Not sure if I chose the right section for this but my issue is with a japanese website dmm.com they host many things there but I only use the mobile or web based game portion of the site. I have had an account there since about 2014 and have probably made something around $15,000-20,000 in point charges over the span of 4 years. There was a limited time lootbox or "gacha" would be the japanese name for it that advertised a 2% rate for a new character and 4% for all other characters of the same rarity. The two sets of 10 gacha are discounted about $15 and $20 and then all other sets are about $27 after that. I figured its a 2% chance shouldn't be too hard to get that new character so I essentially kept charging points expecting to get that new character at some point but that never occurs. I ended up with exactly 290 gacha total or 29 sets so a couple hundred dollars. I'm fairly certain there was some sort of error and that new character wasn't applied to the gacha correctly with so many failed attempts. I do not believe the rate for the other characters of that rarity supposedly set for 4% was accurate either I think I only saw maybe 3 of them come out of the entire 290 shots I made. I sent messages to their game developers in english and also some short phrases I translated with google to check the issue but all they do is send back scripted messages in japanese which say " we do not modify the gacha rates for individual players and that I'm not guaranteed to get anything" so I doubt they even checked if my problem existed. From what I observed no one else obtained the character either. Since they seemed to just ignore me after multiple attempts to speak with them I just filed chargebacks with paypal and my bank. They have blocked my account now for a mere $700 in chargebacks when my account is 4 years old with likely $15,000 or more total I have charged for other games I play there. I emailed the address that reports every charge I make "[email protected]" and they actually reply back to me in english there but they say they can only offer me to pay $290 and then they will unblock my account but if I make anymore claims my account will be banned again. I tried asking them in this email also if they could verify the issue and they only say the say they can't help me from their department and what the game developer said is true. I believe the $290 is from the refunds my bank and paypal have already given me paypal rejected most of the claims but not all since it wasn't charged all at once. I'm not sure if my bank is still investigating since I asked them to refund the paypal charges that paypal rejected as being legitimate claims. I just recently figured out how to send messages to their dmm games support section but I don't have much hope in it. Before I was just using an online support button at the bottom of the games page but I can no longer access that since I'm banned. It may be difficult to prove since the gacha that I used was only limited time and any characters I obtained are instantly converted to an item if you already own the character so I'm not completely sure how many I obtained. The only thing I know with 100% certainty is that I didn't get that new character set at a 2% rate.
I'm sorry for the wall of text but I was trying to be as descriptive as possible. Does anyone have an idea if I could somehow sue them for the value of my lost account if I refuse to pay or would it be better I just pay them and try to sue for false advertising? I'm worried they don't have enough of a US presence to be sued since only certain parts of their website has an english version or they can just doctor the evidence since I don't have anyway of knowing what the rate's really are in their system or even if my system somehow malfunction and just didn't properly load the gacha. I'm also not exactly made of money to afford a ton of lawyer fees. I'm considering that maybe I should not of had all of my games on one account so I could just chargeback claims in rare instances like this with no problems if they want to ban me for their faulty product.
I'm sorry for the wall of text but I was trying to be as descriptive as possible. Does anyone have an idea if I could somehow sue them for the value of my lost account if I refuse to pay or would it be better I just pay them and try to sue for false advertising? I'm worried they don't have enough of a US presence to be sued since only certain parts of their website has an english version or they can just doctor the evidence since I don't have anyway of knowing what the rate's really are in their system or even if my system somehow malfunction and just didn't properly load the gacha. I'm also not exactly made of money to afford a ton of lawyer fees. I'm considering that maybe I should not of had all of my games on one account so I could just chargeback claims in rare instances like this with no problems if they want to ban me for their faulty product.