Beware the "In-game Store"

I still dont like that americans pay less for ingame shop stuff.Its enough problem that i loose money when converting to euros from huf even though we are in the damn EU,no need to make it so easy for americans who get payed in a week what we get payed in 1 or 2 moths! GRRRRR!!!!!

So if it's NCSoft Europe, do they charge EVERYONE on the Euro servers in Pounds? I'm sure the rest of Europe gets to pay in Euros, right? There'd be a fit if they charged the entire European continent in Pounds, so why the hell should be be lumped in with Britain when all of Europe gets to pay in Euro? Australian's are not British, they are also not European, but given that we are neither of these it seems it would simply make sense to let us be charged in a currency that overcharges us less...

We don't want to shop around. We don't mind if it's Euro or USD. It's the fact that it's POUNDS that has us all agitated. Just set us permanently to one of the other two and we'll be happy. No need to 'shop around'.

Besides, my personal opinion is that it should go on play territory. I play on The American servers, so charge me USD through the store. If I play on Euro servers, charge me euros...

The fact is, Britain is the only nation that uses Pounds, whereas an entire continent uses Euros, and USD is an internationally recognized form of payment. Pounds isn't. It's unfair to charge anyone but a British citizen in pounds.

B S

i wish

i would also like your 6-7 week paid vacation time

i would also like your 35 hour work week

I don't have enough information to draw any conclusions.

Before I (or anyone) can draw any conculsions, I (or anyone) need(s) to know in what country the DVDs are manufactured (dubbed), in what country the packaging and printed material is printed, where it is all packaged, is it manufactured and packaged in the US and then shipped to Europe and Australia, does it all happen in Brighton, is it outsourced from Brighton to other countries? Etc. etc. etc.

I don't know, and I can't find it on the internet.

Do you know? If you do, please do share that information so that I CAN draw some kind of conclusion.

Thank you!

Having relocated to Californa recently I have been watching this thread with interest. Encouraged by it I have politely attempted to get my billing changed to USD (my local currency).

I am sorry but it simply no as simple as Gailes implies. I am on to my third support contact and they still insist that I am permanently going to be charged Pounds.

I have directed them to Gailes post, quoted Gailes post and directed them to this thread. It is still wait and see but I assure everyone that much like others here it is not easy to accomplish. This is most frustrating and everyone here has my sympathy.

Would you mind terribly pointing to Gaile's post you're quoting. Because if she said the billing policy has changed so that you can change the currency you are charged in if you move to a different territory, I did not see it. All I've seen is that she said if you're being charged in an incorrect currency for the territory you were in when you opened your master account, then billing support will get that corrected for you.

Meanwhile, as far as I know the billing policy has not changed, and it is as follows:

The billing currency is determined by the address on your PlayNC master account at the time of original account activation. That currency is permanently set. Changing that address after the game account is activated will not change the currency you are billed in.

http://www.plaync.com/us/support/doc_1183.html?prod=49

Thank you!

EDIT:

PS... Welcome to beautiful California!

lol riiight!6-7 week payed vacation? i get hardly get a day off,some weekends are spent at work on 12 hour shifts.35hour work week, id be so happy if that was the case.

I think you’re all missing the point here…

The reason why people are getting pissed off about what currency they are paying is because it’s costing them more… and not just a little more.

Take the price of GW:EN pre-order

Posted as 4.99 USD
4.99 EUR
3.49 GBP (Great British Pound)

Now at the current rate of exchange (as of 21st July ’07)… the USD price for the above is

US = $ 4.99
Europe = $ 6.90 (38% higher than the US price)
UK = $ 7.18 (43% higher than the US price)

In this age of global banking, where anyone with a Bank card or Credit card with the VISA or MasterCard logo on it can pay in any Major international currency….Ask yourself this question, why should a US company charge 143% the amount for the same product for non US nationals?

You want to know the answer? ... Simple, to make more money!. Someone in NCsoft has decided to set the price of items sold to NON US nationals higher that for US residents.

Their justification for this, I’m sure, will be that shipping and distribution cost for each Country vary. [I don’t see how this affects a product that is delivered electronically but never mind!]
The real reason is that the Publisher will try and charge as much as they can ‘get away with’ in each country. It’s called ‘Market Forces’ and until someone else is allowed to sell Anet’s games, the Customer is going to lose out every time! ;(


Ps. And yes Visa and MasterCard do charge a higher exchange rate fee… (a hit taken by the Customer.. not the vendor).

I had to request that my ticket was escalated to a supervisor. In the end, it was the supervisor, Beth, who changed the currency in my ingame store to US$. If you are living in California (i'm assuming the state on the west coast of the US, and not some other lesser known California somewhere else in the world) your situation is a mirror of mine.

It is possible that the front line agents aren't familiar with the policy of reseting currency. I used to work in support (not for NCSoft), both as a front liner and as a member of the supervising team. From my experience, policy change often, and not all front liners keep up with them.

If the results aren't coming through, ask that the issue be escalated to a supervisor*, and recap the important info: mainly that you live in the US, and would like to pay in US funds. It took me 9 days and 6 replies from support before I got the desired outcome (and an intervening voice from Gaile).

The worst thing about all this, as far as support is concerned, is that a policy has been stated on a public forum, and support isn't keeping up with it. And when support isn't keeping up it begins training customers to bypass the front line and immediately request an escalation... which means unhappy customers (because they have to wait longer for the sup), and a flood of escalations. Given the coming release of GWEN, I would have thought this pricing/region policy would have rated a "High Priority" memo to all support agents in order to avoid situations exactly like the one Leechazoid is facing.

*These are magic words in support speak. Kind of kin to saying, "I want my name and phone number removed from your calling list" to telemarketers. It generally means that the agent must stop dealing with the issue and send it up the chain; though not neccessarily to a "supervisor", it will go to someone who is empowered to do more things.

To Lakatz,

Hi,
I took this section to mean it "could" be fixed:

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...5&postcount=66

"# If you are being charged in the wrong currency -- if you're paying in Pounds but you live in Ohio or Dollars but you like in Tokyo -- please contact support. It's really that simple, and I confirmed that today. Support can reset your region. OP -- Have you asked?"


To Countessa:

Yes our situations are very similar indeed. Which is why I was encouraged by your sucess.

I will politely request an escalation as you suggest.

My thanks.

I've had this problem since the store came online, but only recently decided to fix it.. after a few emails to support I finally got this reply:

So all is good

[QUOTE]because it is not a US company setting the charges

fo the continuous information challenged here from the GW site once again

ANET does not set pricing policy

so stop blameing the US company

Hi Leechazoid...

Thanks for posting that for me. I did read that, and I thought she was addressing the people who posted that they were being charged in the wrong currency from the very beginning in the in-game store due to an early glitch. I hope you keep us posted on your progress, so that we can know what the policy really is now.

CC...

Now I'm more confused than ever. I don't see how this mirrors your situation at all. In post #39 you said "...my master account shows Canada as my first location,..." According to the policy they quoted you, that would be why you were able to change the currency in the in-game store... not because of a change in policy. If I'm reading correctly, Leechazoid is saying his/her 'first' address on the master account is the UK.

To the best of my knowledge, the thing that PlayNC is now fixing is the incorrect currency in the in-game store, meaning currency that does not match the 'first' address on the master account, which is in accordance with the policy they state on their site and quoted to you.

PS... I don't believe I've said so yet, but I'm very happy for you! Congratulations on a very difficult feat... lol


Mcassidy...

Have you read this thread yet?

Maybe you'll have to back track the thread a bit. My first location on my PlayNC master account was indeed Canada. I then moved to New Zealand for about 8 months. While I was there, I updated my address (I figured more than half a year warrented an address update). I also made a purchase in the online store. I returned home to Canada in Oct. '06. I once again updated my address on the PlayNC site. More than half a year later GWEN was readying for release. I looked into the online store. Saw my prices were still in Euros. Requested a change. Was told it wasn't possible. Argued that that made no sense. Eventually convinced them that it was the right thing to do to charge me in local currency. That about sums it up.

Have you back tracked the thread at all? Do you happen to remember other people including Gaile encouraging you to continue to communicate with support because you were "distraught" and all over the place? Do you happen to remember that Gaile stepped in on your behalf? More than once?!?

But, hey... if you want to believe that the reason they changed your currency in the in-game store was all about YOU "convincing" them to do the right thing... then by all means, do believe that. Personally I call that ungrateful... and delusional.

OMFG, how many times have I thanked Gaile in this thread alone? Are you freaking illiterate? Do you suffer from amnesia?

So I guess saying thank you seven times wasn't enough (in this thread alone - I thanked her elsewhere too). Plus the private thank yous I sent to her guru mailbox. Yeah, I'm the most ungrateful son of a bitch out there. So delusional the paintings on my wall give periodic lectures.

Forgive me for trying to make a brief summary about the history of my account locations in order to assist you with the confussion you claimed to be experiencing. I also didn't include what I baught from playNC and the in-game store and at what times either. I also didn't include what I had for breakfast this morning. Should I include that too? I suppose i should make a sig thanking gaile, so that every post i make from this day forward Trumpets to the heavens a thunderous thanks to Gaile. Not enough? I'll get a big tattoo of a heart with Gaile scrolled across it. For the love of..... you just can't please some people!

I've said thank you to Gaile. She knows that I am grateful. She also probably appreciates that it would be a bad idea if everyone thought they had to get Gaile to fix something when they weren't happy with support. No longer would she be able to keep up with the dev team, as all her waking hours would be spent dealing with the flood of requests to advocate players to support. She stepped in to help with was above and beyond her job. She also forwarded the issue to her boss so she wouldn't NEED to advocate in the future. Now, if you're going to take a BRIEF SUMMARY intended to highlight my LOCATION HISTORY as an ungrateful slight towards Gaile, then you are just trolling for a fight. By the looks of it, I took a bite this time. In the future, consider your ignorant ass ignored.

People obviously don't understand economics and currency exchange!!! And a Big Mac is 3.20 here and 3.98 in the UK...OMFG, Blame ANET, or McDonalds!

Here's the problem for Aussies in a nutshell -

$1 AUD = $0.87 USD
$1 AUD = $0.42 GBP

For Aussies to buy the pre-release in USD = $5.67 AUD
For Aussies to buy the pre-release in GBP = $8.15 AUD

Add currency transaction rates the bank charge on top of that and it's about $5.75 and $8.35. It is 43% dearer for us to buy using Pounds vs US Dollars!!!

The AUD is pretty steady vs Pounds but has increased in value vs USD. Regardless, using the Big Mac index as a measure of relative value of a dollar in each country, ( a Big Mac should cost about the same in AUD to buy in Australia as it costs in USD to buy in the USA...don't go to Norway BTW a Big Mac costs about $17 AUD!) we should only be paying approx $5.50 AUD not $8 AUD.

This has nothing to do with the USD to GBP to Euro exchange rate. This has to do with AUD to USD vs AUD to GBP and the pricing points NCSoft have set. Why is it 43% dearer to buy ArenaNet products in their online store for Aussies vs Yanks or Poms?

Give us (everyone) the option to pay in the currency of our choice, be it Euro, Pounds or USD and the problem is solved. If need be, force Aussies to pay in USD or Euro but FFS drop the GBP - we're tied to the value of the USD not England's over-inflated currency.

The problem as I see it is that NC Europe the distro for AU have set a price of $49 for the expansion in EB Games the sole distro for GW in Australia. Yet the exchange rate from GBP or EURO blows this way over in the in game store than what we can pay for the boxed version.

This results in us getting gouged for using the online store.

They need to match the prices up properly and fairly to coincide with their planned box price structure for this area.

It makes it even worse when ANet have this "free" bonus for using the online store - the free bonus becomes a paid one now and we get no concession on this matter.

Yes its a pain in the ass for Aussies and Kiwis (*ducks and covers*), but instead fo screamign about it, anyone got any good ideas that could be passed onto NCSoft Europe? They do like feedback from their customers

you are kidding right?

even with all the bills for my flat and my business, my PART TIME job pays more and i have more disposable income than most americans i know

Let us choose to pay in USD, simple. Almost every payment gateway in the world offers this option. Aussies are used to paying in USD on the web, we never pay in GPB.

We're 200 years past being a British penal colony so stop treating us like we're English - we're located closer to Asia / USA yet we get stooged on our pings and how much we're paying for the game by being lumped in with a country that is half a world away. There are many Aussie GW'ers, we should be recognised as a market in our own right.

Forget what i initially wrote, i re-read your post and if you're in a poorer EU country you're right.

We've given them feedback. We're not screaming, and the good idea is to simply change our currency. As I stated before, if we're being serviced by NCSoft EUROPE then they have the capabilities to charge us in Euro, since I'm pretty sure they don't charge all of Europe in GBP. The solution is simple, thus the only way to have this changed for us is for us to do the 'screaming' as you so foolishly put it.

I encourage all of you Aussies and Kiwi's reading this forum to submit your concerns to NCSoft. It's all well and good posting it here, but it is essential to go straight to the source if we want our voices heard.

Exactly take this up with NC Europe, if you do nothing nothing will be done and nothing will eventuate.

Even if we cant do anything for GW:EN hopefully they will rectify this by the time GW2 comes out.

I do agree that an option for payment in whatever currency would be more fair when buying online items (since all ur buying is a code to access that content and involves no shipping or postage costs etc.) however in a fair world the price should be the same for all countrys. However the World isnt fair.

The reason your paying more (ie 43%) more isnt because the power of the pound, conversion rates or whatnot its simply because NC soft charges 43% more to any Uk customer (which unfortually you seem to have been grouped with) All Customers who pay in pounds are paying 43% more for the products, that includes all the Uk population. We all wish we could pay the Dollar price too since its alot cheaper, but unfortually we cant.

That's exactly the problem there. We are NOT UK people...and Gaile said our server or products or watever is handled by NCSoft europe, but is it in UK?? If it's not in UK then I don't see the reason to charge us in Pounds. but oh well...I guess i should leave the rest of the argument to more able ppl...

yes, Brighton, England

5 minutes walk from a really nice british beach too (and if you've never been to a british beach, your very lucky)

Thanks for clearing that up. Weird, I'm in South Australia and there's a seaside area called Brighton as well

Not sure if this questions has been asked and answered by anyone as of yet; what about those who work for a government agency or global company that move to different countries every 2, 3 or 5 years?
From what I have read in the previous posts that if the current residence is Japan from there on even if your new home was Germany it would not matter the costs would be in the country you were in when you made the initial purchase from the store?
So originally you buy with credit card issued in Japan and then have moved on to Germany and wish to make a purchase with a card issued in Germany you would not be able to make a purchase, since you would have most likely cancelled the credit card from the previous residence and obtained a card from the new residence.
Or have I misunderstood and that the new card can be used and the charges would show up in the previous countries currency?

just change the means in which you pay with.........the card that you used in New Zealand surely isnt the same as the one you use now which means you can/have to change all that information. If it is an American based bank account it should still be turned into the proper amount of american dollars. Which means your the currency exchange charge that A-net doesn't have to pay anymore will be dropped off of it.


and if they still think you are in New Zealand paying with New Zealand currency (whatever that may be now) that means you havent switched all of your accounts over because becoming a LEGAL resident means you get all new information and new accounts to transfer your old currency into. So this means 1. you are not a legal resident (which i believe is not the case) or 2. you have not yet transfered all of your paperwork to your new account and gotten issued a new card (which in turn will not make you pay that so called $15 more)

Wow, I just realised this has been for nothing because the store doesn't accept my credit card from Australia because I'm overseas (studying) until the end of the year.

I've got to say, they are doing a very good job at keeping people away from the online store.

So, it registers you bought the game in Australia, so charges you GBP, but also recognises that you are not making your online purchase in Australia so won't accept your credit card? That is so many different kinds of stupid.

I've never thought poorly of Anet or NCsoft until this issue. Seriously, of all the cockups, this is the worst I've ever seen from any online gaming institution...

It's not too uncommon for overseas credit cards to be rejected. Around last Christmas I was in the liquer store picking up some spirits for a party. I still had my New Zealand Visa, and it had a balance of +80 NZD on it (meaning I had overpaid my last payment and the Visa owed me 80). The store's computer called the card up as "declined". Obviously not for bad credit.

I was talking to Visa about an unrelated matter today, and I mentioned the Xmas incident. The agent suggested it was likely a form of fraud protection taken by Visa - an odd purchase in a foreign country. Might not have anything in common with your situation, but it can happen. Perhaps when the computer makes the transaction it checks the IP address you are logging in from. Then compaires that location with the billing address for the credit card. If they aren't from the same general area (province/state/country) it might get flagged as potential fraud. The end result being a declined transaction. The source of the credit card refusal could have been at the Credit Card company's end, not A-Net/PlayNC. Unless you actually inquire with one of the two, it would be hard to guess where the problem starts.

Wouldn't be the first time something has been that badly overpriced, but it's unusual that it's actually cheaper to buy from retailers here, even with a 20% mark-up. With the exchange rate right now I had changed my mind on buying from the online store, but when I saw it was still trying to charge in Euros I changed my mind right back again.

Yet for some reason, American servers are the default for Guild Wars itself. Seems like NCSoft has been doing some switcheroo - they can't make up their mind on which part of the world Australasia isn't. Hell, what's the bet we'll be lumped with Asia for GW2?

A few people asked me to provide an update on my attempt to get my region changed. Since it might conceivably help others I thought I should post my thoughts.

I have given up on this task for now for the following reasons:

1) My life is complicated;
2) In my case things will probably be eaiser for me to pursue later.

What follows is merely my take on the situation so it may not be 100% right. In my dealings with PlayNC they were polite enough and escalated my query quite a few times. I think polite persistance may result in a region change provided the following all match up:

1) Your address must be in the PlayNC Support region you want
2) Your credit card must match the country of your adress or be from an IP in that country (not sure which it is. It might be both)
3) Your IP of your log ons must match the country of your address

In putting together the above hypotheis I have examined the threads where people's credit cards are rejected as being foreign (ie - does not match one of the 3 hypothetical criteria above) and I have considered PlayNCs responses to my query (they cited an IP issue in my case).

If the above three things do match then I think anyone will have a good chance of a geting their account changed. Anyone with a complicated life where any one of these 3 do not match is going to face obstacles.

In my case I share my account with my wife. I am busy setting up shop in the US while my wife tidies up back in Australia. Guess who has time to play GW? My wife. Therefore the IP for the account in question does not match my address or credit card region so therefore I have an obstacle. In my case this will fix itself in time (I will either find a system and some time to log in over here or once she gets here it will be sorted). Until then, if either of us want to use the Guild Wars Store it will have to be the wife using our old Australian address, her Australian Credit Card, paying British Pounds and get properly gouged by the exchange rate. Not the best outcome but smeh. I am tired.

I'm sorry for those of you undergoing difficulties. I wanted to share, though, that credit card fraud is a major issue with all on-line stores, and according to our Support Team, the percentage has risen in the Guild Wars or PlayNC Stores in recent weeks. Support is dealing with this in many ways, but please understand, when you're using credit cards from a different region, or when the particulars don't quite line up, it's only prudent for the company to examine the matter to try to avoid more fraudulent purchases, many of which end up then spamming "Buy my gold" ads in town, or running bots for gold to sell.

easy solution for our problems: don't do limited time only marketing stunts that are ingame shop exclusive..

Fair enough. I'll just stick with retailers that are a bit harder to rip off - despite the horror stories of delayed release in this part of the world I've always been able to track GW releases down several days in advance of the servers going online. Only exception to that was the Factions CE, where it took another week to get here because of global shortages. I should have waited a week so I could use the CE key though - didn't realize at the time that there was content specific to the Collectors' Edition. Ah well. Not going to make that mistake twice.

Anyway, I'll just have to pass on the bonus missions and fill the big space on the wall above the Nightfall map.

Well, in my case, the first time I hit the submit button I got an error after a while. The second time I got a different error after a while. At that point I left the store and got back in, and found that it had registered that I had purchased it. Then when I checked my debit card record online I found my available balanced reduced by the 2 copies worth of the preorder. One of the orders has resolved itself into a transaction proper, but the other looks like it is still getting resolved one way or the other.

Anyway, my suggestion is that players should be automatically booted from the store if they get an error so that they can check whether the purchase went through or not.

Absolutely agreed. I think this is the main reason people are up in arms. There's something we can only get through this avenue, and yet it is so difficult for us.