Is there a way to change credit card info on a current subscription?

broadnax · March 2019

My wife, daughter, and I are on the 3-month sub cycle, and I do not want to lose the subscription--and access to our many freeform characters-- under the new restricted sub model.

The credit card associated with the accounts is being reissued with a new number as a precaution because of a merchant data breach, but I cannot find a way to edit the info in my account to update the card. What am I missing?

kallethen · March 2019

Try submitting a support ticket. I had recently done so to make a change to my subscription and that worked well for me.

broadnax · March 2019

I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

broadnax · March 2019

Well, I got a response from PW. They apparently cannot let me update CC info for subs that are no longer being offered. So because of a data breach at some merchant and PW's decision, my wife, daughter, and I will lose our quarterly subs.

I cannot afford to buy three lifetime accounts, and there is no way I can pay to unlock all 54 of my freeform characters (not to mention my family's FFs), so Champions may be going the way of the wind for us. It's a sad day.

flyingfinn · March 2019

Bomb the Support until they do they job.

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

That's terrible. Given enough time, probably everyone gets a new credit card number issued because of this kind of problem. They really should have a way to allow people to continue subscriptions if all it takes is updating a number.

wingedkagouti · March 2019

flyingfinn wrote: »

Bomb the Support until they do they job.

It's quite possible that the people handling his request just don't have the tools to do so and that corporate policy does not allow them to escalate these matters to someone who does.

flyingfinn · March 2019

Or that continuing contacting Support, there might be one person who actually knows what to do. (happened few times...)
Mentioning money might also help...

broadnax · March 2019

I've sent back a response (a polite one

) for clarification. If it is still a no go, I'll either open a new ticket and hope a different person looks at it or see if there is a way to escalate.

I miss being able to talk to real people on the phone instead of playing email tag.

warcanch · March 2019

We are slowly being replaced. Pretty soon, I won't be real any more.

broadnax · March 2019

No go. We are going to lose our subs. We might play some of our ATs on occasion, but no more money will go into Champions. This really hurts longtime customers, especially when it is caused by something out of our control.

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

That's just terrible. My condolences to your entire family. I guess they just don't want money.

flyingfinn · March 2019

Awww crap, dude. That whole thing they did with subs, is one of the most stupidest things they've done.
You could start a fundraiser.... Like that one guy...

aiqa · March 2019

Credit cards have an expiration date. So what would happen if a card runs out? The same I assume?

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

I guess every monthly subscription will be cancelled by CO at some point over these sorts of non-customer controllable pretexts. Really bad form on CO's part.

aiqa · March 2019

This is a bit odd though. They said people would be able to stay subbed.
From thread https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/comment/12807403

ambassadorkael#6946 wrote: »

Hey folks,

Just had a long chat with the Champs team, and I wanted to clear some things up:

Yes, if your subscription lapses your character slots will revert to silver, which is how it worked before. But it's important to note that we are not turning off subscriptions, and if you're subscribed to the game and wish to remain subscribed, you're totally able to do so. Your slots won't go away.

If they can't even update information for expired credit cards, they can hardly claim you are "totally able" to stay subscribed.

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

I guess CO is lucky that some lawyer hasn't had his/her subscription cancelled/lapsed for this sort of reason.

kyastral · March 2019

Wow..that's just terrible.

So, basically in order to keep your subscription you have to keep the same card number. I also wonder about expiration dates; even debit cards have expiration dates and most cards are only good for two years.

But don't give up hope so easily; you can wait for the next lifetime membership sale and take advantage of it. Also, keep an eye on the forums for any log-in bonuses.

broadnax · March 2019

Thanks for the encouragement, Kyastral. Giving up is not an easy decision. As noted in my first post, I cannot afford 3 lifetime subs (me, my wife, my daughter). I also cannot afford to unlock my 54 freeforms. 7 of my 13 ATs will also be locked behind a paywall. This doesn't include my family's characters on their accounts.

If I were a newer player who had not already invested a bunch of time and money into CO for character slots, costumes, etc., it might not be so big a deal. But I am longtime player. From my viewpoint, I will be paying twice for the same content. I know there are some forum posters who pooh-pooh that idea, but it is true nonetheless because of the time and money already spent to get what we have in CO.

The reason we are losing our subs is out of our control. PW's policy says that doesn't matter.

On a side note, PW did get more of our money, just not for CO. My wife and I both already had lifetime subs in STO; we just bought one for our daughter (on sale) last night. We play more STO then CO, so investing in one more lifetime there seemed the better option.

Maybe we'll stick with our home-grown PnP game for the superhero genre for now. STO for sci-fi, LOTRO for fantasy, our own PnP game for superhero.

lan · March 2019

It really seems increasingly clear that this company no longer wishes to stay in business.

shredmonkey · March 2019

This is such a predictable issue. I understand that a company is monitoring the most valuable aspect if thier product... But they should have allowed current customers to grandfather in thier subscriptions to avoid this scenario.

flyingfinn · March 2019

Subs from CO were allways pocketchange for PWI. The money comes from something else.
Maybe from '100 Extra Aura Storage Slots'.

darqaura2 · March 2019

This was just poor planning on their part.

hah · March 2019

lan#8253 wrote: »

It really seems increasingly clear that this company no longer wishes to stay in business.

Nope, they just don't really give a crap about CO. When is the last time you saw an offer of discounted Zen advertised for anything other than STO and NW?

PWE bought Cryptic for STO & NW only... CO gets to live under the stairs.

pantagruel01 · March 2019

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

They really should have a way to allow people to continue subscriptions if all it takes is updating a number.

I suspect a significant reason behind eliminating subscriptions is that it's a system that stores credit card numbers, which means it needs to be kept secure, which means it needs continuing security updates that cost money. They may have stored existing credit card numbers in an inaccessible way specifically to mitigate that risk, in which case they really can't update your CCN without violating their own security policy.

warcanch · March 2019

Yes, please understand that this is not Cryptics' choice. Their owner, PWE made this decision. For many of their games, it is a choice that works as intended. Making it a blanket decision is par for the corporate decision-makers. Even if they considered that this was actually a detrimental negative effect on one asset, it is still an overall net gain. Easy decision to make. For them.

Not an easy decision to live with when you are on the wrong end of it, of course.

I'm glad you're getting the correct attitudes from the forum playerbase. This sucks and there is little alternative. After you depart you may get a hankering for CO again. Still lots of players that enjoy their ATs and group content. Check them out. They'll be happy to have you play with them.

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

But, people with half a brain would know that ALL credit cards are going to lapse at some point and they should have planned for that. For a player with a subscription it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. They know they are going to lose their subscription at some point and there is nothing they can do about it. E.g. if you see your card is going to lapse in a few months, why spend any more on a game that is going to kick you out at that point?

pantagruel01 wrote: »

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

They really should have a way to allow people to continue subscriptions if all it takes is updating a number.

I suspect a significant reason behind eliminating subscriptions is that it's a system that stores credit card numbers, which means it needs to be kept secure, which means it needs continuing security updates that cost money. They may have stored existing credit card numbers in an inaccessible way specifically to mitigate that risk, in which case they really can't update your CCN without violating their own security policy.

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

Umm, last month there was a sale on Zen. I know, I bought some. I only buy Zen when it is on sale.

hah#7468 wrote: »

lan#8253 wrote: »

It really seems increasingly clear that this company no longer wishes to stay in business.

Nope, they just don't really give a crap about CO. When is the last time you saw an offer of discounted Zen advertised for anything other than STO and NW?

PWE bought Cryptic for STO & NW only... CO gets to live under the stairs.

pantagruel01 · March 2019

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

But, people with half a brain would know that ALL credit cards are going to lapse at some point and they should have planned for that.

The plan was 'hopefully we can get them off subscription'.

aiqa · March 2019

pantagruel01 wrote: »

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

But, people with half a brain would know that ALL credit cards are going to lapse at some point and they should have planned for that.

The plan was 'hopefully we can get them off subscription'.

That is a bit of a naive hope. It seems obvious to me people would be running into these problems now and then. And of those at least some portion will post about it in the forums, dragging up this whole thing again and again. So with that, PW has worked itself into a corner with a semi-continuous stream of negativity from their costumers.

Compared to how they are handling things now, I think they would have been better off doing it all at once, and just cancel all subscription.

pantagruel01 · March 2019

aiqa wrote: »

Compared to how they are handling things now, I think they would have been better off doing it all at once, and just cancel all subscription.

Oh, the entire way they did the end to subs for CO was a trainwreck, but I'm not sure what options would have been any better.

jaazaniah1 · March 2019

Well, creating an option for loyal continuing customers to update their cred card information should have been baked in from the start. To my mind they lied to such subscribers by saying they could continue their subscriptions when they well knew this would not be the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnUPbnFmcDE

darqaura2 · March 2019

Truly unfortunate, but I don't think it was malicious.
With that said they should have planned for this aspect better.

Is there a way to change credit card info on a current subscription?

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