The inability to change your country, and the end of my time with Square-Enix

[LalaRu]

Isn't that the support haven't understand that you want is just make themselves change the information? Maybe they answer that way to you, thinking you want be able to change that data yourself. That is reasonable, sure, bus as long as site won't allows it, yet cannot be done.

Try contact support again and ask them "Hello, I moved cron Canada to US, please can you update my country and region accordly, as long as I cannot do that myself ?"

[Aegis]

Perhaps from SE's point of view the expenditure required to alter their systems to allow country changes while still preventing accounts being stolen from abroad does not justify the increased revenue from the small percentage of players who emigrate to foreign countries on a permanent basis?

I'm not saying it's a good reason, but from a solely financial point of view it might make sense.

[Lithera]

Xbox Live was the same way for a long time. It's still a 3 week wait to swap your XBL Country. The restriction makes a little more sense with XBL since it has region locked content. The only thing I can think of with Squeenix is tax evasion. I could jump hoops and get a US CC. Change my account to USA and skirt Canadian sales tax.

[Pluvia]

I live in Korea and have my account under my old us address what i had to do for them to let me add Crysta was to use internet explorer and set my vpn to go to the state i used for my physical address. so try setting it up to your old address and set the vpn to one that's in the state obviously you need a vpn but its what i got to work for me.

[Felis]

Do you even read the mails that say !! ATTENTION !! in the header from SE?

Crysta are no langer usable, obtainable, redeemable since September 30th 2014

I bought Crystas last week (germany)

[Seif]

Is crysta still a thing?!
I thought they were done with that currency?

[Hysterior]

They can Whitelist your card once. But then you will need a credit card from the country you now live in.
it happened to me once but if you ask to escalate your case they can white list your foreign card once so you can make a payment

[HumsterMKX]

Wow, you can't change your country?
That's pretty messed up, SE.

Mine don't even exist.....

[Warlyx]

lol , recently i changed my country for blizz games , because dunno how , my account was "UK" , anyway it was done in 24h , just got asked to send a file that showed my "new" country ID or something that proved blizzard that the account owner (me) lived in the new country , asked me some info about my account (full name , secret answer, new info) , and done !

and i have militar friends that always had issues with SE while playing FFXI because they had to travel overseas...what a nightmare...they were forced to have family/friends pay the game for them.

[Pawkeshup]

You know what Xystic, I am beginning to think that you were either the supervisor or the agent I spoke with. Seriously, "nice enough to suggest?" The conversation went like this:

Me: Hi, I need to change my country because I moved from Canada to the US, and I need to update my billing.
Agent: I'm sorry, we cannot do that. You can either use Time Cards or you can have someone in Canada pay for the account for you.

That's it, no other option, I never complained at that point, it was just, "Here are your options, tough luck otherwise." Yet, as you can see, someone here has had their account changed from NA to EU, another has said that they can whitelist foreign cards. Why were these not offered? You see, it is possible, but those there that day did not want to offer any further assistance, hence trying to reach a supervisor who, sadly, didn't care either.

How is the option of asking someone in Canada to come pay for my account be an option? I'm not moving back. Why burden someone back there to pay for this? It's not truly an option, it's workaround.

And, again, none of this helps the situation with FFXI. There are no time cards, I cannot buy Crysta, so that means that account is dead, totally. As well, this is the same company that abandoned credit card payments in favour of their own points system. Who is to say they won't do away with the cards when most subscription-based MMOs (I would say all, but I don't want to miss some minor one) have credit card-based payment systems with time cards as an option for those without a credit card? SE is not exactly good about payment services.

@Nakiamiie, sorry you are in the same boat. Perhaps this thread will benefit you are well.

@LalaRu, as you can see, I did tell them exactly that, and this was their response.

@Aegis, the financial cost is minimal really. It's a line in the database. I can understand a front line agent being unable to convert the account, but there should be an alternative to the situation I've landed in. As you can see, I am not alone, and exceptions appear to have been made. Also, on the phone call, they said that you cannot change your name or date of birth on the account except in certain cases. That means that somewhere, someone does have access to these locked fields. They just aren't willing to do anything about it.

@Pluvia - It isn't a taxation issue. In Canada, there is no Square-Enix. By Canadian law, if they wanted to operate in Canada and be paid in Canadian dollars, they would need to incorporate a branch there. Instead, they operate in the US and charged me in USD which was then placed on my Canadian card along with the exchange rate for that currency to be paid in USD to them. It meant that my game has always cost slightly more (even at parity because the CC charges a fee for currency conversion or just gives an unfavourable rate usually). I've always been fine with that. So no, they've had to report to the IRS, not the CRA about their taxes.

@Hysterior and @Amberion - Thank you for that info. It shows that there are recourses out there. I just need to find the right way to reach someone who cares.

@Wrlyx - Exactly. That's all I'm asking for. I can prove I moved. I just need them to allow the change.

And again, to all the positive support and suggestions, thank you! I don't want my time in these games to end. I have emailed them and am hoping for a reply that is more helpful.