Cannot purchase SQUARE ENIX Crysta with PayPal

– unresolved, as of 24 Dec 2013 –

Cannot purchase SQUARE ENIX Crysta with PayPal

Recently, starting since last month – November 2013 – I’ve been having recurring problem in purchasing SQUARE ENIX Crysta using PayPal (through UltimatePay and PlaySpan). The characteristic of the problem is that my payment keeps getting cancelled at the last step.

–          I logged into Square Enix account management.
–          I went to “Add Crysta” page and selected UltimatePay and then PayPal – PayPal log in screen pops up as usual.
–          I logged in to my PayPal account.
–          I confirmed the amount of money I want to pay and proceeded to “Pay Now.”
–          In Square Enix Crysta purchase window, instead of showing message for completion of purchase, it shows error saying PayPal rejected my payment.
–          The message says “PayPal Express CheckoutError PayPal Express Checkout has rejected your payment attempt. Please select another way to pay. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

This happens every day for many days, until I gave up and used credit card to directly pay for my Crysta.

But WAIT, after failing many times in buying Crysta into my account, I tried to buy Crysta for my friend, into her Square Enix account, and it was successful in first try. So I retried my account again, and still failed.

Something is weird here. Same PayPal account, same payment method, buying same product (Crysta), yet my own account kept getting the purchase cancelled while my friend’s was fine like it should be?

First, I contacted Square Enix Support, telling them all the details. They told me sorry, but the purchase is handled and managed by UltimatePay, so that’s where I should head for technical support.

I thought my problem might go away after a month, so I didn’t contact them until 2 days ago. I had to contact them because the problem still exists. This month, I still cannot pay for my own Crysta. And guess what, I had no problem in paying for Haku’s Crysta. Ugh, what gives?

Anyway, I contacted UltimatePay and they got back to me, asking for transaction ID and stuff. I told them the information I needed, and they were able to find my cancelled transaction history. I also told them, after exchanging a few emails, that I had another successful transaction, and asked them to help spot the difference that made my purchase cancel while Haku’s purchase was successful.

They eventually replied saying “Please know that online transactions are processed automatically by the system. Since this process is automated, the system has several inbuilt security filters which verify the online transaction to ensure a safe and error free transaction. If the criteria set by these security filters are not met, the order gets declined. We suggest that you wait a full 48 hours before attempting a new payment. If the system still rejects your payment, you will need to select a different payment option available in your country to complete your purchase.” Which means they cannot help me troubleshoot my problem by comparing the failed and the successful transactions to eliminate possibilities.

They gave me a list of why would a transaction be considered suspicious for the automated system which would then lead to it getting rejected:

-You email address is linked to more than one account
-You have exceeded the amount of payments you are able to send in a specific period of time
-You have exceeded the dollar amount you are able to send in a specific period of times
-Your PayPal account is being used to make payments for more than one account
-You have placed too many unsuccessful orders for your account in a short period of time

-You email address is linked to more than one account : FALSE, if it means SQEN account or UltimatePay account.
-You have exceeded the amount of payments you are able to send in a specific period of time : FALSE, I haven’t made any payment for several days before and while trying to buy Crysta.
-You have exceeded the dollar amount you are able to send in a specific period of times : FALSE, it was just 10 dollars.
-Your PayPal account is being used to make payments for more than one account : TRUE
-You have placed too many unsuccessful orders for your account in a short period of time : FALSE, it’s been rejected since my first attempt.

So, this is the only checklist I have for trying to find where the problem stemmed from. I doubt I would get any better support from them, since they insisted that the transaction was processed with automated system and that I should try again in 48 hours.

I then contacted PayPal, describing the whole situation, and asked if there’s something wrong with my PayPal account that would make the transaction get cancelled. They said there is nothing wrong with my PayPal and that the transactions have been all cancelled by the merchant.

So it seems my quest to fix this problem has run into a dead end.

T.T

I shall update about this later if I get any more useful (or disappointing) information.