Bank Account Being Charged?

justjosb16_ESO

That moment when you send an email to Support and you get an answer which doesn't have to do anything with your question.

Me: Is there a way to verify my codes without the monthly fee I have to pay to actually get to play after sunday, as I do not own a VISA, Mastercard or Paypal (I use a local bank in my country). I really do not want to pay for some paysafe cards so I can play the game I already payed 80 bucks for.

As an answer (which is too long), I got explained how the verification worked. Sounded like they had just copied it somewhere, as they really just ignored my concerns.

Really shady, Zenimax. They are literally just trying to squeeze every cent out of you.

Fahey

Savinder wrote: »

I'm wondering if any "gaming media" is going to cover this whole debacle.

It helps when you put "gaming media" in quotes. That's encouraging.

ohoni

You guys have still not answered what the method is for activating the account WITHOUT giving a subscription payment method. I want the "play 30 days and then we cut you off until the game goes F2P" subscription and not a penny more than that. What's the method for signing up for that model? I have a credit card, but you have no good reason to know what it is, as you will never be given the opportunity to deduct money from it beyond the cost of the box itself.

Cutekhaos

Okay so as a former credit card dispute agent I can tell you that an authorization is not considered a purchase and cannot be charged back or disputed for this reason.

Most lending institutions, such as BoA will not issue any fees against authorizations due to situations like these.

Free access or "early access" ends merchant side on Sunday, if you enter in your payment information before then you are essentially waving your free time and activating your subscription re-billing date.

Merchants are allowed to authorize automatic subscriptions for the monthly amount both to confirm the information with your lending institution and to ensure that the charge is authorized for use by the customer/bank. There are time frames to which you can file a claim with your bank for charges not verified by the account owner.

Credits go in before debits so if your are cutting it close bum 20 bucks to cover the purchase before the end of day for your banking institution, these times vary so call to find out.

While I can empathize with living on a budget, and feeling blindsided by some of the less than stellar communication, these blind rage posts do not resolve the issue and end the end only serve to breed misinformation and negativity. If you want to resolve the issue try to contact your bank or make a /feedback, no one here can legitimately help you and all you are ultimately doing is making trolls happy and yourself angry.

justjosb16_ESO

Cutekhaos wrote: »

Okay so as a former credit card dispute agent I can tell you that an authorization is not considered a purchase and cannot be charged back or disputed for this reason.

Most lending institutions, such as BoA will not issue any fees against authorizations due to situations like these.

Free access or "early access" ends merchant side on Sunday, if you enter in your payment information before then you are essentially waving your free time and activating your subscription re-billing date.

Merchants are allowed to authorize automatic subscriptions for the monthly amount both to confirm the information with your lending institution and to ensure that the charge is authorized for use by the customer/bank. There are time frames to which you can file a claim with your bank for charges not verified by the account owner.

Credits go in before debits so if your are cutting it close bum 20 bucks to cover the purchase before the end of day for your banking institution, these times vary so call to find out.

While I can empathize with living on a budget, and feeling blindsided by some of the less than stellar communication, these blind rage posts do not resolve the issue and end the end only serve to breed misinformation and negativity. If you want to resolve the issue try to contact your bank or make a /feedback, no one here can legitimately help you and all you are ultimately is making trolls happy and yourself angry.

What about the people using other methods than a credit card, like Paysafe cards? Those people have to pay for another month to even access their free month and their pre-order bonus.

GourmetPrince

This is really upsetting and lame. If this unexpected charge overdrafts my extra account I'm going to be more than pissed off. I was planning on setting it up for the charges later in the month and now I have to race to the bank tomorrow during limited hours to sort this out. Never again.

StevieKingslayer

None of this is legal where I live, and it's more than $15 for some people - exchange rates. Zenimax needs to get their head around this.

Valwardon

Cutekhaos wrote: »

Okay so as a former credit card dispute agent I can tell you that an authorization is not considered a purchase and cannot be charged back or disputed for this reason.

Most lending institutions, such as BoA will not issue any fees against authorizations due to situations like these.

Free access or "early access" ends merchant side on Sunday, if you enter in your payment information before then you are essentially waving your free time and activating your subscription re-billing date.

Merchants are allowed to authorize automatic subscriptions for the monthly amount both to confirm the information with your lending institution and to ensure that the charge is authorized for use by the customer/bank. There are time frames to which you can file a claim with your bank for charges not verified by the account owner.

Credits go in before debits so if your are cutting it close bum 20 bucks to cover the purchase before the end of day for your banking institution, these times vary so call to find out.

While I can empathize with living on a budget, and feeling blindsided by some of the less than stellar communication, these blind rage posts do not resolve the issue and end the end only serve to breed misinformation and negativity. If you want to resolve the issue try to contact your bank or make a /feedback, no one here can legitimately help you and all you are ultimately doing is making trolls happy and yourself angry.

So you speak for every bank of the world and every law and statute? It clearly states that you will be charged 0.00 it does not mention anything other then that. I had problems doing that exact same thing with a customer that was not from this country. I believe he was from India. Not to certain on the local as it as a few years ago. I can probably look over my records and find out.

So in return I had to state in clear writing that there would be a hold and how much that hold was going to be to be applicable with the legalities of that country. Zenimax clearly states you will be charged 0.00 so would be in violation of the same charge. It did not mention any hold.

Anyway congrats on knowing the law and how banks operate all over the world.

Cutekhaos

@justjosb16_ESO I know little of that service, so I am not going to attempt to directly comment on it other then to say reading their site information it appears to function like a pre-paid debit card/credit card.

However check the update by Jessica for more information.

Cutekhaos

@Valwardon Thanks I try. Check the original post by Jessica for and update.

Valwardon

Cutekhaos wrote: »

@Valwardon Thanks I try. Check the original post by Jessica for and update.

You still failed to be correct and they also failed to update there message on the payment page. Right now in some countries what they are doing is considered illegal for not being upfront with the customer.

USA does not control the whole world or makes laws in every country in regards to consumers.

BlessedBySanguine

She needs to remove the game card as an option or note that some stores (all that I've visited but someone in my guild said she found one) are not carrying them yet.

Delekii

Cutekhaos wrote: »

@Valwardon Thanks I try. Check the original post by Jessica for and update.

Jessica's post would be awesome, except that it is missing an important sentence:

"We will also cover any and all costs incurred by incorrectly charging money to your account."

And, to repeat, there is absolutely no need for ANY authorisation to occur until the end of the trial period. It is impossible for the consumer to defraud Zenimax until the point where we owe them any money, so doing an authorisation transaction before that point is not necessary. If they can't get their merchants to fix it, then remove the need to input a payment method before the trial period completes. That's it.

Undertaker

I don't want to get rid of this game, but it feels like I'm basically being given no other choice but to take it back to Best Buy and see if I can get a refund. The only card I got that would work is a college debit card that the school deposits my Student Refund onto, but that only has about some change on it right now.

I've also submitted 3 CS tickets and not even one of them has gotten a single response, so it's beginning to feel like I'm being told that since I don't have the money to do the pre-authorization, I have to either wait until the time cards come out, or return the game for a refund.

Fahey

A pre-authorization shouldn't cause any existing transactions to bounce, as the money never actually comes out of the account. It does, however, make that $14.95 or whatever unavailable for other things -- if you've only got that amount in your account, you'll not be using that card for a few days.

Either way, this is not cool at all.

​I purchased The Elder Scrolls Online digital standard edition from Bethesda last Sunday for $60, which got me "the full game and unlimited access to it for 30 days." Now I'm being told my access ends April 6 unless I pre-authorize the full price of a subscription. That's contradictory to the wording on the product page itself, where it says an Elder Scrolls Online subscription is required to play. I assumed that meant after the initial 30 days. It's a reasonable assumption.

What they are telling me (and everyone else), is that 30 days free time is conditional. Paying $60 or $80 or whatever only includes 30 days free if you're willing to sign up for a subscription -- even if you cancel it before the free time is up.

I've been playing and covering MMORPGs for 15 years, and I've seen situations where I have to enter valid payment information before I am enter the game, but I've never had a company pre-authorize my account for the full amount of a subscription first.

If my payment info doesn't go through, my subscription ends, period. There is no need this authorization. No one can scam this system, somehow magically continuing to play past 30 days without entering payment info.

What this does do is ensure there is a number of players who may find they don't enjoy the game, stop playing and then forget they authorized the charge and get dinged for it 30 days down the line.

Wow, that's a lot more text than I expected to generate. Long story short, I should be able to play this game for 30 days without worrying about giving my payment information. Entering my purchase code should start a 30-day subscription that ends 30 days later, unless a subscription plan is set up by then. That's what I bought, wasn't it?

kemp.garretub17_ESO1

I highly disagree with zenimax's practice with this. You don't do this I mean the game is good and all but that doesn't justify doing this.

BlessedBySanguine

I've put in multiple tickets relating to this today and gotten no call back. It's been over 12 hours. I finally put call whenever because I'd rather get woken up than not get called because it went over my requested call times. I have my fingers crossed ZOS will pop back on with a new comment by tomorrow but not sure. With all the calls they're probably getting there has to be a long wait list. Unfortunately that seems to make everyone more frustrated. Has anyone gotten through recently?

Undertaker

BlessedBySanguine wrote: »

I've put in multiple tickets relating to this today and gotten no call back. It's been over 12 hours. I finally put call whenever because I'd rather get woken up than not get called because it went over my requested call times. I have my fingers crossed ZOS will pop back on with a new comment by tomorrow but not sure. With all the calls they're probably getting there has to be a long wait list. Unfortunately that seems to make everyone more frustrated. Has anyone gotten through recently?

I've put in about 3 tickets total throughout the day and no one has called me, not one single call and since I use the magic jack phone system, I've checked multiple times to make sure my phone still works and it does.

I honestly think that at this time of night, I don't think anyone is there to answer any calls and if someone is there, it's not really a priority to talk to anyone. All this is doing is making me more and more sure about going back to Best Buy to return this game.

The main thing I'd like to know is what happened to the whole "Time cards are released on 4.4.2014" deal they kept mentioning, yet no major retailers have them or were even aware of their release on that day.

Teriosc

And no reaction from Zenimax...whats wrong with them? Such things approximate TESO to SWTOR, which is ends badly...

kemp.garretub17_ESO1

While I am annoyed I do know this wasn't intended as a way to rip players off I mean yah its a little shady but hopefully they fix it and they probably will most mmos don't do this sort of thing at launch im not too annoyed I mean I am not gonna lie and I do think they shouldn't force you to set up a sub just to use what you paid for but again im pretty confident they will fix this before it gets to much publicity seeing as this will probably be put into popular game reviews if they don't.

Undertaker

kemp.garretub17_ESO1 wrote: »

While I am annoyed I do know this wasn't intended as a way to rip players off I mean yah its a little shady but hopefully they fix it and they probably will most mmos don't do this sort of thing at launch im not too annoyed I mean I am not gonna lie and I do think they shouldn't force you to set up a sub just to use what you paid for but again im pretty confident they will fix this before it gets to much publicity seeing as this will probably be put into popular game reviews if they don't.

I agree, I don't think that it was done with the intention to rip-off people, but what bothers me is the people who either set up a subscription because they either don't have a credit card or the money to do it. It makes it feel like you just spent $60 on a dust collector until the game time cards finally come out.

I just hope that these game time cards get here real soon and it isn't like what other people are saying and it takes a few weeks before they finally get into the stores because by that time, a good deal of people will have probably taken the game back to the store for a refund.

Undertaker

Teriosc wrote: »

And no reaction from Zenimax...whats wrong with them? Such things approximate TESO to SWTOR, which is ends badly...

I'm just going to give this until Sunday to see if Zenimax or someone makes a response to what's going on and how they're going to handle this situation. If I don't get a response by Sunday, I'll probably just return the game to Best Buy and use the cash I have set aside for the game card's I plan to pick up to get some Steam Cash or something

allexpro

scarsreminder80 wrote: »

The reality of this mega-B****- thread is this... The people that are on here complaining are the people that will probably not be playing in a month anyways.

So the game company thought ahead and said "Gee... how can we get our money's worth for 5 years of dedicated R&D??" Lets charge them to play the game then give them 30 days free.

It's a good plan. Keep people around long enough to actually try the game before they see time is up and "it was fun while it lasted".

Discourage the racer that tries to beat the game in the first 30 days and says "I'm done! and it didn't cost me a sub."

Bottom line is this. If you are here screaming about paying to play, Maybe you don't really want to play this. Save the forum some time and go shuffle off to another MMO that you actually want to pay for.

so, you want to say that is normal? Buying a game that cost arleady alot, and dont have a chance to try it and say OKAY I LIKE IT, I BUY ANOTHER MONTH. Why the hell i should looking for a game time card or another stuff that i dont have for now, if i even cant try this game out?? First to write stupid post just think about ppl that have problems with the additional money that game is asking first to try the game, if you are one of these people who throw alot of money on games that is your problem, dont advise it to another people. Im sorry about my english, hope you will understand

TirielsWhisper

Cutekhaos wrote: »

Most lending institutions, such as BoA will not issue any fees against authorizations due to situations like these.

Not in my experience. In my experience (with CapitalOne, Regions, Chase, and two different credit unions), if it's on there as a hold, they treat it like a legitimate charge until the transaction is actually processed (which normally takes 3-5 days) and it can cause other transactions to be declined or incur overdraft fees.

TirielsWhisper

Fahey wrote: »

A pre-authorization shouldn't cause any existing transactions to bounce, as the money never actually comes out of the account. It does, however, make that $14.95 or whatever unavailable for other things -- if you've only got that amount in your account, you'll not be using that card for a few days.

It does because it's treated as "real money" until the charge falls off. The bank has no way of knowing whether it's a "pre-auth" or an actual charge until they actually process it. When they process it (which normally takes about 3 days with most banks I've been with), it of course falls off, but they charge overdraft fees when the charge is put on the account in the first place, not when it actually processes. So yes, it can cause overdraft fees if you have other things scheduled to come out and have overdraft protection. If you don't have overdraft protection, it can cause them to decline your scheduled payments, which can lead to um...worse things. Much worse things.

Flametyn

if i have a PayPal account do i need to have a connected CC without credit to be considered a lucky one?

Christophetes

BlessedBySanguine wrote: »

I've put in multiple tickets relating to this today and gotten no call back. It's been over 12 hours. I finally put call whenever because I'd rather get woken up than not get called because it went over my requested call times. I have my fingers crossed ZOS will pop back on with a new comment by tomorrow but not sure. With all the calls they're probably getting there has to be a long wait list. Unfortunately that seems to make everyone more frustrated. Has anyone gotten through recently?

I did. I received a call back from them about two hours after putting my request through.

Arabellan

All of these angry people and the bad PR on the day it launches, they will get from this tactic from Zenimax all could of been avoided if they had let everyone use there 30 days of there free play and then let people decide then if they wanted to continue there subscription and then put there CC information or PayPal or the other options out there.

I see nothing wrong with that option, at least Zenimax would still be true to there loyal customers. As it looks now to everyone, this looks like a money hungry company with no regards to there customers.

If i was Bethesda I would be fuming.. because it doesn't seem like that's the way they had it figured out.


Bethesda’s Global VP of Marketing and PR, , Pete Hines

“If you don’t like the game, of course you’re not subscribing to it,” says Hines. “You get the game, you get your first month without having to pay for a subscription to see ‘is this thing a thing I like’? If your approach that you want to take is that, for example, you love Skyrim, you played it for 125 hours, but after three or four weeks you were done, then you can do the exact same thing in Elder Scrolls Online.”

http://games.on.net/2014/04/elder-scrolls-online-pete-hines-says-sub-model-only-fails-if-youre-not-getting-your-moneys-worth/

Arabellan

Zenimax will lose alot of Subscriptions over this.

deef85b16_ESO

Arabellan wrote: »

Zenimax will lose alot of Subscriptions over this.

Jup and then it's too late to care
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.. They can ignore us now but they can't ignore the declining subscription numbers / their income..
They better get their act together!

Hate to see this game failing because I really like it, but they do call it upon themselves this way..

I buy a game if I like the game and want to support the company behind it.. If the company behind it doesn't care, then I won't care anymore even if it's the greatest game ever developed.