Elder Scrolls Online - 30 Days Free Subscription

[Drithius]

Much Ado About Nothing.

The official slogan of social media.

 

[fabrulana]

I think you don't understand the real issue here. The problem is not that ZeniMax is asking for billing info, but in fact it charges your debit/credit card for another 30 days. The amount is given back after a while, and from what I've read on the forums Europeans get it in minutes while US players have to wait up to 5 days to get their money returned.
ZeniMax could have charged only $0.1 or $1 if they wanted to verify the validity of an account, not the whole one month subscription. This attitude led to many players who purchased the game not being able to play because their bank accounts were empty. Do you think this is fair?

Strange, I'm in South Africa and I didn't have this problem ? Most of our servers refer to Europe... I had reversal after awhile, not sure but it couldn't have been two hours or more. Though it was on VISA.

 

[jhwisner]

I understand the issue he had - I got irritated as well of having to choose a subscription plan with a credit card. They then immediately deducted a month's subscription on my credit card, but then reversed it a while afterwards thus verifying the credit card (they never gave notice of having to do this)..

That sounds to me that there had been a sort of inquiry transaction performed by requesting and immediately releasing a "preuthorization hold" which effectively verifies that the card can be charged. My credit union had explained to me that most banks reflect both the hold and release in real time, though some chose to only acknowledge the hold and then release the funds at some later arbitrary time up to the 72 hour maximum before they legally have to. They made this sound like a shady practice by some banks.

To be clear, the normal practice is that since the hold and release of the hold are within seconds of each other someone should not actually ever have the funds tied up. If you do, that was a decision your bank made because their practices in that regard at least are shitty.

I think you don't understand the real issue here. The problem is not that ZeniMax is asking for billing info, but in fact it charges your debit/credit card for another 30 days. The amount is given back after a while, and from what I've read on the forums Europeans get it in minutes while US players have to wait up to 5 days to get their money returned.
ZeniMax could have charged only $0.1 or $1 if they wanted to verify the validity of an account, not the whole one month subscription. This attitude led to many players who purchased the game not being able to play because their bank accounts were empty. Do you think this is fair?

They are not charging people. This is an unscrupulous practice where banks are acknowledging the preauthorization and placing a hold on an amount in your account then choosing not to acknowledge the immediate release of that hold which follows it. There is no actual charge taking place, just some banks being shitty and pretending that keeping your money is something they do at today's speeds while letting you access your money is something they are using pen and paper to figure out. My bank didn't do this because it's not shitty like that and there are plenty of non-shitty banks out there.

Just to verify I called the bank which issued my card and they confirmed that there was a preauthorization hold followed immediately by a release of that hold. Both were reflected in an equally timely manner and so the funds would have only be unavailable if I had attempted to use them during about a 20 second window. They emphasized that no money was ever taken out of my account during this time only that it was unavailable for that short window. That the window is longer for some banks is a choice made by those banks and you should give them hell for it because it's dishonest.

 

[Thrasher]

Can they invest to gain interest on that money held? That would certainly explain the US banks' behavior. Pretty shitty, if true.

 

[jhwisner]

Can they invest to gain interest on that money held? That would certainly explain the US banks' behavior. Pretty shitty, if true.

Not sure about that actually, but some banks had overdraft policies that would charge you when your available balance dipped negative even if your actual balance never did. I had thought that was supposed to have changed, but if it has not then that would be the motivation as this sort of policy is more likely to generate fees. If it has changed then its a holdover from that and some banks are just lazy and/or forgot why/how they were screwing people in the first place.