Finally tried to buy zen, and now the nightmare never ends...

Tiffanny - Sanctuary · January 2009

I have no idea how anyone has ever managed to purchase zen. I used my valid Visa debit card, through Google Checkout, to try and order 10,000 zhen (two orders of 5000 each).

PWE cancelled my orders, sent me an automated e-mail that was as vague, confusing and poorly written as anything I had ever seen in my life (mismatched information was their odd excuse for rejecting my order), which claimed I needed to first answer a bunch of questions pertaining to my game account, then e-mail the answers back to them. I did so, replying to the email they sent me, and nothing happened. No response.

I went to my bank the following morning to find out why I could no longer use my debit card, and was told PWE had placed a "hold" on my money. This in spite of the fact they said they cancelled my order and had NOT charged my card.

I have since filed a ticket with PWE through their support page. No response. I sent another e-mail to their billing department, asking for help resolving the issue. No response. I drove over to my bank again today to try and get help unfreezing my debit card so I could use it again, and was again told that PWE had froze my account by placing a hold on my funds, preventing me from accessing the money.

I'm stuck in limbo now, basically. What angers me the most is, everything about this so far smells like a fraud. A scam. An attempt at theft. I have never in my life dealt with a company which did this to me: cancelled my order when no other online business has ever rejected that same card; sent me an auto-generated e-mail which was vaguely worded and offered no solutions to to the alleged problem; lied to me by claiming they didn't charge my card, and then placing a "hold" on the card so I could no longer use it; ignoring all of my communication attempts via emails, telephone, and support tickets.

What am I supposed to do? When is this supposed to end? My bank claimed they could do nothing so long as PWE had my money on "hold"; even if I cancelled my bank account, which I asked about doing, I was told the money wouldn't be returned to me so long as PWE had a "hold" on it. I could get no answer whatsoever as to how long PWE could legally "hold" my money without providing me with either a product or service. In the end, I'm left feeling angry, used, and fairly well determined to end my relationship with PWE forever. Just stop playing PWI, not purchasing zen, just cutting my losses and getting the Hell away from them before something worse happens to me.

If there is anyone who has a solution for me, as to how I can ever get my money back (there's no hope of getting so-called "zen", PWE cancelled my order almost immediately upon my placing it), please help. This is very upsetting to me, because it in almost every way matches all 10 steps of the "Consumer Fraud" checklist I keep atop my desk next to my computer. Thanks.

--Scott

thom · January 2009

Sounds like your visa/google and account info's didnt match, or your visa info didnt match with either of those.

Mismatch in information is a very serious thing actually. They verify those info's so nobody can use anyone else's credit card illegally.

Hold on your money is there to prevent anyone illegally trying to charge your card.

Also give the support some time to answer, they will get it sorted out, since its only account info's that are wrong.

Might take longer if it looks on their data that you were trying to buy zen without your own card or the account isnt yours, sounds a lot like it looks to be possible fraud to them.

Sorry but cant offer anything to help with the matter,except be patient and wait for the support to answer. They will answer eventually.

Not the best idea to go pointing fingers first when you got email telling you what went wrong.

Saitada - Sanctuary · January 2009

If your bank is telling you that you can't stop payment on a charge regardless of wether their is a hold or not (for services you have yet to receive? wtf kinda **** is that?).... I'd be getting a new bank asap!

Saitada

thom · January 2009

Saitada - Sanctuary wrote: »

If your bank is telling you that you can't stop payment on a charge regardless of wether their is a hold or not (for services you have yet to receive? wtf kinda **** is that?).... I'd be getting a new bank asap!

Saitada

I would guess the hold is there to prevent illegal use of her card. Since mismatching information was the reason for it,PW staff need to make sure its her account and visa. When she clears that info with them,it should fix the hold.

Her money wasnt charged,ever,read again her post. Her money is still in her bank account,but on hold atm because of mismatching information.

Just what happens for example,if you put your pin code wrong 3 times or so, bank locks your card to prevent illegal use.

Tiffanny - Sanctuary · January 2009

and just how long am i supposed to wait for them to ackowledge any one of my multiple efforts to contact them? they've ignored all my emails, phone calls, and my support ticket.

are you going to tell me they just have one employee at their redwood office, an elderly blind person from Beijing who is hard of hearing, or something?

fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. i intend to give them no opportunity to fool me twice... b:angry

blackwolf9 · January 2009

The excuse I keep reading for PWI's poor ZEN purchasing system is that nobody's "information" matches up. I've never had this problem from ANY OTHER ONLINE PURCHASE... EVER. And I've been purchasing online for most of my life. I'm willing to bet that the other people having trouble purchasing ZEN also have not EVER had this problem with any other companies.

It's one thing to want to prevent theft of credit cards, but it's another thing to use lame excuses for a poor system in place. Besides that, most of these middle man companies exist for the SOLE PURPOSE OF NOT GIVING YOUR INFORMATION TO THE SELLER!!! And here they are asking everyone to send them your info....

I know one thing for sure... The current setup they have is causing more headaches than it is helping... That's a fact. And I hope they fix it.

Tiffanny - Sanctuary · January 2009

great points, blackwolf.

they seemed to have just recently released their "hold" on my money but never sent me an e-mail or acknowledged any of my efforts at communication.

it seems they really don't care much about getting any business. makes me wonder why they even bothered setting up the servers, if this is their attitude...

darthpanda16 · January 2009

Please send a ticket to Customer Support here: http://support.perfectworld.com/ticketing

Please do not discuss specifics about your account issues on the forums.

Customer Support does their best to take care of users, please keep in mind it is sometimes a longer "line" as things get answered and activated.

Thanks.

KnightBarb - Heavens Tear · January 2009

From a banks standpoint, when a merchant runs a debit card, the amount that the merchant requested is placed on "hold". What this means is the bank blocks that amount of money from you until the merchant finishes processing their claim to your money. If the said merchant does not finish their claim, the money automatically falls off hold on the day it is scheduled to do so. Banks usually "hold" the money for an average of three(3) days. If the money is on hold, this means the merchant has not claimed their money. So when your money was on hold, PWI had not gotten any money from you or your bank. This hold true for ANY merchant.

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · January 2009

If you contacted PW AND your bank and its not settling then you should just wait. You where willing to spend that much money on an online entertainment, I dont see why you need it back so fast. They are most likely just under a investigation of your account, credit card related mistakes are taken pretty heavy.

IF in fact you get fraud (and I highly doubt you will considering this is an official game doing business in several diff. countries) then all you have to do is call the number behind the credit card you used and ask for a CHARGEBACK. To put it simply its a fraud related refund from the CC company itself if you have the proof to back it up.

shnuggles · January 2009

Hello folks,

Alright let's get some things cleared up here for you all so that we can stop assuming about the buying process. When a purchase is made to Perfect World Entertainment and is the first on the account ever, we do have a verification process in place that will automatically suspend your purchase. Now, with the case of Google Checkout, any purchase made through them will have an authorization marked on the funding source for the amount of the purchase in addition to a $1 "charge" (another authorization) that is sent to ensure that there is money in the funding source to cover the purchase. If you have a hidden email address when making the purchase, your payment will be automatically rejected and even though you are not supposed to be charged, with a bank account or debit card, you will have a charge followed by a refund a few days later. Now we understand that you should not be charged and please understand that PWE does not place the hold on the funds, the company used at the time of purchase is the ones putting the hold (so that clears one misunderstanding). The verification process is in place to protect our user's and their funding sources from fraudulent and/or suspicious activity. Tiffanny, I cannot go into detail here about your account but I can assure you that you are fine and nothing is wrong with your account, we can gladly explain the whole thing to you and any ticket you have sent should get an answer when it is reached in our queue. The email that is sent is used to show Perfect World Entertainment that the purchase is legitimate and intentional and by filling in the information requested, you show Perfect World Entertainment that you are the account owner and the payments are authorized. This verification process is always undergoing tweaks and changes to adapt to our users but is still required to prove that the funding source was not stolen. We have a more strict buying policy than a lot of other online companies (specifically the free to play market) and that is because we have seen what blindly taking money can do to a company and also what can be done with stolen credit card or PayPal information.

Perfect World Entertainment would like to let our users know that we are here to assist for any issue with us that you may have. There is no issue that cannot be explained to our users and if you are contacting us via email, you have to be patient because we answer the tickets in the order that our system has received them. If there are any issues with purchasing/receiving/transferring ZEN or anything with cancelled purchases, we can assist you by opening a ticket here. PWE does not do anything intentionally to try to harm or fraud our users and in all actuality, we would rather help you relieve your issue in a timely manner than have to go to any extreme to resolve it.

The post from Orinj below is a perfect example of why we have to have a strict policy on purchasing.

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=1346861&postcount=1

Finally tried to buy zen, and now the nightmare never ends...

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