GOA taking money from my account for no reason.

[Vegy]

My bank statement arrived yesterday and I was suprised to see an £8.00 withdrawel by wanadoo/daoc, my last active account ran out at the beginning of the month and surely there was some mistake? Maybe they had a lapse in the billing I thought, or more likely I had left an account on auto renew.
Straight away I went upstairs and checked my 3 accounts and 2 accounts of a real life friend(of 7 years or so, he has no other way to pay for them himself) but nope, none of them were set to auto renew and infact the last validation dates for them are:

My First : 10-14-2003 11:41 Validated
My Second : 10-14-2003 11:40 Validated
My Last : 11-03-2003 17:44 Validated
Friends First : 09-30-2003 18:20 Validated
Friends Second : 10-24-2003 19:28 Validated

These are the start dates, so the last active account that I paid for stopped on the 3rd of December and sure enough none of them were on auto renewal or active.
Now I start to get worried, did someone else have my card details? I thought this was unlikely but still, possible.

I emailed GOA straight away with:

It seems I was charged on the 16th of December 2003 but I did not do this myself manually, nor do I have any of my accounts on auto renew.
Can you please look into this an find out which account I am being charged through as this is quite serious and could mean someone has my card details.

Thanks,

Andrew Venables.

I wasn't expecting a reply for a while because of the holiday period, but when checking my emails after getting home from work I saw GOA had replied, here is the mail:

Dear customer,

Due to a technical problem, your account “avenable" has been renewed .Thus we offer you a free month to your current subscription in order to apologize for this inconvenient.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,
---------------------------------------------
European Dark Age of Camelot Customer Support

Now, theres three things here which I find shocking.
Firstly, Nearly 2 weeks after I stopped playing DAoC and my card details are still sat on a database on a server, no matter how secure, left open for accidents such as this to happen where I could be billed for any ammount at anytime.
Secondly, Where was my offer of a refund? Surely this would be the correct thing to do in such an incident?
Thirdly, How the hell can they have the cheek to tell me this was a free month, I was charged on the 16th for a month and they have now activated my account for a month

Extend 1 month From: 12-23-2003 To: 01-22-2004 Amount: 0.00£

(Extend on what exactly, it was 'none' yesterday)
I fail to see how this was a free month.

Rest assured, I shall be contacting my bank and possibly the police if needs be, I am definately not the kind of person to make a fuss but when it concerns my debit card details I will not sit by and wait for something like this to happen again.

 

[Tranquil-]

Go for it, would be good for everyone if GOA gets a slap since this seems to be a common problem.

 

[Cloudd_RTD]

Dude, it was 8 pounds... You would have used them on candy anyway...
Old.

 

[chimaira]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Dude, it was 8 pounds... You would have used them on candy anyway...
Old.

doesnt fucking matters. even if its 1 bloddy penny they have no fucking right either to store your details nor renew.

happened to me to. but as I play still I didnt bother.

when I stop playing daoc Im canceling my current Visa number and remake it. goa pff

 

[Vegy]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Dude, it was 8 pounds... You would have used them on candy anyway...
Old.

'dude' you fail to see the point, I would surely enough put this down to the fact that you are probably 14 and have never had much more than the £5 pocket money your parents give you a week nd their credit card.
You fail to see the importance of peoples credit card details being stored on a server 6 weeks after they were last used, waiting for a 'technical difficulty' to charge someone.
How long exactly do they intend to keep my details?

It seems strangely ironic a news post about payment details appeared today.
http://camelot-europe.goa.com/news/newsarticle.php3?id_article=1634

 

[Cloudd_RTD]

Actually, I live in an appartment alone while I go to school.
I use my creditcard to pay for food, bills etc. But 8 pounds? Come on. It's not much money IMO. I get about 450£ from my school to go there...

But I guess you don't have that much money to "wildly spend on stuff you "can't" aford." etc.

Just 8£ dude.

 

[vesania]

The amount of money is irrelevant. The misuse of someone's credit card details isn't.

 

[Vegy]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Actually, I live in an appartment alone while I go to school.
I use my creditcard to pay for food, bills etc. But 8 pounds? Come on. It's not much money IMO. I get about 450£ from my school to go there...

But I guess you don't have that much money to "wildly spend on stuff you "can't" aford." etc.

Just 8£ dude.

Really, are you attempting to 'troll' or are you that stupid?

What happens with the next £8? What's to say this wont happen again but at a higher ammount.

You are failing to see that the ammount is irrelevent here, £8 isn't much but to put it bluntly they have stolen money from me, and also have my details to do as they please.

 

[Cloudd_RTD]

Give the baby his bottle, GOA. ^^

 

[Brunore]

this has happend to me as well, I am waiting for a reply from them about it.

And I will involve my bank and the police if the reply is a load of bollocks.

To the guy above, your a dick.

Think about this, if someone has your details they can use the card.

Like, take all your money and stuff, you know.

 

[Cloudd_RTD]

I actually don't like being called a dick.

 

[vintervargen]

oh nice, 2 days ago my father (whos visa im using xD) said he gotten a payment from wannadoo, and i know for sure i have no accounts on auto renewal - unless im still paying for alderian and his BB's accounts - which have been banned for 5 months...

should i turn to rightnow or subscription@goa.com?

 

[Vegy]

Don't even bother with rightnow its a load of shite mate
subscription@goa.com is the email I used aye.

 

[Cyfr]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
I actually don't like being called a dick.

Dick.

 

[Damon_D]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Actually, I live in an appartment alone while I go to school.
I use my creditcard to pay for food, bills etc. But 8 pounds? Come on. It's not much money IMO. I get about 450£ from my school to go there...

But I guess you don't have that much money to "wildly spend on stuff you "can't" aford." etc.

Just 8£ dude.

LOL get a clue..or give me ya adresse so I can send someone by to rob you ..cause its only money... And you would prob have bought rubber pr0n dolls for it anyway....

 

[-yoda-]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Dude, it was 8 pounds... You would have used them on candy anyway...
Old.

you sir are a DICK...

the amount of money that was taklen is 100% irelivant.... GOA have STOLEN money from his acc... he canceled his acc . and they STILL took money from it...

what would you do if they took 5yrs of subs out of your acc after you have canceled ? if/when i eventually cancel my subs if they take money from my account i will for sure goto the police and maybe even sue em (if i would be able to).

that £8 he lost could of ran into MUCH bigger figures,,,,

what if somebody had only £2 in there account .... and goa took £8 out most peoples accounts have it so they can take the money and they go overdrawn.... hence you get ADDED charges for being overdrawn...... i had a similer thing happen to me when i used to live elsewhere i cancled an account with sommin.. then moved home far away...

few months later i got a letter through door from my old bank saying i owed them £300+ because the company had taken the money out and i was getting overdrawn charges added on , and because i was not living at old property which my OLD bank was close to they didnt have my new adress . (some will say thatsmy fault but its not the point) . the fact is cos i canceled and company still took cash out i ended up oweing a lot of money (that i couldnt afford) to them cos the company had fucked me over after i had cancled. and cos i didnt get found by old bank for few months ofc there were county court judgements against me . disabling me to get any credit anywhere.


so that measly £8 as you put it could run into 100's ... and also fuck up any credit u may want to get , like a loan or a mortgage.!!

 

[Aarweenie]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
I actually don't like being called a dick.

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Give the baby his bottle, GOA. ^^

 

[old.TeaSpoon]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
Actually, I live in an appartment alone while I go to school.
I use my creditcard to pay for food, bills etc. But 8 pounds? Come on. It's not much money IMO. I get about 450£ from my school to go there...

But I guess you don't have that much money to "wildly spend on stuff you "can't" aford." etc.

Just 8£ dude.

I make £800 a week. Oh look! You get £450. I'll take that thankyou. What are you complaining about? Its only £450, thats hardly anything!

 

[Cloudd_RTD]

Finally! Someone sees my point!
/hugs Teaspoon

 

[Vegy]

Cloudd, you really are possibly the most stupid person I have had the pleasure of meeting on these forums .
(Incase I missed your sarcy wit Cloudd, TeaSpoon was actually showing you how what you are saying is BS)

 

[Damon_D]

Me thinks he is to stupid to see that...

 

[Maleg_Grumpton]

Put it in another context - somebody takes £8 from 1000 accounts without permission, for Cloudd that's £8000 - no longer a 'small' amount really is it. The fact is they shouldn't be taking cast from accounts that have not be renewed, no matter what the amount. Hate to say it, but if you don't understand this Cloudd you are a dick!

 

[angrykid]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
I actually don't like being called a dick.

Just felt I would like to flame this "dude" a bit.

It says in his name that he is retarded. RTD?

No wonder he fails to see the amount isn't of very importance, but the fact they have our credit card information.. well, it sucks..

 

[Vegy]

An update of what has happened so far, for the people who maybe i nthe same situation as myself.
I am actually happy with the quick replies from GOA, and until now I have never had a single problem from them in around a year and half.

I went on to email them again with:

I would like a full refund of £8.00 to be paid back into my account, as at this time I do not wish to have my account running.
I would ask also that you have my card details removed from the database, I do not want any further 'technical difficulties' to mean I am being charged for nothing.
Secondly, If I was charged £8.00 on the 16th, how exactly is now activating my account for 1 month giving me a month free?
If the refund is not paid I shall be contact both the police and my bank.

Thanks again,

Andrew Venables

Comes across as an asshole, but I think understandable I was not happy to be told they were charging me for their technical difficulty.

Again upon arriving home from work today (half day woohoo, plus a bonus & large bottle of whisky) I find they have replied:

Hello again,

We have given you a free month because you were connected to the game from 02/10/2003 at 19:58:51 untill the 31/10/2003 at 12:57:50.

For your information, we refun only the customers whose account was renewed due to a technical problem and they didn't play during that period.

Thanks for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,
---------------------------------------------
European Dark Age of Camelot Customer Support

I really think that there is a communication break down somewhere here.
I had renewed my account on 14/10/03, which means the dates they quoted would fall under this. I have now just sent them back the following email.

10-14-2003 11:41 Validated
I renewed my account on the 14th of October for one month (let's say for arguements sake it runs until the 13th of November, I can not check as the billing site seems to have a problem).
I quote you :
" you were connected to the game from 02/10/2003 at 19:58:51 untill the 31/10/2003 at 12:57:50"
These dates would fall under the renewel of the account on the 14th of October. I was charged by you, wanadoo on the 23rd of October as I have checked my bank statement.

Therefor, you can not claim that the £8.00 that was taken from my account on the 16th of December was done so because I was connected between 02/10/2003 and 31/10/2003.
The date (16/12/03) is exactly 9 weeks(63 Days) later than the date (14/10/03) I renewed my account for an amount of £8.00 (GBP, 1 month renewel), it is 5 weeks later than the estimated date for closure of the account (11/11/03), and is 6 weeks 4 days(46 days) later than the date you tell me I was connected until (31/10/03).

You must understand why I am not happy that 5 weeks after my details were needed they are still on your database.
I ask you kindly to arrange for the details to be removed, or if you are unable to to let me know so that I can arrange to have my bank details changed to stop further 'technical faults'.
I may wish to renew my accounts once again at some time in the future, but until that time I see absolutely no reason for my details to be held by you or the company who does you billing.

Thanks,

Andrew Venables

I have not made contact with my bank or the police yet as I am hoping very much to have this resolved the easy way.
The £8 refund means little to me now, it is the bank details I am worried about. If they assured me that the details had been removed then to be quite honest I would let the money slip rather than involve the bank and/or police over £8.

Saying that, how many people has this happened to? Like someone just abov me said if a 'technical difficulty' was to happen to 1000 players who do no longer play then already the company has made £8000 upwards for a service they have not supplied.
I am quite sure this would not sit right with the law.

 

[Addlcove]

had it done to 4 accounts myself

for a total of 88 eur.

issued a CNP with my bank because GOA couldn´t be bothered answering me

 

[hellraisermk2]

I'm still waiting on a response from GOA regarding the billing of my account without my consent or knowledge.

After a month or so of trying to get an answer, they closed the question as resolved (I hadn't recieved my refund, so it was far from resolved). I opened up another question asking where my refund was. There response was "We've passed it on to the relevent department. Don't contact us, we will contact you." That was on the 5th of December. I've updated the question demading some form of response and that the issue be resolved.

Anyone who thinks kicking up a fuss about a large company fraudulently taking money, no matter how small, is a bloody idiot. £8 may not be much to some, but to me, it's my petrol to work for a week, or half my food bill or a whole host of other things I'd rather it went towards. Giving 8 quid a month to some thieving company for a game I haven't played in a long time is not something I'd like to write off.

 

[old.Psi]

We got the billing through of £75 from wanadoo on my mum's credit card statement a few days ago.... This really needs to stop.

 

[the_fnord]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD
I actually don't like being called a dick.

Truth hurts doesn't it?
And no, you can't have any cheese!

 

[Thorgald]

Originally posted by Cloudd_RTD


Just 8£ dude.

lets say GOA make this "misstake" with the about 15.000 players thats ever subscribed (guessing the ammount here) thats 8£ * 15000.... thats 120,000£!! and that still doesent tell u anything???

 

[Cloudd_RTD]

We all work to empower the stronger man.
I like that.
And I would like some of that cheese.