Well this is unfortunate. (Account access lost?)

[Clocky: Activity is a Thing]

So I decided to log into all my Neopets accounts to keep them out of the purging roster and reinvigorate me with the universe a bit, and went in backwards order, since that's how I had the account information. I was able to get into orangebat and _antecessor just fine, but then I got to my main, umbreon_clone, and suddenly, problems.

It won't accept my password, user-name recovery tells me the e-mail I always use for accounts (or at least this one on Neopets; the alts have separate e-mails) and have written as the e-mail I used for umbreon_clone isn't associated with anything, and attempting a password recovery doesn't send me the actual e-mail. I'm kind of worried, here.

Nobody is missing anything, from what I can tell. Everything looks the same as when I last left it. (Yay for PINs!) Judging by what I've read about the matter, this definitely doesn't match cases where an account is set for purging — and that would be kinda weird, anyway, since the alts hadn't been logged-into for way longer, and they're cool.

I have my (former) password and PIN on record. I've got the birth date, location, and activation code on-hand. I've also got an old password recovery e-mail for the account, and multiple people who can vouch for me being the actual owner of the account, if necessary. (Hi guys! Sorry I'm terrible at being active! </3) I can't seem to submit a ticket in the help system without logging in, and lol that's kind of the issue at hand. Standard e-mails are apparently not for this kind of use, and, well, from past experiences (cough original main account that I lost access to and never heard back on after a year cough) I've come to expect better responses to come from here.

So, uh, Droplet and/or other staff, is there anything to be done? I'd rather not lose another account. The first time nearly drove me from the site completely.

[Breakingchains]

I'm not staff, but I've been through this as well, so if I could I'd like to help you out.

First, a bit of bad news: it seems as if there's a cutoff date for investigating lost accounts. If the account has been inactive for too long, you'll just get a message saying it can't be returned. I'm not entirely sure when this happens.

Still, to give it a shot at least, you'll need to send a ticket from one of your sides and clarify within that ticket that you're inquiring about your main. The form you need has multiple spaces for information you can fill out in order to prove you're the real owner--the more details you provide, the better. Neofriends, stuff that was in your SDB, major trades and purchases, books read, what was on the pet lookups, which pets you made on that account and which were transferred... just, every little thing you can think of about that account will increase the chances of the staff being able to save your bacon. (I even keep running lists of this sort of information on my hard drive and hide all sorts of little weird out-of-the-way things in my account, just in case.) Also make sure you can get into the e-mail attached to the side account you use for this, as they may eventually contact you there.

In my case, I found out almost immediately that I'd been locked out. I sent them a boatload of information, waited a month, my ticket got closed and then they sent me an e-mail asking me one more question. Once I replied I was back in my account within 24 hours. I've heard others say they waited as long as six months and still got back in (granted, that was during the mass CG outbreaks, so the system was swamped with tickets at the time.) Your mileage will vary depending on the current backlog of cases, how much information you give, and how long it's been since the account was compromised.

That's what I got. I wish you luck!

[Clocky: Activity is a Thing]

Wait, whah? A cutoff date like that wouldn't even make sense from a practical standpoint, let alone a for-the-users one. (Not knocking you on that, just saying it sounds way crazy.) Here's wishing my account was recent enough to count, I guess.

It's been ages since I've played, but I still remember some details about the account that I hadn't written down, so maybe that will help. I'll send a ticket from one of my sides later today. Thanks for suggesting that, I probably wouldn't have thought of it.

With the old help system I went about a year and a half trying to get word on my original account of over five years, submitting a fresh, verbosely-detailed help claim every six months, and I never received any word back at all, so I'm hoping this new help system is slightly more, uh, helpful. (Commas, commas everywhere!)

Thanks! I hope I won't end up having to rely on luck, though. Gaaah.