Re: Coming Changes to PayByCash payment methods - now what? PayPal isn't the best solution

[Polymachos]

Question: Will you accept micropayment vouchers, especially PaySafeCard? If not, there is no means for me left to send you any real life currency, as our banks charge yearly fees for a credit card that are higher than the original price of an expansion like Riders of Rohan, or Helms Deep.


And PayPal... don't tell me to use PayPal. Not after what happened to the junior chief editor of a renowned German computer magazine, which ran into an unbelievable incident just because he doesn't have a PayPal account.

See, he is computer savvy. He knows what can happen on the net. He knew it before Snowden told us laypersons about it. So, why should he have a PayPal account?

PayPal has this guest payment thingie, which is supposed to function as a kind of makeshift non-personal account, and which might work as long as everything happens as intended.

But *not* if a delivery service fails to deliver the package, and instead returns it to the sender, so that the trade has to be reversed.

Because then the trouble begins. You receive a mail that tells you that your money will be refunded. And then, nothing happens. For a whole week.

If you think you can question them why the promised money doesn't appear on your own home bank account, by sending a simple mail to service(at)paypal.com, you are wrong. It will be ignored. Officially. They say this on their web site. Please log into your PayPal account, if you want to send us a message. What, you don't have an account? (guess why the guest payment method was used? Because the customer has an account and was just too lazy to use it? Where did they make their Bachelor of Logics?) Oops, we are not prepared for such a complicated case, please don't expect us to react...

Journalists are good at finding things out. So he detects another mail address. A secret one, obviously, but one that is read. Kind of. It sends an automatic reply with an excerpt of the FAQ that doesn't cover his issue at all.

The editor gets fed up, walks to his bank and has said bank recall the payment. Suddenly PayPal is missing some money and calls back. Someone must have noticed that they messed with the wrong person. They explain that there must have been a misunderstanding, that they want to come to terms with him, that failing their promise of a fast refund of the money spent for the failed delivery was just a sorry mistake...

Ok, the case gets settled. Somehow.

After that, PayPal sends a mail that asks why said editor wasn't happy with their service. But sorry, they can only see this reply, if he enters it into a page that - guess what - opens a Paypal account!!!

This absurd story can be found here: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldu...r-2242258.html (good knowledge of German required), and yes, it happened as described.



Now, if I am planning to leave some money with Turbine, how am I supposed to do it???


Greetings, Polymachos

[Octaviane]

You don't say where in the world you are. However, you should be able to use a pre-paid debit card.

[Polymachos]

You don't say where in the world you are.

Germany. Due to the new forum, I cannot find the form any more where this info can be entered.

However, you should be able to use a pre-paid debit card.

Believe it or not; they are charging absurdly high fees even for prepaid cards, no matter that they already have the money that has been loaded on the card, and can use it for whatever they are doing with money. There are exactly two exceptions in the following list, and these are ranked at the top because of their low fees. The others collect at least ten Euro, not only once, but each year.

http://www.kreditkartenvergleich.net...ditkarten.html

The first entry looks nice, but you have to be a customer of that bank. The second looks somewhat good, they charge a one time fee only. Then there are fees for loading the card, and some fees for going to an ATM, and that's it, the rest is free. Nice, isn't it. Actually, it is too good...

to be true. On another page, I found the information that you have to use this card at least once each half year, or they'll charge a monthly fee of 99 cent. And of course you have to register (sigh), with name, email address, physical address, and *birthday*, so that they can send you the card...

In other words: You have to become the customer of a bank; although all that you wanted was a prepaid *card*.

It gets really interesting if they can't verify your identity (automatically, that is). This may happen if you have been living at this place for less than three years, haven't been paying the bills (hum, perhaps a relative did?), if you are not listed in the electoral register, if you changed your name within the last three years, or simply if there has been a typo in your message, or - gasp- in public documents. [1]

Then they require you to send in some documents to prove that you are yourself. For sending them these documents (a copy of your recent bank account statement; didn't they say at the top of their FAQ, that you don't have to have a bank account to open an account at their bank?[2] or bills) you have to log in, and will then be told where to send a facsimile or jpeg.

I don't know what's going on, but the German banks seem to be living in a different century. Did you know that in former times, the workers of a German bank were called 'bank officer'? That's how many behave, even today.


Greetings, Polymachos


[1] And It will happen. It doesn't matter if I can write my name properly. The fact that my home address contains an irregular house number, will cause issues. It has been mis-interpreted often enough, each company writes it in a different way, because their database programs cannot handle a double numeral with a slash in between. I doubt that this bank can do it any better.

[2] I do have a bank account, but what am I supposed to do with half a dozen more, which will all cost fees, all collected from the very same amount of money that I have at hand?

[QuartermasterU]

Hi Polymachos
The following options are open to you for alternative payment:

* PaySafeCards
* Sofortüberweisung
* Ukash
* ELV
* GiroPay
* DaoPay
* Mobile Payment Option - Boku

[Grimdi]

I don't know what's going on, but the German banks seem to be living in a different century. Did you know that in former times, the workers of a German bank were called 'bank officer'? That's how many behave, even today.

While I'm not exactly a fan of our modern banking system, you can't blame them for following laws and regulations made after 9/11 ("Ottokatalog" etc.). Politicians want to eradicate anything that allows unidentified money transfers, and no bank wants to be associated with scams, fraud or terrorism. Just like buying a prepaid cellphone card today usually requires a full identity clearance.

[Mousaion]

Hi Polymachos
The following options are open to you for alternative payment:

* PaySafeCards
* Sofortüberweisung
* Ukash
* ELV
* GiroPay
* DaoPay
* Mobile Payment Option - Boku

Can you please pass a link where we can buy VIP with paysafecard cause some of us has no other option!

[Polymachos]

There is no *page*; there is only a horribly complicated menu (shot from the rear through the knee into the chest). You go to the Lotro *Market*, https://store.lotro.com/en/game-time/, then you choose from the 'Available Payment Methods' the one to the right, UltimatePay, and use the button.

This will open another page, https://store.lotro.com/en/game-time/#checkout/confirm
In the lower potion, you see the UltimatePay as Payment Method, with the UltimatePay symbol.

So, where is the PaySafeCard entry?

it is hidden behind this strikingly *blue* button Complete Order.

The button opens an overlay window with a menu in which you can finally choose the real payment method.


There you can finally enter the PSC code.


Greetings, Polymachos

[Mousaion]

It is 10Euro more expensive than i was buying from PayByCash but at least an option to get it.Thanks for guide!!!