When i started to play EQ and WoW about 10 years ago, i took the time to read there policy about subs and also to ask questions in there forums and also in other forums and i was told the same thing we are saying about the subs in this thread.
No refund , not even a small amount of refund if you don't play at all. Always has been like that and will always be like that for any games with monthly subs. Too easy to get info about that these days to get sympathy from anyone. You got forums access, even there Faq section informs you of this. You can even go to website like mmorpg.com Yes over here and ask about questions like this before you make your purchase. No reason to play the victim at all.
Kind of a fucked up policy. I have had every company from SOE to Blizzard to Perfect World to Trion to Funcom all freeze my subscription time on request.
The times when an MMO was forced to refund a subscription are few, but well documented. Only one (the UO case) was ever brought before a court of law.
The first one I can remember was with UO, which was forced to offer a refund of subscription fees because the service wasn't reliable.
The second one I can remember was with SWG after the NGE, where SOE gave subscribers in long term plans the option of terminating their subscriptions with a refund for unused time if they didn't like the changes. This was a smart move on SOE's part.
The third one I can remember was in CoH/CoV. When the shutdown notice happened, subscribers in long term plans were refunded for the time they wouldn't be able to use.
In all three of these instances, refunds were given because of the negligence, actions or wishes of the publisher. I don't know of any case, outside of (perhaps) the case of special programs for active duty service members, where they refunded a subscription because of the negligence, wishes or actions of the client.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
State you can only "freeze" his time for a specific amount (2 weeks, one month) and after that his time will continue automatically.
You will not lose a customer. Profit?
I think so.
or
Refund him only one month instead of two.
I don't know and I don't care to be honest because what matter is the result which is losing a customer.
I am unable to play a game on weekends because of real life obligations. Should I also expect a game company to refund me for the twelve weekends I was unable to play during my three month subscription?
Where does it end?
He played for a whole month and had two months left which he said alternatively to freeze his time. Two months is a long time. One month as well. Apply fees,
2-weeks or a month worth of freeze. You will get more money in the end. There is allot of money to be made using the "freeze my time". Fee them enough so it is an expensive thing. Just like a server transfer.
Companies can make a shit ton of money from this "taking a break" MMO community. You want to take a break? Pay for it.
Why is that a smart move? Because it is a win-win situation like we say in the business world. Customer is happy and you get more money. As simple as that.
Just because a concept makes sense doesn't make implementing it an easy thing. Sure, the idea of "Freeze my time" sounds great but I'm pretty sure there is no "freeze" button in their accounting system. Why spend the time/money/effort to create software to track/manage something that very few players will actually ask for? It's not gonna happen.
Well lets say that they created a program that tracks account activity. Correct me if I am wrong but old sub MMOrpgs had that because I used to remember receiving email(s) about if my account was inactive for a specific period of time it would get permanently deleted.
Let us say we never had that type of program. How much would it cost? 200?500? Say it would cost them 1000 thousand dollars just for the sake of an extreme example.
From let us say 100k subs, your research suggests that 1k subs will most likely request a freetime of one month after purchasing a 3 month sub. Make a one month freeze up to 6month pre-paid subs. Increase the fees for a second freeze and scale it up. For a yearly sub limit it to 2 months freeze.
Because it doesn't happen now does not mean it will not happen or should not happen in the future. There was a time where paying for a server transfer was not possible. Now it is possible with specific MMOrpgs and specific restrictions.
More 3/6/1year pre-subs would appear because you would have more flexibility with your play time.
Originally posted by psiic Kind of a fucked up policy. I have had every company from SOE to Blizzard to Perfect World to Trion to Funcom all freeze my subscription time on request.
Really?
Can you please elaborate and add as much information as possible? Would love to learn about it.
Originally posted by dustyfellow AS i read it he said he was taking a break not that he was disatasfied with the product. so they dont have to give him a refund. its his fault for buying 3 months in the first place.
Well even more so! He didn't pretend to be "dissatisfied" but he was being complete honest about it. They should have thought about it more. Now they are going to lose a customer they weren't suppose to.
So, you think it would be OK to walk into a store, buy a carton of 18 eggs, use 6, and go return the remaining 12 and ask them to pro-rate a refund for you?
Or buy a whole pizza because your friends were coming over, only eat 2 slices because they cancelled, and then return the remaining pizza because you didn't need it?
Maybe try and buy some annual passes for Disney World, just use them for 3 months and then see if they will refund the remaining 9...
As long as the company is delivering what they are promising, that is a ridiculous argument to make.
Your analogy is rather lame. How about this one. I buy insurance that covers the coming year. I cancel my insurance policy after 2 months and the insurance company sends me a check back for 10 unused months. That's how that REALLY works. They refunded my month for future time that I don't need insurance. Once they refund me I'm not covered.
The gamer is asking for a refund on future time that he hasn't used, once he is refunded he cant play.
Just because a concept makes sense doesn't make implementing it an easy thing. Sure, the idea of "Freeze my time" sounds great but I'm pretty sure there is no "freeze" button in their accounting system. Why spend the time/money/effort to create software to track/manage something that very few players will actually ask for? It's not gonna happen.
Well lets say that they created a program that tracks account activity. Correct me if I am wrong but old sub MMOrpgs had that because I used to remember receiving email(s) about if my account was inactive for a specific period of time it would get permanently deleted.
Let us say we never had that type of program. How much would it cost? 200?500? Say it would cost them 1000 thousand dollars just for the sake of an extreme example.
From let us say 100k subs, your research suggests that 1k subs will most likely request a freetime of one month after purchasing a 3 month sub. Make a one month freeze up to 6month pre-paid subs. Increase the fees for a second freeze and scale it up. For a yearly sub limit it to 2 months freeze.
Because it doesn't happen now does not mean it will not happen or should not happen in the future. There was a time where paying for a server transfer was not possible. Now it is possible with specific MMOrpgs and specific restrictions.
More 3/6/1year pre-subs would appear because you would have more flexibility with your play time.
Seriously.. give it up. This is one of the silliest threads in recent memory and responses are something like 95% against your idea (on BOTH forums). Once again, try your idea with Disney. They know exactly when I enter a park. They would laugh in your face, yet they are considered one of the most customer friendly companies on earth. They also make BILLIONS of dollars in their parks with this exact same policy.
As they say in Disney World.. LET IT GO.... LET IT GO....
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Call of Duty Ghosts was a terrible game for the PC. Terrible. It looked and performed like garbage. It was clearly unoptimized for MP PC. I purchased every PC CoD game since the original. I know that they are all just updated money grabs, but Ghosts was an extremely downgraded slap-in-the-face money grab. Steam instantly denied my refund request. I then issued a chargeback with my bank and won the case. Steam will ban accounts for that, but Ghosts was the only game I had on it, so no worries.
Originally posted by psiic Kind of a fucked up policy. I have had every company from SOE to Blizzard to Perfect World to Trion to Funcom all freeze my subscription time on request.
Never once happened. End of story, no company can, or would freeze game time, now if your time runs out Blizzard calls your account "frozen". But once again you buy time it runs there is no stopping, refunding, pausing or otherwise. Never have been and never should be. It's like paying for Cable and not using it one month because you're on vacation or out of town. You wouldn't get your money back then either. Gametime is added to accounts like money to prepaid shopping cards at Walmart once purchased and money added you cannot get you money back off of them the only thing you can do is sell the card(account) or buy(use) them.
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Call of Duty Ghosts was a terrible game for the PC. Terrible. It looked and performed like garbage. It was clearly unoptimized for MP PC. I purchased every PC CoD game since the original. I know that they are all just updated money grabs, but Ghosts was an extremely downgraded slap-in-the-face money grab. Steam instantly denied my refund request. I then issued a chargeback with my bank and won the case. Steam will ban accounts for that, but Ghosts was the only game I had on it, so no worries.
Why did Steam cancel your request? And how did you process the chargebank with your bank? First time I hear this.
Originally posted by psiic Kind of a fucked up policy. I have had every company from SOE to Blizzard to Perfect World to Trion to Funcom all freeze my subscription time on request.
Kind of curious about this too...
Especially as i know for a fact as a SoE customer that SoE did not do that for SWG nor do they do it for DCUO...
And Blizzard have a strong current policy to NEVER freeze a account on a customer request unless there are some very special (read PR worthy) reasons..
0effort
What you do not get is... why they should spend bags of money to rework the Sub system to implement something that will loose them even more money in the end..? It makes no sense. Sure they loose a few customers this way but most pay and play as usual.
If your product fails to meet the expectations you presented as a company and I am an unsatisfied customer with your service on top of that, I should get a refund back.
"Just giving people a heads up Carbine does no refunds at all , No matter if it unused or not . I paid for 3 months sub and before first month was over decided to take a break . Sent in a request Asking for refund of remaining months . And just prorate the month I used to single month cost or Can I freeze the up coming months to be used at a later time if refund was not possible . And they replied too bad , we don't have that policy , good luck . Your time ticks no matter what ........So I,m out they can keep my money" .
Extremely poor customer service.
You should at least negotiate with the customer.
0effort werent you the one praising ArcheAge in another thread?
Trion, the same compagny that refused to negotiate or refund any of the PRE order aka Alpha purchase of AA?
150 bucks for an unfinished and un delivered product refused to be refunded to a lot of people that werent happy with the game. Including me as you would guess from this post, trion support were really stubborn and aggresive, refusing any kind of negotiation.
In short, you played the game therefore no refund, case close and stfu.
Here you are complaining about a 15 bucks game time purchased on a totally finished and released product.
Originally posted by dustyfellow AS i read it he said he was taking a break not that he was disatasfied with the product. so they dont have to give him a refund. its his fault for buying 3 months in the first place.
Well even more so! He didn't pretend to be "dissatisfied" but he was being complete honest about it. They should have thought about it more. Now they are going to lose a customer they weren't suppose to.
So, you think it would be OK to walk into a store, buy a carton of 18 eggs, use 6, and go return the remaining 12 and ask them to pro-rate a refund for you?
Or buy a whole pizza because your friends were coming over, only eat 2 slices because they cancelled, and then return the remaining pizza because you didn't need it?
Maybe try and buy some annual passes for Disney World, just use them for 3 months and then see if they will refund the remaining 9...
As long as the company is delivering what they are promising, that is a ridiculous argument to make.
Your analogy is rather lame. How about this one. I buy insurance that covers the coming year. I cancel my insurance policy after 2 months and the insurance company sends me a check back for 10 unused months. That's how that REALLY works. They refunded my month for future time that I don't need insurance. Once they refund me I'm not covered.
The gamer is asking for a refund on future time that he hasn't used, once he is refunded he cant play.
No.. it's YOUR analogy that is lame. The gamer purchased time in a block, like an annual pass, and got a discount for that commitment, like the annual pass. My analogy is spot on.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
State you can only "freeze" his time for a specific amount (2 weeks, one month) and after that his time will continue automatically.
You will not lose a customer. Profit?
I think so.
or
Refund him only one month instead of two.
I don't know and I don't care to be honest because what matter is the result which is losing a customer.
I am unable to play a game on weekends because of real life obligations. Should I also expect a game company to refund me for the twelve weekends I was unable to play during my three month subscription?
Where does it end?
He played for a whole month and had two months left which he said alternatively to freeze his time. Two months is a long time. One month as well. Apply fees,
2-weeks or a month worth of freeze. You will get more money in the end. There is allot of money to be made using the "freeze my time". Fee them enough so it is an expensive thing. Just like a server transfer.
Companies can make a shit ton of money from this "taking a break" MMO community. You want to take a break? Pay for it.
Why is that a smart move? Because it is a win-win situation like we say in the business world. Customer is happy and you get more money. As simple as that.
Just because a concept makes sense doesn't make implementing it an easy thing. Sure, the idea of "Freeze my time" sounds great but I'm pretty sure there is no "freeze" button in their accounting system. Why spend the time/money/effort to create software to track/manage something that very few players will actually ask for? It's not gonna happen.
Well lets say that they created a program that tracks account activity. Correct me if I am wrong but old sub MMOrpgs had that because I used to remember receiving email(s) about if my account was inactive for a specific period of time it would get permanently deleted.
Let us say we never had that type of program. How much would it cost? 200?500? Say it would cost them 1000 thousand dollars just for the sake of an extreme example.
From let us say 100k subs, your research suggests that 1k subs will most likely request a freetime of one month after purchasing a 3 month sub. Make a one month freeze up to 6month pre-paid subs. Increase the fees for a second freeze and scale it up. For a yearly sub limit it to 2 months freeze.
Because it doesn't happen now does not mean it will not happen or should not happen in the future. There was a time where paying for a server transfer was not possible. Now it is possible with specific MMOrpgs and specific restrictions.
More 3/6/1year pre-subs would appear because you would have more flexibility with your play time.
Cost of the program, cost of the time implementing, cost of maintenance, cost of personnel needed to interface with the program. Things of that nature cost much more than you think.
Plus, things of that nature aren't needed. It's pretty clear how subscriptions work. This is also why you don't purchase multi-month gametime plans UNLESS you know you're going to be playing the game for that amount of time.
26 states have VERY good consumer protection laws that supercede ANY company policy that is made in violation of the established consumer protection laws of state and federal government binding to any company physical or e-commerce and is agreed to by any company that direct or indirectly agrees to do commerce within said state or principality.
Basically if a company is willing to accept payment from a resident of one of these states they agree to adhere to the established laws of that state or face some pretty harsh fines and penalties.
If your product fails to meet the expectations you presented as a company and I am an unsatisfied customer with your service on top of that, I should get a refund back.
"Just giving people a heads up Carbine does no refunds at all , No matter if it unused or not . I paid for 3 months sub and before first month was over decided to take a break . Sent in a request Asking for refund of remaining months . And just prorate the month I used to single month cost or Can I freeze the up coming months to be used at a later time if refund was not possible . And they replied too bad , we don't have that policy , good luck . Your time ticks no matter what ........So I,m out they can keep my money" .
Extremely poor customer service.
You should at least negotiate with the customer.
0effort werent you the one praising ArcheAge in another thread?
Trion, the same compagny that refused to negotiate or refund any of the PRE order aka Alpha purchase of AA?
150 bucks for an unfinished and un delivered product refused to be refunded to a lot of people that werent happy with the game. Including me as you would guess from this post, trion support were really stubborn and aggresive, refusing any kind of negotiation.
In short, you played the game therefore no refund, case close and stfu.
Here you are complaining about a 15 bucks game time purchased on a totally finished and released product.
I am ALWAYS pro-consumer. In fact, I have done every possible thing to inform consumers on what they are getting into because dignity is above what I like and what I don't like, what I play and what I don't play. In fact I am one of the few gamers that if you ask me should I play B&S CN (which I love to death) I will tell you every important thing you need to know that you it will make you think that I am telling you not to play at all because of the clarity of the information I will provide you with.
And let me tell you an entertaining story,
There was a time where I spend X amount in Aion's cash shop. People asked me "So is this game worth it?" and I said "Absolutely not". My own personal stupidity or fanboyism or love for a game does not and never will cloud my judgement . I am extremely sensitive when it comes to other people's money because for me I would like them to spend it as informed as possible.
26 states have VERY good consumer protection laws that supercede ANY company policy that is made in violation of the established consumer protection laws of state and federal government binding to any company physical or e-commerce and is agreed to by any company that direct or indirectly agrees to do commerce within said state or principality.
Basically if a company is willing to accept payment from a resident of one of these states they agree to adhere to the established laws of that state or face some pretty harsh fines and penalties.
So please explain how that is relevant to the case at hand where a customer willingly admits that the company has delivered what was promised, paid for 3 months, got a discount, used it for 30 days, and wants a pro-rated refund simply because they want to take a break. Show me the relevancy of your statement and a case that applies. (particularly since the OP lives in Cyprus)
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
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Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
State you can only "freeze" his time for a specific amount (2 weeks, one month) and after that his time will continue automatically.
You will not lose a customer. Profit?
I think so.
or
Refund him only one month instead of two.
I don't know and I don't care to be honest because what matter is the result which is losing a customer.
Fine. The fee they charge to "freeze" his time is what it would cost to buy a two month subscription later. Happy?
Customers who will demand refunds over things like this are the sort of customers that businesses don't mind losing. Better if he doesn't play your future games in the first place, waste the time of customer service representatives whom you have to pay, and then try to drum up bad publicity for you.
Just because a concept makes sense doesn't make implementing it an easy thing. Sure, the idea of "Freeze my time" sounds great but I'm pretty sure there is no "freeze" button in their accounting system. Why spend the time/money/effort to create software to track/manage something that very few players will actually ask for? It's not gonna happen.
That's what I was thinking as well.
My thought is that players need to be more responsible with their money.
Game companies aren't their mothers or fathers and aren't there to babysit players' decisions.
If one isn't sure about an expenditure or knows that they might become fickle, they should just buy one month. Thereafter if they are "in love" with the game they can consider buying larger portions of time for the discounts.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
State you can only "freeze" his time for a specific amount (2 weeks, one month) and after that his time will continue automatically.
You will not lose a customer. Profit?
I think so.
or
Refund him only one month instead of two.
I don't know and I don't care to be honest because what matter is the result which is losing a customer.
I am unable to play a game on weekends because of real life obligations. Should I also expect a game company to refund me for the twelve weekends I was unable to play during my three month subscription?
Where does it end?
He played for a whole month and had two months left which he said alternatively to freeze his time. Two months is a long time. One month as well. Apply fees,
2-weeks or a month worth of freeze. You will get more money in the end. There is allot of money to be made using the "freeze my time". Fee them enough so it is an expensive thing. Just like a server transfer.
Companies can make a shit ton of money from this "taking a break" MMO community. You want to take a break? Pay for it.
Why is that a smart move? Because it is a win-win situation like we say in the business world. Customer is happy and you get more money. As simple as that.
Just because a concept makes sense doesn't make implementing it an easy thing. Sure, the idea of "Freeze my time" sounds great but I'm pretty sure there is no "freeze" button in their accounting system. Why spend the time/money/effort to create software to track/manage something that very few players will actually ask for? It's not gonna happen.
Well lets say that they created a program that tracks account activity. Correct me if I am wrong but old sub MMOrpgs had that because I used to remember receiving email(s) about if my account was inactive for a specific period of time it would get permanently deleted.
Let us say we never had that type of program. How much would it cost? 200?500? Say it would cost them 1000 thousand dollars just for the sake of an extreme example.
From let us say 100k subs, your research suggests that 1k subs will most likely request a freetime of one month after purchasing a 3 month sub. Make a one month freeze up to 6month pre-paid subs. Increase the fees for a second freeze and scale it up. For a yearly sub limit it to 2 months freeze.
Because it doesn't happen now does not mean it will not happen or should not happen in the future. There was a time where paying for a server transfer was not possible. Now it is possible with specific MMOrpgs and specific restrictions.
More 3/6/1year pre-subs would appear because you would have more flexibility with your play time.
First, I'd like to submit that billing software is more important than most other software that goes into a game. Most things can have some bugs in the game here and there and you fix them as they show up and it's fine. But billing software needs to work exactly right 100% of the time from the moment it goes public. If you charge someone you shouldn't have, it's an enormous fiasco for you. If you don't charge someone that you should have, you don't get paid. So adding a given amount of complexity into billing software is far more problematic than adding the same amount of complexity to a random side quest.
Second, I'd like to submit that if a game wanted to allow players to freeze subscription time, the way to do it is to code it in so that players can freeze subscription time on their own. Having to go through customer service representatives to manually do it is hugely expensive. But companies know how to code it in and have surely thought of it and weighed the pros and cons. If they believed that it would make the game more profitable, they'd do it. That they haven't proves that they don't believe that it would be more profitable. It's their money on the line, not yours; your incentive is to try to convince companies to do it whether it would be profitable or not. That's why their judgment on this matter is more likely to be correct than yours.
Third, even if you are going to allow players to pause subscriptions, you don't do that after the fact. You announce that up front, as that's a selling point to try to get more people to subscribe to your game. Getting more subscribers is, after all, the only way to make more money from such an approach. Still, the ways you lose money on it are obvious, but it's not likely that you'd actually get many more subscribers to compensate for it. Have you ever met someone who said, I'm not willing to pay to subscribe to this game, but I would if they let me freeze subscription time occasionally without refunding any money? Hence, see point 2.
My wife learned this the hard way during the 1 year contract WoW thing that they did, she got bored a few months (like 2-3) after she signed up for the offer.
Never buy multiple month subs, unless you are 100% sure you enjoy playing and will for the foreseeable future. Never, ever but multiple months on a new release mmo.
In general my rule is dont buy multi month subs at all.
That being said, its their policy, so you have to live with it, not their fault at all.
I wouldn't quite say to never buy multi-month subscriptions. I was on a $30 per 3 months subscription plan to Champions Online for quite a while. But I knew that I liked the game before signing up for that, and the alternative was $15/month. I played for long enough that I came out money ahead, even though I canceled shortly after another 3 month charge came.
Comments
When i started to play EQ and WoW about 10 years ago, i took the time to read there policy about subs and also to ask questions in there forums and also in other forums and i was told the same thing we are saying about the subs in this thread.
No refund , not even a small amount of refund if you don't play at all. Always has been like that and will always be like that for any games with monthly subs. Too easy to get info about that these days to get sympathy from anyone. You got forums access, even there Faq section informs you of this. You can even go to website like mmorpg.com Yes over here and ask about questions like this before you make your purchase. No reason to play the victim at all.
The times when an MMO was forced to refund a subscription are few, but well documented. Only one (the UO case) was ever brought before a court of law.
The first one I can remember was with UO, which was forced to offer a refund of subscription fees because the service wasn't reliable.
The second one I can remember was with SWG after the NGE, where SOE gave subscribers in long term plans the option of terminating their subscriptions with a refund for unused time if they didn't like the changes. This was a smart move on SOE's part.
The third one I can remember was in CoH/CoV. When the shutdown notice happened, subscribers in long term plans were refunded for the time they wouldn't be able to use.
In all three of these instances, refunds were given because of the negligence, actions or wishes of the publisher. I don't know of any case, outside of (perhaps) the case of special programs for active duty service members, where they refunded a subscription because of the negligence, wishes or actions of the client.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Well lets say that they created a program that tracks account activity. Correct me if I am wrong but old sub MMOrpgs had that because I used to remember receiving email(s) about if my account was inactive for a specific period of time it would get permanently deleted.
Let us say we never had that type of program. How much would it cost? 200?500? Say it would cost them 1000 thousand dollars just for the sake of an extreme example.
From let us say 100k subs, your research suggests that 1k subs will most likely request a freetime of one month after purchasing a 3 month sub. Make a one month freeze up to 6month pre-paid subs. Increase the fees for a second freeze and scale it up. For a yearly sub limit it to 2 months freeze.
Because it doesn't happen now does not mean it will not happen or should not happen in the future. There was a time where paying for a server transfer was not possible. Now it is possible with specific MMOrpgs and specific restrictions.
More 3/6/1year pre-subs would appear because you would have more flexibility with your play time.
Really?
Can you please elaborate and add as much information as possible? Would love to learn about it.
Your analogy is rather lame. How about this one. I buy insurance that covers the coming year. I cancel my insurance policy after 2 months and the insurance company sends me a check back for 10 unused months. That's how that REALLY works. They refunded my month for future time that I don't need insurance. Once they refund me I'm not covered.
The gamer is asking for a refund on future time that he hasn't used, once he is refunded he cant play.
Seriously.. give it up. This is one of the silliest threads in recent memory and responses are something like 95% against your idea (on BOTH forums). Once again, try your idea with Disney. They know exactly when I enter a park. They would laugh in your face, yet they are considered one of the most customer friendly companies on earth. They also make BILLIONS of dollars in their parks with this exact same policy.
As they say in Disney World.. LET IT GO.... LET IT GO....
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Call of Duty Ghosts was a terrible game for the PC. Terrible. It looked and performed like garbage. It was clearly unoptimized for MP PC. I purchased every PC CoD game since the original. I know that they are all just updated money grabs, but Ghosts was an extremely downgraded slap-in-the-face money grab. Steam instantly denied my refund request. I then issued a chargeback with my bank and won the case. Steam will ban accounts for that, but Ghosts was the only game I had on it, so no worries.
Never once happened. End of story, no company can, or would freeze game time, now if your time runs out Blizzard calls your account "frozen". But once again you buy time it runs there is no stopping, refunding, pausing or otherwise. Never have been and never should be. It's like paying for Cable and not using it one month because you're on vacation or out of town. You wouldn't get your money back then either. Gametime is added to accounts like money to prepaid shopping cards at Walmart once purchased and money added you cannot get you money back off of them the only thing you can do is sell the card(account) or buy(use) them.
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Why did Steam cancel your request? And how did you process the chargebank with your bank? First time I hear this.
Kind of curious about this too...
Especially as i know for a fact as a SoE customer that SoE did not do that for SWG nor do they do it for DCUO...
And Blizzard have a strong current policy to NEVER freeze a account on a customer request unless there are some very special (read PR worthy) reasons..
0effort
What you do not get is... why they should spend bags of money to rework the Sub system to implement something that will loose them even more money in the end..? It makes no sense. Sure they loose a few customers this way but most pay and play as usual.
This have been a good conversation
0effort werent you the one praising ArcheAge in another thread?
Trion, the same compagny that refused to negotiate or refund any of the PRE order aka Alpha purchase of AA?
150 bucks for an unfinished and un delivered product refused to be refunded to a lot of people that werent happy with the game. Including me as you would guess from this post, trion support were really stubborn and aggresive, refusing any kind of negotiation.
In short, you played the game therefore no refund, case close and stfu.
Here you are complaining about a 15 bucks game time purchased on a totally finished and released product.
Interesting.
No.. it's YOUR analogy that is lame. The gamer purchased time in a block, like an annual pass, and got a discount for that commitment, like the annual pass. My analogy is spot on.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Cost of the program, cost of the time implementing, cost of maintenance, cost of personnel needed to interface with the program. Things of that nature cost much more than you think.
Plus, things of that nature aren't needed. It's pretty clear how subscriptions work. This is also why you don't purchase multi-month gametime plans UNLESS you know you're going to be playing the game for that amount of time.
Face it. You played with fire and got burned.
May want to educate yourself.
26 states have VERY good consumer protection laws that supercede ANY company policy that is made in violation of the established consumer protection laws of state and federal government binding to any company physical or e-commerce and is agreed to by any company that direct or indirectly agrees to do commerce within said state or principality.
Basically if a company is willing to accept payment from a resident of one of these states they agree to adhere to the established laws of that state or face some pretty harsh fines and penalties.
I did what?
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/6405105#6405105
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/418598
I am ALWAYS pro-consumer. In fact, I have done every possible thing to inform consumers on what they are getting into because dignity is above what I like and what I don't like, what I play and what I don't play. In fact I am one of the few gamers that if you ask me should I play B&S CN (which I love to death) I will tell you every important thing you need to know that you it will make you think that I am telling you not to play at all because of the clarity of the information I will provide you with.
And let me tell you an entertaining story,
There was a time where I spend X amount in Aion's cash shop. People asked me "So is this game worth it?" and I said "Absolutely not". My own personal stupidity or fanboyism or love for a game does not and never will cloud my judgement . I am extremely sensitive when it comes to other people's money because for me I would like them to spend it as informed as possible.
So please explain how that is relevant to the case at hand where a customer willingly admits that the company has delivered what was promised, paid for 3 months, got a discount, used it for 30 days, and wants a pro-rated refund simply because they want to take a break. Show me the relevancy of your statement and a case that applies. (particularly since the OP lives in Cyprus)
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Fine. The fee they charge to "freeze" his time is what it would cost to buy a two month subscription later. Happy?
Customers who will demand refunds over things like this are the sort of customers that businesses don't mind losing. Better if he doesn't play your future games in the first place, waste the time of customer service representatives whom you have to pay, and then try to drum up bad publicity for you.
Lesson: Always subscribe monthly.
"My Fantasy is having two men at once...
One Cooking and One Cleaning!"
---------------------------
"A good man can make you feel sexy,
strong and able to take on the whole world...
oh sorry...that's wine...wine does that..."
That's what I was thinking as well.
My thought is that players need to be more responsible with their money.
Game companies aren't their mothers or fathers and aren't there to babysit players' decisions.
If one isn't sure about an expenditure or knows that they might become fickle, they should just buy one month. Thereafter if they are "in love" with the game they can consider buying larger portions of time for the discounts.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
First, I'd like to submit that billing software is more important than most other software that goes into a game. Most things can have some bugs in the game here and there and you fix them as they show up and it's fine. But billing software needs to work exactly right 100% of the time from the moment it goes public. If you charge someone you shouldn't have, it's an enormous fiasco for you. If you don't charge someone that you should have, you don't get paid. So adding a given amount of complexity into billing software is far more problematic than adding the same amount of complexity to a random side quest.
Second, I'd like to submit that if a game wanted to allow players to freeze subscription time, the way to do it is to code it in so that players can freeze subscription time on their own. Having to go through customer service representatives to manually do it is hugely expensive. But companies know how to code it in and have surely thought of it and weighed the pros and cons. If they believed that it would make the game more profitable, they'd do it. That they haven't proves that they don't believe that it would be more profitable. It's their money on the line, not yours; your incentive is to try to convince companies to do it whether it would be profitable or not. That's why their judgment on this matter is more likely to be correct than yours.
Third, even if you are going to allow players to pause subscriptions, you don't do that after the fact. You announce that up front, as that's a selling point to try to get more people to subscribe to your game. Getting more subscribers is, after all, the only way to make more money from such an approach. Still, the ways you lose money on it are obvious, but it's not likely that you'd actually get many more subscribers to compensate for it. Have you ever met someone who said, I'm not willing to pay to subscribe to this game, but I would if they let me freeze subscription time occasionally without refunding any money? Hence, see point 2.
My wife learned this the hard way during the 1 year contract WoW thing that they did, she got bored a few months (like 2-3) after she signed up for the offer.
Never buy multiple month subs, unless you are 100% sure you enjoy playing and will for the foreseeable future. Never, ever but multiple months on a new release mmo.
In general my rule is dont buy multi month subs at all.
That being said, its their policy, so you have to live with it, not their fault at all.
Sooo much this^^^
2/3 times when I thought I'd be playing the entire 3-6 months of cheapers sub bundle I tend to only use less than half of it.