$499.00 for the preorder?

MT8

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2006

TSOTFS

N/

I tried to buy the GWEN preorder packfrom the GW online store last night and i kept gettin a message that my info was wrong(it wasnt)..tried agian..got a message that the transaction was flaged a fraud,=O. so i stoped..Well Visa calls me this a.m. to tell me that my card has been deactivated for numerous high ticket purchase attempts...from NCsoft...it seems they were trying to charge my card $499.00 instead of $4.99...now if hafta go to the bank and get new cards...thanks NCsoft....nice online store ya got there....good thing your pushing everyone to use it....Smooth so if ya ordered from the GW onlline store make sure to check your bill..=)

pamelf

pamelf

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

Australia

Lost Templars [LoTe]

Me/Mo

Wow, thanks for the heads up.

AW Lore

AW Lore

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2006

Ancient Warriors Gaming Clan

W/Mo

thats some bad luck, I bought the preorder friday night and had zero problems.

Pey

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

United Spanish Buddies

W/E

It also tell me about the fraud thing :S, but visa hasnt called yet, lol:S

With this card i bought Nightfall, so i guess something is wrong.

placebo overdose

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

N/

is/was this fixed and what was the cause will they refund
note:i read the non-refundable info at the bottom but this is ludacris

GodofAcid

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

Massachusetts, USA

E/

They have GOT to make sure this type of thing DOES NOT HAPPEN, because as far as I know, that classifies as fraud on their end. I've seen this happen in another game, and that game got their rights to use visa and mastercard revoked. I hope someone apologizes to you bigtime for this, as there is no excuse for it. This is something that can absolutely not be allowed to happen, mistake or not.

As I said, if they charged you that amount, I believe that constitutes fraud on their end, and I don't care if their policy is no refunds, they legally cannot commit fraud against you. So don't sit there and think you have to live with it.

Griff Mon

Griff Mon

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2005

In the Elfen Forests of Washington State

Damage Radius

N/

I got a hold put on my card because of this order. It timed out and told me the transacation failed. But it didn't. I got the e-mail shortly thereafter saying thanks for the order, but I believed it hadn't gone through. So I resubmitted the info with the same card. I went to fill up my car the next day and my card was frozen out. It seems that I submitted a double order on my card for the exact same amount for the same merchant. A big red fraud flag. A phone call straightened it out. But still.

drago34

drago34

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2005

California

Looking for good PvE guild ...

A/

It wouldn't work, so you submitted the order 100 times?

HawkofStorms

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

Read it again Drago. Each individual charge was coming out as $499.

And yes, this constitutes fruad on GW's end if they don't retifiy and reimburse people.

deluxe

deluxe

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Monkeyball Z

S.K.A.T. [Ban]

Mo/

Oh shit, i have tried about 40 times, keep getting the fraud messages... I would like to hear something from anet about this issue...

Takeko Nakano

Takeko Nakano

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Great Britain

W/P

Yes, charging $499 is their problem not yours. It is also up to them to repay you, as well as any fees or charges incurred by the credit card company.

If anyone has this problem do the following immediately.

1. Contact your credit card and say the store made a mistake - i.e. you don't want to pay it. That should then make them get on to the store, rather than expect you to pay.

2. Contact the store and ask them for an immediate refund because you've told the credit card company you won't be paying for that - i.e. they'll have to deal with a big company rather than yourself if they don't get a move on.

lakatz

lakatz

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by deluxe
Oh shit, i have tried about 40 times, keep getting the fraud messages... I would like to hear something from anet about this issue...
ANet? But they don't administer the in-game store. PlayNC does. Have you submitted a ticket to them yet? Btw, this is just one of several things that can go wrong in the in-game store. It's terribly buggy, and it appears as yet no one at PlayNC has looked for the common denominator which I find terribly disconcerting.

It's not fraud because they're not doing this intentionally. It's simply (obviously) incompetence.

EDIT:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeko Nakano
Yes, charging $499 is their problem not yours
That's hardly true in this case. If you had said it's their mistake, not yours, that would make more sense. Unfortunately, their mistakes become our problems. His card was deactivated as a result of their mistake. Having one's card deactivated is a BIG problem. And it's his, not theirs.

It was my problem, not theirs, that I couldn't buy additional slots when the in-game store first opened because their encryption program couldn't read my security code correctly. I had to get a new card with a new security code issued.

MT8

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2006

TSOTFS

N/

So heres the update after multiple E-mails....Visa says They did..NCsoft says they didnt... now NCsoft wants proof....they are being real defensive,All i know is Visa deactivated my card and says it was because of high $$ purchase attempts of $499.00 from NCsoft. Now, im no expert on this ,but it just seems wrong, i just wanted them to address the problem so others wouldn't be affected.but NCsoft wont even admit that there was one,........p.s 100 times lol

pamelf

pamelf

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

Australia

Lost Templars [LoTe]

Me/Mo

Well ask VISA for a statement immediately. If the purchase was from NCSoft then it will show up next to the purchases, and right there is your proof.

NCSoft can't do anything about it if you hard, concrete, evidence in front you you, and them.

drago34

drago34

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2005

California

Looking for good PvE guild ...

A/

Quote:
Originally Posted by HawkofStorms
Read it again Drago. Each individual charge was coming out as $499.

And yes, this constitutes fruad on GW's end if they don't retifiy and reimburse people.
ROFL... Not sleeping ftl! Damn that's so shitty. I ordered my preorder pack from NC Soft's store and I didn't have a problem.

BradNess

Academy Page

Join Date: Dec 2006

Theives of the Abyss

P/W

I have to do the same thing that Lakatz did, my CVV code is invalid to NCsoft and all I get from the in game store is the fraud code. That sucks that a simple decimal point is screwing with your purchase.

Anyone hear about how some people have had their in game account hacked after they bought Pre-Order GW:EN from the online store?

rancidgoat

rancidgoat

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

[XoO] [AX]

N/Me

i just ordered it on the plaync site and had zero problems but i have a question. this is the first time ive used the plaync site, the key it gave me, do i add that to my GW account like i did for factions and nightfall?

Keithark

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2006

Be Aggressive B E Aggressive [AGRO]

E/Me

Call your credit card company, tell them you would like to dispute the charges made on the card and they will remove the charges and then it becomes NCSoft who has to do something to get the charges back to you. I ordered something online, was charged double for it then got e-mail saying it was discontinued, I asked for refund and they said they could not refund even thought they charged me double by mistake and I could use it as store credit..I called Visa and over the phone submited a "dispute of charges" and they took it off my bill and I have not seen it show back up and that was well over 2 years ago.

My Sweet Revenga

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

84 ectos for a preorder? Sounds like a scam to me.....

milan

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

BONE

N/

Be real careful when considering doing a charge back, somewhere in the agreement it states that a charge back will cause your whole account to be suspended, not just the items you charged back.

Get your statement and a letter from Visa stating what happened and present that to ncsoft support. They'll try to fob you off real quickly most likely as they did to me when they made unauthorised charges to my card back when the store was first added.

If they are really unhelpful and don't seem interested just remember the definition of fraud - Intent to permanently deprive another of money/goods/services.

countesscorpula

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2006

Gwen Is [EVIL]

N/

I purchased the pre-order and the GOTY upgrade today. There were no problems during my checkout, and the bill seemed to go off without a hitch. I'll Keep an eye on my monthly statement, but I don't forsee any issues.

Cherno

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

Stars of Destiny

E/

FFS if you are old enough to have a credit card you are old enough to know how to deal with an obvious transaction mistake. You visa card can send you the transaction records and you can send them to NCSoft and once it has been cleared up then your card will be reinstated. If you have a good visa company, their fraud division will work directly with NCSoft by providing them the evidence, which NCSoft won't be able to refute, and clear it all up quickly. If they don't then you have a crappy card provider and better off switching anyway.

Chilly Ress

Chilly Ress

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2005

Kinetic Fusion [kF]

Me/

I preordered this as well and had the similar fraud issue. I'd like to see a response from ANet or NCsoft about this.

sassoonssamson

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

omg


ty for mentioning

am going to check mine too

Gaile Gray

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet

Join Date: Feb 2005

I will pass this along and see if I can obtain some information from our billing team. One thing you may want to know is that the rate of fraud has risen greatly, and we are seeing people acquiring accounts through various means, like stolen credit cards and so forth. (This isn't CC's stolen through NCsoft -- this is CC's stolen through criminal networks.) The double-bad thing about this is that a lot of those committing fraud are also those that sell in-game gold, or bot. So it's bad, and bad again.

This may have raised the alert rate on credit cards, to avoid potential issues. Please give us a bit of time to sort it out.

And if you were overcharged, submit a support ticket immediately and the billing team will fix it!

Doing a "charge back" definitely can result in impact upon your game account. Why? Because "charge backs" are a way that scammers and those involved in fraud commit their scams and fraud. We have to lock the account to make sure there isn't someone scamming us and scamming others with secondary sales. The better way is a support ticket and a credit to your account, I believe. Again, I am asking about this.

Thank you.

VitisVinifera

VitisVinifera

Banned

Join Date: Nov 2005

Northern California

HoTR

N/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
I will pass this along and see if I can obtain some information from our billing team. One thing you may want to know is that the rate of fraud has risen greatly, and we are seeing people acquiring accounts through various means, like stolen credit cards and so forth. (This isn't CC's stolen through NCsoft -- this is CC's stolen through criminal networks.) The double-bad thing about this is that a lot of those committing fraud as those that sell in-game gold, or bot. So it's bad, and bad again.
the only fraud going on here is the overcharging (by a mere hundredfold) by Anet. So bringing up this diatribe about stolen credit cards and criminal networks has NOTHING to do with this.....


Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
Doing a "charge back" definitely can result in impact upon your account. Why? Because "charge backs" are a way that scammers and those involved in fraud commit their scams and fraud. We have to lock the account to make sure there isn't someone scamming us and scamming others with secondary sales. The better way is a support ticket and a credit to your account, I believe. Again, I am asking about this.

Thank you.
Charge backs are consumer protections.......against hundredfold overcharges and the like. Yes, it would be better to submit a support ticket......for you and your business history. BBB doesn't look kindly upon businesses with a lot of charge backs. I say if some random company overcharges me one hundred fold, a call to the CC company asking for a charge back is about the first thing that comes to mind. That's my money and I don't want to sift through the fraudulent company's bureaucracy to get it back. And if they close my account forever because I exercised my just and legal rights, that company has no reason to keep my business.

No good CR can come out of these arguments.

immortius

immortius

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Black Cats

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by VitisVinifera
That's my money and I don't want to sift through the fraudulent company's bureaucracy to get it back. And if they close my account forever because I exercised my just and legal rights, that company has no reason to keep my business.

No good CR can come out of these arguments.
It runs both ways. If they overcharge you, then sure you can chargeback. But then that leaves your account with a product you haven't paid for. I highly suspect that gives them just and legal rights to freeze your account until you sort things out with them.

T1Cybernetic

T1Cybernetic

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2005

Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Uk, Nr Earth

Alternate Evil Gamers [aeg]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by deluxe
Oh shit, i have tried about 40 times, keep getting the fraud messages... I would like to hear something from anet about this issue...
Damn it i've just done the exact same thing for the last half hour any news on this yet cos i think i just charged myself and my friends card about 40 times also...

"EDIT" Attached the error message...

lakatz

lakatz

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by T1Cybernetic
Damn it i've just done the exact same thing for the last half hour any news on this yet cos i think i just charged myself and my friends card about 40 times also...
Call the numbers on the back of your card and your friend's card right now and tell the customer service person what just happened. They can look at the attempts and see just what happened. I'll bet it's your security code on the back of your card. I strongly suspect the encryption software being used in the in-game store was done on a non-US keyboard. Regardless, I believe they haven't done the necessary keymapping to accommodate all the different keyboards used out there.

EDIT... I'm calling off the bet about the CVV. ;D I just read your edit, and you're getting a different error message than I got. I still think it's encryption/keymapping errors though. i just saw another thread around here about that same error code.

thral

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2007

W/

worked fine for me, althought i think i got charged 4.99 euro instead of dollars, o_O gonna go check my email again to make sure.

Keithark

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2006

Be Aggressive B E Aggressive [AGRO]

E/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by VitisVinifera
the only fraud going on here is the overcharging (by a mere hundredfold) by Anet. So bringing up this diatribe about stolen credit cards and criminal networks has NOTHING to do with this.....




Charge backs are consumer protections.......against hundredfold overcharges and the like. Yes, it would be better to submit a support ticket......for you and your business history. BBB doesn't look kindly upon businesses with a lot of charge backs. I say if some random company overcharges me one hundred fold, a call to the CC company asking for a charge back is about the first thing that comes to mind. That's my money and I don't want to sift through the fraudulent company's bureaucracy to get it back. And if they close my account forever because I exercised my just and legal rights, that company has no reason to keep my business.

No good CR can come out of these arguments.


/agree

surely you understand that I am not going to sit on a $500 bill because YOUR site overcharged me because of errors on YOUR website that YOU keep pushing on us. So I am to come up with $500 and try to work it out later? How about the service provider step up and cater to the customer, not the other way around!!! And if this had happen to me when I got some new slots I would have charged it back and then if my account had been closed I would just be sure everyone I know and could tell via the WWW and BBB what happened and how it was handled so they might not purchase anything from the company in the future. It is SOP for any ordeer online to go to a "confirmation" page immediately after charging your card, and an error msg is not a confirmation, this should be fixed or the store closed until it can be fixed. (and Gaile, by YOU I mean a-net/plaync, I know you personally don't care about how we purchase)

immortius

immortius

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Black Cats

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Keithark
/agree

surely you understand that I am not going to sit on a $500 bill because YOUR site overcharged me because of errors on YOUR website that YOU keep pushing on us. So I am to come up with $500 and try to work it out later? How about the service provider step up and cater to the customer, not the other way around!!! And if this had happen to me when I got some new slots I would have charged it back and then if my account had been closed I would just be sure everyone I know and could tell via the WWW and BBB what happened and how it was handled so they might not purchase anything from the company in the future.
So what would you expect them to do? Leave your account alone and email your perhaps-invalid email address which you may not respond to? Remove the character slot, perhaps deleting a random character if they are all full? If you haven't paid for something you have no right to it, and if you're unwilling to contact ArenaNet at all, in parallel to using a chargeback or otherwise, then you deserve to have your account frozen.

Quote:
It is SOP for any ordeer online to go to a "confirmation" page immediately after charging your card, and an error msg is not a confirmation, this should be fixed or the store closed until it can be fixed. (and Gaile, by YOU I mean a-net/plaync, I know you personally don't care about how we purchase)
This is the internet, it is impossible to entirely remove the possibility of an error being returned (you might lose your connection, for instance).

VitisVinifera

VitisVinifera

Banned

Join Date: Nov 2005

Northern California

HoTR

N/Me

Here is what I expect them to do, immort:

As Keith discussed, and you missed, have seperate order and confirm pages. That way you aren't submitting multiple orders when pages crash or time out. However, in this case, I doubt the person hit that order button exactly 100 times. This just sounds like either fraud or a horribly bugged order system on Anet's behalf. I order a lot of wine online, and all the retailers have seperate order pages, where you place your order, and seperate confirm page, where the shipping, tax, and the factored orders are all added up. Virtually every online transactor has this. Just go online shopping. Why Anet doesn't do this, well their online store has been a total debacle in about 10 different ways since they tried the bonus mission stunt. Go look at all the seperate threads on the seperate problems.

So if that universal feature to online ordering would be implemented, we wouldn't even be talking about charge backs for these situations or having your e-store account locked for doing so.

This isn't 2001. Current technology and solutions have corrected the problems of the past...........well, except the gw e-store. Then the numerous puzzling decisions, leading to the other threads about the problems, leaves many of us unwilling to give our money to Anet because of concerns like these, or strange rules where they won't take our money, results in a very bad business model. Gaile then following that up with her brand of 'CR' as above leaves us where we are now.

Gaile Gray

Gaile Gray

ArenaNet

Join Date: Feb 2005

Now that I have read a PM from the OP, I understand this situation better.

First of all, before I understood that a charge was not placed, I have passed along these concerns to the head of the NCsoft billing department. After considerable research and a review of all purchases since the store opened, there are no purchases on record in the exact amount of $499.00. None.

Second, the OP did submit a support ticket, which is excellent. It's interesting to note that the only purchases in the PlayNC Store that exceeded $400 in recent times all seem to have involved customer fraud. You cannot blame the company for being careful, any more than you can blame the bank for trying to protect your credit by assuring that potentially fraudulent charges don't go through. It's inconvenient to have the card locked down. It's far worse to deal with a stolen card, identity theft, or that sort of thing.

So again: No one was charged $499.00, anywhere, at any time. Not the OP, not anyone. So whatever happened, it may be safe to say it was a single incident and nothing more. Until I see a support ticket (please send me your incident number) and can read the incident and track the facts with the financial records, I want to ask that everyone else hold off on assuming that NCsoft has committed an error. Certainly any error -- an erroneous attempted charge on NCsoft's part, a misread by the processor on the credit card end -- would not have been intentional.

The billing team will be absolutely fair to the anyone who has legitimate issues with the system. That is all they ask in return.

immortius

immortius

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Black Cats

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by VitisVinifera
Here is what I expect them to do, immort:

As Keith discussed, and you missed, have seperate order and confirm pages.
Completely irrelevant if the issue is happening after submit is pressed, regardless of how many pages you have to click through to confirm your order. Even with an extra confirmation page, if you get an error after hitting submit (perhaps because the store server is overloaded) then anything could have happened.

Further irrelevant because I was talking about what happens after something goes wrong - discussing how to prevent things going wrong has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

VitisVinifera

VitisVinifera

Banned

Join Date: Nov 2005

Northern California

HoTR

N/Me

you probably should stop immort......you dont understand them

a confirmation page does not place orders, it just confirms.......the order. If you reconfirm a single order a thousand times, that's still just one order

they were cleverly programmed and implemented worldwide more than 5 years ago to avoid the problem of mistakenly resubmitting orders because of high server loads

it's really this simple.

immortius

immortius

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

Black Cats

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by VitisVinifera
a confirmation page does not place orders, it just confirms.......the order. If you reconfirm a single order a thousand times, that's still just one order
Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, you are completely correct, that would work for that issue. Teach me to post late at night. Of course, the store should be checking you aren't buying something you already own anyway, which works for everything except character slots. :P

I stand by my comments regarding chargebacks - and they still might come up regardless of a confirmation page if there is some other bug in the store.

lakatz

lakatz

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaile Gray
...
You cannot blame the company for being careful, any more than you can blame the bank for trying to protect your credit by assuring that potentially fraudulent charges don't go through...
Of course it's great that they are being cautious. And a merchant can be cautious and decrease fraud and chargebacks dramatically by implementing AVS and CVV requirements in their transactions, which they clearly have done, and in which case it's very important they make sure there are no bugs in their AVS and CVV encryptions and make sure all the keys (public and private) match.

Quote:
So whatever happened, it may be safe to say it was a single incident and nothing more.
True, the decimal point error seems at this point in time to be an isolated incident, but there are so many other errors that seem, based on many of the posts in this forum, to relate directly to the AVS and CVV encryptions that NCSoft is using to decrease fraud.

Quote:
Certainly any error -- an erroneous attempted charge on NCsoft's part, a misread by the processor on the credit card end -- would not have been intentional.
Of course NCSoft wouldn't intentionally make errors with credit card transactions and to accuse them of fraud is ludicrous, but they are still capable of making unintentional errors. I'm disappointed that they would blame "misreads" on the financial institutions' end for the many errors their customers are experiencing. That's irresponsible. To veil their vision to the probability that many are generated on their end certainly does nothing to help solve the problem. Some encryption software is indeed buggy, and it's up to NCSoft to make sure theirs is not and to have encryption keys that match all the financial institutions' keys. Based on my own experience and the experiences I've been reading here, I don't believe NCSoft has done that.

That is not to say, however, I believe all the errors are generated by NCSoft. No doubt some of the customers are not entering their CC billing address in the address fields (used for AVS), but I imagine a good number are and at least 99% are entering their CVV correctly... it's a bit unusual for a person to mistype 3-4 digits over and over again... don't you think?

EDIT:

I am being very simplistic about the encryption and decryption process because my knowledge of the process is very limited. I did only enough research to find what I feel confident is the source of the errors, not enough to learn how to do encryption myself... of course. I just hope, instead of trying to sweep it all under the carpet and/or "explain it all away", the person administering the in-game store is looking or will look for the source of the errors as well.

RcVan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Sep 2006

W/Mo

So is it save to order on line?

Will be charged $4.99 0r $499.00 ??

Wrath Of Dragons

Wrath Of Dragons

Burninate Stuff

Join Date: Aug 2005

New Mexico

E/Mo

i would guess it is safe to say that you will only be charged 4.99, and that if there happens to be a 499.0 charge, then as long as you have legitimate information to back yourself up, then any errors will be straightened out...and decimal places relocated