Unable to pay since 10 December 2014

[Soliserio]

Hello,

I'm attempting to upload a new credit card but I continue to get error 601. I was just on the game for the past two months. Currently I'm serving in the US Army in South Korea and for whatever reason I have multiple credit cards and all of them are getting the 601 code even though my name and address match on my account to my cards. I have updated the address in various ways to try to see if it was just a mismatch and I'm convinced at this point it is not. I have even attempted to use VPN service to input my credit card information so I can get back onto FFXI and still error code 601. I've attempted to buy Crysta with the same issue error 601. My family in the United States have attempted to use their CC information with the same error code 601. I don't quite understand why this is so difficult? What is the remedy, what is the work around, what can be done because this is utterly ridiculous that I put in so much time and money into the game already for years, having put it off for many years only to come back to a headache. I'd like to add also that FFXI is my rest and relaxation when I have time off from my work. And this is posing me a very problematic situation for me as FFXI is where I go to speak with friends and family being so far away, its how I interact with those in my life when I have down time. Its my stress reliever, its my sanctuary from the stressors of the Military life. Just give me some options, details, information, some type of plan to work around this error code 601. So please just tell me how I can GIVE YOU my money so I can continue what I was doing.

Its disappointing that SE will send out the emails stating that FFXI is free for so and so amount of time. Get me all excited and re-interested in the game and get my full attention and then I have to experience this difficulty and miss out on the opportunities that are being presented in FFXI because of they have a difficult time accepting payment through Globalconnect. I'm willing to sacrifice my time and my money to schedule myself around playing FFXI, yet the inconvenience and stress SE's payment processing is causing me to feel unnecessary stress.

[Soliserio]

My family just got off the phone with Square Enix customer support. They were told to wait/keep trying and then immediately hung up. I will post later the number they called and a name of who they are speaking with or spoke to to resolve these issues. I will try this out for 30 days then I will think about pushing this to higher levels because this is utterly ridiculous.

[Shirai]

I'll just say that you are not the only one with payment problems.

[Soliserio]

Indeed... but through here I will continue to document the progress and experience.

[Soliserio]

So I opened up a second square enix management account... And immediately it took my credit card. So that just tells me that my card works. And I use 2 of the 5 cards that was used to confirm it is working. It is only my Soliserio account that is not accepting the credit cards receiving the error 601. Unfortunately, I am not going to call SE to have them remove my content ID just so that I can move my playonline information over to the new SE account. I'll just wait a few days without entering any card information and then attempt it again exactly how I entered it on the new account. I've already confirmed that the address and information matches exactly the same so there are no issues with that and since I am overseas right now, I got a VPN from Avast Antivirus and put it in the same state that I'm from. I'm pretty sure that had something to do with it as well because it would not take my card information before at all.

[Apie]

I'm getting the same problem (although I think mine said 401 instead of 601) - this could not come at a worse time, I've been tired of ffxi for a little while now and not being able to log in for a month (I was told I have been locked out for 30 days just for trying a WORKING credit card on their system a few times) will definitely make me not want to come back. Been a paying member since the USA launch, 3 accounts, every month, with 4-7 characters per account, that's over $600 a year that they are chasing away by having a non-customer friendly charging system. I mean seriously, imagine a supermarket or gas station blocking your business for a month due to their credit card system not allowing multiple attempts to pay (by multiple, I don't mean a lot, just 2-3...days later it gets bumped to 6~ attempts..., but only cause I was doing what an SE employee told me to do.)

SE...this really is a non-acceptable way to handle your customers. I know it's not in your control, but what is in your control is which company you use to handle your credit card transactions. With that said, it's only out of your control because of the decisions you made regarding which outside company you use for your billing. The worse part was getting rid of the paypal option, I mean COME ON, it's the only backup to using a credit card on a very limited system.

Well whatever, all I know is that 1 month away is plently of time to stop caring about ffxi and move on. So, not the wisest way to handle a slowly dying mmorpg. Keeping your customers should be your #1 priority, not saving a little money by using a crappy outside company.

[Soliserio]

I have fixed the issue and am now back on my account... When my families card got declined the automated system puts a block/hold on the account and blocks ALL credit cards. I had to do a live chat/telephone call to Square Enix America in order to open the account. They had to verify my identity with various questions and information before proceeding with unlocking my account. Once that was done after 10 minutes I was able to access my account. So in the future anyone who has an issue with error code 601 or 401 it could be multiple reasons, but if it was due to a decline of multiple credit cards then the account would have been blocked and needs to be released from the holding status.