Error Code 401

Do you have/use a NA account/support? From what I've seen EU stuff is a little different.

My account ran out of time on the 2nd or so I think. I tried 5~7 times that night, and 2 or 3 more times in 24 hour intervals after that.

I was told twice by different SE reps that after the first 401 you get a 24 hour block. There's a whole bunch of transcripts from chat support and emails with SE reps spouting the same thing too. Maybe it's not actually the first? I've personally never gotten it to work after the first 401, and I have 5 different cc's tied to different banks plus the prepaid one I bought. After the first 401 none of them worked :/ At any rate the guy on the phone was able to talk to someone at billing and they could see all the charge attempts and told me to try again after 30 days.

At any rate, the block is def real and is something still happening now. Yes, the block only applies to credit cards. If they had other billing options you'd still be able to use those. (In the past I'd constantly get 401's and would use Paypal instead)

Finally.

Also, that thread's been up for awhile so hopefully with them finally posting it means there's gonna be a fix actually soon. Gonna be bummed out even more if it takes them months to actually add in a paypal method.

South america.

But its to direct pay account or 401 for crysta?

It seems doesnt matter, but soraishin said he managed to get through by using crysta instead direct payment, and i myself never even try direct payment, i just go direct to crysta route.

Yea I tried the crysta thing as well, did not work. I chatted and called SE several times, nothing. Best I got was wait 7 days and try again. So funny.

I have the same problems/errors with both buying crysta and trying to register a card to setup monthly sub. Don't think it differentiates between the two as they both use global collect.

But I tried to use 2 different banks and 2 different cards.....could all banks be doing this?

It's because after the first 401 you're blocked out from using any cc for 24 hours. It doesn't just block off the one cc you try. I have a few different cards tied to different banks + a prepaid visa all that I couldn't get to work, but realized it was because of the block on my account.

When i tried, i got my 1st char activated, but the next chars got
401 error. I checked with visa company and charges went through. I waited a day or 2 and tried again, but I when to the side tab
and "UPDATED VISA INFO". Then i went through reactivation process and it worked, even on the same card i used all 4 times that got error 401.

The core of the issue on this thread is the fact that Square Enix has been tightening the rules which apply to the America region billing system.

You guys also have to consider that Square Enix recently got involved with a shady money collector operation (Click'n Buy) and that got them on a lot of banking blacklists. Now it seems like Square Enix do loathe enormously the notion of returning money to people so they now have this instance of denying transactions before they get completed so they have zero risk of having to return money to anyone.

I believe this is still due to the 2008 issue when Chinese RMT were massively making disposable accounts for farming into the Japanese region. The problem (I didn't explain a few posts ago) is that on the Japanese system you were obligated to put a valid credit card to get access to the game and the said card would be billed automatically once the trial period expired. That would result in complaints from the owner of the stolen card (which obviously never bought anything from Square Enix. So SE had to refund the credit card company and freeze the account.

At that point the Chinese RMT had already used the account to farm and made money from it, leaving legal trouble to the card holder and Square Enix.


Anyway, anyhow. The result is all these layers of billing trouble which started back in 2008 including:

1- They started to refuse credit card transactions for users who are outside of the proper region (For example me, I would have the exact same problems with being in Brazil while playing with a Japanese account, by using an European account. Would still be unable to pay directly. Luckily for me Japan has two alternative payment methods and I were able to use one).

2- They tried to use credit card authentication mechanisms (3D Secure, for example)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-D_Secure

3- They tightened verification of account owner address against credit card billing address in some of these regions they operate at (They still do that with the Europe region, right ?)


All that because they REALLY HATE to refund money... (lol)

Last I checked they still verify billing vs account address, I think a lot of people don't even know what their account address is set to...

Why so much hate toward chinese RMT? Isnt chinas internet censored? And still they can operate internet transactions and earn cash?

How many tries make your block 30 days? Not that I wanna spam, but since I tried a few the first time I'm not sure(I think I tried 4).

Ok so I tried 8 times - its been 96 hours since then. I have used online chat support. They told me on chat to use the card today. I used the card and it worked. I would for sure contact online chat support they were finally able to help - make sure they actually look at your account (they will ask for personal info)

There's no way I tried 8 times at the same time and I was told my account had a 30 day block. blah. Just tried chat support after reading that and got the same *** as always.

well I said Ive contact them many times to chat dude and to ask him to look at my account. Did he look? He also said his "supervisor" told him the card was now ok to use.

but I have 2 cards, one i used 7 times, one that I used one time. Told me ok to use the 1 time card now - other card wait for 7 days.

SE guy from chat suport:

Yup add me to the 401 group as well. Went to update card as I got my new one in the mail. Same number only difference is security code on back. Entered it in and it verifies fine go to reactivation screen and it asks me for it again, enter it and reactivate and boom 401. SE sucks so much *** its crazy. how they ever became a money making company is beyond me

you should be fine, i did it like 8~9 times ,waited 2 days and they finally took my money, but only on the crysta side, wouldn't do direct pay

All SE says is that you have to wait 24 hours if that doesnt work then wait 30 days and try again. I am beyond pissed off

SE's payment system is kinda iffy. I spoke to them about this before and they said their system might think your card is compromised if you're using it for more than one account. Some times I wonder if SE is trying to force you to spend more by buying Crysta... cuz that's the only thing that seems to work.

Nope. The 401 happens regardless of the method you use.

Yeah I tried crysta too and still get same 401 error. SE is a piece of ***. Can't get anything right.

They confirmed they'll add back paypal anyway, at this point I'd just suggest everyone to wait till then...at least that's what I plan to do, not dealing with this ***.

They give any sort of time frame for paypal return?

No timeframe, just that "they're working on it and hope to have it up and running soon". If they're trying to set up some sort of third party crap again, who knows how long it's gonna take. Want to hope that since it's really affecting both 11 and 14 pretty decently that they're at least taking it seriously, but se moves so damn slow when it comes to anything. So really, could be next week or could be 2-3 months from now.

I dunno what to think. People here saying they tried 8-9 times. No way I tried that many times and I'm told I've got a 30 day block on my account? Was dumb and tried to buy crysta the other night ago (7 days after the last time I tried) and still got a 401. Scared to try again because myself and many others have been told any further attempts reset the block (including the 30 day one). Wish they had some damn reps that knew what the hell they were talking about and actually had the power to look further into this BS.

truthfully i prob tried more than 8~9, maybe 15, i was doing it over and over, waited 2 days and it still gave me the error for direct pay, tried crysta w/ same card and it worked.

Yeah, all I do is buy crysta. Just a habit I guess from months of paypal and my CC never working. Get 401's with both crysta and trying to register for monthly sub :/

i'd say give it a try the way i had to , wait about 48 hours rather than 24, then do the direct pay since you normally do crysta. idk what all you've tried and how many 401's you've racked up since it started though.