‘Some jerk is using my Sony Network ID!’
p2pnet news view | Games:- Dan Tynan says one of the perks of doing what he does for a living is: companies send him stuff to play with.
Recently, “I wrote a couple of stories about game consoles and movie download services, so I got Sony’s PR firm to send me a PlayStation 3,” he says, going on »»»
(But not a new PS3 – the one they sent had clearly been around the block and down the street a few times.)
I played with it, logged onto the Sony Playstation Network, downloaded an HD movie from its newly launched media store to see how that worked ($6 for 10,000 BC in full HD, it took hours and hours to download — not worth it). And that was it. The sucker sat in my living room for a few weeks until the PR firm nagged me on a near daily basis to send it back. End of story, or so I thought.
Two days ago I get an email from the Sony Playstation Store informing me that someone just added $29.99 to my “wallet.” Normally I’d think scam, but this had my logon name and my credit card info, so it was definitely genuine. I called Sony customer support — a nightmare phone tree that makes you listen to “an important message” (an ad for an upcoming Gran Turismo game) everytime you cycle through it. When I finally got to the right option, it gave me another number to call. I called, told them the situation, asked it they could please a) remove that charge from my “wallet”, and b) nuke that account so I don’t get any more unpleasant surprises.
They said no.
Tony the techie told me that a) the money was already issued from the store, so I’d have to disupte that with my bank. But the real kicker was b): Once you set up a wallet on the Playstation Store, it’s there for life. To get rid of it, the guy said, I’d have to cancel the card that was associated with it.
This is when I started cursing. “You’re f***** kidding me, right? I can’t f***** believe this. Are you f***** serious?” But he wasn’t F***** kidding me. So I asked to talk to a supervisor.
After 15 minutes of listening to crappy jazz on my cell phone, I reached Michelle. She was more intelligent than Tony, but no more helpful. She basically confirmed what Tony told me.
If I had the machine in hand, she said, I could log onto the Sony Network, change my billing info or wipe it out. And if I disputed the charge, the account would be suspended, which she hinted would effectively kill it (I didn’t ask if suspended accounts ever get unsuspended, but the implication was they are not). Otherwise, though, once you create an account on the Sony Network it persists indefinitely.
That’s it, I said?
That’s it, she said.
So I need to have the machine here to log on and wipe out my info?
Yes, she said.
Why can’t I log onto my account via the Web and wipe it? I asked.
Oh yes, you can do that, she said.
!!!!!
I immediately logged on and found the option to remove my payment info. So whoever has that damned box can’t add anything else to my “wallet.” I called my bank and they said they’d be happy to investigate my dispute, but my card would be frozen for 10 days. I’m traveling now, it’s my business card, so that will have to wait til I get back.
Meanwhile, some jerk out there is using my Sony Network ID. I sent an email to the naggy PR guy to see if he could intervene and tell me who had the sucker now. (Apparently they just ship this stuff out without ever looking in the box, let alone wiping the data off the thing before someone else gets it.) But my email bounced. This guy is no longer with the company (a major PR firm that shall remain nameless for the time being).
And I wondered: Is that why he was so damned insistent on getting that two-year-old PS3 back? Did he pack it up with him when he left? Is he the one pretending to be me, filling up my “wallet” at my expense?
I’m calling them on Monday to find out what happened. They better have a good answer for me.
And what is the deal with Sony’s unbelievably lame customer service? I was on the phone an hour with these clowns. Any other consumer would have canceled his card by now. Had I known this was going to happen, I’d never have handed over my credit card info.
Dear, dear.
But that’s Sony for you. 
Dan Tynan – Tynan on Technology (beta)
[Tynan slugs his personal blog 'Tech talk without the usual BS.' He's been writing and editing stories about technology and its discontents for more than 20 years. During that time he's been an editor in chief and an executive editor for national magazines, written for more than 50 publications, and taken home a closet full of awards. He's also the author of Computer Privacy Annoyances, soon to be a major motion picture starring Ashton Kutcher.]
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September 8th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Dude that sucks.
I was going to suggest going to store.playstation.com to remove your payment information but you FINALLY got that infomratiom from them.
That is wrong, they should wipe the PS3 clean before they send it out again. I work in IT and before we get rid of old pc’s we wipe our Hard Drive clean.
It’s just common sense to me.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:57 am
And the morale of this story is… never leave your account on auto sign-in if it’s not your PS3! Also surely in this age of digital crime it should be good practice to delete login and card details from sites you no longer plan to use? You wouldn’t go to an internet cafe for example and leave the PC signed into a website with your card details saved on screen, the PS3 should be no different!
Also while you were logged into the Store via the PC does it not let you change your password? The simple thing to combat a PS3 with an auto sign-in left on would be to change the password so the one saved in the PS3 no longer matches the system.
From my experience it’s best to be civil to Customer Services reps, they are not the ones that nicked your money and they can only tell you what they’ve been told to. Swearing and being insulting is a sure fire way to make your CS experience more difficult, if you treat them with some respect they’ll probably be more willing to help you with your query.
But never having had a problem with my PS3 I’ve never spoken to them myself so I’ll reserve judgment, but the fact remains you should never rely on someone else to look after your personal data – you should have never sent that PS3 back with your account set to auto sign-in, and if it had come to me in a fresh-install state I’d have gone so far as to perform a full format of the drive before sending it back…
September 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Vin any Owner are obviously correct….
HOWEVER, one who insists upon doing business with a company whose bzns “ethics” are such as those shown by Sony in the past really kinda deserve what they get!
September 8th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Remember the good old days when video games consoles were actually for playing games, rather than being an entertainment “portal” for pretty much everything but games?
September 8th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
UPDATE – MYSTERY SOLVED: So this morning I got a voice mail from Sony’s PR firm up in Seattle. They had the answer for me. The aforementioned PR nag that just left this firm did not leave with the PS3 tucked under his arm. He shipped it off to their Seattle office. A very chagrined employee of said firm called me to say that he had mistakenly used my account to demo the purchase of a game from the Sony store — hence the mystery charge for $29.99. He said they’d work with Sony to get the charge removed without my having to go through the whole suspended card rigamarole. They’re also going to wipe my identity off the machine in question, though it will retain its ghostly presence on the Sony network.
So, that’s good news for me. And it appears the Sony PlayStation Store can remove charges, despite what its tech support folks say, or what it says in its terms of service. But it leaves the issue of the Sony tech support’s bad service and really bad advice. No one’s likely to be fixing that any time soon.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I also learned the hard way about creating accounts for reviewing products. I remember a major mishap when I was reviewing Ultima Online for a magazine in Japan.
As stated in this article, when you are an editor for an print or online magazine, often companies will give you free software and or hardware (joysticks, Mice, etc…) to get you to review their products. The problem comes, when they want to get you to review a MMORPG type online game with monthly charges.
There are usually three methods in which games like these are reviewed.
The first method, is for the game developer to allow the reviewer access on their Beta server- everyone plays for free, and any problems in gameplay can be linked to the software still being in Beta.
The second method, is for the developer to grant “free” accounts. This is usually popular with the writers, in that they don’t need to play the game on “their dime”. The downside is that some magazine and readers feel that this causes the writers to have a biased view on the game, and makes them soft in their reviews.
The third method, is for the writer to create his own account, with his credit card info (this happens a lot). This allows for a purely unbiased review of the game, as the writer is playing the game as any “real” player would. This also happens a lot in overseas markets, where the reseller can not get access to special accounts to allow for “free” gameplay. The problem with this, is that most of these games (at that time) require that you register a credit card, even if you are only registering.
In my case, when I reviewed Ultima Online, I was required to make an account with the game. Most MMORPG games come with a free month or two to play included in the price, as did Ultima Online, and I figured that I would cancel my account after the review.
Two months passed, I finished the review, and loosing any interest on continuing the game for a monthly fee, I canceled my account, and uninstalled the game.
A couple of months passed, and I noticed that I was being charged a monthly fee for Ultima Online. Surprised, I reinstalled the game and tried to logon, only to be told that the account information did not exist. I then tried through the web account, to access my account information, and was told that my password was wrong.
Repeated Emails to EA in the US went unanswered, and it took over a year, and an official EA office in Japan, before I was able to get them to stop charging my account.
The lesson is…Beware of who you give your credit information to, or you will pay for it.
Just my two cents