Serious Issues with the Online Store

I love the idea of the Guild Wars Online Store, just as I love being able to buy new games directly off of Steam. However, serious technical and support issues are making me completely rethink my future usage of the Guild Wars Online Store.

Somehow, someway, I just lost access to two purchased features this weekend. I lost access to the Nightfall PVP Pack I bought July 8th for $39.99 (mainly to give my heroes access to Nightfall's skills without grinding out most of them, but also to take advantage of the Bonus Mission Pack promotion). I also purchased the GW:EN Prerelease Bonus Pack, obviously to take place in the preview weekend but also to gain access to the nice /bonus weapons it gives. It's great giving my heroes Hourglass Staves and Glacial Blades until I can afford a more specialized weapon in-game.

After a couple days of pure working and class assignments, I log back onto Guild Wars to continue my quests in Eye of the North. I notice that one of my heroes has a skill missing. I figure I must've accidentally taken it off last time I played. I re-enable the template, and suddenly the skill disappears off the skillbar again. Huh? It seems I have the Nightfall skills I unlocked manually through skill hunting and the PoB from before I bought the Nightfall PVP Edition, but all of the skills my heroes are entitled to through the purchased of the PVP Edition are completely disabled. In other words, I keep skills such as Searing Flames because I earned them before purchasing the Nightfall PVP Edition, but my bought skills from the PVP Edition like "The Power is Yours!" are completely MIA.

Soon, I found out that, looking at my purchased keys through "Manage Access Keys" on the character select screen, I was suddenly missing out on Nightfall PVP Edition. Also, I discovered that my GW:EN Preorder Bonus has gone missing as well. My heroes with the Glacial Blades and Hourglass Staves I've made in the past still have those weapons, but I'm suddenly not able to make anymore. Not good, as I'm still going through GW:EN and it would be mighty helpful to be able to make those for the caster and warrior class heroes I have yet to obtain and arm.

What's worse is that it seems that I am not the only one with the problem. No one in that thread thus far has received any meaningful help from Support.

Not only am I worried about my Nightfall PVP Edition and my GW:EN Bonus Pack, but I'm also worried that since these two purchases are the only purchases I've made in the Guild Wars store since July 5th that I have also lost eligibility for the advertised Bonus Mission Pack promotion. Thus introduces another, longer-lasting issue: There is absolutely no UI confirmation of whether or not I have secured my acquisition of Bonus Mission Pack.

I felt safe in 'trusting the system' that it would all be fine, since I bought the Nightfall PVP Pack on July 8th. But now I am very concerned that whatever glitch has kicked me off from accessing my Nightfall PVP Skills and GW:EN /bonus weapons has also disabled my access to the Bonus Mission Pack. Even if Support restores my access to what I have purchased, I'll have no way of knowing if my access to the Bonus Mission Pack is fixed as well since there is no UI notification one way or the other.

These recent problems have severely diminished my outlook on the Guild Wars Store, a service which I really do want to support. These are issues that simply shouldn't happen, and are greatly concerning me.

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UPDATE: 9/11/2007:

Hurray! My issue is now completely and awesomely resolved. I even get a refund on the missing items. Now that is good service, and restores my faith with the online store. Thank you Gaile, Anet, and Support. Thumbs up, wholeheartedly. Here is the email I received:


Response (-Support Agent-) 09/11/2007 01:09 PM
Hello -My Name-,

Thank you for your patience as we worked to resolve this issue for you.

After further reviewing this issue, it appears that your PlayNC master and Guild Wars game accounts were blocked in error. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Your PlayNC master and Guild Wars game accounts are now unblocked and you should be able to successfully log into them.

As part of this error, the Guild Wars Eye of the North Pre-Release and Nightfall PvP Edition Access Keys you purchased were disabled and the charges of $39.99 and $4.99 for the online purchases were refunded to the card used.

As compensation for our error, we are now providing the following access keys to replace each that were mistakenly disabled:

GOODT-RYBUT-YOURE-NOTGO-INGTO - Eye of the North Pre-Release Bonus Key
SEEMY-NEWLY-COMPE-NSATE-DKEYS - Nightfall PvP Edition

The following Support Center article should assist you with registering this new access key to your account:

Title: Adding Keys to Existing Game Accounts
URL: http://www.plaync.com/us/support/doc_2960.html

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you, and we hope that this does not interfere with your enjoyment of the game.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Kind Regards,
Guild Wars Account Support

If the matter is of deep concern to you, it's of even deeper concern to me. I have been reading and forwarding forum posts and emails, and I very much hope that tomorrow, I have some information on what the solution will be and even perhaps on why it's taking so long to arrive at that solution.

I know that people commit fraud all the time, and that we must be careful. However, it appears that somehow, accounts were affected as part of fraud protection, which is why some are finding they have fewer character slots or that they lack access to a certain campaign. If some were charged back, or found to be fraudulently obtained, then yes, they should be disabled. But that's clearly not the case with all those affected, and that worries me greatly.

I heard about this matter from QA this evening. I've written to ask Account Support for an update, and I will share with you as soon as I know more. In the meantime, please accept my sympathy for what has happened, and our collective apologies for the inconvenience.

Note: This note probably reads really formal, and for that I'm sorry. I just feel awful about it, and I do want you to know I'm working on it for you even now at 1:30 in the morning.

Thank you Gaile. If it's indeed a CC issue, I understand that sometimes there can be issues regarding security and the such.

I'm not sure if it will help any, but the card I used to purchase the Nightfall PVP Edition and the GW:EN Preorder Bonus was a Bank of America Debit Card. Hopefully I can help out as best I can through all this, and the glitch will be resolved soon.

Also, it would be greatly appreciated now, more than ever, to have a UI implementation to know whether or not I still have access to the Bonus Mission Promotion. Simply a line in the "Manage Keys" window would dissolve that particular cloud of worry over my head.

I bought GW:EN through the online store, which means I qualify for the bonus mission pack. When looking at the add ons for my account I don't see anything about the bonus mission. I know it's on my account and will appear later on. But is there a way to just list it on the add ons listing anyways, just so I have some text confirmation of this?

There's no visual confirmation for access to the Bonus Mission Pack for anyone yet. Basically, just assume that you have it if you have purchased $29.99 worth of items from the Guild Wars online store since July 5th, which you have since you bought GW:EN from it.

Buying GW:EN from the store should be an instant unlock for the Bonus pack it was released during the bonus pack period AND they can check that.

Okay, just wanted to be sure. I get a little paranoid on these things. For example I'm about to lose 100 bucks to Wells Fargo because the ATM didn't complete the cash withdraw transaction. But it still went past the pending period and took the cash out of my account. So I have to go there and straighten it out. I'm just wary when it comes to account data.

I think its $29 not $29.99.
I checked everywhere and they all say $29.

I really hope ots $29 since I bought $29.96 worth of items from the store and if its needed from me to spend $9.99 for a character slot to be over $29.99 then I'm gonna be pissed.

Since Gaile is checking this thread, could you please confirm its just $29????

Thanks

The $29.99 part was my own typo. It is $29 according to all the ads I've seen.

Here's the exchange I've had with Anet Support thus far. Names and certain numbers are obviously blocked out:
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Subject
Nightfall PVP Edition and GW:EN Preorder Pack Bonuses have disappeared

Discussion Thread
Response (-Name of a Support Agent-) 09/05/2007 04:55 PM
Hello,

Thank you for providing that information. We are currently looking into this matter and will reply back to you as soon as we have more information to share.

Thank you for your patience,
Guild Wars Account Support




Customer (-My Name-) 09/05/2007 11:56 AM
Here is the additional information you have requested. The last four digits of the card I use now, and that I have used to purchase both the Nightfall PVP Edition and the GW:EN Preorder Bonus are: xxxx




Response (-Name of a Support Agent-) 09/05/2007 11:38 AM
Hello -My Name-,

Thank you for contacting us.

In order to assist you, we will need you to provide some information:

What are the last 4 digits of the credit card currently being used?

We look forward to your reply.

Regards,
Guild Wars Account Support
Response (-Name of a Support Agent-) 09/05/2007 12:05 AM
Hello,




Thanks for getting in touch to ask about your account.

In order to better assist you with this account-related issue, we will transfer this question to our Account Support Department. An Account Support team member will be in contact with you very shortly.

If you have any further questions, please let us know and we will gladly assist you.

Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team




Customer (-My Name-) 09/04/2007 11:06 PM
On my Guild Wars account, I have lost access to the Nightfall PVP pack which I purchased on July 8th 2007. Also, I have lost access to create the bonus items available from the GW:EN Preorder Pack. Both of these accesses were purchased from the Guild Wars in-game store. How do I gain re-access to these purchased products?

For reference, my order number for the Nightfall PVP pack that I bought on July 8th is: xxxxxxx

This is what galls me the most about the situation:

So fraud protection was involved. Either someone manually chose a ton of accounts to modify or some script was set up to fire off based on some criteria. Somehow, some entity made the decision to activate this fraud protection policy just before a long weekend, the same weekend as a new release.

Suddenly the complaints start rolling in, yet it takes days for customer support to take any action. It seems like one department deemed it not important enough to tell the other that this action could potentially spike the number of support calls, because it seems like support is blindsided by the support requests and doesn't know what's going on. They just escalate it.

The group responsible for executing the action didn't bother to leave anybody behind as a contingency against a possible issue where innocent accounts would be affected by their actions. So no "rollback" plan exists.

My credit card was credited with the charges for the missing keys on Monday. Yet I was never informed of this action for the past two days. In fact, the last contact was dated from today at 8 am PST, that my case was being reviewed by the senior support staff. Didn't anybody check to see that I had been credited two days ago, yet never been informed of this?

Now wait a minute here. Isn't anybody talking to anybody else???

What I see is a lack of internal communication and poor planning that's negatively affecting an unknown number of customers because of a major action undertaken by one group before everyone split for a long holiday. Having been in the IT field as level 1 support and as a level 3 engineer I have seen this sort of error committed by others far too frequently.

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Yes I'll re-buy the expansions and everything else that was taken away from me. Do I expect someone to call me like support told me they would? I doubt it, I don't think they want to hear another angry customer. Not like I'm home to answer that call now anyway. Because the long weekend is over and I'm back to work myself. I am sorely tempted not to just let this go as it is now. I just don't want to squander the hours making a bigger issue out of this.

I really enjoy the game but holy crap. A big disappointing thumbs down. The ball really got dropped. And other such cliche'd statements.

UPDATE: According to my Online Bank Statement - On 9/04/2007, NC SOFT refunded my account $4.99 (the price of the GW:EN Preorder Bonus Pack). The purchase of the GW:EN Preorder Bonus Pack went through on 7/30/2007. No refund at all on the $39.99 Nightfall PVP Edition that was also disabled on my account.

Also, how am I supposed to be able to buy the GW:EN Preorder Bonus again? Isn't it disabled now? I would just like both of these items re-enabled.

The online store will no longer allow me to make purchases. This is after dealing with my own missing campaigns fiasco.

After five full days all I've gotten is

1. A deliberately and wrongfully crippled account.
2. Lack of meaningful action.
3. The runaround.
4. No reply about the corrective action taken.
5. Denied ability to repurchase the expansions with an error message.

It's as though my account is still flagged as a fraud.

Apologies don't mean much if they're not hand in hand with immediate corrective action. I've about had it with this.

Support will take care of this, I'm told, by end of week. Those games inadvertently deactivated, or refunded in error, will be restored. This actually involved only a few dozen players, but of course if you're one of them, it strings! And I agree, that timing could not have been worse, with launch weekend.

You do NOT need to make any repurchases for those things that were blocked! Or at least do not do so until you hear from Support. They have a plan in place, and will contact you individually on this matter.

As I learned this evening, though, they're making tremendous headway through the tickets and should have this sorted out, with all restorations in place (for those original account holders; resold accounts cannot be serviced) in a day or two. I was greatly cheered to see that Support team members were working overtime tonight to get more done.

Thank you for your patience. I feel really bad that this happened, and especially this week!

I'm glad to know this only happened to a handful of people. Sad that I was one of them, however.
I do hope after this is all over, I am somehow able to get the GW:EN pre-order back onto my account. I am glad they refunded the money for the lost purchases, makes me feel a bit better- but I do not make very much gold in the game and sadly, depend on those bonus weapons for my hero's and such, lol.

Yeah it seems like with Factions and Nightfall release for me it was late issue as well. I got Factions CE as I missed the CE for Prophecies but the EB store I pre-ordered it from did not get any because of shipping issues. Then my Nightfall was because of me but my computer also crashed . Now with GWEN I have this issue of not being able to add keys nor buy it from the store as my PlayNC account is locked and my credit card will not take. I am just glad this is being looked into and hopefully I can join my guild in GWEN this weekend and still make hourglass staves for my casters heroes.

Bad things happen Gaile. I'm sure it was just a computer malfunction somewhere in the pipeline, and it's not as if any of my items or characters got deleted

The only thing I have to worry about now when all this is settled is to make sure I still qualify for that Bonus Mission Pack

So since I got refunded for game of the year edition and i assume factions, i should pretty much just chill and wait for them to get back with me? which i also assume they will in a timely manner?

Im not so much annoyed about the missing campaigns as much as I am about the lack of communication from support on what there doing, there plan etc etc.

That is correct. I hear that nearly will be be corrected by tomorrow.

I was under the impression (and saw some examples) that Support was sending a note upon receipt of the ticket, and that they'd sent at least one, but probably two updates since then. Is it possible they're going to an old email address or something, that you're not receiving those updates? They really are working hard to get this in order and to keep people informed, but if I can pass along ideas for improving that, I'll be happy to do so.

I imagine what wonderwyrm was referring to about lack of communication was that up until this point there was no substantive information in an official capacity other than through postings on an unofficial forum.

Not everyone with the problem comes to online forums, which means all they have are the very vague messages every few days via the support system.

More of a were aware of the situation etc etc least i know somethings being done.

But superviser Beth got back to me and is on the case

Wyrm does have a point in that, if I didn't check these forums, I wouldn't have even considered the problem being a billing issue and I wouldn't have checked my bank account for any refunds, thus being a bit more in-the-dark about the whole situation.

NM, just checked and I got a refund from NCSoft on my $10.80 for the character slot...


...I would like to know if Anet (when fixing the fraud protecion stuff) will then rebill and give the virtual items back automatically. Through a completely unrelated "landlords not depositing the rent check for 2 weeks" financial error on my part, my account has a "less than zero figure" in it which will amount to an "overdraft fee" if more money is removed. Can we opt out on having our billing fixed?

Though an auto-resolve action would be great for most people, I'm retrospectively cool with this billing problem for now.

I don't think Anet would rebill automatically. I think they would probably tell you that it was an error and that it's ok to buy it again on your terms at the worst.

Look at it this way, how many other people out there could possibly know this is a suspected billing/account issue unless they come to this website.

This is one of those issues you put in the guild wars announcements next to the login/pass window.

I also seem to have been refunded my eye of the north preorder/and full game, hopefully I can get that preorder back as well as find out if im still eligible for that bonus mission pack.

Don't repurchase until you here from Support because the last I heard, they're very much interested in making this right by players and the outcome may be more positive than you might expect.

I already updated my other thread that my problem has been resolved. I was refunded of the purchase and today they gave me an access key to add another char slot for free.

Thumbs up for Gaile and ANET. Thanks!

It's been a full seven days now with a broken account. My last contact from support was early wednesday morning so 2.5 days ago. I know patience is a virtue and I've already spent my "angry ranting" quota for the week, but here comes another weekend...

Same, im coming up on a week almost as well, ive got two rl friends starting the game as well and im stuck in nightfall with no way to help them out.

Getting old fast.

Well I can log in my PlayNC account but still I don't have the ability to put in serial keys and my account looks messed up as I don't have my extra slots, yet my PlayNC account shows that I have them and the GWEN preorder as perks . I can't believe I actually tried to get it from the in-game store I should have just did what I always do and go buy it from Best Buy . Never had any issues from doing it like that other than Best Buy getting it late.

just now stumbled across the threads on this issue... wow fuels my on-line buying paranoia a bit, but it's still good to know that this can happen and that you're not alone if it does.

As I don't have a credit card, I'm planning to ask someone else to use his and help me buy gwen, but... I'd rather not have the bonus missions than create problems for my friend. Or have to go through a string of "thanks for your time and patience" useless support replies (support, riiight).

So thank you for bringing this problem to light, Lump, esp. since those who should have haven't done so. I'm sure they'll fix it in the end, but... it seems like their support system, esp. the way they (don't) keep customers apprised of goings on, could use an overhaul.

Fingers crossed that y'all get your accounts back asap!

Hmm... well I must say my patience is wearing a bit thin now.
I noticed my PlayNC account is working again, but still no more e-mail updates about the issue from support.
I was starting to feel as though I'd been overlooked, but it appears I'm not the only one that hasn't had the issue resolved.

Well I'm glad something is at least happening for a few people which gives me hope that something might happen eventually with my account. All I have gotten so far is the regular automated response and nothing else. Oh well.

So far, nothings happened, and now the two friends I told to buy the game arent happy I cant play with them. So much for that eh. Support must be closed on the weekends. GG

WTF ??? one week now and still have a crippled account... i REALLY hate to be left with no news not even have a clue on whats going on ..poor poor support ..

i want my stuff back .. can't even log into my plaync account.

a.net finally fixed my account today. A little over 7.5 days since I first filed a support ticket.


And I'm still pretty steamed.


They want to make this really right, they need to make a public apology on their website and acknowledge the error without making it into a backhanded apology. I think it's only fair for how long they've taken to do this.

Just wanted to update and say my issue was resolved finally.

Well Gaile said it should be by the end of this week and well this is the end of the week in about 9 hours. Sigh I guess I should just give up till sometime around next Friday as this issue is way bigger and not 1 person I have seen post had a 1751073 error, so maybe mine is different.

I tried the same thing out and I get the same error number that you do Panix so I would assume its the same problem.

Oh and just a question for those of you that had your accounts fixed. What was done about your refunded games? Did they give you new keys free of charge? Just wondering if I should go out and pick up Nightfall and Eye of the North.

My issues are not yet fixed I'm jealous of you guys. Man, I really wanted to take good advantage of Triple XP weekend with my new Nightfall Dervish too