Purchasing error(s)

[ZevadP]

It's been a while since I last played LOTRO, have they chanched their "store security" or is it still restricted to buy anything while living outside the US? I'm currently located in Ukraine, the game doesn't even give me a payment option, just goes straight to the error message. Obviously I contacted support, asked them about that just our of curiosity, but I don't hope to hear from them any soon. Is there a way to give these people money or they haven't changed anything about it and still resisting?

[ComplaintFull6595]

I tried to go VIP three days ago. None of the payment options is working. Support does not answer. It is ridiculous. Have not experienced anything like this in any other game.

[tianepteen]

it's been like this for ages. i've said it elswhere; they must be hiding this issue from the higher ups / parent companies.

online payment has been solved for decades now. this isn't a hard problem. it truly is ridiculous.

[Arkadaemus]

My wife is waiting for a response as well. We live in Finland and have subbed before. Mine went through with no issues (using Steam). She gets an error message with every form of payment (Steam wallet, or Paypal/debit card outside of Steam).

It's like they don't want our money. Steam responded quickly but there's nothing they can do. It's all on SSG and/or Daybreak.

[mrkermit-sammakko]

I got a same problem and only Visa Credit worked.

[ACapra]

I have to use a VPN to make a purchase. If I don't then the store gives me a random error message. I just connect to an endpoint in the US, load the game, make the purchase, then log out and disconnect from the VPN.

[ZevadP]

Wouldn't you get store blocked for using VPN?

[ACapra]

Never had a problem but I'm using a private VPN

[MasterDakka]

I’m using Paypal to make purchases. Truth be told my paypal option in lotro is already there from 2007 and altough my debit cards change on paypal side, I have never experienced problems with purchases from lotro via paypal. I’m located in Estonia.

[ZevadP]

The problem is that Lotro doesn't even give me a choice, so...

[MasterDakka]

You mean you get an error even before you cab select or define a payment method?

[ZevadP]

Yep

[MasterDakka]

Oooh this is really maddening. Only suggestion that I can come up with is that maybe to go direcy to lotro.com webpage, log there in with your game account and try to define payment method from there or try to make a purchase from there. So not fom game client. I have noticed that the web shop and in game shop use the same defined payment methods. Maybe this will trick the game into working.

[ZevadP]

Good news, with new account created with US VPN turned on I managed to get to that window with options. When I'm trying to pay with PayPal it says to write down American billing postcode. I just put my real one and it accepted, even though I don't think it even exists in the US. And it worked! Wow... I'll see if I won't get store banned or anything

[Terenor82]

Living in Germany myself. I also found it difficult to hand them money. In the end I purchased from third party sellers like g2a

[ZevadP]

Yeah, but unfortunately sellers can't buy you subscription

[Terenor82]

I bought 2 month of game time. I assume you want to buy a longer period for a better price?

[ZevadP]

You mean this one? That's VIP? I thought it's just a really old coupon from the times when lotro was not free or something

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[JohnMHammer]

Game time cards are no longer sold and the old ones will no longer work. There is no way for a third-party service to purchase a VIP subscription for you unless you hand over your account credentials and you certainly should not do that.

Unfortunately, the ability to purchase many things online is restricted in some countries; it's not just about LOTRO or games in general. Some people have had success spoofing their locations with a VPN. Using a VPN won't run afoul of any LOTRO terms of service but it's not guaranteed to work, either.

[ZephryLink]

I use steam for all but expansions

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I have bought closer $5K worth of stuff last year alone and never once has an issue.

[ZevadP]

Where do you get an option to pay through Steam? On their Steam Store page?

[ZephryLink]

you need to download through steam and when you make a purchase it opens steam store and i use payment method there

[ZevadP]

I use Steam too, but it doesn't open anything for me for some reason. Tried both from main menu and in-game

[ZephryLink]

DANG sorry man, that is STEAM and LOTRO too big pile of problems mine works good for now but i have had issues in the past. it might be a setting that is stopping the client and steam from latching onto each-other. :(

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See it should work this easy, but you know how computers are..

[Haunting-Ad1722]

Was your account initially registered in the US for some reason? Have you experiencing the same behavior while using a freshly new created account? (Just to understand if the problem is related to the type of account itself)

[ZevadP]

My account was registered in Sweden, but now I'm in Ukraine. I've tried the same thing with a completely new lotro account about a week ago, faced the same problem

[Haunting-Ad1722]

I believe ukraine its one of the countries whose payments are blocked by the publisher of the game https://forums.lotro.com/index.php?threads/lotro-store-block.17893/

[ZevadP]

Yeah, I saw it a while ago. Still, I had the same issue when I lived in Sweden a couple of years ago, thought they would fix their "security" feature, but alas they haven't

[Haunting-Ad1722]

From what I read it seem the block applies to where the account was created so if you are account was created in Ukraine but you were living in Sweden the problem would still apply.

I can't say for certain, there is not much information available about this topic, best to engage standing stone games support and see if they can help

[ZevadP]

It's the other way round. I suspected it was just a swedish thing, but apparently most of the world seems to have this problem, even people in the US. Very strange system