Hey guys! I know I know it has been waaay too long since I've really posted on here and for that I am sorry. Life has been beyond weird, crazy, etc. I still have Flick but I don't ride any where as much as I used to. I guess age, weather, and the fact of having a reliable car are all factors.
So, as another hobby I have picked up gaming again. I got myself a PS4 last year and have loved every minute of it! Well, until around Christmas time. For a Christmas present I received a year of Playstation Plus (PS+) $50 value. I was super excited about it as mine was set to expire on Dec. 29th and as far as I knew I had my account set up where Sony had to ask permission to withdraw funds. Apparently, that was for everything but Plus :cookoo: . As many of you know during the Christmas holiday Sony was hacked and the entire system was down. No gaming for me nor the ability to access my PSN account to enter my voucher #. Needless to say that when I saw on the morning of Dec. 29th I had already been charged for a year of PS+ I was slightly irritated because the system was still down. I tried calling and doing the chat and all of them were down "due to maintenance issues".
After 2 days I finally make contact with a customer service representative on Chat and he assured me that I was going to be refunded my money in 3-5 business days and that I should wait until that time before using my code so that there are no issues. A day later I received an e-mail stating that it would take 2-4 weeks or 1-2 billing cycles before my refund would be fully processed. Out of these conversations never once was it mentioned that my refund was in Playstation money rather than USD. I never received an email telling me money had been deposited into my Playstation account. I did use my voucher after the 3rd day because of the email stating 2-4 weeks and I didn't want to wait that long for service.
At this point we are at 3.5 weeks and I still haven't seen an e-mail from Sony stating funds had been put into my PSN wallet and when I made a PS+ purchase I saw nothing in my wallet. At this point I decide to have a talk with my bank as to what my options are because after 4 weeks there is nothing I can do. I showed them the chat (yes, I saved my chats I always do) and the e-mail and they thought that it would be in my best interest to dispute the charge and so I did. That was 2 weeks ago. Last week I saw a "provisional" credit to my account (meaning that yes it is in my account but it could still be removed if they don't rule in my favor as stated in their letter).
During this time I have had no issues no correspondence with Sony nothing. I played on Thursday Feb. 5th I got up on Friday the 6th to check on a download and it kept saying could not connect. I check my roommate's PS4 everything is fine. I log onto Sony where it says I am banned! Sony says that my account is banned because I reversed the charges and I now owe them $50! I asked them how that is possible and they said because I reversed the charges. When I told them the reason why they stated oh it was put into your wallet. Where I repeated what the chat and e-mail stated to which he sneared "we never give cash refunds"! I asked then why did it say about the 1-2 billing cycles for it to be processed to which he stated
"if we give you cash back that's how it is done"
"But, you just said you NEVER give cash back"
"WE, DON'T your being hostile and I'm ending the conversation". Sadly, this is on the phone so only Sony has the actual conversation. I went on chat and tried to find out how to reinstate my service. At this point I was told "that I had to buy a PlayStation Network Card and pay them $50"
"How much money do I have in my wallet?" (Mind you I can't even log into my account to see my balance much less remove my CC info)
"$50"
"Well, great! Why don't you use that and we are all happy?"
"You can't use funds from a suspended account!"
" Well, my bank has still only given me provisional credit I am still concerned about paying you guys another $50 and if they rule in your favor you now have $100! Can you tell me if they rule in your favor and you get the $50 back will you reinstate my account?"
"Your account can only be reinstated by using a Playstation Network card"
"So,are you telling me that you will not accept this money from a financial institution?" At this point he disconnects the chat.
This is where I am at and I don't really have a clue as to what I can do. I feel that Sony is blackmailing into paying them the $50 because I now have a $500 brick along with a smaller $200 brick (Vita). I can't watch NetFlix, Amazon Prime, play any games on the 4. My Vita I can only play games that I physically have. They have actually deleted 6 games from it! I can't even log into my Sony Network account to remove my credit card or see my wallet balance. My bank says what they are doing is extremely unprofessional but they don't have much to offer except wait to what Visa finally determines.
So, Thoughts?
Mary
My thoughts are this,
Do not give this company any more money. I have been a Playstation fan since '96 and I will not pay for the PS+ service. I paid Sony for the system, I paid for the games, I pay for the internet, I pad for my TV, I will not pay Playstation for a "service" which is no better than PS3's free online service.
What I would recommend is to write a letter to the CEO. Explain everything as it is, try to refrain from a lot of "fluff" and try not to hit them with a wall of text. The less difficult it is for them to understand what you want, the better.
Have you tried going straight to management and blowing past the trained monkeys they use to man the phones and chat help lines?
Sounds like a bunch of idiots over there fumbling through policies they don't even fully understand.
As long as you can state everything calmly and concisely you should be able to get through to a manager without them getting defensive and hanging up on you.
I also recommend using Skype so you can record your conversation for later use. Skype is free to use if you are calling an 800 number, so don't worry about having an account on the books. I've done it a few times already, especially with Verizon customer service when my cell phone's ear-piece speaker went out.
Hope you can sort it out. But it's times like this that remind me why I am a PC gamer.
I don't need to buy a whole new console with new controllers and such every time a new "generation" of tech comes out, I can keep my keyboard and mouse and monitor and case and even most of my hardware and just switch out a graphics card.
It also means I get to keep all my games, so the games I owned and played on Windows XP running on a Dell with a Pentium 4 and 2 GB of RAM like Worms Armageddon and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 are the same games I can play right now on Windows 7 running on my custom PC with an i5-3570k overclocked and 16GB of RAM, yet I can also play the latest Battlefield and Grand Theft Auto games as well.
And I don't need a monthly subscription to play over the internet. It's just called the internet.
I hate to be an elitist because I grew up as a Nintendo fan, but the way Microsoft and Sony are handling their game consoles these days just makes me shake my head in utter disapproval. It's ridiculous how they can charge you for a service that should just be a condition of owning the device and having an internet connection, and even worse how they can revoke games you paid for and rightfully own. Doesn't matter if the game is cloud based and downloaded, if you paid for it you own it. They might be able to ban you from playing it online, but they can't take it away from you. It's borderline theft if you ask me.
Like Valve's Steam service. If you commit an act bad enough to get you banned, your account isn't suspended. You just can't play online. You still own and can play all the games in your account, you just can't interact with the online community anymore. If you are accused of fraud then your account can be suspended, but nothing short of stealing the games will make them stop you from playing what you paid for.
Not sure if you want to take it that far, but I wonder if this is grounds for class action lawsuit. I can't imagine you are the only one screwed over by the same set of circumstances, and they are being incredibly unprofessional about it.
Well,
I called again last night and found it absolutely amazing that I got the same guy that I had "problems" with earlier. I put it on speakerphone and had a small recorder and let them know immediately what I was doing. But, completely different conversation and tone. I was back online in 5 minutes! I'm going to give it 48 hours because my money isn't in my wallet yet. My bank called to tell me that they had given Sony their money back today. So, as long as the money is in my wallet that is enough. Almost all of this could have been avoided by one guy if he had made it clear that refunds were only back to your wallet. Yeah, I would have been irritated but know what was going to happen. But, we all know what happens when someone assumes?
I believe PS+ is worth the $ last year I only paid $29 so that was even better. But, you get some really great games for free! Just my Vita alone I got the AAA Uncharted for free and absolutely amazing game, Borderlands 2 for my PS3, NBA 2k14, and just this past month Injustice and Infamous first light for the PS4! I don't really look at my + membership as my way to play online. You can still do that just some aspects such as fireteams on Destiny. You can even still join chat parties without plus.
BTW I hate PC gaming not going to get into a game war here. But, I loved Infamous, Gran Tourismo, and God of War none of which can be played on PC properly. I've got my PSP and do many of the Nintendo and Sega emulators on them. But, my CC is off of PS and I'm on my way to Wally World to get a prepaid CC that will work just fine.
Until, this debacle I was an absolute Sony fan girl. But, in 5 years I've only had one major hiccup and I learned some very valuable lessons with this even! I had an Xbox 360 and hated it to the point that I gave it away! My rooommate got me a PS3 that Christmas and well loved it ever since!
Thanks all!
Mary
Quote from: Toogoofy317 on February 10, 2015, 01:02:04 PM
BTW I hate PC gaming not going to get into a game war here. But, I loved Infamous, Gran Tourismo, and God of War none of which can be played on PC properly.
Not to stir the pot even more, but you can basically buy any shape controller you want with a USB connection on the end. Playstation style, NES style, N64 style, all can be found that just plug into any standard USB 2.0 slot. Hell, the Xbox360 controllers themselves interface with a USB, so you don't even need a PC specific one!
So I find comments like saying you can't play racing games or hack-n-slash games like Zelda or Darksiders on PC rather comical. If the end user finds the input device lacking in performance, a different input device can be found. That is something that can't be done easily on console, and when it is done it's frowned upon. I knew of a few people who took apart Xbox 360 controllers and found a way to hook a keyboard and mouse up to it. Long story short, they were all banned from Xbox Live once the secret got out. I wouldn't think it's such a crime, but apparently it is.
There's actually a few websites that emulate all NES and Sega Genesis games on flash, so they are super accessible, and I had an N64 emulator for a while when I was on a StarFox kicker. Played Perfect Dark and Goldeneye as well while I was at it, great fun! Just as good as back in the day without the hassle of blowing into the cartridges to get them to read :thumb:
But hey, to each their own, if you like consoles you like consoles. I'll still try to talk you out of it on a rational level, but in the end if you like what you like simply because you like it I can't and won't try to change that.
Glad you got your issue sorted out this time around, happy gaming! :cheers:
I'm waiting for an Apple ios fan to chime in right about now! Lmao
always been a pc gaming fan. mainly because you can upgrade parts and edit the game to run even better than out of the box. ps3 a close second ( once you fit it with a 1tb HDD that is lol )
Have you guys been following the "Steam Box"?
Basically Valve's answer to the console scene which strives to break the limitations of the system. It's built on upgradeable PC hardware with an expansion slot for additional hard-drives, and it has an innovative controller with more buttons that average, and some buttons are customizable. It's made to run PC games rather than console ports of PC games, so you get more developer's options as well as advanced controls.
On that topic, I remember when N64 had button presses that worked in combination. Perfect Dark was the best example I can think of. A was cycle weapons forward, if you held A and pressed Z it was cycle weapons backward. B was reload, if you held B it was change weapon mode. If you held B while pressing Z it would fire one shot in secondary mode without toggling it. So, like, secondary for a handgun was pistol-whip. If you were shooting all you had to do was tap B while you were shooting and your character would swing the gun without a pause then resume shooting.
It seems like that was really the only system that took advantage of that.
Steam Box? .. why yes! ... little mobile noodle stand in Sydney isn't it?! Lol
Well, funny Visa actually ruled in my favor so I got my $ back and Sony never put the $ in the wallet. So, a lot of hubbub for nothing. Since, this incident I play maybe 1/4th of what I had previous Plus issues. Realized how boring the grind on Destiny was getting. Think I might put it down until the House of Wolves DLC. I did try GTA V but God that is an awful game! The stereotypes, language, and outright violence were turnoffs for me. One or two of those but as a package yick! I've actually been having great fun with Borderlands 2 on my Vita yeah and blowing stuff up are fun vs shooting random people on the street.
I really am excited about the new Mortal Kombat. As far as controllers yeah I know all about that actually just picked up a BT controller for my next project. I am waiting for a Google cardboard kit. I already have an S5 so this should be a really fun project! From what I hear it is quite cool!
Mary