australia
My friends name is Enrique and his nickname is also Kike, I had no clue it was a slur. This is extremely ridiculous on Sony's part. I laughed at the part where he was banned from chat support, I had the same experience trying to get a refund on a game years ago. It's illegal to not offer refunds in Australia but unless you decide to sue them Sony doesn't give a shit. They just about lost me as a customer after that, only get an exclusive once or twice a year when PS4 used to be my main platform for years.

Their argument was because the way their system is structured once the game is on my account they can't remove it. That's really not my problem as a customer in Australia. Screw Sony and screw their support. "For the players", what a joke. Can't wait for the ACCC to sue them like they did with Steam.
 
Anteo

Anteo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,099
The bad part about this is not specifically the banning, but the refusal to help him in any way.
 

Bundy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
20,931
After I did some research it's apparently used as an offensive way of calling Jewish people. Sort of like the N word for my African Americans.
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Wait, really? Is this an american thing? Never heard that word.... ever here in Europe.
 
CarthOhNoes

CarthOhNoes

Someone is plagiarizing this post
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,181
Literally never heard of this word, let alone find it offensive. UK here.
 

Deleted member 4072

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
880
pswii60 said:
Is it really the case that you can no longer access your purchased digital games when you get a PSN ban?

That's really scary if true. I can understand a console ban if it's been used for piracy, and an online gaming ban or username censorship if those are being abused. But the idea that someone loses all their purchases without any way to get access again seems crazy.

They should have different ban tiers like I believe both Microsoft and Nintendo operate, where they can ban certain elements of the service depending on the violation.

It wouldn't concern me, but I see stories online all the time about Sony being too trigger happy and issuing full bans with no clear reason, and then no way of being able to resolve it. Thousands of pounds worth of purchases down the drain then I assume. That's one good argument against digital I suppose.
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That's mild compared to the 360 days, if a 360 got console banned it would render all gamesaves corrupt. Console was basically useless if you got console banned.
 

Deleted member 1238

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,070
The fact that Sony has a working name change feature but yet bans people for having a bad name is insane. On Xbox you'd be forced to change your usernames. For some reason on PSN you're outright banned and lose your entire library? Sony remains the worst with how horrible tbeir bans are.

Hopefully they can see how dumb this is and change their ways.
 
Alvis

Alvis

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,231
Spain
As a Spaniard, "Kike" is "Enrique" for me. Never knew the racist thing. It's the most common thing in the world to call people called Enrique "Kike"
 

Gibordep

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,282
The PSID change is in Beta, so if not before Sony should unban him on the condition of changing the ID.
But Sony should have PSIN approval process if they ban people for that.

Xharos said:
As a Spaniard, "Kike" is "Enrique" for me. Never knew the racist thing. It's the most common thing in the world to call people called Enrique "Kike"
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A search for Kike should retrieve hundred of users..
 
Slim

Slim

Banned
Sep 24, 2018
2,846
Never understood why Sony outright ban people for this. Why not just make them change their names instead?
 
Amnixia

Amnixia

▲ Legend ▲
The Fallen
Jan 25, 2018
10,424
DrDeckard said:
Sony should do the right thing here and let him change his name. If they allowed it in the first place they should allow him to change it.
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Either that or have something as insane as input filters on usernames lol.

Slim said:
Never understood why Sony outright ban people for this. Why not just make them change their names instead?
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Cause while we laugh at Nintendos attempts at Online Services Sony isn't great either. Their system didn't support name changes (most likely cause of a relational database) for years and the thing they are making now doesn't actually change the name, it just adds a alternative name field that all new games and select old ones will work with.
 
behOemoth

behOemoth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,624
Slim said:
Never understood why Sony outright ban people for this. Why not just make them change their names instead?
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They did for some cases. The most prominent one is from a dude called Jihad and his story went viral. Sony solved his problem by changing his nickname in the same which will be implented for everyone in the near future. So there are trophy problems and other things.
 
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