Warhammer Online 'billing error' results in massively multiplayer overcharge

by Griffin McElroy on Apr 9th 2010 10:06AM

Just like that, we suddenly understand some peoples' stern distaste for subscription-based MMOs. A recent bug in the Warhammer Online billing system charged some players its $14.99 monthly fee dozens of times on their monthly due dates. The amount of the overcharge differs from user to user -- reports on this forum thread average between $200 and $500. One player, who claimed to be repeatedly charged for a $77.94 six-month subscription, was hit with fees totaling $1013.12.

The cause of the error is currently unclear, as is the scope of its impact on the game's subscriber base. EA's billing support department is now in full-on crisis recovery mode, working with each affected player's financial institution to refund the fees within "24-36 hours." Considering that this debacle could have likely led to any number of overdraft fees and bounced rent checks for the over-charged, it could prove quite a costly recovery for EA.

[Via Kotaku]

Source

Tags: bill, billing, bug, ea, ea-mythic, Electronic-Arts, mmo, mmorpg, overcharging, subscription, warhammer-online

Reader Comments (48)

The crysis 2 article gave me a crysis in my pants, this is giving me a crysis in my wallet :(

This is truly an epic fail though.

I wonder if they're going to compensate the people that got overdrafts. That's usually $20 for every transaction under zero. Add 10 or 20 transactions in you got whatever EA charged and an extra $100-200 from the bank....

According to most of the people on the forums (been reading), banks and such will reverse overdrafts if they are a result of charges made by mistake. Although, I'm sure that depends on the institution.

And the subscribers sure are in an uproar, and I don't blame them. But damn, they are sure fast to accuse Mythic of stealing their money.

Hopefully this all gets fixed. Apparently it happened before too, according to some of the users. I'm getting the feeling this a game I may never play.

This needs the oops tag as well

wow, Just as I was talking to a friend 10 hours ago about hopping back into Warhammer online. Glad I didn't.

Damn I have learn my lesson from playing WoW and rather stick to time cards.

That's what I was thinking; They better be paying overdraft fees for all, or they are going to have a lawsuit on their hands.

Man that's a terrible thing to have happen. I could imagine how upsetting it would be to be charged $1000.00 when you're trying to pay rent and some other bills that month. I hope everything turns out okay for everyone involved.

can you say... class action?

No because they're refunding all the money, and banks will cancle overdrafts if it's an accidental charge.

I know but I wouldn't be surprised if some people tried to get compensation for the "mental anguish" it caused them or some bs.

No, but I'm pretty sure every hostile MMO player who thinks their pants are larger than they are can.

So EA will have to pay out an extra $100-$200 to every subsriber that got hit with this to cover overdraft fees... so they'll be losing, what, $1000-$2000?

Sure, if it only affected 10 people.

Pretty sure that was the joke.

They're already up to 10? That was faster than I expected...

they've changed the subscription model to charge you what it would cost to actually play warhammer

...and now I'm cleaning coffee off of my monitor. Thanks.

And this is why I never link any internet purchases to my bank account. EA really screwed up with this one.

EA MADE A MISTAKE? WHAT A SURPRISE!!!!

WHAT A TWEEEST!

I'm surprised by this, not because of the charges being attempted, but because these peoples' credit cards let identical charges go through like that.

I've built some ecommerce solutions and usually if the same biller tries to charge a card the same amount in a very short time period (a few seconds apart) the charge will be rejected. At least that's been my experience. So I wonder how EA built their system to get around that?

A PR disaster any way you look at it, and I really feel bad for the players who're going to have to deal with the headaches caused by the problem.

Wow. Warhammer Online just can not get a break.

I had this happen to me back when I was playing Ultima Online. Although the charges weren't nearly as high. I was charged several times totaling about $475. Origin refunded it immediately and even gave me 3 months free for the problem. Just thought I'd share.

Wow imagine them draining your whole bank account. I'm guessing most of people just spent most of their money on rent on the 1st so their left with no cash to buy food or gas.

They wont. Ive never heard of a company paying for overdraft fees because of billing errors, EA will say its not their problem. The only way is to see if your bank will not charge the fee. This could easily mean thousands of dollars worth of fees since a lot of banks increase the fee each time and people will be buying other things before they know theyre out of money. Ive heard of fees as high as $75 per item.

The question is, do we have to tell them that we got overcharged? I dont have ebanking and getting my statement only at the end of the month.

Go to a Bank.

CHA-CHING CHA-CHING CHA-CHING CHA-CHING...

bounced rent checks? thats gotta suck ass....although the pic shows that occurring on the 8th and most places consider rent late on the 5th I suppose some people had that happen at the first of the month....sucks ass...

this is why I dont use checks.....I just pay my rent with my Visa Check Card

That seems like a advertisement to me.

Visa Check Cards take money out of your bank account and work like a debit card pretty much don't they? So how would this help you if War Hammer Online had emptied your bank account to Zero or into the negative with overbilling? Payment method wouldn't mkae a lot of difference unless there's no overage fees with Visa Check Cards and that I'm not even 100% sure about.

Either way, Warhammer Online subscribers got SCREWED. I could see easily 10-15% sawing Screw Warhammer Online, I'm not going to get !@#!@#ed again and I'm switching to my old mmorpg of ______ or this new mmorpg of _____'

if I run my card and there is no money then it just doesnt go thru....no fees...at least not at my Credit Union....its not like an overdraft fee with checks that can cost as much as $50 with some banks

Man they really meant it about dethroning WOW's earnings.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I think it was their financial department...

I don't pay rent. I pay a mortgage. Sometimes. I am glad I didn't get into this game, I would be on the street!

Never pay for a MMO with a debit card. If you have nothing else then it is best to just go and pick up and pre-paid CC and take it month to month.

People still bank with banks that have overdraft fees? Eh?

Most major banks still have overdraft, what are you talking about?

Some guesses:

1) Someone was running the monthly billing script by hand since everything is cobbled together and it kept failing partway through... so they kept rerunning it.

2) Someone was testing some script changes and forgot to point to the test db instead of the production db.

3) Testing some script changes even on the dev copy of the db and didn't realize the 'connect to billing' bit was still live.

If you play an MMO you pretty much deserve something like this.

If your a dick you pretty much deserve to be whited out.

Our bank account was wiped out to the tune of -$654.00 with the $30 dollar overdraft fees per charge. I couldn't even buy lunch today and my son's birthday party had to be cancelled.

If your not trolling. I actually think thats pretty sad for your son.

Mythic is just taking gold farming to the next level.

Being in a family of gamers, I pay for my nephew to play Warhammer Online. When this "billing error" happened, I was traveling 550 miles to visit family with my 3 month old daughter. Mystic Entertainment's only comment to me was to call my financial institution (Bank of America) because they will refund the money and overdraft fees and they are "sorry for the inconvenience". They can't understand that they could have put me in a very bad position with having to get home and having my checking account literally wiped out by bogus charges and subsequent overdraft fees.

I was able to file a claim with the bank; however, do to the small amount of each claim ($15.89x22), the money will not be refunded nor will the overdaft fees be reversed until the 22nd.

Luckily, this did not financially cripple me even for a moment but it could have been bad, very very bad.

Wow... I was floored when I hear about this. It came up in our podcast tonight and we all couldn't quite believe how bad Mythic is looking in this crisis! I'd love to hear from people that where affected!
www.pcpcgames.com

Warhammer Online 'billing error' results in massively multiplayer overcharge

Reader Comments (48)

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