FAQ: Preboarding key not valid and cannot play

[Rev]

Q: I received a Preboarding key but when I enter it, I get this message:
Activation Code is not valid for the game selected. If you are activating a pre-paid card, be sure to check the checkbox belowA: File a request for help with SOE's support site:

Go to the main SOE site: http://www.station.sony.com/en/index.vm
Choose My Account and log in
Choose Help - Support
File your support request

We have talked to the head of CS at SOE and he is making sure his people get the right information to help you.

[tk316]

Did anyone get an answer from SOE about that yet?

I'm still waiting....nothing.

Why I was so stupid and get the Pre-Order is beyond me.
:(

[Thunnus]

Still waiting here too. 2 days and no solution.

I don't understand why they can't activate our accounts and mark the keys as used. It's not like they're going to lose anything and the wait/lack of response is starting to get on my wick.

[Kruaal]

I'm waiting too. :-(

Well, I'm used to wait, coming from another MMORPG where officials rather don't say anything useful at all.

[lala71686]

Still waiting as well. I've already called SOE and Amazon twice each. SOE has assured me that I should hear back from them (through email) today. If I don't get anything by about 6:30, I plan on calling up again (and likely asking for a supervisor).

[tk316]

I'm trying to reach the german SOE Hotline now.

"For technical issues, please dial 1; for ingame issues, dial 2."
Me: dial 1.

*click* and nothingness.

Since I have to pay for this hotline and I don't even hear a queue-music, I have no idea if those guys are even at work and won't try again.

Well, I've had some experiences with hotrlines, having worked for one myself some time ago, but this lack of anything I havent encountered before.

[tk316]

Update:

After successfully reaching the german telephone support, the lady there confirned that my key isvalid and OK, however she wasnt able to activate the game for me either. She has forwarded this to the techies, and hopes that shel'll get a response from them today.

She also said that it might be possible that the key is locked if you try to enter it too often.
In that case it has to be unlocked. She couldn't see though if the key is locked.

If I get news, I'll keep you posted.

[Costa]

iam trying to get a preboarding key since morning 6:00 GMT but i couldnt only i saw a message that an error occured they cant activate shopping chart try again soon.what is the meaning of soon i tried it all day and nothing

[lala71686]

Has anyone gotten this sorted out yet? I'm just curious what exactly is done to fix this issue.

I still haven't heard back about a solution (I initially contacted them around 11 am on 1/7).

[Thunnus]

Just got this response from SOE:

Hello,

Thank you for Contacting Sony Online Entertainment, I do show that the account key (xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx) is valid, try entering it without the - and try again.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please let me know.

Best Regards,

CSR Danny L

This is despite stating in the ticket that I've tried that!

[lala71686]

Just got this response from SOE:

Hello,

Thank you for Contacting Sony Online Entertainment, I do show that the account key (xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx) is valid, try entering it without the - and try again.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please let me know.

Best Regards,

CSR Danny L

This is despite stating in the ticket that I've tried that!


Yeah, that's got to be frustrating. The only clarification they've sent me is they wanted to check if I had tried the key before 10 AM the first day. It sounds to me like they have no idea what the actual issue is here unfortunately.

[Thunnus]

I'm glad they have confirmed I'm reading the key correctly if nothing else. Replied with some info from here about it possibly being a problem with the account and asked if they can apply the code from their end, but I'm not expecting a fix any time soon.

At current speed of response we'll be all sorted just in time for pre-boarding to finish and we can start again with some failed retail codes. :D

[Thunnus]

Guess what?

Hello,

Thank you for Contacting Sony Online Entertainment, please try entering the key now, I have reset a flag on your account.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please let me know.

Best Regards,

CSR Danny L

Whatever flag the guy reset, worked. I have no idea what he did, but the code now works and I'm patching as I type this :D

I take it all back and have removed all pointy items from the SOE voodoo dolls.

[lala71686]

Guess what?

Hello,

Thank you for Contacting Sony Online Entertainment, please try entering the key now, I have reset a flag on your account.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please let me know.

Best Regards,

CSR Danny L

Whatever flag the guy reset, worked. I have no idea what he did, but the code now works and I'm patching as I type this :D

I take it all back and have removed all pointy items from the SOE voodoo dolls.

Thanks for the info. I'm about to call them up again and mention this to see if it can be done for me as well.

[lala71686]

Looks like I spoke too soon. I was just about to call, when I figured first I would try to enter the key one more time. I open up the client, and it instantly starts patching. Looks like SOE was able to add the key in for me now. :)

[Thunnus]

Good stuff :D

[tk316]

YAY!!!

It works for me now, too.

However, no notification was given to me.

Oh well...

[Kruaal]

Update:

I purchased my key at gameware.at and it was sent via email. Whoever typed the Code had a typo, he mixed up "M" and "N". When I replaced the only "M" in my pre-order key with an "N", the key was accepted.

[Miska73]

I've been waiting reply from SOE since 7th day but no reply. When things are like this i have no choice but cancel my order of full game version and play games which have somekind a customer support.

[Smoking Frog]

What's the phone number for the SOE hotline? I'm in the USA.

[Smoking Frog]

Never mind. I found the number but it was a waste of time. When you go through all the options you end up with the final choices not being applicable. I'm gonna try the on-line chat help

[Smoking Frog]

The final update on this. On-line chat proved worthless since I never got past 2 in the line. I finally decided to e-mail SOE. Like others here I never got a reply from them via e-mail but a couple of hours later I tried to log in with my activation code and it worked fine.

[Miska73]

No reply, no working key.

[jocko]

Oh man its enoying, my key doesnt work and i cant visit the website and my key is invalid and i dont know what to do:(

sad in the eye

[Rev]

Jocko, is your account working now? Your forum status no longer says "Subscription Expired" which should mean you're ready to play.

Miska73 and Smoking Frog, can you tell me the bug # of the report you filed with SOE? I can follow up with them.

[IrNinjaBob]

Jocko, is your account working now? Your forum status no longer says "Subscription Expired" which should mean you're ready to play.

Miska73 and Smoking Frog, can you tell me the bug # of the report you filed with SOE? I can follow up with them.

I don't know how to get this problem fixed, but i am getting this message as well. I sent them a support request after reading this forum and I got a response saying my incident will be raised to the tier 2 support team and i would get a response from a specialist soon.
I havent gotten any contact though since then and I was wanting to play so I just figured I would ask here to see if there was any way to speed this up.

the request number was '080115-003997'

[Shadowdragoon]

I am also stuck whit a nonworking key and have a SOE petition open.. and waiting for the tier2 guy, been waiting 48 hours now.. my ticket nr is 080115-002073

[RanxxIronDread]

when i enter pre boarding key it says "youre currently not subscribed" ive tried like 4 times and nothing happened

[Thunnus]

when i enter pre boarding key it says "youre currently not subscribed" ive tried like 4 times and nothing happened

Untick the pre-paid game card box. If it's not ticked and you're getting that error then SOE support is your best bet.

[Rev]

I havent gotten any contact though since then and I was wanting to play so I just figured I would ask here to see if there was any way to speed this up.IrNinjaBob, I've asked SOE about your support # as I see you still aren't activated.

[cyran]

wow having the same problem as the rest of the people on here i got my game thru gamestop so im just waiting to take it back, not a real good way to start off a game launch

[Thunnus]

wow having the same problem as the rest of the people on here i got my game thru gamestop so im just waiting to take it back, not a real good way to start off a game launch

For a lot of us it turned out to be a problem with our accounts rather than the key, so taking it back may not help :)

Talk to SOE; they'll tell you if the code is valid and fix your account if it is.

[tk316]

Wow, we're 3 days to retail launch and pre-order keys are still not working?

WTG, SOE....grats on a major mess-up.

No SOE game I've played so far had this kind of a problem. I wonder why this is different.

Anyway, here's hoping that the retail keys will work properly on the 22nd. Little hoping, but still...sigh

[Kragen]

Kind of fun that you have too write SOE before your Key is going to be valid. Have the same problem as everyone else. Hope they'll answer quick and fix my account.

Have'nt figure out yet why you need two diff account on two diff sites too be able to play a game. Should it not be enough with one site, and one database?

[tearofscarlet]

I just bought the actual game and I'm also having this issue.... I tried calling SOE and well I guess they observe Martin Luther King day, GO GO launching on a holiday .-.

[Midknight]

I just bought the actual game and I'm also having this issue.... I tried calling SOE and well I guess they observe Martin Luther King day, GO GO launching on a holiday .-.

The game actually doesn't launch until the 22nd.. tomorrow..

[Danielwhite]

I must say... I havn't been this displeased with SOE since Vangaurd. I can't immagine why the people at SOE still havn't learned from there mistakes from Vanguard. The lack of technical support and general laziness of the techincal support staff is just plain outrageous. I'm sure for some, this sort of degraded support has become second nature but for me it never will be. I can understand that maybe since PotBS's servers are down cd key imput may not work but to not offer a sensible and efficient support network to help ease and absolve our fears of "maybe our game keys don't work" or "Well crap, maybe we're **** out of luck?" is just plain in-excuseable in my opinion. I'm tired of being ignored and played by SOE. They should have learned from they're previous mistakes, they're hundreds of mistakes... I can't believe they can't just get real with there customers and admit that they're not in it to make gamers happy but rather to just take our money. Why don't they spend some of that money and umm... hire more support staff and run a damned buisness like its one and not a forsakenly damned snake sales shop. I'm fed up. To the SOE employees that concerns those like myself, You should be ashamed to call yourself a team of professionals.

[djashdj]

poor openings doomed games like shadowbane. (still love the shadowbane!)

The game its self (POTBS) seems pretty cool and I got to play for a whopping ONE day... but now neither code works. Tried out the online chat and waited in line till I was NUMBER 3!!! WOOHOO!!!! oh.. wait.. support stops at 7PM PST... guess what? My status never changed from 3. 30 minutes later it said "sorry its after hours" or wtf ever it says. So.... I think.. ok fine i'll email them. I go through the email link and its broke! The link is not functioning...

so with that... (even though posts here seem to have been pretty fruitless with emails) can someone send me the email to the ******s at SOE so I can get up and going at least ON RELEASE DATE... so far I've paid 60 bucks for a game I'm probably gonna play once at this rate.

While i know this is POTBS's fault... i feel for you guys for getting stuck with SOE... there little "station" website thingy is GARBAGE... rediculous amounts of scripting errors and such with crap support so far.

Guess I'll go play eve or maybe shadowbane.

[djashdj]

oops.. i used the f word it looks like... sorry! i was pretty po'd heh... still am...

[Alastorr Frost]

poor openings doomed games like shadowbane. (still love the shadowbane!)

The game its self (POTBS) seems pretty cool and I got to play for a whopping ONE day... but now neither code works. Tried out the online chat and waited in line till I was NUMBER 3!!! WOOHOO!!!! oh.. wait.. support stops at 7PM PST... guess what? My status never changed from 3. 30 minutes later it said "sorry its after hours" or wtf ever it says. So.... I think.. ok fine i'll email them. I go through the email link and its broke! The link is not functioning...

so with that... (even though posts here seem to have been pretty fruitless with emails) can someone send me the email to the ******s at SOE so I can get up and going at least ON RELEASE DATE... so far I've paid 60 bucks for a game I'm probably gonna play once at this rate.

While i know this is POTBS's fault... i feel for you guys for getting stuck with SOE... there little "station" website thingy is GARBAGE... rediculous amounts of scripting errors and such with crap support so far.

Guess I'll go play eve or maybe shadowbane.

the game is only OFFICIALLY releases on the 22nd of January 2008 at 18h00 London time. So it means that you are WAY to early....Try later and you will see that it works. :D

[Duhaast]

Just got this response from SOE:

Hello,

Thank you for Contacting Sony Online Entertainment, I do show that the account key (xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx) is valid, try entering it without the - and try again.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please let me know.

Best Regards,

CSR Danny L

This is despite stating in the ticket that I've tried that!


Welcome to SOE customer service...for those of you new to SOE run games...this is not new...its been this way since...wow i think when SOE started running games.

Not being sarcastic or mean...just the facts sadly :-|

[Fatbeard]

The Sony Station site has got to be one of the most pathetic excuses for a support site I've ever encountered. After discovering that my pre-board, retail, and landing-party keys are all invalid, I was a little miffed, but I figured a quick email to support could straighten things out.

Big mistake, expecting Sony to provide any such thing. Portions of the support website have an invalid security certificate. The knowledgebase on the site contains no information whatsoever about the problem, the nearest I could find were the forums here. Attempts to get email or chat support result in being sent to a page where I'm asked to update my email address. I can get no further, even after updating the address to the same thing and trying to verify. I can't locate a direct support email address, as if Sony is trying to hide the service from their customers.

This is just the kind of arrogant, inane crap I'd expect from a company that's built its entire existence on lies, standards creep, and fraud. They should have stuck to making TVs.

[ange]

I am having a problem with this and I didn't pre-order online, I bought the actual game.

I'm quite frustrated :(

[Keign]

I am having a problem with this and I didn't pre-order online, I bought the actual game.

I'm quite frustrated :(

Yep same.. drove from Canada to the US (well over the border anyway) just to pickup a copy of the game from "GameStop" because the Canadian retail outlets don't know how to unpack "pallets" and "shrink-wrap" a couple days early.

Only to find out that my Key isn't working. If it has something to do with the keys being "Locked" until Server-Launch, I wish they would at least STATE that somewhere!

As it stands now I have no clue why it would do this. It should at least let me patch and then give me a "server connection problem" until Server launch.

So shouldn't the keys work for people who actually bought a physical COPY of the game?

[Mhuadib]

I think right now the reason why people can't use their keys is, like Keign said, because SOE locked all the keys (digital and physical copies) for the launch period. I have bought a digital pre-order, and been playing for about two weeks, but today when I started the game, it said that my key is invalid. SOE account site says it is under maintenance. Hopefully all keys will be unlocked when the game finally launches.

[Glenn]

Sorry if this is addressed some place else but i cant find it. I have been playing for a week or so now as i bought the download from station. My question is this, today (22nd) how do i make my account active? just log in and set up under the same user name and password?

Help please

[Cory Nelson]

Add one more to the list.

Petition '080122-000190'

A bit silly, I bought the game saturday through gamestop so I could play a bit early. Didn't get the info till monday morning. Downloaded but that didn't finish until Monday evening and it was of course shut down for the launch until tuesday. Now it's tuesday and I the codes don't work. :P

Anyway, put the petition up last night. Anything you can do to speed it along would be useful.

[hvzeda]

Stuck in the same boat here. When I go to my account to get email or chat support, the page doesn't load and so far been unable to even submit a report. Tried going through the support from the launch pad of 4 SOE games and still can't get to email or chat support.

[MorathiAUS]

This is crazy. You release a game and then get us to contact someelse when your activation system does not work. What are we pating for here. If you release a game then it should be your responsibility to fix the issue not us.

I paid for a game and now I can not play it. How are we going to be compensated for this? I handed over my money but you deny me using what I paid for. I would think that 3 or 4 months free would be good compensation for this.

[Thunnus]

This is crazy. You release a game and then get us to contact someelse when your activation system does not work. What are we pating for here. If you release a game then it should be your responsibility to fix the issue not us.

I paid for a game and now I can not play it. How are we going to be compensated for this? I handed over my money but you deny me using what I paid for. I would think that 3 or 4 months free would be good compensation for this.

It's not FLS' activation system, it's SOE's, that's why you're being directed to contact SOE. FLS made the game, SOE deal with the billing. Cut FLS a bit of slack, they can only shout at SOE just like everyone else.

[Cory Nelson]

I paid for a game and now I can not play it. How are we going to be compensated for this? I handed over my money but you deny me using what I paid for. I would think that 3 or 4 months free would be good compensation for this.

Wow. I agree it's a bit frustrating but you think you should get 3-4 months free because you can't play for a day or two? Gotta love the math on that one. I agree it's annoying and as someone who works in the industry there's no reason these issues should still be occurring. After all, it's not like it's SOE's first game running under this system, they should have the kinks out by now. Still, complaining about it isn't likely to get it fixed any faster and the guys answering the boards don't need the grief (they didn't break it and certainly aren't the ones needed to fix it). Sounds like whoever screwed it up did it in such a way that they have to go in by hand to fix it. Poor engineering to be sure but hopefully they'll get it resolved soon.

[netjam]

I bought the game last week for the prelaunch and yeap enjoyed the heck out of POTBS all last week. My purchase cleared on my credit card. Like others I can't log in for want of an activation code....I went to the SOE site this afternoon dispite the fact that I was supposed to have 30 days from the time I bought the game. Heck I would have bought a subscription last week if they gave me the option when I bought the game. Other game companies do that. Give you a month free but get your billing info and ask which plan you want. That was not an option that I can remember.

Like others it is asking Me for a activation code. I keep trying both codes the one from SOE and the one from Direct Drive. Neither work. I tried calling the support number at SOE but it is busy or does not even get a dial tone. I tried their email thru their site but that gave me an error ...right now I am waiting in a Chat Queve and its moving very slowly been on 10 mins and I have 28 people in front of me.

I have subsribed to WWIIOL, EVE...and bought my son a subscription to WOW. Never have I had troubles at all buying a subscribtion to those games.

[netjam]

Ok..I figured it out or rather keep reading other threads. In my case since I bought the game from freaking Direct to Drive I had to go get another new activation code by going to MY PAGE and asking them to send it again by hitting the SEND INFO button. The one from last week did not work anymore even though I had paid and all that good stuff.

Then took the new activation code back to the SOL site, punched it in and it seemed to work and let me pick a subscription plan. The game is loading up right now...but I blew 2 hours trying to figure this crud out. By the way I was still at number 10 in the quieve at Sony support just a minute before writing this followup.

Anyway all is good now I am in the game.

[Cory Nelson]

So yeah, I spoke with SOE's customer service via chat. Most ridiculous setup I've ever heard of. I bought the game via gamestop online. SOE is telling me that the code they gave me was for 'pre-launch' (note, bought this three days ago and it took that long to get the codes and download etc) and that I need to get a 'real' activation code from gamestop (ie, the retail box they're sending me).

So... I bought the game pre-order to play a few days early. They wait 2 days to send me a code, by the time I get the code the game is shut down to prep for launch. Then it launches and that code is suddenly invalid and I need the retail box which, thinking I didn't needed for a bit, would be sent via slow mail, 1-2 weeks for delivery. Yeah, canceled the order, going to go by a box from a store.

So, the moral of the story? Preorder online effectively means you *might* be able to play early, or you might not be able to play until a few weeks after launch. I'll never preorder from Sony again. They should have known full well that retail boxes take time to ship and you don't shut down all accounts on launch. You give at least a week to allow everyone to switch over.

[Cory Nelson]

OO.... my story just got better. So based on what the guy told me I wasn't going to wait two weeks until I got my copy so I canceled the preorder and just bought on at the store. Now I read on the page in the game "for customers who have pr-ordered, ... . enter your "landing party key" (instea dof the activation key). So... that key # I gave the CS guy, was what I was supposed to have after all and he was just too lazy to verify it. Grumble. Oh, and the activation code in the box; doesn't work. Go Sony.

[djashdj]

OO.... my story just got better. So based on what the guy told me I wasn't going to wait two weeks until I got my copy so I canceled the preorder and just bought on at the store. Now I read on the page in the game "for customers who have pr-ordered, ... . enter your "landing party key" (instea dof the activation key). So... that key # I gave the CS guy, was what I was supposed to have after all and he was just too lazy to verify it. Grumble. Oh, and the activation code in the box; doesn't work. Go Sony.


well here we are on launch party day and I my launch key doesn't even work. the ups guys second attemp to deliver and he is a beetch and didn't bother to knock loud as I was sitting here in view from the freaking door... I go to soe's site and read some crap about needing to have a subscription... so i add a credit card.. go through the stuff.. and all i can do is click "buy" so I think.. f'it... lets drop another 50 dollars... so I go through to purchase the game.... and IT WON'T LET ME CLICK COMPLETE TO BUY THE GAME ****AGAIN**** I should be happy about that... as now i'm starting to wonder if i just should try to find a way to get my money back.