I’m not one to kick someone when they are down… but this is pretty hilarious.
Let me rephrase what SOE was trying to say:
Dear not-really-valued money-source,
Due to our technical incompetence, we kinda gave the internet your personal info, and probably your credit card, bank account, and key to the front door. We can’t say for sure on the CC end, because, um, we don’t have a clue what’s actually going on, but like, odds are good you are F’ed on that end as well. Haha, our B.
Luckily for most of you, if someone was going to use your CC info, clear your bank, or walk into your house to murder you at night, they would have already done so, since this actually happened a while ago and we are just now getting around to telling you. Haha, our B again. Hope you dodged that murder!
As a world-wide leader (hahaha, man I can’t believe we still say that) of online ‘entertainment’ (hahaha), we would like to make up for this potentially really minor possible interruption that most likely you did not notice by offering a truly special and amazing offer: all of our cash shop junk is now cheaper!
That’s right sheep, err, money-sources, err customers, we, the world-wide leader are giving you the very special opportunity to give us more money (one day only)! Take advantage of our extreme generosity now, and be sure to enter a new credit card since your last one just got canceled. Don’t worry, it’s totally safe! Promise!
Your friends-to-the-end (soon),
SOE
It’s getting hard to lace sarcasm into SOE announcements because they do such a damn good job of it already, but one must try, for the good of the people.
Just to refresh everyone’s memory, when my Rift account got hacked, it took Trion all of about one day to fix everything, they quickly and fully disclosed what happened, thanked the fans who helped them solve the issue, and gave everyone affected 30 days of game time + free in-game stuff. So more or less a discount on spending real money on vanity pets. Basically.
SOE: Because the bar can never be too low!
Hardcore Casual 
Well, technically, SOE is getting boned by Sony Computer Entertainment America (the PlayStation people, who also oversee SOE) because SCEA insists on handling all the money transactions that go through PlayStation Network. This is (supposedly) why PC and PS3 DCUO players have to play on different servers.
I’m not shy about giving SOE crap, but it is their lords and masters at SCEA that run the PSN and screwed the pooch. SOE just has to clean up after them.
I won’t allow your facts to ruin my rant good sir!
(And, while the hacking might not be SOE, the compensation is. And that part is still a total joke)
Just change the title to SCEA: Because Somebody Has To Make Microsoft Look Good.
I think that is actually considerably more insulting.
Does not contain enough Blizzard bashing though.
Syn good rant and great sarcasm.
Let this be a lesson to all NEVER NEVER EVER give any online service a Debit Card or Bank account ABA number.
Never NEVER, by the Fair Credit Reporting Act you have max liability on Credit Cards of $50 a day.
You have NO such limitation of losses on direct billing to Debit or Bank Accounts.
Please stop the madness now.
I heartily endorse this angry financial advice.
My credit union has been trying to force a debit card on me for a few years. I have no interest in even having one.
Debit cards make zero sense to me. Why would you ever use a debit card and get nothing for using it when you can use a CC, make interest on your money during the time the CC company is paying for whatever you bought, AND get bonus cash back for using the CC?
I think one of my cards has like a 900% interest rate, and whenever I mention it to people they always ask “How do you afford that?!?”. People, PAY THE THING OFF MONTHLY, it’s not hard.
I mean look, I’m glad others don’t, the CC company makes money, and hence I can get nice rewards, but man, I just don’t get it. Why do people have money in the bank and make min payments? That’s just so wrong…
And another thing to add…
IF someone compromises your account who has incentive to fix it?
With Debit/Bank account YOU the consumer absorb all losses up to your account balance AND what credit line the bank helpfully provides you for “overdraft protection”.
With a Credit Card the BANK takes the biggest losses… you can guess which departments are staffed 24/7 to prevent fraud losses.
I totally hear you, Syn. I have never once in my life NOT paid off the entire amount every month.
The bank doesn’t consider me a good customer though, because they obviously get nothing from me. A friend of mine, who has more money than sense and pays just the minimum plus interest every month (Lord knows how much he owes now), frequently gets letters from the bank telling him he’s the bestest customer in the world and here are some more offers!
That would be nice. But having been underemployed for a few years after years of being a student combined with having a disease that requires constant maintenance, the choice for me has generally been between running up more debt than I can pay in a month or ending up dead or in a coma.
While generally the hospital doesn’t charge interest, it’s still a lot more efficient to exchange debt for massive health problems — debt can be reversed, or at worst, bankruptcy can erase it. There’s no reset button on my body.
Jussayin’. I mean, your friend may very well not need to carry that balance, but some of us have to choose between debt or death.
Not to make light of a serious situation, but I would say debt or death situations are not the norm, nor the customer base the CC companies are aiming at. I’m guessing if we looked at a CC companies database, most of those holding a balance do so because they just don’t know any better, which IS the target audience.
I think you’d be surprised.
I’ve been using debit cards since the early 1980s. In this country the financial advice has always been to avoid credit cards wherever possible and always use debit cards. I’ve found them far more convenient than credit cards and much better for financial management. And at least I know my liability is limited to what I have in the account.
I have a credit card too, but I try to use it as little as possible. One of the few things I do use it for, however, is MMO subscriptions. If we could get game cards over here for the games I subscribe to, I would use those instead. I already decided not to give Apple any of my financial details and now Amazon cards are available on the High Street here, they probably won’t be getting any fo me new card numbers either.
On the subject of SOE and Sony in general, it’s very sad what’s happenng to Sony. It’s not just the gaming side, the whole of their business seems to be in various kinds of trouble. Since they make or distribute virtually all of my all-time favorite MMOs I’d like to see them on the up, not on the slide.
Different country, different laws.
In the US your liability is limited to $50 in the case of fraudulent usage, and only if you do not report the fraud within 90 days.
The same now (finally) applies to debit cards in the US, but the money is gone from your account until the bank finishes its investigation. That could make paying the mortgage a bit tricky if they are slow. (And they are always slow when it is your money.)
Plus, you may think your liability is limited to what is in the account, but a lot of banks here will let you go into the red as an overdraft.
Finally, in the US, banks are still using the easily cracked magnetic strip cards rather than going to the chip and pin system that works so well at preventing fraud in the EU. I gather that the cost of fraud is not enough to make the banks invest in a more secure system.
So basically, I use a credit card because I am playing with somebody elses money, I pay it all off at the end of the month, and they give me airline miles for my trouble.
Isn’t anonymous the culprit? I thought they declared war on Sony due to them prosecuting some internet guy or somethin.
“Dear not-really-valued money-source”
Absolute gold! I’m going to start all my correspondance to my employer this way from now on.
I might have spoken too soon. All the SOE sites are down today for “security hardening.”
They said they discovered a security weakness they need to fix. I am sure it wasn’t discovered because it had somehow previously been exploited.