Items vanishing when using "return" function.

[actionpigeon]

Since using the server I've been saving the items I needed to skill up blacksmithing. I collected most the materials I needed on an alt and mailed them over. I reached the limit that produced the error when their mailbox is full and found out that if I returned them all I could mail more items making the mains mailbox entirely full but still be able to send more to the alt. After returning them again it seemingly returned the items to the main, or at least I thought...

On the very first step I found I was missing a lot of copper and other items which I'd returned to the main and I blame myself for thinking this would exceed the cap without risk to the items. Lesson learned.

I then made sure to keep my mains mailbox empty for returning and stick to the alt getting full to avoid it happening again, however I've just got up to the mithril stage and after returning the items to the main in order to skill I've found that none of the items I've returned ever made it back to the main character after using the return function in the mail.

I'm not sure if anything can be done, but I felt it necessary to post here to find out what happened. I'd be really happy if the items can be retreieved but at the very least ensure this doesn't happen to anyone else, I've lost a great deal of stuff and I can't afford to replace them

Any help would be appreciated.

Actionpigeon.

[Benevael]

Greetings,

When you mail an item, it has a 30 day lifetime after which it will be automatically returned. When you return an item to the sender, that item will also show up with a new 30 day lifetime, before it is automatically deleted by the mail system.

However - if on the original sender you view the returned item (by opening the mailbox, clicking on the mail, but not removing the item), the lifetime changes to 3 days - after which it will be automatically deleted unless you pick the item out of the mail. I suspect this might be what happened to you.

It's much safer to make bank alts and move the items to your bank on the alt rather than relying on the mail system to store items. You can create as many bank alts as you need.

Note that we do not restore items lost by characters except for qualifying raid epics under some specific circumstances. The items you lost are unfortunately gone.

Regards, GM Team.

[actionpigeon]

Thanks for the reply, this was certainly not what happened, i returned items to my main from the ask the items were sent to, immediately logged it the main to get the items and my mailbox was empty. Returned to the alt and all the items were definitely returned, i checked over the next hour constantly and they definitely seem to be gone.

Whilst its definitely negative that you don't restore items lost through bugs, you need to investigate whatever caused this issue as i don't feel mail is reliable way to transfer items at all and would encourage people to not mail anything they are affraid of losing.

[Benevael]

Thanks for this information, we will investigate to see if there is any bug causing this.

Regards, GM Team.

[actionpigeon]

If you guys find out what's causing this, can you let me know?

I daren't transfer anything through mail until it's identified

[actionpigeon]

It's turned up, hours after being sent, this might have been the result of server lag as the servers were disconnecting last night quite heavily.

Thanks for your attention

[Dreez]

However - if on the original sender you view the returned item (by opening the mailbox, clicking on the mail, but not removing the item), the lifetime changes to 3 days - after which it will be automatically deleted unless you pick the item out of the mail.

also wrong, the lifetime resets to the previous duration on logout

[Nathrizyr]

Greetings,

A few months back, we changed how the server prioritizes certain things. For example, spells and movement are the top priority for the server because of the nature of the game, and mail is the lowest priority (there are other categories, but these are examples). This is why you notice the mail sometimes lagging when you've just bought something from the AH; you have the mail icon but no mail is present for a few seconds/minutes. At peak hours, or if the server/ISP is having instabilities, it may become more noticeable. This is most likely what happened.

Regards, GM Team