NC Soft won't take my money!?!?
By
blueruckus,
Posted on: 2010-12-15 17:42 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Like I mentioned in another thread, you can use GameTimeZone to purchase game card codes for the NA and EU sides of the game.
The two-month code at that site (out of stock at time of this posting) is $25, which is $12.5 per month; even better than NCsoft's own 6-month deal.
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Is that negative feedback? |
Originally Posted by Bronze Knight
So I keep trying to give NC soft my mone
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I'm having similar issues due to the fact I've an EU account, but have now moved to the US. Plus, I have valid US and UK cards so there's probably a whole bunch of mismatch going on here!
I've got a case in with NCsoft but they're being quite slow to respond (despite an initial quick first response).
Yeah I've had the same problem(I live in VA too) so far they have fixed once they find out I'm on satellite internet. 1st time they said they may not fix it again but the last time they did it with no problem. I think they get alot of tickets with issues like this and don't always have the time to fix it.
I had a problem like this in the past. For a while, even though I have cable internet, my IP appeared to be in Los Angeles (while I live in the Twin Cities, Minnesota...)
Oddly, when I was having that issue, it didn't affect my CoH subscription. I was only having problems on some different websites that refused to take my money. I ended up making a Paypal account just to get around the problem, and eventually my IP went back to normal.
I can't say I really know how to fix this, but I can sympathize with how much it sucks. 
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Originally Posted by Bronze Knight
I have satellite internet. This makes it look like I'm in Kentucky when, I am in fact in Virgina. Its just like using a proxy except I have no choice in the matter.
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So a third party (whoever is providing you with satellite internet) is making it look like your IP address is different from where you actually live, and you choose to blame NCSoft for their actions . . . Never occured to you to go after the jerks at the satellite internet provider that are causing the problem.
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a paypal account should solve your problem
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Originally Posted by Bronze Knight
So I keep trying to give NC soft my money and today I was told they won't be taking it any more.
Hears the story so far. The "O so wonderful" NCsoft store has some neat little code that checks your IP address and compares that with your billing address to make sure that everything is on the level. This is great for keeping your Credit card number secure. I have satellite internet. This makes it look like I'm in Kentucky when, I am in fact in Virgina. Its just like using a proxy except I have no choice in the matter. Ok after the site rejecting my card a few times I call billing support so I can resub and check out I19 (lots of good stuff very happy overall). I get told what the issue is and that its been temporarily fixed YAAA take my money NCsoft. All's well that ends well. Then I get the itch and decide to get the origin pack only to get the same problem. I call billing support AGAIN. I get it fixed but its still temporary and I have a hour or so to buy stuff. But the last E-mail I get says (in essence) "We will not fix this for you again." Wonderful Looks like I wont be able to play COH any more. OK that's pure hyperbole, but still. I could I suppose go to some where with free WiFi and get my credit card number stolen that way. Or I could go down to best but and spend $20 for a game time card and a 30 day jet-pack that I don't need. But why should I have to do any of that to play a game? At this time, I have no idea what I'm going to do when my subscription runs out. But being told by a company that they literally won't take my money has left a bad taste in my mouth. So I the interest of hearing what you lot would do, and the hope that a red name will stop by, I want to hear what you all have to say. |
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That's been out of stock for weeks and I'd be mildly surprised to see it come back.
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Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
The two-month code at that site (out of stock at time of this posting) is $25, which is $12.5 per month; even better than NCsoft's own 6-month deal.
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The third party is not the one "making it look like your IP address is different". The problem is that ncsoft (or their payment processor) is using a fundamentally broken service to attempt to guess where IP addresses are, even though IP does not work that way.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
So a third party (whoever is providing you with satellite internet) is making it look like your IP address is different from where you actually live, and you choose to blame NCSoft for their actions . . . Never occured to you to go after the jerks at the satellite internet provider that are causing the problem.
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There are millions of IP addresses out there which do not have any obvious way to associate the address with a geographic location, or where the "obvious" way is just plain wrong. Using such a service in a purely advisory capacity to raise flags and check on things could make sense. Requiring special staff intervention to process ordinary payment requests for this situation is stupid.
The game is great, but the ncsoft store is a nightmare to interact with, at least for me. I've had multiple rounds of various problems, credit cards disabled due to a "fraud alert" because I bought from ncsoft on more than one occasion, and so on. I don't know why this is such a recurring issue for ncsoft, but it certainly does seem to keep happening.
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Right. These are the OP's words.|
Originally Posted by seebs
The third party is not the one "making it look like your IP address is different".
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| I have satellite internet. This makes it look like I'm in Kentucky when, I am in fact in Virgina. Its just like using a proxy except I have no choice in the matter. |
Personally I applaud NCSofts attempts to protect them and myself from fraudulant credit card charges.
check out a few pc stores in the area too. Up until 2 months ago i was paying $19.99 for a 60 day card, way cheaper than online 
But I guess they got wise, now they're $24.99 !GAH!
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Yep, Paypal. Done.
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Doesn't work for me. PayPal *used* to work, but for the last couple of months it says that the transaction "did not past risk assesment", and that's that. No game time for me. My account expires the 27th and it'll likely remain expired until I manage to hunt down a time card again. Took two weeks to get one last time, and trying to buy them on other websites resulted in various un-fun things, such as this one. So come December 27th, no COH for me for a while.
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Originally Posted by blueruckus
Yeah, just use PayPal. Easy fix.
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www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
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Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
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Okay now that sucks.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
Doesn't work for me. PayPal *used* to work, but for the last couple of months it says that the transaction "did not past risk assesment", and that's that. No game time for me. My account expires the 27th and it'll likely remain expired until I manage to hunt down a time card again. Took two weeks to get one last time, and trying to buy them on other websites resulted in various un-fun things, such as this one. So come December 27th, no COH for me for a while.
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It did but those people are pure EVIL. They will never stop overcharging me, or giving me atrocious service, so long as they can get away with it.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
...Never occured to you to go after the jerks at the satellite internet provider that are causing the problem.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
Doesn't work for me. PayPal *used* to work, but for the last couple of months it says that the transaction "did not past risk assesment", and that's that. No game time for me.
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That's... evil.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
Doesn't work for me. PayPal *used* to work, but for the last couple of months it says that the transaction "did not past risk assesment", and that's that. No game time for me. My account expires the 27th and it'll likely remain expired until I manage to hunt down a time card again. Took two weeks to get one last time, and trying to buy them on other websites resulted in various un-fun things, such as this one. So come December 27th, no COH for me for a while.
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Amazon sells the time cards for 14.99 with free shipping. That could be a good alternative, that is, if Amazon works for you.
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Originally Posted by Leandro
Doesn't work for me. PayPal *used* to work, but for the last couple of months it says that the transaction "did not past risk assesment", and that's that. No game time for me. My account expires the 27th and it'll likely remain expired until I manage to hunt down a time card again. Took two weeks to get one last time, and trying to buy them on other websites resulted in various un-fun things, such as this one. So come December 27th, no COH for me for a while.
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Shatteredcrystal.com is a site i have used previously (for Eve Online time codes), and i have found them reliable. Thought about giving them a shot (have to admit, its fun when they call you up the 1st time just to make sure that the order is legit, and to confirm details)... especially as it was them calling the UK 
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seriously? ever hear of a thing called AOL? all of their traffic was funneled through their proxy servers (VA I believe) so it looked like you weren't in the location you were actually at, but coming from VA (which played havoc with people trying to see where hits to their website originated, as at the time it looked like 50% of their traffic was a bunch of Virginians). This has been a know problem forever, and for a company to not compensate for such incidents is just plain silly.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
So a third party (whoever is providing you with satellite internet) is making it look like your IP address is different from where you actually live, and you choose to blame NCSoft for their actions . . . Never occured to you to go after the jerks at the satellite internet provider that are causing the problem.
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from here: http://www.mail-archive.com/analog-h.../msg13332.html
In particular, AOL's proxy servers
(AFAIK) are not geographically arranged, so a user in California and
one in Maine could be using the same proxy servers and appear with the
same IP numbers.
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Originally Posted by DeeOhhGee
a paypal account should solve your problem
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Originally Posted by blueruckus
Yeah, just use PayPal. Easy fix.
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Honestly, trying to affix an IP address from a national ISP to a physical location and use it for billing security is about as dumb as using a box of rocks to beat a bag of hammers.
I understand that NCSoft has to CYA themselves for this sort of thing. Chargebacks are a beeyotch.
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Heard of it but never had anything to do with it. I've always used my local cable company for an internet provider. Prior to subscribing to CoH the only computer I ever owned was a TRS-80 back in high school. I didn't buy my first PC until a year after I started playing CoH at my local gamestore. That was '06
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Originally Posted by nytflyr
seriously? ever hear of a thing called AOL? all of their traffic was funneled through their proxy servers (VA I believe) so it looked like you weren't in the location you were actually at, but coming from VA (which played havoc with people trying to see where hits to their website originated, as at the time it looked like 50% of their traffic was a bunch of Virginians). This has been a know problem forever, and for a company to not compensate for such incidents is just plain silly.
from here: http://www.mail-archive.com/analog-h.../msg13332.html In particular, AOL's proxy servers (AFAIK) are not geographically arranged, so a user in California and one in Maine could be using the same proxy servers and appear with the same IP numbers. |
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Do some web lookups on MMO's, fraud charges, and maybe even NCSoft in general. You'll find that MMO game subscriptions have some of the highest fraud rates out there, that as a digital service that's largely over by the time the client disputes the charges, there's nothing to recover or revoke, nor a shipping address to compare with. You'll also find that CC companies have gone as far as threatening to revoke the merchant accounts (and/or charge more processing fees) of certain game publishers unless they take more precautions.|
Originally Posted by nytflyr
seriously? ever hear of a thing called AOL? all of their traffic was funneled through their proxy servers (VA I believe) so it looked like you weren't in the location you were actually at, but coming from VA (which played havoc with people trying to see where hits to their website originated, as at the time it looked like 50% of their traffic was a bunch of Virginians). This has been a know problem forever, and for a company to not compensate for such incidents is just plain silly.
from here: http://www.mail-archive.com/analog-h.../msg13332.html In particular, AOL's proxy servers (AFAIK) are not geographically arranged, so a user in California and one in Maine could be using the same proxy servers and appear with the same IP numbers. |
These limitations aren't there because NCSoft WANTS them there, they're there because NCSoft wants to stay in business.
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The AOL reference you make is somewhat dated, but as a big market resource, it could be recognized and exceptions added. Many find satellite broadband latency (5x-8x dial up's latency) too high for realtime online play, so your particular example isn't just a very small market share, but one less likely to use their services. Understandable that an exception isn't made....
....though you'd expect them to be able to flag specific accounts + CC's as valid after the first time you call in.... if the NCSoft account management system wasn't one of the buggiest crash-prone pieces of s....oftware I've had to experience.
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I'm not in the US, so the free shipping is not valid. Cheapest shipping is $17 and it takes forever. I'm still waiting for a DVD set I bought in early October to arrive; here's what the Amazon folks told me when I contacted them:|
Originally Posted by viewtifuldee
Amazon sells the time cards for 14.99 with free shipping. That could be a good alternative, that is, if Amazon works for you.
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I'm sorry to hear your DVD and books didn't arrive by the estimated delivery date of November 11. In my experience, late packages arrive not long after the estimated delivery date. Please wait until December 27 before requesting a refund or replacement. Otherwise, you might have to deal with returning a package. [...] To ensure you receive this shipment, I'll keep track of your package and send another e-mail on December 27. |
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
So I keep trying to give NC soft my money and today I was told they won't be taking it any more.
Hears the story so far.
The "O so wonderful" NCsoft store has some neat little code that checks your IP address and compares that with your billing address to make sure that everything is on the level. This is great for keeping your Credit card number secure.
I have satellite internet. This makes it look like I'm in Kentucky when, I am in fact in Virgina. Its just like using a proxy except I have no choice in the matter.
Ok after the site rejecting my card a few times I call billing support so I can resub and check out I19 (lots of good stuff very happy overall). I get told what the issue is and that its been temporarily fixed YAAA take my money NCsoft. All's well that ends well.
Then I get the itch and decide to get the origin pack only to get the same problem. I call billing support AGAIN. I get it fixed but its still temporary and I have a hour or so to buy stuff. But the last E-mail I get says (in essence) "We will not fix this for you again."
Wonderful Looks like I wont be able to play COH any more.
OK that's pure hyperbole, but still. I could I suppose go to some where with free WiFi and get my credit card number stolen that way. Or I could go down to best but and spend $20 for a game time card and a 30 day jet-pack that I don't need.
But why should I have to do any of that to play a game? At this time, I have no idea what I'm going to do when my subscription runs out. But being told by a company that they literally won't take my money has left a bad taste in my mouth.
So I the interest of hearing what you lot would do, and the hope that a red name will stop by, I want to hear what you all have to say.