Nice knowing you FFXIV

It is almost midnight here in the UK as of writing this.

I've been getting error 601'd with the same card I used to pay (without any issue whatsoever) my FFXI account. My other CC gets the same result. I had the same issue yesterday but hoped this was some kind of fluke. So, I queued into the chat support website and waited for two hours to try to sort this out.

This is the result of my patience. I was watching the screen like a hawk when it was down to me being the second person in the queue:

Chat Close A connection to the Chat Server has been established successfully.
Status: Canceled
Searching for an available agent
You have been re-queued.
You have left the queue. If you still need assistance please try back later.
You have left the queue. We hope you have found what you were looking for.
There are no agents available to chat with you right now. Please try again later.
There are no agents available to chat with you right now. Please try again later.

I don't really have words to properly voice my frustration at this. It's not like I was one of those people who went charging up Square-Enix with my +1 Sword of Nerdrage at all the server issues or anything. It is certainly not lost on me that some people out there, frankly, are madly in love with the concept of being able to inflict grief on others for whatever imagined offense or grudge it is they hope to see righted by lashing out at as many issues as possible. I'm not one of them.

Square-Enix, this was something truly monumentally wrong. Forget the customer service grievance for a moment. To be sure, this IS atrocious customer service, but I want to identify and talk about how UTTERLY unecessary it was for me to be waiting til damn near midnight tonight (I'm in London on business in case you missed my preface) to have the door shut in my face in the first place. Let me get on with it.

WHY? Why is it that I've had to make the juggle from a PlayOnline account to a Square-Enix account (SURPRISE! I'm a very long-time customer!) only for you to implement this Mogstation malarky? I mean, when I signed up for XIV 1.0, all of this stuff just worked. When I was playing XI, it just worked. I've used the same bank card for all of it and not even a whiff of trouble was to be had. Now I can't even see straight from my eyes popping out of my head in anger that not only is this card not being accepted for XIV, but it seems like one of my other cards isn't making the cut either...

And the real kicker is? The coup de-grace here is that you guys are adamantly championing the monthly-fee traditional MMO here. HOW ON EARTH are you going to up and change your billing system to something so utterly and clearly broken and unusable at a time like this? ARR is supposed to be a wake-up call and you ended up fudging the only thing that worked for not only FFXI but also XIV 1.0! The ineptitude being demonstrated by whatever CSR hosed me in chat is merely a symptom of what is obviously going on with Square-Enix. You guys are utterly hopeless. I simply cannot imagine spending my hard-earned money on this game when it has seemed to take every single last opportunity to put me in interface with this agonizing menagerie of nonsense.

All you had to do was just let the Square-Enix account system start billing me. I had the service pipped to go active months and months ago. This didn't have to happen at all. Good night.

Take care~

I was getting the same issue. Looked up other people having the same problem, found a solution (getting crysta via paypal) and now I'm subscribed. Even doing that wasn't nearly as big a hassle as playonline ever was (at least when it first came out).

This is off topic, but SCREW PLAYONLINE! I bought FFIX strategy guide when it first came out and half the info was: To find out how to beat xxxx, go to www.playonline.com.

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Originally Posted by Hrethnar

I was getting the same issue. Looked up other people having the same problem, found a solution (getting crysta via paypal) and now I'm subscribed. Even doing that wasn't nearly as big a hassle as playonline ever was (at least when it first came out).

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That's what I ended up doing. I bought a $25 gift card, sent it through a paypal account and bought 2000 crysta. After I tried the card and got fail with SE.

It's them, not us. I had the same issue with Wushu. I've told them a hundred times, they need the Postal Code for verification. It works like a second cv number but they never do it.

This is random conspiracy, but I can see similar congestion issues with their account paying. A lot of people got dumped yesterday and had to start paying. I've heard more than one person say it was giving them issue, then later worked without a hic up.

This isn't even SE's issue. The error means your bank or card issuer is blocking the charge and you need to call them. Most likely between FFXI and ARR they changed billing providers (you do not actually pay SE directly, it goes through a broker who handles the credit transactions and pays SE).

It's annoying that you have to do it this way but I would say... save yourself the headache, use Ultimate Pay > choose Paypal > buy the exact amount of crysta you need and be done with it.

There's a lot of things wrong with the game at the moment, but the biggest by far (for SE) is their payment errors (it's been around since FFXI switched to the 3D secure method of payment).


If you still want to pay with a bank card, I'd still suggest doing the crysta method first to get that off your mind and start playing the game, then get in the customer support queue right at their opening hours, because they will kick you out at their closing time.

*EDIT* Wow, the forum mods have been active. The 3 negative posts above me were wiped out. :O

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Originally Posted by Eclipsed

This isn't even SE's issue. The error means your bank or card issuer is blocking the charge and you need to call them. Most likely between FFXI and ARR they changed billing providers (you do not actually pay SE directly, it goes through a broker who handles the credit transactions and pays SE).

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That's just not accurate. Why did they change the billing system at the 11th hour? It sounds like I'm not the only one having this issue. They should seriously be considering having some negotiations with this new billing partner. The main brunt of players aren't even being billed as of yet. That's the scary part.

You have to go around their new billing system to buy Crysta seems to be the answer? If a third party vendor was this bad at the firm I work at, they would get crucified. Then again, we actually test products before inflicting them on our employees. Good day.

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Originally Posted by Kittra

It's annoying that you have to do it this way but I would say... save yourself the headache, use Ultimate Pay > choose Paypal > buy the exact amount of crysta you need and be done with it.

There's a lot of things wrong with the game at the moment, but the biggest by far (for SE) is their payment errors (it's been around since FFXI switched to the 3D secure method of payment).


If you still want to pay with a bank card, I'd still suggest doing the crysta method first to get that off your mind and start playing the game, then get in the customer support queue right at their opening hours, because they will kick you out at their closing time.

*EDIT* Wow, the forum mods have been active. The 3 negative posts above me were wiped out. :O

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Order Description: Square Enix Crysta
Invoice ID: blahblahbleeblerbleeblah
Date: Sep 19, 2013
Time: 14:40:18 PDT
Status: Canceled

The seller canceled this payment, and the money has been returned to your account.

So now, I really don't know what SE's problem is. SURE DO WISH I COULD HAVE TALKED TO A CSR AND FIGURED THIS OUT!

While it may not help with your credit card issue, you can buy a 60 day time cards from most online retailers here in the UK.

I also know that Tesco has them online and in store, so if you don't want to wait for delivery just find your closest Tesco Extra and pick up one.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=279221714

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Originally Posted by Keota

While it may not help with your credit card issue, you can buy a 60 day time cards from most online retailers here in the UK.

I also know that Tesco has them online and in store, so if you don't want to wait for delivery just find your closest Tesco Extra and pick up one.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=279221714

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Bless your soul! I went to GAME at the Westfield mall and the girl at the counter looked at me with some dismay as I explained to her that I was looking for an Ultimate Gaming Card. By any chance, do you think there would be an issue using this with an American FFXIV account?

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Originally Posted by Lefein

Bless your soul! I went to GAME at the Westfield mall and the girl at the counter looked at me with some dismay as I explained to her that I was looking for an Ultimate Gaming Card. By any chance, do you think there would be an issue using this with an American FFXIV account?

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Ah, unfortunately I don't think so. Last I checked the NA accounts don't have the option for Game Timecards as they are not released over there :(

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Originally Posted by Keota

Ah, unfortunately I don't think so. Last I checked the NA accounts don't have the option for Game Timecards as they are not released over there :(

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Yeah, and their account system is so crap, you can't change your country. I was going to update my address but it freaks out for not selecting a state. One would suppose London is not in Texas, yes?

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Originally Posted by Jynxii

I'll be blatantly honest and say I skipped through most of your post, however I had a similar issue and it turned out using Internet Explorer (shudder) let the payment go through just fine, while Firefox/Chrome kept giving me the 601 error. Have you tried using Internet Explorer?

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I did precisely that after reading up on the issue after the first night my cards got rejected. I appreciate your constructiveness. In fact, after the PayPal payment was rejected last night, I'm starting to think I won't be able to play XIV at all or until I get back to the US. I'm utterly defeated by this. ..and not about to even consider going through customer service after my last experience. I don't know what's wrong and it looks like I'll never know what's wrong.

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Originally Posted by Erendis

The problem is probably with your bank.

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I'm shopping with these cards online and offline with no issues. Only problems I've had are with FFXIV and the Crysta system.

I'll be blatantly honest and say I skipped through most of your post, however I had a similar issue and it turned out using Internet Explorer (shudder) let the payment go through just fine, while Firefox/Chrome kept giving me the 601 error. Have you tried using Internet Explorer?

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Originally Posted by Lefein

until I get back to the US.

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The problem is probably with your bank.

Are you running NoScript? I kept getting the same Error 601 and found out that NoScript was blocking the site that SE uses for credit card verification (or whatever it it that Global Collect does).