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You Might Almost Think Account Management Systems Were New...

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Come on, Mythic/Origin/Bioware/EA/Whatever...

What in god's name is wrong with implementing an account management system that has the same features as nearly every other account management system in the world. I had sworn and sworn and sworn that I wouldn't touch this stupid system with a ten-foot pole until all the bugs and kinks and crap were worked out, but like an idiot, I thought, "You know, lots of people are saying it's working fine..."

First off... the Mythic account management system and Origin are about as linked together in a sensible manner as are the Catholic Church and Episcopaleanism. But let me esplain...

So I created two "master accounts" to link my UO accounts to in master groups. Gave them new email addresses not associated with anything under the sun because, you know, I'd like to keep my important stuff unknown. Manage to activate the accounts on Master Account A that needed to be (those that weren't on the 6 month plan), and get two on Master Account B up and running. Try to activate a third, and I get the ever so useful message: "There has been an error with your request. Please click here to return to the home page." Yeeeessssss... And here people thought error messages couldn't get more useless than those provided by Windows during a BSOD.

Okay, fine, whatever... think I'll just try to enter the credit card info from scratch. Yeah. Except, of course, that it ALWAYS saves your credit card info, even if you didn't want it to. And once it's in, it's in for good. Unless of course one of you out there has found a way to CTRL-ALT-OPENAPPLE-CLOSEDAPPLE-LEFTHANDTTWIRL-RIGHTHANDOUT and get a screen that I don't see.

So I figure, hell, I'll log in over on Origin.com, as since they're the same system, SURELY it must have some way to change that info.

Nope. Not a chance. Doesn't list it, doesn't know it exists, has no idea I've even activated subscriptions. Useless blank interface. But it did tell me I needed to create a master ID (god, and here I thought I'd already done that). So I give it a smartass URL because god knows I could care less what my public URL is for Origin because, you know, I'm not going to use it as my new Facebook.

Sooo... here I am again, giving EA SOME of the money I _thought_ I wanted to give them (though after this fiasco, I might just call my credit card company and have them cancel the charges, and then visit the BBB to describe the ludicrous manner in which this system "manages" account information), and STILL can't give them ALL the money I want to give them. I'm sure it's something stupid like "You already processed four charges today, we can't process more than that, because your credit card company (who hasn't called me to tell me they suspect my card is involved in fraud, and yes, they do that if they do) suspects that there's fraud involved, or inorganic sunspots have eaten our ability to logically process a credit transaction, or god knows whatever excuse they have..."

But seriously...

Much like fully 3D clients and top-down isometric/orthographic/whatevertheargumentofthemonthis clients with decent graphics that don't cause graphic cards to smoke and burn and explode, companies have been successfully doing account management and recurring billing since, well, before the freaking world wide web existed. And you folks still haven't figured it out?

What in god's name IS the problem here?
 

UOPlayer4LYFE

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Come on, Mythic/Origin/Bioware/EA/Whatever...

What in god's name is wrong with implementing an account management system that has the same features as nearly every other account management system in the world. I had sworn and sworn and sworn that I wouldn't touch this stupid system with a ten-foot pole until all the bugs and kinks and crap were worked out, but like an idiot, I thought, "You know, lots of people are saying it's working fine..."

First off... the Mythic account management system and Origin are about as linked together in a sensible manner as are the Catholic Church and Episcopaleanism. But let me esplain...

So I created two "master accounts" to link my UO accounts to in master groups. Gave them new email addresses not associated with anything under the sun because, you know, I'd like to keep my important stuff unknown. Manage to activate the accounts on Master Account A that needed to be (those that weren't on the 6 month plan), and get two on Master Account B up and running. Try to activate a third, and I get the ever so useful message: "There has been an error with your request. Please click here to return to the home page." Yeeeessssss... And here people thought error messages couldn't get more useless than those provided by Windows during a BSOD.

Okay, fine, whatever... think I'll just try to enter the credit card info from scratch. Yeah. Except, of course, that it ALWAYS saves your credit card info, even if you didn't want it to. And once it's in, it's in for good. Unless of course one of you out there has found a way to CTRL-ALT-OPENAPPLE-CLOSEDAPPLE-LEFTHANDTTWIRL-RIGHTHANDOUT and get a screen that I don't see.

So I figure, hell, I'll log in over on Origin.com, as since they're the same system, SURELY it must have some way to change that info.

Nope. Not a chance. Doesn't list it, doesn't know it exists, has no idea I've even activated subscriptions. Useless blank interface. But it did tell me I needed to create a master ID (god, and here I thought I'd already done that). So I give it a smartass URL because god knows I could care less what my public URL is for Origin because, you know, I'm not going to use it as my new Facebook.

Sooo... here I am again, giving EA SOME of the money I _thought_ I wanted to give them (though after this fiasco, I might just call my credit card company and have them cancel the charges, and then visit the BBB to describe the ludicrous manner in which this system "manages" account information), and STILL can't give them ALL the money I want to give them. I'm sure it's something stupid like "You already processed four charges today, we can't process more than that, because your credit card company (who hasn't called me to tell me they suspect my card is involved in fraud, and yes, they do that if they do) suspects that there's fraud involved, or inorganic sunspots have eaten our ability to logically process a credit transaction, or god knows whatever excuse they have..."

But seriously...

Much like fully 3D clients and top-down isometric/orthographic/whatevertheargumentofthemonthis clients with decent graphics that don't cause graphic cards to smoke and burn and explode, companies have been successfully doing account management and recurring billing since, well, before the freaking world wide web existed. And you folks still haven't figured it out?

What in god's name IS the problem here?
Probably could have fixed it in the time you spent raging in this post.
 

Tina Small

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Okay, fine, whatever... think I'll just try to enter the credit card info from scratch. Yeah. Except, of course, that it ALWAYS saves your credit card info, even if you didn't want it to. And once it's in, it's in for good. Unless of course one of you out there has found a way to CTRL-ALT-OPENAPPLE-CLOSEDAPPLE-LEFTHANDTTWIRL-RIGHTHANDOUT and get a screen that I don't see.

So I figure, hell, I'll log in over on Origin.com, as since they're the same system, SURELY it must have some way to change that info.

Nope. Not a chance. Doesn't list it, doesn't know it exists, has no idea I've even activated subscriptions. Useless blank interface. But it did tell me I needed to create a master ID (god, and here I thought I'd already done that). So I give it a smartass URL because god knows I could care less what my public URL is for Origin because, you know, I'm not going to use it as my new Facebook.

Sooo... here I am again, giving EA SOME of the money I _thought_ I wanted to give them (though after this fiasco, I might just call my credit card company and have them cancel the charges, and then visit the BBB to describe the ludicrous manner in which this system "manages" account information), and STILL can't give them ALL the money I want to give them. I'm sure it's something stupid like "You already processed four charges today, we can't process more than that, because your credit card company (who hasn't called me to tell me they suspect my card is involved in fraud, and yes, they do that if they do) suspects that there's fraud involved, or inorganic sunspots have eaten our ability to logically process a credit transaction, or god knows whatever excuse they have..."
RaDian, there's some information buried in this thread on how to remove credit/debit card information: http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/250766-changing-billing-information-after-imputed.html#post2014911.
 

Lady Storm

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I feel your pain kiddo.

I for one would love our flawed old billing system back.. I could then turn off and on accounts without a phone and a asprin in hand for the headache i wil get talking to them till im blue (need oxygen for this). Could have done fine wiht out this upgrade billing if you ask me.. yes the old system had its faults but at least i didnt get double billed for every account linked over and over!
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
RaDian, there's some information buried in this thread on how to remove credit/debit card information: http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/250766-changing-billing-information-after-imputed.html#post2014911.
Thanks for that link... *grumble* Of all the bass ackwards ways of going about account management. If I didn't know better I'd swear they got the guy from WebTV or the person who invented Microsoft Bob to design this interface.

Managed to get my credit card info removed. Now putting the info back in... General Error. I just LOVE General Error. Almost as much as I like Colonel OK.

Oy.

But thanks again.
 

RaDian FlGith

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I feel your pain kiddo.

I for one would love our flawed old billing system back.. I could then turn off and on accounts without a phone and a asprin in hand for the headache i wil get talking to them till im blue (need oxygen for this). Could have done fine wiht out this upgrade billing if you ask me.. yes the old system had its faults but at least i didnt get double billed for every account linked over and over!
Yeah... I don't get this at all.

And I'm not going to call them. Bad enough when I have to call Comcast for anything at all. No chance I'm calling EA. I've had to call Blizzard exactly once, and it was the nicest, smoothest, most polite, easy to handle customer support conversation I've ever had, and that was because my authenticator on my iPod got reset with an iPod software update. Smooth as could be. I don't expect (especially based on everything I've read here) that a call to EA will be any better than the three days I spent talking to Microsoft after I bought Vista on release day because of a product ID error that got me calling all around the country (and Canada) only to finally find out that Microsoft's support centers hadn't yet been issued product key generators for Vista, and that they wouldn't have them for about a week (after Vista's retail release, mind you).

I've got a low phone tolerance as it is. *shakes head*

Funnier thing is, I've got a bad feeling a couple of the accounts I reactivated this morning will fall offline due to an inability to bill me, because before I removed the CC info, I saw 2 successes and a string of failures (and yet not a single email regarding any of it from any sort of automated system except for the "it's back on" emails).

Le. Sigh.
 

Uriah Heep

Grand Poobah
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
For years and years we have been accustomed to getting one thing fixed and breaking two. And we always felt picked on because of it. Not anymore, the latest fiascos have taught us that it's a companywide thing!!;)
 

old gypsy

Grand Poobah
Professional
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Patron
After this evening (and nearly two hours spent on the phone with an extremely patient and amazingly courteous EA Rep), I can appreciate the frustration and confusion the new account management system has inspired in some of us.

On the 24th I received an email saying my subscription had expired (it had always been set to auto-renew). I immediately called EA and I thought any problems had been cleared up (they did renew me), and the guy walked me through creating a new Mythic Master Account (that, as of this evening, Mythic doesn't recognize).

I also discovered this evening that I apparently already had two Mythic Master Accounts. Evidently the first was automatically created with the switch in management systems, but I'm not sure why or when the second one was created. The EA person I spoke with tonight did his best to explain the new system, and tried to figure out why I couldn't log in to the existing Mythic accounts or change my passwords on those accounts. Nothing we tried worked. Tomorrow I'll have the pleasure of calling Mythic to try to clear that up, since EA couldn't assist with that side of things; and I sure don't need two Mythic accounts, neither of which I can log into.

Maybe I can blame my confusion about this new system on old age. But the previous system was SO easy to understand and manage, even for me. Quite honestly, I tend to think that the Rep I spoke with tonight was so patient because he was almost as confused as I was and honestly wanted to figure things out. The poor guy should receive overtime pay for his efforts. I hope whoever I speak to tomorrow at Mythic is just as pleasant (and the phone call a great deal shorter).

Guess I've ranted long enough. Time for a couple of aspirin (if I was still a drinking person I'd be reaching for a scotch on the rocks right about now).
 
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