Yes, there’s definitely a serious problem. More than one, in fact. Let’s start with the most obvious and work our way down the list:
Do you know what the problem is with that? It’s that people don’t read the rules. The rules explicitly state that you can’t appeal suspensions:
And yet, people don’t take the time to read the rules even when Funcom puts a link to those rules in your face every time you log into an official server.
Sheet, if only the people at Funcom could magically guess that the person saying they were “banned” was talking about a temporary suspension and not an indefinite ban. But I guess you’re partly right, instead of saying “go open a Zendesk ticket”, they could say “go open a Zendesk ticket, but be advised that temporary suspensions can’t be appealed”. Maybe people who didn’t bother to read the rules would read that, who knows.
What sucks is that they did have a ticket type where you could ask for information about your ban, but they removed it. I don’t know why. If I had to guess, people were probably using that to bitch about their suspension rather than actually ask for information. It doesn’t really matter, though. They removed it, which left us with no way to find out why exactly anyone got suspended or banned.
Going back to the problems with your little story:
That’s another problem right there. Well, two problems, really. One is that asking for clarification on the forums won’t work. Who is supposed to provide that clarification? Funcom? Did you see anything in the rules that says “come ask us on the forums”? Other players? How the hell are we supposed to clarify anything to anyone when we don’t work for or with Funcom?
The other problem with that is that people don’t actually come for clarification. No, really, most of the threads here are complaints, not requests for clarification. In fact, when clarification does happen by accident, the most likely outcome is that the person who has been insisting on their innocence will suddenly admit they knew what they were doing but disagree with the rules.
Which brings me to the last problem in your story:
Sure, that probably happens. And it also happens that people with legitimate grievances submit a report because not everyone shares your idea that the servers should be “anything goes” Wild West territory and just want to play without having to deal with jerks.
See how easy it is to answer a deliberately chosen extreme by digging up the opposite extreme?
But the real problem here is that it doesn’t matter whether you were reported by “a salty beotch with nothing better to do” or by a PVE player who thinks that building a Taj Mahal on top of the camp that can spawn a T4 armorer is excessive, because you either broke the rules or you didn’t.
If you broke the rules, then you should be told how and left to decide whether you want to keep playing on the server with those rules or not.
If you didn’t break the rules, then your ban or suspension should be overturned.
Who reported you and with what ulterior motives is irrelevant.