Account Mgmt = changes without warnings

[Jade of Sonoma]

I have posted this in a top proper sticky thread but thought perhaps I should say something in UHall so that others won't be surprised by any changes to their UO_accounts with EA/BioWare/Mythic ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS.

Even if you check your accounts every month, you can't tell if the billing payment information you supplied hasn't been changed until AFTER the first bill has been paid according to the information supplied when you started the account payment. Then suddenly the billing information you supplied has been changed to bill you every month instead of for the three or 6 month period you designated .. and worse, there is NO BILLING INFORMATION any longer, and the account is suddenly CLOSED after that last payment with no warning.

One of my oldest accounts was CLOSED with NO WARNING, last month due to No Billing Information even though I had supplied them with valid billing information.
I had supplied them with a valid Credit Card which is also paying all my other subscriptions to UO and had triple checked all my account subscriptions after that. ALL BILLING INFORMATION was on ALL UO ACCOUNTS.
SO WHY DID THEY CLOSE THAT ONE ACCOUNT? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BILLING INFORMATION?

SO TODAY I CHECKED ALL MY ACCOUNTS. WEIRD.
ONE OF MY OLD ACCOUNTS WITH A CASTLE ON IT was NO LONGER SUBSCRIBED AS 6 MONTH AUTO PAYMENT. AS OF 02/08/2012 it is a monthly paid account. Do you suppose it will become a CLOSED account due to NO BILLING INFORMATION NOW? That aside:

This particular very oldest account with a Castle my son gave me in 1998 and thus was set up for a six month payment, and after the six month period, on 02/08/2012, after finishing the six paid months, the subscription was changed to ONCE A MONTH PAYMENTS starting at the beginning of AUGUST. Thus instead of paying about 10 bucks a month for the next 6 months, ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT has set my account to charge $12:99 a month. So they make more money off me than by giving me the six month rate of $55.99.

At this point I should also complain about them setting the rate of exchange when the Canadian Dollar is par with USA by charging a Monthly rate of $14.99 to Canadians. That we've always tolerated but now ? All this?

So becareful if you only have so much money in your account to pay for your UO accounts. ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT can suddenly change your billing information, lose it and close your account, or charge you more a month and without any early warning notification. Then they throw the responsibilty on your shoulders to fix everything and make you live with their irresponsibility in return for your trust.

My best advice to everyone is: Constantly Check your Accounts especially if you have more than a few.

 

[MalagAste]

Good advice and don't always rely on it to send you an email either because it doesn't always. And it doesn't always bill right.. sometimes it charges me tax and sometimes it doesn't...

Sometimes I get billed twice as well.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Good advice and don't always rely on it to send you an email either because it doesn't always. And it doesn't always bill right.. sometimes it charges me tax and sometimes it doesn't...

Sometimes I get billed twice as well.

Yes, MalagAste! That is exactly what I meant about NO WARNING .. not sending you an e-mail warning that your subscription is in danger of being cancelled.

AND secondly:
NO WARNING that your UO- ACCOUNT has been CLOSED.
You can't access the game. It is CLOSED. PERIOD!
You check your ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT and find ACCOUNT CLOSED. NO BILLING INFORMATION.


HOW AND WHY is there no billing info, is the greatest mystery. Try and get that question across to them. They won't answer. They avoid by putting the blame on you for not checking your accounts to make sure they are okay.

How can you check to see if the billing goes through if your account is active and the billing information is there UNTIL it comes time for them to collect the due payment?
IF they close your account because the billing information suddenly isn't there on the day the account is supposed to be paid? That happened last month to me.

This month, they change the supplied payment information on the due Date changing it from 6months prepaid to 1 month.

You can't see changes to your account account until after it reaches the paynment-due date. So until the due date comes and goes you can't check your UO-Accounts through ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT REGISTRATION to see if anything changed. By then it is too late to fix and you are stuck and have to fix any problems. You look at your LINKED UO-ACCOUNTs to see which one are closed accounts and NO LONG HAVE BILLING INFORMATION, or the method of paying has been changed again from 6, or 3 month plans to one month. Then you at least have to pay for the one month or two at the monthly charge ... until you get it fixed to a 3 or 6 month payment. Then it reverts again.

Going in circles here. Time to give all this a break. I am spending too much time in here and on line sorting out these problems. I keep trying to help and end up getting no where with this.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

ALL IS WELL AGAIN.

Today I checked my account that had been changed and it is back to auto-payment for the 6 month period. I did write their support a letter yesterday.

Even though it was not an account threatening problem and of no great importance, someone took the time to have it fixed. Thank you!

(Don't we have a "thank you" smilie? )

 

[DJAd]

Yeah I really would send an email like a week before a subscription is due. I've never had anything like that before. I got the email when they were enabling house decay so I logged in to check my account.

Also when I login to Mythic I can choose from 2x accounts. My actual UO account that uses "xxxxx_uo" and then another in the drop down, same name but with no _uo after it. Whats all that about?

 

[Lady Storm]

Ever sence they changed to this new billing system I have had this same issue going.... It's so much hastle. Tax .. no tax.. on off no info..... no e mail that your account is turned off...... getting my card not excepted because I turned on more then 3 accounts .... Then being yelled at by CS telling me they no longer handle uo billing... go to e mail service!
Thank the Gods of UO... that someone at Origins help line was there and called me back in under 5 minutes! He fixed it for now but couldnt guarantee it wouldnt pop up again...
*crosses fingers it dont*

 

[Uriah Heep]

I've had my own issues with them. I'm now down to one account, and if they were to screw it up, and give me much runaround about it, I would probably just not bother...

 

[Kojak]

aren't you glad they switched over to using EA's billing system instead? (*snicker*)

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

I've had my own issues with them. I'm now down to one account, and if they were to screw it up, and give me much runaround about it, I would probably just not bother...

(AH HAH! .. Finally I figure out HOW TO REPLY to more than ONE person in a single message!!! *giggles*

Uriah Heep - I feel the same way. Players should be enjoying the game while also supporting the game .. and not be spending hours fixing billing problems.

Yeah I really would send an email like a week before a subscription is due. I've never had anything like that before. I got the email when they were enabling house decay so I logged in to check my account.

Also when I login to Mythic I can choose from 2x accounts. My actual UO account that uses "xxxxx_uo" and then another in the drop down, same name but with no _uo after it. Whats all that about?

GOOD QUTESTION, DJAd. Some of my accounts require that I type in the Account "name_uo" (= name plus underline plus the uo addition) and other UO-Accounts don't. Glad to see I am not the only one wondering about that!

 

[Felonious Monk]

Ghosts in the machine.
Their probably trying to track down the software glitches that cause this crap.
I hope they can afford to fix the process.