Terrible Payment System

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Jennestia!

I cant pay with UltimatePay/Paypal, and i can't pay with direct Credit/Debit card, they only offer me Click&Buy and they stated that my card region is not accepted. so how? :<

[Chocobits]

We have all read the statement by the reps that SE is looking into an alternate payment methods for FFXI. What we haven't read, however, was an explanation why direct payment was withdrawn from all but JP region players.. make your own countrymen jump through the hoops before enacting ludicrous a ludicrous payment policy. I wanna see the JP playerbase stumped with the same payment screen that was the subject of my censored signature. I'll buy Crysta the same day JP players are told they can't buy it in exact amounts or that they need to enroll in CnB to pay with CC. Until then, SE is trolling us.

[Catapult]

Just to recap, so I don't have to start baking cream pies for people to toss...

- Crysta IS an option, but it is not a solution. At best, it forms PART of a solution.

- People are more likely to trust the advice of their banking institution when a payment bounces than they are the advice of an overseas company. While ClickandBuy indeed is possible to use in foreign countries, they appear to have not sought to meet relevant international financial standards that would cause them to avoid being red-flagged by suspicious banks.

ClickandBuy has its uses as a payment option, but as a system that is based in the UK and Germany and clearly optimized for small purchases in those areas for local online shopping, it again is not a solution on its own. Through correspondence related in final fantasy forums (official and otherwise), ClickandBuy have also demonstrated that they are not set up properly to handle an international market.

Only a wide spread of payment options will be able to accommodate all players. My estimate is that current appropriate coverage is about 60%. I would want it to be closer to 200% so that each player would have on average two viable payment options they could go with, offering a feeling of control and choice to the customer.

Let us not forget that there are people like me who have been able to set up their ClickandBuy accounts without verifying their credit card through them yet, meaning they do not yet know if their payment options will bounce - if it bounces come pay2play, that will be what makes my decision for me as I trust in my bank and my country's (Australia's) financial regulations.

So there is a lot of work to do. I am expecting some heads to turn on September 1st when the PlayOnline>SquareEnix account conversion rates are interpreted by Square Enix accountants. Things should then get mighty interesting.

((I am trying to be more moderate in my posts on this topic, as it is my hope that Squeenix will respond better to a more calm and collected person presenting intelligent arguments.))

[Eunys]

You can tell people who don't read a thread before posting like Jennestia. If he/she/it would have read the thread they would know that some people don't even have options of paying, because the ones made available in FFXIV and FFXI can't be used in some countries. Forget all the C&B stuff, forget the Paypal, UltimatePay, heck forget FFXIV even since it's currently F2P. There is just no way SE will be able to make it if their players can't even pay their subscriptions.

Neither FFXIV or FFXI can make it much longer if people can't pay. Before any other uninformed people post take the time and read the thread.

[Kio]

I wonder what SE's actual contract is with Click 'N' Buy. They may have clauses that don't allow them to start up their own billing or join with a competitive service. If they break or violate a contract it would be likely heavy financial punishment and some court issues.

Unfortunately, I still think this is absolutely necessary for the future survival of this game to reinstate direct billing.

[Rannie]

I wonder what SE's actual contract is with Click 'N' Buy. They may have clauses that don't allow them to start up their own billing or join with a competitive service. If they break or violate a contract it would be likely heavy financial punishment and some court issues.

Unfortunately, I still think this is absolutely necessary for the future survival of this game to reinstate direct billing.

Sometimes though if enough is enough though or something major happens it doesn't matter what the contract is... I work for a call center and we used to own the Philips Magnavox contract for support on their tvs vcrs... and after a year of working there while we still owned the contract Philips pulled out or whatever and had a drastic change on what they did... (Aka now Funai is making their tvs so they have their own call center for support). So they broke the contract with us and I had to move to a different que or not have a job at all.

So even then if there's a big enough fuss they can break contract.

[KaiKatzchen]

You can tell people who don't read a thread before posting like Jennestia. If he/she/it would have read the thread they would know that some people don't even have options of paying, because the ones made available in FFXIV and FFXI can't be used in some countries. Forget all the C&B stuff, forget the Paypal, UltimatePay, heck forget FFXIV even since it's currently F2P. There is just no way SE will be able to make it if their players can't even pay their subscriptions.

Neither FFXIV or FFXI can make it much longer if people can't pay. Before any other uninformed people post take the time and read the thread.

I agree, while I am not a fan of Click & Buy this thread is about more than just that company. They are just easy to complain about due to them having such a bad reputation, banks tells people not to use them, having fraud charges etc.

I feel this is more about the lack of choices, if you take away the names these are the issues with payment::

-People can use a company with complaints against them that EU banks have said are unsafe

or

- People can spend MORE money per month than is necessary to buy fake money to pay for their account.


Those are the choices, then you have the issues of:

-Some only get Crysta as an options

-Some only get Click and Buy as an option

-Some get both, yes, but both choices kinda suck its like a rock and a hard place, do I wanna pay more per month with my real money so I can buy fake money so I can pay for my game.
OR
Do I want to trust a shady company that has many complains on them that will charge me 5.9% every time they pull money from my acct every month because I don't use the EUR or the GBP so that's the charge for an exchange rate.

-Some don't have any option payments at all and can't even give SE their money if it goes P2P.


I know some are saying that we don't have to pay yet so why complain because it's not a problem yet. Well do you wait for your car to break down to fix an issue? No, if you think you have an issue to take care of it BEFORE it causes more damage.

FFXI players are already having issues, I do not want to have those same issues. I would rather them know now that people either don't like the choices or don't have ANY choices so they have time to fix it, which with their post over on FFXI forums it seems 'they are looking into it'.

Also can people please keep this on topic... and new people to the thread please read what people have said so you understand the concerns that have already been raised.

Thank you.

[SilvertearRen]

Thought this would be an amusing thought to share:

ClickandBuy Maintenance Notification

Square Enix did us the courtesy of notifying us when ClickandBuy would not be up. This tells me that they are very buddy-buddy with ClickandBuy...

And that is not a very comforting thought at all. It tells me they will oppose having any competition over Square Enix subscriptions, but if Square Enix wants to save themselves from the fires of hell, I'm sure they will need to offer an alternative.

You know what strikes me as really odd? The lack of a PayPal option with ClickandBuy. I would have been willing to accept CnB with that, because then I would not have to worry about my Credit Card being compromised, and I would be afforded greater protections by PayPal.

This tells me that CnB really wants our credit card information, and I don't think it's for a noble purpose.

P.S. ClickandBuy still has not responded to my complaints and requests for customer service. It's now the second week of waiting for a response. If I do not get a response in three weeks, I think it would be a good reason for Square Enix to quit CnB. The lack of customer service is actually a violation of U.S. consumer protection law.

[Chocobits]

Square Enix is now removing ALL references of Click and Buy from signatures, even non-inflammatory ones. We realize it's your forums and you can do whatever you want with them, but that denial of peaceful protest is pretty low of you.

*edited this part out* If you would like to truly regain the trust of the playerbase, to quote Yoshida, a strong first step would be to stop moderating the hell out of references to your payment bedfellows and LISTEN to the playerbase. You're being given the opportunity to listen, but you keep telling people to shut up. That's not how trust works; and trust (real) trust means trust from everyone and not just your Japanese playerbase.

If you agree with me, apparently thumbs up on OPs and constructive feedback aren't enough. Copy my sig and include it in your own.

[mysterytaru]

Square Enix is now removing ALL references of Click and Buy from signatures, even non-inflammatory ones. We realize it's your forums and you can do whatever you want with them, but that denial of peaceful protest is pretty low of you.

*edited this part out* If you would like to truly regain the trust of the playerbase, to quote Yoshida, a strong first step would be to stop moderating the hell out of references to your payment bedfellows and LISTEN to the playerbase. You're being given the opportunity to listen, but you keep telling people to shut up. That's not how trust works; and trust (real) trust means trust from everyone and not just your Japanese playerbase.

If you agree with me, apparently thumbs up on OPs and constructive feedback aren't enough. Copy my sig and include it in your own.

You're latest sig to get deleted was just as slanderous and inflammatory as the img one. You need to get over yourself. A com rep has posted in the largest one of these threads on the XI side. You know, the side where people are *actually* paying and affected by it? They've said it's being looked into already. Until we're actually paying for XIV, they have no reason to answer whinefests over it on the XIV boards when they've already responded where it matters atm.