WotLK Do reported PvP cheaters usually get punished? How long could it take?

[theborg9]

Recently I reported a few players I encountered in arena that I strongly suspect are using programs to automate skills in PvP. Without going into details, I think one of those players is especially very evidently, unmistakably doing so, and the in-game ticket I made was accepted roughly 6 days ago.
From then to now, this player has additionally played more than 50 arena matches.

Encountering cheaters in arena honestly makes me not want to join the queue (even if I would need it to get gear on my alt), as is seeing them still playing days after I reported them.
Should my expectations be different? What should a player interested in joining arena do?

[dccct]

Bans seem to come in waves, or at least the announcements that follow do. Be patient.

[Palutena]

I see a list of banned cheaters being posted daily, meaning that if the evidence delivered is accepted, then yes, they are punished. Sometimes the evidence is almost convincing, so a GM needs to investigate further occurrences. Sometimes it is not. Might check if your reports are following the instructions correctly as well.

[Drunkuser]

I see a list of banned cheaters being posted daily, meaning that if the evidence delivered is accepted, then yes, they are punished. Sometimes the evidence is almost convincing, so a GM needs to investigate further occurrences. Sometimes it is not. Might check if your reports are following the instructions correctly as well.

What is the staff opinion about harsher punishments for these cheaters?

Will you ever consider the deletion of the character in addition to the ban time?

There are a lot of notorious scripters around, that after doing their ban time, return playing on their 2800 rating/gladiator characters obtained through cheats which is very infuriating and unjust to those who play fairly.

[theborg9]

I see a list of banned cheaters being posted daily, meaning that if the evidence delivered is accepted, then yes, they are punished. Sometimes the evidence is almost convincing, so a GM needs to investigate further occurrences. Sometimes it is not. Might check if your reports are following the instructions correctly as well.

Thank you for the reply. The description I write in the report includes the arena match ID, the event that led me to submit the report, and more or less at what point of the game it happened (in order make finding the event easier). Is this acceptable? I'm assuming that observation and/or combat log analysis of the provided match ID should be sufficient to reach a conclusion with respect to skill automation, but please tell me if it's not generally sufficient.

There are a lot of notorious scripters around, that after doing their ban time, return playing on their 2800 rating/gladiator characters obtained through cheats which is very infuriating and unjust to those who play fairly.

Is ban time really the only punishment? If so, I didn't know that and I would agree that it's very insufficient. I think gear removal and permanent character name ban would probably be a good deterrent instead. This way, even a very determined cheater would have to farm their gear back, over and over. Which is limited by the arena points you can get for each flush, requires honor farming (especially on blackrock), and a low level gear makes a cheater less impacting too.
If this isn't what happens already, I'd kindly ask the staff to consider introducing these measures, because in my experience cheaters are too many and too bold.