Any one else get charged CLICKANDBUY December?

[Magnesium02]

This and many other stories makes you wonder what SE is thinking even offering C&B as a payment option.

Financial security. When you have an intermidiary like C&B it provides a) a debt collection service and b) a means to minimise financial risks associated with foreign currency transactions. I would guess that when they set the contract with C&B they would freeze the exchange rate at a certain amount (eg. $12 US = 1000 yen). Every month SE would get a guarranteed 1000¥ per person. If the rate dropped and $12 only came to 900¥, then SE would still get the full amount and C&B would bear the burden of the loss on the exchange rate. If it went the other way, the C&B would get the profit instead of SE, but the benefits of a stable income flow and not having to deal with hedgeing losses would be worth the loss of occasional bonus profit and the fees paid to C&B. Also if there are issues with Credit Card fraud or non-payment, C&B would have to use their resources to chase the debt, not SE.

So collection house intermediaries are quite valuable, its just the C&B has a rather tarnished image here in the FFXIV worlds due to all the compaints and issues people have shared here. Though I would be interested to know exactly what percent of dissatified customers there are vs people who had no problems with it (as we only hear the bad, never the good). It could verry well be that the percentage rate is low enough to fall within what a company would consider 'reasonable/expected', so analysis on the macro scale would show that what we users consider to be a hopeless business is perfectly normal and 'working as intended'

[Quesse]

So collection house intermediaries are quite valuable, its just the C&B has a rather tarnished image here in the FFXIV worlds due to all the compaints and issues people have shared here. Though I would be interested to know exactly what percent of dissatified customers there are vs people who had no problems with it (as we only hear the bad, never the good). It could verry well be that the percentage rate is low enough to fall within what a company would consider 'reasonable/expected', so analysis on the macro scale would show that what we users consider to be a hopeless business is perfectly normal and 'working as intended'

It hardly matters if its normal since C&B gives SE (and FFXIV) such a bad reputation on forums. Its effect is far greater than just the 'low' percentage of customers that get screwed over. Its value doesn't seem quite as high in that light. People just come away with the conclusion that 'SE's payment methods suck' regardless of the actual truth - and to be honest I don't blame them. SE has no business partnering with such crooked outfits.