Holy Cow! An Apology and Compensation from Mythic

An apology from Mythic Entertainment

Hello everyone,

Two weeks ago, a serious event occurred which resulted in the unintended billing of some of our customers. For this and any difficulties the event caused, we are truly sorry and today we wish to explain what happened, and to make a renewed commitment to your trust and security. We have taken this very seriously. In our 15 year history, trust has been the foundation of our relationship with the gaming community and we intend to rebuild that trust.

Between March 18 and April 7, our payment gateway, experienced a processing flaw that was beyond the scope of our control. Instead of being submitted for processing once, some transactions were submitted multiple times, resulting in some people being charged multiple times. On April 8, we determined what had happened and acted with urgency to arrange for bulk reversal of all erroneous charges. The majority of players saw the refund within 2-3 business days. Some banks did not post refunds until a few days later, a delay that was contingent on the banking institution. We worked quickly to inform affected players of the situation and understand the frustration this waiting period may have caused.

As a result of this event, we significantly increased customer service staffing who have been working with all impacted subscribers to waive any overdraft fees. The majority of the banks have waived these fees as they recognize the unusual nature of this event. In the rare cases that the banks have not reversed the charges, EA is covering the fee.

Once the corrective action was completed, we turned our attention to analyzing the problem in more detail. We determined the root cause, developed a definitive fix and implemented monitoring precautions that will allow us to prevent similar situations from reoccurring. These steps have been in place since April 13 with no further issues.

To be clear, at no point during this event was there a security breach or was subscriber account information compromised.

As of today, we believe we have resolved the issue. However, we remain committed to assisting anyone who has been financially affected in ways we are not aware. For any players still in need of assistance, please contact our Billing Support department by calling 650-628-1001 from 10:00 AM EDT - 10:00 PM EDT, 7 days a week. For those outside of the U.S. who do not wish to make an international call, please create an in-game appeal; for instructions on how to file an appeal click here.

Over the past 15 years we have always strived to do what’s best for our players. We are truly sorry, and want to work to make things right and restore our relationship. We hope you will accept this small token of our appreciation for your continued commitment to our games:

FOR WARHAMMER ONLINE PLAYERS
For starters all players will earn 100% bonus experience and renown when killing enemies and monsters for two weeks. As well, during this time we’ll be hard at work designing and implementing a special vendor. This vendor will only accept special tokens that will be sent to your mailbox, using these two tokens each of your characters will be able to receive two of the following items:

* Bottomless Black Dye
* Bottomless White Dye
* Imperial Griffon Mount (Order)
* Enslaved Manticore Mount (Destruction)
* WAR Tract – earn a free level
* Choose from any of these pets – Order: Imperial Hunting Hound or Dwarf Keg Handler; Destruction: Warlord’s Fell Hound or the Goblin Bar-Back.
* Change your appearance with any of these illusion items: Skaven Skin Cloak (skaven), Kossar’s Helm (bear), or the Signet of the Cursed Company (skeleton)

FOR DAOC PLAYERS
For starters all players will earn 100% bonus experience, bounty and realm points when killing enemies and monsters for two weeks. As well, during this time we’ll be hard at work designing and implementing a special NPC. This NPC will allow each of your characters to select two of the following items:

* Bottomless Black Dye
* Bottomless Crimson Dye (Albion), Hunter Green Dye (Hibernia), and Royal Blue Dye (Midgard)
* A selection of rare mounts: The Fire Steed, Clockwork Steed, and Storm Steed
* Choose from any of these pets – Clockwork Cat, a Mini-Dragon, and a pet of your realm.
* Vegas Round Table Trophy
* The Old Dragon Heads of Smoldering Golestandt (Albion), Frozen Gjalpinulva (Midgard), and Glimmering Culldurach (Hibernia)

Please accept this gesture as a step towards rebuilding our relationship. From all of us at Mythic, we thank you for your time, your commitment, and your trust that helps us to make great games year after year.
Thank you,
Jeff Hickman

I wonder if this applies to current characters only? I may fill up each server with new guys Just so they get the stuff if I ever decide to play them.

There goes the value of the mounts to the folks that had the EXCLUSIVE mounts via recruitment. Also the value of being in a high level guild just went south a bit. Plus we just lost one of the last gold sinks in the game, purchasing a mount. Also, if you have any black or white dyes you wanna sell, better do it now! On top of that the xp/rp bonus is a wash...don't forget, Destro gets it too! To me this compensation is a bad idea. That being said, the fact that Mythic basically said,"We screwed up, we're sorry, here is a token of our apology", means a lot.

The real bitch is that This effected my wifes account not mine. She doesn't even play warhammer anymore and I was the one footing the bill :\. Man that bottemless black die would be nice.

That sucks Ben. I hadn't thought about the effect on former players. Guess the griffon doesn't hold too much water with her in the way of an apology.

I would have let them take out some money and the put it back to get those benefits. I think I will call them and complain. ;)

One thing that I do find quite humorous, is that in many ways, this is bringing to light how many people were NOT victims of the over billing. On some of the threads, there are quite a few people that are now complaining because they weren't charged multiple times and don't get the items. In fact, in one of the threads one of the people complaining about not being affected was one of the more vocal people wanting Mythic to burn down because of the error.

I'll be interested to see how many effected accounts dont get the compensation....then let the bitching begin. Have they said when these changes will be instituted? I have no new mail. :)

Im Thinking that the people that called about being over Billed will be the only ones that will get compensation or Mythic will soon make it seem that way. and the ones that did not call but still got over billed and did not check but got thare money back and got Credit cuz thay 1# got alot of money in the bank. 2# have a CC will get thare statement soon anyways Will not get Comped thiniking only going for the people effected in RL but im sure thay will mess it up I do feel bad for the people that got over billed that live from paycheck to paycheck

its late night here so mabey i just missed something when i read the part about the special vendors but from my sleepy point of view i didnt see anything in there saying that only those that where effected would be the only ones getting the special tokens to buy this stuff the way it read to me was that every one would have access to the stuff

You are right it reads like everyone will get them but in a later forum post James stated that Everyone gets the buff but only those effected get the tokens.

The 100% XP and 100% renown is fine with me. I wasn't charged but I was sweating bullets waiting to get charged.

"War Tract - earn a free level"... is this the same item from Empire chapter 10 that can be used to boost your guild rank up if your character is already Lv.40?

» Edited on: 2010-04-22 22:33:22

That scroll doesn't give extra exp to your guild anymore. Apparently, it was a short-lived thing... :(

Yeah I think it was a bug and it got patched. Using it at 39 still gives a nice chunk of exp to the guild.

Wait there is another one at the ch10 camp. only know of the one at the ch4 camp