Who in God's name designed your payment system SE?

[Kosmos992k]

OK, Square Enix, old friends. Who in their right mind builds a payment system so frustrating that if anything goes wrong the level of frustration achieved by the user is sufficient to make them want to quit?

No, seriously. Your auto renewal system is just punishingly, painfully bad. If *anything* goes wrong during the processing of it, the user is screwed because you process it the day of renewal. So along comes Kosmos to play, and cannot, so Kos checks her email and sees that auto renewal is disabled now. Great she thinks and logs into the Mogstation. I'll just pay she says as she takes my card and enters the numbers....error 601. Huh? Oh, I see, I cannot attempt to renew by card within 24 hours of the previous attempt - even with a different card, or it causes an error. Better than that, the error resets the timer, so now Kosmos is locked out of her world for another 24 hours.

So now, a day later, still unable to use a card to renew because of the timer and lockout, trying to get a game time card so she can at least get back into her world. Kosmos wants to know who in the hell is so stupid to have designed a system that does not let the customer retry personally with a different credit card?

Personally I'd like to know why even if I log in with my password and One-time password, and have a valid number, I cannot process the payment of the subscription until my time out punishment is over? Oh wait, I know, I'll add crysta to my account...nope, can't do that either, error 401, now you're completely hosed for more than 24 hours.

So, let's review, an unknown error stopped the renewal, but me entering valid credit card information while logged in securely at mogstation was not only disallowed but punished with a further suspension, and then today when I attempt to buy crysta while logged in securely and using valid card information I get punished a second time...all because of your payment system. No bad information, no invalid or expired card, just your system punishing a customer for having the unmitigated gall to want to renew their account after some unspecified issue within the payment processing caused an error...

Thanks SE, thanks so much for the stress and annoyance your really crap payment system causes me. But I have to wonder who on earth wrote this thing because it's an absolute failure, a system that makes it increasingly difficult for customers to pay for the product they want. A system that punishes me for attempting to pay. Do you even want my money? Fire your developer, hire a new one and enter the 20th century at least guys, it will save you subscribers, I say that because I can totally see people getting so pissed off that they stop trying to pay and move on.

[Evangela]

probably to prevent hackers and credit card thieves? maybe you should try to contact SE customer service but from my experience, they'll take 2 days just to reply to your e-mail... I think a lot of people already complained about their unprofessional and sluggish customer service but nothing changed.

[reality_check]

Wow, this is on par with the awfulness of the ancient play online system.

The old play online system would bill you at the beginning of the month, regardless of when you started your subscription. So if you started up your subscription on the 30th of a month, you would get double billed. One for when you subscribed and again on the first of the month. It was atrocious. This doesn't sound much better.

[Kosmos992k]

probably to prevent hackers and credit card thieves? maybe you should try to contact SE customer service but from my experience, they'll take 2 days just to reply to your e-mail... I think a lot of people already complained about their unprofessional and sluggish customer service but nothing changed.

It does nothing to prevent hackers and credit card thieves. I've never, ever seen a payment system that actively punishes a customer for attempting to complete a transaction. a 24 hour restriction from paying your sub because of an error in the payment processing? Then if you happen to try again within that 24 hour period it extends the time-out. Remember, I am logging in to the mogstation with my one-time password security token as well as I have the card number and security code. That's 4 factor security on the transaction, and even then it punishes me for trying.

Oh, but the best bit is that I tried to get a game time card as well, but, yes, you guessed it, the code was invalid...

There is zero reason or justification to prevent a customer who has already securely authenticated themself to login to your system, from paying through a standard CC transaction. Even if you want to use the excuse of preventing theft, it's a CC transaction, so the customer is covered by the card vendor's protection against fraudulent transactions, and SE is in no danger of being liable.

Seriously, my wife and I just spent two hours trying to find a way to make a payment to reactivate my sub which only went inactive because of this issue in the first place. Now I can't play until their punishment timer lapses and I can pay, and my wife doesn't want to play at all. I can easily see people getting angry enough to rage quit the game over this crap.

[Kaze3434]

oh it is bad. its pretty much the only system that doesnt accept my card, and i am forced to buy ultimate game cards to pay for crysta. i have never seen a company make it so hard to take my money from me.

[Tupsi]

The old play online system would bill you at the beginning of the month, regardless of when you started your subscription.

So what you're saying is..it would bill you like many other companies in the world would bill you when you utilize their service if it's not based on a time frame? Shocking. Surprising. UNHEARD OF! Whoever designed SE's payment system seems to work because I can use my card and also buy crysta perfectly fine. Are you trying to use it in a non-supported country (and have to use x region despite it not being yours)? Because that's going to cause issues no matter what company you pay monthly for.

Remember: Regardless of region you're still trying to get processed by a Japanese company, so chances are your bank may not be playing nice with that, not SE's system in general.

[AiChyan]

Lol it IS awful. It does not accept any of my credit cards and claims its a problem with my bank when my bank said it has no issues with the authentication/payment. Everytime I try to pay an amount is deducted ~around 1 Pound but then I'm told the payment isn't going through.
I just use time cards now, and I can't buy retainers or do server transfers ever. Its really laughable and frustrating when I can use my cards for every business out there which accepts international credit cards except SE.

[Kosmos992k]

Whoever designed SE's payment system seems to work because I can use my card and also buy crysta perfectly fine. Are you trying to use it in a non-supported country (and have to use x region despite it not being yours)? Because that's going to cause issues no matter what company you pay monthly for.

Well, aren't you fortuante. No, no unsupported country, nothing like that at all. And by the way, SE's payment processing is not a Japanese bank. Even if it was, 99% of card payments are handled by a very few global payment processing organizations, it's all quite international and quite well regulated. If you use a Visa card, it's a visa payment, it has little or nothing to do with your bank.

[Tupsi]

Well, aren't you fortuante. No, no unsupported country, nothing like that at all. And by the way, SE's payment processing is not a Japanese bank. Even if it was, 99% of card payments are handled by a very few global payment processing organizations, it's all quite international and quite well regulated. If you use a Visa card, it's a visa payment, it has little or nothing to do with your bank.

Yep, I use a visa and BoA which is notorious for having random issues with some payments due to "security" reasons which will prevent it from going through - so it definitely does depend on your bank when it comes to online payments.

[Kosmos992k]

Yep, I use a visa and BoA which is notorious for having random issues with some payments due to "security" reasons which will prevent it from going through - so it definitely does depend on your bank when it comes to online payments.

It really should not, the way payment processing works, it should not depend on your individual bank. Either way, the trouble is not with the bank, SE has charged the card before. But my point is that regardless of that, their system should not punish me because of a bank or card issue if I am authenticated with their one time password security token I should be able to change the card on the payment method without incurring further penalties from their system. Their system is literally designed to punish consumers more and more just for trying to correct any card information or give new information after a failed transaction.