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

[Jeanna]

Dec 29th/14, Last/Final update: My main accounts been locked out since Oct 2 (almost 3 months now) and I'm still 401'ing/601'ing on it. I've pretty much given up at this point. Good luck to anyone else with these problems, se certainly doesn't seem to give a crap. Take everything they say with a grain of salt, we were able to buy crysta on my fiance's account with a family members credit card, whose name, address, and country didn't match what was on our SE account. Either they changed something recently, or no one has any freaking clue how their system works.

My advice to anyone who's having serious problems with this too: don't waste your time. Find something else to play. SE reps can't and won't help you (unless you're EU). The 401 problems have been going on for at least a year and a half, they removed Paypal in the beginning of October. They aren't going to fix this in a timely manner, if they even intend on fixing it at all.

Going over some of the main things I've posted in other threads:
- (Updated)I've talked to SE support several times and have an email ticket open with them (that still hasn't been responded to despite assurances saying it'd be within 48 hours). They can never do or tell me anything useful. Some people seem to think that the se reps can do something, but after multiple calls and heckling them pretty hard I pretty much just stopped wasting my time.

- (Updated)I've talked to my bank on four seperate occasions. First time was on the phone, second time I physically went into the bank and had them double check, third time was a number I was given to call the next time my card was declined to see if they could track down whatever the problem was. Fourth was another phone call where I again triple checked that they're not blocking anything and that they allow pre-authorization charges. IT IS NOT MY BANKS PROBLEM. I was able to re-sub a mule after 9 days or so, so I know that that card does sometimes, somehow work.

- (Updated):I've talked to Global Collect twice. They told me it's not on their end and it's squarely on SE. Many people on the 14 side have been contacting them as well and they all get the same response... that's it's on SE banks' end, not on theirs. While they could be lying or just uniformed, I'm gonna lean towards it being on SE's end.

- I've barely been able to use my CC since about June and have just been buying crysta with Paypal. However, my fiance can pay for his FF14 sub with the same card with no problems.
. (My fiance can no longer buy crysta or sub on his 11 or 14 account anymore either).

- (Updated)I went out and bought a pre-paid Visa to try, and even that didn't work. According to a conversation I had with a SE rep, they said pre-paid visas don't work. However, I've had multiple people tell me they were able to use pre-paid credit cards. Conflicting information, much? I had a LS mate use a pre-paid visa card to buy crysta with, and it worked.

-(Updated)I went through the trouble of acquiring a brand new credit card tired to a totally different financial institution and even that doesn't work on any of my accounts.

- I've tried all of IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari (on my iPad).

- I've tried different computers, and heck even straight out different internet.

- The person I talked with on the phone said the majority of the calls and support issues in the last couple weeks were people with 401 problems. Obviously this is a pretty big issue right now. The best he could do/tell me was to try again in thirty days...... which is ludicrous not only because you're throwing away my business for 30 days but because he couldn't tell me what the problem was with my card/s was in the first place, and since I haven't been able to use them in months I doubt they're magically gonna work after my 30 day block is up.

I gotta admit, out of every online game or even any online service I've used, you guys have the absolute worst customer service I have ever encountered. The phone support are nice enough, sure, but they have very little power to do anything or help. The chat support sound like scripted robots. Every business has problems, but the way things are dealt with by SE is just absurd. The way you ignore problems, deal with them at a snail's pace, or try to push the blame off on other things is disheartening. What do you think would happen to most businesses if a customer was told to come back in 30 days? Or even 7 days, or heck even 24 hours? Most people would be like "meh screw this, I'll find some place else to shop".

(Updated)Some sort of confirmation acknowledging the problem and letting us know if there's a fix in the works would be absolutely lovely... at this point it's very unlikely I'm going to come back even if I wanted to, as I highly doubt my cc is even going to work after my 30 day block is up, like I said I haven't been able to pay with a CC in months. SE rep posted on Oct 14th that they're working on paypal and hope to have it up and running "soon". 6 weeks and still nothing. Guess we have different definitions of "soon".

As for the systems and fraud protection on the square site...... this could be much better designed and implemented. Why on earth do you let us retry and retry putting a block no one even knows about at first that potentially extends to 30 days? Is it that hard change the error from some vague 401 error to explain what it means and that after the first 401 error, there's a 24 hour block on your account, and to disable further payment attempts so we don't screw ourselves over? Payments are processed at midnight, support isn't open then, in my case what happened was this: account runs out of time while I'm in the middle of doing stuff, I try my main CC, doesn't work, think maybe I typed it in wrong, try again, still doesn't work, think maybe it doesn't like it because it's Canadian, grab an american card, repeat. I had no clue at first that there was a block placed on my account and that further attempts would lock me out even longer, and I unintentionally ended up with a 30 day block on my account. This same thing is happening to multiple people and no one seems too pleased about it (then again, who would be?)

Ok, so maybe on the extremely low case someone was actually trying to use fraudulent cards for whatever reason. Why can't the block be removed and payment problems fixed by phone support? It's highly unlikely someone involved with illegal activities is going to call in, let alone know all the relevant information to the account. The inability of employees to actually do anything to help is pretty maddening.

TLDR; Dear SE, stop ignoring your customers and their problems if you like subscriptions.

If you guys were smart you'd be handing out free game time to people - give them the option to play again while acting like you actually care and maybe keep them around instead of walking away forever.

Edit: Obligatory Fry

Edit 2: Copy/Paste some other relevant stuff:

Even if I can re-sub after 30 days, 30 days is a pretty long time to be locked out of an MMO, especially when you play pretty extensively in endgame/with a LS. I don't wanna make it sound like I'm being egotistical and that I'm absolutely essential my LS or anything, but we're a low man LS (currently at 4-5 people and we do everything from all bcs, selling delve, Incursion, etc),and I'm a main Yagrush whm with a whole slew of other jobs that are commonly used (stun scholar, smn for bc zergs, extra brd/cor mule buffs, etc). During events I usually play 2 characters so we can low man stuff better. With my absence, what they can do is cut down pretty effectively, meaning they just stop events entirely or recruit new people, which might put me in a weird spot if I can ever come back, not to mention I feel pretty guilty for being forced to just leave them out of the blue.

Seriously, due to the nature of MMO's... locking someone out for a month is really good way to screw them over. Not to mention all the small little 1~2 week campaigns constantly going on that we're missing out on.

[Johnnyderp]

let me second this -
my 3 accounts are all now down. I can't pay, and SE has lost themselves ~$40/month until they find a way to accept the money I'm trying my hardest to throw at them.

[Kornflake]

I've been trying to pay with 3 different credit cards and seems like there is no way for me to continue my subscription or activate my second account.

[Pixela]

Good luck, Square are terrible on anything pertaining to making money.

They region lock expansions, meaning they lose sales and customers who may have imported years ago. They lock accounts if you make any kind of error in payments meaning you can't pay for extended periods (without actually telling you that it's locked) They remove payment options losing customers etc.

They are genuinely dumb in so many ways, they have great devs but their suits are terrible.

They will ignore this like they ignore all the others because the CS agents only deal with the devs, not the people that make financial decisions. The only time you may get a response is after an official response is made on the website already so they can just copy and paste it.

[Jeanna]

It's unfortunate, as I generally quite enjoy the game, but it's very frustrating/dissapointing trying to guesstimate how long the blocks on my accounts might be, and knowing that even when it's up my cards aren't gonna work unless they fix or change something.

[Stompa]

Have LIKED this thread.

I would like to be able to buy CRYSTA, using PAYPAL, via the SE Account Management System.

This would be easy and secure, for me as a customer. It would also mean I could stock up on Crysta, and reactivate my mule Content IDs which I cancelled due to payment difficulties.

Currently I am only using my two main Content IDs. This is to Conserve Crysta. This is because UGC/Paypal option has been cancelled, and I don't know when I'll be able to buy more Crysta, so I cancelled my Content IDs except for two, to make my Crysta last longer. This despite me having money in the bank.

So instead of me paying for sixteen Content IDs like I used to, I am now paying for two Content IDs, because I don't know when I'll be allowed to exchange my £GBP money for Crysta in future. Who is losing money from this bizarre situation? Not me.

I have worked in a number of businesses, and they all had financial departments with a Special Forces approach to customer payments. If they heard these words from a customer; "I want to pay money to you but I am unable to", those other companies' Head Offices would have sirens ringing, red lights flashing, and Chuck Norris sliding down a fireman's pole, ready to spring into action with shark-like reflexes, to fix the customer payment problems before a single dollar was lost.

[Jeanna]

I have worked in a number of businesses, and they all had financial departments with a Special Forces approach to customer payments. If they heard these words from a customer; "I want to pay money to you but I am unable to", those other companies' Head Offices would have sirens ringing, red lights flashing, and Chuck Norris sliding down a fireman's pole, ready to spring into action with shark-like reflexes, to fix the customer payment problems before a single dollar was lost.

Seriously, I find it hard to follow SE's reasoning sometimes. I have a longtime joke with some friends that some of the head honchos at se have a bet going on with how long they can mess with their customers before they drive the company into the ground.

While some people are likely addicted enough to jump through whatever hoops they need to, I'm pretty much at the end of my line. I've been playing on and off since 2004, never had so much as a warning on my 4 accounts. I'm a legitimate person with a legitimate debit and credit card. I just wanna play the damn game and hang out with my friends. It wouldn't be so bad if I knew they were trying to fix stuff or help us, but they're so silent and god-awful slow with everything I find it hard to believe this is going to be fixed in a timely manner.... as a reference, there's a threadhere that's 100+ pages over several months with this same problem. (I realize this is for 14 but they use the same payment page on the Square Enix Account page).

My 30 day block is pretty close to the Warlord of Draenor release. I mostly just wanna say forget ffxi, but I'll likely try once my 30 day block is up, but if I see another 401 I think I'd rather just devote my time to WoW.. at least blizz treats their customers like actual human beings :/

[Pantafernando]

I often have similar problem, its not just my account that i pay monthly, so i really demand that this problem to be solved as fast as possible, because we cant be punished by your problematic payment system issues.

[Stompa]

Seriously, I find it hard to follow SE's reasoning sometimes. I have a longtime joke with some friends that some of the head honchos at se have a bet going on with how long they can mess with their customers before they drive the company into the ground.

While some people are likely addicted enough to jump through whatever hoops they need to, I'm pretty much at the end of my line. I've been playing on and off since 2004, never had so much as a warning on my 4 accounts. I'm a legitimate person with a legitimate debit and credit card. I just wanna play the damn game and hang out with my friends. It wouldn't be so bad if I knew they were trying to fix stuff or help us, but they're so silent and god-awful slow with everything I find it hard to believe this is going to be fixed in a timely manner.... as a reference, there's a threadhere that's 100+ pages over several months with this same problem. (I realize this is for 14 but they use the same payment page on the Square Enix Account page).

My 30 day block is pretty close to the Warlord of Draenor release. I mostly just wanna say forget ffxi, but I'll likely try once my 30 day block is up, but if I see another 401 I think I'd rather just devote my time to WoW.. at least blizz treats their customers like actual human beings :/

Yes.

I want to fight against incredibly tough monsters, not to fight against an incredibly tough payment system!

[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?