Recently, I moved my Shadow Priest, Malka, from Steamwheedle Cartel to Culte de la Rive Noire. She is fully PvP geared and is very very bored on a PvE realm.
As usual, when I do this kind of things, I reserved the name on the new server. I made a level 1 (same race and same class… I know it sounds stupid, but I can’t help it) called Malka and then, off I went to battle.net to pay for a transfer.
But nothing happened.
Well, yes, they took my money. Malka disappeared from Steamwheedle Cartel but didn’t show up at all on Culte de la Rive Noire.
I initiated the transfer at the beginning of the afternoon. The transfer was supposedly “completed” as it was said on my account, but Malka was nowhere. Vanished better than a rogue.
After a mail to support, I got the explanation, and I believe it was so important, it had to become a tip (even though it most likely is written somewhere on Blizzard’s 12,000 page’s homepage)… Remember this rule:
If you make a level 1 character on a server to “reserve the name,” you take the risk of blocking this name for up to 90 days and then, not even a game master can do anything.
Here is the copy of the support mail:
Greetings Malka,
[…]
I can understand your concerns about getting the name as soon as possible as to avoid it from being taken by someone else.
However please be really careful in the future as you may get your name blocked and in those cases it’s not even possible for us to override the restriction.
May your rolls be high, your repairs cheap, and you journey nothing less than epic!
If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this ticket.
Otherwise, have a Blizztastic day and good luck on Culte de la Rive noire!
So I deleted my level 1 Malka on Culte de la Rive Noire and my level 90 Malka appeared at the exact same time that the level 1 disappeared. She had just shadowmeld!
Her name was Malka58785 but could be without problems changed back to her name. Pfew!
So: Be careful if you want to reserve a name on a server, you might reserve it so well, so you won’t be able to use it.