Dev - Anyone from SE - Can we seriously please get a response to payment problems?

[Seha]

Bring back PayPal please. Your company clearly doesn't know how to do transactions without third parties.

But after seeing the 14 side having a thread about this hundreds of pages long I'm being skeptical we'll get a response at all...it blows my mind that they're not on top of this, how can they not care for so many users not being able to play anymore?

[Kornflake]

Here is an email I got from SE regarding the issue. It's what we already know and doesn't really resolve anything.

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX support,
If you are receiving an error 601, 406, or error 401 when attempting to update your payment method, then there is an issue where the financial institution is declining the authorization attempt. Unfortunately as SQUARE ENIX is not the financial institution, we are not provided with any information as to why the authorization was declined, only that it was. Please confirm that all billing information is entered correctly on the SQUARE ENIX Account in question. Please also note that once an authorization has been rejected, that form of payment cannot be attempted again for a full twenty-four hours, and any further attempts before that time will automatically be rejected. If you would like further information about this specific authorization attempt, please contact your financial institution.

Please ensure the personal information listed on the Square Enix account matches the information listed on the credit / debit card. For example, name of the Square Enix account holder must match the name that's listed on the credit / debit card itself. Keep in mind that only certain pieces of personal information on a Square Enix account can be adjusted (street address and email address) after creation.

Make sure that the card you're trying to use isn't already being used to pay for another account. Problems may arise if the an attempt is made to use the same card to bill two separate accounts simultaneously. If this is indeed your situation, please wait 24 hours between reactivation attempts

Make sure that your card provider allows $1.00 preauthorization holds. This billing attempt is made in order to make sure that the account is valid for billing. After 1 to 2 business days, these funds will be placed back on the account. If your card issuer does not allow such preauthorization holds, you may want to contact them.

If you attempted this method of payment multiple times with a failed result, there is a possibility of a longer block being placed on the account. This block can last 30 days.
Thank you for contacting the SQUARE ENIX Support Center.
___________
For additional assistance with this issue, you can reply to this email directly. For assistance with a new issue, please visit the SQUARE ENIX Support Center at http://support.na.square-enix.com

[Camiie]

When it comes to FFXI, SE seems to operate with such an overabundance of caution that they end up hurting themselves far more than if they simply threw caution to the wind and accepted a little risk. It's called cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. The devs are often guilty of it when it comes to in game content and it seems the business side is as well.

Chargebacks happen, and are often perfectly justified. Even if not all of them are it's just a risk of doing business. A smart business understands that sometimes you have to lose out on a transaction here and there to come out better off in the long run.

People move about the planet and take their entertainment with them. That's reality. They aren't suddenly a risk to you simply because they changed their location, nor should they be punished for the actions of others in certain parts of the world.

And please, SE, don't lie to us and say that what you're doing is for the security of the customers. It's obvious you're only looking out for number one just like always. SE does what (they think) is good for SE first, and does what's good for the customers pretty much never.

[Everdyne1281]

I, too, have been getting the 401 error. I recently had to get a new credit card so the other one was invalid the day the monthly was supposed to charge, which also happened to be the day I got the new card. I've sent an email, since it's the weekend and I can't call till monday. I'm hoping I can get it resolved somehow. I don't even care if I have to buy Crysta, just as long as I can play!

[Comeatmebro]

Posted in the other threads too, but throwing in my +1.

Paypal would be ideal, but a functioning credit card system is vital.

[Kaoriasada]

I'm having this problem, too. Thankfully, it's not my main account, only my BRD alt. I called Square Enix and they said that the only way for me to get around the 401 issue was to pay with UltimatePay, which is ridiculously stupid, because I called a WEEK before it was taken off, and she made no mention of it not being a reliable way to pay in the future. I've had someone that I trust try to pay and they got a 601 error, and when I tried to pay with both my credit card and theirs, I got a 401 error. I expressed this to the lady and she said that there's no way around this. And since XIV is their heart and soul now, I suppose that if their XIV community isn't getting a fix, it's even less likely that we'll get one. It makes me wonder if the rumors of XI going down are true, since they're taking away one of their most reliable payment systems now.

[Jeanna]

What actually upsets me the most in all this is that while there was notice that UP was stopping their gamecard and points, UP itself didn't shut down, so there really was no reason to remove their payment station off the website. There was no notice that they were going to remove UP completely. They just up and did it without warning, taking away the paypal option with it which many of us relied on. .........Why?.............

This has been a huge problem for a long time. Please feel free to prove me wrong se, but personally I wouldn't actually expect anything to change. Hopefully they'll be quick to add Paypal and other options again, before they lose too many more customers.

[gregchiro2013]

Yea forgot I changed banks and one of my 3 accounts is 401 error. Yea, this should be easy to fix. I am sure the owners of SE have no idea this is going on or they would be freaking out on the loss of income. We will see how long it takes to fix such errors.

[Jeanna]

Oh, they know. At least by now, I can't imagine someone with the power to implement changes doesn't know. I was told the majority of all support calls lately were about 401s. There's a 110+ page on 14 forums that's still active that was started in September 2013.

I'm just gonna go with the same old "Working as intended, we have no plans............." (if they even bother to grace us with their presence at all)

[Vasch]

I'm just gonna go with the same old "Working as intended, we have no plans............." (if they even bother to grace us with their presence at all)

More like "We have no plans to work as intended."