Terrible Payment System

[Catapult]

Ok, so the "[EU] Square Enix Account Transfer & Payment Procedures FAQ (05/08/11)" thread has been updated in the XI forum. You guys are... not going to like this. Sorry to have to quote you like this, Bayohne.

We have added a few more articles to our Square Enix Support Centre and I wanted to make sure they were posted here as well to have a greater chance of exposure.

Q: Will FFXI/XIV users paying via C&B be subject to any additional administration or credit card usage charges?

A: As a FFXI/XIV subscription takes direct payments from a user's chosen payment method, it is not necessary to store funds in the ClickandBuy account. Therefore the charges outlined below will not be applicable to anybody simply using their C&B account to pay for their FINAL FANTASY XI or XIV subscription. Should a customer wish to use their ClickandBuy account for additional services, additional fees may be incurred. For more information on these, please refer to http://clickandbuy.com/GB_en/

Users may incur various charges when utilising a C&B account. These include but are not limited to the following:
- ClickandBuy charges a 'pre-loading' fee of 3.9% of any transaction into your ClickandBuy account when using a credit card.
- There is a handling fee charged for withdrawal of funds from a ClickandBuy account of £1.85/€1.85.
- If a ClickandBuy account has been inactive for 1 year and contains funds, a maintenance fee of £1.00/€1.00 may be charged.

Please note players paying for their FINAL FANTASY XI or XIV subscription in a currency other than EUR or GBP will be subject to a foreign exchange rate of 5.9% per transaction.

Q: Do Square Enix plan to make further payment providers available to customers?

A: While we don't have specific details to share at this time, we are continuing to look for ways to improve the payment processing options. We will continue to take all the feedback we receive as we strive to make the experience as user-friendly as possible for all of our customers going forward.

Q: Why is Crysta not available in all countries?

A: Crysta is restricted to certain EU territories due to legal and financial regulations. However Crysta may become available for additional regions in the future.

Q: Why are some countries not supported by ClickandBuy?

A: Restrictions are in place for countries with whom the EU are prevented from trading with through sanctions or to those where FINAL FANTASY XI or XIV is not supported. Any problems with ClickandBuy registration in supported countries should be escalated to ClickandBuy customer services at http://clickandbuy.com/GB_en/contact.html

Q: Why is Square Enix switching from the PlayOnline billing setup to Square Enix Account billing?

A: Square Enix has opted to employ an external company for the processing of payments to offer the highest level of security to customer transactions.

Once again, the SE bigwigs seem to have entirely missed the point, particulalry on the last part - major banks are telling their customers that Click&Buy, their only available payment option to many supported regions, is a serious security risk. And yet they are still processing internally for Japanese credit cards anyway so... CONTRADICTION!

If you're outside the EU or UK, I deduce C&B will charge your account in Euro or pounds anyway (but converted from US costs) because they are not allowed to charge you a foreign currency charge as per SE's assertions. You will instead receive this currency conversion charge from your credit card issuer!

And if you're not in a "supported" region, sucks to be you. >_>

/sigh