Taken from: [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/2d2wmb/sony_is_taking_advantage_of_me_and_it_hurts_need/[/url] "Reddit, I would like to share my recent experience with Sony Computer Entertainment. This is a company I have supported through consumerism over nearly 2 decades like many of you. I have been having difficulty finding time to enjoy our PlayStation games and system. I have been working long hours, and my family responsibilities have allowed for less and less gaming. In mid-June I made the decision to let our PlayStation plus subscription expire as the annual subscription was set to end on June 30th. I logged online and set the “auto-renew” option to off. On July 1st Sony charged our account $47.88 (plus $2.22 from my wallet).On July 3rd or July 4th I arrived home from being out of town on business and called the 1-800-345-Sony line to have a refund applied to our account. As soon as I explained what had taken place they approved a refund. Within a few hours I received an email from Sony stating that the refund had been denied. I called back into the help line and I was told that a game had been downloaded on July 2nd for PlayStation plus. I explained that my son had probably downloaded the title while I was away on business, but once the subscription was pulled off of our account the game would not be eligible to be played regardless. I was denied a refund at this time, and told to work with my bank. I called my bank and explained the situation. The bank immediately issued a refund, and issued a new debit/credit card as they viewed this transaction as “theft” since I had specifically marked the account as do not auto-renew. On 8/8/14 my wife and I settled down to use our HBO Go application on the PlayStation 3 which sits in our living room. Upon booting up an error message appears stating that our account has been “Banned or Temporarily Suspended”. This means that I cannot log into the free PlayStation network and access HBO Go, or Amazon Prime. No big deal right? Wrong…. I went all digital and own Hundreds of dollars’ worth of movies and games. I now cannot log onto the PlayStation store to access these titles that I rightly own. I seek assistance through the 1-800-345-Sony line to resolve the situation, hoping that the third time is the charm. After reaching a manager with the support group I am informed that I owe $47.88 and need to pay this to Sony before they will bring my account out of suspended status. I explain the situation. I also explain the simple math involved. $47.88 has been pulled from our bank account, and $47.88 has been refunded to our bank and this brings the account balance to $0. Sony refuses to budge on this and I am told to call and speak with the “Banking support group” the following day. On 8/9/2014 I call back into the support line and request the banking support group. I am transferred and told the following. “You need to pay $47.88 and then I can bring the account out of suspension.” I explain that the root cause of the issue is that Sony charged this amount in error, and I should owe them no money. Again they refuse to budge, however they offer me a “solution”. If I go buy a PlayStation Network card for $50.00 they can apply that to my account and then I’ll have PlayStation Plus for an entire year and they’ll bring my account out of suspension so that I can then regain access to the software I rightly own. I again explain these are NOT PlayStation plus software titles, these are digital full version of games and movies that I purchased. I am told that they can apply the $47.88 to my “wallet” and cancel the PlayStation plus account once I have paid them the $47.88 I owe them. At this point I am in near rage, but I understand it is not the person on the support line that is causing the issue. This is some ridiculous policy Sony has rolled out… In Summary: Sony charges us $47.88 despite auto-renew being turned off. I call to get a refund, and refund is denied. I call bank and bank agrees that it is theft and issues refund and new bank card. Sony disables our “free” PlayStation network account which removes access to our legit purchased games and movies. Thank you very much for listening to my complaint… and I’m all ears on options on how to resolve this. Here are the steps I have already taken. Opened a case with the Better Business Bureau Emailed a few corporate Sony employees with my complaint. Edit 1: Folks someone asked if I would provide an update, and the answer is.. Absolutely! I am going afk for a few hours to take my boys outside (gahhhh sunlight!!!). I'll respond to as many as I can once I am back, thank you all very much for your attention to this. I am so glad I can get this out there so no one else ever goes through something like this... I'll also try and provide a game count when I get back of how many digital titles we own. (Its over 50..)" "This is exactly why I will never go full digital. Any company at any time can decide you are breaking contract and deny access to your digital content. You don't own that content, you are licensing it, and they can revoke that license. See the story of the guy who's Amazon account was banned and he lost hundreds of ebooks. I'll stick with my DVDs/Blurays, thanks." I'm not one to encourage console wars, but the digital focus of the nextgen platforms is cause for concern. How many people need to experience this before we realize just how much we don't own? Just thought you guys should know. Of course, Sony is a dependable company and this is a mere misunderstanding.