No updates about payment issues on EU lodestone despite EU players are in trouble too

Hello,

occasionally there have been updates related to payment somewhere, first on the JP side, then on NA. This morning another one appeared on NA that may or may not be related to this issue with a lack of payment options.

On EU so far there was radio silence. Plenty of people all over the world - which ofc includes EU - have big issues with Visa Debit payments just as much as in NA, and I'm sure this tax thing affects everyone as well. Treating this as if this would be a local issue is outrageous. Don't ignore our payment problems, please! It wasn't even mentioned at all in the last Live Letter, even though one would assume communicating with the customer about them staying customers would have a high priority.

I don't know if the source of the issue is the same, maybe the system can't deal with debit cards in general or with cards that act as a debit card but have other functions as well (like Carte Bleue in France for example). Other people have trouble confirming their address because of SE's backwards system of not letting you change country, because apparently the idea of people moving once or twice in their lifetime doesn't exist in their minds. (Or their country isn't listed to begin with and they literally cannot enter a correct address. Not sure to how many people this applies in EU specifically, but many players from other non supported regions play over here as well.)

However, long story short, plenty of people outside of NA and JP have severe issues paying money, a thing SE would very much like from us to have, at least I assume that much. And they don't even so much as acknowledge it by making posts on all lodestone versions? If the issue is complex and can't be solved easily, it sucks, but not even get a lodestone post with an update on all versions is unacceptable. Do we not exist for you? Are you not interested in having non-NA and non-JP customers and their money?

(See the thread from Egnasya for more info about why the other alternatives aren't actual alternatives:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...payment-method
Many of these methods are also not available in all regions. Not everyone can buy Crysta or Paysafecards.)

Please keep us updated about this problem internationally, this is not a regional problem, and especially the thing with mismatching addresses because of your outdated regional system is not even a new problem to begin with.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Minali

Hello,

occasionally there have been updates related to payment somewhere, first on the JP side, then on NA. This morning another one appeared on NA that may or may not be related to this issue with a lack of payment options.

On EU so far there was radio silence.https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...payment-method
Many of these methods are also not available in all regions. Not everyone can buy Crysta or Paysafecards.)

Please keep us updated about this problem internationally, this is not a regional problem, and especially the thing with mismatching addresses because of your outdated regional system is not even a new problem to begin with. [...]

---

The new message is about the addition of local taxes where applicable, that is not displayed on the price indicated by SE. IIRC, in Europe, you need to display a "all taxes included" price, thus it does not concern us. That's why there is nothing on EU lodestone about that.

That sure doesn't explain why they still didn't note the existence of the visa debit problem 22 days after acknowledging it in Japan and US. But I love how they indicate new changes for a week before DT without talking about hte elephant in the room. I can see hangover at SE coming, when they'll see that despite the launch of dawntrail, the numbers don't grow up as much as they expect because people can't pay or fear to use the mogstation/shop so their automatic renewal subscription is not switched to the new payment processor. They needed that after their year numbers.

Classic SE, shooting their cashcow down when they need it the most.

I suspect the new payment vendor is specifically based in the US/NA, rather than Europe that I presume the previous one was, which would explain why some European-specific payment methods were now no longer available by design, and possibly the lack of oversight in regards to debit cards in general (unlike the Visa debit card issue, the new vendor not accepting European-specific cards like Carte-Bleu was always planned and stated was going to happen - SE warned about it before the new payment vendor was implemented).

As for why SE even changed over to another payment vendor? It's almost definetely because of fraud/card stealing - this new vendor probably has a tighter card security protocol than the previous one (as this was also the reason why SE recently stopped allowing the gifting of mounts and minion codes on the Online Store as well - because players were using stolen account and card data to buy said mounts/minions, 'gifting' the code to their real accounts, and redeeming them, essentially getting online store codes for free.).

Of course SE are fully entitled and expected to crack down on card/account fraud (because it ultimately costs them money when the account/card holder whose details have been stolen contacts their bank, the bank initaties a chargeback against the card to SE, costing them revenue. Unfortunately the problem with this new vendor is it's basically been throwing the baby out with the bathwater - affecting players with fully legitimate cards that were formerly working fine. There is no quick fix to this I can see (apart from SE putting a temporary pause on moving people to the new system until the vendor fixes the Visa issue, but I don't see that happening alas).

Look at that, a unicorn appeared, and it brings positive news - for our fellow French Warriors of Light at least. :)

https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...f8bbe58cd4cbea

Can we Germans please have SEPA back now? :D Selfish request aside though, I am glad they finally acknowledged there have been issues in EU, and are in the process of solving some of them.

My sub renews in 2 days and it's on a visa debit.. can't use it to buy optional items on the mogstation now so I am afraid :(