Dissatisfied customer

[RexVex]

Sorry for this long post, but just to take it directly from the User agreement link.

4.1 FINAL FANTASY XIV Subscription Fees. In order to access SQUARE ENIX's servers to play the Game, you must agree to a recurring subscription ("Subscription") with a minimum subscription term of 30 days, and pay a recurring subscription fee ("FFXIV Subscription Fee"). Square Enix may offer different subscription plans in its sole discretion. Further, Square Enix may offer you the chance to purchase additional features for your FFXIV Service Account, which we call "Add-ons" or "Options." Add-ons may be subject to either additional recurring fees or one-time fees. A "Recurring Fee" is a fee that will be charged on a recurring basis until you terminate your subscription. A "One-Time Fee" is fee that is only charged once. All fee rates will be posted at http://sqex.to/ffxiv.na.fees and any changes to Recurring Fee rates will be posted with 30 days' advance notice and notice will be provided to the Game community. Square Enix may change fee rates at any time in its sole discretion, and will use reasonable efforts to notify you at least 30 days in advance of any changes to any Recurring Fees. All FFXIV Subscription Fees are billed in advance. All FFXIV Subscription Fees are non-refundable, with the limited exception in Section 4.7 below.

Refunds in Exceptional Circumstances Only. The entirety of your FFXIV Subscription Fee is applied by Square Enix to the FFXIV Service Account on the day that it is charged. All charges related to the Game are non-refundable unless third-party criminal activity is involved, as determined by Square Enix. Therefore, if you deactivate your FFXIV Service Account in the middle of a 90-day Billing Cycle, you will not receive a refund for the remainder of the Billing Cycle, but may continue to play the Game until the Billing Cycle ends.

So, really. Not much they can do from CS end, as it is in the User agreement we all initially agree to when starting the game. I understand it it an unfortunate situation. Yeah, you can go the way of getting your bank to try to pull back the payment. That does put in the risk that SE will ban that account, and you will not be able to use it in the future. That also means having the re-buy the PC version of the game and any expansions you have. As well as using any items you may have purchased through the Cash Shop if you have purchased anything there.

[Celef]

Althougt you did the mistake, I agree they just be a little bit less strict on that.
I mean, in the end, they get the money anyway, even if they transfer it to another acount, instead of potentially loosing a customer and being seen as "only your money interest us" on the forum and potentially outside.

That's called being commercial (in french at least, idk if there is an equivalent expression in english), taking care and caring about your customers to fidelize them instead of remebering them all the time that they are just walking wallets.
(And yes, i know what i'm talking about, i'm a sales assistant and dealing with that kind of mistakes my customers makes is kind of my daily work ^^")

[Laerune]

I have to agree with Celef on this, SE would get the money either way, this will only piss off a customer that would have bought Stormblood and played that game for a 6 months/ 1 year / 2 year etc. By being flexiable they would be getting more money then the 75 dollars, that he already paid them.

Now OP will most likely do a charge back, get his money back and dont play their game. SE is only harming themselves by being too rigid.

[NaesakiAshwell]

Now OP will most likely do a charge back, get his money back and dont play their game. SE is only harming themselves by being too rigid.

They really need to stop letting the whole charge back thing be their super "Omg you're an evil customer!" berserk button. I've seen enough threads on the XIV subreddit of all the horror stories of them being banned / perma-banned cause of chargebacks.

[ErryK]

Getting the money anyway doesn't matter to them when you signed a contract upon account creation that your money is theirs once a transaction has gone through. Being cordial to your customers is one thing, but most customers if not all of them don't read the ToS/ToU until AFTER an infraction has been made to their account/against their account or they're told they're wrong.

[Tremara]

First of all, OP is not the victim. He made a mistake and SE is not obliged to help him.
It's unfortunate that SE custom service isn't more helpful and friendly towards their customers but ppl should really stop suggesting a charge back. A charge back should only be used if he wouldn't recieve the subsription but he does have a active sub - just on the wrong account which is his fault. If OP is using a charge back OP would owe SE the payment and SE has the right to ban his accounts and in theory demand the payment. It could get way more expensive in the end. (I doubt that SE would demand the payment with the help of a lawyer/collection agency but you'll never know...)

[Kaethra]

It could get way more expensive in the end. (I doubt that SE would demand the payment with the help of a lawyer/collection agency but you'll never know...)

That actually wouldn't go well for SE. They'd have to prove services were rendered. And that is where the problem is. You can't make a 'I gotcha' EULA (never mind the fact that there is no signature actually signed) and expect to keep money like that. The deal is the user pays for a sub, SE allows them to login to the game account. If the user is unable to login, then said service has not been delivered. They'd have to prove somehow that the user logged in to the game at least once.

There's a reason why chargebacks aren't pursued by MMO companies. But they can ban said account and do not have to reopen it. There's nothing saying that they HAVE to do business with an individual. That's where SE's rights come in as a commercial entity.

MMO subs are based on trust mostly. Trust in the company will not simply take your money and run. And trust in the user that they won't play the game then chargeback. The issue comes in is how credit card companies view it. Normally they don't give a care where you spend you credit as long as you pay your bills or have money in the account (if debit). But they don't like the chargebacks. It puts them at risk, a risk they are obligated to you to take. So when a company (like My.com or Trion) has a number of them. They usually cut them out entirely. Best case scenario, they warn users over the phone when such purchases are made, worst case scenario they just ban such purchase entirely, forcing users to use Paypal or something else. To put it shortly, when a business is high risk, they simply don't wish to deal with them anymore.

I cannot confirm or deny the claims of others in the thread about the reddit with people getting banned from unintentional chargebacks. But if that's true, SE could see the likes of Trion and My.com and that's not a great situation to be in. It doesn't just affect FFXIV, but their other games too.

The best thing for SE to do is simply help their customer in this situation. It costs them nothing. It makes a customer happy. And raises their appeal in the market. There's no reason for pointless bureaucracy. Its not fair to say 'his fault he made a mistake'. Mistakes can be corrected so both parties are happy, that's what matters. And its not like SE doesn't make mistakes here and there that we mostly forgive.

The question is, does SE want continued business from said person? That's a binary question with a yes or no answer.

[Tremara]

That actually wouldn't go well for SE. They'd have to prove services were rendered. And that is where the problem is. You can't make a 'I gotcha' EULA (never mind the fact that there is no signature actually signed) and expect to keep money like that. The deal is the user pays for a sub, SE allows them to login to the game account. If the user is unable to login, then said service has not been delivered. They'd have to prove somehow that the user logged in to the game at least once.

Sry, but that's BS. SE provides the service aka you're allowed to use the server. You can check that at Mogstation - that and only that has SE to provide if you buy gametime. It's not the responsibility of SE that a customer has a working PC or choose the right account.

[Lexia]

The deal is the user pays for a sub, SE allows them to login to the game account.

This right here

Sry, but that's BS. SE provides the service aka you're allowed to use the server. You can check that at Mogstation - that and only that has SE to provide if you buy gametime. It's not the responsibility of SE that a customer has a working PC or choose the right account.

A persons pays for the ability/right to log into the game whether or not they have that equipment is not SE responsibility.

[Darkstride]

That actually wouldn't go well for SE. They'd have to prove services were rendered.

Service has been rendered. The OP made the mistake of paying for service on an account they do not use. It isn't SE's obligation to make sure a person pays attention to the account they are using or has the available hardware to utilize the service. The service was paid for on an account for access to the servers, and that account has access to the servers. The OP is not a victim here, they just have to accept the unfortunate consequences of their mistake.