Payment Method Registration Errors [Error Code 401 and 601]

[siverstorm]

do those 1€ ever get refunded?cause i went fully retard and spammed it and they took like 10€

Yes those charges are just authorization charges that will fall off eventually.

Be sure to keep track of the number of failures you have. You now need to wait 24 hours X number of fails before trying again. They will just throw a 30 day block (seemingly refreshable) for multiple failed payments.

[VaidaVoss]

Are we still able to purchase Game Time Cards as of today? I am one of the ones that tried multiple times to have SE take my money. Danielle from support told me I have a 30 block now and that it is my fault and would not give me any alternative solution.

Will GTC work for me?

[VaidaVoss]

This is my original post:

I've been trying to transfer to a new server since Friday or Saturday. I keep getting an error 401. I emailed SE and got a ticket number, they never got to my ticket over the weekend so I called Monday. I was told to make sure my bank wasn't blocking Square Enix or Global Collect. Tuesday I call my bank and they tell me they are not blocking anything and that in fact SE is not communicating/connecting to my bank.

I've tried to look at solutions online with no luck.

Hello,

We are aware of a number of customers experiencing issues when trying to set up their subscription for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
Customers affected by these issues are receiving either a 401 or a 601 error code message when attempting to enter their payment information.

If you have encountered either of these error messages, we recommend that you take the following steps:

1.) Make sure that you are entering all of your card information (CC#, expiration date, CVV#, etc) correctly.
2.) Make sure that your financial institution has all of your latest billing information (address, name, etc).
3.) Contact your financial institution to make sure there no issues with your account.
4.) After taking the preceding steps, if you are still encountering error code messages, please wait 24 hours and then try again.

For additional support please contact our Support Center here.
When contacting the Support Center, please note that you will need to verify your account information.

Now, I've done all 4 things posted above. Today when I get a hold of Danielle SE phone support (after waiting over 24 hours to try again), she tells me that because I tried multiple times to transfer servers that SE security LOCKED my account from making any payments with any card FOR 30 DAYS! And that it was my fault because I tried more than once and that other people resolve the 401 issues other ways.

This is a HUGE issue since I have 20 days left from my subscription (so how am I supposed to pay for my sub after the 20 days?) and I need to get to my new guild before the patch.

Danielle would not put me through with her supervisor and said there is nothing she can do for me. She can't even just grant me a transfer or let me pay for the transfer over the phone. They have been giving me excuse after excuse for the 401 error. I've used my same card on this account since 2010. I used another one just to make sure it wasn't that particular card.

Has anyone gotten this same issue? Is there some way to bypass this and get a transfer? Is Danielle from SE support telling the truth about not being able to help me in any way or just being down right worthless.

Thanks!

[siverstorm]

I've gotten more helpful responses from Global Collect customer support than I did from SE support. EU support helped answer my questions, but ultimately couldn't do anything for me as my account is not an EU account.

Please read all of my points before commenting, the following is not an instant solution. It is a way to help put pressure on SE to either fix their current system or re-introduce the PayPal method faster.

To see this issue fixed in the long term I would suggest everyone do the following:

• Verify the error is with SE, call your financial institution and VERIFY the payments were being authorized. Failure to ensure this weakens your argument to the point where it's worthless.
• Verify your SE account information is identical to the information on your credit card. Meaning address, email, phone number, etc is identical between the two (this technically shouldn't NEED to be done but I know some payment processors use that information to verify purchases).
• Once you've ensured the above try contacting Global Collect about the issue. http://www.globalcollect.com/company/contact

PLEASE NOTE: Global Collect is a payment PROCESSOR, all they do is take the response from the bank and return it to square enix. Square Enix then approves or rejects after. Please do not attack/bombard the GC service reps (this technically goes for SE too...as aggravating as NA support has been). Since this issue directly affects their business, and they actually care about making money from the looks of it, they will also put in effort to contact SE and see this through.

I've been told that they are aware that this issue exists and is also trying to contact SE about it. If you send them a polite message about it they might be able to help us in the long run. You need to explain that your payments are verified on your financial institution's end, it means that they saw the approval and passed it onto SE who then rejected it. IF you lie about your payments being approved it will only hinder progress, so please ensure and verify everything you can.

[ManweSulimo]

Well I just contacted Global Collect so let's see how this goes

[VaidaVoss]

I tried and they are aware of the problem. They said they would contact SE on the issue & on my behalf and assured me it is absolutely not on their end (blocking cards).

It's not Global Collect or my bank in the first place. Why would SE issue us a 401 error the first attempt if there is no issue with them.

Another thing, they 'block' your account from using any sort of payment methods for 30 days if you try multiple times. And I was scolded by Danielle for trying to pay more than once. When you get the 401 error, the error message DOES NOT SAY "STOP! DO NOT PROCEED WITH PAYMENT AGAIN, CONTACT SE SUPPORT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OR TRY AGAIN IN 24 HOURS." Stop and 24 hours being key. What it DOES say is "Try again later"...

I cannot believe there is not a person I can talk to at SE that can unblock my account or let me verify that it is me (anyone at SE should be able to see my card I provide is ok, I've used it to pay my subscription since 2010).

I guess I will call SE twice a day, every day till I can get this resolved.

[ManweSulimo]

So I contacted SE on Monday and they got back to me today. This is what they said:


Dear Customer,

Regarding your request for billing support. Please find your answer below.

Error 401/406/601 means that there is a security block preventing the transaction from going through. It may be an issue with the bank, incorrect billing information, or too many rejected attempts. Once the Error is triggered, it will place a 24 hour hold on the account. You will need to wait 24 hours before trying the card again.

Keep note, if you keep trying before the cool off period is over, it will reset the clock. So please refrain from trying until the 24 hours have passed.

Thank you for contacting the SQUARE ENIX Support Center.

Here is my reply:

Hello and thank you for your response!

I know it is as important to you as it is to me that Square Enix continues to thrive and produce great games that people want to purchase (maybe even moreso to you since I merely enjoy the experience as a customer whereas you make a living off of it ). I am concerned that the current billing system is driving many people away from this game, some just temporarily and some permanent. Customers whom are willing and in most cases even eager to pay for your services are being road-blocked by this billing system. Because of this, a significant amount of your revenue is being lost. I know you guys are doing everything you can to increase revenue so the business can be successful, and updating this billing system would definitely have a direct positive effect. These revenue increases may even enable SE customer service representatives to have more frequent pay increases! Can you put in word to your management that some reforms to the billing system are much desired by the community? There are a great deal of people having this problem. Please take a few minutes to skim over this thread:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...de-401-and-601

Note that this has been going on for over a year. Most people for the past year were able to get around this error by simply using ultimate pay. However once that dropped off this past month, now credit card is the only option. I think I heard that you guys are adding Paypal as an option which is very exciting and would also act as an alternative band-aid to ultimate pay for this ongoing issue. Billing system updates might already be a priority for you guys but I just want to give you some customer feedback so that hopefully it can be prioritized higher or possibly even first since once you are able to fix this then you will recover a great deal of lost revenue.

Here is a summary of some recurring suggestions that I saw in that thread based on roughly 1000 people having this issue:

1. Add Paypal as a payment option
2. Show all of the data being sent to the global collect company. I noticed that when we input information it does not require us to put our name, but only our credit card info.
3. When there is an error, include in the error message that there is a 24 hour hold*. Most people are going to try again a few times if it doesn't work right away.
4. *Change the 24 hour hold to something like 5 or 10 minutes. 24 hours is a little steep. And the 30 day hold for multiple failed attempts is extremely unforgiving at best.

I'm sure there are other good ideas as well but this seems like a great start that would at least fix this issue. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to seeing your updated user friendly billing system!

Regards,

[LandSlideXIV]

Just as an fyi... I had this ridiculous issue myself. I tried my card, which is verified by my bank to have not been declined on their behalf, and I got error 401. I then tried my wife's card, who was also 401. I called my best friend who plays, and he tried his card which was then 401. We called our other friend who plays, he tried his Capitol One card, it worked...

I tried my card 5+ times in a 20 minute time frame, then my wife's card 3 times within 30 minutes of my first attempt, my best friend tried several times within an hour and our third friend got it to go through his first attempt before 2 full hours passed. I can't even begin to speculate what the actual problem is, but that's how I got around it. We tried VISA, American Express and Master Card... didn't make a difference. Capitol One was the only one to go through and I have no idea what that means, but passing the info on to you guys.

I also tried Square Enix online chat support, to which I had the most frustrating customer service experience of my life. I asked to speak with a supervisor or anyone that I could escalate my issue to and the response was, they aren't interested in hearing about it. I was told to wait until next month and try again, then kicked out of the live chat after explaining this to them. Like literally, the chat closed out while I was trying to get help. Unreal. I hope Agent Jordan gets paid minimum wage.

[Frapp]

To everyone still experiencing 401 issues, I may have isolated a workaround you can try.

Most people nowadays (especially us net-savvy folk) use a combination of alternate browsers, No Script, Ad Block, Ghostery, Do Not Track, et al. Security settings are nice and tight. After speaking with a chat agent, I was informed that the back end error (for me) was "Null Value not allowed for expiry date". Something in part of my security cocktail was forcing that to happen.

1) In your preferred browser, try to white list or turn off security settings for Square Enix, Global Collect, Mog Station, etc.
2) Failing that, use a basic browser such as Safari or Internet Explorer (IE ended up working for me on the first try. Went straight to Mog Station, no browsing elsewhere).

[MorbidAngel]

To everyone still experiencing 401 issues, I may have isolated a workaround you can try.

Most people nowadays (especially us net-savvy folk) use a combination of alternate browsers, No Script, Ad Block, Ghostery, Do Not Track, et al. Security settings are nice and tight. After speaking with a chat agent, I was informed that the back end error (for me) was "Null Value not allowed for expiry date". Something in part of my security cocktail was forcing that to happen.

1) In your preferred browser, try to white list or turn off security settings for Square Enix, Global Collect, Mog Station, etc.
2) Failing that, use a basic browser such as Safari or Internet Explorer (IE ended up working for me on the first try. Went straight to Mog Station, no browsing elsewhere).

Thank you for this. Was getting 601 error when trying to renew from Firefox (No Script and Ad Block Installed, disabled both) , switched to Chrome and went right through.