EA Charged my Credit card without permission.

[Terrorknight]

So I haven't played UO in almost a year. I never switched my account over to the new system and then all of a sudden almost 12 months after I closed my account I get charged for UO. I go through the process to access their new system and sure enough my account is active for the next month. HOW can they do this? I called EA and they never told me the reason this happened. They just handed me a pile of crap and said they will escalate it and possibly refund the money in 4-8 weeks. I am tempted to contact a lawyer. How can a company steal my money without permission?

 

[Sevin0oo0]

follow the unauthorized charge and dispute resolution, as outlined by your credit card, typically by first calling the number on the back of the card - or your bank if takes money straight from there. Usually i think the money is re-credited to your account while in dispute. Don't play your account for even 1min, or you may be liable for an entire month.

 

[Terrorknight]

I don't want my account to be flagged as fraud though. Will my account be billed again if this is what it says? I attached the screen that it shows.

 

[Promathia]

I am tempted to contact a lawyer. How can a company steal my money without permission?

Good luck with that

 

[Terrorknight]

Someone from EA please comment so I know that the CS rep wasn't handing me a line of BS. I already have an open case but no change.

 

[Rupert Avery]

EA don't handle UO billing Mythic does. and the only way I have seen to contact them is through Email.

So EA probably won't be able to help much sorry

 

[startle]

I don't want my account to be flagged as fraud though....

What are you talking about? "Flagged as fraud"... I don't follow your thinking here...
And if you're having an issue with Mythic billing, why are you complaining here - on Stratics. Stratics has nothing to do with EA/Mythic or billing... Good grief.... Get a grip. You're talking about contacting a lawyer over $14? Please.... be real.

 

[Petra Fyde]

First:
use the instructions in this page and remove any credit card info that is there. That will prevent this recurring.
Second:
contact billing support using the contact details on this page

 

[O'Brien]

Hmm, haven't heard of this happening to anyone else. I wonder if your EA account wasn't hacked and the hacker thought it funny to reactivate UO with your previous billing information and then imagine you taking out your beef with EA? Or try to steal from the characters/bank of an inactive account?

So I haven't played UO in almost a year. I never switched my account over to the new system and then all of a sudden almost 12 months after I closed my account I get charged for UO. I go through the process to access their new system and sure enough my account is active for the next month. HOW can they do this? I called EA and they never told me the reason this happened. They just handed me a pile of crap and said they will escalate it and possibly refund the money in 4-8 weeks. I am tempted to contact a lawyer. How can a company steal my money without permission?

 

[Wenchkin]

I'd contact your bank as well as EA/Mythic. Tell your bank that the charge wasn't authorised and they can get the money back for you. My bank has also offered to block a company from taking further money. I also had the option of getting a new card so I had a new card no. and the old one wouldn't be valid. So you should have options like that with your bank.

I think the system looks for the last card details used for that account and sets it to default as active, at least that's how it seemed to behave with my accounts. Luckily the card I used for most of them was no longer accepted in the new system, so I only had one card to nuke at changeover, but it did look like it had every intention of re-instating that card and I know for certain I set the account to close and pulled the card details off the old system. I'm wondering if you had closed the account but left the card details still on there. Then the system figured it would try to keep you subscribed.

Wenchy

 

[Lorddog]

ya sounds like someone got in and reactivated it for 1 month to login and get your stuff.
is there anywhere in that admin where it lists your logins?

 

[Lady Storm]

I have to agree with Lorddog. Check your account and see if anything you saved is still there. Sounds like someone hacked you or fished for info on your account and had them bill the card of record for the account.

 

[Terrorknight]

Thanks for the responses. The credit card info is NOT there. I followed the steps and it says no card on file. I checked my account and everything is still there. I did contact billing support who gave me no reason for it happening but when I called again they said no one accessed my account other than their system to switch things over. I called my bank and the charge disappeared. They said they didn't dispute the charge because it disappeared before they could finish. In the same breath though my account is active for the next month and I'm not sure if the charge will reappear. The thing that I feel many fail to realize is if I flag these charges with my bank EA will tag my account as fraud and I will not be able to reactivate my account should I decide to come back.

Attached is another screen shot of the account management page, as you can see it says no accounts on file.

 

[Terrorknight]

I'd contact your bank as well as EA/Mythic. Tell your bank that the charge wasn't authorised and they can get the money back for you. My bank has also offered to block a company from taking further money. I also had the option of getting a new card so I had a new card no. and the old one wouldn't be valid. So you should have options like that with your bank.

I think the system looks for the last card details used for that account and sets it to default as active, at least that's how it seemed to behave with my accounts. Luckily the card I used for most of them was no longer accepted in the new system, so I only had one card to nuke at changeover, but it did look like it had every intention of re-instating that card and I know for certain I set the account to close and pulled the card details off the old system. I'm wondering if you had closed the account but left the card details still on there. Then the system figured it would try to keep you subscribed.

Wenchy

I think these two lines could be correct as well. I received an e-mail shortly after closing my accounts that the new system was being implemented. When this happened I got a ton of e-mails saying my account was flagged as fraud (I deleted them figuring they were phishing scams) I got an e-mail about 2 months ago saying my account was reinstated to a non-fraud status and I could activate whenever I want. The thing that confuses me is my card info is not on file according to the website. Is there another place to check other than following the directions that petra suggested?

 

[Viper09]

When did the charge initially appear? Did it ever go past "processing?"

I'm wondering if it was indeed trying to keep you subscribed and once the system noticed it was canceled it removed the charge.

 

[Terrorknight]

It appeared 03/14 and was gone yesterday 03/18. I am not sure what stage it was in, in terms of processing.

 

[Viper09]

One additional, when did you cancel it? Another probable cause could have been you canceling it too close to the charge date so it may have tried to charge.

 

[Terrorknight]

I canceled it over a year ago.

 

[Viper09]

Oh wow, seems I missed that big detail. Never mind then lol

 

[Wenchkin]

When I canceled one of my accounts it was many months before the changeover. The card details hamster has a long memory

I used the sticky guide on Uhall to find and nuke card details from my account.

Did you look for card details before you spoke to EA/Mythic? I'm just wondering if maybe a CSR had removed the billing info before you logged into account management. If not, I'm not sure where the info would have been. Mine was right there when I went to re-activate the account, I had the option to select that card and that's when I realised the old details had carried over. The system had to have the card info to bill it, so either it was removed by a CSR or something weird is going on.

If the charge was canceled at EA/Mythic's end, I would expect that you won't be charged again. But you should keep a very close eye on your bank account a few days before the next payment would be "due" on their system. Just in case you do get another charge. Then it's up to you if you block the account for further payments to EA/Mythic. But you should be able to get your bank to issue a fresh card without being marked as fraud. Especially when this isn't your fault, it's down to the billing hamster going a bit daft. You're quite within your rights to take that sort of action when a payment is taken without permission.

Wenchy