Official Statement on Payment Methods

Nyphrodelub17_ESO

Thank you, thank you and thank you! Well said.

adfb16_ESO wrote: »

LOL, how did ZM ever think that wasn't going to be an issue. Seriously short sighted on your part there ZM.

I will spell it out for you so its easy to understand...

When people buy a subscription game with game time included, they expect to be able to use the included game time to decide if they are going to enjoy the game enough to want set up a recurring subscription, so ofc being forced to pay for extra time just so they can gain access to the time they have already paid for, IS GOING TO *** THEM OFF.

It's not rocket science.

Manhunterrr

So there is 3 weeks past, where is my money?

JaeGuan

not gonna pay to sub when my game progress has been delayed for 2 out of the 3 weeks I've had an account due to the bank bug and bad customer support.

overhate

Ok, I cancelled my subscription yesterday and the hold still isn't released. How long do I have to wait?

Kalei

nasdaqbergamot wrote: »

I wonder how the other subscription-based MMOs get funds from countries with low credit card availability? There was probably a lesson there for Zenimax on this issue before it became a problem, I would think.

In SWTOR, we can buy game time cards in the stores here in Belgium or online. So it's very easy to buy game time with a debit card.
________________________

"Yes, game time cards should be available at Best Buy and GameStop some time this week. Target and Walmart will also be getting them, but we do not currently have a confirmed ETA from them."

In Belgium, from what I know, we don't have those stores...
How can we possibly buy game time then?
I have no credit card, it's really hard to get one.
And I don't want a credit card.
I don't think it's right to force your game community into getting a credit card.
There should be other options available.
PayPal, yes sure, but not everyone can set up one (think of teenagers, with no income).

It's upsetting thinking of how my partner and I together spend over 100 euro on this game + sub and now there is a chance we won't be able to buy game time anymore.
(We use(d) Paysafecards)

BaKaNoOB

@Kalei you can use normal debit card i had done this, my is normal visa debit card valid for internet payment you don't need credit card for payment

tough i still have hold from ZOS on my 12.99 EU, not released

Kalei

BaKaNoOB wrote: »

@Kalei you can use normal debit card i had done this, my is normal visa debit card valid for internet payment you don't need credit card for payment

tough i still have hold from ZOS on my 12.99 EU, not released

Mine isn't Visa though. So I don't know if it would work =( .
It's Maestro.
I had a few instances before, where I thought I'd be able to pay for something with debit card, but turned out it has to be a visa one.
I haven't seen a lot of Maestro options yet. Unless with direct online banking.

BaKaNoOB

maesto should work too, i think but it must be enabled from the bank for online payments, that means in my case , i asked if they can make my visa card to have same options as credit card without credit , so i put money in it so i can pay, and then there is no money someone to steal....
(If you receive paychecks on this card never register if anywhere)

That leaded to the case when i purchased the game to not have money in it for ZOS full month fee check - unable to play until next day until i charged it, you can ask your bank to make you one more card preferrably visa !!! and not credit card just debit!!! (expecialy if you get your paychecks on your maestro card ) usually its free except years tax ~5 EU here

PS. bad english i don't know if i explained easily to understand

colinesplinmusicb16_ESO

Just goes to show you how confident they are about their own product that you must set up a sub before you can even get into the game.

Really enjoying ESO, played almost daily since 5 day pre-release but i've never seen such a cash grab before, 2 weeks before release and they mention imperial edition is selling out, can still pick it up today and unlike my Fallout NV collectors edition, they don't have a clue how many are made, not so limited then, and with the GAME exclusive nonsense i had to have over £180 in my bank for a week on top of my living expenses and the £90 i previously blew because of double charges and problems with the order, every single other mmo either doesn't charge in advance/gives you the option to add gametime cards instantly instead or only charges you 1p-99p and refunds within 24 hours to validate you're card. They're banking on people to forget they've got a recurring payment by making it a requirement to even play the game after a £90 purchase. thats sickening, i absolutely love TES but you cannot defend that. Even my monthly sub payment has not been returned and i've only got 9 days left of my purchase and that was with a visa debit. Not trying to troll here but its really making me feel they're trying to make as much from ESO as they can before business was to get worse and its making me lose confidence in the game, this has put off most of my friends even purchasing the game thanks to all this payment method nonsense. Its one of the number one things mentioned about whats wrong with buying the game not related to the game itself.

If you guys are in the UK you can purchase 60 day codes for about 40p cheaper than the usual 8.99 a month on Amazon UK, that's what I'm going for and i highly recommend everyone do the same.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Game-Time/dp/B00J952JLK/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1398426915&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Elder+Scrolls+Online+60

Hell knows why they don't mention that on the first post, as its been there for a while now, guess they want that direct cash without a middle man.

mikeyb4god123nub19_ESO

gijszaccountsb16_ESO wrote: »

I understand why you are removing the payment options for now, but you are instead creating another problem.

I mentioned this in an earlier topic, but most people in the EU don't have a Credit Card nor do they choose to have PayPal. By removing these payment methods, EU players are basically alienated unless they have a Credit Card or PayPal. About 80% of the people in Europe (rough estimate, differs per country, some higher, some lower) as such, will now -not- be able to play The Elder Scrolls Online.

Once again, I understand you are taking them down now and you're evaluating some more firm disclaimers in the shop pages, but I stress that these payment methods -must- return. Especially since many of us have bought the game with assumption that we are able to actually pay for our subscription. I did too, I'd have never bought TESO if I wasn't able to pay with iDeal. But I was able to, and now I play the game. Me, and a lot of other Dutch players, will be very unhappy campers if the payment method is permanently removed.

As such, I'd like to ask what your plans are: You mention the payment methods are 'evaluated'. Does this mean they will return? We do need this information, especially potential customers to which this is a make or break decision.

There's should not be a problem with you getting paypal.. only "Gold farmers" who have set account would complain about a certain payment method being taken away, these other payment methods can not be traced, so forth "Gold farmers/Gold spammers and botters can use them to take advantage of the game and kill our game Exp

mikeyb4god123nub19_ESO

Manus wrote: »

Terminus wrote: »

It's great that people have the option to get refunds if they aren't interested in extending their membership; sometimes people are

forced to change their membership status, even if they wish to continue playing.

I still think it's silly how upset some people are getting over providing their credit card information. I've provided my information and then immediately canceled my subscription for products I planned to use short-term.

Don't have a credit card? Neither do I, I use debit.

Here are a couple of reasons.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/15/pf/new-cards-hack/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Network_outage

Then there is this one of particular interest.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/13/lulzsec-bethesda-hack/

So its not to "silly" to have concerns about security in general and
based on how things have gone thus far. Well not much more to add to
that.

Yep same thing! And if you don't have a bank account/ or credit Union then there's something wrong.. agrees so much with this^

colinesplinmusicb16_ESO

I agree with things having to be secure, but when you've still got gold spammers running wild and legit players buying physical imperial editions like myself having to pay £278.99/$469.15 in advance before you even get you're 30 days free that's rather taking the cake. Did get my £180 back for being charged an extra 2 times by GAME UK but thats how much the game cost me to get the thing here thanks to stupid exclusive retailer deals (only available in the UK in GAME) and security issues on this site, and we're the ones who are confused?!

Moiskormoimi

@Yerx A pending transaction and a pre-authorization are the same transaction. A pre-auth is the call for the deduction of the account made by the merchant. Usually we use this term for 'test' amounts like when you swipe your card at the gas station and you see only a dollar deducted from your account. The merchant is using the automated system to verify a real account. A pending transaction is the same thing, only in the final submission stage. And even then, until the transactions post for the final amount, it's not set in stone (i.e. restaurant transactions, gas transactions, etc). Most merchants have an automatic date release when they submit those transactions via their own electronic transmission. They then go to through the bank's process, and the bank stamps it with the time frame that the merchant submitted. Which is why, if you go through this forum alone, you will see that there are those that are complaining of the transaction still pending or that their dates are months out. The bank does not set those dates. The merchant does.
The only time the bank will set a date is if the merchant does not provide a release date for those funds. As someone above me already pointed out, if the merchant doesn't submit the next stage transaction slip, there will not be a release date for that hold. In which, the bank legally cannot hold those funds indefinitely so they are released to the account based on each bank's policy. For example, we'll go back to the gas pre-auth. Most of those transactions don't have a release date issued from the merchant. Most people buy gas on Fridays, which are paydays. That gives the weekend for that transaction to hang there. Most banks have a 3-5 day (normal week) policy so that dollar will likely fall off Monday night or Tuesday night, per bank policy. Doesn't mean that the full amount that you spent for the gas will not post later, just means that the merchant did not submit a release date so the bank has to adhere to their own hold policy. In that instance, you are correct. That scenario IS based on the bank. But we're not really talking about that. and the former is what we deal with on a majority basis.

In closing, it's not the bank that sets this time frame for the pre-auth, it's Zenimax's AR(or the like). Granted, as we both acknowledge, people are people and make mistakes, so yes, likely in the instances through the forum, someone on the AR end made a fat fingered mistake. In fact, many people are not aware but you CAN dispute pending charges and they can trace the line of origin. In most cases, you have to escalate the call beyond regular csr's. It's a lot more hassle for the bank because the final transmission has not been submitted by the merchant so even though the transaction goes against the balance of the account, it's not an 'official' charge until it posts. In either case, this is not actually 'free 30 days'. Actually read these posts (even the unintelligible ones). A lot of those charges are still pending or have posted. And let's be clear: this pre-authorization is NOT in the ToS. All it states is that valid payment information must be given, and that internet availability is required. Most games do not require input of payment information until AFTER the 30 days are up. There's no case for those of us whose transactions have fallen off the account, but for those with the transactions still pending or posted, that's fraudulent advertising.

pawell.sidorb16_ESO

"Every customer that purchases the game receives 30 days of play included. Upon registration, customers are required to choose a payment method for the subscription fee associated with game play beyond the first 30 days of service.

Customers who choose to pay for a subscription with a recurring payment method, such as a credit card, are advised they will not be charged until the first 30-days of use included with the purchase of the game expire. Further, they are informed that they can cancel their chosen payment method up until the first 30-days included with the purchase of the game expires."
A little bit differend what i saw using a game code....
I was asked for credit card details so i did the subscription. But i didnt see any '30 days of play included. Upon registration' because i was charged 12.99 for the month...
So what now ?

MistryssNite

Has any successfully used a Visa gift card?

Wolfshead

I honest dont understand why people dont understand how subscribe work if you buy a P2P mmo game.

1. you install the game (this ofc if you buy retail version)
2. you make account
3. to active 30 day free game time
4. you have to "fake" a subscribe and when you have done you can login and play the game
5. after 2 or 3 day you can go to your account and remove your billings and use gamecard or just play those 30 day free and nothing will happen to you

Honest how hard can it be to understand i take most people have play mmo before and the should know this by now.

colinesplinmusicb16_ESO

Wolfshead wrote: »

Honest how hard can it be to understand i take most people have play mmo before and the should know this by now.

Can't remember any MMO's taking a full amount of a subscription before you've even had access to you're game after blowing £90 on it already. honestly how hard can it be for Zenimax to understand thats some shoddy business tactics, of course you wouldn't have read my two previous posts about this. 8 days left of the sub and I've still not been refunded the 'verification' amount of my subscription which happened to be the full amount 22 days later, that's more than a fortnight waiting on a verification check. not once in my life have i waited longer for a verification check.

Also when they quick edited their TOS that was illegal, another reason why people are having problems understanding things.

I can remove my card details no problem, but thats not getting my money back. by looking at this forum you should 'know' by now this is the case for many. I just wanted to use gamecards, they said that wouldn't be an issue before release and look at it now.

nachtmachen_ESO

I had to keep sending customer support emails asking when they might feel like lettting my card know that they could cancel the pending authorization. It took over two weeks for them to actually do so. This isn't good customer service. Then if you registered early, you lost the extra days they supposedly gave us. I have been playing mmo's for awhile and this is the first time they have ever pre-authorized the entire amount. 30 days free use to mean I didn't actually have to set up anything until I had used those days up and decided if I really wanted to play more. I really like the game, but the rest of this all makes me really saddened .

Jirki88

The way ZeniMax have handled a lot of the problems surrounding this game is just... Ridiculous. It's a farce. And this? Whoever is in charge of ZeniMax PR division (provided there is one, which I'm not sure about) should be fired so hard and so fast it would resemble a nuclear strike. Because this is atrocious. To treat customers with that kind of arrogance, that kind of self-righteousness? To pretty much call your customers stupid? Geeez...

Frankly, the way everything is handled, I can see this game go down the drain whatever content they release. I've already decided it's not a company I can (from a moral standpoint) or want to support, so I'm not gonna subscribe further. Good riddance, some will say, and maybe I'm just a drop in the ocean, but I kind of doubt I'm the only one feeling this way with how ZeniMax handles things.

Maybe someday I'll come back, if ZeniMax actually hires some people who know what they're doing or just somehow gains some integrity and customer focus, neither which seems particularly likely as it stands.

For those who don't see the crappy handling of a lot of stuff and likely just see this as whining - good for you. Enjoy the game.

andrmncreb17_ESO

Three weeks and I still didn't get my money back from the authorization check. Seems like there was no free 30 days at all.

Moiskormoimi

Wolfshead wrote: »

Honest how hard can it be to understand i take most people have play mmo before and the should know this by now.

Except that no other mmo offering free trials or free 30 days has ever required payment information upfront or charged you full amounts before. The reason for the outrage is more due to the items still pending or actually posting to accounts which is fraud and false advertising.

Mikelius

Where is my money? I set up subscription at 04.04.14, my 15$ were taken as authorization and then I cancelled subscription because didn't know if I would play further. Yesterday I set up subscription once again because I decided to play more and 15$ were taken again. I want my money back

Dunhilda

So we doesn't any company use Paypal?

rayvn03b14_ESO

MistryssNite wrote: »

Anyone know if any chain stores in the US are carrying time cards? Not much news has been said about this.

Supposedly, they will be in stores as of today, the 28th. Supposedly. Call Gamestop, and see what they say. My local 7-11 carries cards for WoW and a few others, you might ask them, too!

ETA: Target and Walmart have been mentioned, as well.

SteveCampsOut

Well, after all I've experienced in the game in the last 30 days or so, I've come to a decision and switched my subscription from the 6 month paid option down to the 30 day recurring because frankly, I don't think this game is going to hold my attention that long. This isn't a bugs issue, or customer service issue, it's a content issue and seeing what's in store for us in the future based on what I've seen I foresee another DAoC Trials of Atlantis sized exodus from this game. I'm sticking around for another 30 days at least. We'll see if they can change my mind.

gorob4ik

Alisu wrote: »

I used Visa Electron for my account. For seller it shows just like Visa and thus works in net everywhere that Visa works. However, for me it's quite different. As soon as I do a purchase, the system makes direct check to my account and places that amount on hold. I called to my bank and yes, the hold is THREE WEEKS. If the seller cancels the purchase soon after (as you claim you do for the validation fee) sure, it won't be charged. But the bank doesn't know it and still holds the amount on hold, and it's only cancellable if the seller specifically call to the bank. I can't just cancel it myself because, you know, frauds and stuff. I don't expect you to call every bank, really, but you don't have to hold the whole amount as ransom.

You'd stop most of this grief if you'd just change the validation amount to something people can stand to loose for a while, the aforementioned 0.01 to 1 euro/dollar.

I have the same problem, the whole amount is supposedly being on authorization hold, but it's been more than 3 weeks already, and the money is stil not returned.

Moiskormoimi

Just letting you guys know that your voices ARE being heard...just not by Zenimax. The Better Business Bureau has placed an alert regarding Zenimax Online Studios in regards to the level of complaints they are receiving. There is one published complaint but I suspect they haven't gotten around to reviewing the other ones yet. If you still have a charge that is pending or one that posted, and you cannot resolve your issue with customer service either due to lack of response or they refuse to work with you, I highly suggest filing with them.

http://www.bbb.org/greater-maryland/business-reviews/internet-gaming/zenimax-online-studios-in-hunt-valley-md-90260471

RianaTheBosmer

If 15.00 a month is so hard to afford, you shouldn't be spending it on a game. My bank holds all amounts for 3 days, all from 1.00 to 1000.00.

Moiskormoimi

RianaTheBosmer wrote: »

If 15.00 a month is so hard to afford, you shouldn't be spending it on a game. My bank holds all amounts for 3 days, all from 1.00 to 1000.00.

You're pretty basic. One, that's not how pre-auth's work. The bank does not set the time frame for the hold, the merchant does. In the cases where the merchant does not submit final form for the hold (like in the case of gas transactions at the pump), the bank will revert to their hold policies which vary but are generally 3-5 days. The issue comes when the item is STILL pending or has posted to the account.
It's not about the money. Most of us have full time jobs and easily drop $15 on coffee every week. It's about fraudulent advertising. No other mmo requires us to input information upfront and then essentially charge us for 30 days free. A lot of people still have the charge pending or it's posted to the account, meaning payment is final. THAT is the issue. That tripe that all mmo players are basement dwelling teens is tired.
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_demographics.html

killedbyping

So, its been almost whole month since my money were put on hold. No return.
Support and accountants of ZOS keep saying that my money is NOT on hold.
My bank keep say that my money IS on auth hold.

I pretend to trust to my bank more then to people who cant even explain how their payment system work and even after they do explain it it is still appear it doesnt work that way...