Can Chess.com support please reply to my friend?

Hi Chess.com support, I would really appreciate your help with this case.
On the 22nd February 2025, a friend of mine had his account closed for abuse. He was never given a reason for this ban, and was both frustrated and upset by it. He had been banned once before, but the issue was resolved with the staff admitting that they thought it was not ban-worthy. As a result of this, when he got his account back the first time, he made sure to never break any rules or do anything that could result in a mute or ban.
He messaged your support team the day it got banned, imploring for an explanation, but he never got a reply. He spoke to other staff members on other websites, but they said they could not disclose information on other sites. One staff member did manage to finally get him a reply from the support team: a man named Fernando replied to his support ticket. Fernando said that the abuse team had investigated the situation and decided to give my friend a second chance account (suggesting that the ban in question was not serious). Fernando also promised a response within 72 hours of his last message, with the exact reason for the ban – my friend is still waiting on that response three months later.
Around the 11th March, his new account was approved, and thankfully he was able to return to the site. However, on the 23rd March, this new account was muted, and two days later it was banned. This really upset my friend, as he was extremely careful to not break any rules with this new account he had been given. He sent another support ticket in, and went back to talking with staff members on another site. For about the next two weeks, every support ticket he sent in was ignored. The staff member he had been speaking to on the other site said that this was probably to do with the account notes that came with the ban. Apparently, they read ‘do not reopen’. However, the staff member also assured my friend that if he could prove this ban was a mistake, it would be reopened no matter what. Much to the bemusement of my friend, they also said that the second chance account was banned because the abuse team had never approved it, and decided he shouldn’t be on the site. This completely contradicted what Fernando said, so something has clearly gone wrong here. 
In roughly the middle of April, my friend had given up hope that anyone would reply to his support tickets. He managed to persuade the staff member to investigate further. Suddenly, they completely changed their tune, claiming the ban was for ‘abuse and harassment in DMs’. They said that there was nothing to be done, and stopped talking to my friend, despite never giving any proper evidence for this alleged ‘abuse and harassment in DMs’.
My friend has been desperate to return to Chess.com. He has made many posts on sites, trying to get your attention, he has sent in numerous support tickets, and he even sent Daniel Rensch and email last week. However, something changed this week: his latest support ticket got a reply, from a staff member named Lauro. Lauro was very keen on helping my friend, and showed no signs of backing out and ditching him, just like so many others had done. Lauro’s most recent message was this: ‘Heya! As soon as you give me the account information, I'll get back to you and say what happened! 🙂See ya!’ Obviously this seems very friendly and supportive. My friend gave Lauro his account details, and guess what? Lauro has now stopped responding to him. That message from Lauro was four days ago. My friend, who I’m in contact with on another site, asked me to DM Lauro, asking Lauro to check up on the support ticket and reply to him. I gave him the account info, so Lauro knew which support ticket I was talking about. Lauro replied with: ‘Hi, We'll reach out to them. Thank you.’ Well, he hasn’t reached out, so has a staff member just bare-faced lied to me?
My friend is such a nice person, and he was well-known on the forums. He was liked by a lot of people, and was kind to everyone. He is adamant that the ban is a huge mistake/misunderstanding, and actually so am I. In fact, one of the last DMs he sent was to me, when I was struggling with something big. He supported me through it, and was never once abusive or unkind to me. I don’t know what’s gone on here, but we just want him back on this site. He wants to be back playing chess and talking with his friends.
The username of his banned account is Big-Macca241010-11. Please don’t ignore this message. Let’s come together and help him out, please. He just wants to know why he got banned.
Thank you.
(P.S. Mods like Martin Stahl, please don’t just comment on here saying ‘get your friend to contact support’. That doesn’t work.)

????

Macca needs to be back, he was such a great dude and he didn’t break any tos with his approved second chance acc

I miss Macca </3

Same

cc is known for closing accounts for no reason, well i had each and every one of my accounts banned too lots of them, for no reason, cc even closes the accounts of paying members, soon after they stop paying, its very unfair they need to get a better detection system, as even playing too many rated games with the same person is considered to be sandbagging even if the intention is pure, or it was overlooked by the people playing

Bump

Hi @DarkNightLifter — thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed and respectful post on behalf of your friend.

I can hear how much this situation has affected him — and you. It’s always difficult when there’s confusion, delays, or communication breakdowns with support, especially when someone feels they’ve done everything right after being given another chance.

However, since account moderation and ban investigations involve sensitive data, the team may not be able to publicly share the full story, even with well-meaning friends. That said, if your friend did receive a message from Lauro recently, that’s a good sign the ticket is being looked into again. Sometimes, due to volume or escalation reviews, replies take longer than expected, but rest assured, no one is intentionally trying to ignore your friend.

I'd encourage your friend to stay patient and avoid submitting duplicate tickets, as that can slow the process down. If Lauro or someone from support said they’ll follow up, the best thing to do now is give them a bit of time to properly investigate and respond.

I truly hope the matter is clarified soon and, if there’s a path to resolution, that your friend can return to the site and continue enjoying chess and community here.

Wishing you both the best 🙏
— @JosephReidNZ ♟️

I agree. It’s only been four days. Give it some time, and I’m sure the issue will be resolved.

#BringBackMacca