Over a week ago now, I purchased EQ platnium for $20 from SoE's website. They shipped me a copy that happened to not have a CD key. I can't say I was happy, but simple mistakes happens so I wasn't overly angry, so I proceed to contact SoE in attempts to resolve the issue. So a few hours later they get back with me saying I need to email them a picture of the first CD in the set to confirm there's no CD key, an trust me, they want the format of the picture down to a T. I had to contact multiple people about helping me getting it in the requested format but after a few hours someone got the right format sent to me and i got it out to SoE np. So now I'm sitting with days gone by w/o SoE contacting me.

Ok the immediate argument is truly over pennies, but I can't believe how poorly they handle business. First off, tracking which CD key is shipped out with which order would cost maybe 1-2 cents (i assume they dont do that currently...). Secondly, each day they delay giving me the CD key costs them an explicit 50 cents (due to me not making the acct), the people that are 'carefully' looking over it will prolly spend at least an hour on my case making $10? / hour, thirdly if they don't get me the CD key they lose out on a $200+ deal, and finally its just irritating to me (the customer). By them giving me all this **** over me suppodily lying to them they are not only pissing me off, they are LOSING money (implictly, explicitly they are only losing ~$10.)

Also, I don't see how SoE doesn't make people splitting accts easier. I don't know if they noticed yet, but the largest influx of new accts are people starting a 2nd acct from scratch or starting a 2nd acct to split an alt from their initial acct. If SoE offered to sell pre-made accts with all expansions enabled (yes, 90% of the people who order eq-platnium most likely dont touch the install CDs or book), it would bring down the cost of production, the cost to the customer (shipping and/or taxes included), and overall give more incentive for people to buy multiple accts.

EDIT: Spelling

I understand your pain. SoE has to have a pipeline of products for sale so that their influence at the computer game stores remains strong. SoE may have an agreement to use their pipeline first and sales over the internet second.

The upside I see for SoE to use brick and motar stores is the ability to attract customers that would not have considered an SoE computer game but may have played console games.

So, the agreement SoE has with stores like Electronic boutique MAY require EB to sell their products for a period of time and require SoE to have brick and motar stores like EB as thier only supply point for customers until the period of time expires.

That's really stinky of them.

I dont understand why one must buy the software / CD's again just for a key that could be e-mailed. It wouldnt solve their peny-pinching issues with you, but as you say if most new accounts are second or more for existing users there shouldn't be a need to buy new software when all you need is 11 digits.

heh

Heh, wanna see how Sony customer service is? I suspected that one of my accounts was being double-billed, and figured I'd email Sony and work it out. Being a long-time Everquest player, I had no illusions that I'd ever be refunded even if it did turn out they were charging us twice for the same account, so from the get-go I had the attitude of "If I'm not getting my money back, the second best is to make sure they spend a hella more on this than they would've had they simply accepted their error.

Here are the emails:


***********************************

The 8th june you debited my visa card for USD 35.85. I was fairly sure I had
cancelled all my accounts for Everquest, except one that I had the billing
transfered to my partner's credit card. (This account is being debited on his
card, we checked) and I don't recall the login information for the others
anymore, so there's no way for me to try to log into them and see if they are
still active. If you could look into it, and let me know what i need to do, that
would be great. I'm sure you need more information than i have provided here, so please reply to me letting me know what i need to tell you in order for you to find out about this.

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Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

For security reasons, we are unable to address your account issues without first verifying your identification. Please respond with as much of the following information as possible:

- Real Name
- Station Name
- Birthdate
- Address with Zip/Postal Code
- your original Account Key (found on the back of your CD case)
- the first four and last four digits of the original and current Credit Card on the account.
- Briefly summarize your problem or concern.

This will enable us to process your request more efficiently.

****************************************

Hello, and thank you for getting back to me.

- Real name: XXXX XXXXXX
- Station name: This is the issue, we've had 5 accounts, and I have no way of knowing which one is being billed. Station names you can try are: ACCT1,
ACCT2, ACCT3, ACCT4. I cannot for the life of me recall the last one.
- Birthdate: XX/XX/XXXX
- Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
- Current CC being billed has first 4 digits: XXXX and last 4 digits: XXXX. I
have never billed anything to any other of my cards, but my bank has sent me a renewed CC during my period of subscribing to Everquest. If the information for my old CC is different than my current one, I have no way of finding that information fast.
- Original CD keys: That is going to take a while, as they're packed down and
stored in the attick. Is there any way you can just check the station names I
mentioned earlier and just let me know WHICH of them (if any) that I am being billed for, and we can take it from there? With 5 accounts and 5 CD sets, it'll be a less than trivial job for me to figure out which CD set goes to which account :/
- Brief summary of problem: See below in my original email to you.

Thank you in advance,

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

Out of all the station names you provided, the only one active is ACCT2, which is currently on another credit card, not yours. The last time you were billed on this account was 01/13/2005 for $35.85. What was the date of your last billing? I'm afraid in order to find the account that is still billing your credit card, we are going to need the full number so we can search all
accounts. Please send the full credit card number, and if you are not comfortable with this, please call our accounts and billing support line, 1-858-537-0898. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.

****************************************

Heya,

The CC number is:
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX (exp XX/XX)
was last billed for USD 35,85 the 6th of june, money was taken from my account on the 8th of june.

Cut'n'paste from my credit card transaction history:

DELETED FOR SECURITY

Please let me know which eq-account this is for.

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

The credit card no. which you have provided does not exist. I would suggest you to please check again your credit card no. and send us the info.

****************************************

Heya,

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX is a direct cut'n'paste from my credit card online bill.

****************************************
Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

Our record does not show that your account was cancel. We went ahead and cancelled the account for you today. The account will remain open until 09/05/05 since all time on accounts is pre paid and non refundable as stated in our EULA. If you have any questions, or if there is anything else we can do for you, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail.

****************************************

As I have mentioned before in our correspondence: I needed to know WHICH account it is. Please let me know which account you have cancelled!

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

Unfortunately due to the privacy law, we can only verify information. If you have more than one station name, please provide us those station names and we can tell you if its the one that we cancelled. You may also try our account recovery online to retrieve any accounts you may have.

****************************************

I have provided them all.. It's all below in the previous emails we have sent
back and forth..

I will repeat:

- ACCT1
- ACCT2
- ACCT3
- ACCT4

I never requested any account to be cancelled by you. I requested all along to please be told WHICH account I am being billed for. Please - can I have that?

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

Well, I would like to inform you that you were charged on 06/18/2005 for your ACCT1 account and its active at the moment. If you have any questions please reply this mail to get a fast reply.


****************************************

ACCT1 account is also being billed to my partner, XXX XXXXXX. So it is
being double-billed for. At this time I have 2 issues I would like to see resolved:

1. Verification of for how long that account has been double-billed (I know I've been billed for it all along, XXX's credit card started being charged in april.)

2. Refund of the double billing, payable to my account.

This is not a matter that would fall under your "no refunds"-policy, as it is a
matter of double-billing, not late cancellation or anything that could possibly
be linked back to Mr. XXXXXX and myself.

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

I would like to suggest you to ask XXX XXXXXX for the entire digits of the credit card number so that I may query the accounts being billed on that number.

****************************************

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

I see a total of 7 accounts billed on this account and several of them are active.

Would you like them to remain active or cancel them.

Sorry we can't give you the station names found.

****************************************

I would like them to remain active. Like I said - there are 2 issues I would
like addressed:

1. Verification of for how long the ACCT1 account has been double-billed

2. Refund of the double billing, payable to my account.

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

Your account has now been cancelled at your request. You will not be billed on the next billing cycle.

We hope to see you again soon.

***NOTE: Our policy is that we do not give refunds for subscriptions you have purchased after your free month is over.

We appreciate your request for a refund, however we will not be able to process your request as all pre-paid fees are non-refundable as explained in Section 5 of the End User License Agreement as well as when you register with your billing information.

****************************************

My account has been WHAT? On who's request? I asked specifically for them NOT to be cancelled!

I asked for 2 things:

1. Verification of for how long the ACCT1 account has been double-billed
2. Refund of the double billing, payable to my account.

This is obviously not an issue that falls under your no-refund policy. You have billed twice for the same account. It isn't a matter of late cancellation. It is a matter of you charging us twice for one account.

****************************************

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment Customer Support.

I apologize for the inconvenence this has caused you, on reviewing your account I found that there are no double billing made on account "ACCT1". Secondly, Cancellation will not affect your game play, you can still play your game till next billing date.

If you are finding to billings on same date then please let us know exact date and the amount for which you are facing charges so that we can look under rest of accounts.

****************************************


....I pretty much gave up at this point, but it's time for me to be billed again now if it's still not fixed. Needless to say, I am watching my CC transaction history like a hawk.

OMG Tinsi. You have my sympathy for going through that mess! What a bunch of hooey!!

Fricken hell! :eek:
I remember CS being bad but that's just taking the biscuit!

Seriously, SoE CS is the worst.

Remember:
"Can I talk to your supervisor?"

Is amazing.

I went through the same BS.

I have a rog that I am wanting to transfer on to an account.
So here's what i do. I go out and buy an entirely new CD set. I puit it under my credit card..... same exact thing I did with my original account.

Turns out that Sony has lost the original credit card info to my account so they are unable to meet the request.

I swear.....their CS consists of Larry, Curley, and Moe.

Don't forget Shemp...somebody has to make coffee to power their massive workload