Beware of purchasing on Playstation Network -- Personal Experience

[rogue_mouser]

Sony took unauthorized money from my bank account. I contacted them, they said "Look in your transaction history." I looked . SURPRISE! NO transaction history, for the entire 5 years I've owned my PS3. SO I contacted them again. They pretty much said "Piss off little peon, your money is gone and you're screwed." So I'm hitting all the gaming boards and Playstation Forums and everywhere else gamers might be. People need to know that Sony is stealing money from bank accounts.

(I also contacted my "bank", which is actually Wal-Mart, and THEY said "We will do whatever it takes on our end to get you your money back.") YAY Wal-Mart. F*** Off, Sony.

I may have to go to straight PC gaming, because Microsoft is no better than Sony, so I'd likely have the same or worse if I had an Xbox.

[Exentenzed]

Do you have the coversation logs with sony?

[rogue_mouser]

I have most of them. One email I sent was sent from a different machine, so I don't have that one at the moment.

My first email:


My bank account is showing two purchases to the Playstation Network that I did not authorize and that do not show up on my transaction history, both in the amount of $5, one on March 12 and one on March 14. I would like you to look into this, and tell me what was purchased on those dates and at what time of day, and, if the amounts in question were withdrawn from my account by mistake, would you please put the money back in my account?

I don't see anything on my PS3 that wasn't there before Those dates,and I don't recall anything in the Playstation Plus agreement saying that you were going to randomly take money out of my account, so please, look into this and get back to me ASAP.

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Sony's response:


Hello Eric,

Thank you for contacting Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI). My name is Casey, and I truly apologize for any frustration that this may have caused you. I can definitely assist you with the issue regarding your purchased content.

If the purchase was not made from your Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) account, you will need to contact your bank and dispute the charges with them. This will ensure the person who used your credit card receives disciplinary action.

In order to determine whether the charges were made from your account or not, please check your Transaction History by navigating to Account Management> Transaction Management> Transaction History> and enter the appropriate dates to search for the transaction.

If the transaction history shows the purchase was made from your account, I do want to let you know that there are several safeguards available to protect your account from unwanted access. You can change your password, require a password at check-out from the Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) Store, and remove your credit card information from your profile. I've included the steps below to assist you in making these changes.

• To change your password: Navigate to Account Management > Account Information > Password, or forgot password reset as necessary.
• To require a password at checkout: From the XrossMediaBar™ (XMB™) menu go to PlayStation Network > Account Management > Transaction Management > Check the box that says "Require Password at Checkout".
• If you would like to remove the credit card information from your profile: Go to the XMB™ menu > PlayStation Network > Account Management > Billing Information (remove credit card information).

If the purchase was made from your account and you did not authorize the purchase, please respond to this email with the following information and I will submit a refund request for you:

-SEN Sign-in ID (email address).
-Online ID (the Online ID can be found as the first name under your Friends list).
-The games that were purchased and the date they were purchased.

Please be aware, I cannot guarantee a refund will be done, however, I am happy to submit a request for you so our Account specialists can review your particular situation.

I have also included the user agreement below so that you may review it at your convenience (if you wish).
Terms of Use and User Agreement

Rest assured, once we have this information, we will respond within a quick and timely manner.

Sincerely,
Casey K.
SCEA Email Response Team
Consumer Services: 1-800-345-7669

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My response and the email after I double-checked my transaction history:

Thank you for your response, and I know that your response is scripted, and
there's little you can do in the first contact, but as you'll see if you
actually read my email, these purchases are not showing up on my
transaction history. But they ARE showing up on my bank statement. I can
send the statement to you, if you like. But I need you to actually look in
your system and see why I've been charged two separate $5.00 charges in 2
days with NOTHING showing in my transaction history. Now, I'm sorry if I
come off like an ass here, but I already told your people that in my
initial email, and your company's response is basically "The answer is in
the transaction history that you just told us the answer isn't in." Please look into this and get back to me.

(Next email)


It occurs to me that I should have pointed out that there is NOTHING in my
transaction history on my PS3. No purchases of any kind, no PS+ membership,
no downloads or purchases, despite that I purchased the PS+ membership and
downloaded a number of free games and one for $7.99. I forgot to mention
that. With that in mind, please don't tell me that if it's not in my
transaction history there's nothing you can do, because according to my
PS3, I don't HAVE a transaction history.

************************************************** ************************************************** ***********

Hello Eric,

Thank you for contacting Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA). My name is Jace and I can definitely assist you.

If the charges are showing on your bank statement but not in your transaction history this is fraud and you will need to report this to your financial institution. You will need to dispute these $5.00 charges you are seeing with them. If these charges are not showing up in your transaction history we have no record of these $5.00 charges. Once disputed we will be able to see which PlayStation Network account was associated with these charges and action will take place. I would also recommend filing a fraud report with the bank as well. For security reasons you may want to cancel your credit card information and order a new one. I apologize for all the troubles this has caused you.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist you. Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,
Jace W.

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At this point, I contacted my bank. We cleared up one charge, but the other, I was told, had to be released by Sony, since it was still pending. So I contacted Sony again. That email is on another computer. But here is Sony's response:

Thank you for your questions. I can certainly understand your frustration in seeing unexpected charges from the Sony Entertainment Network on your account. I am very sorry for the frustration and concern this has caused for you.

Since you have already navigated to PlayStation Network> Account Management > Transaction Management > Transaction History, and did not see these charges for $x.00; it is possible they were made from another account. If you have recently made purchases from the PlayStation®Store, it is possible that these charges took a few days to be cleared through your card.

If no charges have been made from your SEN account in the last few weeks, it is possible that another account made these charges. I apologize that we will be unable to locate an account without having the Sign In and Online IDs for the account. If the charges were made from an account that does not belong to you, we will not be able to offer a refund. These charges will have to be disputed through the card's issuing bank; because, this is considered fraud.

Eric, thank you very much for your patience and understanding in this process.

Sincerely,

Zach
Consumer Services
1-800-345-7669

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My frustrated, irritated, angry and perhaps a bit over the top response:

So, even though your company says I should have a transaction history, which I don't, and the charge right there on my statement says "Playstation Network", and there is only the one account, you're effectively telling me "Piss off, your money is gone and you're screwed." After all the PR disasters of the past year, you want to add THIS? Fine. Cancel my Playstation Plus membership. I'll be sure to hit all the review boards and PS Boards and gaming boards to let them know how helpful you were when your company was confronted with an improper billing issue AND YOU WOULDN''T EVEN RESEARCH IT! The forums are going to have a filed day with this.

************************************************** ************************************************** ***********

Okay, maybe that last was over the top, but I was angry and frustrated.

[Trunks]

Sounds to me like Someone got your credit card stuff and charged something on their account. Do you have family that may have used your credit card on PSN?

I'd just call them up to be honest, emailing takes so long and you get different people every time. Call them up, B*tch at them, find out what is going on. I seriously doubt that PSN is stealing 5 dollars from you lol. PSN is notorious for getting credit card information stolen, it's always getting hacked, honestly that's the different from payed to free. Just call them or nothing will get done.

[BobTD]

well when the PSN network went down and they where "not sure if any credit card information was stolen" it was. They funny thing is that it looks like soney is stealing from you and it might not be the case. Its possible someone got data that allows them to charge your account in the same way sony would, but to another bank account.

I would think its to big of a risk for sony to steal money.

[paecmaker]

If Sony did it and only took like 5 dollars they had to do it to a LOT of people, which is extremely risky cause only one of the victims need to start asking questions for the whole thing to blow up in media and so on.

[rogue_mouser]

I thought the same thing, about when they got hacked. But then when the transaction history turned up blank, I honestly thought it was maybe some sort of computer or server error. And if Sony had been willing to look into their system, I'd be far less angry and frustrated and less inclined to call it theft. It's their unwillingness to do anything beyond writing emails saying to do things I've already told them I've done that makes me call it theft. Fact is, they've got my money and that they're not authorized to have, and they're content to keep it unless I raise enough of a stink about it. Maybe it WAS a hacker. But they could at the very least look to see what accounts might have been used to make purchases. Instead, they seem to suggest that I find that information. How am I supposed to do that?

Talking to family would be the first thing I'd suggest to anyone in this case, so thanks for the intelligent thought. But all my family except my wife is out of state and none of them have my card information, and my wife's as upset about this as I am, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't her.

It might have been hackers. But I hold Sony responsible for refusing to even look into it.

[thedeparted]

I sincerely doubt Sony is taking money from you, They are a mega corporation not the mob lol. It's clear to me it's something else.

[BobTD]

Yeah and I would not put it across them to be difficult rather than admit they did loose your credit card information AND someone can make it look like sony was the recipient. I'm trying to weigh the odds someone could do that, but I don't know enough about how those transactions work. Could someone use an authentication code with a bank tied to an account sony does not own?

That would probably look really bad on their part. I can see that being a plausible scenario. Its still their failure to protect your account information.

You should still hold them liable.