Ultimate Pay and Paypal

[wish12oz]

Ever since the new payment system was added, I've been purchasing crysta with my paypal account through ultimate pay to play FFXI, and for the last 4 or 5 days I have been unable to purchase any crysta, anyone else having this problem?

[Kaisha]

I had it happen last month, and after three attempts I said #### it and went with direct credit to SE.

Kinda annoyed me as I'm paying a couple bucks extra a month via that method.

[Kadian]

yea i'm having that issue and i use Paypal / Ultimate Pay

[Feary]

i thought it was only me and that it would solve itself and now i see this.

i will not be happy if i have to find another method to send payment. especially if it costs me more per account. i already pay for 4.

[Pixela]

Had the same issue, refusal of payments.

[lllen]

I hope we can still use paypal, I used it with no problem on 9/20/14 to pay for crysta thru Ultimate Pay

[Olor]

God I hope not...

I just checked, they have removed the ability to buy with ultimate pay... what the hell?

I won't be able to pay!

Just saw this...


This is a notice to all customers who use PlaySpan as a method of payment to purchase Crysta.

As you already may be aware, PlaySpan retired the Ultimate Game Card and UltimatePoints at the end of September 2014. This means it is no longer possible to purchase Crysta using these 2 options.

The last day to redeem retail Ultimate Game Card codes was September 29, 2014 but UltimatePoints can be redeemed up until October 31, 2014. For additional information regarding the retirement of these options and using your remaining UltimatePoints, please visit the appropriate link below.

Ultimate Game Card: http://www.ultimategamecard.com/
UltimatePoints: http://www.ultimatepay.com/

In light of this news, we have also decided to remove all PlaySpan payment options from the Mog Station and Square Enix Account Management System with immediate effect. We'd like to apologise for the sudden removal of these features but would like to reassure all customers that we still offer a varied range of payment options for the purchase of Crysta or subscription payments.

We continue to work with payment providers to increase the number of payment solutions we can offer you. Please keep checking announcements for the latest updates.

what the HELL SE... if you'd have told us with some notice I could have at least added enough crysta to get me through a couple months...NOT EVERYONE USES CREDIT CARDS. A bunch of different credit cards is NOT "a varied range of options."

For the love of god why didn't you guys at least give us a week's notice?!?

[Krashport]

God I hope not...
I just checked, they have removed the ability to buy with ultimate pay... what the hell?
I won't be able to pay!
Just saw this...
what the HELL SE... if you'd have told us with some notice I could have at least added enough crysta to get me through a couple months...NOT EVERYONE USES CREDIT CARDS. A bunch of different credit cards is NOT "a varied range of options."
For the love of god why didn't you guys at least give us a week's notice?!?

Dude its not SE fault, the Company that handled Ultimate Game Card(s) has Retired their services... get over it. Can just find another method of payment if you still want to play. Link (http://www.ultimategamecard.com/#details)

[Afania]

God I hope not...

I just checked, they have removed the ability to buy with ultimate pay... what the hell?

I won't be able to pay!

Just saw this...



what the HELL SE... if you'd have told us with some notice I could have at least added enough crysta to get me through a couple months...NOT EVERYONE USES CREDIT CARDS. A bunch of different credit cards is NOT "a varied range of options."

For the love of god why didn't you guys at least give us a week's notice?!?


Whattt? They already did, months ago.

Posted on 6/27
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43001-NA-EU-Regarding-Ultimate-Game-Card-and-Ultimate-Points?highlight=ultimate+game+card


Someone already mentioned it on 6/6
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/42498-Ultimate-game-card?highlight=ultimate+game+card

[Olor]

Whattt? They already did, months ago.

Posted on 6/27
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/43001-NA-EU-Regarding-Ultimate-Game-Card-and-Ultimate-Points?highlight=ultimate+game+card




Someone already mentioned it on 6/6
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/42498-Ultimate-game-card?highlight=ultimate+game+card

I am not talking about the ultimate game card - I am talking about the paypal option.

They did not inform people that they would be eliminating paypal payment.


Regarding Ultimate Game Card and Ultimate Points

This is a notice to all customers who use PlaySpan’s Ultimate Game Card or UltimatePoints as a method of payment to purchase Crysta.

As you already may be aware, PlaySpan will be retiring the Ultimate Game Card and UltimatePoints. This means these 2 options will no longer be offered as a payment method for purchasing Crysta.

The last day to redeem retail Ultimate Game Card codes will be September 29, 2014 and the last day to redeem your UltimatePoints will be October 31, 2014.

For additional information regarding the retirement of these options, please visit the appropriate link below.

Ultimate Game Card: http://www.ultimategamecard.com/
UltimatePoints: http://www.ultimatepay.com/

In light of this news, we are also working with payment providers to increase the number of payment solutions we can offer.



where does it say they would also be removing "all PlaySpan payment options from the Mog Station and Square Enix Account Management System?" No, they only said no more ultimate points/ultimate game card.

I am talking about paypal. No where once did they say paypal would no longer be an option.


Dude its not SE fault, the Company that handled Ultimate Game Card(s) has Retired their services... get over it. Can just find another method of payment if you still want to play. Link (http://www.ultimategamecard.com/#details)


Again... talking about paypal, not ultimate game cards. Did paypal close? No? Then why remove it as a payment option?

[DarkStoneDragon]

They did not inform people that they would be eliminating paypal payment.

I agree 100% because of this my wife and I will never be able to play FFXI again. Why can't SE accept paypal directly?

[Fenrirs_Takumi]

Holy crap... i'm screwed. i am paying with vanilla mastercards..... i dont do buisness with paypal cause they F'ed me to many times. the money gets taken, says the manifacturer did not get the money and i end up receiving the money 1~2 months later.

How am i going to Pay for FFXI now. If they knew months ago. they should've at least prepared to the fact that prolly half their players are using another methods because they have Prepaid card, or use Pay Pal. I really do hope they fix it soon.

[Feary]

olor, my understanding was that paypal was available thru ultimatepay.

when you choose the option to buy crysta, it asked to select from two options CC or ultimate pay, then you(and me) selected other (not game cards, which is why we thought it was different) and there was paypal to pay playspan who paid S.E.

so since playspan and s,e dont deal with eachother no more we are screwed.

[Afania]

I am not talking about the ultimate game card - I am talking about the paypal option.

They did not inform people that they would be eliminating paypal payment.


They said they're eliminating Ultimate Game Card or UltimatePoints as a method of payment to purchase Crysta... I copied the info directly from the link. So they did mentioned that you can no longer buy UltimatePoints, it's just that you didn't know you're using Paypal to buy UltimatePoints all these time. Paypal isn't a direct payment option.

There are only 2 payment method after SE no longer use Click and buy. First being direct payment through global collect using a credit card, 2nd one being paying through UltimatePay(playspan). Paypal isn't a direct payment option if I remember correctly, it's a payment option to pay UltimatePay.

If I remember correctly, you can only select paypal option in "add crysta" after you click UltimatePay service isn't it? It's add crysta---> select amount of crysta----> select CC direct payment or UltimatePay---> Paypal option.

If UltimatePay is no longer working as a service, obviously Paypal won't be an option as well.

Note that paypal is just one of the option to pay playspan, out of many. And the options available depend on the region. For example, if you try to buy Ultimate points in middle east or Asia, the options that'd appear after you select "UltimatePay" will be drastically different from the US. If you use UltimatePay in a region without paypal service, you probably won't see Paypal option at all.

So it's kinda too much to ask SE to list every single payment option that'd be eliminated after UltimatePay service retire. Informing ppl that UltimatePay option would retire, is the same as saying any payment option tied to it would retire as well.

[Olor]

If they knew it was coming for months (I didn't cause I didn't really use ultimate cards) that should have been enough time to set up paypal directly.

Not sure why people are defending SE removing a popular payment method without clear notice (sorry but expecting everyone to decode "no UGC" to mean no paypal is ludicrous)

I guess folks want the game to have an even lower population. Not everyone is going to jump through hoops to pay some other way. Many people simply don't have another way of paying.

[Feary]

If they knew it was coming for months (I didn't cause I didn't really use ultimate cards) that should have been enough time to set up paypal directly.

Not sure why people are defending SE removing a popular payment method without clear notice (sorry but expecting everyone to decode "no UGC" to mean no paypal is ludicrous)

I guess folks want the game to have an even lower population. Not everyone is going to jump through hoops to pay some other way. Many people simply don't have another way of paying.

well i dont think anyone was trying to defend it, it was more of an explanation of how we got here from the S.E post. basically trying to translate it for you, but because youre upset you are just ranting (which im highly upset too). youre also saying things that dont make real sense and blasting your opinions on the matter.

when i dont think s.e really had anything to do with the this directly, and you're blaming them indirectly for not take charge and making an alternative. at the end the of the day, s.e is a business and can chooses directly what payment methods to accept and indirectly deny ppl who cant meet those requirements. its no different than a store denying you service. it is inconvenient and aggravating. sometimes morally wrong but in the end thier right. we just hope they come to decision that will benefit us both. (by adding another way to pay with paypal)

[Vasch]

Several of our LS members have run into a 401/406 error when trying to pay with the SE method and nothing but Paypal has ever worked for them. Even SE figuring that errpr out would allow these people to keep playing, but they literally have no ability to pay as it stands now.

[Afania]

If they knew it was coming for months (I didn't cause I didn't really use ultimate cards) that should have been enough time to set up paypal directly.

Not sure why people are defending SE removing a popular payment method without clear notice (sorry but expecting everyone to decode "no UGC" to mean no paypal is ludicrous)

I guess folks want the game to have an even lower population. Not everyone is going to jump through hoops to pay some other way. Many people simply don't have another way of paying.

Because SE never offered paypal option, it's the option offered by playspan.

Therefore it really isn't their fault not to accept it.

I'm not sure why it's so hard to tell No UGC= No paypal though, you're the one using the UGC option all these time, surely you know that you clicked the "UltimatePay" function before entering your paypal info.

I wasn't defending for SE, since I have CC issue and have been using UltimatePay for years as well. I do think this game needs some sort of game time code as a payment method. But it certainly isn't SE's fault that paypal is no longer usable in this case, they can't do a thing about playspan ending their service and it's unreasonable to ask them to list every single playspan payment option and tell you "This won't work after Sept" since it's a lot of work to check out every playspan payment option exist in every region.

[Olor]

Several of our LS members have run into a 401/406 error when trying to pay with the SE method and nothing but Paypal has ever worked for them. Even SE figuring that errpr out would allow these people to keep playing, but they literally have no ability to pay as it stands now.

I've heard a lot of people say the same thing. I don't understand why SE doesn't seem to want our money.



I wasn't defending for SE, since I have CC issue and have been using UltimatePay for years as well. I do think this game needs some sort of game time code as a payment method. But it certainly isn't SE's fault that paypal is no longer usable in this case, they can't do a thing about playspan ending their service and it's unreasonable to ask them to list every single playspan payment option and tell you "This won't work after Sept" since it's a lot of work to check out every playspan payment option exist in every region.

How isn't it their fault? They have had months to set up a direct billing set up with paypal. Are you suggesting SE can't work directly with paypal to offer billing?

Also it doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that paypal was the most popular option on that list. I don't see anyone complaining about no hyperwallet or w/e I doubt almost anyone used any of those.

They could have been more specific.

[Afania]

I've heard a lot of people say the same thing. I don't understand why SE doesn't seem to want our money.

How isn't it their fault? They have had months to set up a direct billing set up with paypal. Are you suggesting SE can't work directly with paypal to offer billing?

Also it doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that paypal was the most popular option on that list. I don't see anyone complaining about no hyperwallet or w/e I doubt almost anyone used any of those.

They could have been more specific.

I used UltimatePay but I don't pay UltimatePay with paypal nor game card.

This is just the rule thing, they either list every payment option equally or don't do it at all. Of course they wouldn't KNOW* which option is the most popular one since they don't own playspan nor provide the service.

Paypal was actually never a direct payment service in entire FFXI history, maybe they just don't use it for other reasons. It was available simply because playspan offered the option.

[Ritsuka]

I had it happen last month, and after three attempts I said #### it and went with direct credit to SE.

Kinda annoyed me as I'm paying a couple bucks extra a month via that method.

You don't get charged the international service Fee anymore, they fixed that
just be easier to use your debt card or credit card. You have Pay Pal So youhave one or the other I'm assuming.

[Camiie]

You don't get charged the international service Fee anymore, they fixed that
just be easier to use your debt card or credit card. You have Pay Pal So youhave one or the other I'm assuming.

Don't you think they'd just use the cards if they worked? That's the problem. SE will decline valid cards that work perfectly fine at any other retailer or service provider. They may not like the region the card is from or they may have experienced charge backs from certain banks in the past (even if those charge backs were valid). Trust me this is all on SE, and isn't about user error or paranoia about using their credit cards.

[Comeatmebro]

c/p from other thread:


To clarify, their payment system will block your card under any of the following conditions(possibly more):

-Credit card billing address is too far from current location.
-Credit card billing address isn't in the same country as square enix account.
-Same credit card is being used in multiple square enix accounts(number where this comes into play is unknown, may actually be a $$ quantity thing)
-You're on a known VPN or proxy.

If your cards are being rejected under any of these conditions, WAIT. Each time you get rejected your account(not card) gets blocked from purchasing for a set time period. They're very secretive about how long the block lasts, but Byrthnoth had it racked up to a month at some point so it can be extremely long. If you try again before the block expires, you extend it. Let your block expire(guesswork, but if it fails only try once and then go back to waiting) and retry while not meeting any of the above conditions.

The system applying these checks and blocks is globalcollect, not square enix. SE's support will not be able to help you, and globalcollects support isn't willing to work around them.

[Olor]

You don't get charged the international service Fee anymore, they fixed that
just be easier to use your debt card or credit card. You have Pay Pal So youhave one or the other I'm assuming.

SE is terrible. They error out so many legitimate credit cards. It's a nightmare. Their customer service is terrible. They also charge in US dollars which for my partner's CC means interest starts accruing immediately (meaning she needs to make a mid month payment or pay a bunch of interest) ... whereas paypal works. They never screw me around. They are linked directly to my bank account (not a credit card). They change the cost into Canadian dollars so I am not getting charged unneccesary interest etc.

[Hashmalum]

We really need an official SE answer on this issue. For many of us, myself included, it means that we can no longer play FFXI. My debit card is not accepted by SE. Pre-paid debit cards also do not work. PayPal via Ultimate Pay was the only thing that did work, and now it is gone. When the the 10th of this month hits, my subscription will lapse and I will be forcibly disconnected for the last time. I've never done a chargeback. My account has never been hacked. I've never been punished by a GM. I'm in one of their major target markets (North America). There's no reason for this to be happening, but it is.

[Jeanna]

Would just like to throw in a reminder to the complete absurdity of this situation.. while UP stopped doing their game cards and points, they kept active their payment system (which included paypal and whatever else) and SE removed those payment options without any sort of previous notice to the customer base. (Or at least nothing I ever saw.. while they might have warned about the game card and points, they never said they were removing UP completely). Again, UP didn't shut down their payment system, SE willingly chose to stop using it. Why they did this without first having a backup in order is way beyond my comprehension.

I still can't use a credit card to pay - including the prepaid one I went out and bought specifically just for this. I've been trying once/24 hours, so it's likely I have a god-freaking-knows-how-long block on my account. Square support can't/won't tell me. I physically went into my bank after calling them the other day just to make sure they weren't blocking any online transactions. They're not.

[Jeanna]

On a side note, here's Global Collect's CS page :

http://www.globalcollect.com/consumers?&__hssc=133321553.4.1412558832791&__hstc=133321553.1c98e7fcc8e45559b16382d3492a6be4.1412558832790.1412558832790.1412558832790.1&hsCtaTracking=f0998517-8fae-4d9f-bae6-466135d98e39|e0f1b67c-a5d2-4aa1-9c65-613a3eb1425c#contact

The woman I talked to seemed way more nicer and helpful than SE support is. I've got an email ticket open with them, though tbh I'm not really expecting much to come out of it. We'll see.

Since se support is useless in helping with this, people might wanna try calling or emailing Global Collect directly.

[Jeanna]

I really dunno if this is a case of he said/she said, but here's the response I got from Global Collect:


Thank you for contacting GlobalCollect.

GlobalCollect is a Payment Service Provider. A Payment Service Provider handles payments on behalf of other companies.

Please be informed, that these transactions were denied on the end of Square Enix.

Therefore, we've forwarded your request to Square Enix. Square Enix will contact you accordingly.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards,
Ilse,
Customer Service

SE really needs to step up to the plate here and take some responsibility/start fixing this BS. Or at least give us a response letting us know if/when this will ever be fixed or if they plan on putting paypal payment back in. 2/3 of my accounts are now out of time and there's no way I'm gonna play the dumb game of "try and guess when your credit card option is unblocked and pray that it actually accepts your cc this time!".

Why do you insist on making it so hard for people to pay/play!?

- My registered SE email matches the email on my bank/credit card to the T.
- Haven't been able to pay with credit card since about June of this year.
- The same credit card that's being declined pays for my fiance's FF14 sub no problem.
- I've gone into my bank and had them look over my account and double check that no online transactions are being denied. They're not.
- Have the same error on all three of my accounts.
- I've tried different CC's tied to different banks. None of them worked.
- Talked with SE support and the best they could do was tell me to try again in 24 hours. I've tried again twice after two 24 hour periods with a pre-paid credit card that a) I know is active and b) has a registered address that matches my SE address. Card does not work. (While this likely means my block is longer than 24 hours, it's very unhelpful not knowing how long that block actually is)
- I've tried in all all Chrome, Firefox (with addons disable), and IE, as well as on my ipad. Always 401 errors.
- Was recommened by someone to try calling Global Collect. As seen in email above, they say it's SE's doing.

[Tamoa]

c/p from other thread:


To clarify, their payment system will block your card under any of the following conditions(possibly more):

-Credit card billing address is too far from current location.
-Credit card billing address isn't in the same country as square enix account.
-Same credit card is being used in multiple square enix accounts(number where this comes into play is unknown, may actually be a $$ quantity thing)
-You're on a known VPN or proxy.

If your cards are being rejected under any of these conditions, WAIT. Each time you get rejected your account(not card) gets blocked from purchasing for a set time period. They're very secretive about how long the block lasts, but Byrthnoth had it racked up to a month at some point so it can be extremely long. If you try again before the block expires, you extend it. Let your block expire(guesswork, but if it fails only try once and then go back to waiting) and retry while not meeting any of the above conditions.

The system applying these checks and blocks is globalcollect, not square enix. SE's support will not be able to help you, and globalcollects support isn't willing to work around them.


The bolded part is incorrect. I'm EU with EU Visa and have paid for an NA account for over 2 years without any issues whatsoever.

[Olor]

The bolded part is incorrect. I'm EU with EU Visa and have paid for an NA account for over 2 years without any issues whatsoever.

you've just been lucky. Some people like Jeanna above have everything set up perfectly... should work, doesn't for some unknown reason. It's bizarre and its the reason why they should put paypal back.

[Tamoa]

you've just been lucky. Some people like Jeanna above have everything set up perfectly... should work, doesn't for some unknown reason. It's bizarre and its the reason why they should put paypal back.

I'm aware of this error happening for no apparent reason, it happened to me when XIV's ftp period was over. SE blamed the bank, the bank blamed SE, I resorted to prepaid game cards, emailed SE a photo of my Visa, nothing was resolved. Quit XIV and came back to XI and used the same damn Visa to reactivate my XI account without any issues whatsoever. SE really needs to fix this asap, it's ridiculous the amount of hoops they want us to jump through to be able to pay them.

My previous post was in response to someone apparently claiming you will get this error message if the credit card and the SE account are located in different parts of the world. Like I said, I have used my EU Visa to pay for an NA account (NA SE account too) without any issues for over 2 years.

[Olor]

Ah, understood. So bizarre.

[Comeatmebro]

the bolded part came directly from a globalcollect representative

you're welcome to say it's not universal, but it's certainly a potential cause

my friend couldnt use a prepaid visa that was under my zip code to add crysta, but worked fine when she changed it to the zip code she was currently living in

[Tamoa]

the bolded part came directly from a globalcollect representative

you're welcome to say it's not universal, but it's certainly a potential cause

my friend couldnt use a prepaid visa that was under my zip code to add crysta, but worked fine when she changed it to the zip code she was currently living in


It's quite possibly something that can trigger the error message for sure, but it's not guaranteed to. Either way, I think we can all agree that SE needs to fix this ASAP, there are people out there who want to pay and play, but can't, and for no reason whatsoever. They can use their cc to pay for one account, but not a 2nd account. They have used the same cc for a long time and then suddenly it gets rejected. It makes no sense and SE must be the only company I have heard of that makes it so incredibly hard for their customers to pay them.

[Comeatmebro]

Of course, not defending the practice, just sharing the information I'd acquired on it so far.