Hey Folks!
Sorry for the radio silence, but I’ve been locked out of my WordPress.com account for the last couple of days. Actually, I was greeted by this ominous message:
Yikes!
When I saw this message, I probably looked something like this:
Note the confusion…
And then, after trying to log in a second time as if that might help, I probably looked like this:
Notice how, as I realized this message was real, all of my hair spontaneously fell out… and apparently I thought I was The Rock?
It’s also quite likely that I looked like this in the moments to follow:
Some of my hair has come back, but I’ve aged terribly!
You might run into this message if you’ve violated the WordPress.com TOS, but sometimes mistakes happen and an account might be suspended in error. Or maybe your account has been hacked and you’ve gotten locked out. There are several reasons why you might see this message unexpectedly.
Luckily, there are real live people working at WordPress.com who are doing their best to make the user experience everything it can be. Considering it costs nothing to blog on their site, I think they go above and beyond.
If you find yourself staring at a message like the one above, the first thing you should do is go to the WordPress.com Suspended Blog page and make sure you haven’t violated their Terms of Service.
If you did violate the TOS, and it was an honest mistake, they might still be able to help you out, but I’d recommend moving to a self-hosted option via WordPress.org.
If you didn’t violate the TOS as far as you can tell, there is a form to fill out at the bottom of the Suspended Blog page. Enter the information requested and try to be brief while giving enough details to be helpful. They don’t need your life story, just the facts.
The form looks like a form.
My advice is to remember that the person who will be reading your message (in my case, a very helpful gentleman named Bryan) is NOT the person who suspended your blog. A lot of these things are done automatically by the system. That said, if you violated the TOS by accident, he or she might still be able to help you get back online. And if a mistake was made on their end, he or she is the person who wants to make sure it’s fixed right away.
I absolutely hate when people “yell” at customer support staff — I see this all the time at Cemetery Dance — and I’d like to mention again that they’re simply human beings doing their job the best they can. Please don’t take out your anxiety or frustration on them.
Of course, now that I’m back on my blog, I look like this:
Well, you get the idea…
We’ll return to our regular programming soon. Thanks, as always, for your support!
April 6, 2013 at 9:35 am
I’ve managed to have a relatively pain-free experience with Blogger thus far, but if I ever get the hammer of Thor dropped on my skull like that, I’ll likely just migrate to WordPress. Me thinks it would be less of a headache.
April 6, 2013 at 10:25 am
Yeah, I’ve been very happy with WordPress in the couple of years I’ve been using it. Sometimes glitches happen with any system.
April 6, 2013 at 3:01 pm
Glad you got your account fixed 🙂 I’m a much better customer to other companies after having been a customer service manager. People can be really evil!
April 6, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Yep, I worked at a bookstore in high school and college, and in the 11 years since then I’ve probably answered more than 50,000 customer emails at work, so I *always* try to keep the other person in mind when I’m contacting customer service/tech support.
April 6, 2013 at 7:29 pm
I always try to consider the other person. Maybe due to working at places like Panera Bread for many years. Normally I was nice there too, even though a lot of customers are pretty stupid and/or disrespectful. I got dirty looks from customers before though when they tried getting extras food. Those types don’t like encountering an employee who likes to say no points them to where they can buy what they want, lol. Even said “The proper response is thank you.” under my breath to a customer once, unaware they had turned around and were right in front of me again.
April 6, 2013 at 7:40 pm
Yeah, I definitely hear you on the customers. I’m dealing with one right now who is going out of his way to be rude. Ugh.
April 7, 2013 at 8:02 pm
I’m sure this will happen to me, so I’m glad you blazed the path.
April 8, 2013 at 8:13 pm
Just try to skip the stressed and angry stages when it does. 😉
September 19, 2013 at 1:21 pm
Yes – I also hate people yelling at customer service as if these people are the cause of their frustrations. Pretty much all of the time they are not. That being said – my shiny new wordpress blog has just been suspended automatically and now I have to wait 2 days until they unblock it. That’s a bit frustrating… I just put some pages in there with provisory titles and BAM suspension. Oh well. I think their automated system is a bit too quick though – maybe they should update it to send a warning first? Because the same happened to my friend after she just switched from blogger to wordpress and published her first article. Anyways, the staff is usually very helpful though in sorting out these things.
April 19, 2014 at 3:49 am
well I just had this happen to me and Not had any contact from blogger. I haven’t a clue why they suspended it so I have filled in the form – But I am transferring to blogger I never had my blog suspended with them just in case they ignore me like I have seen on other searches I have done this afternoon – well maybe if they reply in 2 days but I have posts scheduled so I cant wait that long
heres hoping I am lucky like you to get Brian?
March 3, 2014 at 2:35 pm
Hi there,
I find myself among the club of folks whose blog was suspended (although after reading through the TOS about 8-9 times, I don’t see any breach).
Quick question for those of you out there that have experienced this before…how long after filling out the form at the bottom of the Suspend Blog page did it take for WordPress folks to get back to you? My suspension notice showed up on Saturday evening and no word yet.
March 12, 2014 at 5:21 pm
I just had this happen and am way confused. My main concern is how long is the recovery time? 95% of our business actually comes from the amazing wordpress blog, so now it’s just a stressful situation.
March 26, 2014 at 2:20 pm
Hi,
My wordpress site just got suspended for violation of terms of service. I am not sure if it is an error on their end or a mistake without knowing on my end… I have contacted the customer support and I am waiting right now.
I would like to know how long you waited before customer support contacted you? I feel really desperate right now…
Thank you for helping out!!
March 26, 2014 at 2:45 pm
It only took about 24 hours in my case for the first reply, I think. Good luck!
April 18, 2014 at 5:09 am
Hi,
So how did you get your blog reinstated? I have sent a number of messages without any response or results. If I migrate to wordpress.org, and people search for me through my old site address will it redirect to my self owned domain? I have hundreds of business cards with my wordpress.com address, I am worried they will be obsolete.