mark cerqueira well-rounded nerd

Please Take My Money Sony

20 Jul 2014

Man, I can’t believe I’m saying this but SONY, PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY. I was just trying to buy some video games in the PlayStation Store. When I was adding funds to my account, I kept getting an error when inputting my credit card details: “please enter a valid credit card number.” Double-checked the number, the expiration date, the security code, and name on the credit card and tried again. ERROR. Double-checked my billing address. ERROR. What’s going on, Sony!?

After digging around online, I find I’m not the only person with credit card input issues on Sony’s website. After a ton of “me too, I hate Sony” posts, I found a helpful netizen who suggested making sure the billing address inputted on Sony’s website EXACTLY matches your credit card’s billing address. Now I can understand having to get a billing address correct when authorizing a transaction, but Sony is handling this somewhat poorly.

First of all, if there is an error with my billing address, don’t tell me to “enter a valid credit card number.” Tell me to check the actual issue: the billing address.

Secondly, Sony has to loosen up their billing address verification. For example, let’s say my address is 120 Lombard Street / Apt G (the slash indicates the separation from the first and second address line). For some reason, my credit card company swaps these two lines and lists my billing address has APT G / 120 LOMBARD ST. Here’s what Sony does not accept:

  • 120 LOMBARD STREET / APT G
  • 120 LOMBARD ST / APT G
  • 120 LOMBARD ST APT G / [blank]

What Sony will accept:

  • APT G / 120 LOMBARD ST - exactly as listed on my credit card
  • Apt G / 120 Lombard St - case insensitive
  • Apartment G / 120 Lombard Street - abbreviations (e.g. ST and APT) can be expanded
  • APT G 120 LOMBARD ST / [blank] - lines 1 and 2 can be combined onto a single line
  • APT [unit purposefully omitted] / 120 Lombard Street - what apartment doesn’t matter

I mean, this isn’t totally unreasonable on Sony’s part, but it seems kind of silly that when it comes to address lines, order REALLY matters. Other websites don’t care about order of the address lines, and gas stations only care about the zip code. Loosen up a bit, Sony!

Anyhow, now that I’ve pontificated thoroughly on this issue, I’ll definitely remember the next time I run into issues spending money with Sony.