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[Simply Sami]

I really don't think this is on sony. More on paypal. They seem to be having issues with vendors other than sony at the moment.
I put three orders in on bestbuy tonight for digital psn cards. Paid with paypal. First order went through fine. Second and third orders went through at first but were refunded by bestbuy.

That's bestbuy dude.

It was most likely security checks as digital stuff is great for hackers. So you ordering 3 items in a row probably flagged up.

 

[pelican]

So I am unbanned and my PP account still shows a pending payment from the 11th June....

Do you think I should pop £10 credit into the account incase it gets charged back? If the account is in credit when it happens would that remove any danger of a further incorrect ban?

 

[Syriel]

Any company that you issue a chargeback for is going to react harshly. It's not just a Sony thing. Chargebacks costs companies thousands of dollars and companies do not react greatly to that.

If it was an issue of no contact with the money was made, I think a better method would be to reroute the money to the party that didn't get it and then sending an email explaining what happened.

We'll probably never get a definitive answer, but multiple reports are indiciating that it was a payment failure due to Sony closing the wrong payment account.

A payment failure is not a chargeback. And if this is the case, it is 100% on Sony.

As for chargebacks themselves, they are 100% a legitimate tool. Any company that accepts credit cards has to agree to a merchant agreement to accept their use.

Like any tool chargebacks can be abused (just as a hammer can be abused) but it is wrong to say "Chargebacks are ALWAYS bad" just as it is wrong to say "Hammers are ALWAYS bad."

It is unethical for Sony to auto-ban for any chargeback. Chargebacks are a dispute process that requires investigation and documentation.

For a valid example, Sony may not like it if they get duped by someone using a stolen CC number, but that is on Sony for not validating the purchase. The person whose card number got stolen shouldn't have to decide between losing $$$ or having Sony steal all their digital games.

Im absolutely baffled that there wasn't some bean counter or something somewhere in the middle whom gets some automatically daily generated report saying "Increase of 120000% in auto-bans yesterday" and escalate it immediately.

So much this. Any competent engineer would have this on a dashboard and it would be alarmed.

It sounds like this is mostly on Sony for incorrectly concluding transactions and funding accounts from transactions that weren't complete...

If Sony had never properly received the funds then why did they ever apply the wallet balance?

Not surprised Sony CS is still awful. I had big trouble with them last year over an account that got bugged. I had to use developer ties to resolve it and in the end it was bugged. Really sad that I had to use developer ties to deal with a consumer issue.

Sony has never heavily invested in CS and it shows.

 

[SaiyanRaoh]

Maybe this was a hack and MAYBE Sony will wake the fuck up and adjust that charge-back policy and maybe even let thousands of people use their credit cards again. I haven't able to use credit, debit or pay pal for a year. I had another battle with their idiotic by-the-script staff about this matter yet again days ago. I'm sorry to whomever was affected but fuck Sony's customer service.

 

[Xenus]

We'll probably never get a definitive answer, but multiple reports are indiciating that it was a payment failure due to Sony closing the wrong payment account.

A payment failure is not a chargeback. And if this is the case, it is 100% on Sony.

As for chargebacks themselves, they are 100% a legitimate tool. Any company that accepts credit cards has to agree to a merchant agreement to accept their use.

Like any tool chargebacks can be abused (just as a hammer can be abused) but it is wrong to say "Chargebacks are ALWAYS bad" just as it is wrong to say "Hammers are ALWAYS bad."

It is unethical for Sony to auto-ban for any chargeback. Chargebacks are a dispute process that requires investigation and documentation.

For a valid example, Sony may not like it if they get duped by someone using a stolen CC number, but that is on Sony for not validating the purchase. The person whose card number got stolen shouldn't have to decide between losing $$$ or having Sony steal all their digital games.

Not really a chargeback is a line of last defense not a dispute process. Chargebacks are to be used in a they stole my money and are refusing to give it back situation. It means you are ending the relationship with the company that you did so. Not only is the money returned but the company itself can be charged 20-50 per chargeback.

Yes someone should have looked into the autobans when they spiked but a chargeback is not something as innocuous as a refund. There are very real reasons why companies will take serious action when hit by a chargeback and it will not be favorable towards the one initiating it.

 

[LordRaptor]

As for chargebacks themselves, they are 100% a legitimate tool. Any company that accepts credit cards has to agree to a merchant agreement to accept their use.

Like any tool chargebacks can be abused (just as a hammer can be abused) but it is wrong to say "Chargebacks are ALWAYS bad" just as it is wrong to say "Hammers are ALWAYS bad."

Chargebacks are an anti-fraud measure, not a customer dissatisfaction measure; a chargeback is literally saying "This was a fraudulent purchase, either not made by me or for goods that were not as described" and should only be used in those circumstances by a customer.

Having said that, it is not good to treat people who have used chargebacks as a payment dispute mechanism the same as people who have abused a service by banning.

 

[More_Badass]

Just got hit with this, now my account's banned. Fuck

 

[diablos991]

This is why we use PSN cards. Linking financial services to these consoles is not a good idea.

Hopefully those effected can call Sony and get this straightened out.

 

[Souldestroyer Reborn]

For what it's worth i noticed it happened to me around 2200.

When i woke the next day and checked at about 0800, the issue was rectified.

I also came out of it £50 better off as they've not asked for the money back yet and I wouldn't even know how to give them it back if I wanted to.

 

[VlaudTheImpaler]

Wait a minute... This hasn't been sorted yet? Are you serious?

 

[knightfolk]

Screw this. Done with it. Gonna stick to steam where the platform holder actually cares for me.

Steam may very well have better CS than Sony, but please don't think any corporation gives two shits about you as a person. MS, Valve, Sony, and the rest are in it for market share and profits.

 

[Zafir]

The pending charge I had on Paypal did eventually disappear - didn't get banned, fortunately.

 

[Gestault]

Particularly seeing how many right in the thread were affected, have we had any official update on this?

 

[Kinyou]

Sorry for the bump but I thought about using paypal on psn but then I remembered this story.

Did eventually everyone get unbanned? Did Sony ever comment on it and/or apologize?