Thread: Gift Giving, Payments on Friends' Accounts and Manual Points Purchases

It has been brought to my attention that there is some confusion about the best way to give gifts of play time, subscription upgrades and Premium Services to your friends or family. Hopefully this will clear things up, and maybe even provide some ideas.

If you plan on giving the gift of an upgrade, play time, points or premium service, please do NOT add your card to your friend's account. I cannot stress this enough. This can often lead to confusion and/or problems. Your card will now be on your friend's account for future use, unless your friend adds a new card. This means, by definition, that you own the account (with your card on file) and you have to call for any account issues. This also means that subscription fees, Point purchases and Premium Services can be charged to your card while it is on file. Unfortunately, we've seen this lead to unpleasant situations (even between friends) in some cases.

To give a gift there are a couple of options. You can call or email the Account Management department and request to pay for the gift (subscription time, upgrade, points bundle, Premium Service). You can also email. Contact links for both can be found in my signature.

If you're calling, be sure you have:
-the last 4 digits of your credit card
-the billing address on file
-what gift you'd like to give

If you're emailing, be sure to include:
-your username (game login)
-your first and last name
-the last 4 digits of your credit card
-the billing address on file
-what gift you would like to give (either the amount of play time and cost, or number of points and current cost)

Either way, you'll need to have at least two of the following for the account that you want the gift applied to:
-the name of at least 1 character & the server the character is on
-the first and last name of the account user
-the email address on file
-the address on file
-the username of the account (not recommended for privacy/security reasons)


If you're giving a Premium Service to your friend, you'll only be able to pay for it. They will need to submit the Premium Service request directly, and verify their credit card information that is on file on the account - not the card details used to make the payment. The link for the Premium Services page is in my signature below.

If you have any additional questions about gift giving, please feel free to respond to this post!


To submit a new web inquiry please:
· Go to http://support.turbine.com
· Click on the “Support Center” tab
· Click the “Submit a Ticket” link.
· Select the Account/Store Support team.
· Select either "Manual Point Purchase" or "Manual VIP Purchase"
· Complete the rest of the form and submit.

Please do NOT use this form to send complete credit card numbers for your security. We cannot accept credit cards via web inquiry or email. If your card information is listed on another account, the form and auto response will walk you through providing all the information we need to assist you. If your card is not on file wth any Turbine account, please call.

I want to buy someone a lifetime subscription. I didn't see that email address you referred to in your signature.

I know their character name and server, and may be able to get their email address.

If I purchase them a lifetime sub, do they still need to keep a credit card on file with you?

If you click the "Accounts" link, there is an option to send an email from that page, or you can just go here.

We'll still need a credit card on file, since removing a card causes issues in our billing system. But there won't be any more subscription fees charged to the card (after the Lifetime payment is processed).

As an alternative, they can always replace the card with a pre-paid or gift card. As long as it has a Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover logo, we can take it. Just be sure to update the name and address on file with any pre-paid or gift card, so that our billing system can properly verify the card.

I recently gave a 3 month gift of playtime and was told that the new date of the persons subscription was January 18th. However on their account it still says October 18.

Is this normal?

Yes. The billing site often displays the next billing date, not the current expiration date. On October 18th the date will change, but their card won't be charged and the account will continue to be active.

Is there a secure site where you can email to gift a friend? The link in your signature leads to a nonsecure site and I'm not comfortable posting information there. Also, do you have a toll free phone number to call? We don't have a long distance calling plan.

The link in my signature leads to a form that submits an email into our system. The information we requests for gifts can be used for verification, but can't be used to authorize charges to a card.

However, if you prefer you can directly email customersupport@turbine.com, attention Victorie, with the listed information instead. At this time we don't have a toll free number, but I know that some players have been able to call with free internet services or using a cell phone.

Thanks for the information. My husband finally was able to get through while he was at work one day.

I have been trying to call all morning, and I can't get through on either my cell phone or my land line.

Well the giving gift of playtime sure wasn't as easy as they make it sound.

For one,this thread is missing that you CAN'T buy a gift to a friend who's still on trial. Oh no, your friend will first have to subscribe before that. Like it makes any difference where the money come's from...The person would be subscriber anyway afterwards.

Sure not everyone has this kind of situation but still its a bit important info to add.

Turbine ruined me and my wife's intention of getting a new subscriber to the game by giving our friend a 3 months of playtime for birthday present,but nooo,can't be done,because he's on trial.

And yes, i'm pretty pissed how the service really isn't service. First problem with Turbine after few years and a really amazing one, usually service has been really good.

Just can't understand what makes it so difficult since in the end,its the same:turbine gets their money,there's one new subscriber for 3months and everyone would be happy.

ThommiX, I'm very sorry to hear that you had this experience.

I've just double checked, and we can assist you and the wife with purchasing a gift for your friend. I'm not sure why they couldn't assist you with this when you called the other day, but I do know that they're updating the department so everyone knows we can help with this.

The system does require an upgrade, but since Moria is included free at this time with a subscription plan, you won't even have to purchase one. Normally we'd offer you the option to buy the upgrade and time if that was required.

Please call back again, and we'll be happy to assist with this gift. You can even refer them to this forum post if they have any questions. If you prefer, you can submit an Account Management request (link in my signature) and put "Attention Victorie" in the subject. That will be routed for me to review, and I can make sure we take care of this for you.

Again, so sorry for the misunderstanding.

Originally Posted by Victorie

ThommiX, I'm very sorry to hear that you had this experience.

I've just double checked, and we can assist you and the wife with purchasing a gift for your friend. I'm not sure why they couldn't assist you with this when you called the other day, but I do know that they're updating the department so everyone knows we can help with this.

The system does require an upgrade, but since Moria is included free at this time with a subscription plan, you won't even have to purchase one. Normally we'd offer you the option to buy the upgrade and time if that was required.

Please call back again, and we'll be happy to assist with this gift. You can even refer them to this forum post if they have any questions. If you prefer, you can submit an Account Management request (link in my signature) and put "Attention Victorie" in the subject. That will be routed for me to review, and I can make sure we take care of this for you.

Again, so sorry for the misunderstanding.

First answer from your customer support(which already got us annoyed):

Thank you for your inquiry. Apologies, in order for the free upgrade to process correctly on his trial subscription, we would recommend having him/her purchase subscription time normally. After he/she has done this, we can assist you in adding any gift subscription time you would like.

--------

And now...The second one (Didn't change the topic on this email as i read this forum post after) which says completely opposite as you did here Victoria,so i guess we leave the gift giving here since your customer support says two different things to us now:

Thank you for your reply. We can apply gift subscription time purchases to other accounts, but this is a manual process from our department. To ensure that the free Mines of Moria upgrade processes correctly, we suggest having the player upgrade through the normal process. If you would like to give a gift subscription and upgrade his account, one option would be buying The Siege of Mirkwood Complete Edition on store.turbine.com and sending him the product key. This will grant him 30 days of playtime and all of the expansions.

This really is nothing that this forum thread or ANY INFO on turbine site says. I only can say ***? Just since when did gift giving require the receiver BUY stuff first...Or the gift giver needing to buy some more stuff to be able to give a gift... Just amazing...

Oh and the Email's were made on my wife's account if you're wondering,not on this one that i'm posting on.

Now i'm pretty sure that my wife had enough of this "customer support" and that we do this other way. She really didn't like the answer she got today as shown above...

If you want to dig into it,here's the support emails subject and number: Turbine Support [ ref:00D8L4s5.5008AOfuo:ref ]

Thanks for even trying, but we won't be doing this gift at all anymore. Annoyed that the spirit of the gift is totally gone and destroyed,only because of this. Wanted it to be a suprise that our friend gets his account upgraded before his trial time is over. Now we had to give the money to him and told him to upgrade it himself,which really is no gift or suprise anymore, Just a LOT more easier with all this...
Wife lost her nerves and doesn't want to continue this.

I'm posting here now just to make you aware that your customer support is saying COMPLETELY different things.

ThommiX, again I'm sorry about this. If you change your mind and would like to process the gift, without giving the money to the friend, please feel free to PM me the email address in question, and I'll respond and assist.

I do want to mention that a player who only has a Trial key can't continue playing. We can assist with gift purchases for accounts, but in order to add time to a trial, a regular key must be added. Generally how we assist with this is that we use part of the gift to provide a key, and the rest to add time. Since we do have an offer right now for Trial players to receive Moria (includes Angmar) for free with a subscription, we can charge for 3 months of play time, provide a Moria key and ensure that the trial is upgraded to finally receive 3 months of play time. If we just added time, the trial restrictions would never be lifted, so they wouldn't have mail access, free chat abilities and so on. I am sorry for any misunderstanding caused by this requirement.

Originally Posted by Victorie

ThommiX, again I'm sorry about this. Unfortunately the number you provided isn't one I can track. Please PM me with the email address you used to request this, and I'll see what I can find out. I'm sorry that you won't be gifting anymore, but we do want to be sure that the department is on the same page.

I do want to mention that a player who only has a Trial key can't continue playing. We can assist with gift purchases for accounts, but in order to add time to a trial, a regular key must be added. Generally how we assist with this is that we use part of the gift to provide a key, and the rest to add time. Since we do have an offer right now for Trial players to receive Moria (includes Angmar) for free with a subscription, we can charge for 3 months of play time, provide a Moria key and ensure that the trial is upgraded to finally receive 3 months of play time. If we just added time, the trial restrictions would never be lifted, so they wouldn't have mail access, free chat abilities and so on. I am sorry for any misunderstanding caused by this requirement.

Trial key? We never had any key's,took the download straight from the website,installed and finally upgraded. We were never asked of any key's or even given one's. You got me lost on those one's.

Even my own email says only that my trial account was upgraded and that i got full access to the game,including mine's of moria. No mention of any key's anywhere or requirements to enter one. We just paid sub and got upgrade,thought the gift goes same way.

Guess i'm not just understanding this thing right.

Anyway,what you just posted sounds exactly what we wanted to happen:Pay the 3 month subscription to our friend who was on trial account still so it gets upgraded and he can really play without restrictions.

Pm'd the email address to you.

Originally Posted by ThommiX

Trial key? We never had any key's,took the download straight from the website,installed and finally upgraded. We were never asked of any key's or even given one's. You got me lost on those one's.

Even my own email says only that my trial account was upgraded and that i got full access to the game,including mine's of moria. No mention of any key's anywhere or requirements to enter one. We just paid sub and got upgrade,thought the gift goes same way.

Guess i'm not just understanding this thing right.

Anyway,what you just posted sounds exactly what we wanted to happen:Pay the 3 month subscription to our friend who was on trial account still so it gets upgraded and he can really play without restrictions.

Pm'd the email address to you.

Just to clarify this for you... When you create a Trial account, a Trial key is added to the account for you. You may see it in your Turbine account as something like "Mines of Moria - Trial". These keys tell the game what features you have access to. To get the restrictions of the free trial lifted, a regular "Mines of Moria - Standard" key needs to be added. This is done by the system automatically if you upgrade through your Turbine account.

I can understand your confusion on this, since most people don't realize that the system is adding these different keys for you when you create a trial account or upgrade through your Turbine account (as opposed to manually adding the key if you bought a retail box from the store). Hope this helped.

Thank you very much Victoria. After all the confusion we got the gift processed just like it was supposed to and how we wanted it.

Glad that all worked out. Always happy to help.

With the F2P coming a friend of mine will want to play using previously created trial account and character. Unfortunately his beloved RK doesn't come with F2P and he won't have any TP to start with to unlock the RK.

The real problem is that he has NO credit card (not unusual in my little country).
What would be the best way to upgarde his account to Moria using my card?
I can't buy a boxed version since the shipping cost would make it pointless, I can't see a digital Moria in Turbine store, the only option I can think of is buying it as a gift using the method described in the first post. Is it possible atm? What is the cost?

Or, would it be possible (and easier), to buy TP for him, using my card, after the F2P lunch?
Thanks in advance for help.

Victorie when f2p-hybrid comes we will be able to buy TP in certain retail stores.

is there any thought whatsoever to also allowing the purchase of 3, 6, or 12 month sub cards for VIP upgrades, gifting..etc?

I have a friend who is going to do the F2P and I want to buy him the rune-keeper class, or gift him the points to get it himself. I've read the posts, but I didn't see anything that seemed to answer how to do this right now. Could you let me know if the email address you posted is the best way or is there a number I can call now? I would like to do this as soon as possible...

Thanks in advance for the help...

What are the options since F2P is live to purchase TP as a gift for a friend?

Originally Posted by Mundungas

What are the options since F2P is live to purchase TP as a gift for a friend?

to do it yourself...none.

i do believe however if you call them up they might do it manually

Hi, i have a problem.
I use my Visa card to pay monthly. (it means i have a VIP account). Today, i try to buy some TPoint but i can't. The lotro store says: "There was an error processing your request. Please try again.[CHK-8001]". I can use my visa card to pay monthly but can't buy TPoint. What happen?
Plz, help me. I need TPoint, now

Moved this to an appropriate sticky. Please be sure that you're posting in a thread that has something to do with your question.

I can't fix this via the forums. You might find some help in the original post here.

hey Victorie....

is there any plans to bring gift giving into the 21st century?

with the REALLY long wait times on email turnarounds and the time issues involved with making a phone call (all due to f2p)...it seems accounts would be in the forefront for getting a permanent staff buff of +30.

it would make things a whole heckofalot easier if gifting subs could be automated.

as it is now..it is EXTREMELY difficult to get things especially if you want to gift something on or by a certain day.

Do we still have to do this manually or is there a way I can buy a point code to give to a friend? And no buying a card at retail will not work. No stores near me have them and the friend doesn't live near me anyway. You guys gave them out for beta let me buy them.

At this time the options for points purchases as gifts are:

1. Buy your friend a points card at a local store.

2. Call or submit a web inquiry to request the purchase and gifting as noted in the original post in this thread.

3. Buy a pre-paid card and provide your friend with the details. Since this card won't be linked to you, your friend can add it to his or her account without risk to your credit, and then buy points.


We do appreciate the feedback, and I'm happy to pass it along. Please note that any sort of updates to points purchases require a lot of feedback to ensure security, so these changes aren't likely to be very speedy.

I agree that there needs to be a gifting option. It would not compromise anything, only make things much easier. And you'd make a huge amount of money with it, especially with the gift-giving holiday season coming up. If you had a gift option for the store, there would be all kinds of purchases from subscribers just like myself, who have friends playing free who can't afford the points for what they want.

I can buy it for them, give it to them as a gift, and their playing experience is drastically improved. They stick with the game, and maybe later they subscribe too.

Every part of that is a winning situation for you!

Please consider implementing this!

I suppose I could purchase a prepaid card and then give them the info from it. That seems a very indirect and needlessly complicated way of doing things. Buying a points card and giving it to them would also be a very round about method. Some of us would like to make a gift of LotRO to friends that are not next door friends. They can be many miles, several states, or even oceans away from us. Turbine being a company that is trending towards an all internet based model of providing its product should consider this.

Just tried to use a pre-paid gift credit card for a friend to buy turbine points during the current sale but it reports "The system was unable to update your billing information. Please verify your billing information and try again later. If you continue to experience this error, you may wish to try another credit card or contact your issuing bank"

I've verified the details through the card providers website that the credit card is active so not sure what is happening. I am in Australia and liftetime subscriber and my friend is in Indonesia on VIP account with game time card and no credit card currently on file.
I will use the email form to try and request the gifting of the points but again disappointing it doesn't just work as stated and hopefully we can get it sorted out before the sale finishes!

btw I had another gift creditcard which I added to my own account with a completely fake address in Indonesia (sorry!) and it accepted that one fine.

I've tried clicking the link in your signature to find a way to email account support so that I can purchase points for my brother. The link takes me to Turbine Support Center and a list of links. Which link provides the means to communicate via email to purchase points?

Originally Posted by Doulos

I've tried clicking the link in your signature to find a way to email account support so that I can purchase points for my brother. The link takes me to Turbine Support Center and a list of links. Which link provides the means to communicate via email to purchase points?

if you want to buy points for someone else...CALL THEM.

If you don't want to call, you can use the link in my signature. Click the "Support Center" tab at the top, then the "Submit a Ticket" link. Then complete the form on the next page as described in the initial post in this thread.

Is this still the method for giving gifts online? also, do the points i purchase for a gift for this week count as double per the current advertisement?

This is still the method to purchase points as gifts.

If you purchase during the bonus period, the bonus will be included as part of the gift.

You guys really need to make this easier. I want to purchase VIP for a friend, but honestly I shouldn't have to jump through that many hoops to do it. Sending email, calling, if it's not as simple as poking a button then I'm not doing it.

From what I have read my buddy has to have a credit card on file. Including to use game time cards?!? This is what I have read. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Is there anyway I can get around this? I want to pay for 3 month sub for him, and that's money in your pocket.

Originally Posted by ShaunJ1380

From what I have read my buddy has to have a credit card on file. Including to use game time cards?!? This is what I have read. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Is there anyway I can get around this? I want to pay for 3 month sub for him, and that's money in your pocket.

This is not correct. If you are paying for a 3 month subscription for a friend, then it doesn't matter whether or not your friend has a card on file for their account because you are not charging it to their card. You must have a card on file for your account to pay for the gift sub, since it is your card that will be charged.

Thank you so very much!

.

Sorry if this question has been answered before, but does your gifting system work like Steam's?


What I mean is that, using Steam's system, you can send a gift to someone with no more information than what you choose to put in the message and an email address. You do not even have to link the gift message to your actual Steam account and its name or any character's name/tag if you choose not to.


Is that how your system works? If not, how does it work please?


Thanks.

Our gifting system is completely manual.

You can purchase a point card to mail/hand to/email the code to a friend.

You can follow the directions in my original post in this thread to give a gift to a friend.