Diversifying Payment Options for OCE (perhaps even all) Users

[Pendulum_]

Hi All,

Probably not the best place to post this for visibility to the right people to fix this, but who knows, maybe GM's and the general FFXIV public have more power than anticipated to get this to the right people.

Currently OCE Players can only purchase subscriptions and optional items via Debit Card purchases, this is fine and ample, would it not be for the fact that many people cannot use their card with Square Enix.

I have ran into Error Code 601 for nearly an entire year now, and had to resort to using other people's bank accounts to purchase my subscription, this is after opening a ticket with support where they informed me to do the aforementioned as a work around. This is a security risk to the people in question who have to "lend" their card to me and subpar service for a multi-million dollar subscription game.

Many other OCE users who played on NA Servers before the time of the Materia data-center were having similar issues. They were experiencing complex and unsolvable issues with payment for FFXIV - as seen on the r/FFXIV Reddit and in older posts here too.

My hopes are that this forum post can incite some change. I'd like to suggest that Square Enix opts to provide Crysta purchases to OCE Players and if possible, also opt to open direct Paypal Payments for Subscriptions and Optional Items.

There are disadvantages that come financially for Square Enix as a result of this change. One being the risk presented by the charge-backs in Paypal and Crysta Payments, but I believe that with enough incentive provided by the large volume of OCE players that prompted them to open Materia as a data center, they would be willing to dig just a tiny bit deeper to make it easier for more of their Australian audience to purchase and access the game.

It has grown tiring to go back and forth between a Support Team who are unwilling to escalate this issue to the right people, and my bank which has shown me that they are not blocking transactions from Square Enix. I'm certain it has grown tiring for people who have ran into this issue as long time players of the game, who just want to play the game and experience its content, or for new players who can't even resub to use their purchased content.

We literally want to give you our money Square Enix, surely you want money?

Thanks for reading. If you've ran into this issue too, or had a friend that has equally been in the pain of not being able to play their favourite MMO, then bump this post for visibility. Helps more than you think!

For GM's - I have opened another ticket with support as of posting this, please do not lock this forum as I am not asking for technical support here, I am asking for people's opinion and bolstering support for change regarding this issue.

Many thanks,
Petra/Pendulum

[StealthyMage]

Bump - This'd be a good thing to implement Penduluminuminum

[RancidDax]

Not that i've had the same issues as you, but the implementation of a service like paypal would speed up sub payments for those not on the steam version. Sucks that you're unable to pay sub yourself at the moment, hopefully it can get resolved!

[Amelimie]

I had issue like this when in ffxi times. In the end it was my bank stopping payment not issue on SE end, quick call to bank might fix like did for me. Good luck!

[Pendulum_]

I had issue like this when in ffxi times. In the end it was my bank stopping payment not issue on SE end, quick call to bank might fix like did for me. Good luck!

I wish it were this simple Amelimie. I have called my bank and confirmed multiple times that they are not blocking Square Enix's transactions. I believe the issue that is causing the Error Code 601 for a lot of users is due to how they have implemented their security in regards to handling transactions, although since I have no experience with Square Enix's network and website backend, I can't comment professionally on the matter. I have suggested enabling Crysta and Paypal for OCE users facing this issue as deploying an existing payment system to a new country is not as difficult as overhauling the security on a more complex payment system.

I have just today had my friend run into the same issue, He wanted to purchase the Digital Complete Edition of the game, and he cannot because of an infinite redirect issue that gets thrown into an Error Code 601. As presented in my post, This issue is unfortunately not localised to a few people either, it has been a consistent issue for many. I used a user's post on this forum in my initial post above as evidence and they were still having these issues even up until 3 months ago, and were unfortunately buried under other posts and had their thread locked due to ambiguity/and for a redirection to customer support. While I could be hopeful that their problem, - unlike mine - was solved, I believe they are most likely using the work-around as aforementioned in my post - which still presents an extreme security risk to the "lender" of a debit card.

I appreciate your support however, It's been a rough road so far, and I hope that I can clear the path for others to come through.