UPDATE:

Wanted to follow up this post with an update of the situation. I sent a final email to Funcom explaining the situation in its entirety as stated below and what had happened.

They sent me another email doing another overview on the account and gave me the option to purchase the 12month subscription with the expansion enabled or to remove the expansion perks and re-instate my account.

Since it was way passed the promo timeframe when I wanted to take part of it, I opted for the account re-instatement. As of right now my account is now un-banned and I appreciate Funcom looking back into this and correcting the mistake.

The original issue is below if you are new to this post and want to read what happened.

-------------------------------------------

The last time I paid for an AoC subscription was on 6/26/2008 for a 6 month sub that would of lasted until 12/26/2008

Due to some broken issues with PVP that were game breaking at the time I had no interest in renewing my sub.

Around 12/11/2010, almost 2 years later I was sent an email promo that if I subscribed to AoC's 12 month plan I would receive the Godslayer expansion pack for free and "All these extra goodies" Oh joy! - So i was skeptical at first debating if I really wanted to come back to AoC based on it's previous issues, since I liked the general PVP aspect of the game but disliked the exploit that was rampant at the time.

Skip this part if you already know of the issue, otherwise read on to educate yourself a bit about the system.

(The issue at that time with PVP was a lower level player *lvl 30* that would be gray to a *lvl 45* could initiate a fight with the lvl 45. This was not supposed to happen, the system was in place so higher level players can't gank gray lower level players. If the lvl 45 fought back the gray 30 who attacked him, the lvl 45 would get criminal status and if he killed the gray murder status and murder points, preventing that character from using normal means of travel and normal vendors. This was exploited by groups of lower level grays ganking solo higher level characters and just baited higher levels with no real way to defend themself if they wanted to not be murder status.)

Now after debating the fact and the costs, it seemed like a really good deal and I was not subscribed to any other game at the time and the games that I really wanted to play would not be coming out for still a long time to come (Diablo 3, SWTOR). I made the purchase to the subscription, downloaded the game, logged in and noticed the expansion was not enabled. I checked my account and noticed I had some Godslayer features enabled, like the eastern riding style and what not, but did not have the Godslayer expansion enabled as was promised through the promotion.

I contacted support about the issue and they said I would have to purchase the expansion seperately and would not work with me in getting the issue resolved.

Problem 1: I was falsely mislead about a promotion they were handing out that they would not fix.

So what would the next step be any reasonable person would take? Ask for a refund on the subscription.

The representative I spoke with refused to take any action in refunding my subscription fee and went off saying that my 12 month subscription was a RENEWAL from a previously purchased subscription. As you were reading this earlier if you remember me saying the last subscription that was recorded was a 6 month payment. How can you get a 12 month renewal from a 6 month previous subscription that was deactivated 2 years ago.

This rep was very stubborn and as I could see did not understand English or lacked the common sense in what I was telling her about my situation. I told her since Godslayer was not enabled on my account for the promo, that I want the subscription refunded since I would no longer be supporting Funcom financially as my entertainment provider. She denied my request and told me to have a nice day.

So again, what would be the next step any reasonable coherent person living would take?

That's right... Contact your financial institution and have them force cancel the charge. This is what I did. Problem solved.

AoC goes Free 2 Play with Unchained in 2011. Heard about it, wasn't interested enough at first to check it out until recently. I decided to check it out again to see how it progressed and found out that I cannot log into my account. I logged into my account on Funcom and it shows my status as Banned (contact customer service). So I contact them to see what their issue is and why they banned the account.

They tell me:

Greetings and thank you for contacting customer support.

Your account is banned because of a charge back for Age of Conan 12
Month Recurring which was placed on 2010-12-11 08:44:27.  We will remove
this ban when you pay for the 12 months.

Thank you.

Really? this had me in stitches lol. I never heard of a company banning your account because you wanted to cancel/refund a subscription. Way to block off a customer entirely from having any potential of getting money from them for a monthly sub or what not.

They act like we live in the stone age and they can't reverse/refund a charge. So until I pay a 12 month sub they won't un-ban my account, and to think I was planning on buying the expansion Godslayer for $9.99, paying for a monthly sub $14.99 and maybe even more time before Diablo 3 and SWTOR come out. Well for their stubborn attitude they lost potential money they could of made for the 12 month subscription grudge they are holding against me.

On top of that they lost a customer for good. I will not be buying The Secret World, because their current customer service morons will be providing their lack of service for that game as well. I am boycotting their products, in addition I told them I would advise the public of their actions and make others aware of what type of people are employed at Funcom.

I will be playing Age of Conan Unchained on a free account, leeching my fill until I am satisfied waiting for the release of better games to come.

I will not be supporting Funcom financially and I urge others to be well informed based on this episode and make a decision before they think about throwing their $$ towards Funcom. This company is not deserving of such and may have just burried themselves deeper in the hole.

Here's the Promo as proof to what i'm talking about Thanks to a poster below (majinant) for finding it!

Boom! Here is some proof!

http://www.massiveonlinegamer.com/forums/8-age-of-conan/512-funcoms-qcome-back-to-conanq-promotion

And another!

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Age-of-Conan-Offers-Special-Subscription-Deals-126814.shtml

Google is your friend!

I don't know why anyone would bother with the game the way their f2p limits are set up. Limiting the amount of gold a player can have is stupid. Especially if you used to subscribe, had a bunch of gold and then get hit with the limit. Freemium is a joke. I wish people would stop falling for it.

Most if not all MMO's will ban you if you do a charge back, thats just how it is.

LOL so you charged back an account that you made in December 2010.  And it's (looks at calendar) Sept 2011, and YOU act offended when they ban the account?

Never thought i'd say it, but i'm going to have to side with Funcom on this one.

I commend you for taking charge of your money, I will remember to call my bank to cancel BS charges in the future.

Originally posted by Ikeda

LOL so you charged back an account that you made in December 2010.  And it's (looks at calendar) Sept 2011, and YOU act offended when they ban the account?

 

This.

Its like paying a lawn company to mow your lawn for a year, so they mow it for 9 months then you reverse the charges.  Therefor you used their services for 9 months and didnt pay.  Thats kind of like stealing.  I'm not surprised that they banned you.

You did more than just cancel your sub.  If you canceled your sub and that was it then you would not be banned at all... My sub has been canceled since launch and I'm not banned at all.  Maybe if you would have read all the fine print and verified 100% about the deal, then quoted them where you saw the information that they would have fixed it. (I'm assuming that because they didnt help you  that you were wrong and that the offer didnt not include the full expansion).

Originally posted by jinxxed0

I don't know why anyone would bother with the game the way their f2p limits are set up. Limiting the amount of gold a player can have is stupid. Especially if you used to subscribe, had a bunch of gold and then get hit with the limit. Freemium is a joke. I wish people would stop falling for it.

The gold limit is not really that limiting untill you level up to where you should get an account anyway, I have a level 29 an am nowhere near having or needing a gold (jmho).

Originally posted by Arkain

Most if not all MMO's will ban you if you do a charge back, thats just how it is.

^This.  It is a very common practice in the mmo industry.

I bet I know why this happend, you played for a month or more... at the point which you became displeased and decided to have the bank cancel it as most banks can do such within a 90 day period, some more. So you basically stole free time therefore got banned. Bet ya left that out?

Secondly when charging back you are saying so and so stole from you or commited fraud against you and refused reimbursement. If someone accused me of such I would also ban any means of communication.

so why are you surprised?

Originally posted by marinrider

Originally posted by Ikeda

LOL so you charged back an account that you made in December 2010.  And it's (looks at calendar) Sept 2011, and YOU act offended when they ban the account?

 

This.

 

Its like paying a lawn company to mow your lawn for a year, so they mow it for 9 months then you reverse the charges.  Therefor you used their services for 9 months and didnt pay.  Thats kind of like stealing.  I'm not surprised that they banned you.

 

You did more than just cancel your sub.  If you canceled your sub and that was it then you would not be banned at all... My sub has been canceled since launch and I'm not banned at all.  Maybe if you would have read all the fine print and verified 100% about the deal, then quoted them where you saw the information that they would have fixed it. (I'm assuming that because they didnt help you  that you were wrong and that the offer didnt not include the full expansion).

This. This.

You ask me, this just makes F2P even more attractive to game companies.  Why risk retroactively losing money that was paid for a monthyly service(s)?  Better to just nickle and dime players from month to month--less risk.  I'm pretty sure they know this too.

Originally posted by C0MA

I bet I know why this happend, you played for a month or more... at the point which you became displeased and decided to have the bank cancel it as most banks can do such within a 90 day period, some more. So you basically stole free time therefore got banned. Bet ya left that out?

Secondly when charging back you are saying so and so stole from you or commited fraud against you and refused reimbursement. If someone accused me of such I would also ban any means of communication.

 

so why are you surprised?

no thats actually not the case, i contacted customer service the next business day when the expansion was not enabled on the account. They will ban your account for any period of time. I actually did not log into the game when I found out the expansion was not enable to prevent an issue like that from happening, but because of their stubborn rules and lack of providing "support" in customer support of not doing what was best at the time refunding for a falsely advertised promo, I took the next option I had control of and thats forcing a cancellation on the charge since they did not have any intention of working with me on the problem.

Originally posted by C0MA

I bet I know why this happend, you played for a month or more... at the point which you became displeased and decided to have the bank cancel it as most banks can do such within a 90 day period, some more. So you basically stole free time therefore got banned. Bet ya left that out?

Secondly when charging back you are saying so and so stole from you or commited fraud against you and refused reimbursement. If someone accused me of such I would also ban any means of communication.

 

so why are you surprised?

There are reasons for charge backs - of course Funcom didnt steal from me, but the service i was intending on paying for at the time which was the 12 month sub with the xpac was not provided to me as the service i was intending to pay for. Since i did not get what i was paying for in that promo offer, i cancelled the sub, how does that not make sense?

AoC is a pure rip off.

Subscription+item shop+new content you have to buy = GTFO

All that for a WoW clone with bewbs and gore...no thanks.

I agree with other people here, ( And for the record, I have not played AoC since launch - So no, I'm not a fan boy )

If you weren't sure about the game, then you should have paid for 1 month, and leave it at that, - without chargeback.

Getting banned serves you just right imo.

And title is misleading, they don't ban for cancel of subs, they ban for chargebacks.

When all that is said, then I'd also have to say, that "F2P" is sh*t,, at least as it stands now, it is just accepted that comapnies slap a F2P tag on their games, then lock you from half the content, throw in an item shop, and ask you to pay a sub to access the rest of the game.

Hell no... I will never play a game like that.

I think the OP needs to make a second call to their finacial institute and chargeback the original purchase of the game,  I did this with mortal online.  They renewed my sub after like a year, so i did a chargeback on the subscription. I went to test it out later.. I had been banned..   So i called and took my money back from the original purchase lol.

dont let companies walk on you, this should be a non issue for them. they do this because they hope ppl dont have the balls to tell them off,  show them otherwise.

Originally posted by Xeno326

Originally posted by C0MA

I bet I know why this happend, you played for a month or more... at the point which you became displeased and decided to have the bank cancel it as most banks can do such within a 90 day period, some more. So you basically stole free time therefore got banned. Bet ya left that out?

Secondly when charging back you are saying so and so stole from you or commited fraud against you and refused reimbursement. If someone accused me of such I would also ban any means of communication.

 

so why are you surprised?

There are reasons for charge backs - of course Funcom didnt steal from me, but the service i was intending on paying for at the time which was the 12 month sub with the xpac was not provided to me as the service i was intending to pay for. Since i did not get what i was paying for in that promo offer, i cancelled the sub, how does that not make sense?

I'm only surprised that you decided to come around for another kick at the can after you'd basically been told to sod off by FC support.  Hell, I knew these guys were jackals less than 60 days after AoC released and I haven't so much as visited their website since.  I don't know why you don't just wash your hands of the whole stinking company and find a new game to play.  Even free, I wouldn't bother with it.

As for not stealing from you, if your account of events is accurate, that's just what they tried to do and it's called fraud.

Originally posted by Beazt

I agree with other people here, ( And for the record, I have not played AoC since launch - So no, I'm not a fan boy )

If you weren't sure about the game, then you should have paid for 1 month, and leave it at that, - without chargeback.

 

Getting banned serves you just right imo.

 

And title is misleading, they don't ban for cancel of subs, they ban for chargebacks.

 

When all that is said, then I'd also have to say, that "F2P" is sh*t,, at least as it stands now, it is just accepted that comapnies slap a F2P tag on their games, then lock you from half the content, throw in an item shop, and ask you to pay a sub to access the rest of the game.

 

Hell no... I will never play a game like that.

Well you either fail at reading comprehension or read some of the situation and skipped the important details.

Let me summarize it for you.

Promo Free xpac with purchase of 12mo sub.

You can't trial a promo as you were suggesting above pay a month to test the waters. It has nothing to do with testing AoC for the first time, it was me acting on a promo offer.

2 After taking up the promo offer the product they were advertising was not included with my subscription. Contacted support, no assistance, and they refused to refund my sub to keep the money I already paid expecting I was going to sit there like a helpless idiot. I'm smarter than that and outplayed them on their tactics.

You're right the title should be different. They don't actually provide what they are advertising in their promo's, is what it should be and then cause you avoidable stress by being difficult and refusing to work with you as a customer and when you have no other options and get your money back from a charge cancellation, they ban you. That's what the title should be.

Originally posted by Unlight

Originally posted by Xeno326

Originally posted by C0MA

I bet I know why this happend, you played for a month or more... at the point which you became displeased and decided to have the bank cancel it as most banks can do such within a 90 day period, some more. So you basically stole free time therefore got banned. Bet ya left that out?

Secondly when charging back you are saying so and so stole from you or commited fraud against you and refused reimbursement. If someone accused me of such I would also ban any means of communication.

 

so why are you surprised?

There are reasons for charge backs - of course Funcom didnt steal from me, but the service i was intending on paying for at the time which was the 12 month sub with the xpac was not provided to me as the service i was intending to pay for. Since i did not get what i was paying for in that promo offer, i cancelled the sub, how does that not make sense?

I'm only surprised that you decided to come around for another kick at the can after you'd basically been told to sod off by FC support.  Hell, I knew these guys were jackals less than 60 days after AoC released and I haven't so much as visited their website since.  I don't know why you don't just wash your hands of the whole stinking company and find a new game to play.  Even free, I wouldn't bother with it.

As for not stealing from you, if your account of events is accurate, that's just what they tried to do and it's called fraud.

 

I'm only surprised that you decided to come around for another kick at the can after you'd basically been told to sod off by FC support.  Hell, I knew these guys were jackals less than 60 days after AoC released and I haven't so much as visited their website since.

True, but my problem is not with the game, its with their customer support and after I found out about my account my curiosity kicked in and i found out it was banned so I felt the need to make a public announcement about this company and warn others how they really work.

If anyone is to be blamed here its the OP for trying to go back. You quit once, went back and got screwed to the point you needed to do a charge back and you decided to go back again?

That being said I'm pretty sure no company does business with a customer whose done a charge back. Regardless of the rightness or wrongess of the situation.