Sony holding my PSN account ransom because of their server error.

CiscoLaRisco

I was wondering if anyone had any advice or could help, I've also posted on the PS4 subreddit.

So about 2 weeks ago (31st, October 2016) I purchased silver which is an add-on currency for Destiny, because I really wanted that Halloween event sparrow.

I checked my Pay-Pal transactions the next day, and I had been charged 3 times for the single purchased. I opened a dispute for 2 of the 3 transactions and called up PlayStation customer services to tell them of their error. The rep found that indeed it was an issue on their side and offered either to place the funds in my wallet or back in to my account, but the latter option would take longer. As I did not know when I'd need to spend £79.98 on PSN I opted for the refund back to my card \ PayPal.

Everything was fine until Friday morning (11th November 2016) when I tried to sign in to PSN, I had a message saying my account was banned. I checked my emails and found that Sony\PlayStation hadn't responded to the dispute in PayPal, so PayPal ruled in my favour and refunded the money.

I called PlayStation support and they said I was overdrawn by £79.98 on my account and essentially they would hold my account to ransom until I had paid the amount. I couldn't pay with my credit card, I had to go and purchase PSN vouchers from a third party and then give them codes. Considering I have a bought a lot of online content (some that I haven't even had a chance to play because I just bought it in the Sale) and have invested heavily in to Destiny, I begrudgingly bought 2 x £40 vouchers, called PS support again and handed them the codes, bringing my account 2p in to credit.

3 days later, the message that my account is banned no longer appears, but I can't sign in, saying that my password or login is incorrect. Annoyingly my phone notifies me of new PSN messages but when I open them it asks me to sign in. When I try to reset my password it says contact PS customer services which I did, they have told me someone in "billing" needs to unblock my account, when I asked how long it would take I was told "It probably won't take a year" and that "the silver lining is that no one can access my account".

I asked for escalation or speak to a supervisor and was told "There's no point in continuing the conversation and I'm going to hang up on you." This was rather rather unhelpful and condescending to say the least.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what I can do next, I've never been in a situation where I can't reason with someone or follow an escalation path. I'm also really uneasy that they can brick my PlayStation remotely and not have any responsibility to reinstate it. I'm also guessing that nothing will be done on the lost days on my PS Plus membership.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Edit 1] No longer getting WS-37368-7 error code and I can log back in to my account now - although no apology or communication from Sony to tell me this. Still have an £80 (~$100) hole in my finances this month. I'm guessing they won't do anything about my PSN Plus time that was lost either.

DoaM

CiscoLaRisco wrote: »

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sony have their "customers" over a barrel. Your only choices are to make noises and end up being banned permanently, or suck it up and wait it out.

You're not the first to have this problem, and you won't be the last.

PS - once Sony resolved the problem, why didn't you withdraw the Paypal claim? In some respects you're equally culpable for the situation you're in.

CiscoLaRisco

DoaM wrote: »

Sony have their "customers" over a barrel. Your only choices are to make noises and end up being banned permanently, or suck it up and wait it out.

You're not the first to have this problem, and you won't be the last.

PS - once Sony resolved the problem, why didn't you withdraw the Paypal claim? In some respects you're equally culpable for the situation you're in.

It does seem they are holding all the cards, looks like they've been getting away with it for some time now.

Sony didn't resolve the issue, they accepted it was their fault but didn't respond to the PayPal dispute or returned the money owed.

Bogalot

CiscoLaRisco wrote: »

It does seem they are holding all the cards, looks like they've been getting away with it for some time now.

Sony didn't resolve the issue, they accepted it was their fault but didn't respond to the PayPal dispute or returned the money owed.

Did they not pay within the time frame they told you, and you then opened a PP dispute, or did you open the dispute before this time? If the latter, I expect Sony think you're trying to get the money back twice, from them and from PP. It's clear to us that was not your intention, but Sony don't tend to give any benefit of the doubt.

Have a look on their forums for how long it might take to resolve. There will be lots of people that have had similar experiences.

DoaM

Did Sony resolve the problem with you before the time limit for them to respond to Paypal? If yes, why didn't you go into your Paypal account and withdraw the claim? (That's the point I was trying to make).

CiscoLaRisco

Hi DoaM,

The answer is no, Sony did not resolve the issue otherwise I would have withdrawn the dispute.

CiscoLaRisco

Thanks for the response, I will definitely have a look at older threads. I thought 2 weeks would have been enough time for Sony to respond to the dispute or refund the money.
As a PayPal merchant I would have thought they would be bound to the PayPal dispute process but I guess they're big enough to do anything they want really.

DoaM

CiscoLaRisco wrote: »

Hi DoaM,

The answer is no, Sony did not resolve the issue otherwise I would have withdrawn the dispute.

But you said ...

CiscoLaRisco wrote: »

I checked my Pay-Pal transactions the next day, and I had been charged 3 times for the single purchased. I opened a dispute for 2 of the 3 transactions and called up PlayStation customer services to tell them of their error. The rep found that indeed it was an issue on their side and offered either to place the funds in my wallet or back in to my account, but the latter option would take longer. As I did not know when I'd need to spend £79.98 on PSN I opted for the refund back to my card \ PayPal.

So either they refunded you or they didn't. (I'm confused).

CiscoLaRisco

DoaM wrote: »

But you said ...



So either they refunded you or they didn't. (I'm confused).

Sorry maybe that sentence could be clearer, I opted for the refund, but they haven't actually returned any money to my account, when I queried this, they said it was pending investigation and that they could not tell me when they would reach a decision. When I pushed for a time they said "It probably will take less than a year"

forgotmyname

They took 3 x the actual amount, you contacted their customer service to get a refund but also opened a paypal case. You only needed to do one or the other.

They refunded your overpayment and you left the paypal claim open and didnt close it.

Then the claim timed out and you won and got your money back. Or did you get more than you had actually paid?

Either way you had use or the service but had claimed at least all your money back.

Caz3121

forgotmyname wrote: »

They refunded your overpayment and you left the paypal claim open and didnt close it.

they have not refunded the overpayment, they have said they will