Subscription 'ransom' for customers totally unacceptable

Sakiri

Nephys wrote: »

Not so Sharee, even Blizzard does not force you to enter subscription details. The issue is made worse here by the fact you cannot even tick "game card" as your preferred method without entering a card. It is compounded by the fact we have -already- paid for these 30 days.

They did when I created my accounts.

In fact, the credit card number used to open the account is one of the forms of ID theyll take when trying to get back a compromised account.

Elvikun

I'm so furious and shocked by this totally comon and very much expected business practice! I shall yell loudy about it! Let everyone know, even tho everyone knows already for eons! Shock! Rage!

...I mean come on people, it's getting ridiculous and repeating it again and again and again doesn't make it suddenly look less funny. Yes, they "block" and "return" full sub (there is no actual payment made), not 1USD/EUR, yes it was unpleasant surprise for some. So...? What is it you're trying to achieve here again?

Sakiri

Hodggoblin wrote: »

Ashilta, you have not been charged on your credit card yet, it charges after the 30 days are up, stop being a drama queen and try thinking a bit before you throw a tantrum. And you go ahead and try and get that full refund, and when they tell you that you were already informed and you cant get a full refund you go ahead and try to hire a lawer to sue for your money back and get laughed at by them too.

I have a 14.99 charge on mine.

May only be the auth payment, but I was charged.

ZiRM

I can't remember a MMO that didn't ever ask for a CC at setup of account etc. It's normal for an MMO.

Ashlita

I think you just never looked for different options.
Sorry but i played MMOs for way more than a decade and except one game only played subscription based games.
I never owned a private CC and i never used my company CC on any games so sorry to inform you it was always possible to setup accounts and pay and play without a CC on nearly all games out there.
Yes ALL of the games asked for a CC but this does not mean all of these games forced you into it and none of the games ever charged or tried to charge anything or even everytjing before the prepaid time was over.

Evergnar

The timing of it and lack of clarity is the real problem. Had they been clear and informed players upon purchase that this would be required it would have gone over much smoother. People could have planned accordingly. Unfortunately much of frustration I see (and experienced myself) is fueled by really poor communication/clarity on Zos' part. Launches are bumpy enough as it is without this kind of stuff.

Sakiri

Ashlita wrote: »

I think you just never looked for different options.
Sorry but i played MMOs for way more than a decade and except one game only played subscription based games.
I never owned a private CC and i never used my company CC on any games so sorry to inform you it was always possible to setup accounts and pay and play without a CC on nearly all games out there.
Yes ALL of the games asked for a CC but this does not mean all of these games forced you into it and none of the games ever charged or tried to charge anything or even everytjing before the prepaid time was over.

I dont have a cc either.

I have an atm card. I bill to that.

Before I got that, I used a prepaid visa card.

When WoW launched, they did not have prepaid cards. Ive played MMOs for a decade. Ive ALWAYS been asked for a card.

Knuckles19

Gym membership require credit cards to be able to work out so whats the big deal?

Phyrdrin

Atwa wrote: »

And what we can do? Nothing. Yah, it's frustrate but... Nothing to do.

And this is why ZOS will get away with all of this - treating their customers like this...

Knuckles19

Phyrdrin wrote: »

Atwa wrote: »

And what we can do? Nothing. Yah, it's frustrate but... Nothing to do.

And this is why ZOS will get away with all of this - treating their customers like this...

I don't know about you but they have me hostage with this great game to play lol

Nephys

@‌ Knuckles19 We have already paid for 30 days - this is not a gym membership, it is more akin to buying a magazine and them forcing you to to hand over card details for the next issue, even though you might not want it.

For those that maintain they have always given card details, I suspect they simply haven't tried to proceed without so doing. It is as @Ashlita has mentioned, they might ask for it, but they do not force you to give it to them to obtain the included-with-purchase gametime.

@Elvikun The practice is neither common nor usual, otherwise the volume of complaints about it would not be the size that it is.

Spritehawk

*** is going to hit the fans when May 7th rolls around and everyone is charged another $14.99

You know it's coming.

Elvikun

Nephys wrote: »

@Elvikun The practice is neither common nor usual, otherwise the volume of complaints about it would not be the size that it is.

It is very usual, almost all sub-based services do this, the problem is they validated using the whole sub amount rather than something like 1€, which many don't even notice. That is their mistake and they should prolly fix that for the future, as the full amount may couse some problems for people.

As for the volume of the complaints, since many people seem to not even understand it's a validation, not an actual payment made I'm having serious doubt there is a huge amount of intelligence and rational thought behind a lot of the loundness.

Nephys

@Elvikun‌
It is not common practice to demand card details for gametime already purchased. The issue is not the validation itself, which people by and large understand, but the fact that you need to validate in the first place to obtain gametime you have already paid for. Doubt all you like about people's intelligence, but the issue is -not- validation amount, but the whole timing of the thing.

christian.griffinb16_ESO

1) Subscribe with PayPal
2) Cancel subscription on PayPal and ESO
3) Enjoy the 30 days of free time you were entitled to from the start

Ashlita

eq2imora_ESO

I dont have a cc either.

I have an atm card. I bill to that.

Before I got that, I used a prepaid visa card.

When WoW launched, they did not have prepaid cards. Ive played MMOs for a decade. Ive ALWAYS been asked for a card.


Thats the issue
Always asked YES
Forced into it definately not.

Thats the whole Problem there. Every game out there asks for a CC on account subscription so people automatically assume it is needed which in fact it is not.
The one game where it was absolutely necessary was UO back in 97 but beside that every other game had different options.
Furthermore none of the games asked you to pay a 2nd time to be able to access the first already paid included gametime. ESO does exactly that with gametime cards or payment options which arent CC.

WoW did not force you into a CC subscription on EU launch.
They asked for it yes.
If you read through the whole account you found the "Gamecard" Option which than opened the 30 day access into the account.
When your time was up your account was denied service unless you activated it with a card code. Happened to me on 2nd month of playing wow so i know it cause i was annoyed by it especially since i was unable to get that stupid card for 3 days. lol

Elvikun

Nephys wrote: »

@Elvikun‌
It is not common practice to demand card details for gametime already purchased. The issue is not the validation itself, which people by and large understand, but the fact that you need to validate in the first place to obtain gametime you have already paid for. Doubt all you like about people's intelligence, but the issue is -not- validation amount, but the whole timing of the thing.

Agreed, not common at all to demand a card details for something you already purchased, on the other hand, fairly common to require it for registration and even more so for setting up a subscription plan. Admittedly, it's awkward to tie the 30 days incuded with the game purchase to the subscription plan, but at the end of the day, you lose nothing, because you can immidiately (or anytime during the 30 day period) cancel the subscription and pay nothing more than the what you spent on the game itself. If the real issue for anyone is the card info itself, then that kind of is why PayPay exists. Useful thing, that PayPal.

Yes, the system the've set up here is not the best one, no arguing there, but it's nowhere near what some, many people are making it out to be. The term Drama queen comes to mind.

Tabbycat

I had to do the exact same thing when I first started playing Rift and World of Warcraft. WoW was my first experience at having to sign up for a subscription before being able to access my free game time included with my box purchase. Blizzard may have changed the requirement since then but at one point you did have to enter your payment information in order to be able to play the game. Because of these experiences I was not at all surprised that I had to do the same thing with ESO.

The validation amount is supposed to drop off your card but the length of time to do so seems to very by banks. Some people were having problems where they were already being charged for their subscription. In those cases they were able to work with customer service and get the charges refunded.

Your best bet is to submit a ticket to customer service if you feel you are being incorrectly charged for your subscription. But keep in mind they are swamped with tickets right now so it may take days before you get a response.

cheeser123

Sharee wrote: »

There was absolutely zero movement on my bank account when i selected a 180 day subscription plan. And i get an SMS message whenever there is an incoming or outgoing payment, courtesy of my bank. Nothing. So there.

Guys, listen up, Sharee is the everyman. Whatever happens to him is exactly what happens to all of us. His experiences are universal and his judgments and decisions are universally valid. So when your bank does something other than his, just call them up and explain "Sharee's bank did XYZ, so you have to do that too."