Account address issue has STILL not been acknowledged by Square.

[Ethrya]

I very much want to enjoy Dawntrail and am looking forward to it, though I can't help but wonder whether I will even be able to play by the next expansion, as I expect to move cross-border by then. I don't think it will be feasible for me to keep a Canadian bank account without a Canadian mailing address anymore; all I can do is hope one of the workaround methods will be enough for me. If someday I do stop playing, I would like it to be with fond memories of a time in my life I was able to enjoy this game with many friends, not suddenly because Square Enix just won't accept perfectly good money. This has to be addressed!

[Myrany]

I very much want to enjoy Dawntrail and am looking forward to it, though I can't help but wonder whether I will even be able to play by the next expansion, as I expect to move cross-border by then. I don't think it will be feasible for me to keep a Canadian bank account without a Canadian mailing address anymore; all I can do is hope one of the workaround methods will be enough for me. If someday I do stop playing, I would like it to be with fond memories of a time in my life I was able to enjoy this game with many friends, not suddenly because Square Enix just won't accept perfectly good money. This has to be addressed!

Are you the one that was coming to America? If so the Chrysta bought with paypal to pay the sub/retainers should work or even timecards from Amazon I have heard is working for some.

[MyouRi]

But I’m worried by the severe lack of player response as well; I feel like this issue shouldn’t be left to three or four people to desperately try and push into attention.

I agree, it's a real shame.
We're often told we have the best community but I'm not seeing much solidarity on this issue.
It could be because I've seen a lot of people get the address issue conflated with the Visa Debit problem that they now considered fixed.

It might come down to just a few of us taking up the crusade at this point, haha.

[MyouRi]

So I contacted the data protection officer listed on Square Enix's website, at the recommendation of my local data protection agency, with regards to GDPR 'right to rectification'.

Interestingly they say that 'country/region of registration' is considered a historical fact, and not subject to rectification.
I've asked for further clarification on what personal data is being used for payment processing, as I don't believe historical fact can be conflated with current billing address.

I've never encountered a payment processor that didn't require a listed country when taking your payment details so if that information is not being pulled from 'country of registration', I wonder where it is being pulled from.

This feels like a bit of a rabbit hole honestly...

[Myrany]

So I contacted the data protection officer listed on Square Enix's website, at the recommendation of my local data protection agency, with regards to GDPR 'right to rectification'.

Interestingly they say that 'country/region of registration' is considered a historical fact, and not subject to rectification.
I've asked for further clarification on what personal data is being used for payment processing, as I don't believe historical fact can be conflated with current billing address.

I've never encountered a payment processor that didn't require a listed country when taking your payment details so if that information is not being pulled from 'country of registration', I wonder where it is being pulled from.

This feels like a bit of a rabbit hole honestly...

Honestly if it is historical data then it should not be used by the payment processor to deny payment.

[Ethrya]

Are you the one that was coming to America? If so the Chrysta bought with paypal to pay the sub/retainers should work or even timecards from Amazon I have heard is working for some.

Yes, I'd be moving back to the US. I do hope one of those methods should work though I certainly wish to see this issue addressed properly instead for all the people who cannot rely on such workarounds.

So I contacted the data protection officer listed on Square Enix's website, at the recommendation of my local data protection agency, with regards to GDPR 'right to rectification'.

Interestingly they say that 'country/region of registration' is considered a historical fact, and not subject to rectification.
I've asked for further clarification on what personal data is being used for payment processing, as I don't believe historical fact can be conflated with current billing address.

I've never encountered a payment processor that didn't require a listed country when taking your payment details so if that information is not being pulled from 'country of registration', I wonder where it is being pulled from.

This feels like a bit of a rabbit hole honestly...

That's really interesting, good on you for inquiring about it. It doesn't sound like their method of handling this information makes a lot of sense? If country of registration is historical data, why indeed is it related to payment processing? There really can't be a good reason for Square Enix to just lock you into the country you made your account in permanently. Having a purely online service that cannot account for cross-border moves is ridiculous.

[MyouRi]

Yes, I am going to be really curious to find out what personal data is used for billing.

If country of registration is historical fact but then being used for current billing, could that constitute as misuse of personal data?

I can only imagine that fixing the system so that it is in some way a functioning account system will cost too much money in their opinion.
This can't be beneficial for them in any way when every other company doesn't implement systems like this.

Still waiting for you to acknowledge this issue Square, it would be really super great if you could have a conversation with your customers about it!

[Canadane]

I'm hoping that player reaction will grow when other people who have 6 month subs will suddenly realize that they can't sub anymore, but eg for me that will be in September, so it might take a while.

Mines the middle of July when I'll be enjoying the new expansion the most!

[Ethrya]

This thread keeps getting pushed down by stuff like discussions about healer play at the moment. While I understand folks have their opinions on that issue, some people aren't even able to play let alone have their say about it because of barriers to them being able to give Square Enix their sub money in the first place. It feels like Square Enix is content to let players affected by this problem either figure out their own workarounds - they get their money either way - or drop out of the game because they perceive the number of people affected by this to the point of being unable to use a workaround to be too small to care about. And that's crummy.

[Myrany]

Agreed workarounds should not be necessary. This needs fixed ASAP.

My attempts to help have really been brainstorming workarounds in the hopes they help anybody. Unfortunately I feel rather powerless to do anything more than commenting to keep this visible.