Sony has got itself in hot water with one of its users, after enforcing a strict anti-refund policy even though the company itself had acknowledged that he had been hacked and payments had been made using his credit card without his permission.
Also See: Hatred Put Back Up on Steam by Valve, Gabe Newell Allegedly Issues Apology to Developer
A PS4 owner going by the name of “Pockets” received an email from Sony after explaining that funds had been taken out of his bank account by the company without his permission. After researching, the company discovered that the payments were made using a console that wasn’t registered under the user’s name, as it featured a completely different serial code. The user, who had seemingly hacked into Pockets’ account and obtained his personal information, had used his money to purchase Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor for the PS3 – a console that Pockets doesn’t even own.
Despite acknowledging that the game was purchased fraudulently, Sony then stated that the company does not offer refunds for PSN purchases, therefore meaning that he would not receive his money back. Pockets then contacted Sony’s customer service, with the company again stating that they did believe the game was purchased without his permission, though they had no “proof” regarding the matter and, according to Pockets during the phone call, had not proceeded to investigate the method further.
“Your company policy is effectively ‘we’re just going to assume all of our customers are lying at every possible opportunity, and even if we assume something is fraud, we’re still going to assume that they’re lying,'” Pockets says during the call.
Listen to it in its entirety below:
The email response Sony sent to Pockets is as follows:
“In relation to the transactions you recently flagged as unauthorised, our investigation concluded that the serial number of the console on which these transactions were made does not match the serial number of the console you provided to us on your original call. Regrettably, as stated in the PlayStation Network Terms of Service, we are unable to offer a refund for purchases made on PlayStation Store unless the content is found to be defective. We have taken the appropriate action against the console which made the purchase but unfortunately we cannot share the details of this console with you for security purposes.”
In a statement released to GameStyle, Pockets writes: “A week later I had heard nothing so called again and was ‘reassured’ that they were very busy but that the matter would be resolved soon. So I waited. This alone seems like a very poor response to fraud to me, having previously worked in the field for a credit card company, but so be it.
“Today I received an email outlining the findings of Sony’s investigation which pointed out that the purchase had indeed occurred on a console other than my own but that they cannot refund me as they only do that if the software is faulty. So as long as the game the hacker bought with my money works it’s all okay apparently.”
The call ended with Pockets still, ahem, out of pocket, with Sony’s policy still not allowing him to receive a refund on a game he doesn’t own.
