An open complaint letter to NCSoft Billing and Marketing

Depends on the card issuer/bank and who you are buying from...

I have spent over £300 on computer stuff twice in 2 weeks, and the transactions went through with *no* issues.

I then tried to subscribe to an MMO (based in Iceland) a few months later. It was declined.

Strange i thought, i know i have the money.

I waited for the phone call from the bank (sometimes they do this to check that the transaction was made by you), but none was forthcoming.

In the end I called the bank, and questioned as to why it was declined... it turned out because it was an Icelandic company and it was the 1st transaction i had tried to make with them, it would get declined until I confirmed it. Even if the MMO company had called me, it would still get denied *UNTIL* the bank confirmed the transaction.

Funniest thing is though... in between buying the computer parts (UK based company) and this issue, I had actually signed up to an MMO that was charged in USD... but no phone call to check on it.

*shrugs* sometimes the bank calls me several months later just to check that stuff I had bought was actually bought by me... i guess this is because I sometimes my card has minimal transactions on it (maybe £30 a month or so) and then has £400-£500 in one go...

You realise that probably has nothing to do with NCSoft and probably a great deal to do with your bank?

Just because an online retailer reports these things doesn't mean it was their systems that flagged it up. After all, if they get the right credentials then the banks are pretty much honour bound to cough up.

I have had my credit card refused once by NCSoft. It was nothing to do with them. My bank had installed new "security features" and had decided that the charge on my card that I had been paying monthly for 3 and a half years was suddenly suddenly suspicious and blocked it without telling me. <Muttley>snassel frassel rassel</Muttley>

My nasty paranoid mind tells me it won't be anytime soon. Unless extreme pains are taken to insure a "gift" feature won't be abused for creating a... secondary market of PPs and in-game scams that cost a victim real money to go with it.

Both "require proof that you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY are friends IRL" and "embrace, regulate and profit" paths had been tried by various companies, and both might work, but neither is easy to do just right.

Until they changed the software to require Shader 3 support, I was on a 6 month subscription for that game. Every 6 months, I could count on an early morning wake up call from my credit card, asking me to confirm it was a legitimate purchase.

You respond to every post saying that it isn't for 'you', but just for the devs (dev quotes also aren't acceptable).

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Originally Posted by ShadowNate ;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!

Dont worry, they recently upped the basic requirements as well to include SSE2 instructions... people still complained about that one (especially seeing as SSE2 came out in 2001) and not being able to play the game anymore (note: my 1st "real" PC i got in 2001, and it was 1.2GHz and didnt support SSE, but my replacement one just a few years later did (Athlon 64)..

Side note: Shader Model 3 as a requirement is actually increasing the requirement to a 7 year (and counting) standard... infact, it was "high end" at the time of Eve Online release. I can see why people *didnt* want to spend money upgrading their hardware... strangely enough though, if you can Ultra Mode CoX, your gfx card is good enough for Shader Model 3..

Those are hilarious... especially when posted in areas the Devs never look.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a Dev actually respond to one of those once... needless to say, the OP still was willing to accept what they said.


Yay for threadjacks! I sometimes wish the mods would just go through and close all the threads that have had the original reason resolved... but then I realize, where would I get so much of my entertainment?

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Originally Posted by ShadowNate ;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!

Credit cards aren't that common in Europe, and you'd be surprised how many sellers actually don't accept them.

The European version of the debit card (it's called an EC-card or electronic cash card) only works by putting it into a machine. Most stores offer payment with EC-cards, but they need special hardware for that. You can't use the card at home for purchases on the internet.

In Germany, there's a clever system called "Paysafecard". Many stores and vending machines sell them for cash, and they work like one-time prepaid debit cards. You don't need a bank account, they're available for minors, and if you have an EU account, the PlayNC store accepts them.

So, you can pay, say, 10€ at a local shop, get a paysafecard with the same balance (basically it's just a strip of paper with a code number on it), enter that number in the PlayNC store and buy anything for 10€ there. (Several cards can be combined for a purchase, so if you don't spend it all, the paysafecard server will remember the amout of money remaining on your code to be used later.)

There are many places that sell paysafecards. The easiest way to look for them is to check places that also sell cash cards for mobile phones.

10joy

Yes, the SSE2 requirement prevented my laptop (2005) from accessing the game also, so I called and canceled my subscription. Unfortunately, my desktop is around 10 years old, with an AGP graphics slot. I badly need an upgrade, but the money is just not there. I was hoping for late this year or using taxes next year for some new hardware, but it has been a very bad year for money, so I will have to put it off longer, unless something breaks.