Mythic Decides Billing People Is Fun, Can't Stop Doing It

[EDIT 4/9 8:30p: Mythic made an official statement today explicitly taking responsibility and pledging to make right their error. This is far better than their earlier comments that I rail about below but it does make much of the rest of this post look unjustifiably whiny. Frankly, I'd rather look whiny and people get good CS then the reverse.]

This is pretty much the worst thing you can ever do as an MMO: abuse the trust your customers give you with their credit cards. Suffice to say that most people were only mildly amused.

Today, my bank notified me that Mythic entertainment had billed my credit card 44 times in a single day for $14.95, for a total of more than six hundred dollars. This was interesting since I don't have 44 Warhammer accounts. Indeed, I cancelled my Warhammer subscription a few months ago.

Mythic's official response has been: whoopsie.

We have confirmed with our vendor that players who have been charged multiple times for their subscriptions should start seeing a reversal of charges within 24-36 hours. We anticipate that once the charges have been reversed, any fees that have been incurred should be refunded as well. If after 36 hours, there are still incorrect charges or fees on your account, please follow these instructions:

• Please begin by contacting your financial institution and explain to them that you were incorrectly charged multiple times and, as a result, over drafted. Most financial institutions will reverse these charges
• If your financial institution is unable to remove these charges, you may contact our billing department by calling 650-628-1001 during our hours of operation, which are 10:00 AM EDT - 10:00 PM EDT, 7 days a week. Please have the phone and fax number of your financial institution ready when you call.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this issue may be causing our players. Please continue to watch the Herald in the coming days for further information regarding this issue.

Note what is missing from this:

* A clear-cut statement of responsibility and assurance this won't happen again. As is standard operating procedure from the CYA manual, all that is offered here is an "apology for any *inconvenience* that *this issue* may be causing". Because hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees (which, contrary to Mythic Rumor Control, banks do not reverse when you ask politely), you know, is a minor inconvenience - not "our mistake", not "our issue", just "this issue" - that can be addressed with a statement that refers to "an event" that, you know, just happened.

* Any sort of compensation to players for their financially damaging *inconvienience*. Because, I suppose, that would entail some statement of responsibility. For, you know, cleaning out your customer's bank accounts. Instead of just, you know, assuming that just somehow *happened* by some unnamed *third party vendor*.

This isn't the first time this has happened. And, you know, Flagship Studios isn't around any more. There may be a connection. If you can't even be trusted to collect just the money you're supposed to... there may be some issues. Oh. Sorry. "this issue".