Losing a long time customer.

As a 10 year FFXI vet and owner of CE 1.0 legacy, I'm ashamed to say this game has become a disgrace. The game itself is decent, I would give it an 8/10 so far and would continue playing, but alas, after 12 hours they still refuse to take my money. I have tried calling, using live chat, and sending tickets. I am either ignored or told it is on my side and I am doing something wrong. 12 hours is plenty of time for them to at least address a problem like this. If you need a week to fix it, well I would be upset, but hey at least you would be informing me, THE PAYING CUSTOMER! I have never seen such shoddy customer service.

To be fair this game has been one fail after another. When no one in beta could log in I told myself, "It's beta, that's what it's for." Then the same errors carried over to live and I looked like an idiot for defending you. Duties were down for 2 days.

Then people couldn't log in. a common problem with mmo's but that also isn't an excuse. You disabled sales, you went cheap on servers, and make people wait 30 minutes to go into a dungeon with a full group.

TLDR- In this age of technology being plagued by technical issues is a terrible business model and one I can't support. I haven't decided if it means I will for sure quit even if this is resolved but I just can't be bothered to deal with your terrible excuse for customer service.

Ahm... Goodbye?

Ebaytoon everything you're saying is correct. Unfortunately they do not care. They should, but do not.

If you really think it's just a "sob story" I suggest you read this from another thread. In this persons case its SE flat our stealing from customers. The Fair Credit Billing Act is federal law, not a sob story.

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My conversation with an SE customer service agent via Live Chat. They aren't even worried about this issue.

Agent: Hello and thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support. Just a few moments while I review your question, please.
Agent: While I look over your ticket information, may I have your first name please?
You: *****
Agent: Hi ***** Error 601
Agent: ?
You: Yes
Agent: Ok usually the Square enix service is blocking the card. If you want the quickest resolution i would suggest purchasing a Ultimate pay card and you can use that to get crysta.Or you can wait 24 hours and try the card again.
You: The problem seems to be on your website. I spoke with my bank again and they have informed me that you were payed yesterday for my subscription. I should not be inactive.
Agent: One moment
You: My account and my husbands account are on subscription using the same bank account. Both payments were taken out yesterday at 8AM
Agent: And he has the days on his account and not on yours correct
You: No, we are both showing inactive
Agent: Ok
Agent: one moment
You: We even tried purchasing an Ultimate pay card and crysta, both got an Error 601. So, those do not work either.
You: We set up Automatic Renewal when we purchased Collectors Edition Upgrade.
Agent: Ok the Charges could still be pending and might go through later or might decline im not quite sure what is causing the issue but the best bet if you tried adding the card multiple times the account could be on hold for about 24 hours. so i would try again tomorrow after 1:30pm PST
You: No, the payment is not pending. You were payed.
You: You guys removed our payment information.
You: Reading the forums, there are numerous of people having this same issue.
You: When I spoke with my bank, you have received our payments. So the issue is on your end.
Agent: ok one moment please
Agent: Ok so I had one of my supervisors look at the account and the last charge that we see on the account was august 27th so it could just be waiting to show up on our side i do apologize for the inconvenience
Agent: Are there any different issues I can assist you with right now?
You: I want my account in active service.
Agent: Like I said the Charge may have been put on your bank but on our side we dont show any charge so i would wait till tomorrow and see if itll fix itself is the only thing i could recommend after 48 hours of your charge from the bank please call again and we could check to see if it has updated on our side
You: You guys took two 90 subscription amounts out of my account yesterday at 8am. I should have access to a service you already have been paid for.
You: 90 day*
Agent: Ok again please wait as it hasnt updated on our side so if it hasnt been fixed in 48 hours after the charge please contact us back
You: We have never had this issue before with any other games/service from SE.
You: Fine.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

Yeah a completely broken game we should all just shut up because who cares if you can't subscribe or play?!

Do you realize how stupid you sound?

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I question your definition of a 'completely broken game'. The game isn't broken... their customer service sucks.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

If you really think it's just a "sob story" I suggest you read this from another thread. In this persons case its SE flat our stealing from customers. The Fair Credit Billing Act is federal law, not a sob story.

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Denote... the Fair Credit Billing Act is a federal law..... in the United States. Square-Enix is based in Japan and as-such, only the NA branch would be subject to this law. However, because the NA branch isn't the branch that is actively engaged in billing (The NA branch of SE only provides service), then the billing department of SE is not subject to this law.

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Originally Posted by Malzian

I question your definition of a 'completely broken game'. The game isn't broken... their customer service sucks.

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So a large quantity of the player base is unable to play the game. How is that not completely broken?

That's weird. When I bought the game, they gave my serial code and two months after the charged it on my account, but I had the game meanwhile. I didn't pay for a suscription atm, but I wonder why it works backwards now... I hope I don't experience any issue when I new to renew my sub. Also, I was getting an error message when I tried to buy Crysta.

Ok I have seen this kind of thing before from another source, they are not "stealing" money, the system was set for automatic renewal, but you have to understand that your payment is no different from anyone elses and is likely backed up with the workload they currently have, my advice, wait a few days, go do something to keep yourself occupied and see if the payment either goes through or drops off from your account, the max time can go to 48 hrs for a payment to drop off on your records, however its odd how your bank never explained this process to you, the money might show has being "taken" out but its merely set aside, if it does drop off your account within 48 hrs then you might end up having to wait an additional 1-2 days for it to post. Usually problems like these are with your cards institution, I know visa can sometimes have difficulties processing online forms of payments from new sources.

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Originally Posted by Blaste

Ok I have seen this kind of thing before from another source, they are not "stealing" money, the system was set for automatic renewal, but you have to understand that your payment is no different from anyone elses and is likely backed up with the workload they currently have, my advice, wait a few days, go do something to keep yourself occupied and see if the payment either goes through or drops off from your account, the max time can go to 48 hrs for a payment to drop off on your records, however its odd how your bank never explained this process to you, the money might show has being "taken" out but its merely set aside, if it does drop off your account within 48 hrs then you might end up having to wait an additional 1-2 days for it to post. Usually problems like these are with your cards institution, I know visa can sometimes have difficulties processing online forms of payments from new sources.

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This wasn't me, was taken from a thread full of people having this issue, however, there is a large difference between a "pending charge" and them already taking the money as a confirmed payment.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

This wasn't me, was taken from a thread full of people having this issue, however, there is a large difference between a "pending charge" and them already taking the money as a confirmed payment.

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It happens, like I said I would wait a few days to see if it posts, if its declined then wait another 1-2 days after that to make sure the amount posts back to your account, if its accepted then you shouldn't have an issue with future payments. I know when I actually bought the game I had to wait 1-2 days for my order to completely go through, its an annoying process but if you stress over it too much bad things are bound to happen.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

So a large quantity of the player base is unable to play the game. How is that not completely broken?

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I reiterate... the game, in and of itself, from the standpoint of the software itself... is not broken. When you actually -are- able to connect and play, the game works fine with an acceptable amount of standard bugs.

It is the -servers- and the -customer service- that are to blame for people not being able to play. Two distinct entities... if you want to see a game that is completely broken, look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMnMOEB1zmE

There is a difference between a game that is unplayable under any conditions, where you can get in and nothing works at all (that would be completely broken) and a game that functions fine when you can get in, but simply are unable due to the service associated with that game being terrible.

after being a loyal customer for 10 years and a legacy player.. why would you wait till the last minute to subscribe?

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Originally Posted by RoosterAgathos

after being a loyal customer for 10 years and a legacy player.. why would you wait till the last minute to subscribe?

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even those of us who didnt wait are getting errors.

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Originally Posted by wingofbenu

even those of us who didnt wait are getting errors.

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Correct. I did not wait. I had a recurring plan set up, which was "declined" falsely. There are many with the same error. Square denies it has anything to do with them, even though it's very widespread.

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Originally Posted by RoosterAgathos

after being a loyal customer for 10 years and a legacy player.. why would you wait till the last minute to subscribe?

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You also have to understand when the game was in it's free days (till yesterday) with the welcome back campaign, when you login to mogstation and tried to make subscription payment it showed something like "You cannot make payment at this time since you still have free days" and the $ amount showed $0. It asked to come back after the free days are gone to make payment.

As for me I didn't buy that, so I checked and made sure all the credit card, address info is updated. And even though it showed $0 amount due, it still allowed me to hit the "NEXT" button so I did that to update my subscription plan to 180 days (it was already on 180 but just did it again to make sure).

So it's not 100% right to say that Legacy players was waiting till last minute, if you saw that error message and $0 + come back after free days are gone, any player would think that they have to wait till the last minute.

Ebaytoon, I'm sorry that you're going through this (seemingly typical) terrible service from SE. I'm also sorry that people see threads like this as "sob stories", when they are simply a last gasp from a dying customer.

Square Enix needs to know about the disgruntled customers, and those who are pooh-poohing everyone who makes unhappy threads quite simply do not know what customer feedback is, or why businesses need every bit of them - good, and bad.

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Originally Posted by Stumbleina

Ebaytoon, I'm sorry that you're going through this (seemingly typical) terrible service from SE. I'm also sorry that people see threads like this as "sob stories", when they are simply a last gasp from a dying customer.

Square Enix needs to know about the disgruntled customers, and those who are pooh-poohing everyone who makes unhappy threads quite simply do not know what customer feedback is, or why businesses need every bit of them - good, and bad.

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Thank you for understanding. I wish more people would care. Alas, they all do things like say "EA is the worst company I hate them so much" then they keep buying their games. A company could care less how much you hate them if you still pay their bills.

LOL that's awesome
SE Customer Service sucks so much! what are your options now?
Wait until the problem is fixed and stupid SE notice us and say they are sorry again!
or
Quit the game forever!

Good luck bro.

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Originally Posted by RoosterAgathos

after being a loyal customer for 10 years and a legacy player.. why would you wait till the last minute to subscribe?

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Agreed. It sounds a little weird and fishy...

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Originally Posted by wingofbenu

even those of us who didnt wait are getting errors.

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Not all of us. No errors here. I even added my card on my friends account today, without problems.

I feel that these posts are necessary in order to help Square Enix get their act together and let them know how bad things really are. I've been with SE since the Final Fantasy I NES days and it saddens me to see how far they've fallen.

I think at this point I'm pretty much done with this game as well. I might give them another chance once the next expansion comes out, but we'll see. I have so many backlogged games to play anyways so I'm good. I feel really bad for Yoshi-P as him and his team have put together such a great reboot but the fans cannot enjoy it due to Square Enix's lackluster Customer Support. Such a pity.

SE has always been infamous for their terrible methods of taking money. It's funny because you'd think they would WANT people to continue paying... Back when pay-to-play was first introduced in 1.0 (after the game was fixed enough to actually be worthy of a paid subscription), some countries were COMPLETELY excluded from being able to play. I forget exactly which ones, but my LS had a few people from Asian countries who could not sign up to pay, even if they wanted to. They needed to have a billing address in one of the 'accepted' countries. That caused a huge uproar. I assume the people who chose that third-party pay service were reprimanded and/or fired. It was eventually fixed, and these excluded people came back. Some did not out of protest.

The representative that was spoken to in the log OP posted on the first page doesn't seem very knowledgeable. I'm particularly disturbed by the lack of correct spelling/grammar. Now, I'm not going to judge someone on these forums for typing that way. Whatever. I can still understand it. But a professional who is supposed to be representing a company? Ugh...

I updated my credit card information a few weeks ago when I knew the 'pay-to-play' charge was coming. I'm glad I did. I received the confirmation e-mail. It is my understanding that some companies will automatically 'flag' charges coming from other countries (for example, Japan) and you will need to talk to your bank to approve this charge every month. It seems the OP has already contacted the bank, so it must be an issue on SE's end.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

Yeah a completely broken game we should all just shut up because who cares if you can't subscribe or play?!

Do you realize how stupid you sound?

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Not as bad as you sound... you sure are sticking around long enough for someone who is no longer a customer of SE (or so you say).

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Originally Posted by Eshura

Not as bad as you sound... you sure are sticking around long enough for someone who is no longer a customer of SE (or so you say).

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"I haven't decided if it means I will for sure quit even if this is resolved"

That's part of my original post. Why bother posting if you aren't going to read. Also it is as bad as it sounds. When almost every 1.0 player can't sub the game is broken. If you say otherwise you are a fool.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

"I haven't decided if it means I will for sure quit even if this is resolved"

That's part of my original post. Why bother posting if you aren't going to read. Also it is as bad as it sounds. When almost every 1.0 player can't sub the game is broken. If you say otherwise you are a fool.

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Don't worry about her, she has her own complaint thread going. Some people just want to be annoying.

Ebaytoon, there's no point arguing with these people. To them, since they've never experienced wars or world hunger first hand, it doesn't exist. Nothing we can do about ignorant people other than to spread the word and hope for the best. :)

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

This wasn't me, was taken from a thread full of people having this issue, however, there is a large difference between a "pending charge" and them already taking the money as a confirmed payment.

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Money transfer aren't always an instant thing. While it shows that the money has left your account, it will often show pending to the destination, up to three days in some cases depending on where the money transfers to. Most domestic money transfers are done within 24 hours while international ones could take up to three days.

You should do like the support rep asked and wait a day, and if it hasn't cleared up by then, contact them again.

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Originally Posted by Orophin

Money transfer aren't always an instant thing. While it shows that the money has left your account, it will often show pending to the destination, up to three days in some cases depending on where the money transfers to. Most domestic money transfers are done within 24 hours while international ones could take up to three days.

You should do like the support rep asked and wait a day, and if it hasn't cleared up by then, contact them again.

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He even quotes it where the first words say it wasn't me and yet still tries to give me advice? First off you can wait all the time you want, doesn't matter because you either a) Can't actually get in contact with anyone or B) They just blow you off and tell you it's YOUR fault.

Sucks for you I've been playing fine since release their was a time when they fixed servers and I haven't encountered a single error code since. So peace out enjoy life... Just a warning It will be full of difficulties and disappointments. If you can't handle something as simple as a video game not letting you log in without doing this dramatic display of whining you will not make it far. No one wants a whiner in a position that dictates authority.

Learn from this and Grow up.. welcome to being a big boy and wearing responsibility pants.

:D;):)Cheers for Ebaytoon

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Originally Posted by Melopahn

Sucks for you I've been playing fine since release their was a time when they fixed servers and I haven't encountered a single error code since. So peace out enjoy life... Just a warning It will be full of difficulties and disappointments. If you can't handle something as simple as a video game not letting you log in without doing this dramatic display of whining you will not make it far. No one wants a whiner in a position that dictates authority.

Learn from this and Grow up.. welcome to being a big boy and wearing responsibility pants.

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aw, how cute. she thinks her opinion matters.

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Originally Posted by Melopahn

Sucks for you I've been playing fine since release their was a time when they fixed servers and I haven't encountered a single error code since. So peace out enjoy life... Just a warning It will be full of difficulties and disappointments. If you can't handle something as simple as a video game not letting you log in without doing this dramatic display of whining you will not make it far. No one wants a whiner in a position that dictates authority.

Learn from this and Grow up.. welcome to being a big boy and wearing responsibility pants.

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And you won't get far in life if every time someone wants to rip you off you bend over and lube yourself up. You are like one of those gun control nuts saying "Don't shoot people robbing you. Hide and let them steal everything you own." Well I'm sorry this is a product I spent money on and I have every right and in fact I am obligated to voice it. I wish I could live the fun life and mooch off my parents money like you so I wouldn't have to worry when I got ripped off but when you work hard for your money you become upset when it's stolen from you.

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Originally Posted by Melopahn

Sucks for you I've been playing fine since release their was a time when they fixed servers and I haven't encountered a single error code since. So peace out enjoy life... Just a warning It will be full of difficulties and disappointments. If you can't handle something as simple as a video game not letting you log in without doing this dramatic display of whining you will not make it far. No one wants a whiner in a position that dictates authority.

Learn from this and Grow up.. welcome to being a big boy and wearing responsibility pants.

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So....DON'T stand up for your rights and when people and businesses treat you like dirt, TAKE IT.

Um....NO THANKS. Learn to differentiate whining and a formal complaint.

You can wear your pants...I'm going to wear shorts because I'm so hot...from BEING ON FIRE.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

"I haven't decided if it means I will for sure quit even if this is resolved"

That's part of my original post. Why bother posting if you aren't going to read. Also it is as bad as it sounds. When almost every 1.0 player can't sub the game is broken. If you say otherwise you are a fool.

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Shhhhhh, EBT! (lol... your initials are for food stamps...) Don't feed the trolls! *Hands Ebaytoon a troll-thwacking stick*

"So it's not 100% right to say that Legacy players was waiting till last minute, if you saw that error message and $0 + come back after free days are gone, any player would think that they have to wait till the last minute. "

This is true. I am in this same boat. I registered a payment method, it was showing automatic renewal on the account. Today, I go to log on, and it says I don't have a service account active. The site bleeped my payment info, and now has me inactive. The card information was just gone.

I re-entered, it confirmed, I checked the account the debit card is tied to, confirmed the transaction from SE for $1, and still, no active account. I noted that there still was no payment info. I resubmitted, thinking it was a fluke. Second attempt confirmed, validated the charge on the debit acct, and still, nothing on the web site.

I had some serious headaches with SE in FFXI about taking my CC. The validated visa trip is still stuck in my head, if they do not get busy and get this correct, I really don't think I am going to even try to put much effort into fixing this problem. I spent well over 12 hours in 3 days and still didn't get my problem resolved by SE back in 2010, and no way am I going that way again. At this point I have an EMAIL ticket posted for several hours, and am on hold on the phone playing ring around the rosey with their recording.

To the best of my knowledge, when they put a hold on a total with a merchant account, that means a sale is pending, and has not shipped yet. In this instance, that would a simple validation of the CC info to insure it was valid. To subscribe, the second they get a transaction number, they are obligated to provide that product. If they take a subscription payment, it should be for a subscription that was activated when they submitted the payment, not a pending subscription. Visa and MC and AMEX are all pretty much the same on this issue, if they don't provide that product then all they can do in put in a hold on the funds. This can be verified by the bank, that the funds are on hold and not actually removed from the account. That's where my 2x 1 dollar transactions are.

The SE billing system is arcane, it needs a serious update to modern standards. If I am subjected to this much more, I will never touch another SE product again.

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Originally Posted by Ebaytoon

He even quotes it where the first words say it wasn't me and yet still tries to give me advice? First off you can wait all the time you want, doesn't matter because you either a) Can't actually get in contact with anyone or B) They just blow you off and tell you it's YOUR fault.

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Soooo...you're posting for someone else then?

What I said still applies either way. Money transfers aren't instant. Even with Paypal they're the guarantors of that money because they're essentially a banking institution. Even though you instantly receive your money, it still takes them time on their end to make sure everything clears.

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Originally Posted by Orophin

Soooo...you're posting for someone else then?

What I said still applies either way. Money transfers aren't instant. Even with Paypal they're the guarantors of that money because they're essentially a banking institution. Even though you instantly receive your money, it still takes them time on their end to make sure everything clears.

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Pending charges =/= Charges. There is a clear difference and you can see them with online banking.

Send your items to me if you not playing ya =D
Thank you so much and have a nice day

I had this too. It showed I owed nothing. I should still hav 17 days left but they cancelled my subscription.

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Originally Posted by Blaste

It happens, like I said I would wait a few days to see if it posts, if its declined then wait another 1-2 days after that to make sure the amount posts back to your account, if its accepted then you shouldn't have an issue with future payments. I know when I actually bought the game I had to wait 1-2 days for my order to completely go through, its an annoying process but if you stress over it too much bad things are bound to happen.

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I was the one who Ebaytoon quoted the conversation from. I will have you know that AFTER this conversation with SE, I spoke in great lengths to my bank. The only way for us to see that money again is to get SE to refund it to us. THEY HAVE THE PAYMENTS!! THEY HAVE ALREADY PROCESSED!! THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN TRANSMITTED!! Otherwise I would have been able to do a stop payment on the transaction. You may be able to sit idly by while a company takes $100 out of your account for a service you can't access but, I will not! That is stealing!

Yeah you look pretty stupid for saying that. you said "we" as if we all agree with YOU. Uh.... no.