Difference between revisions of "Billing FAQ"
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| − | Any payments for Energy you make during the Preview Event will be added to your account again once we launch Spiral Knights including an extra | + | Any payments for Energy you make during the Preview Event will be added to your account again once we launch Spiral Knights including an extra 25% Energy! |
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Revision as of 21:45, 22 November 2010
Energy prices
200 Energy for $ 0.75 USD - That's 267 energy per dollar!
750 Energy for $ 2.45 USD - That's 306 energy per dollar!
1,600 Energy for $ 4.95 USD - That's 323 energy per dollar!
3,500 Energy for $ 9.95 USD - That's 352 energy per dollar!
7,500 Energy for $19.95 USD - That's 376 energy per dollar!
20,000 Energy for $49.95 USD - That's 400 energy per dollar!
Please visit the page on Energy for much more information on how Energy works.
You can see what your Energy has been spent on, on the Energy History page on your account page. Be sure to check that you're logged into the right account, if already logged in you can see the account name in the upper right corner.
Payment options
We currently offer the following payment options:
We accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card cards. Debit / ATM cards should work fine too. This is the preferred payment mechanism as it gives you instant access and keeps things simple for us and inexpensive for you.
Prepaid cards as long as they are a VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card can be used too. And is certainly recommendable for those who worry about the security of using their cards online. That way you only risk the amount of that card.
- Is your Credit Card server secure?
Absolutely. Our credit card server is secured with 128bit industry-standard SSL encryption. You can verify this by looking for the golden padlock in the bottom corner of your web browser window.
- What appears on my credit card statement?
Your credit card statement will show a billing for 'Spiral Knights' as well as our phone number.
You can choose to pay for Energy using a PayPal account. This is an automated payment option that gives you the Energy as soon as your PayPal payment has completed, no need to wait for us to process it.
If you need to make manual PayPal payments then that is possible too. Visit the PayPal website, log in to your existing account or set up a PayPal account, choose Send Money, and send your payment to paypal@threerings.net. Be sure to add your account name (not the name of you knight) and what you would like to purchase to the note field. Then we will process this payment as soon as possible and reply to your PayPal payment email with confirmation.
Be aware that PayPal accounts can be set up to make instant payments, or use eChecks which work like regular checks which have to clear before payment is made. eChecks are typically due to the main funding source on the PayPal account being a bank account. If you have funds already in your PayPal account or you fund it from a credit card then you would make instant payments with no delay. For more information on this please see PayPal's Help Pages.
PaidByCash allows you to easily pay cash for an online purchase at one of more than 60,000 locations in the United States. Search HERE to find the location nearest you.
- Get a Payment Code from the PaidByCash website, then go pay cash at one of the locations.
- Receive a Virtual MasterCard loaded with the amount you've paid cash and use that MasterCard for your online purchase.
- Enter the MasterCard number in the credit card number field and select the option you wish to buy.
Keep in mind that your MasterCard may retain a balance after your transaction (depending on the cash value you put into the card), so don't lose it!
For more information on how PaidByCash works, click HERE.
If none of these options are available to you, or you simply prefer not to use any of these. Then you are welcome to send us money directly to our office in San Francisco instead.
We process the payment the same day we receive it, except on weekends. So it really depends on how fast the mail man can deliver it. Players often worry that this takes too long, but our experience is that it's shorter than most think. Also if you make larger payments consider that expediting your letter may be a small part of the payment but it ensures that we receive it faster.
Be aware we only accept payments in US Dollars. But if you have a Money Order or Check made out then you can have it made out in US Dollars while paying in your own local currency.
We can't really recommend sending cash, since it poses a risk when cash is visible in an envelope, so this is at your own risk.
Along with the payment please add the following:
- Your account name (not the knight name).
- Your email address. We will send you a confirmation email when your payment is received.
- Which Energy Package you would like to purchase.
- If you decorate your envelope or include a fun note, we may display it on the office wall!
Please make this payable to: Three Rings Design, Inc.
Send your mail to:
- Three Rings Design
- P.O. Box 482
- San Francisco
- CA 94104-0482
- USA
To choose one of the first three please visit your Billing Page. Make sure you're logged in to the right account shown in the upper right corner.
We are working on adding more payment options.
Spending Limit
We have a spending limit in place to protect the owner of the payment method from abuse, and to protect the game itself. This may seem strange that we don't want to receive all the payments players want to make, but experience unfortunately has shown us that we need to have this in place to prevent unlimited abuse, otherwise we certainly would prefer not to have such a system. We do apologize for the inconvenience this may cause for you.
Accounts start out with a spending limit of $100 for a 30 day period, not a calendar month, but the past 30 days. This limit will easily be enough for the vast majority of players, but some may wish to spend more for various reasons.
As you spend near this limit it will automatically go up to $200, $400 and $800 slowly over time.
Payments cover all your accounts, otherwise it would be too easy for someone wanting to abuse this to just making extra accounts to pay on. So if you happen to have multiple accounts you spend on, perhaps for your family members, then you'll want to make payments on one main account and then raise the spending limit on this account as needed. Then you can trade the energy from this account to the other accounts.
Should you wish to raise this limit ahead of schedule, then please contact us via billing@spiralknights.com to request this and we will review your account to see if this is possible. Please be aware that we unfortunately don't know all of our players personally, otherwise we would be much more comfortable raising this limit. So if your request to have the limit raised was denied, then this is not personal, it is merely basic precaution as mentioned to protect everyone involved. And if it is denied then you always have the option of sending us money via mail, since this does not count towards your spending limit.
Billing questions
No you can play for free for as long as you would like. You automatically get 100 Mist Energy every day that you can use. If you find that you would like to have more than this, then you can buy additional Crystal Energy. You can purchase Crystal Energy via the Energy Depot, which is where players buy and sell Energy for crowns. Or you can buy Crystal Energy with real money as shown above.
Any payments for Energy you make during the Preview Event will be added to your account again once we launch Spiral Knights including an extra 25% Energy!
Your non-US credit or debit card should work fine if it is a VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover Card. Alternatively, use one of the other payment options listed above.
You will be responsible for converting your currency into US Dollars. With a credit card or PayPal transaction this will happen automatically. To get a US Dollar check or money order you will have to visit the bank, or perhaps your post office as well as many stores that may offer this as a service.
First of all you will want to secure your credit card or PayPal account from further abuse. Contact your credit card issuer to advice on how to do this. And for PayPal you will want to change your PayPal account password. Once secured you should be safe, we would urge you to contact us before filing disputes since we can often resolve this much faster than the credit card companies can do their paper work. And we're much more likely to provide you with information on who made the charges so you can avoid this in the future.
In our experience the vast majority of unauthorized charges comes from family members, often kids in the house hold. Or friends of the credit card holder. Look to see if anyone in the house hold plays Spiral Knights.
Once you know more please contact us via billing@spiralknights.com and we'll work with you to resolve this. Please provide the following information:
- Name and address and last 4 digits of the credit card charged. Or the email address of the PayPal account used without your authorization.
- The dates and amounts of the charges you did not authorize.
- List anyone you're aware of that plays Spiral Knights, even if you don't believe they are responsible at this time.
- If you know of Spiral Knights account names used in the house hold please list these as well.
Unfortunately, the credit card companies maintain the controls on credit card transactions, making it impossible for us to address specific problems with a particular credit card.
However, our experience is that problems arise most frequently from errors in the user information the credit card company is expecting. The address, zip code, and other user information are what the credit card company use to confirm your identity. They can be pretty picky about the smallest detail in the information you enter!
Here's a few of the most common problems we've run into:
- Exact spelling of card details. Credit Card companies are very strict about the exact spelling of information on a Credit Card. You should check your bank statements or contact them to see that you have the exact info. Moving house, for instance, may cause problems if you haven't updated the info with the bank, yet enter your new address.
- Gift cards sometimes need to be activated either at the register when purchased or via the phone/internet after being purchased. You'll want to double check if that is the case with your card.
- If you have any sort of non-English characters in the Credit Card info, you should check your bank statement to see if they have it shown differently. Also try and use standard English characters in place of those non-English characters.
- There's always the chance that you're over a certain limit, check with your bank if that is the case.
If none of this works and you're not getting anywhere talking to the Bank or the Credit Card company then you could always consider a PayPal account attached to the same bank account.
The charges you're referring to aren't showing up on your billing information except as a declined attempt. Since your bank is showing they went through, what probably happened was that the funds for the charge were put on hold by your bank before denying the charge. Essentially there's a temporary hold on the funds from the bank because you tried to spend them, but we've not actually received anything.
We've found this happens more often with bank or debit cards, unfortunately we've also found that these problems don't show up as such for a few days and the bank's support personnel aren't always able to see that the charge actually was denied. The funds should show up again in a few days from your bank.
We can't see the reason for why it was declined, you may want to contact your card issuer to have them tell you why it was declined so you can prevent it from happening again. In our experience it is often the address that doesn't match what is registered on the card, but that may not be the problem in your case.
We process the payment the same day we receive it, except on weekends. So it really depends on how fast the mail man can deliver it. Be aware weekends may also delay delivery. We often receive more of these payments via mail on Mondays, so you may want to wait for the end of the following Monday to see if it was added then. Please have extra patience with how quickly these letters are delivered, especially around holidays where mail delivery could be unusually slow.
If you believe it has taken far too long, the most likely reason at this point would be that we did receive your letter but the information in it was so insufficient, that we couldn't tell which account it was for and there was no email address to contact you by. Or we did send an email asking for details but you haven't read the email yet. Make sure to check for any emails, including any junk folders if it was marked as such. If there is no email and you know there was possibly missing information in that latter, then you may contact us via billing@spiralknights.com and provide the following information:
- The amount of the payment sent.
- What sort of Payment (Check, Money Order etc.)
- Your name if listed on the Check, Money Order or in a letter.
- When the letter was sent.
- Where it was sent from.
- The address it was sent to.
- Anything about the envelope or content that we can recognize it by.
If the payment wasn't declined when you made it, and your card statement does show you were charged, then most likely the payment was accidentially made on a secondary account. Check your other accounts to see if the Energy is there. If you want the Energy on your other account, then you can start two game clients and log into both your accounts and trade with yourself. Please don't use another player to trade with since you risk them running off with it.
If you still can't find it then please contact us via billing@spiralknights.com and provide the following information:
- Name and address and last 4 digits of the credit card charged.
- The dates and amounts of the charges you did not authorize.
First of all you'll want to check if you accidentally made the payment on another account. Check your other accounts to see if the Energy is there. If it is and you want the Energy on your other account, then you can start two game clients and log into both your accounts and trade with yourself. Please don't use another player to trade with since you risk them running off with it.
Next you'll want to see if your PayPal payment was perhaps an eCheck payment. eChecks work like regular checks which have to clear before payment is made. This causes a delay, which can vary depending on your location. eChecks are typically due to the main funding source on the PayPal account being a bank account. Your payment in your PayPal account will show when it is estimate to complete. To avoid this in the future you may check with PayPal on how to set your account up to use funds already in your PayPal account, or add a credit card as a funding source to make instant payments. For more information on this please see PayPal's Help Pages.
If you have been able to change your PayPal account to make instant payments instead, and you don't want to wait until the eCheck payment you made will complete, then contact us via billing@spiralknights.com and explain that you would like to cancel that pending eCheck payment to make an instant PayPal or credit/debit card payment instead. Then we can cancel the pending eCheck payment.
If you want the Energy on your other account, then you can start two game clients and log into both your accounts and trade with yourself. Please don't use another player to trade with since you risk them running off with it.
If you're not sure about how to do this or have some other problem with this then please contact us via billing@spiralknights.com and explain the situation you're in. List the names of the two accounts (not the knight names) and tell us which account you wanted the payment on.
We also need to verify you do own the account the payment was accidentally made on. Please include the following in that email:
- Name and address and last 4 digits of the credit card charged.
- Or the email address of the PayPal account used, you'll need to send the email from this same email address.
- If you used another payment method please list this.
- The date and amount of the payment made.
No. Energy is intended as an in-game credit to be used within the game to purchase goods and enable aspects of game play. It is not to be resold or traded for anything else outside Spiral Knights. Unfortunately we will have to ban players who attempt to execute such trades.
Three Rings has an explicit policy of no refunds. Please bear in mind that we do not have this policy to be hard-nosed business people, because we're not, but only because it is necessary to avoid people requesting refunds of long-term subscriptions simply because they've had a bad day pillaging with their crew.
Exceptions to this rule are in cases of fraud, fiscal hardship due to accidental renewal, or if we issue a new release to the game or otherwise modify the software in a way that prevents you from actually playing. If this happens to you please first try to solve the problem on the Technical Issues forum.
If you wish to request a refund in these circumstances please contact us via billing@spiralknights.com and we'll try to help.
The easiest solution would be to make a payment on your own account, then simply trade the Energy to the other player. You should always avoid sharing account information and sharing credit card information or PayPal accounts, that is far too likely to lead to severe problems. Also avoid trading Energy via a third player, this player may get too tempted and run off with it, you'd be surprised how often that happens even with friends you believed you trusted, and it's not worth losing the Energy as well as the friend.
If for some reason it has to be a payment made (please again consider trading it in-game instead) then you have the option of making a manual PayPal payment. Visit the PayPal website, log in to your existing account or set up a PayPal account, choose Send Money, and send your payment to paypal@threerings.net. Be sure to add the name of the knight to receive the payment (don't ask for your friend's account name please) and what you would like to purchase to the note field. Then we will process this payment as soon as possible and reply to your PayPal payment email with confirmation.
Please contact us via billing@spiralknights.com with your question. Please add your account name (not the knight name) and if it's regarding a payment already made then please list the following:
- Name and address and last 4 digits of the credit card used.
- Or the email address of the PayPal account used.
- Dates and amounts of the payments.
- Information on other payment method used.
- As well as listing the problem or question.
Then we will reply back to you as soon as possible.
