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I was finally able to unlock the account. I never heard back from anyone at SDS, but I decided to spend some more money so that the total amount I spent would be greater than the $225 that was refunded to me. Miraculously, it worked!
Thank you all so much for your messages and wisdom that you were able to share with me. I wouldn't have found a resolution without you.
To me, it's criminal if they won't let me repay them, because they won't allow me access to the moments that have been completed, etc and the money that has already been "invested".
I tried to post a screenshot of the Error Screen but it says I don't have permission to do that. There's no error code or anything else.
I can absolutely see what you're saying. I'm perfectly fine paying them back. I tried doing that by purchasing the same amount of Stubs but that didn't work...
The error message I get is "The Server could not be accessed at this time".
Thanks for your responses. Yes, we can use this ID-TurkeyBakon to play other games, so Playstation hasn't locked my account. If violating TOS were an issue, wouldn't SDS have informed me that I had done so? Wouldn't they also have told me, when I submitted an account issue to SDS, that I had violated their terms of service rather than than saying that "my console" had put a hold on my account due to a fraudulent purchase? I should be clear that it's my 13 year old is the major player on this account and put a lot of his money into this game. I highly doubt that he has violated the TOS (for a number of reasons), but I'll ask him.
Thanks for your comments. To be clear, this happened three weeks ago, so I feel like I've been really patient. I've spoken to Sony 7 or 8 times. PS Support says that my account is unlocked and has no restrictions. They also said that they cannot reverse the $225 refund once it's been given. PS Support has told me all of the following:
-I needed to contact SDS and ask them to remove the content that I purchased (which apparently they can't?)
-My account has a negative balance once they gave me a refund-I assumed that meant that I had a negative balance of Stubs
-I should go to the Forums to see if they could help me-which brought me to you guys
When you say that, from your experience, you need to repay a chargeback, how do you do that? Do I contact PS Support and tell them that I want to repay the chargeback? I think I may have asked if I could just give them $225 to fix it and he told me that there was no problem on their end and that my account was unrestricted. I have a feeling that PS Support won't know what to do with the money...but I can call them and try. I'm really hoping that the bug report will do something...
Playstation says, on their end, that my ID is all clear and has no restrictions. The contend that it's SDS's server that has the issue. Why couldn't it be an issue on SDS's end? I'm asking because I guess I don't get how it works.
My apologies on the different ID. Before I logged in with my Playstation ID and when I responded, I logged in with my "The Show" ID. Do the IDs need to be the same? They are linked.
My 9 year old son purchased $225 worth of Stubs on The Show 23 on the PS5 and then spent the Stubs (without asking our permission first). I called Playstation Support and asked them for a refund. They kindly credited me the money back.
Ever since that time, we cannot access the game using this particular account (which we've spent A LOT of money on). The game says "The server could not be accessed at this time." There are no error codes. This account works on every other game, just not The Show 23.
Playstation Customer Service, after several calls, told me that, once they refunded the money, the Stubs previously purchased (that had already been spent) were then debited, which left my account with a huge negative balance.
Playstation says that my account is not suspended on their end and that I have to contact San Diego Studio. San Diego Studio customer support has responded to my inquiry with the exact same message each time despite my writing back to them with follow-up questions. They insist the problem is Playstation's to fix. Playstation says that it's San Diego Studio's problem. The message from San Diego Studio is below:
"Thank you for the email, unfortunately. it looks like you reported a fraudulent charge for an MLB The Show purchase. This account has a suspension placed by your console due to this opened fraudulent stub purchase report. You will need to contact your console support for additional information and help with this matter."
Sony said that there is nothing more they can do to help and that they have no contact information for San Diego Studio other than trying the Forums. Neither company is able/willing to help me resolve this problem. San Diego Studio and Playstation are both part of the same company!! There MUST be a solution that can be found.
I am happy to pay back the $225 at this point to get the account opened again, but because I can't connect to my account on the PS5, I can't buy the Stubs and can't do it through PS support and SDS only tells me that it's Sony's problem.
We have spent a tremendous amount of money on this account and I want to get access to it again. I'd love any ideas you all might have of how to fix this. It's been a maddening experience.
Thank you very much for your help.