Store Payments, Billing Country, and Missing Names

[Cordovan]

As we opened our new Store in August of 2023 we implemented anti-fraud and other security considerations that may be different from what you are used to under our previous store. To help make sure you have a smooth transaction with us, we have identified two leading causes of failed payment:

1. Billing Country, IP, or Payment Source Mismatch: Your IP (Internet Protocol) address, billing address, and payment source must be in alignment in order to make a successful purchase. This means that if your billing country is different from the location where you are making your payment, the transaction may fail. Additionally, any use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that adjusts your geolocation to a different country can cause a failed transaction.

You can make sure your information is accurate by accessing your payment profile. This can be done inside of the game through the Store or through our web site here. If using the in-game Store, click “Buy Points” and select any bundle to be redirected to the Payment Gateway, where you can adjust your payment method.

2. Missing name field for payment source: As an account security precaution it is not possible to edit your first or last name when editing a payment source, so if the name field is not present when attempting to edit a saved payment source, the stored payment source will need to be deleted and re-added, and recurring subscriptions will need to be re-enabled with the new payment source.

To remove and then re-add your payment method on file using the in-game Store, click “Buy Points” and select any bundle to be redirected to the Payment Gateway. Click on “Payment Sources” and then “Delete” your payment source on file.

From the DDO Market, click on “Payment Sources” and then “Delete” your payment source on file. Then, re-add your card on file.

If you continue to experience a payment-related issue after following the above steps, please get in contact with Account Support through help.standingstonegames.com. In your ticket, first select “I am experiencing purchase issues”, then fill out the form and click Submit. Thank you for your business!

 

[Natashaelle]

1. Billing Country, IP, or Payment Source Mismatch: Your IP (Internet Protocol) address, billing address, and payment source must be in alignment in order to make a successful purchase. This means that if your billing country is different from the location where you are making your payment, the transaction may fail.

Some DDO players are not statically enchained to any Nation or State. I myself am located on the borderland between three different Nation States.

SSG creating an extra financial transaction barrier is unhelpful -- and whilst I do not have an offshore bank account presently, in the past I did have one, and I would suggest that it is potentially unlawful to prevent purchases from such accounts.

And in a more practical sense, this sounds like a punitive measure against some DDO players who may not be sedentary, but may have more nomadic lives.

 

[Cult of the Ocelot]

Some DDO players are not statically enchained to any Nation or State. I myself am located on the borderland between three different Nation States.

SSG creating an extra financial transaction barrier is unhelpful -- and whilst I do not have an offshore bank account presently, in the past I did have one, and I would suggest that it is potentially unlawful to prevent purchases from such accounts.

And in a more practical sense, this sounds like a punitive measure against some DDO players who may not be sedentary, but may have more nomadic lives.

I think the implementation of MFA would sate both concerns of fraud and those you stated.

 

[JangoEX]

I'm having issues with this situation too. I live between two countries and if I'm on the "wrong" one guess I should stop playing because I can't buy anything.

 

[Smokewolf]

I'm a long time DDO player with over 6300 hours (over 15 years) of accumulated play. During this time, I've retired from the military, had two rug-rats, and moved overseas to Germany. What I draw from my military retirement allows us to live comfortably if not have everything we want. The state-side bank I was affiliated with while on active duty, is the very same bank I draw funds from today as a retiree. (Including my VISA card)

Recently I've encountered the geolocation / zipcode issue with the revamped DDO store. Now if I'm unable to purchase points or renew my subscription then I'm very likely to become F2P. Which would most certainly result in me no longer playing, and all for committing the "crime" of being an American residing overseas.

Meanwhile I continue to use the very same VISA card to perform our "local" shopping and online purchases. Keep in mind, that I'm not a criminal, but a LEGAL EU Resident. Though one that obviously been targeted and singled out for being an American overseas.

@SSGBrand Please fix this!

-Smoke

 

[jukiejoe2]

Similar to Smokewolf, I am a retired American military member. I reside in the Philippines. My bank didn't move. My financial account information didn't change....but I lost my VIP status while I was away from the game for a two months. It'd been nice to get an email alert notifying us of this very significant change. I've got a ticket in for help, but now that I see what you did, I'm wondering if it's even worth the effort. You guys keep doing things hostile to us non-US residents and it's annoying.

I fought for my country for 20 years and I'm 100% disabled now. I shouldn't have to fight to pay you money for a game subscription.

 

[jukiejoe2]

The thing that annoys me the most is that this is not the first time this has happened to me. By my count it's the third time since July 2009. In all cases, I've had to long-distance (international) long-distance call you guys because doing it online was impossible, presumably due to your other anti-fraud protocols. While I do applaud your efforts to combat fraud, it amazes me that even with over a decade of corporate experience, available technological resources, and greater MMO industry shared knowledge and lessons learned, you still haven't figured out a way to implement those efforts without punishing those outside the continental United States. It's stunning. Baffling even. Surely by now in the year 2023 there exists a way to ensure anti-fraud without having us international patrons having to spend international phone call rates to fix what you do every time.

 

[Smokewolf]

Update Oct-232023: Was finally able to get my CC to work but only after using a (pay for) VPN service to bypass the geo-tracking. Sure while this is great and all, I'm a bit upset at the fact that I now have to pay a 3rd party to be able to use my US credit card.

The 3rd party vendor SSG is using to process the payments is 100% responsible for this mess!

 

[JangoEX]

From my part, I ended up installing the game on a friend`s computer and then I access it remote when I need to buy stuff! Jesus right?

 

[Smokewolf]

The thing that annoys me the most is that this is not the first time this has happened to me. By my count it's the third time since July 2009. In all cases, I've had to long-distance (international) long-distance call you guys because doing it online was impossible, presumably due to your other anti-fraud protocols. While I do applaud your efforts to combat fraud, it amazes me that even with over a decade of corporate experience, available technological resources, and greater MMO industry shared knowledge and lessons learned, you still haven't figured out a way to implement those efforts without punishing those outside the continental United States. It's stunning. Baffling even. Surely by now in the year 2023 there exists a way to ensure anti-fraud without having us international patrons having to spend international phone call rates to fix what you do every time.

It's pretty clear to me that these anti-fraud measures are useless. Consider that any fraudster will be using a Tor to mask their location, which is far more effective than the VPN I used. All these measures are doing is making life more difficult for everyone else.

 

[Samdavid]

Ok i have managed to become vip again by putting the country that the payment gateway thinks i am located into the vpn, and then creating a new payment source and was then charged that countrys currency. Now when i play the game i also need vpn running to purchase in game points as the gateway still thinks im somewhere else. Weirds me out to be honest im not tech savvy or trying to be fraudulent just wanna play ddo. Dont really want to be buying a vpn to play a game, id rather give to ddo. I play 2 vip accounts and one thinks i live somewhere else, not sure why

 

[Descone]

Is it not possible to pay with a reloadable visa debit/gift card? I tried to purchase the upgrade of myth drannor with mine and it gives me errors, probably because the card has no name or address associated with it. Please help

 

[Wanfanel]

Im live in Poland why I can't pay in Euro?

 

[ArtiWeylund]

I've just lost my VIP for some reason, and didn't cancel it...anyone else seeing this?

 

[Catmosphere]

Anyone else who has to go down the same dumb rabbit hole when the error message says "please check with your payment provider why it was declined" even after following the instructions above, checks for a 'Cardinal block against the merchant' for a Visa card showed that Standing Stone games has not been blocked (that is whatever was appearing from my transaction from the 27th that finally appeared on 3/12). So either the merchant is reporting something else now and THAT has been blocked (and I have no idea what that is... please let me know so I can get a Cardinal block check on THAT name) or there is some other issue client to server...

 

[Zoid]

I'm finding this issue very discouraging. I own 2 DDO accounts both have purchased expansions (ddo marketplace) and points (ddo store) in the past. My primary account has nearly all content unlocked (secondary about 50%) and i really enjoy having time once or twice a year to catch up on new expansions and binge when i have time off work to play in a dedicated manner. About a week ago i attempted to purchase the Vecna Unleashed expansion from the marketplace and got the dreaded "Purchase can not be completed" error. I'm located in Canada and have not previously since launch of ddo had these issues with payment.

1. I attempted to add a different credit card and got the same error.
2. I added a card to paypal and attempted to pay that way and also got same error.
3. I made a support ticket with standing stone support (now 10 days ago).
4. I installed the steam client with the intent to purchase the adventure pack for Vecna Unleashed with ddo store points (wouldn't get Machrotechnic Destiny tree). The transaction was completed by steam and the store page redirected to "Purchase can not be completed" error again. This time the money was removed from my credit card and after about an hour it showed up as a credit to my steam wallet. This is not ideal at all as i haven't purchased anything from steam in years. :( I updated my standing stone support ticket to advise having been ignored for more than a week at that point.
5. Fusterated i decided to switch game play objectives and work on my secondary account getting my support character there leveled to 30. I decided to try and use that account to in-game purchase the Machrotechnic destiny tree 900 points and test if purchase issues were client related or account related. At that time the purchase came back with "purchase can not be completed" in an attempt by credit card on DDO store (not steam).
6. Having been ignored for 9 days by support and running out of time off from work, i thought i would attempt to trouble shoot the transaction issues by testing out using ddo store in different browsers (Librewolf, chrome). I forced the ddo store to launch in external browser, cleared cache and still got "purchase can not be completed" error.
7. Yesterday i used my secondary account to attempt to purchase the Vecna Unleashed expansion from the marketplace. I first deleted the current payment methods which failed previously in the ddo store in-game (This is something i attempted numerous times with my primary account with no success), logged out and back into the browser marketplace. I added the same previously failed payment method credit card and attempted to purchase the expansion pack. "Purchase Completed"! I was very surprised.
8. Feeling hopeful, i attempted to use the same method (browser and card) to try and purchase the Vecna expansion for my primary account. This was by far the more important account that i wished to have access to the newer content (full character roster). I removed and replaced the payment method as i'd done previously many times for this account. I attempted to purchase Vecna Unleashed and received the same old error "Purchase can not be completed" AGAIN! This is very fusterating as the secondary account is really just to supplement this primary one.
9. Today i'm resigned to leaving DDO alone. I'm not overly excited to play new content with my alt account at the moment, especially as chars there are not fully leveled at this time and need a lot of attention before they will be fit to solo new content. Also not very well geared. Character there served as a resurrection and gear mule character on there for support. I've ran out of time to play attentively. I've ran out of motivation to do so as well. I'm out nearly $50 CAN (including money that steam processed off my card and DDO failed to transact that was reversed) , some of which is now on a steam wallet (nearly useless to me).

How Standing Stone support can go 10 days without anything but an automated response to a purchasing issue is sort of crazy? I'm not angry or flaming over this. But i think for DDO to have a healthy income to support future development and longevity of the franchise, they really should automatically escallate store purchasing support tickets to same or next day response time at the latest. They are literally losing money like this. It has to be important.

 

[Zoid]

2 support tickets now outstanding. The first was 20 days ago now? I can't purchase the expansions. Unbelievable that SSG would have purchasing support related tickets wait this long. Now playing Runescape - Dragonwilds in early release and pretty fun for anyone stuck in ddo store limbo like me.

 

[Zoid]

I would have edited my previous post but doesn't seem to be an available function now. So heres another post.

I just wanted to express my sincere dissatisfaction with SSG support or to whom ever it is that seem to be purposefully ( if not i need clarification ) ignoring my support requests. I was a contributing member to DDO more than 19 years ago on the alpha discussion forums (now 3 forum format iterations ago). I participated in the alpha testing and set up a ddo fan site - ddosite.com. I would say that i've had this game in mind for more than 20 years. I might not have always been an agreeable member and founding patron ( i also notice that my "Founding Member" status on these forums also seems to have been stripped from this account). But i can honestly say that i've always had the best interests of this franchise at heart. I'm now faced with having to walk away from this game with one account owning 95% of the game content and unable to operate the ddo store or marketplace to purchase expansions. As i explained previously i own an alternate account that has roughly 60-70% of the game content purchased and it IS able to purchase from the store. Same client, same computer, same country - region and my original account with a full character roster seems to be soft banned from purchasing content. There have never been any issues with this accounts payment or transaction history aside from not receiving 600 ddo points during a hard core event a few years ago ( an issue that was rectified ).

I know that in the past Cordovan banned me from participating on these forums. A matter that was related to a discussion thread entitled "FBI declassified symbols in DDO" (or words to that effect). I notice that thread was finally removed after persisting for many years. He shut down that thread and banned me from participating on these forums for a month for posting it. It ran on for several pages before it was closed and i was banned. A lot of what i mentioned in that discussion was later verified as true. All the changes to quest portal symbols coincided with the aquisition of Turbine by Warner brothers and the hiring of Cordovan. I don't know if this is why my account is now being disallowed from access to future content. All i know is that this account appears to be specifically blocked with all conditional variables having been tested against the access of my alternate account that functions. This account has invested thousands of dollars in both regular subscription and then outright purchasing of content from first Turbine, Warner and now SSG. The account with a full character roster is essentially debilitated by this circumstance. Its not like i'm going to threaten legal action. But i will say this. I am a webhost that operates a number of globally viewed sites. Up to this point i've been relatively quiet about a lot of things that i've discovered. I'll leave it at that.

Lastly i'll say this. I loved this game. I did from the very start. I remember seeing the first renderings of the Hill Giant in Tangleroot and thought, "Man that looks just like the monster manual picture". I really loved the hard knocks difficulty of the first couple years. Death xp debt, the rarity of even a elemental enchanted weapon in the first 5 levels was real. I ground out more joy from that struggle in the first couple years than in all the 17 that followed. I posted the concept of purchaseable modules like the pen and paper format to these forums before the announcement of free to play or VIP was ever concieved or implemented and was laughed at. I now look back and think this was a double edged sword. Free to play and purchaseable content might have saved this game from failure, but the Skinners box methodology and the pay to win philosophy may have reduced it to something quite distasteful. So i guess, i'm saying that if my account is fixed, i guess that is good. I'm just not sure if i really even want to play anymore.

Either way, i'll take away a lot of good memories, and some not so good. I guess this could be goodbye.

 

[Mindos]

I guess this could be goodbye.

"I am experiencing purchase issues"
You are filing tickets under that heading, correct?

 

[Zoid]

"I am experiencing purchase issues"
You are filing tickets under that heading, correct?

Yes. i have two help support tickets under the heading "i am experiencing purchase issues". one 22 days ago and the other 13.