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Got scammed by cryptic and atari !
Hippis
Member Posts: 9
Game: Star Trek Online
2010-09-29
After my initial 30 days closed in on the end i decided to go for life time account but got my card rejected, tryed then on 1 month same thing card rejected. Contacted support and asked why it gets rejected, Reply whas: Some is wrong with ur card or bank.
2010-10-04
After sewral tickets no real info what had happened, After one of the 2010-10-06 tickets they admited they had payment issues.
2010-10-06
Decided to check my card transactions and there i found a deduction for champions online not Star Trek Online, sent a ticket and they said it's whas some script messup and the payment whas for Star Trek Online, then i tought ok well then i have payed for one month and now the account is open, thats not the case it's still in trail mode even after several tickets that has involved my account.
Sent a ticket and demanded refund.
2010-10-07
cryptic respons :Greetings, After careful review of your account, we are unable to grant your refund request. For further information, please review the terms of service located at
http://www.startrekonline.com/terms_of_service in sections 5 and 7 If you have any additional questions, please feel free to let us know. Regards, Cryptic Studios Billing Support.
Now they point that my account is unsecure and i have canseled the account !
Now i have got fedup with the stalling from support and gona check with the law and see what they say, their payment system maked a mess and they blaim me for problem.
Comments
LOL! service with a smile
That sounds messed up, but before you go to the "law" , you might try your bank or your CC company. There are certain ways to get your money back. Just remember that you'll plan to leave that company (in this case cryptic/Atari) behind as usually the course is a charge back to the company, and most companies hate when customers do that, course in this case you would have a valid reason. But basically a charge back is when your bank/CC gives you the money and goes after the company for it hence why the company doesn't like it.
It's a course of action you might try and may be a lot cheaper and get faster results. Just a suggestion though
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
If you still have the emails between you and Cryptic on where they admit they had some billing issues, yet refuse to cancel/refund the transaction, bring that or forward it and ask your bank/CC to reverse the charges. Talk to a live person, dont go thru emails to start with.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I have seen a few of this problems on the forums, and they end up solving, but I agree that you need to talk to a person, emails and machines won't work. Have you tried to stay your issue at the STO forum, sometimes the community representative give you a hand in dealing with billing, specially if it is something so messed up like the thing you described.
Not sure about the chargeback but it is applicable go for it if you get tired of waiting. I play CO and I like it, but Cryptic/Atari billing department sometimes mess up pretty bad, hopefully some punches will teach them something.
The problem is solved by a experienced GM, the initial seems to have been a bit unsure what to do and lacked "solve problem ability". Thou i will newer go for a online game when it's provided by Cryptic or Atari, have no desire to be a crashtest dummy for a card payment system.
Make sure to mention that you will be reporting them to the better business bureau if you are a US player Or whatever that equivalent of that is in other nations. Companies don't like it when they get bad reps with the BBB because it screws over their credit rating. Oh and call your back and contest the charges, ask for a charge back.
edit: NVM, glad you got your money back.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
had the same issue via steam though I just had to apply the keys to my account and I was golden, I use my bank of america visa debit card and it says champions online as well but my account is current. I dont think you got scammed, I think you missed something. Besides no MMO does a mid month refund that I have ever seen.
So mistakes are called scams these day's....
Sorry to hear you had this issue, but seems not a scam at all but does seem mistakes where made.
But then again would you have made a topic with a title like "Cryptic and Atari made a mistake" it wouldn't be popular with today's generation of people who try to play games.
That whas no freakin mistake, if the GM had done their job and not stalling with stupid answers for several tickets. And it whas after i sent the ticket with contact law they woke up and fixed it. so read and understand what one is saying before replying is a wise thing.
I don't seeking to be popular, it's a simple message. Enter ur card info at their site and u can get more then u bargin for !
Ya it's a mistake. But it's a mistake that happens to alot of people.
It puzzles me how there are so many people claim to be playing STO but get deducted for Champion online.
So they must have a crappy billing system.
And lets be honest here. It might be done on purpose so some of the players involved in the mistake would be too lazy to get a refund.
I forget if it is libel or slander that they could sue you for over this if they were given to such measures. You experienced an issue with their billing system. You experienced an issue with their customer support. You admit that another member of their support team was able to resolve the issue for you. There is no evidence of a scam on their parts. Systems and personnel issues? Yes...
...your issue spanned a week. During part of that time, it was an issue with being able to utilize your credit card to make the purchase. You noticed the actual billing issue and that was resolved within 24 hours according to what you have shared with us.
Again, none of this implies a scam on either Cryptic's nor Atari's part.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Still it remains a mistake, no matter how you try to twist it. Mistakes get resolved, scams do not.
Not really a surprise.. Cryptari gets negative reviews most places they are mentioned now. Glad you got your money back. People really should not be buying lifetime subs to STO at this point. There was such an epic drop off in subs since launch and people let down by it, STO will probably have to go f2p by next year just to stay up.
Yeah, the following might sound crazy and I doubt it's the case, but....
Maybe there's a reason why this happens with them a lot. Who says they aren't moving things around to inflate the number subscriptions for each game when they're being reviewed? Especially if they're being reviewed seperately.
It's not like the games are booming successes.
Yeah, sure it's conspiracy talk, but if they are reviewed at seperate times for anything involving investors, shares, or the like they could be playing some stupid game that some customers end up getting screwed in. I'm glad he got his money back, his money isn't really the crux of the idea here.
Like I said, it's just a thought. I am not saying that is what's happened or that it's likely. I'm just saying that something like that isn't out of the realm of possibility.
I find it interesting that this is still happening on occasion; right after launch they had major problems with this, as well as related issues (such as people getting billed after the 30 free days who had cancelled their accounts long before that time was up). According to what they stated it was supposed to be fixed, but apparently there's still some bug in their system.
That being said, you can't really hit them with scam charges as you would have to prove that this was done with intent. The most you can do is do a charge back if you can't get the issue resolved via the compnay. Since it apparently has been resolved, there's really not much more that can be done. It is a bit sad that these cases seem to get resolved as soon as the customer threatens legal actions, but before that the customer is told that there's nothing Cryptic can do.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I haven't got scammed by Atari since I bought ET for the 2600. What a piece of dog crap ...
END OF LINE_
~V
Hey I still have 30 copies of that. It's an ultra rare collectible (unless you live in arizona, where you can just dig it up from the landfill).
Not so out of the realm of possiblity. The games had different start dates , so depending on Atari's reporting requirements and structure it very well may be the case. You have the HQ ( Atari ) interested in income and profitiblity vs expense and you have Cryptic involved on maintaining their jobs .