Credit card safety

hé

tell your dad he's doing O.K. always triple check if you are not being fooled or anything.... unfortunatly i'm but a simpel player who pre-orderd the game

all i can say is, it is legal.... should anything go wrong u can contact Support and they will help u out.

BTW,
why would you want to Download the game instead of buying it from a GameShop (another proof it is safe, it's avaible in the stores!!!!   )

...and stuff CAN go wrong.

I just bought the game via the online shop 2 days ago. After finalizing the purchase, I got no confirmation email. So I decided to login on the shop account and see the status of my order - and it told me that I didn't have an account (though I specifically mentioned I wanted an account as well). When I tried to create one using the same email address, it told me that there already was an account using it.

All in all, I got no email with the serial number. And yesterday morning, I saw that my bank account had been charged with the appropriate amount. So no I'm at a point where I paid for the game, and got nothing in return.

Waiting for a response from their support department.

I am Norwegian and the game is not available in Europe, kinda desperate you see!

Well, there's always the digital download version, which I tried to buy.

I'll probably know on Monday if that's just a way to get people's money, or if you actually get the game as well.

Stardock is a regular company, theres no need to worry about them scamming you. Ive been buying things over the internet with my credit card for 10 years now, as long as you stick to well known things such as amazon or new egg, or physical stores online counterparts (best buy, etc), or buy things direct from companies themselves (such as stardock=p), you should be okay. I would avoid some seedy middle-men type things however, and be ware of small name online businesses that you don't make sure you check out first.

The only things that can go wrong is random bizarre screwup, which will get fixed but just take time, or if you have some sort of virus i guess that will steal your information. So make sure you scan your computer well first if you are paranoid.

I have scanned my computer, I do so on a daily basis, and also sent an e-mail to Mastercard to be as sure as I can. In this day and age computer-paranoia seems necesary

Here's the details on the screwup on their online shop, just to realize how odd it is:

1. I go in the shop and select the digital version, in order to buy it
2. It's added to the shopping cart
3. I proceed to checkout
4. I have no account on the shop, so I opt for creating one, in order to track my order
5. I enter all the info, click on checkout
6. I get the "purchase confirmed" message
7. I check my email, and nothing
8. Since I opted for creating the account, I try to login and check the status of the order
9. When trying to login, I get a message telling me that there's no such account using that email address
10. Since I find that odd, I try creating a NEW account, using the very same email address - obviously it tells me I can't use it since it's already in use
11. Next logical step, I try using the "forgot password" option, and I get an email with the new password
12. I try logging in with the password in the email, and my account gets locked out due to "incorrect credentials"
13. I check my bank account statement and I see that the money transfer went through
14. I write their support department about this

So they have my money, and I don't have their game. Now I'm waiting for a reply from them.

Well my bank has a E-Card service so I get a new Visa card number every time I order something so I am at least protected against someone hijacking my card number.

Besides, if you notice that someone is charging your card you can always initiate a charge back.

If he is worried that someone might steal his card number he can always get a second card that is kept empty until you want to purchase something over the net, just remember to remove the credit option. Thats what most of my friends are doing, they can still get scammed but at least no one can steal their cad numbers and go around buying things.



If a company want to be able to accept credit cards without having to go through a review every time a customer places a order they have to fulfill certain security obligations, if they don't Visa or Mastercard tends to be pretty quick to complain.

I haven't really checked but when I placed my SoaSE order they fulfilled all the standard security checks. I also can't find any Visa or Mastercard warning against Stardock so I think Stardock can be considered a reputable dealer.

Well, I plan to purchase the CE box as well, so I am pretty sure I will get the game

Try PayPal, hasn't failed me.

The store accounts are separate from SDC accounts, and are only really for saving your details for later purchases. To see if you got your serial but just didn't get the email for some reason, enter your email address at http://support.stardock.com to resend the email, or log in with an SDC account using the same email as you did on the store, and check the My Account->Registrations page.

Tudydamian, silly question.... did you use the right e-mail address? I know I have a terrible issue with typo's sometimes, and I don't think they had a double-confirm dialog box waaaaaay back when when I made my account. (For GalCiv, so its probably changed...)

yep i used paypal... stardock will never see my credit card info that way . . ..

@Ron Lugge: Well, since their site tells me that the address is already in use by another account whenever I try to create a new one, I think I pretty much managed to enter the correct email address in their form (twice).

@kryo: Thanks for the tip. The account on the store oddly got locked while I tried to logon with the reset password. But I went to support.stardock.com and had the info emailed again. I got "Lookup Successful - Your order records have been located in our database. They have been emailed to your email address. If you do not receive this email within the hour, please contact [email protected]."

Nothing in my inbox yet, but it's only been 20 minutes.

Yup. Got the email. And checked the "Registrations" page. They have the account allright, but apparently there are no products registered to that email address. That's odd, since my card got charged for the purchase.

I can't login on the Store account - since whenever I reset the pass using the "forgot password" option and then try to login using the info I get in my email, I get a message saying "Sorry, You have reached the maximum number of failed logon attempts and will not be able to proceed."

So I guess it's back to waiting for an answer on my ticket from support...

The buying process was a bit complicated, but that was the only flaw. The security was of a high standard throughout the transaction and there is no requirement to let them keep the credit card number for future purchases... which might otherwise be of some concern to your father. Bottom line, it is safe for him to buy you the game with a credit card.

Did you use a different email address on the store than you use on your SDC account? If so, then it won't automatically link. You'll need to contact [email protected] and request a merge if that's the case.

I never had a problem by using the credit card with Stardock, and I've been purchasing things there since 2003. It's secure and easy to use IMO.

@kyro: I used the same email address both on the site and in the store.

I've already contacted support regarding this issue, and I've been waiting for a reply for them since Friday (well, I don't really expect an answer until tomorrow, since it's a weekend).

...and you have reps like kryo trying to help users at this very moment...

What a service!

I've purchased games from Stardock online multiple times. It's actually an easier way to get a game and expansions that come out for it.

The only sites I've ever had credit card issues with are dating sites. Luckily I'm not having to deal with those anymore.

I have bought a few Stardock products already with my Credit Card. Had no problem so far.

Well, first Stardock purchase here. Which is not really going as I planned...

I tried buying the game yesterday ( digital download ) and i tried twice and it said my card was rejected twice but when i checked the balance on my card i was charged twice. Waiting for their reply.....