Bank accounts drained, players ticked
For those of you who don’t know, Mythic’s billing department screwed up big time.
A quick survey of FOTF members shows that members were billed between seven and 15 times per account. The amount of the charge depended on how you repay (month to month or several months at once). One guildie said he had more than $300 in overdraft fees from his bank.
So far every person I have talked to has had this happen. This is huge.
Thankfully Mythic is posting on their Web site that it should be cleared up within 3 business days. Many of us who have overdrafted are concerned that this could go onto our credit reports. Keep an eye on the Warhammer Herald for more information.
Here are links to what other Warhammer bloggers are saying about the issue:
- High Latency Life: EA/Mythic’s huge error
- WASDstomp: Warhammer Online Charges Me 16 Times Today
- Grimnir’s Grudge: Look… guys… if you need money, at least ask first…
- I heart Gorfang: You know, if you needed cash, and Here is how you “make this right”
- Slashdot: Games: Warhammer Online Users Repeatedly Overbilled
The comments of these posts are pretty golden. Healeroftru of Gorfang is calling it “Warscammer Online: Age of Thievery.”
The big assumption is banking institutions will refund the overdraft fees, from Slashdot:
They haven’t specifically promised to refund overdraft charges, only to ask customers’ banks to refund them once the actual charges are refunded. They seem to be assuming banks will have no problem with this.
A poster on Slashdot who supposedly works for Visa says there are some steps we need to take, regardless of whether Mythic takes action to reverse the charges:
So to summarize, call your bank if you were one of the ones fucked over by EA and request an immediate dispute on all charges beyond the one authorized and agreed upon charges (and then proceed to cancel your subscription to Warhammer). Also, as a word to the wise, make sure to ask your bank to stop subscription charges from EA. Just canceling and getting a new debit card isn’t enough. If a merchant has an authorization for subscription billing, they can still bill the card even after the card is canceled, since they have an authorization already.
Canceling the account could be our best recourse if we are afraid of that sort of thing. Instead we would have to buy game cards if we want to continue to play.
April 11th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I am waiting for a special announcement tomorrow morning about what they are going to do for the players to win them back.
Two things in my eyes would help, but it is similar to your gf/wife cheating on you, and you giving them a second chance. You will never forget what happened.
First they need to assure us that any billing info that is no longer the payment method is deleted from their system. I realized after this fiasco that they now have three of my credit card numbers from different accounts, and switching cards when resubscribing.
i couldn’t even imagine if all three of my cards had this happen. I would be even more pissed.
Secondly they need to bite the bullet. Giving free game time for Warhammer is not the answer. People are pissed right now. You don’t offer someone free meals for two months at a restaurant if they found a dead rat in their soup.
They need to give us something outside of the game, but something that really isn’t going to cost them money. Everyone gets a SWTOR closed beta invite. Everyone gets a free upgrade to the collectors edition when buying the regular box version when the game comes out.
They have to earn our trust back. Just like earlier when I mentioned a cheating gf/wife it takes alot of time to rebuild that trust. It doesn’t just happen overnight.
April 11th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Oh absolutely! I am just not sure what that will be. They totally screwed up on this. I know they have apologized but his has tangible, real-world impacts to people who have overdraft fees, and possibly credit check issues.
April 12th, 2010 at 10:27 am
It’s sad that Mythic gets a black sploth on their record cause of EA’s billing system screw up.
I still like the game, and if EA get’s my money back in timely fashion..I’ll still play.
Or I break one of their legs, bookie style.
April 13th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
I got charged too, and hey look my quote is up there!!
Even though this was all just a big mistake, I think that they should at least give players affected something. Depending on the severity on how much they were charged.