Billing system a complete joke

Well at last i can log in and post again, but only after having to use EA Origins website to buy a time code, using the same MasterCard i have been attempting to use here for my subscription. This started yesterday, my free game time expired and i noticed my CC had not been charged, so i checked my account here, noticed that a failed payment had been attempted, so i thought OK, I will remove the card and add it again, I was able to add it just fine and within secs of doing so, i checked my CC account for pending transactions and I could see this:
Card purchase
SWTOR.com Star Wars Hoensbroek,NLD
Original Amount: GBP -1.00
So my card was linked for and all validated, so next step it to use that card for by sub, but oh dear : An Error has occurred while trying to process your request, please try again later.
So I thought i would give my paypal account a try, well 2 paypal accounts each linked to 2 separate cards, but nope, still the same error over and over. I did read some posts here advising that you phone bioware support and wait up to 1 hour to be then transferred to billing and wait another hour or so, Sorry but that is just madness so i declined to go down that route.
So to anyone that cannot post and is seeking help on getting your sub back up and running, it seems the only way is to either wait god knows how long to speak to someone on the phone, or use Orgins website and pay extra for a time code, and that btw took 1 day to get to me. So far Bioware really are not impressing me, and i am sure that goes for most of you also How did you implement such a bad billing system?

They didnt implement a bad system. It's EA forcing it on Bioware.

things could be worse, Warhammer online decided to take some involuntary "donations" from its subscribers up to and including $2000 once

Well EA's Origin billing system seems to be fine, as that is how i was able to get my time code. But anyway this was just a post to help those that cannot ask on the forums! as i was looking around for a while.

Yeah it's really bad they don't bill on the correct dates and keep moving your billing date then once they bill you as other people have found they back date it to the original date it's just bad business and bioware/ea might have the millions but they lack the quality of service and support. Then they have the nerve to get people to call them and for people outside of the US,UK,GERMANY get stung with massive toll bills for being on hold for hours on end.

Who would you trust a Bangkok tout or customer service for swtor ?


I put my money on the tout.

And that is what i think will kill swtor in the end, not the game play, but people getting really angry from the lack of quality support, i mean SOE being as bad as they are, have fantastic customer support, even Gamersfirst a F2P company do.

This is my 2nd issue so far that prevented me from playing, my first issue was getting stuck for 2 days in a trooper phase, 2 days waiting for a reply from a ticket:

and then your reply is an auto responce bot and the problem isn't solved + they close the ticket and you are left standing with no hope.

having same problem here.
played for 1 month, now my card can't be charged xD

buying game time card is not an option for me (costs more, and will need to go through proxy again), my emails was answered just by the same auto-response bot, so i had to call them.

as I live in Ukraine, calling directly was not an option as well (would cost me more then i earn in a month) so had to find other way.

it was Skype what saved me. I even didn't have to change anything in options, just added their USA phone number to the list, and called it.
never had money on my Skype, so it cost me nothing.

after going through 3 departments finally got to person who could do something. got 1 free "compensation" day, so at least i can write this now. we deleted / reentered my card details , it was charged with 1$ verification fee. have chosen monthly subscription.. I'm supposed to get charged tomorrow. Maybe I'll have exactly same problem again tho :P

P.S. "[18:11:45] *** Call to swtor usa, duration 47:50. ***"

Hour or so on the phone to resolve this issue, really not impressed. Don't mind this one time because I really like the game but can't imagine doing it again would rather just quit the game and play something else really.

EDIT: I played free to play games which would resolve these kind of issues over the email withing 1 working day. That being said, this is kind of a joke indeed.

AHAHAHAHAHA!

That's like saying your Hand didn't want to be burned, your Mind forced it into the fire.