Lost Vip Account Status

[Raven-sb]

Hi,

I'm a player living in New Zealand. Two days ago I created an account for DDO and upgraded it to VIP status. Today I logged onto my account only to find that it has been bounced back to a 'free account'. I have more than enough money on my credit card, so payment shouldn't be the issue. I've received no emails or error messages to say that there is a problem with my account.

Does any body have an ideas how to fix this or what the problem is. I've contact Turbine's Account Support by email (phone call is too expensive from this part of the world), however the wait times for their customer support of 1-3 business days, espectually as today and tommorow in the US is not a business day, is unacceptable. I am very frustrated by this situation, which was made worse by the hoops I had to jump through in order to subscribe in the first place.

Regards,

Raven

[Serivik]

I'm having exactly the same problem: subscribed one night and the next morning I was back to Free. Also waiting for my customer support ticket to go through.

[skermajo]

+1 here to all those original comments. Especially how I had to read a forum FAQ to *give Turbine money* with my Aussie credit card . . was a little confusing.

Submitted support ticket, hopefully they'll be onto it quickly after easter, considering they've taken my money. :(

I am very frustrated also, considering I rolled a monk, which I then couldn't play the next day. I would like to expect we will also get additional time to account for the days that have been lost at VIP status.

[Victorie]

I am sorry, we can't assist with account specific issues (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=212326) such as this via the forums. However, I can tell you that there are generally 2 things that can cause this issue to happen (along with a fix):

1. Even if you have enough funds on the card, your credit card company may decline the subscription fee. Check your statement to see if they actually deducted the $14.99 monthly (or the multi month plan that you picked). If you only see a $1.00, that's an authorization hold that will be released back to the card within a week (at most). You will probably need to contact your card company and let them know you want to pay us. Then update your card, click the "Get Unlimited Access" button and it will process the payment the next morning.

2. If you upgrade, and then immediately cancel, the system doesn't fully process the upgrade. You have to wait until after the payment processes the next day before you cancel. You'll be able to confirm that the subscription payment wasn't processed with your credit card company.

[Raven-sb]

I am sorry, we can't assist with account specific issues (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=212326) such as this via the forums. However, I can tell you that there are generally 2 things that can cause this issue to happen (along with a fix):

1. Even if you have enough funds on the card, your credit card company may decline the subscription fee. Check your statement to see if they actually deducted the $14.99 monthly (or the multi month plan that you picked). If you only see a $1.00, that's an authorization hold that will be released back to the card within a week (at most). You will probably need to contact your card company and let them know you want to pay us. Then update your card, click the "Get Unlimited Access" button and it will process the payment the next morning.

2. If you upgrade, and then immediately cancel, the system doesn't fully process the upgrade. You have to wait until after the payment processes the next day before you cancel. You'll be able to confirm that the subscription payment wasn't processed with your credit card company.

Hi Victorie,

Thank you for your response. Point 2 doesn't apply to me, and even though I'm very sure point 1 doesn't apply either, I'm currently going through the motions of finding out. I can confirm that there is no $1.00 holding fee on my account at present (or any other amount for that matter). I am calling my credit card company and will post back their response here. I feel I must point out that I have never had any problems subscribing to MMO's (even Turbine's MMO's) like this in the past.


It would have been nice to have received an email stating their was a problem with the account. Having received no such email, I'm left in the dark waiting for your support department to get back to me. I only wish they were as prompt in their response as you were with your forum post. Whilst I know you can't assist with account specfic issues here, I feel that due to the frustrating lack of communication from Turbine, posting on the forums is the only way of making sure I am heard.

UPDATE: Ok, I've spoken with the credit card company. They have stated they have received no payment or authorisation requests from Turbine. There are no unauthorised, declined, uncharged, or charged requests on my credit card account from Turbine. Based on this I will attempt to resubscribe. Personally I think Turbine have a problem with their payment systems.


Regards,

Raven

[skermajo]

After I subscribed to VIP, played at VIP then lost VIP status, I was able to buy turbine points just fine with the same credit card.

Given that there are a few people who have responded, I tend to agree with the OP that either the process is not spelled out correctly to the user in terms of the timelines involved or that there is indeed a problem. Whatever the case, paying for something and then having the access removed without any communication from Turbine in any form has certainly left me feeling uneasy.

As the original poster stated, I hope the account support department is as fast getting to their support tickets as their forum helpers :) Knowing I paid for access to all the red quests I see is frustrating.

[Victorie]

I can confirm that our billing systems are working properly. However, we do have very strict, thorough verification procedures, that can stop cards from being added at all. You can check this on the "Payment Method" tab on the Account Management website.

Also, please be sure you using a supported browser to update the information, as other browsers may simply not register the information. Our websites are supported for Internet Explorer 6, 7 (or 8 in compatiblity mode) or Firefox 2 or higher.

I can also tell you that if you don't have access, there is a very good chance that the payment hasn't processed, which may ease the sting a little anyway. You might try to upgrade again via the website, and be sure to check for a green confirmation message at the top of the page, which lets you know that it worked. If you get a red error message, note the error number, and see if it is listed in our Knowledge Base. That may give you a better idea of what has gone wrong.

Unfortunately, turn around for Account Management emails is about a week at this time, due to the volume from the PAX specials. We're answering all emails as fast as we can in the order they were received.

[Raven-sb]

I can confirm that our billing systems are working properly. However, we do have very strict, thorough verification procedures, that can stop cards from being added at all. You can check this on the "Payment Method" tab on the Account Management website.

Also, please be sure you using a supported browser to update the information, as other browsers may simply not register the information. Our websites are supported for Internet Explorer 6, 7 (or 8 in compatiblity mode) or Firefox 2 or higher.

I can also tell you that if you don't have access, there is a very good chance that the payment hasn't processed, which may ease the sting a little anyway. You might try to upgrade again via the website, and be sure to check for a green confirmation message at the top of the page, which lets you know that it worked. If you get a red error message, note the error number, and see if it is listed in our Knowledge Base. That may give you a better idea of what has gone wrong.

Unfortunately, turn around for Account Management emails is about a week at this time, due to the volume from the PAX specials. We're answering all emails as fast as we can in the order they were received.


Hi Victorie,

Thank you again for your response. To answer your points, I am using the latest version of Firefox, 3.6.

Whilst the site did return a red error message initially (time-out), I re-entered the information and it succeeded with the green message.


In an attempt to keep things civil, I wont get started about your payment system. In the interest of constructive feedback however I will say this - never; in all my time of playing MMO's and using online subscriptions, have I come across such an unintuitive, hard to use and frustratingly annoying payment system such as the one used by Turbine. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it works perfectly, for those in the US, Canada, or Mexico who haven't subcribed to another Turbine game yet. For those of us outside those countries, or who have subscribed to another Turbine game (i.e LOTRO), the hoops we have to jump through to get an account set up is quite frankly astounding.

Lastly communication goes a long way to easing frustration. Not only am I yet to receive comfirmation that my support ticket has been submitted, I have also yet to receive any emails from Turbine to a) confirm that I am subscribed, or b) that there is a problem with my credit card. Currently my account shows I am subscribed. Hopefully I will still be subscribed at the end of the week (i.e your payment system wont have bounced me back to a free account again). It says a lot about the quality of DDO as a game that I am willing to persist despite these problems.

Regards,

Raven

[skermajo]

I'll add to Raven's points above by saying that I just created a new account rather then using my LoTR trial account . . I gave up.

But to further illustrate the frustration, I had VIP status and now do not! There is a monk character on my account right now (Khyber server) that I cannot play because I have lost my VIP status within 24 hours! How is this possible!? Do you get granted access before the payment is processed?

I had no errors in the process, everything seemed to proceed as normal. I have been able to buy Turbine points using the same, unedited payment details that I used to get said VIP status.

[Raven-sb]

To be fair I thought I'd update this thread to say that I have now received an email from Turbine support and my account problems look like they have been sorted out.

Now that's all sorted my Barbarian has some monster heads he wants to bash...