I is sadsauce

So this is general I suppose, and somewhat game related. I have been a recurring subscriber since launch, and it was a PITA to get my payment method set up due to me being stationed overseas. SE really needs to get that sorted out, a lot of players use different data centers from where they reside and for some reason that seems to be an issue when trying to process payments and register methods of payment.

I received an email today of an error while processing payment, for the first time and due to that error my subscription is cancelled. It's understandable to have it cancelled but I am at a loss as to why. Everything on my end is fine, yet, when I attempt to process the payment I get the lovely 601 error. When I attempt to update the payment info I get the 401 error. It has always been this way.

I think I got lucky when I was actually able to get my payment method to register. Heck I had to contact support to do a server transfer. ; ;

Now I have to wait to get in contact with support to see what's up and for them to resolve the issue, which is another 6 hours away. Anyone else have related issues or exact experience? If so what was the resolution? TIA

so yea...sad sauce.

I dunno what your family situation is on if you can trust them with your debit/cc info and to get them to log into the site for you and just set up a reoccurring. I was in your situation initially as I was in Japan and before going to a different base back in Japan I was home in the states and managed to reup my sub there and put it as a reoccurring monthly payment and been smooth sailing ever since.

Are you using Google Chrome as your current browser when trying to pay the subscription fee? Try using Firefox, Google Chrome has security features that blocks these types of transaction (for certain users).

Thanks for the replies. Shin, it no workie. Alkaid, good suggestion, just bugs me though that I got it to go through over a year ago, and now, error pops. Guess I'll just have to wait till opening hours for support ; ;

Best of luck be a shame if this does prevent you. Another suggestion I might suggest while a bit hit or miss is to get a VPN if you don't. I have one to access stuff like netflix since I live out in town instead of on base and you might be able get it that way if SE support is no good.

A quick primer on how SE's billing system works:

If your card is declined or otherwise fails to process for any reason, a 24 hour block is made on your account for billing. No matter how correct your card details are, attempting to re-register your card will fail. To add insult to injury, every time you try, this timer will be reset back to 24 hours.

This means that you need to wait over 24 hours before you try again if you want it to succeed. It's dumb, yes, but it's worse that it doesn't explain this anywhere.

Last time my account got locked like this, it was because my address had changed. Had to update my address from the Square Enix account site, as that's what it sends to your bank when verifying your card. Dozens of attempts to register my card failed, but after reading about this little 24 hour lockout nugget somewhere, I waited two days, just to be sure, and bam worked first time.

1) Make sure your card/bank/address details are definitely correct.
2) Wait over 24 hours before trying again.

If you can't wait that long for whatever reason, you can still apply game time to your account using a time card, I believe.

I suffered from this problem. Talk to your bank via phone. You can use skype through the internet and dial their number on the back of your card and the bank will pay for the call. Ask your bank to put a travel note on your card. They will ask you what country(s) you are visiting and how long you will be visiting.

A travel note will allow card transactions to be automatically authorized when your card is used from a specified foreign IP or location. Every time you swipe that card a feature called geolocation triggers and sends information on the location of the attempted transaction, for fraud and theft prevention.

As for me, my bank is Bank of America, they put a travel note on my card and its valid for 6 months until i have to call them again.

EDIT: additionally to better your chances ask the bank rep to authorize all payment made to Square-enix (segundo). The people you will talk to for a travel note have clearance to do these kinds of things.

After thats done wait 24 hours before trying to charge a subscription to your card.

It's not on your end, this is entirely SE's fault. Here's hoping they add Paypal back soon or else I won't be resubbing either, not really because I don't want to though I really don't want to as much, but because I can't due to their credit card process and previous issues.

I ended up having to switch to buying game cards from amazon to continue to play the game after billing broke on me.

YOu can use ultimate pay with paypal to topup on your crysta's. Another method is getting 60-day cards. In europe you can get those for under the 20euros, not sure how much they are for the US accounts, though.

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Originally Posted by NoahArks

YOu can use ultimate pay with paypal to topup on your crysta's. Another method is getting 60-day cards. In europe you can get those for under the 20euros, not sure how much they are for the US accounts, though.

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Ultimate Pay/Paypal was discontinued.

Around the same time as this; http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...3368969ee71d38

This also happened a friend of mine. He ended up having to do a time card because SE still couldn't approve his card after 3 days...even though he waited past the 24 hour mark.

That sucks about the time card is that if you have retainers, you can't pay for them :/ Such a bad system...

Yea, I am a bit miffed. I sent an email (lol...) and am still waiting on a response. Holidays and all though. Dumb thing is it's been chugging along for over a year, and then suddenly, error. SE's billing system is pretty sorry. I wonder if I switched my support center to Europe if that might make a difference...

Sucks I can't play right now as we are kinda close on finishing t9 and were planning on starting FCoB, but not that big a deal. Two things will happen here I believe, either they will fix it (again...lol) or I will have to do a time card.

Thanks for all the replies and hope to see you all in game soon!

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Originally Posted by Synestr

Thanks for all the replies and hope to see you all in game soon!

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I was in the same boat being stationed overseas. For some reason payments just started working again one day. Up until that point I was using Crysta and Game Time cards. Amazon.com now offers the 60day cards digitally here: http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-...FXIV+time+card

Hope it helps. Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to you good sir!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vespar

I was in the same boat being stationed overseas. For some reason payments just started working again one day. Up until that point I was using Crysta and Game Time cards. Amazon.com now offers the 60day cards digitally here: http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-...FXIV+time+card

Hope it helps. Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to you good sir!

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I'm still fully of the belief they need to move to having Square Enix Crysta Cards instead of the gametime cards in countries/regions that accept crysta. it would solve a lot of issues