If Your Credit Card Gets Double Charged, Beware the Dangers of Support

deadwinston

Or How I Got Locked Out of ESO for 29 Days and Robbed of $16 for Buying Elsweyr.

This is a warning message that you should never have your credit card company handle a refund for an ESO purchase that was double charged. Their system automatically disables accounts and requires using the support system to get your account enabled again. The support ticket system is not quick, and their resolution handling was not my favorite.

Here is a recap of my support experience to date.
11/26/2019 10:30 AM - I foolishly purchase Elsweyr for $13.98 on sale because I believe at the time I will be able to play the game.
11/28/2019 05:28 PM - I notice I have been charged $13.98 twice by mistake and my credit card company starts to look into the issue and credits back $13.98 for the duplicate charge the next day.
12/07/2019 01:12 PM - I try to login to complete my dragon dailies for event tickets and notice my account is locked out. I make a support ticket.
12/08/2019 03:07 PM - Support responds back that accounts are automatically deactivated when there is a chargeback. They tell me I need to have the credit card company reverse the chargeback.
12/08/2019 03:21 PM - I reply explaining I was double charged and send a screenshot showing the two charges made for $13.98 to my credit card and single refund for $13.98.
12/09/2019 06:53 PM - I reply asking if they have an update because the lockout has caused me to lose 6 event tickets (which I foolishly think will be the worst injustice in this process).
12/10/2019 08:39 PM - I reply again because it has been 2 days since support has responded (I don't yet know that a 13-day silence is completely within the realm of possibility). Somewhere around this time I make a forum post in General Help. I learn from a mod that responding back to a ticket multiple times can reset your position in queue.
---THEY TAKE 7 DAYS TO RESPOND TO MY TICKET---
12/17/2019 07:20 PM - Support ignores the fact that I was double charged and tells me to reverse the chargeback with my credit card company.
12/17/2019 07:20 PM - I respond that I will call the credit card company to reverse the chargeback and ask about getting a refund for the duplicate charge.
12/17/2019 07:46 PM - I respond after 25 minutes on the phone with my credit card company that they can't reverse the chargeback unless the merchant follows the dispute procedure and tells them the charge is valid.
---THEY TAKE 13 DAYS TO RESPOND TO MY TICKET---
12/30/2019 04:18 PM - Support finally responds that they want me to buy 1500 crowns instead then and will take the 1500 crowns out of my account.
12/31/2019 06:39 AM - I reply that I will do whatever it takes to get into my account, but point out the injustice in having me pay more money when they already have the $13.98 for Elsweyr.
01/04/2020 02:25 PM - Support once again ignores the double charge, refund, injustice, etc. and tells me to buy the crowns. It's pretty obvious also that they waited until the New Life Festival and crown sale were finished before having me give them more money.
01/04/2020 09:34 PM - I reply that the purchase has been made, sending a screenshot of it. I reiterate how I have now paid them $29.87 because they overcharged me for a $13.98 purchase.
01/04/2020 10:04 PM - Support ignores all of that and responds that they have removed the crowns and I can play the game again. They end the message with "We hope this helps and we hope that you have fun gaming." I can't help but read that line as sarcastic.
01/04/2020 10:09 PM - I reply back to see about getting that $13.98 refund that I am owed, but expect to get ignored again. I also expect to feel robbed.
01/11/2020 08:38 PM - I reply again to the ticket reminding them that they have not addressed the fairness of paying $29.87 for something that should have cost $13.98.
01/14/2020 08:04 PM - Support says they were charged an "additional fee" for the chargeback as if that justifies extorting an additional $15.89 from me after locking me out of the account for almost a month where they were clearly not responding or looking into my ticket for weeks at a time.
01/15/2020 12:35 AM - I write back again that I feel they have robbed me and that I would love to speak to a manager, escalate the ticket, etc., but feel like they will probably just keep stonewalling me and insisting that their theft of my money is fair.

I'm about done with this pointless exercise. I just want to warn people on what might happen if your credit card company asks if you've been double charged and you tell them yes. It may also be helpful to understand how quickly account problems get resolved by support. It might also be helpful to know what certain companies decide is fair when it comes to purchasing content in an online video game.

SydneyGrey

That's not ok. What the heck, ZOS?

Dolphinsgal

Always go to the company that double charged first, of it's through xbox go to Microsoft pc go to zos directly I'd guess playstation I have no idea. Almost all mmo's I've played will lock your account if you go through the credit card company first.
One thing to note though not completely off topic some credit card companies are now issuing fraud alerts if a card isn't used in an actual store every 30 days, if it's only used for online purchases charges could be denied due to new policies, so if that's how you pay for eso+ call your company.

deadwinston

Yeah, I know that now. My credit card company sends email when there's a double charge with an easy button to press for "Yes, this was supposed to be two charges" or "No, they charged me twice for a thing."

So not having had this experience, I clicked the wrong box not knowing what sort of hassle and robbery would ensue.

But that is why I think it's important to let other people know. Never report a double charge from an MMO to your credit card company. They will lock out your account and steal from you apparently.

Raisin

That's still super disgusting on several levels. Maybe you can get some of the Support related forum staff to get in on this to get this sorted out because this is NOT where the issues should end. Even if it sucks for them that the chargeback cost then a free, holding your account hostage is in no way appropriate.

DBZVelena

I feel like this has been mishandled and some support person has stolen 1500 crowns from you as ransom for getting your account back. Got the name of the support person who told you to buy 1500 crowns? Because that sounds totally fishy to me.
Like they removed the crowns code from your account and moved it to their own private one.

And yes support are people, it's perfectly possible one of em is new and thinks they can get away with this bull.

StrandedMonkey

this thread reminded me to pay off my credit card

thanks OP

Danikat

If you have a problem with a purchase of any kind it's always best to go to the retailer first (and if applicable the manufacturer second) and ask your credit/debit card company to refund you only as a last resort.

Basically banks only have one system for reversing a charge to your account, it's the same one they use for stolen or cloned cards, scam transactions and so on which means from the retailers perspective it's pretty heavy handed. There's no discussion, no notification of "oh hey, this went wrong and our customer has asked us to fix it, what do you need to do?" they just take the money.

So all the retailer knows is they sold a thing and then had the money taken away. Of course they're going to cut the service if they can - it looks like you haven't paid for it so they have no reason to let you have it.

If there's any more to it than that the bank cannot and will not help with it. You need to talk to the retailer to get it sorted out, and it's much easier to do that before you've had the bank run a charge back.

Alienoutlaw

i had this issue back in October,took 21 days for the 1st response and a further 10days after that to sort out

IwakuraLain42

Never, ever let your credit card company issue a chargeback on a MMORPG account. They will all block/ban you immediately.

pdblake

Is demanding that you buy crowns or pay the double charge back before they will refund, and then not even refunding, even legal? It sounds fraudulent to me.

I've not logged on for over a week now. Stuff like this makes it much less likely that I'll bother at all.

Nyladreas

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_MattFiror @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_MichaelServotte @ZOS_JoBurba @ZOS_DavidGee @ZOS_BoydBeasley @ZOS_CheriW

Don't know who else to tag... Please look at the OP's post, any of you who get to see this.

I took the liberty to even tag the finance manager, live services director + team member, and the customer service director. Also, sorry, Matt, for including you too, but this needs a response and I know how much people tag all of you guys. Thank you, folks.

All because honestly... This practice is toxic at best, and the responsible customer support individual behind this treatment (or multiple people) need to be disciplined, if what OP says is true. Blatantly ignoring repeated inquiries, questions and pleas with a result where the customer ends up loosing even more money in the process is straight up messed up.

And hey, @deadwinston , thanks for bringing it up here, we gotchu. I'll try to message Gina or Jess on discord too, but can't promise much since it's early morning for them now. Can you please include the ticket number here, so that they may check it out for you?

UPDATE : I got Gina to reply, so maybe she can sort it out somehow. Still might be a good idea to post the ticket number.
UPDATE 2: Ticket #191207-002069

@ZOS_Adrikoth Could you possibly sticky this, just temporarly, so that it can stay on the front page until it is resolved or noted by any of the higher staff, pretty please? This really needs to be adressed, especially if it's a recurring system bug.

Darkstorne

Yikes, that's bad. Sure, you should always go through the company first rather than the credit card, but they shouldn't respond by holding your account to ransom until you buy more in-game currency. @Nyladreas thanks for putting in so much effort to connect with the relevant people.

The few times I've had to use ZOS support they have been incredibly supportive and understanding, very fast and efficient, and very lenient. I'm sure they'll do the right thing here, and hopefully this is just a 1 in 100 mistake

Nyladreas

Darkstorne wrote: »

Yikes, that's bad. Sure, you should always go through the company first rather than the credit card, but they shouldn't respond by holding your account to ransom until you buy more in-game currency. @Nyladreas thanks for putting in so much effort to connect with the relevant people.

The few times I've had to use ZOS support they have been incredibly supportive and understanding, very fast and efficient, and very lenient. I'm sure they'll do the right thing here, and hopefully this is just a 1 in 100 mistake

Yeah IKR? I've also had only possitive experience with ZOS. Way beyond my expectations even. They've always treated me nicely, politely, and responded quickly. I even had one certain individual that I adore, go out of his way to help me further on something he didn't have to help with at all. Mikhael

DragonRacer

I am so beyond confused about the Crowns part. You get double-charged, your credit card company fixes it, it triggers an auto-lock on your account from ZOS' end, then after explaining the situation and providing evidence, support says to buy 1,500 Crowns and then they'll remove the 1,500 Crowns? So, just hand them money with nothing in return because... why?

I can't wrap my mind around how that was supposed to work other than straight-up extortion. Because there was no mention of refunding you afterwards for the 1,500 Crown purchase (if the purchase was just to re-establish account connection/activity or whatever).

Holy cow.

barney2525

I got lost with the solution - ' Buy 1500 crowns and then we take the crowns out of your account '

WTF is THAT ??? Spend More money so we can take More away from you?

That Can't be legal

IMHO

deadwinston

Nyladreas wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_MattFiror @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_MichaelServotte @ZOS_JoBurba @ZOS_DavidGee @ZOS_BoydBeasley @ZOS_CheriW

Don't know who else to tag... Please look at the OP's post, any of you who get to see this.

I took the liberty to even tag the finance manager, live services director + team member, and the customer service director. Also, sorry, Matt, for including you too, but this needs a response and I know how much people tag all of you guys. Thank you, folks.

All because honestly... This practice is toxic at best, and the responsible customer support individual behind this treatment (or multiple people) need to be disciplined, if what OP says is true. Blatantly ignoring repeated inquiries, questions and pleas with a result where the customer ends up loosing even more money in the process is straight up messed up.

And hey, @deadwinston , thanks for bringing it up here, we gotchu. I'll try to message Gina or Jess on discord too, but can't promise much since it's early morning for them now. Can you please include the ticket number here, so that they may check it out for you?

UPDATE : I got Gina to reply, so maybe she can sort it out somehow. Still might be a good idea to post the ticket number.

@ZOS_Adrikoth Could you possibly sticky this, just temporarly, so that it can stay on the front page until it is resolved or noted by any of the higher staff, pretty please? This really needs to be adressed, especially if it's a recurring system bug.

@Nyladreas The ticket is Question Reference # 191207-002069. At one point during the process I added up how much I have spent on the game since 2015, and it was around $750. I was just shocked that this is my first support experience and how there seemed to be almost no interest in customer service.

@DBZVelena There is no name given from support staff. All replies are just signed "The Elder Scrolls Online Team."

@Darkstorne Hopefully it is just a mistake and can get cleared up. The entire process is very disheartening and has made playing the game unenjoyable over the past week.

Nyladreas

deadwinston wrote: »

Nyladreas wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_MattFiror @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_MichaelServotte @ZOS_JoBurba @ZOS_DavidGee @ZOS_BoydBeasley @ZOS_CheriW

Don't know who else to tag... Please look at the OP's post, any of you who get to see this.

I took the liberty to even tag the finance manager, live services director + team member, and the customer service director. Also, sorry, Matt, for including you too, but this needs a response and I know how much people tag all of you guys. Thank you, folks.

All because honestly... This practice is toxic at best, and the responsible customer support individual behind this treatment (or multiple people) need to be disciplined, if what OP says is true. Blatantly ignoring repeated inquiries, questions and pleas with a result where the customer ends up loosing even more money in the process is straight up messed up.

And hey, @deadwinston , thanks for bringing it up here, we gotchu. I'll try to message Gina or Jess on discord too, but can't promise much since it's early morning for them now. Can you please include the ticket number here, so that they may check it out for you?

UPDATE : I got Gina to reply, so maybe she can sort it out somehow. Still might be a good idea to post the ticket number.

@ZOS_Adrikoth Could you possibly sticky this, just temporarly, so that it can stay on the front page until it is resolved or noted by any of the higher staff, pretty please? This really needs to be adressed, especially if it's a recurring system bug.

@Nyladreas The ticket is Question Reference # 191207-002069. At one point during the process I added up how much I have spent on the game since 2015, and it was around $750. I was just shocked that this is my first support experience and how there seemed to be almost no interest in customer service.

@DBZVelena There is no name given from support staff. All replies are just signed "The Elder Scrolls Online Team."

@Darkstorne Hopefully it is just a mistake and can get cleared up. The entire process is very disheartening and has made playing the game unenjoyable over the past week.

Got it, thanks! I let Gina know So it's just a waiting game now to see what happens. This all I or anyone here can do from here.

deadwinston

Alright, in the interest of transparency and validity here, I figured why not just post the whole support thread as of their last response. I admit my responses got more frustrated as time went on, so there is some snark that has started to come out. You do have to read it backwards though. I added some bold to break things up. My most recent reply back is at the end.

Also to clarify how much I've spent on the game, legitimate purchases total $725.58. If you include the 1500 crown extortion, it's $741.47. I mention in the thread with support "hundreds" and "over $600" but was locked out of the account and unable to see my purchase history.So when I said it was "around $750" in an earlier reply, those are now the exact numbers.

Question Subject: The Elder Scrolls Online Account Recovery - My account was suspended or hacked
Question Reference # 191207-002069

Date Created: 12/07/2019 01:12 PM
Date Last Updated: 01/14/2020 08:04 PM

Status: Customer Response Required
Message Log:
The Elder Scrolls Online Team response on 01/14/2020 08:04 PM
Greetings,

When you issued the chargeback, the funds you were charged were returned to you. In addition, not only did your financial institution ask for the money back, but also added an additional fee on top of that. As such, the second charge for the Elsweyr Digital Upgrade was already refunded.

If you would like to pursue a refund for your purchase of the Elsweyr Digital Upgrade, we can look into that. Please be aware that if we do refund this purchase, this content will be disabled until it has been repurchased.

In the future, if you run into any billing issues for your account, you should contact Customer Support for assistance. Our teams can look into correcting any issues. Contacting your financial institution to flag a purchase as Fraudulent should not be done as a first resort.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Customer response on 01/11/2020 08:38 PM
I still haven't received a response about the double charge to my credit card. Here is my last message:

You didn't answer my question about being double charged. Are you going to refund me $13.98 now that I have paid an additional $15.89?

You charged me $13.98 twice which totals $27.96. My credit card company gave me $13.98 back. You disabled my account until I paid you an additional $15.89. I have now given you $29.87 for something that was supposed to cost me $13.98.

Customer response on 01/04/2020 10:10 PM
You didn't answer my question about being double charged. Are you going to refund me $13.98 now that I have paid an additional $15.89?

You charged me $13.98 twice which totals $27.96. My credit card company gave me $13.98 back. You disabled my account until I paid you an additional $15.89. I have now given you $29.87 for something that was supposed to cost me $13.98.

The Elder Scrolls Online Team response on 01/04/2020 10:04 PM
Hello again,

Thanks for reaching back out to us and for making that purchase.

Please know that we have gone ahead and removed 1,500 crowns. Since that change has been made we can allow the account back into the game and at this point in time the account is not banned.

We hope this helps and we hope that you have fun gaming.


Regards,

The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Customer response on 01/04/2020 09:34 PM
I have made the purchase of $15.89.

To go over this all again...
I was still charged twice originally for the purchase of Elsweyr. I agreed to pay $13.98 for it. You charged me $27.96 for it. My credit card company took that extra $13.98 back that you double charged me for. Now, you have held my account hostage for 30 days until I have paid you an additional $15.89. I have now paid you $29.87 for something that was on sale for $13.98 AND been locked out of my account for a month. So now that I have "undone the chargeback" by sending you $15.89, are you doing to refund the $13.98 that was double charged?


The Elder Scrolls Online Team response on 01/04/2020 02:25 PM
Hello Again,
As agreed, I have reactivated your account.
Please log onto your account and purchase the 1,500 crowns needed to reverse the chargeback.
Once this is done, please reply back to this email.
Please note that if you fail to purchase within 24 hours, or spend the crowns on something else without us removing them, the account will be permanently deactivated.
I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Customer response on 12/31/2019 06:39 AM
Yes, whatever I need to do to get back into the account I will do. Let me know when the ban is lifted so I can make the purchase.

However, since I was charged twice and one of the $13.98 charges has already gone through for the content I've purchased, it doesn't seem fair to make me buy 1500 crowns and then take the crowns away. You're essentially penalizing me for an error in your system that caused me to be billed twice. I kind of feel like this nightmare of being locked out of my account for almost a month now is more than enough and from a customer service standpoint you have to admit that I didn't cause this issue. So yes, whatever, I've wasted more than $600 on this game, I'll pay another $14. But it seems completely ridiculous to not only make me spend more money on the purchase of Elsweyr by buying crowns only to take those crowns away.

I would be less bitter about this entire situation if you either 1) just enabled my account and took a loss for whatever you were charged for the chargeback since you're unable to dispute it with my CC company to get that money back or 2) at least let me keep the additional crowns I have to buy now since they only buy digital widgets anyway.

Again, whatever needs to be done, I just want the account unlocked so I can access what I have paid you so much money for over the years. But come on, you have to admit that this support ticket process (specifically the timeliness of responses) has been unfair in addition to the double charge of $13.98. If you bought a hamburger for $14 and the burger place was like "hey no, we charged you $28." You would want your $14 back, right? And if you got your $14 back, but they then took away your first $14 hamburger and banned you from ever eating a hamburger again (and somehow also invalidated more than $600 that you had spent on hamburgers up until that point), you would be upset right? There is a person reading these responses, right? I guess if I've been talking to some kind of robot with no sense of justice, then yes, let me keep burning money and paying you double for hamburgers, sure.

The Elder Scrolls Online Team response on 12/30/2019 04:18 PM
Greetings,

I’m sorry to hear you are unable to initiate a reversal for the chargebacks.

To reinstate your account, you can make a purchase of crowns equal to the amount that was disputed in the chargeback.

As the chargeback was for 13.98, you will need to purchase 1500 crowns from our store to make up for previous chargebacks. Once this is done, we will then manually remove the crowns from your account.

If you would like to proceed with this option, please reply back to this email to confirm so. We will then lift the ban for 24 hours to allow you to make the purchase from our store.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Customer response on 12/17/2019 07:46 PM
I just called the credit card company. Their dispute rep says they can't reverse the chargeback unless your bank follows the proper dispute procedure to say that the charge is valid. I have updated their team with the information to allow the duplicate charge when your bank responds.

Also, when your billing system has an error like this, I feel like you should be more involved from a customer service perspective rather than letting the ticket sit for weeks.

Customer response on 12/17/2019 07:20 PM
Ok, I will have the credit card company stop the chargeback. Can you start the refund process on the double charge you made?

The Elder Scrolls Online Team response on 12/17/2019 11:14 AM
Greetings,

When you contacted your financial institution regarding the charge on the account, it was reported as Fraudulent. The financial institution then processed a Chargeback of the transaction. Not only did ask for the money back, but also added an additional fee on top of that. An account deactivation is a standard procedure after a chargeback request. This is why you are not able to access your account.

Before we can reactivate the account, we ask that you have the Chargeback reversed. Once that has been done, we would then be able to look into reactivating the account.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Customer response on 12/10/2019 08:39 PM
It has now been 2 days with no response from your support staff. Are you working on the issue or is this just sitting around waiting? I don't know if my replies are going through, and I still can't log in to my account. Your message says the ticket will close automatically after 4 days, and I'm getting frustrated that there has been no response back on it especially when none of this mess is the fault of anything I did.

Customer response on 12/09/2019 06:53 PM
Do you have any update for me? In my last message I sent a screenshot of the duplicate charge you made to my credit card. I specifically bought Elsweyr so I could do the dragon event, and I have now missed 6 event tickets because of the suspension. Ideally I would like to play the game I have spent hundreds of dollars on, and feel like I'm being prevented from doing that by an error in your billing system. If you could remove the suspension from my account or at least reply back to the ticket in a timely manner, that would be greatly appreciated.

Customer response on 12/08/2019 03:21 PM
The problem was that you double charged my credit card for the purchase I made of Elsweyr. I have included a screenshot of the statement and my credit card company's issuance of a refund for one of the two charges. You can see I was charged $13.98 twice for the one order I made, so the chargeback in question is valid.

The Elder Scrolls Online Team response on 12/08/2019 03:07 PM
Greetings,

After a review of this account, we have confirmed the account has been deactivated as a result of issuing a chargeback against purchases made. The account was deactivated as the system automatically disables an account when a chargeback occurs.

In order to begin the account reactivation process, we recommend contacting your financial institution to initiate the reversal of the chargeback.

Once we can confirm that the chargeback has been cancelled, we can reactivate your account again.

Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Customer response on 12/07/2019 01:12 PM
I couldn't log in to the game client. It kept saying my password was incorrect. I probably tried 6 or so times figuring there was an issue going on, closed the game and launcher, etc. in between attempts. Then when I went to log into the website account system, it says my account is disabled. I reset the password thinking I locked myself out, but it still says my account is disabled.

---

My reply back at 12:35 AM

You have repeatedly mentioned this "additional fee" my credit card company charged you for the duplicate charge. Are you suggesting the "additional fee" you were charged was roughly $16 more? Companies regularly mess up and double charge people like you did to me. They don't have the ability to lock out access to the thing a person bought though to extort extra money from the purchase. So I suppose congratulations on finding an effective way to steal my money. *slow clap*

Now I have paid the original ~$14, plus your ~$16 extortion. This is a total of almost $30 you charged for $14 of content. I don't believe this is fair at all AND I don't intend to spend another dollar on your game if you don't make this right. I want to keep my purchase of Elsweyr that I agreed to spend $14 on which you have now charged $30 for. I would even be fine if you refunded me $14 and just accept the extra $2 I paid was to help cover that "additional fee" you seem so concerned about.

I would love to speak to a manager, escalate the ticket, etc., etc., but feel like you will probably just keep stonewalling me and insisting that your theft of my money is fair.

Is that about right?

Darkstorne

Thanks for posting the full thread!

If they really understood the following as they say they do:

ZOS Support: "When you issued the chargeback, the funds you were charged were returned to you. In addition, not only did your financial institution ask for the money back, but also added an additional fee on top of that. As such, the second charge for the Elsweyr Digital Upgrade was already refunded."

Then there would clearly have been no need for the 1500 Crown purchase. The very least they should do is return the 1500 Crowns to your account. Ideally they'd refund the Crown purchase in $. As for the penalty charge they received from the charge-back, that's on them for billing you twice imo, and a good incentive to improve their store.

Casul

This is crazy. I have had nothing but positive experiences with support. But I agree this seems highly unprofessional and unethical.

Nyladreas

I just hope they really do respond and resolve it for you soon. I've done all I could I guess.

And hey if ZOS actually decides to go take a hike here and won't refund you, you'll still have my support.

Are there any lawyers around here btw? Would really like to know what would determine the case as valid or invalid for taking action or bringing it to the court. Like how long does it have to be, what kind of answer do we need, what kind of options we have.

I know that right now we can't do anything even if we wanted to and have to wait, but what if they still won't help even after I've brought it directly to their attention as well as the OP?

daim

As a long time customer I'm also really keen to hear the official response from the company.
This sounds really shady practise of a legimate business.

Thanks for posting this for us to see.

deadwinston

Thanks everyone. It's good to know that I'm not crazy in thinking the process is unreasonable. I will update with any news, but as you can see from my support timeline, 7-13 days of radio silence is a typical delay on my ticket. It may be another long, cold week of winter before I get any news back.

Darkstorne

deadwinston wrote: »

Thanks everyone. It's good to know that I'm not crazy in thinking the process is unreasonable. I will update with any news, but as you can see from my support timeline, 7-13 days of radio silence is a typical delay on my ticket. It may be another long, cold week of winter before I get any news back.

I imagine your avatar is a photo of you at your PC desk waiting for a ZOS response

Izanagi.Xiiib16_ESO

@ZOS_JessicaFolsom this might be something you need to look into with regards to ZoS CS

LoneStar2911

Holy crap. That is insanity.
We need to keep this thread on the first page of the forum so everyone sees this BS!

Jayne_Doe

Darkstorne wrote: »

Thanks for posting the full thread!

If they really understood the following as they say they do:

ZOS Support: "When you issued the chargeback, the funds you were charged were returned to you. In addition, not only did your financial institution ask for the money back, but also added an additional fee on top of that. As such, the second charge for the Elsweyr Digital Upgrade was already refunded."

Then there would clearly have been no need for the 1500 Crown purchase. The very least they should do is return the 1500 Crowns to your account. Ideally they'd refund the Crown purchase in $. As for the penalty charge they received from the charge-back, that's on them for billing you twice imo, and a good incentive to improve their store.

That's exactly what I think. OP has paid $13.98 for the game and was refunded by the credit card company for the double charge - that was ZOS' mistake to begin with. Which means that they should have restored access to their account, and not request that they purchase 1500 crowns. The 1500 crowns should either be restored to their account, or they should be refunded the money cost. They've already paid $13.98 for the game, the refund should be for the crowns that support should NEVER have asked of them.

It sounds like support just couldn't wrap their brain around the fact that it was a double charge and only one of them was refunded, so ZOS still had $13.98 from the player for Elsweyr. It SHOULD have been a simple matter of reactivating their account. But, it also could be that support was interested in recovering the chargeback fee, and thus charged the player 1500 crowns before their account would be reactivated. Which is totally uncool and unethical. The fault was ZOS' for double-charging, and thus the chargeback cost should fall squarely on them.

I sincerely hope that Gina is able to sort this out properly. And by properly, the OP should have the choice of either 1500 crowns restored to their account, or the cash cost of the crowns refunded. This really looks bad ZOS, and we'll all be waiting to hear how this has been resolved. If you truly care about your customers, you will absorb the chargeback fee and refund the crowns. After all, it should have been a simple matter of reactivating their account, not holding it for ransom for over a month. The player missed out on event tickets, the New Life Festival, and the opportunity to purchase any berries they may have previously missed. If it's a simple matter of support not understanding exactly what happened, then I can understand. But if support was trying to get the player to pay for the chargeback fee, then that's an entirely different, and unethical, matter.

WildRaptorX

Didn’t realise Zos is desperate for money. I’ve been ignored from Support before. On both occasions they didn’t read my messages properly and elongated the process of fixing my issues.

When they asked in a feedback review, “how could we make your experience better”, I said “By actually fixing the problem” and another member of staff contacted me and sorted it out.

deadwinston

Quoted post has been removed.

While I am pretty upset about the 29 days of account lockout, the double charge, the $16 extortion, etc., lawyers, police, etc. are beyond the effort and energy that this problem is worth. At this point I've spent so much time dealing with support and here on the forums that I'm about exhausted. If they can make this right, I might consider spending money on ESO and Bethesda games going forward, but I'm not going to try to justify legal intervention over $16 that I did willingly pay them to unlock my account.

Really even if they just acknowledged the theft and were like "Yeah, fatty, we stole $16 from you - do you want to play your elf game or not?" I could at least write it off and save any future energy getting more upset about it.

essi2

American [videogame] companies will always ban you or flag your account if you claim a chargeback, while this is perhaps unreasonable it is not exclusive to MMOs or Zenimax.

EA f.ex. have in the past threatened to ban people from Origin if they chargeback.


PS. Always contact the relevant support channel before doing a chargeback, save yourself the headache