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The sad state of darkfall's billing/account system
You may not believe me, but I got this information from a friend (I trust) who knows someone at aventurine. This is how they process accounts, why it takes them so long.
1. You sign up and enter your details + (pre)order. There is no check here to validate your credit card details. Anything you enter is accepted.
2. Your details are stored plaintext in a database.
3. Some schmuck(s) at Aventurine have a list of accounts that are not activated. They take your information, and then type/paste it into an external site belonging to the company that processes payments for them.
4. If your card is declined they flag your account unpaid. If your card works they flag it paid.
5. They fire off a form mail telling you that your payment was recieved.
6. They take down the servers at some random time to add new accounts to the server's database manually.
7. Profit!
This is why it took them almost all day to "process" the accounts, and it's why accounts are not active when you get the email.
Comments
lol, dont think i would be suprised if it is true
This is true.
Isn't this illegal?
Why would it be illegal? Ridiculously amateur and incompetent, but not illegal.
~Ripper
Oh, well, that might explain it partially. I had to pretend I was from France because their broken account info page wouldn't accept "United Kingdom" as a valid location when selected from the drop-down list.
That's still laughably poor, though. Doesn't explain why there are billed customers with inactive accounts, either.
19/02/2009 @11pm - "Your Darkfall preorder was successful!"
26/02/2009 @11pm - "During the preorder of Darkfall, your credit card transacton failed."
Ahh, classic Tasos!
Why would it be illegal? Ridiculously amateur and incompetent, but not illegal.
~Ripper
Huh, wonder how long it will be before someone finds this "text database" and borrows some CC info. Terrible if true. . .
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=
|X| \*........*/ |X|
|X|_________|X|
You wouldn't understand
For a few hundred dollars, you could purchase software that does this more efficiently. Why they are storing billing info server-side is beyond me....assuming this is true. Amazingly poor planning it sounds like.
yes is a crime
but that's why u can cancel ur payment within some days from any creditcard billing u have
also aventurine is partner with video & sound company somehow , also the site was secure by Trustwave
i am not saying that will not happen a scam or anything just pointing the facts
ALSO NOT FORGET
FIX MY FUCKING ACCOUNT ..........
gawd. I kind of believe this, its gona be a while till I get to play this bitch of a game.
glad i'm going to buy with debit card, don't give random greeks your credit card info unless you got a good fraud policy. at £45 they are already stealing from me and they couldn't steal much more because theres really not alot in my account.
My blog:
I do hope this is not true. That would be the most retarded thing I have heard a company ever do. :S
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC)
On my radar: TSW, MO
MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside
MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
now i am really glad i didnt preorder....i almost gave in lol
Actually, Credit Cards (at least in the US) have much better fraud detection/prevention policies and are easier for processing refunds and charge backs. Debit cards, while convenient, open you up to a lot more liability.
~Ripper
Considering that this is 100% false (I know because I mistyped my CC), I'm calling bullshit on the whole post.
Aventurine is a small, bush league company....They probably have one person trying to handle all this........
Considering that this is 100% false (I know because I mistyped my CC), I'm calling bullshit on the whole post.
Actually you are so very wrong. Why? Because Aventurine puts the blame solely on the shoulders of the consumer. Yeah, that's right. All of this is the fault of the user according to AV. Don't believe me, check out this latest post:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/4/view/news/read/13097/Launch-Update-Updated.html
Pay close attention to this paragraph:
We have processed the problematic accounts that were never charged but received a successful pre-order notification. Only a small percentage of these were successful and we found out that this is because most of them contain incomplete or incorrect account information. We will try this one last time again tomorrow morning European time, and we’ll open up account management later tonight for these accounts to be able to correct their account data and credit information before we reprocess them.
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So obviously, for some reason, wrong data got entered and was processed. Sure, maybe in your case it worked okay, but a lot of others got screwed. And the best part is that AV is blaming their subscribers. Gee, how hard is it to have a billing system that verifies billing data at signup? Every other company in the world does it. Just another stellar example of wonderful business practices from this outstanding company.
/palmface
Aventurine and Tasos.....
Summary: Whether or not this is true, the system is fucked somewhere.
- If info is verified on submission, the devs are lying brutally about the entry of incorrect information, and there's some even more horrible reason that many pre-orders haven't even been charged. Never mind the fact that their statement doesn't address those that have already been billed but still have inactive accounts.
- If info ISN'T verified on submission, then this is the shoddiest billing system in history. Might as well get out an old swipe machine and come to all our homes.
19/02/2009 @11pm - "Your Darkfall preorder was successful!"
26/02/2009 @11pm - "During the preorder of Darkfall, your credit card transacton failed."
Ahh, classic Tasos!
LOL if this is really true then these guys have to be the most incompetent ass clowns to have EVER tried building a video game.
Who the fuck processes credit cards by hand in this day and age?
Even Dark and Light used a third party processing company to autimatically check and bill their orders.
No, only every company which deals in local currencies. Aventurine can't check it by trying to charge a penny and then cancelling the transaction, because they are dealing internationally but exclusively in Euros and this would cause bank fees for many. There is no other way to verify a CC is active. Credit card numbers are formulaic and can be verified mathematically, but expiration dates, CVV codes, and billing addresses can be entered incorrectly and there's nothing they can do about it until they try to run a real charge.
They should have set up a paypal account, at least that would make people feel a little more secure.
_______
|___
\_______/
=
|X| \*........*/ |X|
|X|_________|X|
You wouldn't understand
Round 1 : Account information not processed, people billed for preorder amount, no access to game.
Round 2: CC database hacks and massive overbilling.... stay tuned.
No, only every company which deals in local currencies. Aventurine can't check it by trying to charge a penny and then cancelling the transaction, because they are dealing internationally but exclusively in Euros and this would cause bank fees for many. There is no other way to verify a CC is active. Credit card numbers are formulaic and can be verified mathematically, but expiration dates, CVV codes, and billing addresses can be entered incorrectly and there's nothing they can do about it until they try to run a real charge.
You don't know what the hell you're talking about. I've been taking orders online for YEARS through a third party CC company and I can take any persons order from any country and it gets checked instantly and declined or approved.
These people are just idiots of epic proportions.
http://www.authorize.net/
This is exactly why I've been saying for weeks not to trust these people with your money. Not only are they incompetent, they are negligent also.
Whether or not the OP's post is true, the other "fuck-ups" of this launch, if you can call it that, prove my point.
Yes, when you take an order you can instantly verify it because you are running a charge. Aventurine is storing billing information first, and running the charge later.
Sorry but this can be true. I also mistyped my credit card number and got exactly nothing unusual on my screen. The same as later when I corrected the number. So in this particular point this can be true. although, I don't think that the card data is in plain text database, or that it is sent in plain text through network. They must use some type of encryption to do this.