Yesterday there were some problems with billing. I was told this by the supervisor "Amy" from billing support. I was charged 4.99 through my debit card. This money is now on hold. It was my paypal debit card, so I only have money in there for when I need it. Now I cannot even subscribe to the game until I get the money back. All of this was due to a billing problem through plaync. I spoke with some people in game, and they told me that they had free time added to their accounts. Amy told me that this was impossible, and even laughed when I mentioned it.

Does playNC even care about their customers? They are not even trying to help me. They simply said that I had to take care of it myself. Has anyone else here ever even once had free membership added to their accounts?

Here is an email after the call from the supervisor.

"As I explained on the phone, when you attempted to reactivate your ******** game account on 02/12/07 , your financial institution approved those attempted transactions, but then our billing verification system declined them due to error in our billing system. Because your financial institution approved those attempted transactions, they are holding them as "pending" transactions, expecting us to capture those. Due to the declination of those charges, we will never actually capture those funds. They should eventually be released according to the policies of your financial institution."

Isn't there any way I can have my account activated for free for the 3-10 days paypal states I have to wait? It is not fair to me, as a customer, to have to take care of plaync's problems myself.

I am not even sure if I want to attempt subscribing again when I get my money back. If they cannot help customers now, then how can I possibly get support if another problem occurs?

I'm a banker, so maybe I can explain a little bit on *that* end of things. As far as the customer service and stuff- I see hwo that's frustrating.

Basically, when you make a charge on your debit card, the only thing that initially occurs is the company sending an electronic notification that those funds are expected to be deducted from your account. We usually refer to these as pending items. The money is not actually taken from your account until the debiting company takes further action to retrieve those funds; however, they won't let you use that money until the charges fall off (usually about 3 business days since there's a deadline for companies to purse further action regarding a charge).

So the way it looks now, if we were to look at the bank's system, is that PlayNC tried to take money from your account. The bank said it was ok, but PlayNC's system messed up and will not be able to process the rest of the transaction. This means that even though there is a "pending" or "holding" charge on your account, the money isn't going to be taken out. You should feel free to resubscribe and not have to worry about the initial charge ever being officially debited from your account...assuming they didn't make you mad and change your mind about subscribing. :P

That may not be a ton of help, but that's the best way I can explain that for ya. They're not being dishonest, so you don't have to worry about that. The problem you're experiencing happens thousands of times a day to just one bank, so it's pretty routine- not that it will make you feel any better about it.

Bah...I just reread your post and I misunderstood your problem. It's that PayPal won't let you use that money since it's pending, and you didn't have more than that in the PayPal account. Sorry for the long-winded mess up there.

One thing you may try: every bank has a way to remove those authorizations on a card. Normally, there's no way for a customer to have those charges removed. However, you can often call the bank and ask what number a merchant would call to have a charge removed. My bank's is the "Merchant Authorization Status" department or something like that. *IF* you can get someone who's willing to go the extra mile, you can sometimes have them call that number for you, with all your information, and get the authorization cancelled. That may be a long shot, depending on the bank and who from PlayNC you can get to help you (and if they even have any authority in that area), but it could get you going sooner.

It is their fault that the transaction got messed up, but now the problem is the way the banks work with pending debits. So NCSoft messed up, and because of the way the banks work, he can't subscribe again until that charge clears.

Or until he ponies up another $5.

~Ripper

Well, the money is not the main problem. It is that I would have to wait 3-4 days to get more money into the paypal account or until the money is returned to be able to resubscribe. I wanted to subscribe over a day ago now, and still have to wait 2-3 days before I can. I made it a goal to get that done that day, and now I am forced to wait a 3-4 days. It is like buying a game online and having to wait for delivery. I really was not looking forward to that, as I had already installed and updated the game. I had been already waiting days to subscribe.

Edited by Crucible1001 (02/14/07 01:46 AM)

I can understand that. I know it's frustrating; however, you CAN still play the game without actually becoming a member. You can go ahead and start working on your character, etc. You just won't be able to use certain items or the bank yet.

I also sympathize. But don't let it get you down. If you decide to play anyway You'll find that you won't even starf finding yellows for a few levels and the Non-member pots will work fine for ya too. Once the subscription mess is all sorted out you won't even notice a difference for a few levels...give it a try.