WoW users up in arms over dodgy bills

This is why im glad i dont play that baby of a game WoW and play eve online instead.

Game time codes for the win

would never setup a direct debit if i dont have to

Just so you poor Eve player know -- you can pay with codes from gametime card purchable retail as well. I believe it is in 1-2 month variations for them.

i consider it a tax on stupidity

what kind of fool pays a subscription to play a meaningless game?

"go back and break some rocks you gullible mug! and give me your bank details while youre at it!"

Who is doing the chargebacks? The end users are submitting chargebacks against Paymentone, this article reads like the end users are getting the chargebacks but they would be submitting chargebacks against payment one.

Paymentone is stupid for not making their description on people's credit card statements intuitive, i.e. "WOW membership" is much easier for people to understand instead of "Payment One". If they are using the later description then they deserve to get chargebacks on the expensive fees associated with them.

I smell a class action!

wowfags sure got told

YO THEINQUIRER -
Your new advertising windows are WAY over-the-top invasive. I for one am going to just stop reading if you keep this up.

Children always cry when stolen candy is stolen from them. Who gives a rat's butt what these whining thieves think anyway?

@bobt

You can just use adblockplus in firefox to avoid the asinine hp fullpage ads.

Step 1: Install Firefox
Step 2: Install pluggins like jscript blocker and adblocker
Step 3: Enjoy using a browser that isn't a complete P.O.S.

The only thing we need to know -- whether this chargebacks were initiated by the customers or not -- is missing from the article. If they were not, Blizzard is committing fraud because they know the money was not returned to the customer. If they were, then Blizzard (and PaymentOne) are in the right.

This is nothing like a credit card chargeback, which is initiated by the customer's bank. This is a telephone bill chargeback, which was initiated by *Blizzard's* payment processor. (Unless, of course, the customer did initiate it.)

Actually, this is probably not Blizzard's fault. There has been a rash of fraudulent charges to business telephone numbers via "billing services" against phone bills - I know because our business phone bill had one for $56. It lists as OAN Services, which is what a lot of the billing companies funnel the processing through.

All types of charges are funneled through these ripoff artists, like collect calls from Mexico that no one accepted. They are being heavily investigated - it wouldn't surprise me if Payment One didn't get their money from them, and therefore Blizzard didn't get any money either.

The fact that the telephone companies are letting these companies get away with it tells me where the real problem lies. I'm not saying that Payment One isn't a legitimate service - the problem is companies like OAN services who process them. They have bilked business and residential customers out of tons of money, nickeling and diming you to death if you don't catch it on the phone bill. AT&T is up to their ears in this fraud scheme.

The inQ has been nickeling and dimeing us with theyr stupid ads!
They have gotten intense, i had actually white listed this site!!
But oh well there is less and less new content on the site so its time to say good bye.
I dont want to see ads just to check if an article has been published

All 28 or 'em???

In Australia about a decade ago we had a problem where phone users were suddenly having all their local calls rerouted via obscure eastern European countries and back again - so a 20 cent call could cost hundreds of dollars. The customers wouldn't know until the first bill arrived at the end of the month, and when they complained, were told they HAD to pay as they HAD made the calls and Telecom had no way of detecting this sort of fraud and no responsibility therefore it was all their own fault!!! (Though how could a customer prevent it if even the Telecom itself claimed to be unable to do so?)

How bad did it get? One family received a bill of $13,000 FOR ONE MONTH. All their calls had been rerouted via eastern Europe (May have been Moldovia but I can't remember now) - all calls travelled thousand of kilometers and then back to wherever in Australia they were calling.

This practice had been going on for years and was gradually getting worse, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Telecom insisted they had to pay. The family sued.

The judge saw the family's side. he was totally unconvinced by telecom's claiming to be technically incapable of detecting this AND not to be responsible - so he canceled the bill and additionally criticised the company publicly saying they had to change their ways.

Guess what? From that time on that kind of fraud virtually disappeared in Australia, it's unheard of now.

So yes, they WERE complicit. They were just happy to grab the money and pass all the responsibility on to the customers - who were completely defenceless.

Getting back to Missingxtension's point, yes, AT&T is complicit here. Why should they care? It's more money for them!

Time to start making them responsible. Otherwise more and more dubious charges will start to appear - something that's already happening...