Qobuz Issue

I'd wait for Sebastien to sort it out.

B

So, I've bought 20+ albums, prior Sublime and that really confuses me.

I am in a similar position.  Opened account.  Tried to pay with CC, it was declined.  I tried again, same card, same "everything", it seemed to go through.  But Quboz wasn't working.  Couldn't listen to music through the Qobuz App, or Roon (Roon was able to log in).  Sent Help request to Qobuz.  Lucie (of Qobuz) says my payment didn't go through.  I tried again, declined.  I tried second card, declined.  I went to my bank CC help web page and asked about declined CC events.  Was told no CC declines in the past 7 days.  Sent a reply to Lucie, have not heard back.  My CC is US, my account is US, with zip code.  I wonder if Qobuz needs a cell #?  Found this thread via google search.  Using Mac with latest system software and Safari.  Qobuz recommends Firefox, but my payment was also rejected using Firefox.  Waiting.

I first started mailing Sebastien on Nov 13. A deeper look into the problem started 7 days ago, the 15 of November. I’ve asked for a refund of $180, to which yall know the answer. This is what it tells me when I attempt to use same signing up card "The payment was refused, verify your bank details before proceeding with a payment again." I’m not able to stream at this time but, I bought Sublime for discounted downloads. Today, the 22nd. Sebastien sends an email saying card issues haven’t been fixed but I can use Paypal, to which I have no account.

 

jfhess, I couldn’t agree more with a US Qobuz phone number.

update:  an unexpected reply from Sebastian.  I got an email list email about music on Qobuz.  I replied as below and Sebastian replied as below, top.  I replied to him outline the things I have tried, I wonder what he'll say.

Hi John, 

Thanks for your email.  I'm sorry to hear you are having this trouble with our service. Thanks for letting me know. Do you mind telling me if you have submitted a support request for this issue? If you have the support ticket number so I can look it up? If you haven't submitted a ticket yet, here's a link to get you started. https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/help/contact

 

Regards,

Sébastien

On Nov 26, 2021, 12:43 PM -0500, John F. Hess <johnfhess@comcast.net>, wrote:

Hi Sebatian,

Funny that I’m subscribed to a Qobuz mailing list when I’m having a problem paying for the “free” trial. 2 different credit cards tried with 2 different browsers have not worked. Card declined. My account is in the US and the email address is US, and the IP from Comcast must be US also. Being Thanksgiving over here with Black Friday internet stuff, I have not called my credit card company to inquire. The Qobuz help has not offered any more concrete suggestions.

I was thinking that maybe a charge for $0.00 was suspicious and thus declined. So last night, I tried to use a credit card to purchase and album, that also failed.

cheers,

 

John, I initially joined Qobuz for discounted high res downloads only, and at this time I’m gaining nothing from Qobuz. I was told by Sebastien that PayPal was working, but I have no PP account.

 

Since discovering the issue I’ve tried, different card, new Fire Fox profile, emptying Qobuz cart, then filling it back up and buying downloads outside Sublime, regular price. Nothing worked. I suggested canceling and rejoining but Sebastien never answered the question of "should I"? With "no refunds" I didn’t want to be charged $180 twice.

 

My Qobuz desktop app indicates "Sublime", but that doesn’t help. Tomorrow is the last day of waiting for "investigating" we’ll see what comes of it. My Qobuz "favorites" list is growing and growing.

Interesting, I'm having the same issue of not being able to use a credit card.  Different cards, different devices, subscription or purchase, nothing work.

I figured I would look at the PayPal interface, though I haven't used that account in ~10 years.  Imagine my surprise when the transaction auto completed without my consent, despite the explicit statement below the "continue" button that I would be able to review the transaction before processing payment.   In nearly 20 years of online transactions I have never seen any vendor skip terms and conditions, or a complete transaction step.   Astounding.  Put in a dispute immediately.

 

Are credit companies putting a block on Qobuz?  I called my bank and there is no transaction history at all.  

 

Needless to say, not a great introduction to the service.

Nothing good to share here, either. About interactions with Qobuz. Still no resolve. Sebastien mailed and said that he thought I could use PayPal. I do understand how things might get confusing being English is not his first language. khloebo, history of Qobuz taking $180 is there.

(New here… hope this is helpful)

I did a lot of research before subscribing to Qobuz after Apple swallowed PrimePhonic. The way in which everything else - except purchasing - works on Qobuz seems exemplary.

But I was pretty upset when I tried to make my first ('Sublime' discounted… $29.99 to $19.99) high-res download.

The 'progress' from (in my case macOS) app to website is counter-intuitive. But (I assume) that's how it's implemented? The app can't be used for purchases, can it?

I've sometimes been getting 'Finalise your purchase'; sometimes not. Sometimes it shows one purchased item in my cart - but it also says 'nothing found' on the same page; sometimes not. Nor does that very consistently lead to any obvious place/page where I can actually complete the purchase.

Qobuz's own FAQ on the procedure doesn't match the actual (names of the) tabs.

Those few times when I have managed to get past 'Finalise', there's no indication of where to go next actually to complete the purchase. Then I noticed 'Retrieve my purchases' but this just loops back to the main page.

I invariably get a message that I should check with my bank because the transaction was declined. Each time I do so, the bank has no record of such a failure and tells me to check with the merchant.

I've tried about 30 times - admittedly with the same album, but on both Safari and Firefox and after reboots etc.

And after making sure that I have all VPNs, content- and ad-blockers etc disabled. And popups enabled. As well as trying to get my Qobuz account name etc strings as close to those on the several credit cards as possible (including the one I subscribed in the first place with - which went through perfectly a week or so ago).

I heard back from Sébastien this morning (does anyone know, please: does he work US or French hours; is he the only tech?) asking for details of my credit card to take it up with their third party fulfillment agency.

I confess to being a little thrown by all of this. Is it normal, new? is it likely to be fixed? Should I be worried?

TIA!

Is there a reason why you don't have a Paypal account?  I know some people don't like them, but it might be the easiest solution to your problem.

Yes, I do have a PayPal account. But having hitched my wagon - after masses of research - to the Qobuz star, I'd like to know why credit cards don't work with it.

Still puzzled. I cannot use PayPal either. This is what happens:

1. I log into the Qobuz website
2. single-click on the (web) 'Download Store’ tab and am taken here
3. search for the album I want - e.g. ‘Fabio Biondi Bach’ in the search bar at the top right of the Qobuz store which is also here
4. see the album I want to download under ’Sublime’ here
5. single click on it here (URL arguments will make this page unviewable now, I understand)
6. single-click on the ‘Buy the album (starting at $19.99)’ button - white and orange text on black background
7. get the popup to continue
8. single-click on the ‘Finalize my order’ button, white text on black background
9. but nothing happens; I am taken back to the home page here
10. so I scroll down to 'Retrieve my purchases > ’ under the Download area/section of that page
11. But - again:
12. I am then taken to this page
13. At the top it says 'You have 1 item(s) in your cart’ and there is another ‘Finalize my order’ white text on blue background button; and in the centre underneath it says ’Nothing found’
14. Single-clicking on either of these just takes me back to this page

If anyone can see at what stage I am going wrong in getting to the Cart for PayPal, Id very much appreciate their help! Thanks :-)

Mark, with credit card being my only access to Qobuz high res, I'm really wanting to find an answer also. I continue to get generic email from Sebastien saying Qobuz has new music. Which is like a kick in the nads. Kinda makes me angry. I emailed the "customer service" in a check out page because I wanted to make sure everyone that could, knew I was having problems paying and just like I suspected, the next day I receive a reply to that email from... Sebastien.

 

The amount of time it takes to solve this CC issue, is time from my yearly subscription. When all gets straitened, I hope that's also in the Qobuz mind. Mark, I'll go through the check out process and compare, tomorrow. I think your getting closer than I am to making music yours.

Thanks for supporting this rather odd situation, @2020matters!

I have made some progress:

I was able to complete a transaction as intended (but only with PayPal, which is OK) by using a VPN set to France.

Sébastien explained in no uncertain terms that Qobuz forbids the use of VPNs and that, if one is detected again, my account would be closed and they would not consider any kind of appeal!

Message understood.

I still feel as though this is a network issue. Something in their (third party) merchant setup is defeating transactions as such.

But of almost equal concern is the loop which I (at least - as in my post above) encounter when trying to get a purchase into the cart and pay for it (albeit with PayPal).

Yesterday, however, I tried to do the whole thing from scratch. Restart. FireFox (and of course no VPN).

It worked flawlessly. I was able to complete the purchase and initiate the download of eight tracks on a high-res CD and have the FLAC files in the right directory to import into Roon in about 15 minutes.

This makes me think that - even though I deleted cookies and disabled all other trackers, blockers etc - perhaps once you've started a purchase trying to use Visa etc, misconfigurations or bugs in the Qobuz system shut you out and result in the loop I described above.

I'm waiting for Sébastien's response to what for me seems like good news.

But if I'm honest, like you, I still don't really know where I satin or what to expect.

Hey Mark, My process

1. Qobuz desktop app, I then empty cart and fill it up with two Sublime titles. I click the first title and Qobuz opens browser.

2. Then I minimize the browser to add second title.

3. FireFox opens to log in Qobuz. My Email/pass is stored so I click empty space and select email/pass.

4. I’m at the Qobuz cart with both selections

5. Check the "Hereby I consent..." message. Click "access payment" button.

6. "Enter payment details" Click the blue pay button and it reads "The payment was refused. Verify your bank details before proceeding with a payment again"

I was considering using a VPN. I see that wouldn’t have lasted long, so much for that idea. Thanks Mark It’s worth a lot to know now I’m not the only one. I guess I’ll have to keep being kicked until Qobuz works everything out. I hope to post soon, everything is fine with the year subscription.

Hello, @2020matters,

In essence your six (or so) steps aren't too dissimilar from mine.

I had found no documentation of the fact that the central point of buying is not the (dedicated, desktop) Qobuz app - but always their site in a browser.

I cannot always reliably get to your step 4.

But when I can, I always see the same results at (your) steps 5 and 6.

However…

If I can mange to get past your step 5 - but only by using PayPal - I almost always get taken back to the 'Discover' or 'Download' page with no way to complete the purchase.

I have to think that this is a bug intimately connected to the credit card failure and that cookies and variables are getting improperly set when anyone tries to use a credit card which confounds the rest of the session and removes any chance of success!

If I ever can (who knows that obscure combination of circumstances I either encounter or engineer myself!) I can see a 'Retrieve my downloads >'. That always fails.

Or I go to My account (top right) > My Purchases (left sidebar) and see both items in my account and 'Nothing found'.

I suspect that those times when I have been successful have always been:

1. when starting afresh after say 24 hours have passed
2. when using FireFox
3. and when not 'polluting'/'interfering with' the expected process by not trying to use a credit card, and selecting PayPal first

I don't believe this is satisfactory; nor that it's good for Qobuz - not least because they must definitely be losing sales.

Sébastien tries to be helpful. But many of his responses are templated and I can't seem to get to a source at Qobuz whose primary responsibility it is to take careful note of what's happening, investigate it and offer some sort of estimate as to when it'll be fixed - aside from the fact that we know that credit cards no longer work, and that we absolutely should not try to get around it by using a VPN.

Thanks again; good luck - and please do post updates here :-)

 

No news yet, same old story. I did receive a second customer service email asking, was I satisfied. I didn't understand how they couldn't already know the answer, I deleted the first one. Replied to the second one. Tomorrow I'll get mail from Sebastien, I predict.

Thanks for the update. I suspect they're having major problems and working to get them fixed.

Does Qobuz know when you have streamed or are streaming?

I don't know. Am pursuing this with Sébastien.

It will be one of the best gifts I will receive for Christmas to learn I can pay with my credit card and use my Sublime account, for a year. I’m some what like marksealey, I’m committed to getting Qobuz the way I want it. Being MADE, to purchase downloads through PayPal is a difficult pill to swallow. I’m an adult and being made to do anything is not the best.

 

Mark if you can get an answer, let me know please.

I have just got an answer, @2020matters; from Sébastien.

He confirmed that they are aware of some users' difficulties with Safari. I pointed out that it remains the browser of choice for many Mac users.

I am now able consistently to use FireFox for download purchases, though.

One worry, I'd have thought, is that - dedicated and extremely knowledgeable though the Mozilla developers are - if Qobuz fails on Safari, perhaps because of some minor incompatibility, a version of FireFox could perhaps be released (given the frequency with which it is updated) which also prevents it (FireFox) from working with Qobuz.

I would still be uncomfortable compromising my otherwise 'clean' machine with all the apparently irremovable modifications and extras which Chrome installs.

As for payment, Sébastien says that they are in negotiation with their payment agents to get credit cards working again. Currently not possible. I'd like to think that  this is a priority for 2022 since it must surely represent loss of income.

Happy to share what I've learnt - and to be corrected if I've mis-stated anything here… Don't think so. Happy Christmas to one and all!

@marksealey, I’m not totally confused. "I am now able consistently to use FireFox for download purchases". I’m guessing that your saying you can listen to artist you’ve already downloaded, through Firefox. Not Credit card pay and download, through Firefox?

Thanks for the info Mark, it makes me feel better. I’m on Windows using the Qobuz desktop app which opens my browser, Firefox, to check out. Which won’t work of course. But for now, my Qobuz favorites keeps growing for when I am able to CC my way to good listening. Thanks again

I ordered one download from Qobuz, a multi album set for about the price of two trips to Starbucks, and 6 months later I still don't have it.  Many of the issues cited here, as well as the lack of responsiveness from "Sebastien".  I finally gave up.

   My current problem is the sudden loss of Chromecast support with Qobuz.  One of my streamers is Cambridge Audio CXN 60 wand the Qobuz High Rez offerings are truly superb when Chromecasted.  Now the Chromecast icon went missing (the AirPlay is still there, but Chromecast sounds so much better).  Multiple emails to Qobuz are met with "What are you talking about" attitude from them.

   I can't resist pointing out that with a CD player, there is nothing easier than opening the player, popping the disc in, and listening.  None of this bull****.  And if streaming is the way to go, streaming your own music burned to a HD has all the advantages of both streaming, CD replay, and very few of the disadvantages

 

Sorry I wasn't clearer, @2020matters  :-(

As I've discovered, purchases of download albums (in my case all classical - by composer then work then performer) are all initiated at/from the Qobuz website.

FireFox allows this process to work. I can select what I want, pay for it and download it.

(For me) Safari does not: it puts me into the loop of my steps 8 to 14 above. I can only select an album, which appears to go into my basket. But using Safari (my preferred browser), I can do nothing else.

Once selected, paid for - though only with PayPal - I can download it using FireFox.

The listen to it as I want - usually Roon.

Happy to elaborate if I've confused things further :-)

I do hope you can do that on Windows (which I don't know very much about): initiate in FireFox, pay with PayPal and download at your pleasure again in FireFox. Do message me if you think I can help :-)

@Mahler123, I couldn’t allow myself to "give up" as you did. But, I guess in an online world, with a France company problem, you don’t have any other choices. I’m sure Sebastien has a lot to do but, someone from the US could give more satisfying answers to US customers, I think.

I don’t think this is helpful but, Last Christmas I bought a Chromebook in hopes to listen to Qobuz through a Yamaha pre/pro I have. I couldn’t play prior Qobuz downloads. When I emailed Qobuz, they said that Chrome/Qobuz didn’t work together.

I didn’t get in that situation to deep because it had never worked for me before. This credit card thing is worth more time.

I had one of those difficult days where very little was going my way. I did find time to check on Qobuz, turns out, I was able to pay with the credit card at Sublime prices. Which made me smile. I'm not sure about the year of Sublime I was looking for and I'll check it later. The whole obtaining music seemed more complicated but, I managed. The fact that Sebastien wasn't the reason I checked on it, bugs me. Possible, that negative review (that he knew I typed) didn't sit so well. In my defense, the review happened from all my questions not being answered and constant question about a PayPal account. For now though, I'm off to listen to the recent additions to my high resolution music SSD and I hope we can put this "Qobuz issue" to bed.

More progress - in the hope that it will help anyone still interested!

I can now get FireFox (but not (yet) Safari) to work with a credit card.

It seems necessary, though, to be logged in before attempting a purchase; which is to say that pasting a URL into FireFox causes the transaction to fail.

If I mistakenly do that, I have to log out, clear the cookie(s) and log back in.

Otherwise I get into the loop described in my steps 7 to 14 from an earlier post.

@2020matters 

If I were you I would spend about $30 on a small program called Soundtap which will record anything that is playing on your desktop and even at 24/96 resolution and then you can give qobuz the old two finger solution.

Hi Jim204, before I started this topic I had already subscribed to the Sublime account, I couldn’t just walk away. Sadly, turns out that I’m unable to take advantage of Sublime discounts for the year that I signed up for. Sebastien tells me that he CAN’T give the 49 days I wasn’t able to use Qobuz back, BUT, here’s a free download up to $15. I just said that was great, downloaded the album and moved past it.

@marksealy I’m not finding the need to clear anything or set anything differently. Just like before I’m able to open then desktop app, click purchase and a Qobuz cart opens in Mozilla and I use my credit card to pay. Thanks for sticking with me through the journey. For me all is well at this point. 😀 I hope that you end up getting what you need from Qobuz also.

Sublime years over and I suspected Qobuz might give me the time I was unable to purchase discounted downloads back. NOPE. After my extension request, Sebastien said extensions weren't possible. Then the next day, I found it odd how he wanted to investigate. Looking back for the emails him and traded. I could only find emails from January of this year. Which was 2 months after the sign up day. As you might guess he said that I needed to contact them immediately after an issue happens. So, I was out of luck but, he did offer a free download.