Today I felt the urge to finally buy an Armitage. It's a beautiful ship, after all, and as a flight deck escort, it is possibly an escort that I could tolerate to command.

So I went to the PWE site to buy a few ZEN. What, no option to draw the money directly from my bank account, as Cryptic did just 4 weeks ago when I bought my LTS? Ah, but credit cards, VISA and Mastercard. Fine, fine. Just enter the credit card info and... Sigh. Why does it not accept... ah, typo. Still not accept? Ah, VISA is predefined, while I use MC. Okay. now... what's broken now? They want me to set up another password? Just for dealing with a third party that I barely know and that then stores my credit card info? Okay. No money spent here today. Your loss, guys.

If you want my money: Get back the direct drawing from the bank account that is common usage in Europe - every single online dealer with at least some dignity uses it over here.

Or accept my credit card info without having someone else story data about me. I do business with you, so you can keep some information required for the transaction. But no third parties. That looks not only fishy, but also is terribly uncomfortable to use.

This is direct user and customer feedback for the payment system. I have no questions, I do not want to discuss it, I don't even want to listen to any well-meant "it is for your security" advice or whatever. I just want to tell PWE how they today did not earn money from me, possibly pointing them into the direction where they might get money from me again. Read it, payment people at PWE, understand it, and then earn your salary by drawing whatever conclusion seems appropriate to you.

http://www.pwe-inc.com/contact

https://support.perfectworld.com/app/ask

I just use the PayPal option. That's a 3rd party I've done business with for years and have some real trust in...

I would use PayPal but it seems to be disabled for me.

My issue is that every option, including paypal, wants my phone number. What for, exactly?

Unless they answer me soon, I will be leaving as a customer.

Just give 'em the number I often use... 978-654-3210

Agreed. You may have noted that we never see any PW folks here in the forums.

In fact I would go the first URL over the second. Only their GMs are going to read a ticket and 99% they'll just bin it.

If of course you ever see this.

Isn;t that one of the items most security checks are done against with online credit cards?

I just get one of the free voice mails from the net somewhere.

I think to prevent issues like last year's cryptic database hack in which they were unsure if the hackers got any CC details, PWE itself do not directly handle credit cards but rather use 3rd parties to handle these. The third parties are specialist payment processors are expected to be more on the ball with regards to securing financial data than a publishing house (which is effectively what PWE is in the US)

if not interested in advice do not post on an open forum. That is what the various support pages and contact addresses are for.