Hello, My Name is: b28499428212455eaadb

[Pappy]

Look, I am pulling my hair out trying to get anyone to help me. I have contacted Bethesda and am now contacting Steam. No one seems to want to help. All I get are canned reply letters sent by a computer with no real person ever even looking at it what-so-ever. It is the worst customer service I have seen. I’ve payed for a game, that I really enjoy playing and it is being ruined by companies lack of interest or caring.

I bought Fallout 76 through Steam and also bought Fallout 1st (their monthly subscription) through Steam. Steam came through on their end I think because both seem to be working. I got my atoms in the atom shop. I got all my stuff that was advertise and the game downloaded and runs good, but I got two really big problems that can’t seem to be fixed. My username in the game is: “b28499428212455eaabd”. Now I signed up with the username of “Pappy” (my Steam username is also Pappy”) but the game shows this string of numbers and letters to everyone in the game, including myself.

My second problem is when I went to the Bethesda.net site and created a username and password. I figure that the problem might be that I have to link the accounts, so tried to link my Bethesda account to my Steam account, No go, the “Linked Accounts” page shows that I am not link to any other Bethesda products (it is blank). When I try to link my Steam account all I get is: “Account linking failed. Please retry or contact Customer Support for assistance”. So I contacted Customer Support which sends you through a Knowledge Base of set questions and answers. None of which deals with the my problem or the problem of linking the accounts. The closest I could find is how to UNLINK your account. I have written them three time and all I get is pat computer generated instructions on how to unlink my account and (this I took as a threat) how I would lose all my in game progress, my Fallout 1st, and all the stuff I paid for.

Now one of the problems may be that my Steam email address is not the same as the Bethesda email address. I’ve tried changing my email address but Bethesda won’t let me. Also, I have read on Reddit and other forums that the problem might be that there is some other linked Bethesda account I am unaware of blocking the link. I have played Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4 on Steam and Elder Scrolls Online through it’s own login server.

Darn it I am paying for a service and I expect customer support to at least look into this. Can anyone help me before I escalate this. This letter will be placed on Steam’s forums and Steams customers service, Bethesda’s forums and Bethesda customer support.

[Doidão]

hello, b28499428212455eaadb, how r u?

[Ficelle]

You are right in that it is related to the Steam-Bethesda link

A sure thing is that you can only have a single Steam-Bethesda link...
So, if you already have a link from another game, you cant have a new one...and you will have to choose which link to keep

If the site doesnt allow linking, perhaps try with another browser...or with all browser parameters set on very low security / accept everything / dont block anything...and see if you can link with these settings


But no matter what, if you cant link for whatever reason (or no reason...) you will have to deal with support...
Only support can unlink account (why ???), and only support can link in case of problem
And yep, Bethesda support is the definition of terrible...a shame for a AAA company

[Stardustfire]

the problem with the "taken link" is very common. friend of mine has it too. real downer is that bugthesdas way of helping you is crushing the "pseudo link account" that is denying your linktrys, and by that destroy your complete fo76 progress, means translated: all your chars, shop transactions and atoms are deleted and you start again by zero.

[Mooman]

My understanding is that as you have Fallout 4 you were issued a generic Bethesda account due to the creation club.

Your Steam account is already linked to this account. You can either try log in to the Bethesda account with that random user name and change it or you need to unlink via support so you can link to your current Steam and Bethesda account.

Sorry if this is a bit vague as I'm going off third party info. but it is a common issue so there is a solution.

[Gojak_v3]

Mine was the same way when I started. I think you need to create an account at Bethesda.net Once you do that there will be an option to edit yer display name.

For w/e reason Bethesda and there games have many different portals and they aren't all unified. So if you have an ESO account it won't work with Fallout 76.

In this specific case I think you need to create an account on Bethesda.net Don't hold me to that 100%, it's been a long time.

Yeah, I'm looking at my Bethesda.net account details now and there is a section to change display name. This is where you type how you want yer name to be seen in game.

Pretty sure it should work for you, cause like I said my name was just a random string of letters and numbers when I started.

Edit: Sorry I didn't read all yer post, so you've probably tried what I suggested. Was just trying to post what helped me at the time.

[RMPyro]

Try to find the account that are already linked with your steam. Maybe you played Elders scrolls online before on steam or maybe have an account on creation club.

[Ron_1953]

I bought a Christmas present from the Bethesda online store two years ago, that was enough to tie up that email address so I also cannot link my accounts. After a week of back and forth emails I decided not to have them delete my character and atoms and start over. The name is stupid but not that stupid. Bethesda needs to create a means for players in this situation to create a proper, unique name, regardless of the email address.

[Gojak_v3]

Originally posted by Ron_1953:

I bought a Christmas present from the Bethesda online store two years ago, that was enough to tie up that email address so I also cannot link my accounts. After a week of back and forth emails I decided not to have them delete my character and atoms and start over. The name is stupid but not that stupid. Bethesda needs to create a means for players in this situation to create a proper, unique name, regardless of the email address.

They should be able to change their display name on Bethesda.net if they link their Steam account. Again that's what worked for me, might not work for everyone. I bought FO76 on Steam, then linked my Steam account to my Bethesda.net account. From there I was able to change my display name.

[Ron_1953]

In order to link the accounts, there must not be an existing account on Bethesda.net that uses that email. If it exists they sign you up, but give you the long random name. To then correct it they want you to create a new email address, and they use that but you lose your level progress, ATOMS etc.

"This is correct, at this time we are able to change your email address on this account to another email address which is not used on any other Bethesda.net accounts, we would just need the email address that you would like to change it to.

Also to confirm, If we unlink your Steam and Bethesda accounts, you will lose your progress, atoms and atomic purchases, and there is no way to keep both accounts with the same email address. Each email address can only be linked to one Bethesda.net account."

[Pappy]

Originally posted by Gojak_v3:

Originally posted by Ron_1953:

I bought a Christmas present from the Bethesda online store two years ago, that was enough to tie up that email address so I also cannot link my accounts. After a week of back and forth emails I decided not to have them delete my character and atoms and start over. The name is stupid but not that stupid. Bethesda needs to create a means for players in this situation to create a proper, unique name, regardless of the email address.

They should be able to change their display name on Bethesda.net if they link their Steam account. Again that's what worked for me, might not work for everyone. I bought FO76 on Steam, then linked my Steam account to my Bethesda.net account. From there I was able to change my display name.

That is the crux of my problem. Bethesda won't link the account. I keep getting an error message. I've tried and tried. Like some have said before, it seems Fallout 4 "auto-links" without a account being created at Bethesda.net. Because of this and because it was created without an account being made at Bethesda I have no way to "login" to that account and delete the link.

[Gojak_v3]

IDK, I didn't have a Bethesda.net account before I got Fallout 76. The only reason I made one was because, like you, I noticed my name was just a random number of characters. Anyway, hope you get it fixed.

[Gojak_v3]

And I don't mean to be a downer, but Bethesda is currently being absorbed into Microsoft. So I'm not sure how many of these issues get fixed until that's done. And I suspect they'll want to change all account over to Microsoft accounts. So who knows when or if things get sorted out. Once they do change to Microsoft accounts (I'm assuming) you can go from there.

[Ron_1953]

Have you contacted Bethesda support and interacted with a person? Because I was under the impression that my account could not be linked because my email address was already associated with an existing Bethesda account when they got the Steam request. If they auto generated a Bethesda account when Steam sent your information over it could be that they could help you. Heck, they could have fixed mine if I had been willing to start over. If you are into the social aspects of the game it might be worth it to you in the long run.

[Pappy]

Just to let everyone know the outcome of my naming problem, They did fix it, or should I say they had it fixed all along. Seems that Steam signs you up automatically when you play the game the first time. That was the reason why I could not link the account myself. I had signed on with a different email address than my Steam email address. So there was an account linked, the one that Steam automatically set up. Of course no one tells you about this, not Steam or Bethesda. As soon as I created an account with my Steam email address Bethesda linked me automatically and took my Bethesda login name and placed it into the game. This is probably the answer to many of the linking problems I read about on all the forums.

[VeiL]

It would break my immersion so much if this happened to me... with a high probability of not even continuing to participate at all.


Edit: Glad you got it fixed :)