Warhammer Online Overcharging Players
EA's billing department for WHO is hitting credit cards and banks with multiple charges.
Eurogamer has learned that the billing department behind EA's subscription-based MMORPG Warhammer Online (WHO) is over-charging players to the point of hundreds of dollars, hitting up credit cards and bank accounts with multiple charges. Electronic Arts has already acknowledged the problem, claiming that the vendor responsible for charging user accounts is working on reversing the damage within 24 to 36 hours.
Still, many gamers are feeling the pain, especially when banks kick in their vicious overdraft fees. "My account I pay my sub from was billed today for over 500 dollars in 16 dollar increments," said one subscriber on the official WHO forum. "The account was overdrawn and with fees and over-billing it was 562.73 total."
Another gamer said that his account was hit with 22 charges at $14.99 a piece, totaling a whopping $329.78 before overdraft fees. "Maybe legal action should be taken to show the seriousness of this problem, the gamer said.
There could be a case against EA if banks refuse to reverse their overdraft charges. EA said that once the WHO charges have been reversed, fees that were incurred should be refunded. If not, EA wants players to make calls to their banks and credit card companies immediately.
"Please begin by contacting your financial institution and explain to them that you were incorrectly charged multiple times and, as a result, over drafted," the company said here. "Most financial institutions will reverse these charges." Note the word most.
EA added that gamers should give its billing department a call if banking institutions refuse to cave in and reverse their overdraft charges. "Please have the phone and fax number of your financial institution ready when you call," EA said.
Two words: game card.
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Ouch. Bad EA. Giving players trouble, even more so than they already have, by just playing the game.
Well I guess this is one way EA can lift profits, in light of a rapidly shrinking player base.
That's a CAPITAL idea... lets not try to improve the game, lets just steal from our customers instead. It's work well so far.
It's not stealing when you admit to it, and yes I'm one of those people. I was charged 304$ over. Yes it sucks, and If this would've happened a couple days later I'd probably be sueing due to certain circumstances. But calling them theives is overboard.
I thought about activating my account again just yesterday. I am SO glad that I didn't.
It's a way to earn extra from rich kids with parents who don't watch/care about their monetary outcome.
i'm totally shocked!!!!...there are people still paying to play Warhammer????
It's a good thing i didn't go for paid account in warhammer
wow is forever.... 
500 dollars is like 2 months pay for me 
reminds me of the "office space" movie when the program was only suppose to take pennies at a time so no one would notice
The problem is how quickly overdrafts can snowball. Imagine this- EA cleans out your account with subscription fees. After that, a different, legitimate transaction tries to clear your account (anything from a grocery store purchase to your car loan payment). The funds used to be there, but now they aren't, so the transaction is declined. At best, you'll be hit with just your financial institution's overdraft fee. At worst, you could be hit with late fees and NSF fees from whoever you were trying to pay.
"Most financial institutions will reverse these charges." Note the word most.
Exactly. However, if your financial institution will refuse to reverse fees stemming from obviously erroneous charges, you need to switch financial institutions.
reminds me of the "office space" movie when the program was only suppose to take pennies at a time so no one would notice
so does that mean someone is going to burn down ea!!!
Just another mark in the hat of EA to solidify itself as the worst mmo publisher ever.
EA: Didn't NPCube charge some of its users 2 or 3 times for 1 month of service accidently? We can outdo that!
I bet the EA accountant's and such are ripping their hair out. This has to be a nightmare to fix.
Whenever I buy something online, I use the Visa ShopSafe system. Visa lets me create a new credit card number that is attached to my actual credit card. The number can only be used by one vendor, and I can set specific expiration and charge limits for the number. They even have the option to setup recurring payments. I used this option to allow monthly payments of up to $15 to a Sony for Everquest back in the day. That way, if Sony's system ever f-ed up and tried to charge me 100 times, only the first charge would get through. No overdraft fees, no missing money.
And in case you are wondering, I got the Visa during college, with a $500 limit, so just about anyone can get one too (you don't need ridiculous credit for this security and peace of mind).
Really, I NEVER make a purchase online with my actual credit card number, nor do I use my Debit card which is tied directly to my bank account. The internet is too dangerous to risk losing all my money over something like free shipping.
EA shouldn't be making their customers do anything. If the bank doesn't negate fees, it should be EA's responsibility to proactively deal with the situation. It's pretty lame that they screw up and would then give you a chore to clean it up.
I do hope that the game's commercial failure is not linked to this "error".
so does that mean someone is going to burn down ea!!!
...who, who took my stapler....
Kevin: you forgot to including your paragraph on how it's all just a big Microsoft conspiracy and how stuff like this would never happen with Apple. Because Apple is, you know, "teh aw3sum!!!@11" or whatever
lol, funny because warhammer forces you to input your credit card when you first register... no way around it... i'm glad i canceled this a year ago
Good thing I stopped playing over a year ago...Such potential, but I wanted the not-so-soon to be WAR 40K MMO anyways.
As long as the banks drop the overdraft fees or EA just pays the net amount (their charges + overdraft) then no problem I suppose. The fact that it happens bewilders me though.
Whenever I buy something online, I use the Visa ShopSafe system. Visa lets me create a new credit card number that is attached to my actual credit card. The number can only be used by one vendor, and I can set specific expiration and charge limits for the number. They even have the option to setup recurring payments. I used this option to allow monthly payments of up to $15 to a Sony for Everquest back in the day. That way, if Sony's system ever f-ed up and tried to charge me 100 times, only the first charge would get through. No overdraft fees, no missing money.And in case you are wondering, I got the Visa during college, with a $500 limit, so just about anyone can get one too (you don't need ridiculous credit for this security and peace of mind).Really, I NEVER make a purchase online with my actual credit card number, nor do I use my Debit card which is tied directly to my bank account. The internet is too dangerous to risk losing all my money over something like free shipping.
That is very smart. Unless you also happen to be one of those people (almost everyone) who swipes their card for gas, or coffee, or lunch...
The part about you limiting the dollar amount to subscription services makes sense, especially since they seem to be prone to this kind of thing. For most everything else though when you get to the end of the line it is the same payment processors, and those systems in stores don't use dial-up anymore. ATMs and card swipe systems ship with WiFi and Ethernet, the modem is there just in case. These days if you bought it with your card you basically bought it on the Internet, even if you were in person.
...and anyway how hard is it really for some kid at Olive Garden to rub a crayon over receipt paper on your real credit card.
It's a good thing i didn't go for paid account in warhammer wow is forever.... 500 dollars is like 2 months pay for me
Then you probably shouldn't be playing games. I'm sorry, but I'm not trying to be a dbag here....
Mistakes happen. The state I live in double and tripled billed some people for income taxes this year (I was one of the lucky 600+ people) Thankfully I only owed $3 in taxes and they took $3 three separate times. A few days later I saw $3 go back into my account twice... and everything was balanced. However, I imagine had I owed $3,000 I would be singing a different tune.
In this particular instance, the one person held responsible for this mistake was fired.
By the way toms it's WAR not WHO. Check out the site
He never said his age shadow. Or where he lived which makes a huge difference. So please until you get out of the basement don't rag on other people issues.
Wait, I thought paying for Online was the way of the Console?
Oh, That's right, EA blows.
EA PR stunt because bad publicity is better than none lawl
Warhammer began stealing money the minute after the intro cutscene ended.
So why is it that everyone is bashing EA on this, yeah, it was a mistake, but wow, look at their response? They're trying to be helpful and reverse it as soon as possible, and then if they can't get overdraft fees reversed, sounds like they'll arrange reimbursement?
Yes, they made a mistake, but bravo for admitting it and trying to fix it as fast as possible.
EA is gonna be like, So WHO did it?
Companies trying to clean up their mess, give them a break, no matter how much we hate EA...
I like my bank though. Someone stole a truckload of money form me, and my bank refunded everything, even the transaction fees, in a single business day.