WAR's billing woes

[Morreion]

The Daily Grind: Warhammer Online's billing woes (Massively)

It started as innocently as any tale of this sort could possibly start, but Warhammer Online's latest problem has people up in arms, from veterans to those who've only played a few hours. And understandably so, since dozens of charges that overdraw your bank account are fairly universally seen as a bad thing. The MMO blogosphere has erupted with posts on the incident, and even Mythic Entertainment's attempts to calm the waters have left several people feeling unhappy (to put it mildly).Billing issues happen with online purchases, but rarely of this magnitude, and rarely on the heels of a push to involve the community. It hasn't been an easy ride for Warhammer Online thus far, so we're curious to know what our readers think. Is this a death knell for the game, or just a really big mistake? Does it make you feel more nervous about giving away your payment information? Whether you play or not, what do you think would be fair compensation for those affected? Do you see this as a major lesson for the industry?

Three Cheers for Mythic! (WAR Forums)

Kuldebar wrote: I am amazed about the level of whining rising from a billing error that's rather easily corrected and is, indeed, being corrected. Let's hope nothing actually bad ever happens to these unfortunate people, because then they will really lose it.

Such drama and (feigned?) outrage! Crap happens, get over it.

Excess charges will be reversed and overdraft fees on your debit card accounts will be refunded.



You clearly do not understand the situation. Let me paint a picture for you of how this effected me, and why it's worth "whining" about.

When my account was charged 9 times, it emptied my entire account completely (I'm a university student) Also, I accumulated almost $200 in overdraft fees. Now, I know it's going to be "fixed" and I'm going to get my money back, but you seem to be forgetting that now I have to live for 3 days WITHOUT ANY MONEY AT ALL. I had 4 dollars in cash in my wallet when my account was emptied. I cannot buy food. I cannot buy my bus ticket to get to school OR work. I could not pay my water bill. I could not pay my Rent (luckily my landlady is understanding and giving me 3 more days to pay)

I haven't eaten in almost 30 hours. The last time I ate I had to call a friend and ask him to buy me some taco bell.

So yeah, I would say that this is worth "whining" about.

You ignorant waffle

Do we have grounds for a class action lawsuit? (WAR Forums)

This "billing error" literally bankrupted not only myself, but many others. Once your account goes more than -$500 in my financial institution, they shut it down. Imagine the kick in the face knowing you worked all week to see your funds get swallowed up by a mistake that has yet to be rectified due to the "normal time" it takes to reverse the funding. We also are told to personally contact our banks for fee reversals. I really felt left out to dry and all I get for my financial woes are corporate statements to the general masses. 2 customer support tickets and a call to billing support and I get no call or ticket response in a personal manner to assess my personal situation. That alone would have been a respectful apology and left me reasonably assured they cared about me - I guess they are really only interested in the bigger picture than the individual.

Wow. This is an absolute nightmare. Some people who have not played the game in months have been charged multiple times, you might want to check your credit card account. The billing company is to blame, but Mythic/EA is going to get a lot of grief over this.

I had no idea something this insane could happen. One guy got charged 37 monthly fees on his credit card. I'm going to start using Paypal or a rechargeable credit card for such purchases.

[dotty]

..insane. Their CS has gotten soo much worse than I remember.

[Regolyth]

Apr 19, 2010 15:31:07 GMT -5 dotty said:

..insane. Their CS has gotten soo much worse than I remember.

Unfortunately Mythic's customer service no longer exists. It's all EA now.

I think a lot of people are overreacting. Things do happen sometimes and there isn't anything you can do about it. And it's not like the billing department did this on purpose. It was an accident, a mistake, and I'm sure they're doing whatever they can to make sure it doesn't happen again. People make mistakes all the time. Sometimes they're big, sometimes they're small.

Also, I can't believe that one guy wants EA/Mythic to respond to him directly. With the thousands of people effected, they don't have the time, or manpower, to address each concern individually. And he's just slowing things down by putting in more than one ticket. If everyone put in one ticket (which isn't far from possible, some putting in multiple), then the CS lines would really be bogged down and of course they won't be able to respond to them all.

And the guy complaining about going bankrupt... wow. Really, he couldn't ask a few friends to give him some cash for a couple of days? Maybe he has that few of friends. What about some relatives? He wasn't able to pay his water bill and rent. It sounds to me like he was waiting until the last minute to pay them anyways. It only took two or three days for the money to start going back into accounts. This guy had to be waiting until the last possible second to pay bills if going two or three days "caused" him to not be able to pay his bills.

Regardless of whether or not it's EA/Mythic's fault or if the subscribers have a right to whine (which I think they do, but not the extent that they did), it's largely a fault of the banks. What kind of bank allows 30+ charges from a single source within seconds of each other? I have had my bank call me and much less suspicious charges in the past. I think the banks should have stopped most, if not all, of these transactions.

[dotty]

Several people mentioned this was the SECOND time that this happened. First time might be an oops! Second time is... WTF are you doing?

[Regolyth]

This is the first I've heard of it, and I just quit playing not that long ago.