ClickandBuy - Why Do People Hate It?

Ignorant people should refrain from posting. (Ignorant as not knowing of the other poster issue. Not an insult in any way, excuse me.)

Bungiefan's problem is that he plays from an Japanese account (like me) and we're restricted even further than you or other people with North American or European accounts.

As such, we're left with the other two possible payment options:

Pay montly with JCB Nicos (an sort of special credit card with bias for online purchases, obviously has same restrictions as standard Pay with Credit Card option)

Webmoney.JP (works same way as PlaySpan, we would have to buy prepaid cards on stores, scratch the ink and input the codes on a website to be credited)

Since said prepaid cards are obviously only available on Japanese retail outlets, we have to buy online codes from a company called "SutoCorp" which charges around 6 USD per transaction for their services. They're 1000 times better than C&B but the 6 USD fee is quite hefty in my humble opinion.

And of course JP POL doesn't even know what PayPal is.

I was beginning to wonder why everyone has been on about paying an extra fee to C&B when I haven't had to part with any more cash than before. I guess that makes sense now, providing I've understood it right?

Are only international players getting charged this extra amount? I'm presuming UK people and maybe EU players aren't getting this charge?

<in a frankenstien inflection>

CHANGE IS BBBAAADDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!

Japan doesn't have that option for their accounts, and I'm trying to get my account converted to my current home region, like they have allowed for unlinked accounts. I lost the option before they offered it because I linked when Security Tokens first came out.

Also, many such surveys ask and verify phone number or email address, so I'd be getting spammed with telemarketers in order to pay my fee. I'd rather just have automatic credit card billing, but I can't pay with a card that isn't issued to a Japanese mailing address.

So, I didn't THINK we were having any problems with ClickandBuy...BUT I did my quarterly check/filter/maintenance of our checking account today...

We pay for 2 FFXI accounts. My husband's account is $16.95 My account is $14.95

On our ClickandBuy transaction screen are 2 $16.95 charges and 2 $14.95 charges...all paid. This is fine, this is correct.

The problem is, the money they received from bank account all 4 times was NOT the correct amount.

My bank paid them $17.28 when my account billed (both times) and another $17.28 (both times) when my husband's account billed.

For those of you who don't want to do the math that is a discrepancy of $0.33 on my husband's account and $2.33 on my account. No it is not an enormous amount of extra money but it IS money that cannot be explained by fees and is not accounted for on ClickandBuy, and, if it continues this way, it adds up quite quickly.

I called my bank first. My bank has no extra fees associated with the charges and, even if they did, the fees would have been billed separate from the billing charges, clearly marked as such.

I attempted to call ClickandBuy at 1-877-265-7821...I got a ClickandBuy answering machine that told me I called outside of normal business hours and that I needed to call back between the hours of 9am and 5pm EST M-F (I called right at 5pm PST so I was, in fact, expecting this message) or I could email them at service@us.clickandbuy.com

I sent an email. I received a confirmation of said email along with an "allocated email reference number" instantly.

Whether they email me back, or not, I will be calling again tomorrow, during their business hours, and I will have an explanation for the discrepancies.

I will also be closing my C&B account and going the Crysta route...even though I'd really rather not spend more money on Crysta than I absolutely need, at least the Crysta is like a credit of sorts and the leftover could eventually add up into a free month of FFXI every now and again. Instead of just leeching little bits of money here and there like C&B seems to be content doing, with no benefits to me whatsoever.

Anyway, the entire point of this was to advise everyone to check their bank accounts and make certain that your bank is paying the correct amount as displayed in SE account services billing arrangement, and ALSO to make absolutely sure that ALL charges between your bank and C&B match up EXACTLY.

Good Luck.

OK, I called the C&B phone number.

the person on the phone (who claimed he was in Germany and who had a yippy, barking dog that seemed to be in his lap the entire time given how loud it was in my damned ear) claimed he had no supervisor for me to talk to and claimed that the only access he had to our account at all was the same exact crap that I can do on the stupid website. He tried to tell me that it was our bank charging the extra money...I told him, if it had been the bank they would have billed us separately AND taken the money for themselves NOT paid the money to C&B...he tried to say it was the conversion from pounds to dollars I explained the conversion rate, (which does not match up with the charges at all), then he said it could be the card company the bank is using "lining their pockets with ill gotten funds." I told him, "I suppose that's possible but given C&B's reputation, I doubt it." He then said SE may be charging extra. To which I explained that, if that were the case, then my C&B transaction history would reflect as such, BUT, naturally, it doesn't. I then told him that if he couldn't help me figure out the problem and resolve it then I would be closing my account and "reporting" the company because I'm pretty sure that what they're doing is a form of fraud. His response to that: "That is probably your best bet, close your account, report the company, have it investigated, hopefully you'll get your money back but, since you're in the US and ClickandBuy is a UK based company it may not do you any good. I'm sorry I can't help you further." He then explained what I need to do to go about closing the C&B account entirely...I have to revoke SE's ability to charge the account, then wait 7 days. After that 7 days is up, if there are no other charges from SE, I can close the account. SE is going to charge for my account on the 11th...so I'm just going to go to the SE website, "turn off" my account, then revoke them on C&B, see what I can do about buying some Crysta and, in 7 days, I'll close the C&B account entirely. Then I just have to figure out how to go about "reporting" C&B for shady business. Oh, I bet our actual bank can help me figure out who to call or whatever for that.

Oh well, lesson learned, should've gone with Crysta in the first place...ugh.

Someone needs to petition SE to drop Click & Buy billing completely from all of their services (including purchasing merchandise).

Agreed.

Is click and buy used to purchase Crysta? I bought and received $30 worth of crysta. Two days later I check my credit card statement online. I was charged $31.64 I thought ok, maybe it's the exchange rate, but no, on the day of the transaction the Canadian dollar was actually worth more then the U.S. dollar.

I thought this might be a soloution to the extra fees I was paying through the monthy click and buy system. Apparently I was wrong.

Are we just going to have to accept the fact that no mater how we pay we are just now going to have to pay more or is there a better way?

Shame on you SE for fixing something that wasn't broken.

Yea, those damn withdrawal fees.

aw crap >.<

No C&B and UltimatePay are two separate companies...at least, that's what I'm gathering from the info on SE website.

OK, I JUST added $30 worth in crystal to my account as well. I used my debit card...the pending charge on my bank account says $30 but given the problem with C&B I dunno how much I can trust that, so I'll wait til the charge goes through completely and let you know if I also incur an extra charge.

I will say, right before you click on ultimatepay SE has a disclaimer that says that there could be a surcharge depending on country and payment method (something along those lines) so...if I don't get that charge as well, then you may be getting the charge simply because you're in Canada? I dunno...I hope it gets figured out for you.

I used the playspan/crysta method. I have to buy more crysta than I need at the moment to ensure there is enough to cover the 2 accounts I pay for, SE did say a few weeks ago that they were looking into being able to buy the exact amount of crysta to cover fees though.

Sorry for the bump.

ClickandBuy is the WORST service EVER!

They blocked my account, I'm verified there and sent all the docs they asked, but they still keep it blocked for NO real reason!

I want to perform world transfer and I can't! There is no Crysta option on my account too. So is just like I'm "jailed" on server.

Necrod instead of creating new, since there is alot of good information in this thread.

Anyone figure out a way to use server transfer on a non-crysta account? Click and Buy declines card due to "region"