[lnkForumImage]
TotalShareware - Download Free Software
Usa Forum
 Home | Login | Register | Search 


 

Forums >

alt.games.warcraft

Kinda OT - Blizzard Accounting issue...

S U N risr

6/7/2011 7:34:00 PM

Here's one that makes me kinda wonder...

I received from a bunch of people this past Christmas 60-day game cards.
These are the distant relatives that don't know to get for you, so
when they asked my wife if I'd like a department store, amazon card or
the like, she recommended instead to get me WoW cards....Pretty good
idea on her behalf, I must say. Anyway, I ended up with 10 months worth
of cards.

I currently pay by a credit card that Bliz has on file, and I like the
idea of the game cards better. So being that my card on file was going
to expire a couple months after Christmas, I thought I'd let it run out
so they wouldn't have it anymore and switch to the game cards. My
thought was also that'll carry over until Christmas 2011, which maybe
I'll receive the same gifts from those people and I'd never have to pay
for WoW again...heh-heh. :)

So, I put the cards away, and life moves on and I forget about them,
expecting to be reminded when I can't log on or get notice in game.....

Fast forward to yesterday, when I'm cleaning my desk and putting
something away and I come across the boxes of game cards....hmmmm, wait
a minute. How am I still playing? I look at my account history on
battle.net and sure enough, the credit card on file they are charging to
has been expired for months, and they just charged it again on the 5th
of this month.

Great - Thanks for filling me with confidence in your accounting system
guys...That credit card account is still open and active, just that
other services I have tied to that card all sent me notices that I
needed to update my data, or those services would stop. How can Bliz
keep ignoring that? Guess they don't worry about the expiration date I
gave them... (I'm not too concerned as this is a special credit card
account I set up I call my "online" card. It has a extremely low limit
set by me and is only used for online and revolving purchases. I never
purchase anything online, over phone or revolving with my main card...in
fact, that rarely leaves my hand.)

Anywho - Thought it was interesting and submitted a ticket asking then
to review my account as to how they can be billing an expired card...
7 Answers

John Gordon

6/7/2011 8:07:00 PM

0

In <islu73$lb3$1@dont-email.me> IYM <"S U N risr"@optonline.net> writes:

> I look at my account history on battle.net and sure enough, the credit
> card on file they are charging to has been expired for months, and they
> just charged it again on the 5th of this month.

If the credit-card company is still allowing charges on the card, then it
ain't expired. I'd call them and ask what is going on.

> How can Bliz keep ignoring that? Guess they don't worry about the
> expiration date I gave them...

Are you *absolutely sure* you entered the correct expiration date on
battle.net? Perhaps you made a typo.

Or perhaps battle.net doesn't worry about expiration dates and just tries
to charge the card each month, and if it works then it must not be expired!

--
John Gordon A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs
gordon@panix.com B is for Basil, assaulted by bears
-- Edward Gorey, "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"

Neil Cerutti

6/7/2011 8:31:00 PM

0

On 2011-06-07, John Gordon <gordon@panix.com> wrote:
> In <islu73$lb3$1@dont-email.me> IYM <"S U N risr"@optonline.net> writes:
>
>> I look at my account history on battle.net and sure enough, the credit
>> card on file they are charging to has been expired for months, and they
>> just charged it again on the 5th of this month.
>
> If the credit-card company is still allowing charges on the card, then it
> ain't expired. I'd call them and ask what is going on.
>
>> How can Bliz keep ignoring that? Guess they don't worry about the
>> expiration date I gave them...
>
> Are you *absolutely sure* you entered the correct expiration
> date on battle.net? Perhaps you made a typo.
>
> Or perhaps battle.net doesn't worry about expiration dates and
> just tries to charge the card each month, and if it works then
> it must not be expired!

I've had my account expire from an expired credit card, so I can
vouch that it worked at least once for me. The credit card
company is to blame, if it wasn't user error.

--
Neil Cerutti

Urbin

6/7/2011 9:11:00 PM

0

On 7 Jun 2011 20:31:24 GMT, Neil Cerutti wrote:
> On 2011-06-07, John Gordon <gordon@panix.com> wrote:
> > In <islu73$lb3$1@dont-email.me> IYM <"S U N risr"@optonline.net> writes:
> >
> >> I look at my account history on battle.net and sure enough, the credit
> >> card on file they are charging to has been expired for months, and they
> >> just charged it again on the 5th of this month.
> >
> > If the credit-card company is still allowing charges on the card, then it
> > ain't expired. I'd call them and ask what is going on.
> >
> >> How can Bliz keep ignoring that? Guess they don't worry about the
> >> expiration date I gave them...
> >
> > Are you *absolutely sure* you entered the correct expiration
> > date on battle.net? Perhaps you made a typo.
> >
> > Or perhaps battle.net doesn't worry about expiration dates and
> > just tries to charge the card each month, and if it works then
> > it must not be expired!
>
> I've had my account expire from an expired credit card, so I can
> vouch that it worked at least once for me. The credit card
> company is to blame, if it wasn't user error.

Same here, I had it happen three times (two normal expiries plus once when I
had to replace my credit card after my wallet was lost) that I couldn't log
on and when I checked in the account settings I noticed I had to update my
CC info.

It seems your CC company allows Blizzard to charge an expired card.

Cheers
Urbin

--
Dun Morogh-EU (PvE) | Juran (65), Druid
Urbin (85), Hunter | Surana (70), Mage | Greeta (65), Rogue
Mymule (83), Warlock | Kordosch (75), Deathknight | Gera (26), Paladin
Sunh (80), Priest | Taalas (85), Shaman | Vargal (41), Warrior

neithskye

6/8/2011 3:08:00 PM

0

On Jun 7, 5:10 pm, Urbin <ur...@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> It seems your CC company allows Blizzard to charge an expired card.

Just out of curiosity, since I use pre-paid cards, do the monthly
payments actually go through on an expired credit card? Seems weird to
me, because who then is covering the charge?

If it does go through for several months, and is later revealed to be
an expired card, I'm wondering if the credit card company would be
responsible to pay the charges or if the WoW user would suddenly find
him/herself owing Blizzard several months' worth of monthly fees.

--
Jill

twk

6/8/2011 3:56:00 PM

0

In article
<ed427b61-df13-43b6-a63e-b409ed299a9f@f31g2000pri.googlegroups.com>,
neithskye <jill_bookerGREENEGGSANDSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote:

> On Jun 7, 5:10 pm, Urbin <ur...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
> > It seems your CC company allows Blizzard to charge an expired card.
>
> Just out of curiosity, since I use pre-paid cards, do the monthly
> payments actually go through on an expired credit card? Seems weird to
> me, because who then is covering the charge?
>
> If it does go through for several months, and is later revealed to be
> an expired card, I'm wondering if the credit card company would be
> responsible to pay the charges or if the WoW user would suddenly find
> him/herself owing Blizzard several months' worth of monthly fees.
>
> --
> Jill

Do you (meaning everyone on this thread) mean the date on the card has
expired, or your CC account has expired?

Obviously, if the account has expired, Blizzard won't get paid and
you're done playing until you pay through another method. I would think
one billing cycle would be enough to flag your account as unpaid and
Blizz would stop you from logging in. Maybe if you've been playing for
years without interruption they may float your account for a while? Hard
to say.

If only the date stamped into the card has expired and the account is
still active, then Blizzard gets paid. Your CC company should have sent
you another card before that happens.

If Blizzard's records show that your card has expired but the account is
still good, they will keep billing you normally. But, back a while ago I
used my CC to update to WotLK. I had not updated my CC info to Blizzard
and the order did not go through. I had to call them to see what the
problem was. The lady on the phone told me my card had expired and all I
needed to do was update the info on my account. She told me also that as
long as there is no problem billing me regularly to play, they didn't
care if the card was expired as this was not a "new" transaction. It was
a while ago and I forgot how she phrased it, but it was something like
your subscription fee is a reoccurring transaction.

Buying the Wrath update was a new transaction and I had to update my
account info with the new expiration date on my CC. It was the same CC
account, same CC number as before, only the expiration date on the card
had changed.

I would guess that if you were paying through a CC and stopped to pay
with a pre-paid card, that would be a "new" transaction. To go back to
using a CC, this would be another new transaction. You would have to
have a CC that is not expired to continue.

--
Not sent through any particular network from any pompous smart phone.

| || ||| ||||| || |

6/9/2011 1:44:00 AM

0


"twk" <twk@sleepless.knights.com> wrote in message
news:twk-3579C2.11561608062011@news.eternal-september.org...
> If Blizzard's records show that your card has expired but the account is
> still good, they will keep billing you normally. But, back a while ago I
> used my CC to update to WotLK. I had not updated my CC info to Blizzard
> and the order did not go through. I had to call them to see what the
> problem was. The lady on the phone told me my card had expired and all I
> needed to do was update the info on my account. She told me also that as
> long as there is no problem billing me regularly to play, they didn't
> care if the card was expired as this was not a "new" transaction. It was
> a while ago and I forgot how she phrased it, but it was something like
> your subscription fee is a reoccurring transaction.

( depends on location and card company of course )
There may be some legal thing about the date and card issue but the expiry date on the
card is practically useless, just a hoop they make you jump through to make it appear
secure.
It really isn't.
Long term regular transaction for pocket change? not worth raising the ire of the
customer.

If it is less than $35 I wouldn't need to enter a PIN at the supermarket, toll or parking
meter
or I could just use a wand card/phone and wave it near the checkout
( so convenient .. if you don't care about the $2 card surcharge each time )

of course they have cameras and face recognition there but the relative cost and risk is
similar
- it is a regular debit to a large business, very little risk to them

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/coles-new-pin-free-checkout-raises-security-concerns/story-fn7x8me2-122...



S U N risr

6/9/2011 11:22:00 AM

0

| || ||| ||||| || | wrote:
> "twk" <twk@sleepless.knights.com> wrote in message
> news:twk-3579C2.11561608062011@news.eternal-september.org...
>> If Blizzard's records show that your card has expired but the account is
>> still good, they will keep billing you normally. But, back a while ago I
>> used my CC to update to WotLK. I had not updated my CC info to Blizzard
>> and the order did not go through. I had to call them to see what the
>> problem was. The lady on the phone told me my card had expired and all I
>> needed to do was update the info on my account. She told me also that as
>> long as there is no problem billing me regularly to play, they didn't
>> care if the card was expired as this was not a "new" transaction. It was
>> a while ago and I forgot how she phrased it, but it was something like
>> your subscription fee is a reoccurring transaction.
>
> ( depends on location and card company of course )
> There may be some legal thing about the date and card issue but the expiry date on the
> card is practically useless, just a hoop they make you jump through to make it appear
> secure.
> It really isn't.
> Long term regular transaction for pocket change? not worth raising the ire of the
> customer.
>
> If it is less than $35 I wouldn't need to enter a PIN at the supermarket, toll or parking
> meter
> or I could just use a wand card/phone and wave it near the checkout
> ( so convenient .. if you don't care about the $2 card surcharge each time )
>
> of course they have cameras and face recognition there but the relative cost and risk is
> similar
> - it is a regular debit to a large business, very little risk to them
>
> http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/coles-new-pin-free-checkout-raises-security-concerns/story-fn7x8me2-122...
>
>
>

Thanks for the replies...

For clarity, as I mentioned in the OP, just the expiration date had
expired, not the account itself. As I also said, this is a special card
I set up to only do online or over phone transactions with a low limit,
so I have several revolving subscription type services using this
account, and all had contacted me to let me know they needed updated
expiration date or my services would stop/be canceled. Bliz was the
only one who didn't. It seems the CC company doesn't care, and as
someone mentioned the exp. date is useless, except that it should force
the company billing it to re-verify a users data every two years.

Ah well, I got a response from bliz last night on battle.net and when I
went to click the response, I got notification that the service was
unavailable due to high volume or that it was down for repair....So,
I'll check to see what they said later today or tonight..

Thanks again...