Australians paying too much!~

[Arylius]

Thank you everyone for all of the replies. its just we are technical paying extra. i on any other day would not have had that money. again as i said i would have been charged to an over draw.
either SE puts in our own category or something because even though yes we have been lumped with US and EU Its still a lot to pay we pay 40$-50$ (6 month sub) thatch still like an extra $20 on the 30 day one.

and although i was gonna go to game cards for it. to be cheaper they are restricted from selling them in my country.

because ill go broke trying to play a game i love. and when that happens i dont think next time id be renewing my subscript if i gotta pay that much extra.

i dont know if someone from SE could see this and do something would be great. but :/

[Gilthas]

This does not apply for PC games where we always come under US.
And in FFXI PC version did indeed come under US as I had an account then.

When FFXI came out in Europe we also paid in US dollars too, so that doesn't mean much.

I can tell you I got really ****ed when they forced all* EU players to start paying in Euros though. (* I imagine UK players had to start paying in pounds)

[Baneus]

Kiwis get stuck in the same boat. $63 for a three month sub with EU as opposed $48 with US conversion.

[Taemek]

I'm pretty sure your wrong. Australia is lumped in with Europe. Not only for ffxiv but for most game companies. EU an AU are both PAL.

Since 1999, I have been paying in US dollars on every game I have ever played.

This is the first MMO to have ever forced me to be billed in EU. FFXIV is the only game to ever lump Australia in to an EU zone, which is beyond stupid. Do some research on previous gaming companies i.e. SoE, NCSoft, Perfect Worlds, Trion, Blue Hole Studios just to name a few with many more out there. Every single game in MMORPG history that has been released, has put Australians in with US.

PAL is our regioning code for Electronic goods i.e. DvD's, BLU Ray, Televisions etc, nothing more, which by the way, is an outdated form of measurement in the Video industry and has little to do with what you are talking about. Canada uses PAL format too, does this make it European? No, it makes up North America.

As I showed you EU region, Australia is not classed as in the EU region and never will be.

The only reason we get billed in Euros is because their billing company is Euro based, nothing more.

[Enkidoh]

We Australians get billed in Euros because SE's billing regions are 'Japan', the 'United States', 'the United Kingdom', and 'Europe/Rest of World'. Hence, because any country that doesn't fit into one of those other regions is automatically classed as 'Europe/Rest of World', hence why we Aussies have to pay in Euros. That's just how SE has set up their system.

I can understand being annoyed due to the lower exchange rate with the Euro compared to the US dollar, but I do remember when I first signed up for FFXI in 2005 (back when you could only pay in US dollars), the exchange rate with the Aussie dollar against the greenback was so bad there was one period I was paying literally double the US subscription for FFXI (at that time the exchange rate between US dollars and Australian dollars was 1 $AU bought 47 US cents.).

So no matter what currency you go with, there will often be a time you will pay more for it.

[FoxiLady]

There are 28 countries that represent the European Nations and Australia is NOT one of them.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

This is the first game in my 14 year gaming history that has lumped Australia into a region it doesn't belong to. Australia can loosely be termed as Oceanic which the majority of games include us in and because of geological references this more aligns us to America than it ever would to Europe. I have to say I was gob smacked when I got billed $96 for 3 months sub when it clearly said it was approx $65.

I would think being as this is totally 100% an incorrect lumping of Australia into the European Nations that SE are in fact breaking the law.

[amnie]

eh. last time I checked australia wasn't a part of the US either, so the complain is really not that you 'belong' to the US, but that you want to pay less. while that is understandable, do you honestly think you are in a UNIQUE situation? because you are not.

everyone in the EU is paying more than people who pay in Dollar. and that doesn't even include people who live in for example sweden, switzerland and all the other European countries who are either not part of the EU at all - or don't have the Euro.

the problem is the EUR/USD exchange rate and SE ignoring that 11 euro is not 13 dollar. (11 euro is 14.75 dollar today, for example)

I never had these problems until a few years ago, either. I have always paid my subs in Dollar. FFXI, DDO, LOTRO...
the first game I encountered the forced currency in was SWTOR, but since then I had it the same again (so far that's been TSW and ARR)
iirc I paid 1.0 in dollar, too.

in the past I always paid either via paypal or my credit card, could pay in dollar, and it would be 'auto-exchanged' by paypal/bank. now it seems like the publishers want those 2-3 dollar extra each month really really badly.


ps:
on a random note I even started noticing this problem when ordering stuff from US online stores that as soon as I'd put in my place of residence the currency would be automatically changed to Euro, with set prices that were NOT according to the current (or even relatively current) exchange rate, often times even a 1:1 exchange, which REALLY hurts the pocket when the normal exchange rate is somewhere between 1:4 and 1:5 -.-

[Misaki]

Funny thing is I need to pay the same for a Legacy EU Account and US non-Legacy account.