Square Enix is facing a federal class action claiming that 100,000 customers have been deceived by the publisher over fees related to subscription-based MMO Final Fantasy XI. It's been alleged that Square Enix lied about or purposefully concealed information on its monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions and a number of other items that were not disclosed in full to the consumers.
Plaintiff Esther Leong of San Francisco expects Squeenix to cough up over $5million for "unfair business practices, false advertising and unjust enrichment." The suit is being represented by Ronald Makarem and Michael Kim.
I personally like the idea that these people are complaining about not knowing all the facts as if that would have stopped them subscribing anyway. I'm fairly certain anybody complaining about being "lied to" would still have signed their lives away if they were told that the game could give them cancer. Works for the cigarette companies.
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Contest:
4:20 PM on 06.24.2009
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I knew this game cost a monthy fee before I even saw it come out and that's why I never gave it a try :/
If you didn't read the warning about the monthly fees to play the game, you are officially a retard.
Sadly, the courts (as well as the world) are full of undiagnosed retards.
OH...HEY...yeah, I remember now. The Playonline thing...and the...yeah..
Right on..
SE did use to ban people who played the game for years with no remorse if they broke one of SE rules or if many people complained about certain player. Kinda like XBL is to their members.
Let me explain further: Normal MMO's start your billing on the day you subscribe. If you subscribe WoW on September 24, they will bill you again on October 24, November 24, and so on. FFXI does some weird thing where they always charge at the beginning of the month, and supposedly if you are only subscribed for a fraction of a month, they only charge you for a fraction of a month. But the billing system gets messed up, and sometimes, say you subscribed on September 24, they will bill you for the WHOLE month of September on October 1st, and then charge you for the whole month of October on November 1, and so on. So basically, you get gypped out of 24 days of gameplay moneywise. Squenix could definitely use some reform on their billing system and Playonline in general. I'm so glad they're ditching it for FF14.
"Actually I've seen some pretty shady stuff happen with FFXI subscriptions. If you subscribe near the end of a month, I've seen Squenix charge full price for a month even if you only were subscribed for 3 days that month."
That's not shady. FFXI specifically states that it does this when you sign up. It's called a "prorated system", and is a common business model.
Sucky for users? Sure. But not "shady" business tactics, especially when they explain explicitly what prorated service is. It's the 12 year olds that steal their parent's credit cards and don't read it that complain.
AliasWyvernspur has the right idea people: read your agreements, don't just always click "I agree".
Either way, its nothing to SUE over.
The part that I definitely don't recall seeing is the part about the penalties for late payments and interest. WTF is an MMO charging penalties and interest on?
Case closed.
"I'd like to sign up for cable please"
"Oh you can't, wait for a few days, then call us back, it's the end of the month so nobody will sign up yet"
What the hell are you smoking?
That's it. If you create an account and play one character, $12.95 a month. And you can't click a button to accidentally sign up for anything else. You know full damn well what you're getting into for each and every fee, and they ensure this with a lengthy process that's a pain in the ass if you want to make a second character. There is NO way you can not know.
Late fees? I've never seen them. Credit cards are charged at the beginning of the month. If the funds aren't available, your account is suspended until they are paid. If somehow there are still late fees somewhere, I'm sure they are clearly explained in the dozens of screens you have to agree to before you can sign up for a..anything.
Ultima Online, Everquest, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call 2, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Vanguard, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Darkfall Online. Probably some others I'm forgetting.
I think it's "shady" that basically out of all of the mainstream MMO's ever released, FFXI is the only one that uses that system. I understand that it's outlined in writing and blah blah, that doesn't make it a good system. It's not a problem when you're maintaining a constant subscription, but if you subscribe at the end of the month and get charged for a full month because of their stupid "prorated system", that's shady. Defending that is just ridiculous. Standards were set before FFXI, and FFXI is below those standards, at least in regards to billing.