Payment Method Registration Errors [Error Code 401 and 601]

[Caeylen]

The solution to my issue:

I bought a Ultimate Game Card which did not work (neither did paypal or my CC). I contacted the UltimatePay company (from the link on my error message) and they confirmed that they saw the transaction, but it was denied. They then manually drained my card and added the Crysta for me, and my account is now accessible.

Also, if you wish to contact chat support, then you have to go through the FFXI support page. This seems a bit backwards.

This is completely ridiculous... I agree. Also, I live in South Korea too ^^

[Aldehido]

Since my thread was deleted I'll post this here.

Here is the following log of a tech support conversation I had with this grade F tech agent. I suggest you get a better hold of your agents SE or you're gonna start to lose many more clients than you already have.

tl;dr people. This is basically me asking for support for a known issue and even while I asked for a supervisor to handle my case he removed me from the conversation.

If a developer catches this and sees it fit as feedback and needs my ticket to provide further proof, feel free to ask for it

Agent Thomas A: Hello and thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support. Just a few moments while I review your question, please.
You: Hello.
You: Ok.
Agent Thomas A: In order to properly assist you I will need to verify the account in question. Please provide me with the following information.

Name
Date of Birth
Email
Address(Including City/State/Zip)
Deleted because of sensible information.
Agent Thomas A: What information were you trying to change?
Agent Thomas A: Ah, unfortunately, a region cannot be changed on an account under any circumstances.
You: I'm trying to change my region to united states so I can process my payement.
You: Hmmm.
You: So then Thom, mind if I call you Thom, Thomas?
Agent Thomas A: I do not mind.
You: Cool, thanks Thom.
Agent Thomas A: Was there any other issues that I could assist you with at this time?
You: I'm having an issue right now then, there is now way I can pay my account. I'm using the same credit card I used to pay my account the first month but now since the CC was out of funds the day the payement proccesed the account got cancelled. Now, the money is available in my account and I already used it to pay my other account but the region on that other one is United States so I went ahead and payed via Crystal with my VISA.
You: But, when I go on and pay this account, it's denying my CC info, even though it's correct.
You: I'm wondering if there is any way you can assist me in order so I can enjoy the product I purchased.
You: I also cannot pay via Ultimate thingy or a timecard because the option is not allowed for my region which is Puerto Rico even though Time cards are sold in Puerto Rico.
Agent Thomas A: Unfortunately for this case, there was a decline due to security purposes and due to suspicious activity there was a block placed on this billing method, this block can last up to 30 days. I am unable to provide assistance in changing this or clearing the block. There are plans to make Puerto Rico available for Crysta use but unfortunately, you would need to wait until that becomes and option or wait for the block to come off of this account.
Agent Thomas A: Are there any different issues I can assist you with right now?
You: give me a sec
You: Is there any way I can provide any sort of information so this ban can be lifted now?
Agent Thomas A: There is not a way to lift this block.
You: why was this block implemented if the transaction came from the same IP this account is being used on all the time?
You: Well one of the three locations I use the account to play
Agent Thomas A: Unfortunately, there would be no more information that I could provide outside of what was given. I would not be able to go into details as to why the transaction was declined, only that it was.
You: Then how am I supposed to enjoy the product I bought
Agent Thomas A: Unfortunately, I have provided you with all of the information that I can provide. There was a decline due to security purposes and due to suspicious activity there was a block placed on this billing method, this block can last up to 30 days. I am unable to provide assistance in changing this or clearing the block. There are plans to make Puerto Rico available for Crysta use but unfortunately, you would need to wait until that becomes and option or wait for the block to come off of this account.

Agent Thomas A: Was there any other issues I could assist you with at this time?
You: Can you direct me to your supervisor?
You: Or any higher ranking officer than you?
Agent Thomas A: I am seeing if one is available, but for this case, there would be no further information to provide.
You: Thanks. It won't matter, I still would like to talk to him though.
Agent Thomas A: Unfortunately, there is not a supervisor available to speak with at this time as there is no way to lift a block on an account once it has taken place.
You: Is there is no supervisor available or I'm not being directed to one because the question doesn't seem fit for a supervisor?
Agent Thomas A: I have already provided you with a resolution to this issue. As it seems you have no other new issues I can assist you with, I will be removing you from chat at this time.
Agent Thomas A has disconnected.



Attaching Images for further proof and not trolling.

<a href="http://imgur.com/tjApWNu"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/tjApWNu.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/hjcyHkV"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/hjcyHkV.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/LKOQygu"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/LKOQygu.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/Mj9Fbg5"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/Mj9Fbg5.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/ng2u322"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ng2u322.jpg" title="Hosted by imgur.com"/></a>

[Jynxi]

After my trial ended as of two days ago I decided I'd wait until new saints wake before I renew my sub, After going through the process of renewing the sub I ended up with a bunch of different errors and one time it even said the site was down for maintenance I've gone through the process twice now and I am outraged at how bad your service is, Fix this! I'm missing out on valuable event time because of your stuff up! And as for phoning the banks? Not everyone in the world can afford a phone especially on my salary and as people have stated This is your screw up not theirs.

The funniest thing is a lot of other MMO's even more successful than XIV had no history of service bugs or troubles Because unlike XIV they listen to their community These super slow responses are atrocious.

I'll just take my money elsewhere if this keeps up.

[Namir]

Ok it finally accepted my payment, I live in Puerto Rico which is one of the "crysta unsupported" regions. A little background... I was a 1.0 player (non legacy) and when my free trial expired I tried to add my credit card and it failed with all the errors you get, I also could not buy crysta or anything else in my region so basically CC was my only option. I play on PC so to be able to keep playing i registered a PS3 code from a copy i had also bought for my PS3, and got an extra 30 free days. After doing that, I re-registered my CC through the account management page before setting it up in the mogstation, don't know if that matters, also, this was a new card as my previous one got stolen. Everything was setup nicely and it seened like everyhing was ready for my card to be charged when my trial expired and i got an email saying so. Today my trial expired and I was expecting there would be some problem with the card but to my surprise i woke up to see a $41.97 transaction on my card for 3 months and everything was fine, my friend who also lives in PR managed to sign up just fine as well, so the problem might have been fixed and those that can't sign up is because of the 30 day block?

[Maona]

Yesterday I tried to pay my subscription and got 401 error three times in a row. So I looked into my online bank client. There were three succesful payments 1 euro each. And there were three blocked payments 10.99 euro each (entry subscription fee). I called to my bank. They said that info of my debit card was wrong. Either CVV code or valid thru period was entered wrongly. That's why they blocked payments.

My guess is the following. When you try to pay your subscription fee there are two stages in the process. Firstly you enter your card info in the form. If you enter it correctly SE checks your card, takes 1 euro from your account and tells you that everything is OK and that your payment info is stored in their database. Then you are asked to confirm your payment settings and press Next button. At that moment SE tries to take subscription fee from your account. But they don't send info you've just entered on the form (which is correct). They send it from their database.

I think that SE corrupts your payment info either when they store it in database or when they send it from their database to your bank. SE please check these processes.

[Jauffry]

Okay. I checked my bank and the $7 have been rescinded. Although, I am still stuck on how the heck I am suppose to play and "pay" this game. Guess I'll look into my other games for now to entertain myself. I wouldn't be surprise if this takes months to fix the credit card issues which is such an easy payment option to straight up enroll in this monthly payment of an MMO game... BULLOCKS!

[WacMan]

I had the 601/401 error and came here for answers.

Here's what helped:
- At first I was trying for my work place which for some reason doesn't help.
- When I tried from home, I was able to get one step further in paying with my CC, but got 401 instead of 601.
- I read people could buy Crysta using Paypal but I couldn't find where until I selected UltimatePay as a method of payment for Crysta. UltimatePay accepted more means of payment (including Paypal) so I went ahead with Paypal and was able to add Crysta to my account that way and then pay my subscription using Crysta.

Hope this helps someone (although I know it can't help you guys in regions where Crysta is not supported...)

[Puzyn]

I initially set-up automatic payment with a $50 visa gift card before my free subscription expired. Once my free subscription expired, I got error 401. I tried again the following day using the same card twice and still got the same error. Then I called the card's financial institution to find out what has been withdrawn and found out $1.00 was withdrawn for each of the 3 attempts but the subscription payment was not. How can they withdraw the cc processing fee and not be able to withdraw the payment? Can someone shed light on that?

[Philtee]

Error 601 is from GlobalCollect. Apparently, you cannot try to pay for your account from an IP that is not in the region you purchased...or at least I assume that. I constantly get error 601 which my bank does not even see a charge being requested. After learning that, I used my connection at work to route out of an ISP we have in the US and this time it went through, however now I'm stuck with error 401. Ultimate pay site is not working either...and I have called my banks (yes plural) and they all said they are authorizing the $1 charge but that is all that is coming in. I currently have over 20 $1 pending charges.

I never had trouble with any MMO to pay for sub. FFXI I had a bit of a hard time figuring the POL system but eventually got it working. This however has to be the most frustrating ever. I was ready to uninstall my game last night and call and dispute the digital download charge for the game as well, but I decided to sleep on it and try again today. Well here I am having problems again, but I guess the nice thing is knowing there are 73 pages worth of people sharing my same pain. I will wait it out at most 3-5 more days. I contacted SE helpdesk via email and they are absolutely worthless.

Lastly, SE, it would really help you if you explained the error correctly and descriptively. With both errors I kept seeing something about my options and thought I had something on my side that I did incorrectly. Wasted a lot of my time trying to figure out what options I was missing and then realized my charges weren't even hitting my bank. If the errors were clearer, I promise you...you wouldn't have these frustrated people yelling at you. And lastly, don't ever blame us for your poor planning. Most of us understand that with any new MMO launch, there will be issues that blow up, but when you send out emails saying this is our issue etc, its absurd and bothering and you will definitely lose your fan base and players if you continue that crap. You are lucky that users are trying to find work arounds with things like ultimate pay and getting game cards while you fix this issue, but you seriously cannot keep up this crap with bad service esp with a broken product. You guys should do all in your power to save users such as Aldehido. Hiding it will only make us angrier.

[Jynxi]

This is THE worst customer support service in gaming history, As stated earlier I still cannot get in so I said screw it all and returned to a previous mmo which I couldn't play for a year as I was hacked but after I figured out the new system (5 minutes) I sent away a support ticket 5 minutes later? A GM contacted me told me he understood asked for a little more information before he can finalise the process and I reply with the information, twenty minutes later? I've got my account back and they even set up my own support account in case it happens again!

THAT'S CUSTOMER SERVICE!
Did I mention the game is even more popular monthly than XIV? And not one technical complaint! It's shocking this game is even still running with customer service as awful as this, Take your thumbs out of your asses and help your customers!

AND QUIT BLAMING YOUR CUSTOMERS FOR YOUR SCREW UP!

And those purchasing crysta etc I understand you want to play, But finding a loop around Isn't going to solve this problem while It's harsh the more people struggling with this issue the more likely It's going to be solved!

a measly 700+ people is nothing compared to the billions (Figure of speech) of players currently occupying the game so they don't see it as an issue but the larger that number grows the less likely they'll be able to avoid it like they are.




I'm even more bewildered by the fact that this is at the top of the page in technical support and not one reply from SE How hard is it to click on a damn thread that you started!?!?!?!?