Warhammer Online players overcharged

By Ellie Gibson Published 9 April, 2010

Error results in subs fees of $300 and up.

Warhammer Online players are complaining they've been massively overcharged for their monthly subscription fee - in many cases to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

The WHO forum is rife with complaints, with one poster writing, "My account I pay my sub from was billed today for over 500 dollars in 16 dollar increments. The account was overdrawn and with fees and overbilling it was 562.73 total."

Another wrote, "My account was charged 22 times at 14.99 that is a total of 329.78 not including overdrafts. Maybe legal action should be taken to show the seriousness of this problem."

A response was issued on the game's official website. It reads, "We have confirmed with our vendor that players who have been charged multiple times for their subscriptions should start seeing a reversal of charges within 24 - 36 hours. We anticipate that once the charges have been reversed, any fees that have been incurred should be refunded as well." EA is advising players who do not receive a refund after 36 hours to contact their bank.

Some players are demanding compensation for the inconvenience - and it looks like they might get it. According to Belford, writing on the forum, "Making this up to our community is a topic of much discussion right now."

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About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ignatiusjreilly #1 2 years ago

    Wow, that's a really serious error.

  • Murton #2 2 years ago

    I'm not sure about the US but here in the UK the high courts have ruled that these obscene overdraft charges are in fact both legal and fair, those banks are going want their overdraft fees mistake or not so it looks like this is going to cost EA significantly.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #3 2 years ago

    I think someone sat on the enter key at the easter party..

    Nice to see they are correcting the problem quickly - other publishers have 'mis-billed' people before and either took ages or just gave them 'free time' which TBH doesn't help if you are on a limited buget per month, still it's not going to help WAR that much if Mythic fuged up royaly this time - i sence many subbers will unsub just to protect their bank accounts

  • ignatiusjreilly #4 2 years ago

    I think if any company took £500 out of my bank acount without warning there I'd instantly cancel any contract I had with them, refund or not.

  • Whatsfor #5 2 years ago

    Have Activision taken over the price structure?

  • George-Roper #6 2 years ago

    Some comedy comments on there. One guy saw over a grands worth taken out.

    Crazy!

  • Hypercube #7 2 years ago

    Massive, massive fuck up. ignatiusjreilly is quite right - no matter how much I enjoyed a game, if someone overcharged me to this degree, I'd cancel it immediately.

    Makes me glad I'd cancelled WHO sometime ago. I enjoyed it, but it never quite clicked.

  • Murton #8 2 years ago

    I think this story serves as proof that direct debit, though convenient is utterly flawed. Being made to sign a contract that allows a company to withdraw an unconfirmed sum of money from your account on a whim in return for goods and services is pure insanity and needs serious reform. Anyone remember the four figure electricity bills that various providers dished out in 2007 and 2008 that wiped out thousands of bank accounts by just taking the money?

  • Hypercube #9 2 years ago

    @Murton - regarding direct debit and utility companies, from what I've been told any fuck up with the amount is their responsibility and all costs can be recovered from them.

    Although I know how often reality differs from theory...

  • Murton #10 2 years ago

    @Murton - regarding direct debit and utility companies, from what I've been told any fuck up with the amount is their responsibility and all costs can be recovered from them.

    I'm not talking about "fuck ups" but genuine bills for staggeringly high amounts, usually created through a prolonged period of estimated bills followed by a proper reading after a price hike, the new increased rate being used to charge for the entire deficit. All of it perfectly legal with no real recourse for the consumer unfortunately.

    It's an issue that I had to deal with myself in 2007 with E.On, luckily I didn't have a direct debit with them or they'd have taken over £800 from me and I would have had no defence against it. I've also had issues with BT over a direct debit when they doubled the rate for my line without telling me first and with Virgin helping themselves to a "cancellation fee" when I moved to a non-cable area. In short, I've learned that direct debits are just too open to abuse and need to be seriously looked at.

  • nuanimal #11 2 years ago

    @Hypercube

    The Direct Debit guarentee means that if the wrong amoutn is taken from your accunt, you can go to your bank and have it refunded. It's then upto the bank to deal with the company to resolve.

    In reality it's a pain in the ass since the bank asks for all the documentation from MI5 HQ as well as, dragging their feet. (My one experience wasn't pleasant and don't DD).

  • ZuluHero #12 2 years ago

    Oh come on - its easily worth $300 a month. Right? ;)

  • Spekingur #13 2 years ago

    Not that much of news. This has happened in almost every MMO with a subscription based model. Happened in DAoC, Everquest, WoW, etc.

  • Bravestinsane #14 2 years ago

    "Maybe legal action should be taken to show the seriousness of this problem"

    What absolute scum people like that make me sick.

    Yeh they made a cock up everyone does it, it's blatantly obvious this is a serious issue and will be refunded legal action my arse, i bet he lives in the US and wants a load of cash to live a easy life.

  • KidCactus #15 2 years ago

    @Bravestinsane If someone stole $500 from me I sure as hell would take legal action.

  • Bravestinsane #16 2 years ago

    @KidCactus

    They didn't "steal" money at all.

    Something went wrong along the lines and people got overcharged they have the full intention of refunding doesn't sound like thieves to me.

    People seriously need to be more laid back and take things in their stride not getting worked up over money all the time.

    No im not a fanboy i have never even played it i just hate it when people try and called people and companies out on things all the time when it's obviously a mistake.

  • ryandsimmons #17 2 years ago

    No one stole anything.

    This was a mistake that is being rectified. Theft means taking without permission with intent to keep. Good luck proving intent here when the company is arranging refunds ASAP

  • ignatiusjreilly #18 2 years ago

    People seriously need to be more laid back and take things in their stride not getting worked up over money all the time.

    If it was a few quid I could agree, but $500? That could easily wipe out your account and mean other payments like rent, utility bills etc. don't go through, wasting a lot of time and money to try and sort it out.

  • kangarootoo #19 2 years ago

    @Murton

    If BT doubled the rate without telling, you that would break the direct debit mandate and your bank would reverse the payment.

    As for being charged a cancellation fee by a cable rpovider, that is pretty normal if you end the contract that you agreed early (I'm guessing you moved within 12-18 months) and that has nothing to do with direct debits.

    And if your bills based on a series of estimated readings are causing you problems, you could just submit your own reading any time you get a bill based on an estimate and keep your account current.



    Companies do fuck up from time to time, just like everyone else, and how they deal with those cocks ups is what matters. EA are clearly sorting this out, and given the harm this will do to customer trust, I would expect the compensation toys they give everyone will be quite generous.

    Incidentally, the direct debit gives you quite a bit of protection (a standing charge on a debit card, such as used by Lovefilm for example, gives you very little protection at all in comparison).

  • darleysam #20 2 years ago

    Activision gotta make their dollars somehow.

  • Hypercube #21 2 years ago

    @Murton - I see what you mean now, and I entirely agree with you!

  • Acrid #22 2 years ago

    @Murton "Virgin helping themselves to a "cancellation fee" when I moved to a non-cable area."

    That must have been for the "Contract" which you broke, maybe you should have taken the ADSL broadband they do instead of making out like you're a victim.

  • Murton #23 2 years ago

    My troubles with various companies abusing direct debits and then claiming to be in the right while doing so is off topic, I of course looked at each case in question and while I knew I was right on principle the unbalanced laws regarding these things meant that the providers were playing by the rules, which is all that matters to them and their regulators. I'll explain the Virgin situation anyway to explain the wrongdoing of some companies. I had been a customer for 4 four years prior to moving, but because I added some extra channels to my Cable TV service (which was because the package would reduce my overall bill I should add) Virgin signed me into a new contract on my behalf, again, perfectly legal in the UK. Meaning that I unknowingly cancelled the service early when I was forced to move for work and found the cancellation fee removed from my account (with no bill sent to my address) two months later, and that is the part to which I object, the removal of funds without prior warning, made possible by the wonderful thing that is a direct debit.

    I was merely quoting examples to support my earlier argument that direct debits favour business over consumer, such as in this case where WAR subs have been charged as many as twenty times over.

    In this instance it has been an error and quickly remedied, but it certainly highlights the issue that where the direct debit isn't for a set value or number of transactions, it can deal massive damage to consumer finances. The article mentions overdraft charges but other potential effects could include, a default on a rent or mortgage payment, causing other direct debits such as utility bills to fail, and thus incur additional charges. As I said before, banks and utility companies and the like (in this country at least) are entitled to charge their customers a penalty for defaulting on their payments, in this case those companies may very well want those fees (and why not, it's essentially free money for them) and I very much doubt EA will be accepting responsibility for the knock on effects of their error, only the error itself, though I would love to be proved wrong on that one.
    Edited by Murton at 09/04/10 @ 14:20

  • kangarootoo #24 2 years ago

    @Murton

    In the case of Virgin re-signing you because you changed your package, that does sound a bit shit (though if you benefitted from reduced "new customer" rate, were you really out of pocket at the end?). I would hope the old "hang on, this is clearly bullshit" approach would have worked there.

    On the matter of fees, I'm pretty sure the direct debit mandate covers that too. If an error is made by the company drawing the funds, they will bear the associated fees if those fees are enforced by the bank. EA don't need to "act responsibly", they simply need to comply with the law (direct debit protections are law, not guidelines).

    Now maybe EA will pay the fees in this case, or maybe the bank will waive them, but so long as the customer isn't out of pocket who cares?

  • Murton #25 2 years ago

    "In the case of Virgin re-signing you because you changed your package, that does sound a bit shit (though if you benefitted from reduced "new customer" rate, were you really out of pocket at the end?). I would hope the old "hang on, this is clearly bullshit" approach would have worked there."

    I think I probably broke even in the case of Virgin, if I was out of pocket it wouldn't have been by a significant amount, but the sudden loss of 60 quid without prior warning was a little jarring for my finances in that particular month.

    I can see banks waiving charges as they'll have the error on record and be able to see that (re)funds from EA are in waiting to clear, a third party company however may not be so understanding. Will be interesting to see what sort of affect this has on subscriptions, the game was already struggling to maintain its playerbase before all this kicked off and I can't see this helping it in any way.

  • kangarootoo #26 2 years ago

    I agree that if other payments bounced in the mean time, things might get stickier. The direct debit mandate is pretty good as these things go though, and most customers will escape unscathed.


    "Will be interesting to see what sort of affect this has on subscriptions"

    Absolutely. Automatic payments of any kind are based on trust, and this is quite a blow. Like I said above, I expect EA to understand the significane of that trust, and be pretty generous when sorting out the customers that got stung by this.

  • Macdory #27 2 years ago

    Probably just needed to boost this months "month end" figures a little ...

  • levitate #28 2 years ago

    This is a major fuckup they can't afford. People will lose their trust even more and I wouldn't be surprised if Mythic lost a bunch of subscriptions over this blunder. It's not as easy to get timecards either so they'll probably just lose the players to other MMOs.

  • Gaol #29 2 years ago

    @Murton

    If you had claimed via your bank, you should have had your £60 or whatever within 24 hours.

    The main issue with the direct debit guarantee is that consumers aren't fully aware of their rights, and poorly trained bank staff who don't know how to deal with indemnity requests. Otherwise, it's a good system - the alternative is to leave it to customers to remember to make the correct manual payment on time every month, which is less reliable than you might think.

  • allen #30 2 years ago

    theres nothing wrong with direct debits for the consumer.

    something goes wrong file an indemnity claim... the bank refunds you and the company loses out. its on the company to chase you down for the money through other means where you can then defend your legal rights.

    standing orders just won't work for all services

  • TheJuriel #31 2 years ago

    Wow, that is some hiccup.

  • Captain_Jono #32 2 years ago

    £500? Sounds like a typical Games Workshop pricing structure.

  • Shikasama #33 2 years ago

    As horrific as something like this is I imagine it's actually fairly easy to do. All it takes is one person to hit the wrong button at some point and bang, thousands of lives are affected. It's the world we live in.

    Also, I've never heard of a direct debit for an indefinite amount, surely subscriptions work on the opposite of that? you agree to pay X amount each month and they can only ever take that amount directly from your account. I thought that was the whole point of a direct debit agreement?

    Not trying to say anybody is wrong (if anybody is it'll be me, I don't have much experience with this stuff) but that has been my understanding of things like MMO subscriptions and standard bills from Virgin and stuff. Although my phone bill changes every month so is that how they still take the money?

  • chrisjm #34 2 years ago

    yes direct debits can vary in value each month, otherwise how would phone bills or credit card payments work.