I've been banned from PSN

[Maggiore]

Just wanted to put this out there really - I have been a PS fanboy since PS1 but now this has happened.


A month or so ago, someone hacked my account and purchased FIFA 14 for £59.99. It was not me (I was at work at the time and I already own the game on disc) before anyone asks. I rang Sony straight away who began investigating the case. They called me back a few days later to day they could see the purchase was made from a PC in USA and it looked like fraud.

They removed my card details from my account and changed my password for me... before telling me they won't refund the money. I was not happy but they did tell me to call my bank and raise a case with them. Which I did.


I received note from my bank about a month ago that the money would be refunded as it was found to be fraud. I switched on my Playstation on Saturday to find my account has been banned.


I called Sony who advised I will need to pay them the £59.99 as my account is in debt. I told them what happened but they wont un-ban me until the money has been paid.


It's ridiculous! I don't give my account details out to anyone or login elsewhere. I just play in my home every so often. This looks to be a case of a genuine hack which Sony have even confirmed themselves.


Anyway, just wanted to post this and let you all know to be careful. I'm now banned from PSN for being the victim of fraud.

 

[Rob]

PMSL, gotta love Sony.

Although I'm sure something there has got to be illegal. Time to start emailing high up's at Sony if you can find any details.

 

[Maggiore]

Every time I speak to them they just tell me I have to pay the money. I received this short but sweet e-mail last night:

For us to lift the ban, the debt will need to be repaid. If you wish to do this, you will need to provide us with PSN vouchers sufficient to cover the debt of £59.99. We will then redeem the vouchers on your account, use the funds to repay the debt and then lift the ban.

As PSN vouchers are only available in set amounts any remaining balance from the PSN vouchers will be left in the SEN account wallet.

It now means that all of the games I have bought to play online are sitting gathering dust. I'm not really sure who else to speak to tbh.

 

[Heez]

Rob meant to email people in Sony who are high on the food chain. Rather than people who will continue to fob you off.

 

[Scutch]

That is f*cking ridiculous.

C*nts.

 

[Maggiore]

Any idea how to find the people high in the food chain?

 

[Rob]

Every time I speak to them they just tell me I have to pay the money. I received this short but sweet e-mail last night:

For us to lift the ban, the debt will need to be repaid. If you wish to do this, you will need to provide us with PSN vouchers sufficient to cover the debt of £59.99. We will then redeem the vouchers on your account, use the funds to repay the debt and then lift the ban.

As PSN vouchers are only available in set amounts any remaining balance from the PSN vouchers will be left in the SEN account wallet.

It now means that all of the games I have bought to play online are sitting gathering dust. I'm not really sure who else to speak to tbh.

I'd reply with something along the lines of, and copied into as many senior sony people as you can find...

"Thank you for your reply, however I have several concerns with the actions you have suggested I take to remove the ban from my account.

I fail to understand why there is any debt on my account seeing as I have been a victim of fraud, something which has been confirmed by both my bank, and yourselves. Given this, I would like clarification as to exactly what the debt on my account is and how I have managed to incur it.

If the answer to the above question is "For the purchase of FIFA 14", then I am not satisfied with this and would like escalate this issue accordingly.

I contacted PSN on XX/XX/XXXX regarding fraudulent activity on my account, at which point I was informed that I would be unable to achieve a refund directly, and to contact my bank to try and achieve this. Having acted upon your instruction, I have now been banned from PSN and am apparently "in debt".

I hope you can understand my frustration and I would appreciate a reply and solution within a reasonable amount of time.

Thanks,

Billybob"

 

[Scutch]

I'd reply with something along the lines of, and copied into as many senior sony people as you can find...

Or what I said. Either would work.

 

[mantis946]

As above you are getting fobbed off here, unless you make a big enough scene, nobody will pay attention.

Post on their forums, tweet sony (I don't use twitter, but we managed to get our internet sorted from tweeting Branson)

I've got experience of sony's customer care for PSN when my email address was hacked and I needed to change my password, not a single f*** was given that day.

 

[mace¬]

Love a good row.

P.S that is row as in an argument. I'm not just stating I like to go for a journey in my rowing boat down the Thames.

Anyway get googlinf for email addresses..... http://us.playstation.com/corporate/about/management/

guy W Longworth seems to be the man you want.

 

[Al_G]

Tell them to get fucked and buy an XBO.

For this kind of stuff MS are pretty good to be fair.

 

[danward]

Time to get an Xbox!

 

[Chapppers11]

Tell them to get f**ked and buy an XBO.

For this kind of stuff MS are pretty good to be fair.

They aren't any better imo!

Automatic subscription renewal being a pain in the arse at £39.99, cheating c**ts the lot of them.

Also OP, surely no one would willingly pay £59.99 for a game!

 

[Al_G]

They aren't any better imo!

Automatic subscription renewal being a pain in the arse at £39.99, cheating c**ts the lot of them.

Slightly different circumstance though, that's no different to utility companies, service providers, any type of subscription.

 

[danward]

They aren't any better imo!

Automatic subscription renewal being a pain in the arse at £39.99, cheating c**ts the lot of them.QUOTE]I noticed this and cancelled the auto renewal online - took a minute. When renewal time came round I paid about £25 for the full year by finding a deal on HDUK.

 

[Maggiore]

They aren't any better imo!

Automatic subscription renewal being a pain in the arse at £39.99, cheating c**ts the lot of them.

Also OP, surely no one would willingly pay £59.99 for a game!

That's how much Sony charge for FIFA 14 on the PSN Store. The person who willingly bought it did so after hacking into my account and using my card to pay for it.

 

[Scutch]

That's how much Sony charge for FIFA 14 on the PSN Store. The person who willingly bought it did so after hacking into my account and using my card to pay for it.

Fair play. That's certainly a cheaper way of doing things.

 

[Toypop]

I don't see how you are in debt.

Sony were paid £60 - from your card in a fraudulent transaction.

Having been a victim of card fraud many times I know from experience that your card company credit your account with the amount that was stolen.

So you get your money back and the company from which the goods were fraudulently purchased still gets paid. It is the card company that takes the hit.

Unless in this case your card company did some kind of charge-back? In which case that is a ban-able offence because many legit account holders are scabby enough to do that.

Funnily enough the charge back fraud is a scam in its own right. E.g. people buy an electronic service (say a cosmetic mount for World of Warcraft), sell it to a person in game for a load of gold and then do a charge-back thing. End result is that Blizzard remove the mount from the new owner and they lose all their gold.

So even if your bank did a charge back, Sony should just withdraw the FIFA licence from presumably your account?

 

[Maggiore]

I think the bank did do a charge back.

Sony investigated and said they could see the purchase was made from a PC in a different country though so it should prove to them this was not a charge back scam.

Youd think they would just remove the download from my account and move on but they are digging their heels in.

 

[withoutabix]

Honestly dude get on twitter or facebook

@sonyuk is there twitter just shame them in public and believe me they'll act.

 

[gex23]

Slightly different circumstance though, that's no different to utility companies, service providers, any type of subscription.

Similar principle though.

In no way are MS a sharing, caring company.

Lol.

As mentioned, hit the forums and the Sony Twitter / Facebook page.

 

[mace¬]

Add in @Xbox aswell. I bet they'd love to get in on this s**t.

 

[Al_G]

Similar principle though.

In no way are MS a sharing, caring company.

Lol.

As mentioned, hit the forums and the Sony Twitter / Facebook page.

Why is it similar principles?

Ones common practice the other is borderline farcical!

 

[ChrisP_182]

As said earlier, go on social networks and kick up a fuss, they'll soon sort it out!

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Microsoft renew your subscription (which you could quite easily forget about) and don't offer refunds (even if you call the day after it renews) - or at least they didn't a few yes arms ago when it happened to me.

As others have said, your best bet will be to shame them online since you won't email anyone that is either paid to care or accountable.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Hit the Playstation forums, twitter/Facebook since they can't censor that etc

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

It will be especially rich considering the whole Sony PSN database getting hacked a while back or whenever it was. Although I'd be amazed if this was related!

 

[Heez]

It will be especially rich considering the whole Sony PSN database getting hacked a while back or whenever it was. Although I'd be amazed if this was related!

Nice triple post.


It's worth mentioning in a tweet/email though. Regardless if it's completely unrelated, PSN gets hacked again is not a good story to see for Sony considering what happened last time.

 

[Dan...]

w*****s! - hope you get it sorted, like others have said name and shame them on all the social media sites. Then all CS members who are on the said social media sites need to go and share/spread the story some more

 

[Maggiore]

They have so far ignored me on Twitter and i've posted in their forums (again, no response).

I will keep trying though. I have also sent them a reply similar to the one Rob posted above - so I will see what they say regarding that.

 

[MicKPM]

All sounds very illegal and I would consider speaking to an actual Solicitor about this and then write to Sony below (Do not email):-

22. Our company and contact details
We are Sony Network Entertainment Europe Limited of 10 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7LP, United Kingdom (Company Reg. no 6020283). You can contact us at this address or at sonyentertainment.uk@eu.sony.com.

If you have any comments or questions about third party services available via SEN, you should contact that third party.

They state numerous times in various sections of the terms of SEN use that refunds will only be given if they are required to do so by law which in the UK, under consumer law, they are required to do so on fraudulent purchases but they're just playing hard so play hard back. Write to them (again, do not email and send all letter recorded/signed for delivery) and explain the situation in a short and accurate manner. CC your solicitor in on this letter and also draw them to the fact that a copy of the letter has been sent to a named and addressed solicitor and that you await there response IN WRITTING. If they wish to pursue the matter further you will be adding on all costs.

 

[BatFastard]

Microsoft renew your subscription (which you could quite easily forget about) and don't offer refunds (even if you call the day after it renews) - or at least they didn't a few yes arms ago when it happened to me.

As others have said, your best bet will be to shame them online since you won't email anyone that is either paid to care or accountable.

I had a card from 08 saved on my XBox account. Didn't do anything as I expected it not to work as it was out of date, but they charged it about 3 weeks later after the renewal date - I gave them a call and they refunded it.

 

[theduck]

How the hell are they charging an expired card? Will have to check mine as assumed as card has expired that they can't be charging it?!

 

[BatFastard]

How the hell are they charging an expired card? Will have to check mine as assumed as card has expired that they can't be charging it?!

After this happened to me I did a bit of reading up on the matter. Apparently this is allowed and not illegal!

 

[Al_G]

Microsoft renew your subscription (which you could quite easily forget about) and don't offer refunds (even if you call the day after it renews) - or at least they didn't a few yes arms ago when it happened to me.

Again, common practice, nothing unusual. You'll probably find its written in the T&Cs.