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Funcom Banned My Account regarding a misunderstanding with a promo and chargeback. UPDATE: (Account
Xeno326
Member UncommonPosts: 77
UPDATE:
Wanted to follow up this post with an update of the situation. I sent a final email to Funcom explaining the situation in its entirety as stated below and what had happened.
They sent me another email doing another overview on the account and gave me the option to purchase the 12month subscription with the expansion enabled or to remove the expansion perks and re-instate my account.
Since it was way passed the promo timeframe when I wanted to take part of it, I opted for the account re-instatement. As of right now my account is now un-banned and I appreciate Funcom looking back into this and correcting the mistake.
The original issue is below if you are new to this post and want to read what happened.
-------------------------------------------
The last time I paid for an AoC subscription was on 6/26/2008 for a 6 month sub that would of lasted until 12/26/2008
Due to some broken issues with PVP that were game breaking at the time I had no interest in renewing my sub.
Around 12/11/2010, almost 2 years later I was sent an email promo that if I subscribed to AoC's 12 month plan I would receive the Godslayer expansion pack for free and "All these extra goodies" Oh joy! - So i was skeptical at first debating if I really wanted to come back to AoC based on it's previous issues, since I liked the general PVP aspect of the game but disliked the exploit that was rampant at the time.
Skip this part if you already know of the issue, otherwise read on to educate yourself a bit about the system.
(The issue at that time with PVP was a lower level player *lvl 30* that would be gray to a *lvl 45* could initiate a fight with the lvl 45. This was not supposed to happen, the system was in place so higher level players can't gank gray lower level players. If the lvl 45 fought back the gray 30 who attacked him, the lvl 45 would get criminal status and if he killed the gray murder status and murder points, preventing that character from using normal means of travel and normal vendors. This was exploited by groups of lower level grays ganking solo higher level characters and just baited higher levels with no real way to defend themself if they wanted to not be murder status.)
Now after debating the fact and the costs, it seemed like a really good deal and I was not subscribed to any other game at the time and the games that I really wanted to play would not be coming out for still a long time to come (Diablo 3, SWTOR). I made the purchase to the subscription, downloaded the game, logged in and noticed the expansion was not enabled. I checked my account and noticed I had some Godslayer features enabled, like the eastern riding style and what not, but did not have the Godslayer expansion enabled as was promised through the promotion.
I contacted support about the issue and they said I would have to purchase the expansion seperately and would not work with me in getting the issue resolved.
Problem 1: I was falsely mislead about a promotion they were handing out that they would not fix.
So what would the next step be any reasonable person would take? Ask for a refund on the subscription.
The representative I spoke with refused to take any action in refunding my subscription fee and went off saying that my 12 month subscription was a RENEWAL from a previously purchased subscription. As you were reading this earlier if you remember me saying the last subscription that was recorded was a 6 month payment. How can you get a 12 month renewal from a 6 month previous subscription that was deactivated 2 years ago.
This rep was very stubborn and as I could see did not understand English or lacked the common sense in what I was telling her about my situation. I told her since Godslayer was not enabled on my account for the promo, that I want the subscription refunded since I would no longer be supporting Funcom financially as my entertainment provider. She denied my request and told me to have a nice day.
So again, what would be the next step any reasonable coherent person living would take?
That's right... Contact your financial institution and have them force cancel the charge. This is what I did. Problem solved.
AoC goes Free 2 Play with Unchained in 2011. Heard about it, wasn't interested enough at first to check it out until recently. I decided to check it out again to see how it progressed and found out that I cannot log into my account. I logged into my account on Funcom and it shows my status as Banned (contact customer service). So I contact them to see what their issue is and why they banned the account.
They tell me:
Greetings and thank you for contacting customer support.
Your account is banned because of a charge back for Age of Conan 12
Month Recurring which was placed on 2010-12-11 08:44:27. We will remove
this ban when you pay for the 12 months.
Thank you.
Really? this had me in stitches lol. I never heard of a company banning your account because you wanted to cancel/refund a subscription. Way to block off a customer entirely from having any potential of getting money from them for a monthly sub or what not.
They act like we live in the stone age and they can't reverse/refund a charge. So until I pay a 12 month sub they won't un-ban my account, and to think I was planning on buying the expansion Godslayer for $9.99, paying for a monthly sub $14.99 and maybe even more time before Diablo 3 and SWTOR come out. Well for their stubborn attitude they lost potential money they could of made for the 12 month subscription grudge they are holding against me.
On top of that they lost a customer for good. I will not be buying The Secret World, because their current customer service morons will be providing their lack of service for that game as well. I am boycotting their products, in addition I told them I would advise the public of their actions and make others aware of what type of people are employed at Funcom.
I will be playing Age of Conan Unchained on a free account, leeching my fill until I am satisfied waiting for the release of better games to come.
I will not be supporting Funcom financially and I urge others to be well informed based on this episode and make a decision before they think about throwing their $$ towards Funcom. This company is not deserving of such and may have just burried themselves deeper in the hole.
Here's the Promo as proof to what i'm talking about Thanks to a poster below (majinant) for finding it!
Boom! Here is some proof!
http://www.massiveonlinegamer.com/forums/8-age-of-conan/512-funcoms-qcome-back-to-conanq-promotion
And another!
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Age-of-Conan-Offers-Special-Subscription-Deals-126814.shtml
Google is your friend!
Comments
I don't know why anyone would bother with the game the way their f2p limits are set up. Limiting the amount of gold a player can have is stupid. Especially if you used to subscribe, had a bunch of gold and then get hit with the limit. Freemium is a joke. I wish people would stop falling for it.
Most if not all MMO's will ban you if you do a charge back, thats just how it is.
LOL so you charged back an account that you made in December 2010. And it's (looks at calendar) Sept 2011, and YOU act offended when they ban the account?
Never thought i'd say it, but i'm going to have to side with Funcom on this one.
I commend you for taking charge of your money, I will remember to call my bank to cancel BS charges in the future.
This.
Its like paying a lawn company to mow your lawn for a year, so they mow it for 9 months then you reverse the charges. Therefor you used their services for 9 months and didnt pay. Thats kind of like stealing. I'm not surprised that they banned you.
You did more than just cancel your sub. If you canceled your sub and that was it then you would not be banned at all... My sub has been canceled since launch and I'm not banned at all. Maybe if you would have read all the fine print and verified 100% about the deal, then quoted them where you saw the information that they would have fixed it. (I'm assuming that because they didnt help you that you were wrong and that the offer didnt not include the full expansion).
The gold limit is not really that limiting untill you level up to where you should get an account anyway, I have a level 29 an am nowhere near having or needing a gold (jmho).
^This. It is a very common practice in the mmo industry.
My god has horns.... nah, I don't think he is real either.
I bet I know why this happend, you played for a month or more... at the point which you became displeased and decided to have the bank cancel it as most banks can do such within a 90 day period, some more. So you basically stole free time therefore got banned. Bet ya left that out?
Secondly when charging back you are saying so and so stole from you or commited fraud against you and refused reimbursement. If someone accused me of such I would also ban any means of communication.
so why are you surprised?
"Sometimes people say stuff they don''t mean, but more often then that they don''t say things they do mean"
This. This.
You ask me, this just makes F2P even more attractive to game companies. Why risk retroactively losing money that was paid for a monthyly service(s)? Better to just nickle and dime players from month to month--less risk. I'm pretty sure they know this too.
no thats actually not the case, i contacted customer service the next business day when the expansion was not enabled on the account. They will ban your account for any period of time. I actually did not log into the game when I found out the expansion was not enable to prevent an issue like that from happening, but because of their stubborn rules and lack of providing "support" in customer support of not doing what was best at the time refunding for a falsely advertised promo, I took the next option I had control of and thats forcing a cancellation on the charge since they did not have any intention of working with me on the problem.
There are reasons for charge backs - of course Funcom didnt steal from me, but the service i was intending on paying for at the time which was the 12 month sub with the xpac was not provided to me as the service i was intending to pay for. Since i did not get what i was paying for in that promo offer, i cancelled the sub, how does that not make sense?
I agree with other people here, ( And for the record, I have not played AoC since launch - So no, I'm not a fan boy )
If you weren't sure about the game, then you should have paid for 1 month, and leave it at that, - without chargeback.
Getting banned serves you just right imo.
And title is misleading, they don't ban for cancel of subs, they ban for chargebacks.
When all that is said, then I'd also have to say, that "F2P" is sh*t,, at least as it stands now, it is just accepted that comapnies slap a F2P tag on their games, then lock you from half the content, throw in an item shop, and ask you to pay a sub to access the rest of the game.
Hell no... I will never play a game like that.
I think the OP needs to make a second call to their finacial institute and chargeback the original purchase of the game, I did this with mortal online. They renewed my sub after like a year, so i did a chargeback on the subscription. I went to test it out later.. I had been banned.. So i called and took my money back from the original purchase lol.
dont let companies walk on you, this should be a non issue for them. they do this because they hope ppl dont have the balls to tell them off, show them otherwise.
I'm only surprised that you decided to come around for another kick at the can after you'd basically been told to sod off by FC support. Hell, I knew these guys were jackals less than 60 days after AoC released and I haven't so much as visited their website since. I don't know why you don't just wash your hands of the whole stinking company and find a new game to play. Even free, I wouldn't bother with it.
As for not stealing from you, if your account of events is accurate, that's just what they tried to do and it's called fraud.
Well you either fail at reading comprehension or read some of the situation and skipped the important details.
Let me summarize it for you.
Promo Free xpac with purchase of 12mo sub.
You can't trial a promo as you were suggesting above pay a month to test the waters. It has nothing to do with testing AoC for the first time, it was me acting on a promo offer.
2 After taking up the promo offer the product they were advertising was not included with my subscription. Contacted support, no assistance, and they refused to refund my sub to keep the money I already paid expecting I was going to sit there like a helpless idiot. I'm smarter than that and outplayed them on their tactics.
You're right the title should be different. They don't actually provide what they are advertising in their promo's, is what it should be and then cause you avoidable stress by being difficult and refusing to work with you as a customer and when you have no other options and get your money back from a charge cancellation, they ban you. That's what the title should be.
I'm only surprised that you decided to come around for another kick at the can after you'd basically been told to sod off by FC support. Hell, I knew these guys were jackals less than 60 days after AoC released and I haven't so much as visited their website since.
True, but my problem is not with the game, its with their customer support and after I found out about my account my curiosity kicked in and i found out it was banned so I felt the need to make a public announcement about this company and warn others how they really work.
If anyone is to be blamed here its the OP for trying to go back. You quit once, went back and got screwed to the point you needed to do a charge back and you decided to go back again?
That being said I'm pretty sure no company does business with a customer whose done a charge back. Regardless of the rightness or wrongess of the situation.
"Charge back" is different than "Unsubscribe". I thought it was kinda clear. It's like buying a TV at Best Buy, then dropping it back on their lawn while filling for a charge back on your credit card because you don't want that tv anymore. Best Buy is likely to do something about it.
The expantion wasnt free when it was released . Im willing to believe there may have been a promotion but I havent seen it. I did see a promo where you would get all kinds of goodies if you buy version X or Y.
Regardless the expantion active or not, that issue would have been resolved 1 way or another. But to just charge back..
Sounds to me the OP got off easy with an acount ban, here its a crime to steal money.
People stop playing games and eventually return back to those games, because of some feature they liked about the game or to just see if it has changed at all. There's nothing wrong on my part with wanting to re-activate my sub. I had no issues with Funcom before that point.
Especially when I get an email promotion from Funcom promoting their released expansion stating that old subscribers that reactivate their account for 12 months get the expansion for free. This to me was a cost-effective deal when i thought about it, but how was I or anyone else suppose to know it would end up like it did. There's nothing wrong with what I did. So you are mistaken.
If Funcom didn't have a stick in their ass and wasn't hurting for money with what $22 million in loses + laying off employee's to make up for lost finances; which is probably the reason why they didn't want to refund my sub, because they're hurting for money. Then I wouldn't have had to do a forced cancellation on the funds, but because of Funcom's customer support's lack of cooperation that was my only choice.
They never even sent me an email stating my account was banned after the whole ordeal was over with. They waited for me at some point to log into my account and find out it was banned and would not let me have access to it unless I paid for a 12 month sub.
What business were they doing with me after the chargeback? lol there was no business, it doesn't cost anything to play the Free2Play version of their game with another account.
They in fact are willing to do business with me, its the fact that they won't let me have access to my account and pay a regular monthly sub. They instead want me to pay the 12 month subscription in full, like they actually lost something, like I gained a service without paying for it; which isn't even the case. That sub was only active for a week and I logged into it not even 1day out of the entire subscription after I found out the expansion was not activated. I easily found this out when the race specific to that expansion was not allowed for creation. So it was indeed pretty easy to find out I was not receiving what I paid for.
Didnt you charge back the full amounth of money? Even if you charged back half the money you still took advantage for the lower monthy fee related to the longer duration contracts. That would mean you took 6 months worth of delivered services back.
2nd the expantion wasnt free, till you show it was I will not take your word for it.
Lastly I have had zero problems with using the cancel buttom on any FC product in the past, I havent met anyone personally who did.
You just.. charging back the full amounth of money and not actually cancel the subscription means you did not terminate the contract, you just desided not to pay.
OP post-
. I made the purchase to the subscription, downloaded the game, logged in and noticed the expansion was not enabled. I checked my account and noticed I had some Godslayer features enabled, like the eastern riding style and what not, but did not have the Godslayer expansion enabled as was promised through the promotion.
Later post-
I actually did not log into the game when I found out the expansion was not enable to prevent an issue like that from happening
Hmmm...
Regardless after dealing with one CS agent you threw a fit and took an action that will burn bridges with any company. You see if you take advantage of an offer then flip out and decide to charge back the money, which costs the company money, then companies see you as a rather untrustworthy customer. You could have easily asked to speak to someone else or tried back again to get another agent, but instead you decided to screw the company without making any real attempt to resolve the problem.
Honestly I'm surprised that your bank/cc even allowed you to make the charge back. Most responsible financial institutions require that you try to resolve the situation with the company, and allow the company a chance to make their case before punishing a company.
I also find it a bit strange that you would come to "warn" everyone that the company will ban your account if you screw them over, but apparently didn't feel the same need to "protect" people from this evil company at the time of the charge back.
The short and skinny is that you unfairly got out of a contract and punished a company for no reason. The wise thing to do would be to take some pleasure in that you screwed someone over and let it end at that. Going out and telling people that you're not a reliable consumer really just compounds the frst misdeed and reflects poorly on you.
According to the OP's post...
1.) Received promotional offer: Buy 12 month subscription, get Godslayer expansion free.
2.) Took the promotional offer: Bought 12 month subscription, did NOT get Godslayer expansion free.
3.) Right after discovering that he did not get the promised expansion, contacted customer support.
4.) CS refused to give the Godslayer expansion.
5.) In response, asked for a refund.
6.) CS refused to give refund.
7.) Charge back.
---------------------------------
Asside from having your account banned for any charge back being in the norm in the MMO world, I'd say that after attempting to solve the issue with CS and them refusing to, you'd be in the right. Still, it's standard to have your account banned for it.
Besides that, I love how people are adding "what they just know in their gut happened" to the story, and then attacking you for the info they decided to add or assume.
Don't you love the internet? You're always 100% guilty until you prove your innocence. And even if you actually MANAGE to do so, eeh you know what? You're still guilty.
Right but if there was an issue with the TV, lets say it was dead on arrival Best Buy has a warranty to replace the TV
If you were purchasing the TV for a specific feature and it didn't come with that feature, Best Buy would work with you to provide you a TV with that feature or refund your purchase if you wanted to buy the TV at a different store. Also Bestbuy covers their products with a 30 day return policy as long as you did not intentional damage to the product like throwing a basball bat in the screen and asked for a refund on a broken tv.
Regardless this scenario you are creating is completely different than what we are talking about. The problem is the promotion that came from Funcom promoted a deal with their subscription rate including a product activated on the account; which did not happen.