Dosnt "the severes wont be up today" make it seem like there was a chance they would be up? Like they didnt know it would not be up? To tell people no not today every day seems strange. I would think they knew yesterday or the day befor it would not be up. So why tell us every day that it isnt up?

I am curious about the people who have been billed since they shut down the servers. I don't pretend to know the inner workings of banks, but here is my experience.

My bank authorized payment to SOE for one of my four accounts in the days preceding the server shutdown. Typically with SOE, it takes them at least 4-6 days for the payment to actually clear, which is slower than most other payments through my bank. That account still has not been paid out by my bank even though authorized. My best guess is that the billing server was shut down between authorization and the actual transaction.

On Sunday afternoon before the servers coming down, I purchased HOT for the last of my accounts. That authorization was approved by my bank, but, like the subscription fee, has not been payed out.

The three other accounts were due last week during the shutdown, but none have been authorized or payed out.

From what I am seeing, the billing system seems to be shut down and I am not expecting to be billed until it comes back up. The money is in the account to cover them in case I am wrong, but seems odd that so many are being billed and I am not.

Aye from what ive been reading it will be next month EQ will be back .
pretty much canceled my cc few days after they went off line , and gave us Hints too.
i figured if loggin info was there , good chance cc info was too.
Hopefully SOE / EQ dev team will get chance to work on the bugs the new security system Sonys putting in place .
been playing that online old paper game , and its just not the same as EQ heh



Edited, May 11th 2011 4:06pm by corwin155

so its ok that sony didnt protect the customer's cc information ?

so your saying it was all the hackers fault
It was sony who didnt protect your cc information
im saying both are at fault
hackers for stealing the information that sony should have protected
two wrongs dont make sony in the right
and like i said before eula's are to protect the company not you

Edited, May 11th 2011 3:07pm by corwin155

You hear alot of people saying they been charged and still no eq..Maybe if all these eq players should call up there banks and request to have a block on SOE so you wont get billed.Maybe SOE will work faster so they can get their money.

Over the last 10 days or so I have followed the news reports and some of the forums regarding Sony, hackers, and the networks being down. Some of you have had insightful, intelligent responses and commentary about our shared situation. Some of you are venting your frustrations in a way you find appropriate (by the way - thank you for not beating your spouse, shaking the baby, or kicking the family pet over this matter). And some of you, well, might I suggest some professional help ...
http://www.video-game-addiction.org/
http://www.angermgmt.com/

The biggest concern that I see posted is about the lack of communication from the Sony Corporation or its employees. Sony (as a corporation) needs to choose it words very carefully when it comes to the release of information regarding this matter, not only to help prevent confusion but also to prevent the further weakening of its reputation within the community. As for communications from the employees - most major organizations have two agreements that potential employees MUST agree to sign as a condition of their employment. One is an agreement that restricts the communication (in ANY form) with media sources for any reason without the permission of the corporation. These sources include television, radio, internet, and social networks (just to name a few). The other agreement is one of non-disclosure. That means the release of information regarding policies, procedures, products, and etc is restricted without the permission of the corporation. In almost all cases, failure to comply with either of the agreements will result in (and is not limited to) termination of employment. So, what it comes down to is that no one is going to risk their job or family well-being so that you can find out if or when you can play a game today.

That brings up the question about Sony not caring about the SOE players. Ok, the PSN people did spent hundreds of dollars on the system plus additional money on the game itself, but after a while most of these players move on to something else. The online players are a bit more dedicated to the games that they play. We form long term commitments, upgrade both hardware and software as needed, and provide a consistent overall cash flow greater than the 25-30% population would reflect. Either way it looks good on a stock report. So, in its simplest terms, Sony does care in as much as we pay their salaries and would like to keep us happy enough to remain their customers.

Now we come to compensation to help keep us happy. You'll take what they offer - there are no negotiations here. You may think that YOU deserve more for YOUR inconvenience, but you don't. There have been statements about compensating players accounts 1 month plus 1 day for every day that the network is down. That seems more than fair and benefits everyone affected. I personally do not agree with the idea of giving players a level 90 character as compensation - that character did not do what it takes to earn the level and is an insult to the players who developed their characters. Experience potions and multiple experience days are a waste to a players character who has already earned their levels. Any compensation, if any, would have to be fair to everyone.

When will the networks be back online? They will be down for as long necessary and will not be back up one moment sooner. Sony is working within its means to correct its failings. When dealing with security issues it's not like you can just run down the store a pick up a copy of Norton's and install it. Recognition of potential weak points and holes must be done. Then either the existing software will need to be rewritten or new software will need to be developed to eliminate the potential access points. Investigation and innovation takes time. Some people out there posted their solutions to the problem claiming it was an easy fix, I say to them ... STEP UP -
http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?IPath=JRKV0B&ff=21&APath=2.21.21.0.0&job_did=J3F4GV6PLHHGXQC9WWF
or SHUT UP.

As for the information that may or may not have been obtained by hackers, it is your responsibility to monitor your own situation and to take action as necessary. As a responsible adult you should have been monitoring your bank accounts, credit/debit cards, and credit reports for abnormalities already. Then, if you can PROVE that YOUR specific information has been accessed or tampered with you should be taking measures to prevent further damage. This would include (but is not limited to) contacting your banking establishment, the credit bureaus, Sony, and an attorney to see what options are available to you to help resolve the issue.

Thank you for allowing me some of your time.

so thats the loss of income for 2 months?, now multiply that same number by 10 and that would give you what they make over 1 yr even with 2 months worth of not charging?

Anyone know why it even costs what it costs for their services?

to offset the cost of gas?...........
to compensate for a different set of inflation?........
to pay for more staff?..........
cause their expansions are expensive to deliver (what was that one offer they had like 60 70 80 90) for a collecters DIGITAL edition?.....

For those that are out there throwing the word greed around if and when some poor kids asks for a god damn xp potion..... yeah right, your on it man.

One guy even went on to say that our 50 cent a day loss is petty.... dumbass needs to borrow a calculator and multiply 50 cents by however many of us are paying said 50 cents, here is a hint its a F@$K ton.

Really I think what would satisfy most people here is a better set of updates.

I wake up, do some crap in the morning, check ZAM and cross my fingers while doing so. I am then shattered into many small pieces and must find other things to do to fill the time. Like someone else already said, one can only do so much gardening and yard work. Truth is the garden out back will feed 100's this year thanks to EQ being down. But it probably would have been that way anyway :p.

The point is, I would like to skip that morning ritual and not check back for however long it takes to get the game back up. I just want a date, one that I can definitely plan around. Anyone who plays EQ knows that the game requires a fair amount of time management in the real world to play, and this is just killing everyone who does that.

Say the game won't be up until a certain date, that way we can go on with our lives in the meantime and not have EQ tentatively scheduled only to be pushed farther away.

I am fine with the compensation as of now, I just want to plan my time accordingly and this is not doing it for me.

/ooc WTB update on situation... PST =)

likestonuke is kinda right , i am on the 3 month plan to pay, how are they giveing me any free time the plus 1 day is a joke. infact what would they do if i was to say, i would not pay for may since i have not played? thats is a nightmare . they will never refund me , but i am sure they would love to credit my account. if i play/pay for 365 days where is the free? are they going to check my account, and thin see they own me so that months bill is less than normal? if so thats every account they have since the downed servers . there stock has droped 43.some pct. how much stuff like this can they aford . ppl say they are makeing money hand over fist . not if all there stuff is down. {Oh yeah there still charging ppl for stuffs whin the ppl are getting Notta thing}. how else do they pay the ppl to keep billing us .to me its ether the bigest joke or a scam and atm i am "laughing" hard .

Guys and girls from SOE, REALLY!? Guys, you should have already had the games fixed by now! You've caught the crook (I hear on the radio from my dad), and said you only had to fix the games. Whats up with your guys' brains? Every day you say," Oh.. Ooops... Duhr its not up... Duhr... Wait patiently... Duhr..." Seriously? No really, every day its down. If the games aren't back up this weekend, I'm going to convince MANY people to quit your games and move on. This is rediculous.

I think because they built all of their games to depend on an old pay/database system they need to fix that and then also recode parts of every one of their games. Remember that the game doesnt just check account database at login. It also checks whenever you do something that requires you bought the expansion. IOW its going to be a nightmare to fix properly, and when the servers do finally come up expect them to go back down again when a flaw/exploit is revealed.

I remember there was a time when the game forgot that some people had bought one or more expansions and many people were rolled back to level 50. It took a month of petitioning to get my character fixed. This is like that except worse.

downloading LOTRO as i write this (only 9hrs to go)
1. sony cant make an eula saying they are not responsible for your lost cc data, they would like you to agree to it but its not legal and they know it.
2. i canceled my card but rest assured sony will not let you get the 30 days plus 1 day for each day down w/o cc information.
3. sony will not be up till 10 days after the last person cancels said cc's
or if they dont it will be june before they are up
4. sony doesn't care about soe as much as they do for psn being 77 million rather then 25 million for soe, so good chance psn will be up way before soe
5. no i dont know if june is date they will be up , but i do know how sony treats soe people
6 thnx sony for taking my money so that hackers could steal my cc info
7 let the flamers begin

So what games are you playing to pass the time?

NHL 10, be a pro mode here. Might start up American Mcgee's Alice, too.