Character Restoration  

Some Facts About Character Restoration

• It may take up to a week for the restoration to take place, possibly longer if you choose to make the request right before a major holiday/long weekend. Just be patient.
• The maximum grace period allowed between deletion and restoration is 12 months (one year). In other words, if you deleted a character back in 2003, you won't be able to restore it because it's way past 2004.
• If everything pans out correctly, your character will be restored as you left it. All your jobs and levels will be intact, any crafting levels you have aquired ect. All your gil will be in your wallet, and any items stored in your Mog House will be there. However, any items you had in your Delivery Box or items you put up on the AH will NOT be returned to you.

What You Can Expect While Doing Character Restoration

Putting a request in for character restoration, in theory, is easy. Provided you have patience for extremely long lines to actually get in touch with a representitive to put forth your request, the process isn't hard. However, there IS information you personally need to know about your account and character. Having all this information on your person (whether you write it down or memorize it. I suggest writing everything down on one sheet of paper) will make the process go much more smoothly, and will save you the frustration of calling back. (Or using Web Chat, if you prefer)

The Verification Process

The first thing the rep will ask you do to is verify that you are really you. S/he will ask for a bunch of information pertaining to yourself, so be sure everything is accurate. The information they go by is the information you put in your Membership Profile. You can access this by going to Service & Support on the main POL screen. Click on Membership, log in and view your information. I suggest anyone who is unsure of what exactly is on their profile go ahead anc heck that information BEFOREHAND, and update the information if it is inaccurate. (For example, if you moved recently, or got married and your name changed ect.)

The rep will ask you for the following information:

• Your POL ID
• Name
• Address
• Birthday
• First 4 and last 4 digits of the credit card being used
• POL Registration Code

Your POL ID is the 8 character code assigned to you when you. If you ever have to log in to purchase/cancel/reactivate content IDs, this is the code you will use to log into the more secure server.

Your name is self explanatory. Use the name you use in your membership profile. If you write "Joseph L. Smith" then tell the CSR your name is Joseph L. Smith, not Joe Smith. Only reason being is that it'll make the validation much easier and smoother.

Address, once again, is self explainatory. If you'e moved recently, check your membership profile and make any changes. I neglected to change mine when I moved, and the address I gave the CSR was wrong and he said it didn't match. But after I gave him my old address, everything was gravy.

Birthday....if you don't know your birthday, I feel sorry for you.

First 4 and last four digits of the CC being used: I'm going to assume everyone knows what I am talking about. It's also much easier to read if you use the format 0000-xxxx-xxxx-0000. ***TIP*** If you are playing the game, and the credit card is under another person's name, I tend to find the transition smoother when you simply inform the CSR that while yes, the game is your, the credit card isn't, and to give the name of the card holder. It's not neccessary, but it makes you look better.

POL Registration Code: This was included in the manual when you bought FFXI. If you don't have the Reg code, you're SOL basically, unless you get a really nice CSR who doesn't mind bending the rules. It should be a 20 digit code.

The Restoration Process

After the rep verified your information, s/he will ask information about your character. They will ask for the following:

• Character Name:
• POL ID:
• Levels/Jobs:
• Date/Time of Deletion
• World: (server)
• Race and Gender:

All of the above is pretty self explanatory, I think. If it helps, include your rank and nation in there as well.

Registration Maintenence

CSR's will not be able to take requests for character restoration during registration maintenece. I tried, and I failed miserably. Instead, I used the time to ask questions that were left unanswered, so at least I made some use out of my wasted time. Unfortunately, there is no work around this, and you just have to keep an eye on the POL website until the maintenece is over.

Random Stuff

• If you restore your character, and the name of your character was taken by someone else (damn them, how dare they!), your name will show up yellow in the character log in screen, and you will be forced to change your name.
• The content ID used for the character you need to restore MUST be open. Otherwise, the restoration will most certainly fail.
• Character restoration is NOT 100%! But, you can increase your chances drastically by giving them concrete information.
• If your restoration should fail, all hope is not loss. You can reapply as many times as you want if you're a persistant ass like I am. (Took me about 4 tries to get the restoration)
• You can file for restoration either via phone or web chat. (Personally, I found it much more efficient by phone, but I do understand the non-toll free number keeps people from calling)
• You CANNOT file for a restoration via Help Desk in game or GM chat.

Credits

All above information is a direct (slightly modified) copy of the original posting by Erawyn found in this thread: Character Restoration: What You Should Know.