I used to work for a company that Epic Games outsourced their support to. We were based in Athens, Greece. There were other companies receiving the same email pool on Helpdesk Bulgaria or Romania, as well as an Indian office, all supporting US customers via email.

We were paid 3.5eu / hour and our performance was micromanaged by counting how many replies we did per hour.

Hence, we had canned responses that we'd copy/paste to save time and maybe achieve a bonus for that month.

Unfortunately we ended up being shit on on reddit on multiple occasions because some poor guy misunderstood the request and a legitimate request would be promptly denied, even though it shouldn't be. The level of English comprehension varied wildly among us.

All I'm saying is maybe Rockstar actually has a way to ID your account based on IP addresses, credit card used, date purchased if you have the receipt email, driver's license etc and you're just dealing with an underpaid dude in Eastern Europe not quite understanding you.

Usually if you threaten to sue they escalate to tier 2, so you may have more luck that way and tbh I don't know about Rockstar, that's how Epic did it back in 2018.

Maybe try explaining it a different way? I dunno but good luck.

Edit: I just saw the rest of the messages in your comment.

I wouldn't have given you back the account either in their shoes. You just claim things that anyone could claim from their point of view, they have procedures they need to follow.

They can't try your password, or see it anywhere and would never ask you for it either.

They're asking simple things that you should have been able to verify. After that they'd likely ask for IP addresses and last 4 digits of card used etc.

They have to do this, or anyone's account could be hacked by social engineering all too easy.

~~Lol, YDI. When asked to provide the identifiable information, you just say "Stop and do the thing I want." You seriously expect them to just hand over an account to someone who can't provide basic information about it? You owned yourself, pal.~~

I misread the order of the interaction, which painted a much more antagonistic view of OP. Sorry about that. That said, the actual interaction plus their further reaction here is still not good. "Brainstorming how to automate the requests" is not an appropriate response to any of this.

Looking at the conversation, you do sound like a hackerkid™ trying to social engineer itself into someones rockstar account

You should give them the info they ask for
Also, the poor indian dude answering you probably doesn't have access to you crew's name in gtav or anything like that.

Don't give them money because you aren't able to keep your email address updated? Don't give them money because you are not able to provide the information they need to verify you are who you say you are?

I've worked costumer support for many years, and me and my supervisors would have rejected your request too. Since you can't provide what they want (not even a definite nickname wtf), you probably can't prove the purchase either.

Don't flame some poor support guy or a company, kick yourself in the ass for letting it slide for so long that you cant even remember the original nickname anymore and chalk it up as a learning experience - we've all been there.

Yeah this is the cancer that is email 2FA.

Unfortunately email is the only way they have to verify your identity. No email, no account. But this is very much not exclusive to Rockstar.

I changed my email a couple of years ago and it's absolutely astonishing how many companies are completely unequipped to deal with someone changing or deleting their email account.

Everyone in the comments making such a huge deal of account security when literally all Rockstar had to do was allow people to unlink their Steam accounts from Social Club. It could even be done in their own launcher, with the credentials of the Steam account that actually owns the game. Then people could just make a new Social Club account, it's not worth shit anyways.

They're locking people out of playing a local, offline game, over some decade old account that I used my spam email for, and now I'm supposed to remember it? Get a fucking grip bro.

I dunno man, I'd kind of rather you lose your account rather than Rockstar happily handing over my account to anyone who contacts support and claims they're me but can't access my email account.

A lot of private information

Public nicknames, passwords and emails that could be fished from public dumps and retried, public crew names.... Where's the private and where is the a lot?

Also you're not even paying attention. You called someone Aaron well after they've left the conversation.

Yeah I wouldn't have let you in either with that hostility and level of vaguery

Why don't you request a refund from Steam? If the game doesn't work because they changed it then I want my money back.

yeah this is the circle of ownership because the only way to get your account back at this point is social engineering, which is a serious topic about getting accounts hacked which different companies will handle seriously, as it requires a level of "trust me bro" on identity, If possible, id try to look for a CS that will take receipts of the game purchases to help further prove your identity.

Mandatory launchers can fuck right off. I was lucky enough to get Rockstar support to accept my Steam purchases but even then I had to try twice because the first time they pretty much blew me off.

I also had a similar issue with Ubisoft. There it was actually easier to restore my old email than get Ubisoft support to cooperate.

In short, fuck forced launchers and anyone who says "it's just another account". Yeah, it is at the moment but who knows 10 years from now. You'll be locked out of your games because some fuckery happens and support won't do shit.

God, can these companies fuck off with their third party launchers? Its why I don't buy any game off Steam which has that warning, not worth the hassle

I have the same issue and had the same result with Rockstar. Ubisoft managed to change my email though after providing proof of purchase. Fuck Rockstar, I’m sailing the seas with their games.

This isn't unique to Rockstar. If the email you created an account with is dead, you're screwed no matter who it is. I had this problem with Dropbox once. Luckily the email in question still existed, I just didn't know it. However since it was on a friend's server he was able to hook me back up.

I know this is probably not helping but ideally you'd want to go through this process

https://support.rockstargames.com/articles/3LQJYIs9AJMwjylupZXB2K/changing-the-email-address-on-your-rockstar-games-account-without-access-to-the-email

If this process is not working people might want to report on it.

First of all, I agree entirely. Now: Pounds, so you're in the UK. Have a read about your options with the ombudsman service: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/how-to-use-an-ombudsman-in-england/

the Financial Ombudsman Service sorts out problems with banks, insurance, PPI, loans, mortgages, pensions and deals with other money and financial complaints - read our advice about getting your money back if you paid by card or PayPal

If nothing else you're putting them on blast with the government, and that contributes to the paper trail for eventual action. In the meantime it might get your complaint resolved. Did you try tweeting at their official account too? Sometimes that can help get things moving.

I advise you to try out GOG and itch.io as they sell games wbthout DRM

Maybe I was lucky, but I had the same issue where I no longer had access to my old e-mail account and they sorted it out for me within a few hours (after a few e-mails back and forth).

It probably helped that I was able to provide them with a screenshot of the game in my Steam library as well as a list of all the games linked to my Rockstar account with dates of purchase. To find the dates of purchase on Steam I went to "account details" and "view purchase history".

Time to sail the high seas.

Step one: put this on your tinder profile:

I have been permanently locked out and actually impossible to play any Rockstar Social - walled game on Steam.

Step two: reel'em in. You're free now!

I couldn’t play red dead 2 because of some old email I didn’t recognize was associated with my rockstar social account that was linked to my steam account where I bought the game. I didn’t even give a shit about cloud or online play. I just wanted to do the game all alone but it wouldn’t let me without that email. It was the dumbest shit ever and i eventually just got a refund. They definitely use people over seas for support and it takes them forever to reply.

My daughter played on my account while she was a minor and didn't have her own rig. She got a gaming PC and her own steam account and is grown now, has her own copy of gtav.

But my account is tied to her email. Almost every time I want to play I have to call her. I'd just buy another copy on a steam sale but, "you already own this game".