I summoned a tonne of ancient shards and get an Aothar, and a few sacred shards and pull a Bad-El-Kazar, I to read his first skill and the game kicks me out for maintenance.

I log back in a few hours later and my champions aren't there anymore. What on earth is wrong with this game? 

How on earth does a simple maintenance patch end up deleting paid for characters from a person's account?