Numerous PSN Games + DLC Mistakenly Listed as Free for PS Plus Members, Issue is Being Examined

At around the time the PlayStation Store updated earlier today, many people reported seeing various games pop up for free on PlayStation Plus, but when they went to purchase the supposedly free titles, they were charged for them.
-PSLS

[TrendyGamers]

That's not good, hopefully they get the fix out soon.

[doctorstrange]

They should give anyone that 'bought' a bunch of games an actual freebie to make up for it

[TrendyGamers]

What I think they might (or might have to) do is just refund everyone the money and they keep the games.

[doctorstrange]

The publishers/devs might not be happy with that, so Sony'd have to pay them tho. So I guess it depends on the number of affected.

[TrendyGamers]

It seems like a pretty big number so far.

[ChronoJoe]

Does seem kinda silly though, I mean they'd have had to confirmed the value they were paying through the checkout, regardless. They'd have probably even had to add cash to their PSN wallet to do it, in most cases. So you have to be somewhat stupid to let this happen to yourself, I'd imagine.

[Ilovetheps5]

ChronoJoe, I was one of the few people fooled by this. A couple of the games said Free with the little plus sign next to it. This would lead you to believe that it is free for PS+. Well, when you clicked the button that said "+Free", it wouldn't ask for a confirmation. It just automatically took the money from your wallet and started the download. But, it still charged people without the whole checkout confirmation screen. Luckily, I don't have my card connected to my account, so I didn't have the sufficient funds to buy the game. It gave me an error saying that I didn't have enough money to complete the transaction. I got frustrated because I had no clue what it meant that I didn't have enough funds. But, luckily it all worked out for me.

[Old McGroin]

Same kind of thing happened to me a few months back when I got Batman AC, but that was an actual free game for PS+ subscribers. What happened was I saw it listed as free, selected it to download and when I went to the checkout the screen froze up. I could see that 29.99 Euros was on the screen and so obviously knew something was wrong but the next thing I know I get an error message and I was kicked from the Store. I noticed my Download Management had Batman downloading so I left it off. I checked my e-mail account not long after and I had been sent a mail from Sony thanking me for my 29.99 Euros purchase of Batman! I knew I had no funds in my PS Wallet so checked the Auto Fund option in my account and it was set to "Off". Long story short, I eventually got a refund.

All's well that ends well but I was pretty disturbed to see my PS3 take actual money from my bank account without my permission and without Auto Fund switched on, and when I trawled the web during the issue I found a lot more people who had been pretty much robbed as well. And I found plenty more people who it had happened to when they had downloaded older PS+ games as well. Needless to say my card details are no longer on my PS3 and they never will be again!

[DOMination-]

Lol. Sony always manage to screw up their store updates but this is truly scandalous. Stealth-Charging people for games listed as free? I can't wait to tune in to watchdog this week.

[cleverusername]

Always? Explain!

[BlackTar187]

Clever,

Don't feed the troll.

[Tapioca Cold]

Let's cry about it!

[Heisenburger]

What a rebel.

[dp277407]

Yea i purchased one of the minions by accident because it doesnt take you to the usual screen, you just click and it takes ur money and gives you the item, instead of showing you the item in the cart and stuff.

[Seraphim]

at least it was only a minion and not a $10-40 game. I only checked the store to dl Kat and Emmett so no browsing for me.

[andrewsqual]

Lol yes it does. You just weren't looking properly.
You get an overview of everything in your cart and you have to confirm again that you want it AND if you aren't an idiot you will have the extra step of requesting your password before its finished too.

[dp277407]

uh no it didnt. It usually does but did not during the problem.

[Sharius]

check in blog> go to store and find extract what i need> log out, seriously i have no interest in checking around that new BS PSN store, i think the old store was better,

[delboy]

And people still claim psn is superior to xbl.
Good thing I never put my billing card information on psn.
Man just can't trust Sony.

[Sharius]

well for what PSN offer i can say: yes, i don't have to pay some ridiculous fee each month to play online, and my instant game collector getting bigger each month with small upkeep

[delboy]

Read my comment again.
Psn is ok, but I don't trust Sony.
Btw I bought psn+, but with prepaid card.
I have more trust in my Android phone security than I have in Sony.

[eferreira]

When the hack happened, no one reported any of their credit cards to be used.

[extermin8or]

.... Makes no sense, it's not just like they can take your money and not refund it/give you your purchase there are governments and groups and laws that defend against it. Thus your money is safe as anything illegal they did with it would come back to haunt them so they can't or at least are highly unlikely to :p

[dangert12]

Consumer rights!!! sony better hand over those advertised lol

[ziggurcat]

no, because those games weren't ever advertised as being free.

all of the games in question were part of the valentine's sale, there was no indication that they were free in advance of the store update.

[Old McGroin]

Maybe not in advance but when something is advertised as being free right in front of you then it should be free. It's bordering on theft to take money from people having first advertised your wares as being free.

[rainslacker]

In most states any listed price on the price tag is what the selling price must be. It's why you see the price tags on the shelf now instead of packages at a lot of store because tags were easy to switch. It is considered the listed price, thus charging more for it is illegal. It's more commonly known as bait and switch.

I'm not sure how this relates to online sales, but I would imagine there is some federal law that covers that.

I think as a matter of good faith, Sony should just refund the money and let people keep the games. I doubt it would hurt their bottom line that much, and would be a good act of faith.

[coolasj]

Wow guys. Just calm down. Believe it or not I'm actually interested in how Sony will handle this.
The best possibility is that every keeps the games and gets uncharged the money.

[GuruStarr78]

An off topic question, but does anyone know the answer?

If I have ps plus until june, and I buy now during the "buy one yr, get 3 months free promotion" will that 15 months be added on to the end of my term in june?

Thanx in advance..

[FunAndGun]

100% yes, the 15 months will stack onto your current subscription.

If you bought it today the 15 months would just be added to whatever time you have remaining.

edit:
Not sure if you know but you can check the amount of time you have left on your Plus subscription in the Account Management section of the XMB. So you can check when it expires, and then check again after you purchase the 15 months to see that the time has been added.

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT -> TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT -> SERVICES LIST -> then find the Plus account.

[vikingland1]

Thanks for the info I was wondering where to find out how much longer I had on my subscription.

[eferreira]

Doesn't work, still got charged 4.99 for rayman.

[o-Sunny-o]

Alien Breed remake kinda seems...not as great looking as part 2 and 3.

[dbjj12088]

Free games for everyone!

[Moerdigan]

These mistakes seem unusually common.

[OllieBoy]

Got charged $4.99 for Rayman and $7.49 for Clash of Heroes.

They better fix this...

[Orionsangel]

Hopefully the items listed for free by mistake we get to get for free and not charged. I love free shit!

[Servbot]

I got charged for Alien Breed. I best get my money back.

[Smashbro29]

I'm the guy that started the thread there! I'M INTERNET FAMOUS!