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

[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.

[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

[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.

[Hysterior]

@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.

Need to push.
I could do it in the chat.
At the end she was saying my only option was to buy time card which I refuse since I am Legacy player.
So I asked her to pass my ticket to her manager or billing manager to find a way for me to use my foreign card.
They then escalate it to headquarter and few days later I could use my card.
So keep pushing otherwise you will just get templates

[Woggers]

That's awful OP, I hope you are able to get this fixed. This is a big issue and they should really get their payment system issue fixed asap! This is a pay2play game yet I see problems regarding payments on these forums all the time.
This seems like a narrow sighted way to prevent RMT account sales? Makes sense on why they would do that, but it screws over legit players more. Just my guess...

[Pawkeshup]

So... yea...

I just had the most interesting conversation with a SE rep named Jordan R. I was prepared for a fight, to argue like Hysterior said. But, if you live in North America... you don't need to fight.

You see, I hadn't tried to change my card. The standard procedure for any credit check is to verify that the place requesting the funds has your address or other personal info. So, I had assumed that is how GlobalConnect worked. Also, from all the feedback from support, it seemed that yes, I needed someone in Canada to pay, and that my US card was worthless on my account.

Yea... not so much...

GlobalConnect is based on IP, not your account info. It doesn't care, so long as payment and IP match. Now, I know this won't help many people. You have to have a NA account for this to work, outside of there, I don't know who they use. It doesn't fix all the issues. I still don't know what will happen when I try to get a new authenticator, or use the virtual one. I am still not sure how it will work when I need to restore my account for any reason. But, yea... All because someone actually listened instead of copy-pasting a script, or telling me it's just not possible... I have my accounts back.

I wish I had better news. I wish they had let me change my country, and I think that's still a thing that needs to happen. But the news is, if you have a North American account, and have a North American payment method, you can pay. I am not sure if you opened your account in Japan, and then provided a Japanese payment method if it would allow it or not. I assume not, but then I'd have assumed (and did) that my US card wouldn't work on my Canadian account. Maybe... try... it?

Honestly, I am glad I was wrong, I don't care if I have egg on my face for not trying this sooner. At least it works.

Edit:

Also, Xystic, no one ever mentioned this in my conversation. Had they listened to why I needed to change, or understood their own systems, this would have ended there. I didn't do this to start a riot. I did it to inform people, and hopefully for one of the community reps to see this as an issue as the call center pretty much stonewalled. Ignoring issues doesn't make them go away. And I did not manipulate anything. Call the contact center yourself, lay the issue out as I did, and they likely will read you the same response. Hell, when I spoke to Jordan, he originally gave me the exact same instructions (Buy time cards or use Canadian funds), and it was all copy-paste straight from his script. Only after did he mention to try this. At the end, I told him to bring up to someone that really they need to lead with that information. It would have prevented all the trouble I was going through to get an answer that, frankly I did not 100% need. Again, there are possible issues down the road, but this fixes most.

So, obviously, there is a massive communication gap here. I don't know how it would work outside the NA market (primarily because I am not), but I can hope for their sake that somehow it works the same.

As for how I deal with people when I am upset, I said that because of how you are representing yourself, not due to any emotional response. Saying they did me a favour to suggest trying to find someone in Canada to pay my bill is not really an alternative. And they did offer that without any prompting, just as I said. I had just barely finished talking when it was told to me. It's their default script. However, it's not the truth. The truth is as my post lays it out. You have been questioning my motives and implying why I chose to come post here.

There was no inconsistencies, no manipulation. And as for posting elsewhere, where else? Feedback? That's website only? Bugs? It's not really a bug. A case could be made for the technical forums somewhere, but really it's not a technical glitch. There isn't an account feedback forum here, leaving it only in General to be posted. Anywhere else, it's not really supposed to go there. Trust me, I looked over the forums before making this post. This is the only place where it could really fit. The title is intended to prompt discussion because, as you can see, not only myself has this issue.

In all your posts, you are quick to judge me in some harsh light, and I do not see why. Again, the only reasoning I can see, since you don't know me at all, is that you either are someone I spoke with, or work within the same call center. It's the only reason why you are heavily apologetic for them, and trying to convince everyone here that somehow I abused the support staff. I called, asked my question, asked why this was, was told those answers, and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was denied that, and called back until I could speak with one to see if there were something more to be done. And in the end the supervisor stonewalled again.

That's the truth, complete and entire. I never yelled, never called anyone any names, never raised my voice. I treated the agents with respect, as I too have done my time in a call center, but I also knew there was a fix for this. There always is, and sometimes you have to push and keep asking to find it.

Now that I have, while I still feel this is an issue that needs to be dealt with, it does resolve the short-term concerns of being able to play.