Unity has BLOCKED MY ACCOUNT.....

News & General Discussion
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I been a developer for over 20 years never in my life have I seen this type of nonsense…

It took nearly 2 days to get a reply, and they CLAIM there was fraud on my account…but very limited info that really wasn’t helpful to resolve the issue…

I called My Credit Card, I put a dispute in months ago, for an asset that was double charged,. … I found out the Credit Card blocked Unity. from not being paid for that one asset…I never told them to do this…I told them to go ahead and pay for it,but I want Unity to fix it, Unity choice to ignore it and BLOCK MY WHOLE account which has over 130 + assets I BOUGHT and paid for…

They could of blocked that card…and that license for that charge/asset…bot both…ONE…

…if they had to…NOW i’m getting limited info, saying there is an investigation…I make my living from making games, clients and more… so right now I can’t do much due to this nonsense… I have bought assets costing me costing hundreds for each, so I have thousands of dollars invested…

My Credit Card FRAUD Department, said they would be happy , to call Unity, but NO PHONE number to do so, and the support team seems to have limited info…THEY CLAIM more than one asset has fraud, and charge backs…WHich is totally FALSE…IT is one… I asked them to go ahead and pay but I want the refund as the developer ignored me…for months… and the asset wasn’t working…I offered to pay for that asset twice, which I wouldn’t be happy about it…

I got one reply, from a developer days later, it says the account is suspended…

Edit: Yes I did try to dispute Unity as did my Credit Card since AUG, they replied to me my CREDIT CARD that is, they got no reply from Unity for around 2 months… regarding this matter… ALso I did not buy this asset twice…MY CC said it was charged more than once for the same tool… So they flagged it. But my CC contacted Unity to give them a chance to say why or fix the issue, my CC said nothing was done, so that is why they took the steps they did… By blocking it. They blocked ONLY the one charge…at that point Unity blocked my whole account my guess it was auto mated…block…but they seem to take over awhile to fix this, which I find to be unacceptable.

…

Would anyone like it to be charged for something, they didn’t allow? I can only go off , of what my CC said, and flagged , Unity could of defended this and said it was a mistake or what if it was an issue on the way it was sent, I have no idea… around that time, I bought like 10 or so asset I believe…So something odd could of happen due to this… So many things but the issue is, Unity is not replying, besides with vague information that is not helpful really.

Sorry for the edits, I wanted to be clear on some points, as some people may be confused, when I’m super ill, and upset, I tend to ramble on a lot and not make sense, sorry for that…

PS: I’m in the middle of a STEAM game for PC and Xbox one… and near release of Android game …with in months …nearly 2 years of development, on and off, ton of work, money in this game…hate to see it get canceled because of some nonsense…

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Wow, that really sucks. Based on past posts here I’m sure it’ll get sorted out quickly now, because public complaints about such things often seem to be the fastes way to get someone willing and capable to help interested in your case. Good luck!

For the record, I’ve heard quite a few people complain about issues with assetstore payments, credit cards and the like. I’m not even really surprised by the start of your sad story, but I’m a bit surprised that they blocked your whole account. That indeed seems way overkill.

I don’t know whom to ping specifically, but maybe @SaraCecilia or @Buhlaine does?

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Good luck Recon, I hope this gets sorted really quickly.

I also have thousands in asset store purchases, and this makes me pause. If a helpful long time member of the community and all around great dev like Recon can have their entire asset store account banned with no warning and no opportunity for recourse, then it could happen to anyone and that does NOT sit well with me.

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4

Why stop at the assetstore? If you’re on a pro or plus subscription a creditcard problem could take away your ability to even work with Unity. That’s one of the reasons I think subs are bad and I would be extremely surprised if it hasn’t happened before.

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There are a lot of Unity users, and with a lot of transactions going through every day, any business is bound to make mistakes.

So I sympathize with you @recon0303 , but we all run into issues like this with businesses. For instance, twice I’ve had a major bank screw up security info like my mother’s maiden name and close my account and cuss me out over the phone like I was some sort of criminal, when it was their error.

I’m just glad I live in a relatively free country where everything is not run by the gov’t. That would be so much worse!

So I hope you get this mistake cleared up right away. And if there is something for Unity to fix in the way they do things, I hope they get on it and fix it before someone else’s business gets impaired by their error.

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I hope you get this fixed, but the official refund policy is there are no refunds. Trying to get around that part of the EULA with a credit card dispute was bound to cause you more problems than it was worth.

And since you’ve violated the EULA, Unity is now under no obligation to reactivate your account.

I hope you get this resolved, and try not to violate anymore EULA rules.

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I don’t know if it’s something that can actually happen with the current Asset Store system, but if I can believe what the OP said it doesn’t look like he or she was violating the EULA*.*

If the credit card was really charged multiple times by a mistake from the vendor, it’s very possible that someone can do that 100 times, or for 100 different customers.

I don’t think what Unity had in mind when they included the ‘no refunds’ clause was to silence or even penalize such customers who have been wrongly charged this way.

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so your ok with Unity double charging you??? Buying one asset is one thing…but for them to double charge me is another…I own thousands of dollars and never refunded any asset…but I wont allow Unity to double charge me then ignore it…My Credit Card tried to contact them for months and so did I …I was ignored…I helped many asset developers in our games testing tools…I HAVE worked with small and large companies…and got many to buy Pro licenses in the thousands…I know some have got sick of this behavior and left to Unreal, and other engines, we use other engines as well. …but we spend more with Unity and this is how I get treated??

Yes mistakes happen, but I run a business, as well, with 2 people we have thousands and thousands of customers and I’m sick with cancer,I call people back even in the hospital as I care about my customers…Unity seems to take for ever…

This is my full time job, so this is effecting me greatly …so I can pay my health insurance, my bills, my family and my meds to stay alive every month which is why I work so much…

So this is going to make me sicker from the stress alone and now effect my pocket book. as I do not keep my assets locally all the time PLUS I won’t support a company ever again if this is not fixed.soon… I WILL leave Unity all together, if they do not fix this…

PS: Keep in mind some developers are hard to understand as there main language is not english, so wrong information is given all the time, I know I see it happen daily in chat rooms and emails with clients I work with… and they work with…So Unity needs to change the way they do things.,

If there was an issue they could of banned my CC until they review the account…Instead they blocked my whole account for ASSETS I paid for through the years??? Ya that’s real nice…

Also the asset didn’t work right either, and got little to no support on top of it, but I was willing to keep the first one anyways as I have ate many BAD assets…Thats the chances we take, so I could careless about it…I also BUY assets all the time I NEVER EVER use to support the asset developer, Unity can ask any one of them…Many are known developers…So I feel this is so not cool to make me make less money and effect my business…

By doing this I will NOT support Unity and not buy anymore assets…unless my account is fixed soon… as they will have be worried they will KEEP making mistakes that effect my health and my life… Something I really don’t need right now… I know investors who left Unity, and got sick of odd behavior effecting there pocket books…

To this time I got limited info from Unity, I got most my info from my Credit Card company…

At the end I TOLD MY CC to let the DOUBLE CHARGE go in last night, NOT happy about it, but if it helps get my account back fine, but I feel that is NOT right…

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@recon0303 hope this is resolved as soon as possible for you.
Curious - as an experienced developer - you do know the assets you have purchased and used are on your local drive right? You do not need to be logged in or even connected to the internet to use the assets you have locally.
Your not saying you have bought all these assets and never downloaded them to use in other projects - im sure.

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Yup I know but I clean off my drives all the time out of habit . I like to clean off it , as I build many computers and my hard drives last longer to keep everything cleaned up. So I happen to do this last week, so I have 4 assets stored locally, but as I said I won’t continue to support a company , if they choice to burn me…after I spent this kinda of money…Same reason you wouldn’t of a company did this to you or an asset developer, game what ever… yes I have some assets on projects. but not all, and not updates for everyone of them. I been in the middle of a start of a new game, for PC, so not many assets are downloaded yet.

So this is more about morals… and the money lost… if they do not fix this, and I do not have access to all my assets due to this… I also can’t get updates or download them all. as I said already.

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I appreciate that you’re in a bad situation, but I don’t see anywhere in the EULA for an exception to the no refunds policy for double charges, or accidentally purchasing the same asset twice. If I missed that part, please point me to it, as I’d really like to know the truth.

I would be pissed, but if my livelihood was dependent on this service I would have eaten the double charge instead of rolling the dice that Unity wouldn’t interpret a charge back as a EULA violation. But that’s just me. For example I spent $80 on an asset that the developer deprecated a few days after purchase. I had to move off it to another asset since I didn’t want to maintain the asset myself when new Unity versions are released. I was pissed, but ate it all the same. No Refunds policy and all.

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I’m glad your ok with given Unity or anyone hundreds of dollars, you want to pay for it?? For there mistakes… Thats FRAUD charging something I didn’t… Which is why MY CC company flagged

it wasn’t a cheap asset either.

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MY cc flagged it, I called to see what it was about, and they asked me to dispute it, of course I would,I didnt do anything…It sounded like it was an issue at first with my CC company but its policy to do what they do Then they stated Unity never replied they could have this was back in Aug…They choice not to…So I have NO CONTROL over this, if you can’t understand this, then I cant help you…but I will NOT pay for something, for someone to have a field day and charge what they want… in the END i LET IT go…and it will effect me as well…since the asset wasn’t cheap…

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I wouldn’t be ok with it at all. I’d file a support ticket for your double charge. You never mentioned doing so before disputing the charge, so I have to assume you didn’t.

I hope you get everything resolved regardless.

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And best wishes with this, too. :frowning:

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Every EULA by big corps covers them against everything their lawyers could think off. You can’t possibly be thinking it’s ok in any way shape or form for them to double charge people at random and expect them to just let it slide because otherwise UT willl revoke access to everything you’ve ever bought from them on the assetstore. Also you can write whatever you want in a contract, that doesn’t mean it would hold up in court if put to the legal test, which of course no indie dev can afford to contest - and normally wouldn’t have any reason to either. I can’t imagine this being anything but a dumb mistake and a series of people that all didn’t want to properly deal with it.

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And probably an emphasis on “dumb mistake.” A lot of people are honest and try to do a good job. Not everyone understands at first glance what the right thing to do is though, so dumb mistakes happen.

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i’m pissed right now and have been …so I can’t remember everything to type here…I did to them… My Credit CARD company tried since Aug to get them to reply before anything was done…I also added tickets in to dispute it… Unity ignored all attempts by me and my Credit CARD company… since Aug. So this is why it effected me as Credit Card companies only need to wait 60-90 days before doing something about it, IF a vendor choose to not dispute a claim regarding double charges or any dispute… They choice to ignore it…

So yes in the ticket to support again last night, 7 plus replys from me, another 12 to another person, that info was included, here I did not say this you are correct, but not sure if your trying to troll me or what…

But good for you…if you are fine with someone charging you over and over…illegally…I work for my money so I wont hand it over to someone illegally…If you want to pay for it, send it to my paypal…since you are made of money and don’t have to worry about health issues, kids , family and have money to burn…

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All true, but you have to look at things from a risk vs reward standpoint. So Unity is hit with a chargeback for an asset store purchase. You’re leaving it up to Unity to interpret what this means. Is it really worth it to take this all the way to testing the EULA in court? You’ve got more important things to do, products to ship, and employees to pay, than stall everything to put this “to the legal test” as you say. Its simply not worth it, no matter how expensive the asset was. Standing up against Unity on principle doesn’t keep your dev team producing and your bills paid.

So instead of dropping a charge back unannounced into the lap of the Unity Asset Store team for them to figure out what it means, you file the support ticket first before the charge back, wait likely a long time for them to get around to it, and keep trying to follow it up with them.

If that still doesn’t work you then ask yourself is the money locked up in the asset really worth the potential headache? Could Unity actually interpret this as a EULA violation? If so, am I really willing to go all legal on Unity over this?

I’m not talking about what is right, I’m talking about what is best for a growing business, and an account shut off over what has to be a relatively small amount of money in the grand scheme of things (if it is less than you pay one of your devs for a week of work then its a small amount), while you work out the problem with Unity, will probably cost more money than the refund itself.

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I believe what you have described is quite a different situation in nature than that of being (alledgedly) charged for what one didn’t purchase.

I guess companies put such ‘no refund’ policy in their EULA mainly to deal with - or more accurately, not to deal with - those people who purchase something and change their mind later, or think that they would get product updates or customer support indefinitely.

In short, saying “You can purchase something here, but we can’t guarantee that you’ll be happy with the product, or that the product will be updated forever to support the latest version of Unity” is a completely different thing than saying “We don’t care if you are charged for what you haven’t purchased, and I’ll ban you if you ever complain about it”.

And as I haven’t experienced anything that would make me lose respect for Unity yet, I’m quite certain that what they intended with the no refund clause was the former rather than the latter.

Actually, I don’t believe there could be any company which is running a honest business who can say something like that to their customers.

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