I Finally Found Out Why I Was Banned. Pathetic.

[ARDNER]

ESO is the biggest joke ever. They finally contacted me through Bethesda support on Twitter, send me a email, and says they have banned me due to multiple chargebacks of a third party retailer (steam). Basically I refunded ESO+ membership because it was recurring payments, but it’s advertised as one month and that’s all I paid for. This happened two separate times. I literally contacted steam the day of the charge both times, got both refunded, and didn’t get membership for free or anything because it was clear I got it refunded so the membership was taken off my account, so at this point I was giving nothing free and I have paid for everything I have ever gotten from ESO including 100s of dollars in DLCs and probably up to 1000s on ESO+ since my Xbox days. With that being said, they are trying to say I need to pay them the amount I had refunded or they will not unban my account even though I do not owe them money. So guess what, I tried out New World. Honestly, I am loving the game so much, even if ESO or Bethesda Hits me up and says look we realized we messed up you’re a good paying customer here’s your account, I don’t think I’d ever pay for membership again. I’d probably just play for PvP every now and then but besides that, I’m having a blast on New World until a even newer MMO pops up.

[ARDNER]

messanoir původně napsal:

I assume that the actions of purchase and refund were done in 2023, given the OP's original post, and wasn't really difficult to clarify at least one point of the conversation. If you check the Way Back machine for Steams ESO page, even back in 2020 not only did it mention it being a subscription, but right above the button for it, is a link asking if you want to more about the subscription, taking you to the Steam page with all the details of whats included, and it clearly states it's a recurring charge.

As for why the ban, or if it was justified, I can't say, other than it is ZOS's call to make, whether we agree with it or not.

All I can say, as a business owner myself, a purchase from me for anything, and then a charge-back in a short time frame..i would take as buyers remorse, or a mistake, and let it slide. When it happens again..that's no longer a mistake. At that point, at least for me, unless there is something to convince me otherwise, I would prevent that person from purchasing from me again. Charge-backs cost me money in various fees, and can reflect badly on me not just in ratings, but with my payment gateway providers as well as my bank. Any, just my thoughts and opinions.

Edit: Links to the ESO and ESO PLus pages from 2020:

ESO: https://web.archive.org/web/20200914162347/https://store.steampowered.com/app/306130/The_Elder_Scrolls_Online/

ESO Plus: https://web.archive.org/web/20200924153124/https://store.steampowered.com/app/535880/The_Elder_Scrolls_Online_Plus_Membership/

Then don’t be a sketchy company that puts recurring payments on by default in hopes to get you to forget about it and get a couple extra payments out of you. If you want to speak of it from the company’s stand point, try to also think of it from the consumers stand point, aka us. If it was an option I would agree with you but for it not to be an option that tells you where they stand. Like I said it’s there business and you’re right they have every right to handle it how they want, however me and my gaming group have all transitioned to New World, a game I don’t even have to pay subscription to and actually really fell in love with the past couple of weeks, and they lost 5 great paying customers that won’t be back unless my account is situated. Even if it’s situated I’m on New World for the time being.

[Elendir Blue]

Halcyform původně napsal:

Zenimax was the parent company of Betathesda. They were under the same corporate umbrella and still are under Microsoft.

The social media posts (via twitter) that were made in response to what happened with Fallout 76 warned players that charge backs, for any games throughout their entire catalogue (Zenimax and Betathesda), would result in lifetime bans.

Do your research before you start spouting off.

I don't need to do research for things I already know. They are different legal entities with same owner. So your posts are out of place.

ARDNER původně napsal:

But its not because Bethesda Support is the one who responded to me and moved my case forward. I hate how you random kids that play ESO just think you know how their business runs. They clearly work together. Your comment is irrelevant.

I doubt that it was Bethesda Support. It was probably: The Elder Scrolls Online Support.
which is managed by ZOS( or Zenimax). You just made wrong conclusion that it is from Bethesda.

[Berserkr]

Honestly though how did you think this thread was gonna end up?

[Nine_Tigers]

The Steam Forums lately are like going to a bar where the worst, most argumentative, toxic people hang out (ok and maybe with 1 or 2 nice people) and you just keep going because.. well I guess everyone has their own reason.

[Berserkr]

Nine_Tigers původně napsal:

The Steam Forums lately are like going to a bar where the worst, most argumentative, toxic people hang out (ok and maybe with 1 or 2 nice people) and you just keep going because.. well I guess everyone has their own reason.

At least at my local bar I can punch someone in the throat for being a douchebag and I still don't get kicked out lol

[clover <3]

ARDNER původně napsal:

DSOD player :blushing: původně napsal:

it literally says that you will be billed on a recurring basis if you click on the more info thingy when going to buy eso+. it is no ones fault except your own for ignoring the obnoxiously obvious more info button

heres where it links btw: https://store.steampowered.com/app/535880/The_Elder_Scrolls_Online_Plus_Membership/

The fact that you have to click more Information and read deep into it to see it’s recurring is slummy. On Xbox it tells you it’s a recurring payment when you make the purchase, makes you acknowledge it before making the purchase. Obviously I’m not in the wrong or steam wouldn’t have refunded me. Kevin is actively working to get my account back so I could care less what some random loser kissing ESO ass could think.

ok i honestly dont know if you are being serious or not at this point, but 1st of all its a subscription service and you SHOULD expect there to be recurring bills by default, and if you think otherwise you have unrealistic expectations. 2nd of all you should try putting even a little bit of research into the things you buy before you buy them, and you would have found it its recurring not that you need it anyway as the more info button stands out so much. its not their fault at this point because you couldnt bother putting in the bare minimum effort to find out basic information

[Sith Lord Seyz]

ARDNER původně napsal:

Sith Lord Seyz původně napsal:

it says pretty obviously, that it is a subscription. you can manage and cancel it in your steam account. there is an entire section for subscriptions.

if you wrote the steam support to refund stuff, that already was payed the game usually bans you.
thats nothing exclusive to ESO, thats the standard, because otherwise bots could just buy stuff, refund it and sell the ingame currency via third party websites. (they try and do that in games anyways.)
steam usually grants the refund, but you can say your game goodbye :D

so tldr: skill issue

You sound like a idiot. Ive spoken to multiple IRL employees including ZOS Kevin. If you cant use common sense and unban the account and just explain to them the problem then idk what. I could care less. Im actually having more fun playing New World then i was restarting ESO on PC. not my fault there support system is AI and its impossible to get real help.

you cant just accept your fail.
same would happen in new world to you.

and about the "idiot" part.
even if its completly obvious, that it is a subscription, you failed to comprehend it.
Furthermore you did not cancel your subscripton, no you charged back stuff, which resulted in a ban. common sense says, you will get banned. you got banned.
and now you call other people idiots?
are you the kind of guy, that would eat a battery, if there wouldnt be a label, that says "dont eat it", too ??

idk i will let you guess, who the idiot is here.

edit: checked profile. murican. explains everything.

[Tresh]

Sith Lord Seyz původně napsal:

ARDNER původně napsal:

You sound like a idiot. Ive spoken to multiple IRL employees including ZOS Kevin. If you cant use common sense and unban the account and just explain to them the problem then idk what. I could care less. Im actually having more fun playing New World then i was restarting ESO on PC. not my fault there support system is AI and its impossible to get real help.

you cant just accept your fail.
same would happen in new world to you.

and about the "idiot" part.
even if its completly obvious, that it is a subscription, you failed to comprehend it.
Furthermore you did not cancel your subscripton, no you charged back stuff, which resulted in a ban. common sense says, you will get banned. you got banned.
and now you call other people idiots?
are you the kind of guy, that would eat a battery, if there wouldnt be a label, that says "dont eat it", too ??

idk i will let you guess, who the idiot is here.

edit: checked profile. murican. explains everything.

The thing that baffles me most is that they didn't cancel the subscription with the first chargeback. The whole reason why they seem to have gotten banned is the two chargebacks and if I realized "Oh damn, I accidentally subscribed to this when I didn't mean to", I might try to charge back, yes, but in the same breath also immediately cancel my subscription as not to get recharged.

[SunfireKnight86]

Recurring payments are not "slummy" and forcing your bank to refund a payment that was non-refundable is a perfectly legit reason to ban you. A lot of services do that. Read the TOS next time.

[Nine_Tigers]

ARDNER původně napsal:

ESO Basically I refunded ESO+ membership because it was recurring payments, but it’s advertised as one month and that’s all I paid for. ... probably up to 1000s on ESO+ since my Xbox days.

Uh no it's not advertised that way, it's advertised as recurring payments. And anyway you know that's the way it works from your XBOX days as you said you've probably paid 1000s for it. So now you thought you had a LOOPHOLE or something to EXPLOIT, and it didn't work out too well did it?
Well it's to be expected. That's life, learn something.

[SunfireKnight86]

Nine_Tigers původně napsal:

ARDNER původně napsal:

ESO Basically I refunded ESO+ membership because it was recurring payments, but it’s advertised as one month and that’s all I paid for. ... probably up to 1000s on ESO+ since my Xbox days.

Uh no it's not advertised that way, it's advertised as recurring payments. And anyway you know that's the way it works from your XBOX days as you said you've probably paid 1000s for it. So now you thought you had a LOOPHOLE or something to EXPLOIT, and it didn't work out too well did it?
Well it's to be expected. That's life, learn something.

This exactly. That they did it twice tells me they thought they found a loophole and nobody would notice.

[ringod123]

Zenimax Media are the parent company, who own both Bethesda and ZOS, with Bethesda being the much bigger and experienced company with hundreds of employees and ZOS having about 50, most of which don't work on ESO any more and havnt for 4 years at this point.
Too many people attribute to ZOS what is/was actually done by Bethesda and or Zenimax Media. ZOS have 1 game to their name, ESO and have been going backwards with running it for the last 4 years.

And yes, only having an option for recurring payments even when you know you only want a single month anyway, is corporate greed, as they know it will make them more money as lots of people will forget they are subscribed for weeks/months/years at a time, literally the only reason they don't provide "one-off" methods for ESO+.

[Privatelvl25]

ringod123 původně napsal:

Zenimax Media are the parent company, who own both Bethesda and ZOS, with Bethesda being the much bigger and experienced company with hundreds of employees and ZOS having about 50, most of which don't work on ESO any more and havnt for 4 years at this point.
Too many people attribute to ZOS what is/was actually done by Bethesda and or Zenimax Media. ZOS have 1 game to their name, ESO and have been going backwards with running it for the last 4 years.

And yes, only having an option for recurring payments even when you know you only want a single month anyway, is corporate greed, as they know it will make them more money as lots of people will forget they are subscribed for weeks/months/years at a time, literally the only reason they don't provide "one-off" methods for ESO+.

It's absolutely amazing the ignorance spewed by some on here. It's shocking it's the same people who post this crap over and over and never learn information is easily available so they should stop posting ignorant crap.

50 employees? Give it a rest.

Zenimax studio current has 24 openings

https://www.zenimaxonline.com/careers

With over 200 working on the new IP

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/zenimax-online-studios-new-xbox-ip-is-being-created-by-almost-200-developers

Really good effort there bud.

Going backwards?

Nov 2019 - 11913
Not 2023 - 12152

That is the opposite of backwards.

Amazing how much wrong you can put in one post.

[SunfireKnight86]

ringod123 původně napsal:

Zenimax Media are the parent company, who own both Bethesda and ZOS, with Bethesda being the much bigger and experienced company with hundreds of employees and ZOS having about 50, most of which don't work on ESO any more and havnt for 4 years at this point.
Too many people attribute to ZOS what is/was actually done by Bethesda and or Zenimax Media. ZOS have 1 game to their name, ESO and have been going backwards with running it for the last 4 years.

And yes, only having an option for recurring payments even when you know you only want a single month anyway, is corporate greed, as they know it will make them more money as lots of people will forget they are subscribed for weeks/months/years at a time, literally the only reason they don't provide "one-off" methods for ESO+.

Corporate greed or the industry standard for 29 years?

[Zethell]

The problem is you >refunded< payment for a membership that was activated. Rather than cancelling the subscription as you should have done.

So you DO owe them money, especially if you have refunded several months worth.
It may not have been your intention to try and scam them, but it appears this is what you've been doing.

Ban seems warranted, and if they're offering to reinstate your account after paying what you owe, I'd say that is very fair and nice of them, they do not have to offer you such kindness.

The purchase button for the membership on the store page also states that it's a monthy fee, right there before even clicking on it. ("Starting at 12,99€ / month")