PSA: Paypal Just Did a Mass Chargeback on PSN Transactions

If your Playstation account has been suspended, this might be why.

[gangsta_red]

Damn that sucks! Hopefully sony can get their service sorted out soon. Nothing worse than someone messing with your money.

[trouble_bubble]

Sounds like it's a paypal issue not Sony. Sony didn't do the chargeback, PayPal did. Article states Sony has contacted them as to wtf.

[gangsta_red]

Reading the update Paypal is saying it's actually on Sony's end...regardless it sux

[trouble_bubble]

Hmm, yeah the latest update says PayPal is now saying it's a Sony thing, to do with limits on their GDP account or something. I don't even know what that means, but a goof's a goof.

[DARK_WOLF]

One of the many examples of why xbox live is better than psn.

Its undeniable.

[rainslacker]

paypal has limits on commercial retailers or accounts, and the companies need to resubmit their compliance and licenses on a regular basis. If they don't, then they can be limited in how much they're allowed to get in charges. This is an automated process on Paypal's end, and I have had it happen to me with my business. It was quickly resolved, and the money got back to where it was supposed to go, as charge back money doesn't go immediately back to the customer.

This is actually true of any retailer that accepts credit cards, as they are usually given a limit without making sure they have their licenses. It's done so companies can't just skirt showing their revenues. In the case of Paypal, if you have a certain amount of revenue, you do have to have your own CC processing service, as the CC companies require it.

Sony and Paypal will likely be able to sort this out pretty quickly to see what charge backs are because of Sony exceeding their limit, and which one's are actually charge backs, and hopefully it doesn't affect customers for too long, if it has at all.

[Zeref]

why is it always sony that has these types off issues?

[ThanatosDMC]

From what I noticed on my Paypal account a few weeks ago is that Paypal added something called Paypal Balance to people like me who used to have only Paypal Credit. Paypal screwed us by making the Paypal Balance the preferred payment method on preapproved purchases. The option for "Funding Source" for the merchant "Sony Interactive Entertainment Network America LLC" only had the option for Paypal Balance instead of the old Paypal Credit. Paypal Credit disappeared. Since people like me didnt have money on Paypal Balance, money ended up being immediately taken out of my checking account with my bank. My bank blocked it because it was odd. Sony didnt get there's money so my SEN account was jack full of missed charges. It's fixed now. Paypal Reinstated Paypal Credit as a Funding Source for merchants.

If anyone wants to know the fix, login to Paypal. Click Wallet. Make Paypal Credit your preferred way to pay. Click the gear icon next to logout. Click Payments on the tab selection. Click "manage pre-approved payments". Click any merchant's name that has the most recent date, in this case Sony Interactive Entertainment Network America LLC. Change Backup Funding Source to Paypal Credit. Done. You can now buy digital games and pay it later.

[ocelot07]

It's not a Sony issue. Paypal for what ever reason (most likely a bug in the system) have initiated a charge back on a lot PSN transactions. By doing this people accounts are being auto banned due to this Paypal issue. Sony now have to work with paypal to sort this issue out and re-instate a lot of PSN accounts.

[ziggurcat]

I'll have to try, and buy something to see if I am affected by Paypal's goof.

[ocelot07]

@ziggurcat just log into your PS4/PS3/Vita. If you are able to sign in and connect online. You should be fine if you can't connect then your account maybe banned and will have to contact Sony.

[nitus10]

@ocelot07

No problem logging into PSN so it looks like my account is fine. I have also been playing online for quite a few hours without a problem.

[LandoCalrissiano]

Wow, people on this site are assholes aren't they? In what way is anything what you said disagreeable?

[BLAKHOODe]

Don't put any thought into it.
There are people on this site (and others) who get there kick out of down-voting everything.
Whatever makes them happy.

[gangsta_red]

@blackhood

exactly

[LandoCalrissiano]

@blakhoode,

Yeah seriously! People will down vote before anything else. Why do you think Facebook never had it? They knew this was why. Take the cod: iw video for example, so much down vote yet still one the top selling games for 2017 (when it came out last year).

[rocketpanda]

Don't bother with the upvotes or downvotes! Anything negative towards Sony will result in downvotes even if you bring up valid points. Diehards will take no heed of your points, unless you talk trash about rival companies and praise on how faultless Sony is.

[TripleCs]

Crap like this is why I will continue you to buy my games physically as long as I'm alive especially after dealing with Sony's customer service and Sony not allowing me to get a refund on a pre-order made. No thank you!

I honestly can't fathom why anyone would wanna go all digital .. Going digital just makes it easier for companies to screw you and gives them more power over you.

[gangsta_red]

I personally have not had any problems using paypal to make purchases on PSN so far, hopefully this is just some isolated incidents/ There are a lot of perks with going digital I have experienced.

I used to love just having a physical copy but not only did I find it unnecessarily a waste of space but having digital copies ready to go from your HDD was just more of a convenience. I find myself just having a physical copy of games I rent nowadays.

There are definitely pros and cons with both.

I am sure a situation like this will be resolved soon from either Sony or Paypal.

[EatCrow]

I prefer digital for its convenience but youre absolutely right regardless of my preference.

Really baffles me why so many sony fans are huge fans of digital gaming on pc.

[jaycptza]

I work in payment operations. It's not SONYs fault charge backs can only be initiated by the "account holder" or the banking institution.

[fenome]

Yeah it does! I'm glad I don't use PayPal.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sucks hope for the best.

[tyasia0]

Is this even true? I can't find any information about this on either the UK/EU PlayStation forums or on Paypal. In fact this seems to be the only article on the internet talking about this.

[monkey602]

There are a number of users complaining about bans on forums and fan pages. Seems to be real

[tyasia0]

Do you have a link? Because I can't find anything at all that relates to this issue

[monkey602]

There's a couple Facebook groups I'm in and a lot of people posting screenshots of their ban message

[TWB]

Oh, I just realized I saw a few posts on PS4 subreddit about mysterious bans day or two ago. This could be the reason...

[Kiwi66]

Maybe you should search outside of those areas to find out about it

[THEBIG360]

All good here!

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I was literally just about to buy something through paypal -__-

[DigitalRaptor]

I'm going to buy PSN cards for my purchases going forward.

[rainslacker]

I used to use a rechargeable CC. Been doing this for all online purchases since I had my identity stolen a while ago. But lately, I have to buy PSN cards from Amazon for instant delivery, and use those. After I moved, Sony won't let me use a credit card on PSN for some reason, even though I've never had a problem or complaint about any purchase I've made on it. Think it's because I updated my address, and I never bothered to call customer service to remedy the issue. Read that if you change your CC they do this sometimes, which I did since it was more convienant to reload a different card where I moved to, but it's been a hassle.

I think it's one of those things that Sony is being overzealous on trying to prevent fraud. I'm curious how many people just get frustrated and give up, thus causing them to lose revenue. Charge backs aren't that big of a deal for digital content, because they aren't losing anything really, so it makes little sense to be so protective. I'd imagine it'd be easy to remedy though.

[bellyboy]

I bought far cry primal on the 24/6, i checked my bank, i have been refunded the £16.99 but my account is not banned, yet...i have left the cash there, if paypal want to re take the money they can. Very odd situation.

[rainslacker]

If it's a known issue I'm sure they can track what was actually charged back, and what was due to the glitch. Paypal will give Sony their money if it's their fault, and knowing Paypal, they will try to collect it from you. Good to keep the money there though. Paypal can be a real dick when they want their money, even if the problem is on their end.

[TWB]

If I had to guess, by then Sony probably was already aware of the issues and altered their autoban so that you could no longer be affected.

[TripleCs]

Having dealt with an issue similar to this on PSN I must say that Sony's refund policies are atrocious. Sony won't offer refunds on ANYTHING, not even pre-orders which is ridiculous because if the content that I purchased isn't even released yet why can't I get a refund for it? It doesn't make sense and then if you try to dispute the charge with your bank since Sony won't refund you themselves Sony will then ban your PSN account. Things like this are why I don't do digital and will continue to stick with physical copies of my games where I'll get them cheaper anyway.

I really believe both companies are at fault here though.

[Silly gameAr]

This is the perfect situation to bring up refunds, hey?

[trouble_bubble]

Yeah that's a big advantage physical has over digital. No monopoly. You wanna cancel a preorder on a disc, done.

[The 10th Rider]

Also with Amazon's prime discount and Best Buy's gamer club it's cheaper to go physical. BBGC is $30 for 2 years and nets 20% off game purchases. Pre-order 3 physical games in those 2 years and it's already paid for itself.

[LandoCalrissiano]

I agree. I have always had a huge collection of games for all my platforms. It would bother me if my whole collection were purely digital. I do have a 4tb external and over 100 games on my xbo but I do have a bunch physical to back it too.

[LandoCalrissiano]

@the 10th rider. I have bbgc and love it! For top games bb will give you a $10 cert when you pre-order plus bbgc on top of that. Plus you get mad points over time which you convert into more certs.

[The 10th Rider]

@ChetManly,

Yeah, for anyone who pre-orders games or buys games new it's definitely the way to go.

[rainslacker]

https://www.playstation.com...

Did you not know these policies?

[Stapleface]

I'm sure they do. But it's a terrible policy. Knowing about it or not doesn't change that.

[hellothere1977]

then...uh...don't accept the terms. simple, huh, stapleface?

[rainslacker]

The policy states you can get a refund under certain conditions, mostly if you haven't downloaded the game yet. That's what the OP was complaining about, and I simply countered his statement.

[hellothere1977]

then buy physical media. you want the benefits of digital, yet you don't want to accept responsibility of clicking that "i accept the EULA" box. you entitled c#nts are the reason we can't have good things.

[LandoCalrissiano]

Sony seems to have a quite a few of these back-end/back office problems. Usually limited to just a few people but still, no bueno.

[LandoCalrissiano]

This sucks. Recently had a chargeback with PayPal on MS and had no problems. Internet cut out during the transaction :/

[Shadowlee]

PSN needs to get it's 💩 together. No wonder ppl prefer physical and singleplayer over digital and multiplayer on ps.

[DigitalRaptor]

Who's "ppl"?

Multiplayer gaming is extremely popular on PS4.

[BlackTar187]

When did letting third party focus on multiplayer and Letting Sony make engaging single player games with sometimes really good multiplayer become a bad thing? TLOU or KZ2 were Damn good and uncharted is decent.

Engaging games are fantastic and multiplayer games are also fantastic. Sony makes amazing single player games, very few 3rd party AAA budget are even that good they're either kinda tacked on super heavy on ACTION!!! That the story suffers. My point is we got a ton of good refined MP games that without Sony we'd severely lack in amazing single player stories.

[Shadowlee]

Who TF said it was a bad thing? Where did anyone mention that? Lol hear something and twist it to be something its not.

All I hear on here is many preferring sp and physical. I can see why now

[jugo14]

I can't log into my account and Im in the USA. Wtf...cannot even start a chat with support. Gonna have to call after work
wtf

[jugo14]

Update: Disregard. I'm an idiot and forgot my password lol I deleted my paypal payment method anyways. Only gonna buy those prepaid cards now.

[DafunkyRebel]

It's PayPal' fault folks, I experience this when trying to pay with my PayPal yesterday and they canceled my order and gave me some bullshit excuse

[rainslacker]

I was always a fan of how Paypal would try to blame the user when they screwed up. I use them for my business, but I won't use them for purchasing anything. I even keep a separate bank account for my business and have it automatically transferred to another account when Paypal transfers into it because Paypal is dodgy as all hell. They still owe me several thousand dollars from back when my identity was stolen a long while ago. Have plenty of paperwork, but they screwed up, and I'm almost certain the start of the identity theft started on Paypal itself.

[hellothere1977]

yeah, they are a piece of shietz. you hear about their GIFT CARD security breach last september? seems paypal somehow had the gift cards they sold people on eBay breached. the giftcard emails that had the passcode was unsecure as it was transmitted to recipient. people who did not immediately use their giftcards had it drained completely. thousands of people were affected. paypal denied everything. anyone who knows, you can tell the extreme displeasure of trying to get issues with paypal > eBay > paypal ad infinitum resolved.

took me 3-4 months to get my money back. first eBay dragged out issue and then used excuse i was over my 30 day limit. paypal then ninja/stealth shut down their gift card system and locked out redemption ability for all gift cards they sold. told me it was now paypal's issue. first paypal agent rejected claim. called them multiples times, and at this point, thousands of users on the forum banded together to show them how widespread their breach was (they knew...but now they knew that WE KNEW). we also pointed out the MONTHLONG lockout of customer's giftcards during the month of september without notice.

in summary, paypal is hands down the most dishonest of the virtual wallets businesses.

[trooper_]

Yeah, Paypal can be full of crap when it comes to this stuff.

[nicsaysdie]

I work in finance. Specifically, the side that deals with payment processing. There are three to four (in this case four) parties that can initiate a "charge back". First, the merchant (Sony). Why would they initiate a charge back for merchandise without being compelled to do so? Also most content on psn is non refundable. It doesn't make much sense that it would be Sony. Two, the processor (PayPal). They would normally only do this at a customers request. So such a large instance would likely only be caused by a system issue. Three, the bank (the respective banks used by the PayPal customers). The likelihood of this being possible is super low, due to the fact that it likely isn't just customers using one specific bank being effected. If it is however only on specific bank's charges being charged back, then it is most likely the bank. Probably due to a system issue. Four, the customer. This is the most unlikely due to the fact that the effected consumers didn't know about this before hand, and such a large number all requesting a charge back on the same day. To be honest it is most likely PayPal, but it could be any one of them. I know you're all saying, "but PayPal said it was sony's fault." and, just so you know processors blame merchants and banks for things all the time and it almost never is anyone's fault but the processor. The more you know.

[jaycptza]

SONY can't initiate a charge back, they can refund it. Charge back would present differently. I work for fin tech company dealing with payment operations. Chargeback can only be initiated by the "account holder" or bank/institution, they would forward the charge back to SONY's bank/payment provider and then the funds are held until investigated.

[nicsaysdie]

Cool. So we agree that it wasn't sony's fault then. Good to know.

Also, it's clear that what happened isn't an actual charge back, but instead that term is being used incorrectly.

On another note, I would ask if you talk to all strangers like this, trying to make your self feel smarter while simultaneously making them feel less knowledgeable, but it would probably make you feel bad so I won't mention it, since it would add nothing to the situation. Feel free to check this post for punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors. Although that will add nothing to the thread, it doesn't seem that concerns you.

[jaycptza]

@nicsaysdie, I was explaining how it works so that people are aware. I'm sure anyone that works in this space could explain it. If someone explains something to me that I don't know, I simply try to learn. Not trying to put anyone down

[Sm3000]

Pony here, I couldn't care less if it was sonys fault. Fix it and keep it moving. When was psn last issue prior to this, a while ago to my knowledge.

[GamePeace]

A little problem that will probably be solved within a short amount of time and yet many Xbox fans are actling like it's their biggest personal problem (sarcastically).

[EatCrow]

No theyre not.

[GamePeace]

Oh yes, they are. Otherwise it wouldn't be them.

[trooper_]

They need some form of negative news to gang up on Sony.

[Cobra951]

Whether it's Paypal's fault or Sony's fault, Paypal is involved, and you have to live with whatever they tell you, because they are a monopoly with very little accountability to you. There have been horror stories about their practices in the past. (Feel free to do a search.) They are not a consumer-friendly company. I'd bet all the money in my pocket that they knew this was going to happen before it did, and they let it happen anyway, perhaps as some sort of power play against Sony. They are hurting thousands of Sony customers (according to the story) and then saying "hey, it's not our fault". If it's Paypal's doing (the chargebacks) then they very definitely share in the responsibility for the consequences.

[Yohshida]

Dont use credit cards or paypal on PSN, its so unsafe its not even funny. Just go with the regular PSN Cards.

[Liqu1d]

This isn't about security or credit cards, Paypal issued chargebacks in error and it was fixed hours ago.