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SOE strikes again.
Sophist
Member Posts: 171
So get this I played only one SOE game in my life and that was SWG right. I played for about a month maybe about 6 months ago. I shut down the account and forgot all about it cause "IT DOES SUCK" not to mention the HORRIBLE lagg.
So i go into my Bank statement today online only to find that 6 months after I shut this all down they have billed my card for a monthly charge. I mean WTF what kind of freaking policy are they running in this company. I've seen post on stuff like this from SOE before and was just wondering if there was a petition going around anywhere to shut these bastards down. Just wanted to sing up and join the crew to get these poor ecuses of a bunch of smedly wannabee's shut down.
/endrant sry just had to bash em a little.
"The most important thing is to have the design support the players in setting their own goals in both cooperative and competitive interaction with one another." - Ironore -
Comments
Call SOE and talk to them. Tell them you want the charges reversed and if they won't that you will call your credit card company and have them do a charge back. I suspect you will get your money back since SOE is trying to avoid charge backs since it hurts them with fines and increases the fees they must pay on transactions.
I have subbed on and off on a couple different SOE games. Although I'm not a fanboi by any measure I have not encountered this problem. Most publishers provide an automated billing system that automatically stops billing when you tell it to.
I'm a fan of crying when crying is due and giving credit where credit is due - are you positively sure that you engaged the necessary processes to shut down your billing?
I had a problem like this before. Not excatly but something close. The web pages for canceling subscriptions, would not load up for me at all. I continued to get "A error occured please try later." Figured it was a problem that would be fixed. Well a month goes by and same problem. Talked with one of these so called CSR's i think they are called, and they said it was a problem on my side. Which it wasen't. So they do have some problems with subscriptions at times.
again,
Dont ya think that if SOE had a problem with their billing page/ front end more than 1 person would be calling in an issue?
As someone who works in support I can tell you that if you're visting a corporate billing website for a company like Sony online Entertainment and you visit the site over a course of a few days/weeks and you get a page can not be displayed each time - ill bet the farm its not their site.
Companies have reponse centers put in place to deal with outages. Some response times are better than others but anyone running an online business is going to have their billing system fixed within hours.
Well personally, I never had any trouble canceling any of my SOE accounts. However there have been several posts and I know some people in real life who have had the same problem this guy had. I think there must be something unclear in the cancellation process. . . an extra confirm button they need to hit or something.
I haven't been(and won't be) playing an SOE game, so I cant point out exactly what it is though. To the OP, like I told my friends, it's always good practice to run through your credit card statements/online bank account site/etc just to make sure there aren't any random charges like this.
GL!
I had the same issue with SOE some 3 years ago. It's strange how you can NOT play a game for months and then suddenly be billed for it... I don't understand how that can happen but I will attest that it happened to me once, though they did clear it up after a phone call.
Tecmo Bowl.
This is true. I worked in credit card chargebacks for four years. The term is "cancelled recurring transaction". Make sure you have the exact date you called to cancel and any other details you'd like to include (who you talked to, what they said). You have 90 days from the date on your billing statement to notify the credit card company of the cancelled charge. More than likely, Sony being the monolithic company they are, didn't process the cancellation properly. As the person quoted here mentioned, it's not worth their while to try to scam people because it would cost more than likely costs more than $15 of their time and money to correct mass chargeback situations.
I had the issue in the past with SOE as well (in addition to other customers who had the same problem) but on a personal level, the graphics problems, Customer Service issues, lost data, and so forth. There's a lot of reasons why I don't have any accounts with them, but can't say they're out to get people solely for this reason.
http://www.allaboutgod.com/
Ok, you should find another job.
SOE who did billing for Vanguard:
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=5536&highlight=billing
SOE dropping the ball on billing and subscriptions
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=15766&highlight=billing
I recall reading some threads before regarding some people still get charged monthly after they cancel their subscription.
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=12862&highlight=charged
It's been going on for months now and people that cancel are still not cancelled.
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=15766&highlight=billing
As far as I know the cancellation bug has not been fixed
It's not SOE, they all do it. I had the same problem with WoW
member of imminst.org
Hmmm interesting....
Having played most MMORPG's at one point in time or another I can honestly say not a single one, including ones handled by SOE, has ever caused me this problem. I've seen a similar complaint from time to time posted on this forum or that forum and not just about SOE, about just about every MMO out there. Maybe I'm just lucky but not once, not one single time, have I ever been billed, by any game, after my billing period expired.
Then again, if I had? I wouldn't bother posting on some stupid MMO forum about it. I'd be in touch with that company to get the charges reversed and find out why it happened.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
Whether you realize it or not, alot of people have had problems with SOE when it comes to billing. Not to say they are the only one. There are plenty of stories floating around from game to game, about billing problems. I've had to deal with them about invalid charges to my card several times. Happened with both EQ and EQ2.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
I agree with a previous poster, call SOE and ask to talk to a Supervisor or Manager (don't play with the frontline customer service personnel and ask for the charges to be reversed, tell them they can check the account for activity. If they then refuse to reverse the charges, then contact your local BBB, Credit Card Company and News Station. A Reporter calling them saying they are doing a Story on how they are charging without providing serives will do wonders.
url=http://www.enjin.com]
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Ok just so evreyone's on the same page. I did contact them before coming here. Lets just say I posted this as a note to anyone so they would think to keep an eye on any accounts they have involved with online purchases I guess.
Just mostly put it in Rant form .
I'm sure I will have no trouble with support on the matter it has already been taken care of. Electronically of course so can't confire till I see money in the bank.
Just so everyone is clear on the matter I only had a sub on SWG for like a month "6 months ago" and yes I am savy enough to watch my accounts either online or in banks. And I never noticed a charge before. (even went back through my statements to be sure.) no action at all and then this one. I just find it terribly odd.
Like I said just let this be a warning to anyone with subs to any game via a credit card.
"The most important thing is to have the design support the players in setting their own goals in both cooperative and competitive interaction with one another." - Ironore -
I have done it a couple times
Indeed.
MMO games played or tested: EQ, DAoC, Archlord, Auto Assault, CoH, CoV, EQ2, EVE, Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Linneage II, LOTRO, MxO, Planetside, SWG, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard, WWIIOL, WOW, Age of Conan
Come on...somebody has to pay for Smed's trips to the hair club for men...
Ok, you should find another job.
SOE who did billing for Vanguard:
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=5536&highlight=billing
SOE dropping the ball on billing and subscriptions
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=15766&highlight=billing
I recall reading some threads before regarding some people still get charged monthly after they cancel their subscription.
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=12862&highlight=charged
It's been going on for months now and people that cancel are still not cancelled.
http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=15766&highlight=billing
As far as I know the cancellation bug has not been fixed
Congratulations on digging up topics from a year ago.
One of them has nothing to do with billing and two of them are the same post.
Good job!
I played EQ for about 5 years, EQ2 for about a year and Vanguard for a short time so i have had some experience with SOE. Throughout my time i have heard about people having issues with billing and customer service and almost everything else, i never had one problem with them. Billing was never an issue with them and i never waited on the customer service line for what i thought was a unappropriate time, and my issue was always resolved. In game issues i never had a problem with either, always got a very helpful GM whenever i had an issue.
There is alot of hate for SOE but i share in none of it. Perhaps i am just lucky but its true.
On a side note, i did get billed for an extra month after i quit playing FFXI but i just let them keep the 14 bucks and didnt come onto the forums and bitch them out.
Aye
Since Feb of 2001 they have done right by me money wise.
I wasnt thrilled with a few items service wise...moving CS to India, less GMs per server...floating GMs and no more events...had to be on Legends etc etc. When I did deal with a GM though it seems like only once they didnt help us out...even giving my wife back her cleric epic turn in when she screwed it up a few yrs back.
All through it though they have never scammed us...and we own like 6 EQ and 4 EQ2 accounts. Had another EQ one, but that one I gave to a friend cause wasnt being used.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
This I would hold more as a last resort if a more peaceful resolution can't be met. Remember your credit card bank is the one on YOUR side whereas the one that billed you is the on on the merchant's side. When you're speaking to a manager at your bank and s/he asks "Did you do this first?" then "Did you try that?" and your answer is "no", it kinda makes you sound like you're full of hot air. Try the recommended route, then if that doesn't work and you can answer "yes", it gives a lot more weight and reason for your unhappiness. I would recommend though, not getting emotionally involved in the situation. Neither SOE or the banks are emotionally involved in taking your money. Heart disease, on the other hand, can run you about $25,000 per hospital visit.
http://www.allaboutgod.com/
This I would hold more as a last resort if a more peaceful resolution can't be met. Remember your credit card bank is the one on YOUR side whereas the one that billed you is the on on the merchant's side. When you're speaking to a manager at your bank and s/he asks "Did you do this first?" then "Did you try that?" and your answer is "no", it kinda makes you sound like you're full of hot air. Try the recommended route, then if that doesn't work and you can answer "yes", it gives a lot more weight and reason for your unhappiness. I would recommend though, not getting emotionally involved in the situation. Neither SOE or the banks are emotionally involved in taking your money. Heart disease, on the other hand, can run you about $25,000 per hospital visit.
Not in Europe, thank god.
Another 'must do' for P2P cancellations is saving your email notifications. Also, if you just absolutely need to be sure, print a PDF of the cancel screen (if you have Adobe writer). If you don't have Adobe, you can press the print screen button on all keyboards and paste the image into paint. Save it as 'Cancel_date_gamename and it will server as a backup in the event of 'problems'.
Most gaming companies recogniz that their databses glitch on occasion (restores, rollbacks in transactions or just plain old operator error) and don't argue but it never hurts to have 'proof' just so you can confirm you aren't putting on over on them. Especially if it's a month to month reoccurring bill versus the OPs' situation of 6 months off and then getting a bill.
I see alot of "It didn't happend to me, so it can't be true" in this thread.
I just love the internet and the intelligence of the people on it... Unable to put themselves in others shoes, and unable to comprehend that the world does not revolve around them... *sigh*
My cousin had to wait for 6 months to get a refund from SOE... Heh, funny thing is that they said they would refund the error 1 week after the $ were pulled from his bank account...3 mails it took.
Ofcourse, it took alot more mails in the following 6 months before they finally paid out.
I just recently got charged 4 monthly fees @ £8.99 each from codemasters for lotro, although I canceled my account a month ago (I even filled out their survey thingy).
After contacting them they are going to refund me for only 2 of the charges.
In short, it's not only SOE that does stupi s*** like that.
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MMOs that I'm waiting for:
WAR
Aion
SGW
TCoS
Darkfall
STO
I have to say as a long time mmo player that like most I have a lot of problems with SOE. I am a SWG vet who is still angry about what they did to us with NGE. However I love EQ2 so SOE gets a bit of my money. When it comes to tech issues their customer service sux. I have subscribed and unsubscribed to many of their games. I have gotten the station pass and left that to. I have paid and downloaded content from them as well. Dispite all my problems with SOE, I have never had a single problem with SOE in reguards to account and billing issues.