Could we have Paypal as a pay method instead of click and buy? DEVS please answer.

[Catapult]

To me, this is all about those regions that simply do NOT have the diversity of payment options and are thus limited to a single option from SE that gets blocked by their bank. I'm going to be straight out honest, far more brutally than I usually am, because Bay's post was more insight-bearing than it looks like on the surface.

Greetings all,

I'd like to make a follow-up to my previous comment, as well as what was posted on the Lodetsone on 12/16 (Please note that we are working to implement additional payment options around the commencement of billing in early January).

As tonight will bring a close to the free trial period for FFXIV, I wanted to give you an update in regards to the new payment method implementation we have been working on. While the new payment method will not be implemented in time for the start of billing tonight, I want to let you know that we are nearing the end of the implementation phase and will be moving on to QA for it soon. While I can’t offer a concrete date for its release, I will keep you all as up to date as possible as we work on implementing this new payment method.

Bay, I do not intend for this to be directed at you personally, but feel free to collate and pass on as usual.

This new billing option was originally promised to be ready to go by at least 6 weeks ago (mid-northern autumn). Not only that, work on it was evidently not even commenced until the FFXI playerbase went on a rampage of sorts with the need to move away from PlayOnline's billing system and the sting was felt in the FFXI revenue. This was despite the problems and issues being known since September 2010 when FFXIV launched and the first complaints emerged.

To only now be approaching the quality testing stage further represents incredible naivity on part of Square Enix's accounts department - it tells me they have no proper appreciation for the structure and needs of international billing systems. This is further underscored by their promises to the FFXI community to "fix" the international transaction charges people have been finding on their bank statements - anyone who has done the smallest amount of international banking will be able to tell you such charges are completely unavoidable unless the receiving institution is in the same currency as the sending institution or if the bank itself absorbs the costs. So, barring countries where a billing option has resident operations (Click&Buy does not seem to operate in the USA), it means SE was either lying or just unknowledgeable. More likely the latter.

Meanwhile, this lack of appreciation for the inherent problems in billing have given rise to a lack of a sense of urgency (quality fundamental to any sales pitch). It has left you, Bay (and other reps), sufficiently dry of positive information to prevent us brooding with this problem, which in turn further enhances it across the wider community thanks to social media. If there is one thing I can recommend to you Bay, it is to make it clear to your superiors that matters of billing raised by players can NEVER be taken lightly.

I will return to play IF:
- That new billing method is implemented.
- That new billing method is not blocked by my bank.
- I do not lose interest in the interim.

My interest WILL diminish by the day, and significantly so when I lose access to the forums in a month's time if this is not resolved.

TICK... TOCK...