are you sure you didnt give AoC another go during one of their "get 15 days free and check whats new" promotions? that could easily have activated your recurring subscription one again.

wanna know what fraud looks like? check Mythic/WAR

they keep charging you even after you unsubscribed. 

sometimes they will start charging you again several months after you unsubscribed, when the previous months they didnt and you were confident

google the "billing-gate fiasco"....some time ago they charged lots of people between 5 and 30 times the normal fee all at once ...they put some people in debt with their banks due to this

and the best of it all....recently they removed the "unsubscribe" button....yeah, as it sounds, they REMOVED it from the account management panel.

 I am not sure how long ago it was, 8-10 months or more maybe, people were posting here and other forums that their funcom account had suddenly become active, or after canceling the account was still charged for several months.

As to the " why would funcom do this?" I have no idea. I just know that others have reported the same type of thing happening. And also the shady way funcom dealt with the subject. People basically had to contact their CC company / Bank and file fraud claims and all that jazz to get it fixed.

After which funcom permabanned their accounts, just to add insult to injury I suppose.

I am not a funcom hater by any means, I played AoC for many months. I just think people should know about this type of behavior from companies. It may be a computer glitch, an employee, or even intentional fraudulent behavior, either way people should know.

Just my 2cp.

I have just been Funcom'ed. I had the free month, decided I'd buy some Funcom points to get the Turan pack, put in my CC details, made the transaction, waited a few hours and saw the points hadn't turned up, checked my account page saw it still needed verification hit the verify button, tried to log back in game and had been banned (Friday night so I was locked out the game until CS got back to work on monday), no apology just a reply stating that verification was now complete and I could access the game. For that reason I gave up on buying further points to get the Turan pack (of course it costs more than a single amount you can buy), banning someone because their verfication system is slow is not something that puts them in a good light. Just received my monthly CC statement and Funcom have been charging me a sub, apparently just entering CC details gets your sub activated again whether you authorised it or not. Saturday so I won't see any response until Monday. I'm not impressed.

/end rant

Originally posted by EvilGeek

I have just been Funcom'ed. I had the free month, decided I'd buy some Funcom points to get the Turan pack, put in my CC details, made the transaction, waited a few hours and saw the points hadn't turned up, checked my account page saw it still needed verification hit the verify button, tried to log back in game and had been banned (Friday night so I was locked out the game until CS got back to work on monday), no apology just a reply stating that verification was now complete and I could access the game. For that reason I gave up on buying further points to get the Turan pack (of course it costs more than a single amount you can buy), banning someone because their verfication system is slow is not something that puts them in a good light. Just received my monthly CC statement and Funcom have been charging me a sub, apparently just entering CC details gets your sub activated again whether you authorised it or not. Saturday so I won't see any response until Monday. I'm not impressed.

/end rant

AoC is in sorry state.  Latest patch messed game up already messed up big time.  Funcom's service you described is nothing very unusual. Imo better to just quit and move to 'greener pastures'.

It's Funcom's little "Secret World" of theft... not new, happened before and will happen again

Originally posted by tryklon

It's Funcom's little "Secret World" of theft... not new, happened before and will happen again

Yea especially considering their business model where they plan to get 35% of revenue on top of box + sub game.

Seriously...

This is not new for funcom.  When I first played aoc way back when I had given them my cc info.  When I canceled my sub I thought i was  done with them however a month after I canceled my sub there it was another charge.  it eventually took canceling that card and getting a new one, the reason was they somehow magically reinstated my account when I did not. 

I know a lot of folks who removed their cc info because they had billing issues as well.

As other folks have pointed out, there are tons of threads about this, but I think they were all before aoc went free to play.   I have not been back to check on the game since then.

As soon as I sub, I cancel it. Once the time runs out, if I want to play more then I resub, cancel, rinse and repeat. Also, everytime I cancel a sub, I always delete the CC info, which is very recommended.

OP, if you feel that a company charged you by mistake, just dial the phone # located on the back of the card.  Your CC company will waive the charge. It's easier that way and you won't spend ridiculous amount of time trying to solve your issue.

You can instruct you credit card company to do whats called a "charge back" on all the unauthtorised charges. If funcom cannot prove that you have authorised each and every one of those transactions the cc will refund you the money and claim it back (plus a hefty charge!) from funcom

Chargebacks will get you banned from most MMOs. It's better to try to work with the company to resolve the problem, assuming you still want to play the game of course. FC is usually pretty quick to respond to billing mistakes, even when it isn't their fault.

It's called identity theft and it happens all the time..even if you are careful. Anyone who thinks Funcom knowingly charged you a sub fee when you are cancelled is being ridiculous. It may seem that way but you're likely wrong (not absolutely but likely). At the worst they have compromised security which is more likely. Not much better than if they were charging peoples cards without prior approval years after cancellation but still. Happened to me with EQ2 during that whole fiasco with SOE's security last year.

Now I will  admit that Funcom (AoC in particular) has a unnecessarily convoluted account management page that seems to take you in circles sometimes. A few times  I thought I cancelled but missed some last step that keep my sub from being cancelled. Thank god its free now so I don't have to worry about it. Of course...I'm playing SWTOR exclusively for now anyhow..