Sony will take your money if you don't spend it quickly enough

If you leave money in your wallet for too long (we think it's two years - used to be one) with your account unused, Sony help themselves to it anyway.

From their (old, may now be changed) T&Cs:

Please understand that the Sony Online Network wallet is not a bank account and we are not operating as a bank. You will not be entitled to a refund for any unused funds, except where expressly provided by these Conditions or by applicable law.

 And:

Wallet funds must be used within 24 months of purchase.

I can't remove my credit cards because the website doesn't work

I'm trying to sort out these toggles [to turn off auto-renew, remove my credit card] on the website - I got as far as it taking me here :

http://en.support.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/272/unknown-answer

With this message:

This web page has a redirect loop 

Well played Sony!

My account was blocked because I blocked a fraudulent payment

In a rare move, a proper news website has run a piece on Sony's awful customer service: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/02/sony_holds_gun_to_gamers_heads_over_fraud_charges/

"I was advised on the telephone by Sony support that all use, including fraudulent activities committed by an unknown third party, is my responsibility. He advised me that Sony takes no responsibility for fraudulent use of my credit card details and security rests solely with me."

A couple of points here:

• The third party is not unknown to Sony.  They will have records of the IP address used to make the purchase and the console that the game was downloaded to.
• Security cannot rest solely with the consumer since they need not be involved in any fraud - it could be the (known) third party calling Sony and asking for a password reset, and there's nothing that the consumer can do about that.

 Later in the article Sony respond, showing complete idiocy about how digital marketplaces work and consumer goodwill can be retained.

To do otherwise would create an opportunity for consumers to claim that they were not responsible for a purchase on their account, receive a refund and yet retain the content.

You could just remove the licence for that content from the account, and ban the console that was used to buy it. Then the content would not be retained, unless the fraudster wanted to only play offline for ever more.

If the reported unauthorised transactions were made on a console other than the one owned by the account holder, the person responsible must have had details of the account sign-in ID and password.

 Again, wrong.  There have been stories of people regaining access to their account by just calling Sony customer services and asking for their passwords to be reset, to a different email address.  The security breach could be entirely on Sony's side.

the nature of digital content, in that it is made available immediately and cannot be returned

It can be returned.

whether the account holder willingly gave their details to a friend/acquaintance or were tricked into providing them via phishing sites or similar, the responsibility for keeping this information secure does lie with the account holder

If Sony offered two-factor authentication on their accounts, they may be right to insist on this.  But they don't, and they have suffered multiple security breaches themselves.  Do they really need the odd £50 that is reclaimed from fraudsters instead of having a happy customer base?

Sony renewed my PSN subscription even though auto-renew was turned off

Sony helped themselves to $17.99 of the $50.00 I had in my wallet which was actually to pay for another year; they took out just 3 months even though I have auto renew turned OFF.

Although its not disastrous ($5 loss) don't assume the auto renew OFF is OK.  It means they will take the funds if they are in your wallet but won't take from a card. I searched high and low on the site and can't see the option to not touch your wallet. It even says I have no subscriptions.

So in 3 months I will have to top up the $50.00 and purchase the year sub before they take the 3 months again.

Sony ended the chat because I complained

A chat transcript:

There is a difference between "can't" and "won't" which Sony need to learn.

I have no PS4 but I now have an expensive copy of AC: Unity

Taken from NeoGAF at http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=151818581&postcount=422 ...

My PSN account was also hacked and in the end I got the exact same formletter as shown at this post.  Thankfully I managed to go in and change my password and remove my credit card before the hijacker changed it and lock me out.

The hijacker had attached his PS4 to my account, removing my PS3, and bought the digital collectors edition of Assassins Creed Unity.  My account is Swedish and I was in the US at the time so I sent an email to them rather than calling, I could not find a number to call anyway.  After several days I got a reply stating I needed to call in because they could not handle this via email.  After more than an hour in the telephone queue on an international call very early in the morning I finally got a person to explain my situation to.

Since I did not have a PS4 at the time the guy on the phone said this was obvious fraud and they would refund me and remove the PS4 which made me happy.  After a couple of more days I got an email that I needed to send them my PS3 serial number. Not very easy to get since my PS3 was in Sweden and I was still in California.

I did send them my serial number once I'd got it and got a new reply with the formletter that they would not refund me the money.  I obviously complained but got a new mail back informing that this was a final decision and there was nothing I could do to get the money back!

I still have no PS4 but I do have very expensive version of Assassins Creed.

Sony PSN support and theft protection is absolutely horrible and I would strongly advice everyone to not have a credit card in their account.  I wonder how many of these cases happen every year.  Sony obviously gets a percentage on everything sold so they even earn money on these thefts, perhaps they care more about that then their reputation.  You would think that with the recent couple of years of Sony hacks they would be more sensitive about more bad will about their online services but apparently no.

I bought an extended warranty for my PS4 but when it broke Sony wouldn't repair it

A lengthy piece over at Bleeding Cool.

I heard my wife stirring and she ended up waking up and running downstairs in a panic thinking our house was on fire because she smelled the burning plastic smell. I told her I was pretty sure it came from the PlayStation 4, and she asked me if it was smoky in the house or if her eyes were messing with her since she just woke up. She confirmed our suspicions – it smelled smoky when she went upstairs, turned on the lights up there, and the smoke was fairly thick. Obviously, I was quick to contact Sony about this issue.

After setting up a service, now being a year and 3 months after my purchase date, but still well within my three year extended warranty, I waited a week for my shipping box that never came. I contacted Sony again to get an update on the situation where I was informed that I was NOT under warranty anymore and that my $60 extended warranty only covered my then second console despite what I was told. I got off the online chat and called Sony support directly where I was put on hold for quite a while until I was eventually informed that they would NOT cover the PS4 unless I paid for the service. All of this, despite the fact that it had the potential to burn my house down if I wasn't around to notice the smell and unplug it. I immediately traded in my console as a broken, defective system (lessening my trade value) and put my money towards some upcoming Xbox One releases.

Sony think that security of your PSN account is entirely your responsibility - do they also think that making sure your PS4 isn't dangerous internally and doesn't burn down your house is also your responsibility?  Maybe they want everyone to open their consoles to check they're safe ... which of course will invalidate the warranty.