Purchasing Zen through steam is a no no?

remiel · January 2017

i had a few giftcards that had a balance of 5$ or so left on them. I had read on a site ( dont remember which ) that zen were sold in the amounts of 500, 1k, 2, 10k, 20k but running the game with ARC i did not see the 500zen option. I ask about it in game and received a PM from someone and they said to download the steam client, that it has the option for 500zen.

So i do this and run the 18gb not on demand, buy 4 times 500zen ( 2000 in total ) and i get a message in the zen market that my account has been put on a probationary period.

My question is... If steam is not a legit form of purchasing zen, why did the arc client ask for verification before the transaction went through and even more so how does ARC let steam sell in game currency?

remiel · January 2017

And now that i look through the payment faq you give directions on how to use steam to purchase Zen in game, so why exactly has my account been flagged for probationary period...

lantern22 · January 2017

you just need to wait a little while. Definately dont buy any wards, enchants etc with that Zen otherwise they will be bound to account (and for the wards, anything you upgrade using them will be bound to account

)

xxxhansolxxx · January 2017

Probationary period doesnt mean you did something wrong. It means PWE doesnt really thrust your transaction made through Steam yet and want to make sure everything is legit. So it means everything you buy from the Zen store will be bound to account and you can't sell astral diamonds on the exchange while on probation.

Its been a long time since I had this issue, so it might be a lil different now, but your probation shouldnt last more than a couple of days.

kreatyve · January 2017

Copy pasting with a bit of editing:

This system has been in place on Neverwinter, since July 31st, 2014, where it has worked effectively. It was enabled due to increases in credit card fraud.

What this new system does to protect all players is to temporarily change the way ZEN is treated by accounts that may be flagged for consideration in the new probation system. While we are introducing this system into Neverwinter, there is a chance that the rules may result in a false positive trigger but we have reduced the chance for that to the bare minimum. When purchasing ZEN, if an account is flagged, it puts the account into a temporary “probation” state for review by the system. New ZEN buyers and those with a limited purchase history may get temporarily flagged into the probation system. Nearly all purchases through Steam will cause your account to be flagged.

When on probation, Zen cannot be traded on the Astral Diamond Exchange to acquire AD. Also, some purchases made in the Zen Store may become bound-to-account instead of being tradable. You will get a warning dialog at the time of purchase letting you know that the purchase will be bound-to-account.

The bound-to-account status is “contagious”, so that if you open a Lock Box using an Enchanted Key that has this status, everything from the Lock Box will also be bound-to-account in the same way. This contagious nature applies to anything you get from the Zen Store that can be opened, and the purpose is to prevent fraudulent purchases from being traded off of the account.

The system is intended to have minimal impact on users who purchase for themselves. All purchases are bound-to-account, so you can still move the purchases between your own characters. This is only an inconvenience if you planned to purchase for later trading to other players.

If you receive the warning about a Zen Store purchase being bound-to-account and do not wish to have bound items, cancel your purchase and try again the next day. The probation status is removed from your account once the financial transaction is confirmed, which can take up to 10 days. Any purchase you make after the probation status is cleared will not have the bound-to-account status added, and can be traded freely. Purchased items that become bound-to-account will permanently remain account bound, so you need to make this choice before purchasing.

remiel · January 2017

I get all of that, just not sure why the system would flag me for the purchases when steam is a legit seller for this game. Maybe because it was 4 small purchases of 5$ or something. No one seems to know how long it will take for the payments to be verified so i can start to play as normal again, but iirc it's been 3-4 days isnt that enough to make sure the cash was deposited into the account from a prepaid gift card?

Just want to say thanks for the replies as well, im new here just started maybe a month ago.

kreatyve · January 2017

Mainly, it's so that if your payment through Steam isn't legit, or you try to stop the payment through Steam, they can take back the Zen and anything you purchased with it, without it impacting other players.

nameexpired · January 2017

kreatyve said:

[...]When purchasing ZEN, if an account is flagged, it puts the account into a temporary “probation” state for review by the system. New ZEN buyers and those with a limited purchase history may get temporarily flagged into the probation system. Nearly all purchases through Steam will cause your account to be flagged.

When on probation, Zen cannot be traded on the Astral Diamond Exchange to acquire AD. Also, some purchases made in the Zen Store may become bound-to-account instead of being tradable. You will get a warning dialog at the time of purchase letting you know that the purchase will be bound-to-account.

The bound-to-account status is “contagious”, so that if you open a Lock Box using an Enchanted Key that has this status, everything from the Lock Box will also be bound-to-account in the same way. This contagious nature applies to anything you get from the Zen Store that can be opened, and the purpose is to prevent fraudulent purchases from being traded off of the account.
[...]
All purchases are bound-to-account, so you can still move the purchases between your own characters. This is only an inconvenience if you planned to purchase for later trading to other players.

[...]

... and be aware that Cryptic does not have the level of competence to remove the BtA status on the items you bought with your real-money-ZEN. Or they just don't care. You have to give them money for grace period without interest before you use it.

remiel · January 2017

Yea i see that, it's a real bummer.

remiel · January 2017

I'm just curious how long it takes to verify a mastercard giftcard payment lol, been like 4 days or so. it either got paid or it didnt, just no one can give me a roundabout time frame =/

beckylunatic · January 2017

It's not how long it takes Steam to receive your money, it's how long it takes Steam to render that payment to Arc, and our understanding is those go in batches so how long it takes for you to be off probation depends on how soon before Steam processes another batch payment. Nobody can give you a more accurate time frame.

(Unless you somehow come up with a clever plan to access Steam's financial records.)

tuesdayrolld20 · January 2017

It takes about a week. Then the hold comes off your account. The good thing is that once you make that initial purchase and wait the hold time, all future Zen purchases through steam have no hold put on your zen(speaking from experience).

Hope this helps.

nameexpired · January 2017

tuesdayrolld20 said:
It takes about a week. Then the hold comes off your account. The good thing is that once you make that initial purchase and wait the hold time, all future Zen purchases through steam have no hold put on your zen(speaking from experience).

Hope this helps.

Nevertheless, be aware that a lot of ZEN-bonus-buy incentives do not work with steam. Better check three or four times if the "BONUS! receive 150% ZEN if you buy ZEN today" also includes steam payments.

remiel · January 2017

The only reason i even used steam is because there isnt a 500zen purchase option with the arc client, and i was cleaning out the balance on multiple gift cards that had a balance of 5$ left on them. Brings me to another question, why doesnt the arc client have a 500zen option?

tuesdayrolld20 · January 2017

nameexpired said:

tuesdayrolld20 said:
It takes about a week. Then the hold comes off your account. The good thing is that once you make that initial purchase and wait the hold time, all future Zen purchases through steam have no hold put on your zen(speaking from experience).

Hope this helps.
Nevertheless, be aware that a lot of ZEN-bonus-buy incentives do not work with steam. Better check three or four times if the "BONUS! receive 150% ZEN if you buy ZEN today" also includes steam payments.

Very true. Make sure Steam is part of the promo!!!! Thanks for pointing that out.

Purchasing Zen through steam is a no no?

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