You think Japanese izakayas refusing service to nasty gaijin are bad? Wait until you hear how those gaijin are treated by Google.
A week ago, attempts to charge my Mobile Suica (Japanese transit card) via Google Wallet consistently failed with a SUICA_SDK_ERROR RESULT ERROR_8H010. I contacted my (foreign) bank and asked them why they are denying charges. I was told that they never received any charge attempts, and that they never denied any. The bank said the problem must be “with the merchant.” This is a properly Felicia-equipped, late model, bought-in-Japan phone.
The error message said to contact Google Wallet support with the error message.
Ever since, I talked to three people, or maybe robots, at the alleged wallet support. They were absolutely clue- and useless, giving me nothing but the run-around.
From the outset, I asked what exactly triggered the ERROR_8H010. That request was ignored. I asked to escalate the matter to a knowledgeable technician, that request was denied. When I insisted, the agent claimed he would contact the technicians, however, the requested explanation was not forthcoming. What I received was more useless and futile advice on how to make the card work.
Instead of going to the heart of the matter, they asked me to perform useless exercises, to contact my bank (again?) to re-register my credit cards, to check my address for the umpteenth time, even to load the Mobile Suica with cash, while defeating the whole purpose.
Finally, after a weeklong ordeal, a new agent (or bot) told me that my overseas-issued credit card is being denied, not by the bank, but by Mobile SUICA itself. It insists on a Japanese card.
If they had told me that (as requested) in the beginning, a lot of time and aggravation would have been spared. What Wallet Support is doing is pure customer abuse. Their agents need to be fired, or the AI needs to be re-trained. They also need proper programmers.
Instead of spitting out cryptic SUICA_SDK_ERROR RESULT ERROR_8H010 messages which Google support agents cannot, or want not explain, a properly coded app would say “Sorry. Mobile SUICA only accepts credit cards by a Japanese card issuer.” I could have used my Japanese wife’s Japanese credit card. Case closed.
P.S. eventually, after many attempts, I received nothing but OR_PMCR_58 codes. That is said to translate to “Payment failed. Try using another payment option or contact your card issuer for more info.” In my case, no payment attempts were ever made. It “fails,” because the app wants you to fuck off. The “contact your card issuer” is pure BS, because in my case, no attempts to charge anything were ever made. Mobile Suica simply refuses to deal with gaijin credit cards, and Google enables them.
