mechsoldiersalvatorenub18_ESO wrote: »The issue entirely isn't Zenimax's to blame. The reason accounts are having withheld and withdrawn money is because the financial businesses believe they're trying to charge them. That being said, they ARE trying to get the issues resolved.
mechsoldiersalvatorenub18_ESO wrote: »After a week of going back and forth with customer support, Richard of the Support team provided me with an entertaining response and a 1-day code to activate my free 30 days. Below is a bit of information to the situation and I hope you guys get your's resolved soon, too.
Hello Christian,
This is Richard from the Elder Scrolls Online Support team. I completely understand your frustration with the pre-authorization holds. We aren't charging or pre-billing for the subscriptions, but the subscription service contacts the payment service to verify that the billing information is correct and that no fraud is taking place. This causes a hold because the banks and credit companies think we are requesting a payment at that time. Our billing and technology departments are working with payment vendors to try to make that process more congenial and less painful to our customers. It's not necessarily our fault that holds are being applied as it has to do with financial companies protecting themselves from the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, but we are accepting some of the responsibility and have some powerful mages working on wards to clean up this process.
With that being said I do have a one-day subscription code for you that you can apply to your account after you apply your game registration code. Applying this will then start your 30-day free subscription.
(deleted this line for obvious reasons)
Again, I do understand and I apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused you.
Thank you for your support of our game. I really hope that this billing issue doesn't detract from your enjoyment.
May all your hits be Critical,
Richard--*Critical Flail*--
This was my message before that:
To whom this may concern,
As it stands, there are over 2,200 posts in your forums by users who have experienced issues with their accounts having withheld money, or in some cases having their money withdrawn. This entire situation has stemmed directly from this "preauthorization check". However, there are two major flaws to this system.
These being what payment method customers are aiming for. A considerable portion of the customer base falls into a category that simply cannot set up an electronic transaction to "verify" their payment method. This can stem from multiple reasons itself which are all completely reasonable. This can range from a customer not being old enough to obtain a credit card, debit card, or a e-payment method (such as paypal) to those with banks that have either extended holds on their money or the money has been actually charged to their accounts. Even in the case in which they are able to obtain these a large portion of these customers cannot afford to have an entity pre-charge for something as customers tend to plan around their paycheck. A good number of these customers would then be relying on prepaid cards. That leads on to the next problem. Retailers have yet to even adopt the wholesale purchase of these prepaid cards yet, which has put people such as myself between a rock and a hard place.
The practice of preauthorization on a payment method is archaic at best and is the cause of the problem itself and some action should be taken to change said system. What customers simply want, and I highly doubt they are being unreasonable, is access to the free 30 days that were marketed with the purchase of the full game without this roadblock. It simply isn't needed. The NORMAL business practice would be to attempt to charge at the end of the free 30 days they were promised on purchase. In the event that a payment method is invalid then game time would simply be denied to them. I hope this has been taken into consideration. That said, ESO is a fantastic game, and I hope these issues get resolved soon so that users, like myself, can go back to exploring Tamriel.
saradonzieb16_ESO wrote: »mechsoldiersalvatorenub18_ESO wrote: »After a week of going back and forth with customer support, Richard of the Support team provided me with an entertaining response and a 1-day code to activate my free 30 days. Below is a bit of information to the situation and I hope you guys get your's resolved soon, too.
Hello Christian,
This is Richard from the Elder Scrolls Online Support team. I completely understand your frustration with the pre-authorization holds. We aren't charging or pre-billing for the subscriptions, but the subscription service contacts the payment service to verify that the billing information is correct and that no fraud is taking place. This causes a hold because the banks and credit companies think we are requesting a payment at that time. Our billing and technology departments are working with payment vendors to try to make that process more congenial and less painful to our customers. It's not necessarily our fault that holds are being applied as it has to do with financial companies protecting themselves from the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, but we are accepting some of the responsibility and have some powerful mages working on wards to clean up this process.
With that being said I do have a one-day subscription code for you that you can apply to your account after you apply your game registration code. Applying this will then start your 30-day free subscription.
(deleted this line for obvious reasons)
Again, I do understand and I apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused you.
Thank you for your support of our game. I really hope that this billing issue doesn't detract from your enjoyment.
May all your hits be Critical,
Richard--*Critical Flail*--
This was my message before that:
To whom this may concern,
As it stands, there are over 2,200 posts in your forums by users who have experienced issues with their accounts having withheld money, or in some cases having their money withdrawn. This entire situation has stemmed directly from this "preauthorization check". However, there are two major flaws to this system.
These being what payment method customers are aiming for. A considerable portion of the customer base falls into a category that simply cannot set up an electronic transaction to "verify" their payment method. This can stem from multiple reasons itself which are all completely reasonable. This can range from a customer not being old enough to obtain a credit card, debit card, or a e-payment method (such as paypal) to those with banks that have either extended holds on their money or the money has been actually charged to their accounts. Even in the case in which they are able to obtain these a large portion of these customers cannot afford to have an entity pre-charge for something as customers tend to plan around their paycheck. A good number of these customers would then be relying on prepaid cards. That leads on to the next problem. Retailers have yet to even adopt the wholesale purchase of these prepaid cards yet, which has put people such as myself between a rock and a hard place.
The practice of preauthorization on a payment method is archaic at best and is the cause of the problem itself and some action should be taken to change said system. What customers simply want, and I highly doubt they are being unreasonable, is access to the free 30 days that were marketed with the purchase of the full game without this roadblock. It simply isn't needed. The NORMAL business practice would be to attempt to charge at the end of the free 30 days they were promised on purchase. In the event that a payment method is invalid then game time would simply be denied to them. I hope this has been taken into consideration. That said, ESO is a fantastic game, and I hope these issues get resolved soon so that users, like myself, can go back to exploring Tamriel.
THIS.
gorathffeb17_ESO wrote: »mechsoldiersalvatorenub18_ESO wrote: »The issue entirely isn't Zenimax's to blame. The reason accounts are having withheld and withdrawn money is because the financial businesses believe they're trying to charge them. That being said, they ARE trying to get the issues resolved.
Last time i checked, it was Zenimax demand to pay the subscription fee.
So basically i dont give a fudge how Zenimax deals with their buisness partners. I deal with Zenimax directly and i want them to return the subscription fees they took.
Reading this, I'm baffled. I set up my subscription (cancelled for well...obvious reasons) with my debit card Zenimax never billed me a penny.
Was this like a random security check at the air port?
Day seven and my money has not been returned. ZOS, I do not want that transaction to auto-trigger a 30 day subscription. I want my money back so I can make the decision.Lawsuit for theft and/or getting your banks involved for fraud. Some of my friends are doing that as thier bank stated (like so many people here reported as well), that the money isn't being held by them, they are not being released by ZeniMax. If they try to hold your funds until next month and using it towards subscription, that's breach of contract/fraud and is grounds for a lawsuit. If that's the road they are planning on going, even their silly anti-lawsuit ToS policy wont protect their ass.GREEN_SEVEN wrote: »I pre-ordered through store and after the early access period I activated a 30 day subscription plan selected my preferred subscription plan. Ten minutes later I cancelled that subscription. Now that we all have a better understanding of the situation and according to the interpretations of the wordings, where does that place me if my money is not returned within the 30 days? Can ZOS then be able to help me?
mechsoldiersalvatorenub18_ESO wrote: »saradonzieb16_ESO wrote: »mechsoldiersalvatorenub18_ESO wrote: »After a week of going back and forth with customer support, Richard of the Support team provided me with an entertaining response and a 1-day code to activate my free 30 days. Below is a bit of information to the situation and I hope you guys get your's resolved soon, too.
Hello Christian,
This is Richard from the Elder Scrolls Online Support team. I completely understand your frustration with the pre-authorization holds. We aren't charging or pre-billing for the subscriptions, but the subscription service contacts the payment service to verify that the billing information is correct and that no fraud is taking place. This causes a hold because the banks and credit companies think we are requesting a payment at that time. Our billing and technology departments are working with payment vendors to try to make that process more congenial and less painful to our customers. It's not necessarily our fault that holds are being applied as it has to do with financial companies protecting themselves from the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, but we are accepting some of the responsibility and have some powerful mages working on wards to clean up this process.
With that being said I do have a one-day subscription code for you that you can apply to your account after you apply your game registration code. Applying this will then start your 30-day free subscription.
(deleted this line for obvious reasons)
Again, I do understand and I apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused you.
Thank you for your support of our game. I really hope that this billing issue doesn't detract from your enjoyment.
May all your hits be Critical,
Richard--*Critical Flail*--
This was my message before that:
To whom this may concern,
As it stands, there are over 2,200 posts in your forums by users who have experienced issues with their accounts having withheld money, or in some cases having their money withdrawn. This entire situation has stemmed directly from this "preauthorization check". However, there are two major flaws to this system.
These being what payment method customers are aiming for. A considerable portion of the customer base falls into a category that simply cannot set up an electronic transaction to "verify" their payment method. This can stem from multiple reasons itself which are all completely reasonable. This can range from a customer not being old enough to obtain a credit card, debit card, or a e-payment method (such as paypal) to those with banks that have either extended holds on their money or the money has been actually charged to their accounts. Even in the case in which they are able to obtain these a large portion of these customers cannot afford to have an entity pre-charge for something as customers tend to plan around their paycheck. A good number of these customers would then be relying on prepaid cards. That leads on to the next problem. Retailers have yet to even adopt the wholesale purchase of these prepaid cards yet, which has put people such as myself between a rock and a hard place.
The practice of preauthorization on a payment method is archaic at best and is the cause of the problem itself and some action should be taken to change said system. What customers simply want, and I highly doubt they are being unreasonable, is access to the free 30 days that were marketed with the purchase of the full game without this roadblock. It simply isn't needed. The NORMAL business practice would be to attempt to charge at the end of the free 30 days they were promised on purchase. In the event that a payment method is invalid then game time would simply be denied to them. I hope this has been taken into consideration. That said, ESO is a fantastic game, and I hope these issues get resolved soon so that users, like myself, can go back to exploring Tamriel.
THIS.
._." I can't tell if that was a positive response or not
I played WoW on release, Everquest 2 on release, Aion on release, SWTOR on release (and other games I really cbf mentioning), and EVERY SINGLE ONE of those games required me to enter in credit card details and authorisation of said credit card prior to claiming free time included with the game (or a game card). EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Why cant you just stop spreading this wrong information. Only because you did not verify what actually happened all this years back, that doesnt mean, that your memory is the truth.
You could always and still can, start setting up a subscription in WoW and before finalizing it (doing the authorization), cancel the Set Up and start playing without having a credit card attached to the account. And if you set up the Sub fully, it is attached to the account but not charged, not even one cent before the end of the free time.
Same for SWToR, Rift and Tera, none of them charged/got hold of my bank account for the full amount before the 30 days went off.
Setting up the sub is okay and a valid method, charging/holding the full amount directly is not.
Same for SWToR, Rift and Tera, none of them charged/got hold of my bank account for the full amount before the 30 days went off.
is akin to stealing!
I have bought many mmo's and sometimes they ask for my credit card info when first subbing and sometimes they don't. This fact does not bother me. What does bother me is that my bank account was used immediately. I now don't have access to some of my money for several days due to the hold of $15. This is not a good thing for someone on a budget. Shady business practices like this leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I have bought many mmo's and sometimes they ask for my credit card info when first subbing and sometimes they don't. This fact does not bother me. What does bother me is that my bank account was used immediately. I now don't have access to some of my money for several days due to the hold of $15. This is not a good thing for someone on a budget. Shady business practices like this leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I agree I would have preferred the $1 or some other minuscule amount. But its far from a shady business practice. You post was so....reasonable compared to most until you added that last sentence. You are implying some kinda of underhandedness or near lawbreaking and it just isnt.
Acceptable or unacceptable. I am still waiting for a game announcement for any game in any genre where the community as a whole doesn't bring out their pitch forks and head out to stomp a troll in the ground.
Guys, this is not Zenimax Online doing it, it is their merchant who is doing it.
And first and foremost, this game is of the international sort. There are a number of banks that will deny transactions as potential fraud if the destination purchase is in another country. So some merchants require this. Some gas stations will do this and you never know it.
I haven't seen anything indicating that they are reserving the full subscription fee. Only that you may see an initial transaction. Most processes that operate in this way do reserve .01 or 1.00 for the reservation.
What would be helpful is if Zenimax would indicate the actual amount of the reservation to take the guess work out on players. 99% of you having problems with this go away if the amount is .01 or 1.00.
Renoaku_ESO wrote: »
I got a simple solution and fix for Zenimax it sounds like a great idea.
You know how on World OF Warcraft all you have to do is buy the game at the store make an account put the key into a redeem key box and there you got 30 days download and play, of course this is before they changed it to 10 day free trial and such and I have 5 wow accounts btw but no longer play wow quit years ago.
Why don't you just do the same thing that they did and put a redeem key on your the website, don't require players enter any credit-card information and in 30 days if they want to keep subscribed they can pay for a subscription of what they choose to same thing that they did how it should have been to begin with?
Like Imagine what would have happened if I used PayPal to put the transaction through and they billed $14.95 to my Bank Account, I use a prepaid debit card, and when PayPal charges my account they charge it as a check therefore I would have owned over $100 USD for $14.95 that Zenimax Charged, I am lucky I didn't do this because I only deposit the money I use to buy things online with into the prepaid account because I don't trust banking too many hackers but that is beyond the point.
So I am guessing I have to file a support ticket or wait about 10 more days or so before I can play again I have never experienced a MMO Launch like this before.