FDEV won't fix purchase Odyssey via USD on frontierstore.net issue.

[Creepy Thin Man]

My experience with attempting to purchase Odyssey.
I haven't played Elite in a while, and decided to try Odyssey out.
I don't use Steam or Epic, and have always just launched Elite Dangerous from the Stand-Alone Launcher.
I went to frontierstore.net and selected USD as payment type.
To make a long story short, as of this date Mar 6, 2024 and for at least the past week, it is IMPOSSIBLE to purchase Odyssey from frontierstore.net when USD currency is selected.
I have tried other computers, and other browsers, made sure the browsers were up to date, etc.. etc..
I attempted to send a support ticket to FDEV about this, but it is next to impossible to even open a support ticket, however; I was able to open an issue about it successfully:

Issue Tracker

issues.frontierstore.net

After a couple days, Frontier basically responded saying it is not an issue, and they closed the issue. LOL!
I just checked again, and frontierstore.net is still all messed up, and I cannot purchase Odyssey.
I thought I would just go ahead and put FDEV on blast here in the forums about it. Very terrible support system.

 

[Screemonster]

You put a customer support ticket on the bug report tracker, so it was closed. The bug report tracker has been clogged since its inception with things that should have been support tickets in the first place, which has meant that real bug reports get buried.

 

[Jack Winter]

Try asking here: https://customersupport.frontier.co.uk/hc/en-us/categories/4404016831378-Elite-Dangerous

Edit: Click on any of the topics, and then at the bottom chose submit a request

 

[Creepy Thin Man]

You put a customer support ticket on the bug report tracker, so it was closed. The bug report tracker has been clogged since its inception with things that should have been support tickets in the first place, which has meant that real bug reports get buried.

Is it not a bug/issue?
I think it very well qualifies as an issue.
And yes! I saw lots of issues listed there that I could tell were not even issues, and they should have been easily resolved in forums even.
The support ticket system is terrible.

 

[Ian Skippy]

After a couple days, Frontier basically responded saying it is not an issue, and they closed the issue. LOL!

This is what they told you:

Customer Support have now raised a support ticket on your behalf, copied to your registered email address. For any future support enquiries, please contact us via https://customersupport.frontier.co.uk/hc/en-us.

The issue tracker is to be used for bug reporting only, where further response or intervention is not required. Thanks!

You struggled for some reason with opening a support ticket, so they did that for you. Now your request is at the correct department, and you just wait.

Is it not a bug/issue?
I think it very well qualifies as an issue.

As they explained to you, the bug tracker is not to be used when you need a personal response or intervention, which you clearly want. If, in the course of helping you out, support discovers the issue is broader than just your account they can internally communicate that to the devs.

 

[Creepy Thin Man]

Try asking here: https://customersupport.frontier.co.uk/hc/en-us/categories/4404016831378-Elite-Dangerous

Edit: Click on any of the topics, and then at the bottom chose submit a request

I've given this some thought now, and I do believe it is indeed an issue, and I did report it in the appropriate area.

 

[Creepy Thin Man]

This is what they told you:



You struggled for some reason with opening a support ticket, so they did that for you. Now your request is at the correct department, and you just wait.


As they explained to you, the bug tracker is not to be used when you need a personal response or intervention, which you clearly want. If, in the course of helping you out, support discovers the issue is broader than just your account they can internally communicate that to the devs.

When they sent me that feedback, I did login to the customersupport part, and there was no created ticket for me, it was blank and said No Activities.
I did just look now in customersupport, and it is showing a ticket from 2 days ago about this issue.
They are asking if I have tried any other browsers. lol

 

[Creepy Thin Man]

Try asking here: https://customersupport.frontier.co.uk/hc/en-us/categories/4404016831378-Elite-Dangerous

Edit: Click on any of the topics, and then at the bottom chose submit a request

You know, the other day when I was trying to submit a ticket about this, I just could not find the create a ticket/submit a request button.
I thought maybe it would be in the purchasing arx and in-game extras, but I just couldn't find the button to create a ticket.
I see it now that you said at the bottom.
Anyways, I do believe I ended up putting it in the correct area anyways, because it is an issue that is not just effecting me.
Also, I looked in my customersupport tickets just a little bit ago, and seems they did open a ticket for me 2 days ago.

 

[Bravo17]

I just tried and it seemed to be working OK, put Odyssey into the basket and went to check out.

OK, just read your actual ticket and it does indeed seem to fail once you try to put your address details in.

But I really don't see what you have to complain about, Frontier took your details that were in the wrong place and put them in the correct place for you to get a quicker result.

 

[varonica]

Is it not a bug/issue?

No, bugs are part of the "game," issues with the website are an entirely different department. You wouldn't call your ISP if your phone line has been cut would you? Same thing, two entirely different departments!

 

[Shadowsnog]

They are asking if I have tried any other browsers.

And did you?

 

[ArrakisX]

I had the same problem with USD store.
The loading wheel pops up and disappears and nothing happens.
GBP store works.

Unfortunately I didn't purchase either as they aren't accepting Paypal for the time being.
I did mention my issue with USD store though, when I contacted them to ask about Paypal, and their customer support said that I "may need to try another browser".

I didn't try though, as my intention was to pay in GBP via Paypal, and I only tried the USD store as my previous purchases were in USD via paypal and I was testing to see if my issue with not being able to use paypal was due to the currency choice. It wasn't, FDev have confirmed to me that they removed Paypal for the time being due to an "issue".

Perhaps not using paypal to process payments anymore is also tied to why the USD payment processing is down? no idea but hope they get it together as seems harder and harder to give them my $$$.

 

[Shadowsnog]

I had the same problem with USD store.
The loading wheel pops up and disappears and nothing happens.
GBP store works.

Unfortunately I didn't purchase either as they aren't accepting Paypal for the time being.
I did mention my issue with USD store though, when I contacted them to ask about Paypal, and their customer support said that I "may need to try another browser".

I didn't try though, as my intention was to pay in GBP via Paypal, and I only tried the USD store as my previous purchases were in USD via paypal and I was testing to see if my issue with not being able to use paypal was due to the currency choice. It wasn't, FDev have confirmed to me that they removed Paypal for the time being due to an "issue".

Perhaps not using paypal to process payments anymore is also tied to why the USD payment processing is down? no idea but hope they get it together as seems harder and harder to give them my $$$.

Paypal essentialy parted with uk (and fdev is uk company)
USD problem can be an ui issue. Those can be solved by using different browser

 

[Screemonster]

When they sent me that feedback, I did login to the customersupport part, and there was no created ticket for me, it was blank and said No Activities.
I did just look now in customersupport, and it is showing a ticket from 2 days ago about this issue.
They are asking if I have tried any other browsers. lol

I've gotta say that yelling "GO LOOK!" at the tech support guys is not gonna get your problem solved any faster.

 

[ArrakisX]

Paypal essentialy parted with uk (and fdev is uk company)

Paypal has not 'parted with the UK', I know people and companies that use it without issue.

If you are referring to Paypal withdrawing from the UK FOS' voluntary jurisdiction in 2022 that people have mentioned before, this doesn't prevent paypal from working in UK. It just affects how legal complaints are handled. They are still under the compulsary jurisdiction though and the withdrawal only affects the scope of complaints that can be made to the regulator.
If you are intersted you can read more about it here:

Complaints about PayPal

PayPal (Europe) S.ar.l. et Cie, S.C.A (PayPal) is withdrawing from the Financial Ombudsman Service’s voluntary jurisdiction with effect from 1 December 2022. There will be an impact on the types of complaint we will be able to consider about PayPal.

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

In the end, the choice is still that of the vendor to use paypal or not and I'm unsure if this is FDev's reasoning to stop using them, but as their customer support shared with me, the 'issue' is only 'for the time being'... Albeit with no projected resolution date.

USD problem can be an ui issue. Those can be solved by using different browser

OP did mention he tried multiple browsers on multiple computers in his first post.

Anyway, I did try again today with my original browser and it seems to be working ok.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Ok, so there is an issue, but can't you just buy it using a different currency? FD don't offer to sell the game in lari, so i just choose whichever of the currencies on offer gives the best value for me, but its not much of a real world difference anyway.

Just select pay in pounds or euros and let your bank convert it.

 

[Dinbar]

Paypal essentialy parted with uk (and fdev is uk company)
USD problem can be an ui issue. Those can be solved by using different browser

Seems Paypal did not part with the UK (you had me worried for a second). The issue looks like something FDEV need to do.

What is PayPal changing in the UK on 1 November 2023?​

PayPal’s services across the EU are provided by a Luxembourg based company, PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.

Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, this company has been permitted to operate through the Financial Conduct Authority’s Temporary Permissions Regime. However, this regime expires on 31 December 2023.

In anticipation of this, PayPal transferred all services provided to its users in the UK to PayPal UK Ltd on 1 November 2023 subject to this company becoming duly authorised to conduct its regulated activities in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority.

This change will have no significant effect on your PayPal account or how you use it and most customers do not need to do anything. If you are a PayPal Credit integrated credit merchant or a Pay in 3 merchant with hosted content, we will contact you regarding changes you will need to make.

Nice profile pic BTW

 

[nemolomen]

No, bugs are part of the "game," issues with the website are an entirely different department. You wouldn't call your ISP if your phone line has been cut would you? Same thing, two entirely different departments!

Not in my case. DSL service from my local telephone company/ISP...

 

[Baelydon]

Because you leave out a lot of information when you say "to make a long story short" and don't actually describe the exact steps you went through when failing to make a purchase in USD... I'm going to just put this here anyways, in hopes it might help:

Go the the Frontier store: https://www.frontierstore.net

1-Log out of the Frontier store if you are already logged in, then continue as follows...
2-Scroll to the bottom of the page, select USD, the page should refresh to show dollars,
3-Add Odyssey to your "basket",
4-Click on "basket" icon in the upper-right,
5-Click on "proceed to checkout"
6-At the "Checkout Method" section, log in. (Don't forget to check the "I'm not a robot" thing, you may have images to select)
7-Continue with the checkout/billing/shipping process...
8-Verify that the order is still in your denomination of choice... then complete order.

If something happens at any one of those steps that prevents you from completing the order, it might help if you state at which point it failed.

(for example) If you select USD and the page refreshes but is still showing GBP, then it could possibly be an issue with your browser not accepting cookies...

You can also try manually changing the address to include USD (rather than clicking on USD): https://www.frontierstore.net/usd/
-If that still fails, try whitelisting the page?


My issues stemmed from uBlock Origin (using Firefox) not letting me see the captcha image popup thing (the... "choose all images with stop lights in them" or whatever it says).
I had to disable uBlock Origin before choosing USD, then without being logged in I had to add Odyssey to my basket. During the checkout process I was able to finally login successfully, and complete my order.

**If all else fails, depending on whomever you bank with, you could place the order anways and let your bank (or whomever) deal with the currency conversion. Chase Bank (for example) charges up to 3% of the purchase total in what they call a "foreign currency transaction fee". 3% of a $15 purchase... is 0.45 cents. Not a deal breaker for me. (just sayin')

 

[Darkfyre99]

**If all else fails, depending on whomever you bank with, you could place the order anways and let your bank (or whomever) deal with the currency conversion. Chase Bank (for example) charges up to 3% of the purchase total in what they call a "foreign currency transaction fee". 3% of a $15 purchase... is 0.45 cents. Not a deal breaker for me. (just sayin')

To expand upon this, I have yet to see an instance where purchasing things from Frontier’s Store in GBP isn’t a bargain vs USD, even with the transaction fee. It never hurts to check conversion rates before buying overseas.