Topic: Playstation UK Support is Terrible

Sorry if this isn't the right place but it's clear I'm not going to get help from Sony so I just need to rant about their awful customer service.

I've heard its bad in the past but have never had to use it, and between being a big Sony fan and having exemplary experiences with Microsoft and Nintendo in the past I kind of just brushed it off as "it can't be that bad".

So last Wednesday when this months PS+ games went live, I logged into the webstore, added all the games to my basket and went to checkout, as I do every month. The total was 0.00 as it always is.

About 5 hours later, I got an email saying "Funds have been successfully added to your wallet" I opened the email and it said I had spent £9.99 on my account, which I had not. I emailed them asking why I had been charged the money and received:

"Thanks, we've got your e-mail. Unfortunately we're a little busier than normal and it may take us longer to get back to you than usual. Don't worry though, one of our team will be in touch as soon as possible!"

Ok no problem, I'll wait. Two days pass, and I get an email asking for my PSN name and date of birth so they can confirm they're speaking to me. I respond with this information, then receive the same email asking for my information 4 times throughout the day, a few hours apart. I reply saying that I have already given this information and am just waiting for help with by billing issue, when I get this:

"Thanks for your e-mail about PlayStation Network (PSN).

I can see from your e-mail that you'd like to know when a PlayStation Store will be available in [COUNTRY]. Unfortunately PlayStation Store is not currently available in [COUNTRY], but we're busy rolling out PlayStation Store services to more countries than ever before. As I'm sure you'll understand, this is a complicated and time consuming process as we comply with local laws on what can be published as well as the localisation of each piece of content."

What??!

At that point I decide to give up and call on the phone. The guy explains to me that I was charged £9.99 for Hohokum. I say "can you confirm I am a Playstation Plus subscriber and the game was free on the IGC at the time?" He says "yes." "Why was I charged then?" I ask and he responds that "the server may not have updated, which would keep the original price there". I explain this shouldn't be legal as the price was listed as 0.00 and he says it must have said £9.99. I know this isn't true but obviously don't have a screenshot or any way to argue it. I argue that even if it did say £9.99, the game was in the Instant Game Collection at the time and I was a subscriber so I should still be refunded right? There's no way I should be charged for a game that is provided free as part of a subscription I am paying for. He says he will forward my request to the billing team and they will get back to me soon on whether or not I can get a refund. This was now a week ago today and nobody has gotten back to me. I emailed today with my Incident Number and asking whether there was any progress on the decision of whether or not to refund me.

The response :

"Thanks for your e-mail about PlayStation game "Hohokum".

We've received your e-mail and I confirm you that your case is in progress since yesterday when you phoned us for the first time. One of our team will be in touch with you shortly to discuss it with you further. "

That's the first meaningful response I've had from them, one week after the initial contact, so at least that's some kind of progress. But why would it take a week to authorise a refund? I've given up on the money at this point since I'm clearly not going to get it back, but I'm not doing great financially at the moment and certainly can't afford to throw a tenner down the drain. It's not even the money that annoys me any more, it's their complete inability to give a sensible answer. A lot of companies would say "blah blah Terms and Conditions blah blah blah can't refund you unfortunately" which would be annoying when incorrectly charged but at least it would be a response and the issue could be put to rest!

Anyone else had any experiences like this with Sony support? Or more importantly has anyone had a GOOD experience with them? I work in customer services myself and cannot comprehend how they make it so complicated!

That sucks but I tend to expect little in the way of customer support from these kind of corporations.

On the plus side it was only a tenner, you'll be alreet!

Only experience I've had is when my analog sticks degraded and the analog started moving (on screen) on its own. And they sent me a shipping label and I sent my controller off and got a refurbished one within a week.