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View Full Version : Some resolution on DDO store issues



MrWizard
02-08-2011, 03:31 PM
For those who missed the drama, almost 6 months ago there were some errors with the ddo store causing multiple purchases. Some threads were posted, no dev responses.
Thread OPs were told no refunds for over buying.

I personally wrote account support and said if that is true I would like them to take out my credit card. There answer was to cancel my account, no explanations, just bye.

I tried to call but could never get through.
I sent mails to account support but got canned answers about my vip discount loss and their way of addressing my questions and concerns.

Today my account was to expire, so I called to have it deleted. The guy on the phone explained that during that specific period the LOTRO was going Free to play and the entire account support was in the weeds. In fact, beyond in the weeds.

He said that all the previous tickets from back then are all gone as they upgraded to a new system so he could not even check to see what happened.

I asked about the security issues of the DDO store and he was forthcoming on some of the things they use to ensure more security from hackers. The passcode for ddo store use is something they seem to be entertaining.

As for paypal, it asks for a password, but you can only buy Turbine points with them. You cannot use it for membership.

To keep your card secure you can call and pay for your membership on the phone (and turbine points). Best to use paypal for turbine points and phone call to keep membership up.
Doing it this way will keep your vip discount (as long as you call to re-up before the expiration).


This will keep you card secure from the kids or a drunk spouse (LOL). It will not allow hackers access to anything with your card if they take your account over either.

This means once every 3 to 6 months (depending on your sub) you need to make one call to re-up. Points can be bought anytime using paypal and their password system.


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He did apologize for what happened and said each rep was handling thousands of emails a day and probably just saw 'remove credit card' and did not read anything else.
And my questions about the ddo store security, the forum threads and refunds...they were all met with canned responses due to the overwhelming business that F2P LOTRO threw at them.

(that was a cool commercial eh? 'You shall not pay!!!!')

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We discussed a lot of things I won't say on here. They do have some neat security measures and are thankfully looking at other options for ingame security.
Refunds are possible and are given. However, there are many that over buy and then get regret and they have to look into it. Errors are logged on their servers and it is easy for them to check.

At that time, the ddo store was banging out errors a lot, so they did work with people who complained (as best they could). And that is why it took some more than a month to get refunded.

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I feel better about what they are doing with the store but still would like to see a passcode.
The ability to buy TP with paypal and NOT keep any card on file for membership is a perfect answer for now...and a secure one.

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Lastly, I asked..prodded, hinted... Not a **** hint about update 9...


I did ask him to walk across to the developers and ask them one thing....
"How come no birds to kill? No gryphons, no hippogriffs, giant ostriches, death hawks, nothing....no avians. "

He said I should say something on the forums and if enough people say 'yea, what about birds?' the devs might think it in somewhere.


Birds you say?.... Think of the hitchcock film 'the birds' where a person is attacked by 200 birds at once and is eaten alive...chirp chirp chirp.

Or how about an evil OWL with beholder like spells? Hoot Hoot, Don't shoot!

MrWizard
02-08-2011, 03:36 PM
If I could add, I did ask about the turbine points and vip.
He said it should be working better than it used too.

I got the gist that after your sub is paid for, it will be some 2 to 3 days for the points to appear on your account...

so, check and let us know if that is happening

donfilibuster
02-08-2011, 03:45 PM
(that was a cool commercial eh? 'You shall not pay!!!!')
And you'd think they had learn from when ddo went f2p.
The ddo queue is long and it's been a year, could foresee needing more support crew for lotro going f2p.

Darkrok
02-08-2011, 04:41 PM
Paypal doesn't work as well unfortunately for multiple accounts. They will not let you tie more than one DDO account to a single Paypal account.

I have a lot of the concerns that MrWizard has. I'm honestly putting a lot of trust in my kids on their accounts to not just go in and buy DDO points. They're trustworthy...that's not the issue...but I hate being in that position period. A simple purchase password would alleviate that concern.

Phoenix-daBard
02-08-2011, 05:13 PM
Paypal doesn't work as well unfortunately for multiple accounts. They will not let you tie more than one DDO account to a single Paypal account.

I have a lot of the concerns that MrWizard has. I'm honestly putting a lot of trust in my kids on their accounts to not just go in and buy DDO points. They're trustworthy...that's not the issue...but I hate being in that position period. A simple purchase password would alleviate that concern.

Here is a thought: Get a prepaid Visa card that you can recharge. Put that on the account and only transfer over what you are willing to spend. Complete security and complete control.

This is what I plan on doing for my daughter when she gets old enough.

EDIT: OP-I'm glad you found resolution to your problems with turbine.

MrWizard
02-08-2011, 05:35 PM
EDIT: OP-I'm glad you found resolution to your problems with turbine.

I have to give the rep a +10 on it. He spent time researching the issue, listening to the whole story, then explained in detail all that happened back then.. (just wish he would have leaked mod 9 stuff to me!)

At least we know a true ddo store error will get you that refund.

IronClan
02-08-2011, 06:12 PM
To the OP glad to see they helped you reach a workable solution to stay with a game you obviously didn't WANT to leave. +1 for the info... if I was VIP I would use the method you detail myself.

To the peanut gallery, your posts look a lot like piling on intended to derail and troll... He reached a conclusion that doesn't expose his credit card to "at will" use by kids or hackers... Good for him... Why would he quit if he found a solution?

If you all were thinking about this issue instead of trying to pile on you'd realize that at the least his issues might help get the ball rolling on a password for store purchases (which the lack thereof is highly unprofessional IMO), and in the mean time informed us of a workable solution (in addition to getting a dedicated pre paid or one use card of course).

So while you chide the OP for not quitting (He obviously didn't really WANT to, so congratz on being masters of the obvious) he's done something pretty much none of you have in this thread.

If you don't take this issue seriously, well that's fine but some of us do take our credit cards seriously, especially those of us who actually own them.

Rumbaar
02-08-2011, 06:14 PM
I'm happy for you, in the fact calling them up is a viable option for you. A lot of players it's not a viable option and their only chance of support is via support tickets.

Which your post seems to indicate a lot just were lost and no word from Turbine to resubmit or care to the customer.

I know during that whole ban-gate saga a lot of players never got resolutions to their inquiries.

MrWizard
02-08-2011, 06:34 PM
I'm happy for you, in the fact calling them up is a viable option for you. A lot of players it's not a viable option and their only chance of support is via support tickets.

Which your post seems to indicate a lot just were lost and no word from Turbine to resubmit or care to the customer.

I know during that whole ban-gate saga a lot of players never got resolutions to their inquiries.

I should have asked about overseas, good point.
He did not tell me when they went to the new system, but he did mention that when they did all previous info was unavailable (all my tickets back and forth on the issue 4-6 months ago).

So they must have also been changing over a lot and probably during that time they just jettisoned all of it...and left a lot of issues hanging.

Obviously they were in the weeds and I think most of us have been in that position at our jobs...so many things at once you cannot keep up and it gets chaotic and you miss a lot.

Schmoe
02-08-2011, 06:34 PM
Thanks for the followup. I tried fairly recently to use one of those limited debit cards to purchase points with. Unfortunately, the card would not validate, so depending on which kind of card you try it may or may not work. When I called account support about the card, they indicated that they could authorize the transaction as a one time payment without attaching the card to the account. So that's another viable option for purchasing points that doesn't expose you to unnecessary risk.

Forgeborn
02-08-2011, 06:50 PM
Paypal doesn't work as well unfortunately for multiple accounts. They will not let you tie more than one DDO account to a single Paypal account.

I have to regret to inform you that this is false.

While Paypal might not have unlimited linked accounts to it, it is allowed up to 3 different accounts at a time to be connected to it (or at least mine is), so it might work out if you don't have several accounts per person in your household.

Veileira
02-08-2011, 09:01 PM
Happy to know they are working on better security measures and thanks for following up and reporting.

MrWizard
02-09-2011, 12:33 AM
to be clear, fyi, I was using a debit card, so the fear of an emptied account with months waiting for a refund (if ever) was HIGHLY scary...and the main reason for my original mail to them.

a 120/year account suddenly throws up 500 to 1000 in sales one day while I am at work, kills my account and things start bouncing. The nightmare would never end.



I was thinking about the overseas thing...they need to have a special form for overseas clients. This form would end up being read instead of glossed over to be put in the proper place and taken care of.


Lets say there are 200,000 active players and 10% have a bug, account question, ingame issue, outgame issue, etc....just 10%...that is 20,000 mails/requests a day to take care of. At 1% that is 2,000. Still a huge amount of requests.

I imagine at free onset of LOTRO and DDO still reeling from F2P there were a lot more than that a day due to the newer people needing help.

The numbers are mind boggling. How many mails a day could you read, understand, check out an issue, etc, then type out a response? Each one could take 5 minutes. Lets say they all only took 1 minute, 8 hour work day, that is 60 an hour/8 hours. 480 mails.
I believe the mails would take longer than one minute.
So to take care of 2,400 it would take 5 employees every minute of the day to clear that out, only taking one minute on each letter.

10 times that amount of requests would require 50, at only 1 minute a request.

put that to an average of 5 a minute and it would take 5x the amount of people.

I can understand what happened better after talking to the guy. Thanks dude.

Wrendd
02-09-2011, 09:13 AM
Hello again Mr Wizard. I remember your problems very well and I was active in that thread (think I sent you some PMs as well). Glad to hear that things are sorting themselves out for you. If you have the time, please keep us informed on any further developments, I am really interested if anyting else changes.