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[UO Herald] Email About Automatic Renewal Issues

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Greetings,

Last week a change in the EA account center accidently de-activated the automatic subscription renewal for several UO accounts. Yesterday we e-mailed all effected persons and have re-activate the automatic renewal for those accounts.

If you have encountered related issues with your account, please check your inbox.

We apologize for the inconvenience.



More...
 

Mirt

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There is nothing more on the other end. Why does it always seem that is the case. More specifically why do I always click the more?
 

AirmidCecht

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The more is an automatic link to the UO Herald as it's source.
 

Zosimus

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The more is an automatic link to the UO Herald as it's source.
LOL. Yes we know this but we still click the more hoping to see more. :p The day I dont click that more there will actually be something more on that page that wasn't posted here and I will miss it.
 

Mirt

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So its simple paranoia that makes me do it. I was hoping someone would come up with something that sounds better.
 

AirmidCecht

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LOL. Yes we know this but we still click the more hoping to see more. :p The day I dont click that more there will actually be something more on that page that wasn't posted here and I will miss it.
:D

The RSS feeds are typically a paraphrase of the first paragraph or parts of it. There actually has been "more" in past feeds but someone usually ends up posting the entire UO Herald post in a reply.

The good news is that in one paragraph they were able to say they have addressed the subscription renewal issues.
 

AirmidCecht

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So its simple paranoia that makes me do it. I was hoping someone would come up with something that sounds better.
I'm all for paranoia in small doses at a time rolleyes:
 

AirmidCecht

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That's affected.
At least state why, sheesh.


Affected and Effected are both verb forms.

When used as a verb, effect means to execute, produce, or accomplish something. For example, The dictatorial regime quickly effected changes to the constitution that restricted the freedom of the people.

On the other hand, affect in its verb form means to impact. For example, Carbon di-oxide emissions affect the environment.

So we can say that "The dictatorial regime quickly effected changes to the constitution that affected the freedom of the people."

Comparison chart
[Edit Comparison Table]
Affected Effected Hide All
Meaning: "Affected" means "impacted, created an effect on". "Effected" means "executed, brought about, produced something." hide

[edit]Examples
Towns in a 12 mile radius around the nuclear power plant in Japan were affected by the accident during the earthquake.
The teenager's excessive video game playing affected (impacted) his grades.
After the BP oil spill, the government effected (brought about, executed) sweeping environmental regulation.
The BP oil spill adversely affected marine wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding areas.
The 2008 financial crisis led the government to effect changes in how financial institutions (like banks and credit unions) are regulated.
Sales for Apple's iPhone 4 were not affected by the problems with its antenna.
Sally's nervous temperament affected both her SAT and ACT scores.
Tragedy struck on 9/11 and our condolences to all the people who were affected by the attack.

Source
 
C

Capn Kranky

Guest
yeah, but just once perhaps the link would show us what they did ti the gerbil that screwed up or something!
 

Martyna Zmuir

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Here is what the Herald says now... Completely changed the post:

Greetings,

A small number of UO accounts were unintentionally closed this week. The accounts have been re-instated and we have reached out to those affected.

Thanks for your patience

The UO Team
Its too bad that this is a LIE since I received an email yesterday about an account that was suddenly not set to renew (even though it was on 6 month billing, and had renewed in July) and now it is deactivated. It is truly mind blowing how ineffectual the "reaching out" has been, and damed annoying that we are still facing billing issues months after this hellish migration.
 

Ned888

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
If these UO Herald RSS feeds are any reflection on the rest of the UO Herald site, then this particular instance happened about 3 years ago, is incomplete and is full of typos....

I don't really trust that kind of source.
 

MalagAste

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Agreed I call BS! I've had several accounts go down recently... despite being on auto-renew and despite being on 6 month schedules...

I had all my accounts timed perfectly too.. now they are all screwed up...
 

Tina Small

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It's interesting that the announcement for this topic on the UO Japan site (dated for 10/22) contains an additional bit of information that was overlooked in the English translation.

ƒjƒ…[ƒXÚ×

The announcement in Japanese seems to also say, "If you have an automatic renewal that is scheduled to occur in the 10 to 20 days after October 14th, please confirm that the charges have occurred via the Account Management site."

I'd really like to know WHY these small but crucial bits of information seem to be so consistently overlooked when it comes to communicating to English-speaking players.

:wall:
 
B

Beastmaster

Guest
Greetings,

Last week a change in the EA account center accidently de-activated the automatic subscription renewal for several UO accounts. Yesterday we e-mailed all effected persons and have re-activate the automatic renewal for those accounts.

If you have encountered related issues with your account, please check your inbox.

We apologize for the inconvenience.



More...
This is nothing less than a lie.

One of my accounts was affected by this and I did not get an email until I went to accounts management and RE-supplied my SAME credit card info as I had already previously done in the whole linking fiasco.
 

VinnySP

Seasoned Veteran
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2 Accounts just went down WTF? Are we going to have to do something to fix this ourselfs or wait for them to fix what should not have broke in the first place?
 

Roland Of Gilead

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i only recieved the first email saying my card was declined never recieved the second email telling me how to reactivate it :( so they didnt send one to everyone effected :(
 

VinnySP

Seasoned Veteran
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Go to your acct managment and reactivate your subs.Somehow the auto renew was disabled with the acct migration thing. Was actually very easy after haveing CS walk me though it. Atleast now ill know what to do when my 3rd acct goes down.:lol:
 

Olahorand

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2 of my accounts just went down within the last few days - one with email, one without (at least I did not note any), another already 2 weeks or so earlier.
All were set to CC payment before the conversion.
If I try to renew with my credit card, I see the info how much to pay and on the next page:
Error
There was an error processing your request
Return to the homepage.

Seems my days with UO will end here ...
 

AirmidCecht

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I think the update was acknowledging the issue. It seems like its still ongoing and I'll ask for some feedback on that and see if there is another update to this.

In the meantime the good thing is that they are aware of the cc renewal issues and house decay is still on pause. I really wish there was more we can do here besides wave orange sticks. Sorry guys :(
 

Ned888

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
*refrains from making very ironical comment*





I'm going to join the hope team... we can't get any lower than that, we can only go up !
:eek: I never thought I'd see the day! ;)

I'm of the opinion that we should give it a bit more time. Personally, my account is auto-billing fine. I wonder if it's because it's a brand new account and not a legacy account that has been transitioned over.... Hmmm....
 

Ahuaeyjnkxs

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I'm trying to make sense of all this hehe...

right now I think the issue was caused by the fact billing system was changed, perhaps at the wrong time of the day when the servers auto-backup.

Something along those lines *read major fail with no accountability and no formal apology*...

The "UO team" aplogises, without reason and without professionalism. This is way below par... but I still hope things are going to be made at least to LOOK pro in the next months.
 

Ned888

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
I'm trying to make sense of all this hehe...

right now I think the issue was caused by the fact billing system was changed, perhaps at the wrong time of the day when the servers auto-backup.

Something along those lines *read major fail with no accountability and no formal apology*...

The "UO team" aplogises, without reason and without professionalism. This is way below par... but I still hope things are going to be made at least to LOOK pro in the next months.
I like your ironical statements! I think they are pretty spot on most of the time.

The biggest wake up call for these guys is going to be the day when they screw something up like this and no one bothers to call in and try to get it fixed anymore.

"Wait, what? My credit card didn't get charged by UO? Oh well, I'll just have to play something else. I'm tired of being on the phone to try to force someone to take my money."

It's gonna happen eventually. The tone of these forums speaks volumes about it. It makes me sad too, because I just came back.... :(
 

Otis Firefly

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im there right now, just got that email yesterday, cant log in and im not bothering with phone calls ect..over it, the total lack of any feedback from anyone on the team about this issue shows me that they dont want my money and lately...i dont wanna give it to them.

I like your ironical statements! I think they are pretty spot on most of the time.

The biggest wake up call for these guys is going to be the day when they screw something up like this and no one bothers to call in and try to get it fixed anymore.

"Wait, what? My credit card didn't get charged by UO? Oh well, I'll just have to play something else. I'm tired of being on the phone to try to force someone to take my money."

It's gonna happen eventually. The tone of these forums speaks volumes about it. It makes me sad too, because I just came back.... :(
 

Petra Fyde

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For most people the re-subscribe procedure is pretty straightforward.

Please do remember that this is something totally outside the UO Dev team's remitt. It's coming from EA Accounts.

My son just reactivated his account, which is on our card. He didn't even need to put in the card details, they were already on file. He just had to hit the 'subscribe' option and 'use details on file'. (Those may not be the exactly correct wording)
 

Ahuaeyjnkxs

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We do remember Petra... I think those people that are quitting do it simply because we didn't receive a professional step by step unpersonal communication to reassure us about the status of the game.

It's as simple as that really...

And lets face it, if I was working for UO right now I'd be apologising, almost everyday, to everyone. It wouldn't matter if it wasn't my fault... heck I'd stand in middle of luna bank on every shard and let people empty their frustrations on me (30000 hp Messiahna) :/

Whatever they are doing... (we know Grim working on enhanced stone pavers is just a diversion)

there is no excuse not to take an extra 30 minutes a day to post a few things...

It's just unthinkable... :(
 

RaDian FlGith

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For most people the re-subscribe procedure is pretty straightforward.
And yet, the whole idea behind subscribing is the convenience of not having to re-enter your information over and over and over again. Again, EA has made it difficult to accept paying customers' money, which makes no sense.

Please do remember that this is something totally outside the UO Dev team's remitt. It's coming from EA Accounts.
It is not "totally outside the UO Dev team's remitt." Someone on the Dev Team had to create a bridge for the account system to work with the billing system. I'm certain it wasn't all just plug-and-play. Somewhere in the whole mess of stuff that went on, either (A) the Dev Team missed an opportunity to raise issues that would follow the implementation of the new system, or (B) simply didn't bother to see fully how the system worked. Given that we know they had a failed initial test of the system, but it was put in place anyway, one must wonder where exactly the disconnect was in the whole process. Either way, the fact that the issues lie in the MMO section of EA sort of tells us something.

EA also owns Pogo, but to my knowledge, EA has not Originized the Pogo account system. And you better believe there's a reason for that.

My son just reactivated his account, which is on our card. He didn't even need to put in the card details, they were already on file. He just had to hit the 'subscribe' option and 'use details on file'. (Those may not be the exactly correct wording)
You still have to wonder how a system is put in place that either (1) does not bill you or (2) double bills you.

*chuckles*

EA... Resistance was futile... until we tried to assimilate ourselves.
 
S

soulstoner

Guest
Two accounts of not so bad migration experience that involved minimal hands on.

1st Scenario: My account migrated to the new system with billing information and such seemingly in tact without my involvement
EVENT A : My account was issued an email notification at my August renewal from Mythic Entertainment - End of Subscription Notification for No billing information on file.
RESULT A: I had no lapse in accessible game time and did not have to do anything. (UOHerald site did briefly acknowledge)
EVENT B: My account was issued an email notification at my October renewal from Mythic Entertainment - End of Subscription Notification for The credit card on file was declined same template as the August email.
RESULT B: I had a day or more lapse in accessible game time and my account was reactivated without my involvement. (UOHerald site did briefly acknowledge)
. I’ve done no edits within the new system aside from ‘linking’ my account (learned basically from sifting the myriad of posts herein Stratics).

2nd Scenario: BFs account migrated to the new system with billing information seemingly in tact but his associated email in the old system was null and void so he had no access to account within the new platform. He therefore did not receive any End of Subscription Notifications (wouldn’t have know any migration was happening without my reports from posts herein).
EVENT A: He called CS a couple days prior to his billing cycle in October to have his email and any thing else updated within the new system (after I’d received the 2nd email and was without game access for a day).
RESULT A: The representative was professional and efficient at walking him through updating and validating his email and linking his account.
EVENT B: His account was issued an email notification at the October renewal from Mythic Entertainment - End of Subscription Notification for Subscription is not set to renew.
RESULT B: Account game time was inaccessible over the weekend. The notification instructed to contact CS so he waited until Monday. The representative was helpful and friendly; there were intermittent times of being on short hold; BF is very patient and was good-humored with the representative. In the end he was walked through the re-subscription process and negotiated a game code for a green soul stone (for his troubles) that he validated & retrieved before ending the call.

Granted these are scenarios that are one account holds.
Nonetheless, the CS phone support at this house went well and fixed the problem with patience.

NOTE: General industry studies do show & advocate upfront mitigation of failure is most cost effective wrt manpower to fix/respond to issues as well as the preservation of customer satisfaction, goodwill and proponency.

A friend did opt to close 4 accounts over the 'hassle' ... but they needed to step away from the puter more anyway. :thumbsup:

Crap, that’s alotta text :/….go espresso!
 

Olahorand

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Now 4 of my 5 permanent accounts (all which I paid with Credit card before that awfull migration) are inactive - and I cannot activate them with the very same credit card, which paid them well before.
It's the extension of the uogamecodes store behavior to account management.
Unclear error telling the message "go away - keep your money ..."
Maybe I will. Since my account, which was open from day 1 of the game, is also affected, I have no much motivation.

The only account still running is on GTC.

And no, I will not bother to have any phone call sessions to the USA to eventually solve this issue.
 

Ned888

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
I know that the UO Dev team is not directly responsible for the billing snafu. They are pretty much a victim here as it's their game that is getting bashed and I bet it's frustrating.

The issue is that we are not playing EA, we are playing UO. The distinction being that we are focused on a small part of a big company and we depend (or at least should be able to) on the team from OUR game to update us and help us interface with the larger organization. The UO Dev team has a voice, however small it may be, at EA. We do not. We need them to bridge the gap and become our liason.

That is not happening and there is no defense for it. It's just not happening.
 

Tina Small

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I was looking through the Lord of Ultima forum. While it is a free-to-play browser based game, you can purchase certain items to improve your game play. Seems many, many people playing that game have been running into very similar issues trying to pay for stuff through the store for that game since very early this year and still continuing up through this month. Players are reporting there a lot of issues with credit cards and other forms of payment (e.g., Paypal) not being recognized or items being ordered but never receiving them. What I notice are the posts from people saying they are trying to buy stuff while traveling. Makes you wonder what is going on with the payment method verification process that EA is using or has outsourced. Hopefully they get it all resolved soon because it seems to be affecting a number of their games. Clearly there's a problem on EA's end when so many people report that their method of payment works just fine for buying stuff from other companies but not from EA.

One tip I saw in a thread there mentioned that if you're using a prepaid MasterCard you must register it online or by phone with your zip code for it to work properly. Maybe that will help some of you?

That thread is here: Diamond purchase error - Lord of Ultima Forums

I guess the good news for people playing that "other Ultima game" is that even if they never pay EA a dime or only make a random purchase once in a blue moon since the game is free-to-play, they at least benefit from having EA community representatives active on their forums who appear to at least try to work with players to resolve issues like this. But maybe even for them it's getting to be too much, since the Lord of Ultima forum also includes a thread mentioning that EA Phenomic (in Germany) is looking to hire a global community manager. ( EA Phenomic is looking for a new Global Community Manager! - Lord of Ultima Forums)
 

Ahuaeyjnkxs

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Yeah when you get a gift CC you need to register it for any purchase... that wasn't the issue with me I'm used to do it...

it cost me money on the phone to find the solution, and well they could not find it ; said they'd get back to me but didn't ... open ticket for over 8 months...

:sad4:
 

curlybeard

Seasoned Veteran
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You would think that if Electronic Arts was good at anything, it would be good at taking our money. I guess they really are just dead weight on the studios and games they acquired. Capitalism Fail.
 

Ahuaeyjnkxs

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I think you can even say EPIC fail...

heck look at WoW administration... pre-sales... selling of in game items replicas, everything runs smoothly... advanced characters that are worth it...

they make their money, and they enforce their TOS and its been very profitable (compared to the ugly manticore message EA sent us here, TOS, what TOS ?)

It's more than a fail... it's status quo...

look at the list of "artifacts" we got from SA and HS...

its OBVIOUS they made enough so they would not look like a worse team than the previous one...

they did not aim for the wonderful... for the amazing, for the fun and passion of the game.

They did as much as they needed to, not a bit more. So they would keep the status quo and be on par with the other dev teams.

It's such a fail I think it deserves a special adjective in front of it, however I'm unsure if its been invented yet... :spider:

Edit : for any other game this discussion would be moot... but UO has endured 14 years and some people have been BEGGING for a billing system that simply works as intended. These people have unconditional love and now are leaving offended, feeling treasoned and hurt by the lack of consideration...

people who are leaving are people whom I tought would NEVER say anything negative about UO... not in a thousand years... yet has a thousand years passed ?

What is siege was the real world and this keyboard is just a hologram ?
 

Nok

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Hi Tina,
Players are reporting there a lot of issues with credit cards and other forms of payment (e.g., Paypal) not being recognized or items being ordered but never receiving them. What I notice are the posts from people saying they are trying to buy stuff while traveling. Makes you wonder what is going on with the payment method verification process that EA is using or has outsourced.
It is not uncommon for e-commerce sites to link your IP address or ISP's IP range to the other geographic info you provide when you setup an account... like an area code, zip or postal codes, etc. The idea is most consumers are thought to make online purchases from home or work, one method of credit card fraud protection. In this day & age of laptops, smartphones, and tablets... that method has its problems.

Companies using this method need to update their systems to work more globally... like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and others.

Been spending quite a bit of time around the LoU site and other EA sites myself lately, not playing... but other projects.
 

Tina Small

Stratics Legend
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Been spending quite a bit of time around the LoU site and other EA sites myself lately, not playing... but other projects.
Yeah, I'm getting very tempted to give it a try. I would imagine you are finding many things to keep busy with these days!
 
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