People that got charged twice or can't Re sub post here ( ZOS CS rep needed ASAP )

Kadigan

My bank canceled my credit card right before my free game time ran out and when I tried to change my subscription to add a different card, it just said "transaction not authorized" without giving a reason. I even tried canceling my subscription entirely and setting it up again with the other card but no dice. The "total" amount to be charged displays as $0.00 on the final screen instead of the correct amount for a 180 day subscription.

I opened a ticket with https://help.elderscrollsonline.com but their response was "contact your bank to ask why these funds are not being allowed through." I doubt very much this is the fault of our banks. I was also given a 3-day compensatory time code (not for five days as other people have received) but I'm guessing that since I can't set up an active subscription I'll be locked out of the game now as well

feniks31_ESO

Incident: 140509-013416
Is it a joke?
- I have contacted my bank and they said that problem is on your side. They have performed all proper operations as usual but you declined payment or something. And now I must wait for a MONTH to return my money. Btw I can't pay with paypal since it is not present in available for my region payment methods. Your game is more like bugged beta for the first place but you even won't let me pay for this game. Strange politics you have, yes.

- Greetings Anton!
Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.
I'm truly sorry you're having a bad experience with our game.
Please let me assure you, that we do try our best to improve every day in order to give our customers the best game experience possible. Your feedback is crucial to help us achieve our goal, so thank you so much for taking the time for letting us know about your thoughts and insights about ESO. We truly appreciate it.
I can assure you your words will be carefully taken in consideration.

All you can say is "oops, sorry, tell us more how bad the game is"?
Any help with payment issue? No?

felixgamingx1

feniks31_ESO wrote: »

Incident: 140509-013416
Is it a joke?
- I have contacted my bank and they said that problem is on your side. They have performed all proper operations as usual but you declined payment or something. And now I must wait for a MONTH to return my money. Btw I can't pay with paypal since it is not present in available for my region payment methods. Your game is more like bugged beta for the first place but you even won't let me pay for this game. Strange politics you have, yes.

- Greetings Anton!
Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team.
I'm truly sorry you're having a bad experience with our game.
Please let me assure you, that we do try our best to improve every day in order to give our customers the best game experience possible. Your feedback is crucial to help us achieve our goal, so thank you so much for taking the time for letting us know about your thoughts and insights about ESO. We truly appreciate it.
I can assure you your words will be carefully taken in consideration.

All you can say is "oops, sorry, tell us more how bad the game is"?
Any help with payment issue? No?

Oh wow they forgot to write the fix

Ummaguma

it took my money and now wont let me play...

I am Disabled and on a fixed income. I had just enough money on that card to pay the Subscription fee...

coryevans_3b14_ESO

After reading all of this I'm pulling my account info. I can't take the chance of an over charge.

coryevans_3b14_ESO

felixgamingx1 wrote: »

Well ZOS will be held accountable for overdrafts as only one charge was originally authorized maybe that's why they staying quiet, it's a sign of "omg we are so ******"

I have a feeling this statement is what's really going on.

tyranade

I've cancelled my subscription. I'm just going to wait and see what happens. My subscription was due tomorrow.

felixgamingx1

coryevans_3b14_ESO wrote: »

After reading all of this I'm pulling my account info. I can't take the chance of an over charge.

tyranade wrote: »

I've cancelled my subscription. I'm just going to wait and see what happens. My subscription was due tomorrow.

I think you guys still getting charged or maybe I'm wrong.

ruzlb16_ESO

When I contacted support, they rang me back within 30 minutes, credited me with 5 free days of game time, and have been in constant contact with me since on the issue (I've had at least one email per day from them about it, and I've been being passed up the chain at ZOS HQ since). I'm perfectly happy with how responsive CS have been, tbh, and they're taking my feedback on board too (I'm an IT professional and have worked with dodgy payment systems before).

They know there's an issue and they're looking into it - from what I've been able to gather from several conversations with ZOS and a lengthy interrogation of my bank, it appears that their system is declining payments but failing to tell the payment company that the transaction is void. That's why your money hasn't come back - ZOS don't have it, but haven't told Visa they're not going to take it, so Visa is holding onto it until ZOS let them know they'r not going to take it.

I advise everyone effected to open a ticket - use the phone option on the support site and they'll ring you back. ZOS have been very willing to give free game time out for this sort of thing so far, so you can keep playing; hopefully they'll have found the root of the problem and voided your payments by the time that runs out, so the money will be back in your account when they do take the sub. Also, make sure that your details on the ZOS account page EXACTLY match your card/paypal details. I had to add 'Mr' in front of my first name to get it to accept my card in the end (I was ended up doing a 1-month sub after it had taken the money for 2 6-month subs and failed to credit me).

In theory, the bug runs a bit like this:

I put in my card details to about 80% accuracy (so miss out a middle name, say, or leave out the 'Mr') on the Zenimax website.
Zenimax requests the payment with these details.
My bank looks, says "that's close enough, 'John Smith' is almost certainly 'Mr Jonathon Smith'", and puts the money up to collect.
ZOS software looks at the details on the payment and says "that account name is NOT close enough, this may be fraud, leave it alone" (which is fine, if a little over-sensitive).
The ZOS software then fails to inform the Visa system that the payment is rejected, so Visa has to keep the money available for collection. This is the bug - not the rejection itself, but the failure of the system to notify the paying orgnisation that it won't be taking the money.

nick59349b14_ESO

ruzlb16_ESO wrote: »

When I contacted support, they rang me back within 30 minutes, credited me with 5 free days of game time, and have been in constant contact with me since on the issue (I've had at least one email per day from them about it, and I've been being passed up the chain at ZOS HQ since). I'm perfectly happy with how responsive CS have been, tbh, and they're taking my feedback on board too (I'm an IT professional and have worked with dodgy payment systems before).

They know there's an issue and they're looking into it - from what I've been able to gather from several conversations with ZOS and a lengthy interrogation of my bank, it appears that their system is declining payments but failing to tell the payment company that the transaction is void. That's why your money hasn't come back - ZOS don't have it, but haven't told Visa they're not going to take it, so Visa is holding onto it until ZOS let them know they'r not going to take it.

I advise everyone effected to open a ticket - use the phone option on the support site and they'll ring you back. ZOS have been very willing to give free game time out for this sort of thing so far, so you can keep playing; hopefully they'll have found the root of the problem and voided your payments by the time that runs out, so the money will be back in your account when they do take the sub. Also, make sure that your details on the ZOS account page EXACTLY match your card/paypal details. I had to add 'Mr' in front of my first name to get it to accept my card in the end (I was ended up doing a 1-month sub after it had taken the money for 2 6-month subs and failed to credit me).





This is very interesting. I haven't heard crap since Friday morning. I also know that Paypal will credit the money immediately once they are told to. I have contacted paypal and they have received no contact or funds from Zenimax.

You seem to be one of the lucky ones. They are not handling this issue very well and your statements confirm it.

Leeta

ruzlb16_ESO wrote: »

When I contacted support, they rang me back within 30 minutes, credited me with 5 free days of game time, and have been in constant contact with me since on the issue (I've had at least one email per day from them about it, and I've been being passed up the chain at ZOS HQ since). I'm perfectly happy with how responsive CS have been, tbh, and they're taking my feedback on board too (I'm an IT professional and have worked with dodgy payment systems before).

They know there's an issue and they're looking into it - from what I've been able to gather from several conversations with ZOS and a lengthy interrogation of my bank, it appears that their system is declining payments but failing to tell the payment company that the transaction is void. That's why your money hasn't come back - ZOS don't have it, but haven't told Visa they're not going to take it, so Visa is holding onto it until ZOS let them know they'r not going to take it.

I advise everyone effected to open a ticket - use the phone option on the support site and they'll ring you back. ZOS have been very willing to give free game time out for this sort of thing so far, so you can keep playing; hopefully they'll have found the root of the problem and voided your payments by the time that runs out, so the money will be back in your account when they do take the sub. Also, make sure that your details on the ZOS account page EXACTLY match your card/paypal details. I had to add 'Mr' in front of my first name to get it to accept my card in the end (I was ended up doing a 1-month sub after it had taken the money for 2 6-month subs and failed to credit me).

In theory, the bug runs a bit like this:

I put in my card details to about 80% accuracy (so miss out a middle name, say, or leave out the 'Mr') on the Zenimax website.
Zenimax requests the payment with these details.
My bank looks, says "that's close enough, 'John Smith' is almost certainly 'Mr Jonathon Smith'", and puts the money up to collect.
ZOS software looks at the details on the payment and says "that account name is NOT close enough, this may be fraud, leave it alone" (which is fine, if a little over-sensitive).
The ZOS software then fails to inform the Visa system that the payment is rejected, so Visa has to keep the money available for collection. This is the bug - not the rejection itself, but the failure of the system to notify the paying orgnisation that it won't be taking the money.

Lol thursday when i had this problem this is the answer i got:


Thank you for contacting The Elder Scrolls Online Team. My name is Matthew, I am honored to assist you today!

I noticed 3/4 transactions that took place today, did not go through and the funds should be returned in a few days. Are you still having trouble with getting your credit/debit card to work, if so please let us know, and I'll be happy to assist you!

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Warm Regards,
The Elder Scrolls Online Team

Nothing about 'hey we will get you some free time so youre at least able to play, were really sorry about this' or something like that. Just that the money will be back in a couple days so instead of trying to keep me interested in the game they basically wanted me to try again in a few days and be locked out of the game til then. I had to send them 6!! 6!!! more mails before i got mail back 2 days after that i have 5 days game time. And no apologize or nothing..i havent been able to play until today and frankly now i dont even want to.

Monyan

ruzlb16_ESO wrote: »

I put in my card details to about 80% accuracy (so miss out a middle name, say, or leave out the 'Mr') on the Zenimax website.
Zenimax requests the payment with these details.
My bank looks, says "that's close enough, 'John Smith' is almost certainly 'Mr Jonathon Smith'", and puts the money up to collect.
ZOS software looks at the details on the payment and says "that account name is NOT close enough, this may be fraud, leave it alone" (which is fine, if a little over-sensitive).
The ZOS software then fails to inform the Visa system that the payment is rejected, so Visa has to keep the money available for collection. This is the bug - not the rejection itself, but the failure of the system to notify the paying orgnisation that it won't be taking the money.

Thank you for this post! It's incredibly helpful! I can't play for 18 hours, though my payment is locked as my bank said. If it's true what you've written about the name, so I don't understand why they don't tell me. CS still avoided the answer for my simple question. I've sent two tickets and both was transferred to some department, but they are not communicating with me at all. I wasn't also credited with any free time. And I really really want to play!

Could you tell me one very important thing? My card has one special character "ł" from polish alphabet, which doesn't exist in english. That's why I always change the character to "l" when I register at english website. Is this could be the reason of the rejection? If so, then I will change it.

I think that every player with declined payment should see your post somehow.

====

Edit. I've just made two payment attempts, one with changed character, and one with my second name (that also appears in my bank) - both failed. I know that these all money will be "floating somewhere in the space" by next 14 days, but I had to try. I'm desperate. I need to play. I about to start to begging them for compensation code or something. Because it seems to I have to beg.

GeeYouWhy

Got double charged for $14.99 subscription although they are both still 'Pending' atm.

Edit 5.16.2014: One charge was processed and the other dissappeared.

Big_Bob

Hey Zenimax, what the hell huh?

I had shown prove that I was charged twice and indeed 30USD is not in my bank account and all you could do is reply with
"I've checked into your account and I can see that the payment of 14,99$ was declined and the funds were not collected. We advise that you contact your financial institution for further assistance and information."


That doesnt excuse the fact that I was charged twice as I renewed my subscription days earlier before my 5 free game time expires. Here's the proof

10-May-2014 PREAUTH SALE ELDRSCROLS\\R DATED 10/05/14 US$14.99
09-May-2014 PREAUTH SALE ELDRSCROLS\\R DATED 09/05/14 US$14.99

and I even received an email that confirms payment

"Your new recurring subscription plan for The Elder Scrolls Online has been successfully established. We hope you'll enjoy your adventures in Tamriel!

Subscription Information

You have selected the following subscription plan:

30 Day Subscription
$14.99 USD every 30 days

When your account runs out of Game Time, you will be automatically billed $14.99 for another 30 days of game time. We will charge your payment method"

But then once my account game time expires, instead of the game auto renewing the subscription it says my payment failed yet I was still charged twice for no reason.

I had contacted my bank and they told me they would try to refund my money back in 14 days. And when sent another email asking you to explain to me how I was charged twice and yet my subscription could be declined despite having a confirmation email on my payment, your support team has yet to reply me for a whole day despite how quick your previous replies were.

Seriously, you guys f-ed up royally. I can't even play the game now and that isn't even the issue now. I'm really pissed off at how poor you deal with customers.

This 14 days wait will give me a lot of time to decide on whether I should continue playing this game or not.

Fairydragon3

Hope you guys are checking with your bank. Lots of issues because banks don't like online game transactions, its a pretty big source of fraud so the banks are most likely blocking the transactions

Loxy37

Yeah. I still haven't got my £60 back and Zenimax have said that all I attempted was 2 payments on my visa but I have the evidence showing 2 Paypal attempt by them also. The final time that I got it to work, I was charged £18 which is 2x1 month.

If this isn't sorted soon to my satisfaction then I'm outta here for good. I love the game but I'm not going through all this every month just for a simple transaction. In all the 15+ years I've been playing MMOs, this is the first time I have had any payment issues!

Spawnsplitter

A lot of the secondary charges can be just a authorization for the purpose of collecting the funds.

Everyone remembers the big deal when they did the authorization holds when setting up the subscriptions. The reason for this comes into play now.

When a hold is made on funds it is (normally instantly though) cleared within 2-5 !buisness! days, and the user has been authorized in their system and in their bank. This means that for the next 30 days a charge can be collected for within 115% of the initial authorization (Couldn't remember the exact % but should be fairly close).
(Paying at a restaurant is a prime example here since they don't know if you will tip or not).
(Another example that comes to mind is gaspumps in Florida which ALWAYS auth the net amount of 75$ when paying with a card to fill, no matter the actual amount used.)

Since they gave extra gametime the original authorization might not be valid anymore and requires a new authorization to be performed.

For your information: The bank CAN clear a hold on funds. I do believe this costs them money or something though and they do not really want to do this.

The one sending the auth can not do a thing with those as the basis of a auth is to send a request for a charge then cancel it so in essence the money should not even leave the account (This is the main basis for credit cards, often a hold will be listed as unfullfilled transactions or "reserved funds" that do not actually get charged and gets removed once the system catches up).

Debit cards are a bit iffy since they are directly linked to your actual cash in the account, therefore dependent on the actual transfer times in the bank, and its the bank that has their own routines on such things.

But i guess every bank/card company has its own system on this and the entire buisness is automated so for those who believe there is a single person sitting and pressing charge twice on each payment, I'm sorry but automated systems do have their faults, especially the fact one can not headhunt.

It also seems several of those having issues are people who have resubscribed.

Someone asked about special characters and this should not be an issue.

I do hope that everything clears up for people as mine went smoothly, and if a double charge created problems for you there is just one thing to do: Call your bank monday morning and demand they clear any holds. Even if their answer is it will fix itself.

If they do not do that - change banks.


I'm from Norway so I don't know the details of other countries but hope that might give some calm to some

ruzlb16_ESO

Monyan wrote: »

Could you tell me one very important thing? My card has one special character "ł" from polish alphabet, which doesn't exist in english. That's why I always change the character to "l" when I register at english website. Is this could be the reason of the rejection? If so, then I will change it.

On he phone, ZOS categorically stated to me that their payment system CANNOT accept special characters (this includes non-latin alphabet and punctuation marks like '). This may be the root of your problem here - if I'm right about the process of the bug, then ZOS cannot accept your real name but also cannot presently accept an anglicized version either.

Monyan wrote: »

Edit. I've just made two payment attempts, one with changed character, and one with my second name (that also appears in my bank) - both failed. I know that these all money will be "floating somewhere in the space" by next 14 days, but I had to try. I'm desperate. I need to play. I about to start to begging them for compensation code or something. Because it seems to I have to beg.

Keep emailing support quoting your reference - most people receiving game tie for this appear to have gotten it 1-2 days later (I imagine it needs to be authorised higher up the chain than the guys on the helpdesk). Include updates on how much of your cash is currently floating in limbo because of the problem, too. What I've gathered fro follow this in various threads is that ZOS will credit you game time provided they understand it's not just a rejected payment, but that it is genuinely disadvantaging you.

EDIT: Zenimax should really merge up these threads and sticky them. We've had 4-5 threads on this since Thursday.

Equite

Got the same email saying Payment fail. I didnt change anything, didnt cancel my sub. Have enough funds on card. Now it asks me to set new sub plan. And all what Customer support can advice me is to contact my bank. For what? I didnt get charged at all, but, as I've read it this thread, if I set new sub plan I would be charged twice, which I dont want at all

chelsan

I've received a purchase confirmation but my account status is still "Expired".

WingZer0

Ugh, all of this sounds disastrous

Rosveen

ruzlb16_ESO wrote: »

Monyan wrote: »

Could you tell me one very important thing? My card has one special character "ł" from polish alphabet, which doesn't exist in english. That's why I always change the character to "l" when I register at english website. Is this could be the reason of the rejection? If so, then I will change it.

On he phone, ZOS categorically stated to me that their payment system CANNOT accept special characters (this includes non-latin alphabet and punctuation marks like '). This may be the root of your problem here - if I'm right about the process of the bug, then ZOS cannot accept your real name but also cannot presently accept an anglicized version either.

Was it a recent change? I used a card with details containing Polish characters when I first set up a subscription a month ago and it worked normally. They were in my address though, not in my name.

Now I'm trying to resub with the same card (after cancelling), but the payment failed. CS told me to contact my bank, which I'll do first thing tomorrow morning.

GossiTheDog

Rosveen wrote: »

ruzlb16_ESO wrote: »

Monyan wrote: »

Could you tell me one very important thing? My card has one special character "ł" from polish alphabet, which doesn't exist in english. That's why I always change the character to "l" when I register at english website. Is this could be the reason of the rejection? If so, then I will change it.

On he phone, ZOS categorically stated to me that their payment system CANNOT accept special characters (this includes non-latin alphabet and punctuation marks like '). This may be the root of your problem here - if I'm right about the process of the bug, then ZOS cannot accept your real name but also cannot presently accept an anglicized version either.

Was it a recent change? I used a card with details containing Polish characters when I first set up a subscription a month ago and it worked normally. They were in my address though, not in my name.

Now I'm trying to resub with the same card (after cancelling), but the payment failed. CS told me to contact my bank, which I'll do first thing tomorrow morning.

The unicode character issue with billing has been bumbling on since launch. Really, it should work.

ruzlb16_ESO

"Rosveen wrote: »

Was it a recent change? I used a card with details containing Polish characters when I first set up a subscription a month ago and it worked normally. They were in my address though, not in my name.

Now I'm trying to resub with the same card (after cancelling), but the payment failed. CS told me to contact my bank, which I'll do first thing tomorrow morning.

More or less everyone having the problem was able to do so last moth - but that's jus because ZOS wasn't actually trying to take any money at that point. Now they are.

Your bank will likely tell you the same thing that my bank told me - that they have to have the money available for ZOS to collect until either ZOS take it or void it. While they can refund you, most payment systems (including both Visa and MasterCard) require the bank to have the funds available until they get a void or until the cash is taken, so the bank would have to stump up the cash (which they really won't want to).
This problem is currently prevalent enough that I'm pretty sure the banks aren't the trouble anyway.

Monyan

ruzlb16_ESO wrote: »

On he phone, ZOS categorically stated to me that their payment system CANNOT accept special characters (this includes non-latin alphabet and punctuation marks like '). This may be the root of your problem here - if I'm right about the process of the bug, then ZOS cannot accept your real name but also cannot presently accept an anglicized version either.

Oh, I got it! Thank you, your suspicions make sense. I hope they will improve their system somehow. First time in my life I hear about the issue. Just as the most of players I have never experienced any problems with my international payments until now.

Equite wrote: »

I didnt get charged at all, but, as I've read it this thread, if I set new sub plan I would be charged twice, which I dont want at all

It's not charging, it's locked amount. ZoS doesn't take the money. I have literally a padlock icon in my account site. My bank will keep the money locked to 14th May, but this term could be different in different banks. That's why you could call your bank. Anyway you better don't try to pay again. I tried three times like stupid and ZoS just asked me to stop

Reignskream

"When your account runs out of Game Time, you will be automatically billed $14.99 + applicable taxes for another 30 days of game time. We will charge your payment method"

Straight from my Email when i resubbed back up a few days ago. (I like to put my card in then take it out, as i don't like to keep my card on websites, so i sub, then cancel every month) I have under 1 day of gametime, i believe it ends tonight, so we will see if it actually takes the charge off my card,(which it shows a hold of the funds already, but payment hasnt left yet) and gives me my 30 days. One can only hope

Although it does show on my card for my elder scrolls payment 5/12/2014, what i cant pay a sub over the weekend?

Vanathi

Despite registering with a valid card I received a notice that my account had been cancelled due to invalid credit card information. Using the exact same card I paid for my monthly sub and got charged twice. Sent a note off to CS and NOT A SINGLE WORD. Not even confirmation of receipt of the request for help. I've noticed I'm not receiving any confirmations anymore. I used to get an email telling me my in game bot report was received. Nothing.

smyl1knrb19_ESO

I received a purchase confirmation, but my account "Expired - Payment Failure"

Moon-and-Star

I am glad I saw this thread, just got done sending in my ticket. And here is some advice for everyone so maybe you won't have the same problem I did. Do not mess with your subscription plan right now. I changed mine yesterday from the one month to the three month plan. 3 days ago my first payment was made for the 30 days now the money for the 3 month plan is out of my account and it is still saying I only have 27 more days of game time before I will get charged again.

Leeta

Seriously, when they did the auth check the way they did it last month i had a bad feeling about this. I knew it wouldnt work right. And since they did an auth check then why are so many screwed over right now? I am 100% sure it is not the banks, its eso messing things up.