BfA Refund Policy

[Socialhealer]

YOU PLAYED EXPANSION CONTENT!!

...uh, such as it is. The pre-expansion content unlocked by the pre-purchase of the expansion equates to less than what we'd consider an entire content patch. In short, it's a pathetically small amount of content.

But gotta rope in the sales I guess.

man if only it wasn't 100% optional......

in future can you please upload footage of the blizzard dev holding a gun to your or your loved ones heads and where they force you to pre-purchase, also gotta hack their website and remove the part where the pre-purchase fully explains what you're actually getting because that kind of makes blizzard look like they're trying to be upfront and honest which ruins your argument! those bastards.

[Deleted]

Why I post in a WoW-related site has nothing to do with pre-ordering the next xpac that Blizz has proven they'll fuck up from now on. And the next, and the next.

Spending on said xpacs, especially before you've seen them live and have more info to be better informed, has nothing to do with one's financial status or amount of expendable income. Throwing money away on shit products is a waste and is stupid whether you can afford to or not, whether it's a lot or a little.

I don't get it. If you do not like the xpacs don't play them. Is it that hard?!
Someone or something within WoW seems to have hurt your feelings and now you can only shittalk towards the game.

Are you that addicted that you can't stop playing even if you hate the game?

If in YOUR opinion the game went shit from WoD to now, then just don't play it.
I'm not defending the game against somone with no other arguments than "lul it's shite" but I'm really intrigued by how you still lurk on the forums or maybe even play if everything is shit.

Pre-ordering is absolutely fine, if you use it right. And yes this includes one's financial status. You should not pre-order while being in overdraft or close to being there.

I wanted to play the allied races so I pre-ordered, simple as that.
So I got to play new content, unlocked the races, levelled to 110 to get the heritage armor, got a boost in preperation for BfA, race changed and enjoyed my time. How dare I.

Blizzard clearly stated what you'll get and when you'll no longer be able to refund.
If you want to hate "big bad companies" there are a lot of them out there, and they are really evil. Ever heard of Monsanto?

[Redfullmoon]

I want to refund my toilet paper, after i used it .......

better yet make it free it is 1 of things we use no matter what it should be goverment issued. free toilet paper now come on.

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I want to refund my toilet paper, after i used it .......

better yet make it free it is 1 of things we use no matter what it should be goverment issued. free toilet paper now come on.

[RobertoCarlos]

I want to refund my toilet paper, after i used it .......

Yeah an item you use to wipe your ass is totally the same thing as a digital game purchase that hasnt even been released yet

[LoLcano]

Yeah an item you use to wipe your ass is totally the same thing as a digital game purchase that hasnt even been released yet

Its same principle , when you use something( boost in this case ) , You cant refund the product .

[Steelangel]

Prepaid Visa - check

Make account on phone with different IP - check

Use VPN on computer - check

You were saying...?

This is a stupid amount of work to get a new account for a game you obviously don't really care for if you're so cavalier about having accounts permabanned.

[Cedon]

You're saying that because a product is digital that Blizzard has no right to enforce their return policy because there's no package to open, nothing to damage, etc. If you want to take away a company's ability to control the sale of its own product, might as well throw away copyright too and and let everyone just copy it for free.

No, I'm saying it because it's true and you apparently have no clue what you're talking about. Copyright law doesn't even come into play because ownership of the product never leaves Blizzard's hands. If you read the document you agreed to when you signed up, you'd know that you're not buying ownership of any product but rather a license to use it.

1. Grant of a Limited License to Use the Service. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and your agreement to and continuing compliance with this Agreement, Blizzard hereby grants you a revocable, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and non-exclusive license to use the Service solely for your own non-commercial entertainment purposes by accessing it with a web browser or an authorized, unmodified Game client.

Further, it explicitly states your account is the sole property of Blizzard.

9. Ownership

9.1 Game clients and Service. The Game clients and the Service (including without limitation any titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, documentation, in-game chat transcripts, character profile information, recordings or replays of Games, and the Game client and server software) are copyrighted works owned by Blizzard and its licensors. Blizzard reserves all rights in connection with the Games and the Service, including without limitation the exclusive right to create derivative works.

Copyright law has nothing to do with the sale of a product. Copyright law is the sole domain of the Federal Government and is enforced by the FBI at the criminal level and federal courts at the civil level. Copyright law comes into play if you're stealing the intellectual property such as hacking together a barely different clone called "Fight for Aziruth" where Sylvania and Andywinn lead their two factions in a battle that encompasses the who of the planet Aziruth. Or I put together a client and server software from WoW Patch 1.12 and launch it as a service. That's actually the probable top reason Blizzard is coming out with Vanilla servers.. because it gives them another defense against private servers engaging in IP theft.

Retail transactions are governed by state laws for the most part except where the Federal Trade Commission is given authority. Pre-purchasing Battle for Azeroth is a retail transaction. Hence the States, usually through their Attorney General's office, and the FTC have jurisdiction over it.

[cparle87]

No, I'm saying it because it's true and you apparently have no clue what you're talking about. Copyright law doesn't even come into play because ownership of the product never leaves Blizzard's hands. If you read the document you agreed to when you signed up, you'd know that you're not buying ownership of any product but rather a license to use it.

Will you stop fixating on the copyright thing and ignoring the point I was trying to make? I know refunds and copyrights have no correlation in this case. You've gone to so much effort copying and pasting things. I was simply using it as a comparison that a company needs to have the right to control their own product, no matter its format. They get to set the conditions for purchase, such as where it's available and price, and also get to set the condition for refunds. It's like the tenth amendment that says any rights not mentioned in the constitution go to the states. Any rights the consumer doesn't get from the law belong to Blizzard.

[Cedon]

The way I see it, you boosted a 110 and made allied races. for Blizzard to take their time to revert that character and delete your allied races makes less sense than denying your refund. You should have known that accessing BfA content like this would result in this eventuality. the warning didn't need to be explicit.

In the past, like when they offered 10-14 day trials of xpacs, they simply just locked the characters utilizing that content. For example, I had an old second Vanilla account that I added a Burning Crusade trial to for RAF purposes back in the day. I never put a full license of TBC on it, just the Vanilla license. So when the 10-14 days were up (I can't remember which it was), the Blood Elf characters, any characters that I had started questing to 61 with, etc. were simply locked and I could not access them again until I added a full license key. All the other characters below level 60 I could play just fine.

[cparle87]

Why I post in a WoW-related site has nothing to do with pre-ordering the next xpac that Blizz has proven they'll fuck up from now on. And the next, and the next.

Spending on said xpacs, especially before you've seen them live and have more info to be better informed, has nothing to do with one's financial status or amount of expendable income. Throwing money away on shit products is a waste and is stupid whether you can afford to or not, whether it's a lot or a little.

There's kinda a problem with your whole logic, though. How will you know whether the product is good or not unless you try it for yourself, which you cannot do without buying it first. If you want to try the content to see if you'll like it, then buying it is what you need to do.

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In the past, like when they offered 10-14 day trials of xpacs, they simply just locked the characters utilizing that content. For example, I had an old second Vanilla account that I added a Burning Crusade trial to for RAF purposes back in the day. I never put a full license of TBC on it, just the Vanilla license. So when the 10-14 days were up (I can't remember which it was), the Blood Elf characters, any characters that I had started questing to 61 with, etc. were simply locked and I could not access them again until I added a full license key. All the other characters below level 60 I could play just fine.

Except in this case even the characters who are not allied races have done the questlines to unlock them, therefore they have experienced BFA content. Would you expect Blizzard to lock EVERY character that did the questlines? In this case most or all of his characters are 61+ or blood elves or otherwise would be locked.

[Cedon]

Will you stop fixating on the copyright thing and ignoring the point I was trying to make? I know refunds and copyrights have no correlation in this case. You've gone to so much effort copying and pasting things. I was simply using it as a comparison that a company needs to have the right to control their own product, no matter its format. They get to set the conditions for purchase, such as where it's available and price, and also get to set the condition for refunds. It's like the tenth amendment that says any rights not mentioned in the constitution go to the states. Any rights the consumer doesn't get from the law belong to Blizzard.

You weren't trying to make any point. Because you called him a thief for stealing something it is impossible to steal since he was never in possession of it. Blizzard retains possession of the account and all licenses at all times. He could have been said to have stolen it if he had charged back and still had access to it. But obviously, since Blizzard is in 100% control of the account at all times that scenario, absent a new law or a court order, is never going to happen. Illegitimate charge backs result in closure of the account whether that be the affected portion (i.e. WoW in this instance) or the whole Battle.Net account itself. Period. So he has nothing. Stealing something implies he still has whatever he got from Blizzard.

It was also pointed out to you that technically the BfA content is not even available yet. Allied Races and a 110 Boost are for Legion content. Not to mention the fact the Blizzard was in the wrong to deny him a refund in the first place because they incorrectly denied it twice on the grounds he used the 110 Boost when in fact he hadn't.

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There's kinda a problem with your whole logic, though. How will you know whether the product is good or not unless you try it for yourself, which you cannot do without buying it first. If you want to try the content to see if you'll like it, then buying it is what you need to do.

No, there isn't a problem with his logic. As long as he has an active WoW subscription, he is eligible to get into the αlpha and ßeta test phases first and foremost. He can also watch streamers, YouTube videos, and friends/family play αlpha/ßeta. Not to mention he can test the system changes himself around July/August when they are deployed on the live servers since they're not attached to BfA but rather the 8.0 patch.

Except in this case even the characters who are not allied races have done the questlines to unlock them, therefore they have experienced BFA content. Would you expect Blizzard to lock EVERY character that did the questlines? In this case most or all of his characters are 61+ or blood elves or otherwise would be locked.

Yes. Because they've done it before and it was 100% automated. They only need to intervene when the system screws up such as if it locked a character it shouldn't have. The boosted and allied race characters can easily be locked just as my Blood Elves were back in 2007-2008 and the ability to create new ones turned off.

[cparle87]

You weren't trying to make any point. Because you called him a thief for stealing something it is impossible to steal since he was never in possession of it. Blizzard retains possession of the account and all licenses at all times. He could have been said to have stolen it if he had charged back and still had access to it. But obviously, since Blizzard is in 100% control of the account at all times that scenario, absent a new law or a court order, is never going to happen. Illegitimate charge backs result in closure of the account whether that be the affected portion (i.e. WoW in this instance) or the whole Battle.Net account itself. Period. So he has nothing. Stealing something implies he still has whatever he got from Blizzard.

You're blending together two separate points I'm trying to make. I used the copyright comment to state that Blizzard has the right to control their own property. Control in this case, was their decision not to give him a refund because he used their property, the account, in a way that violated the refund policy they dictated. So forget anything about copyright now, it's a non-issue.

After this happened he used his bank to steal Blizzard's money from them. Personally I don't understand how banks can be allowed to do that. "Hey, I just bought something but I decided I didn't like it. The company wouldn't give me a refund in accordance with their policy. Take my money back from them anyway. Kthxbai." Sounds like theft to me.

And one last thing. Whether the allied races and such are Legion content or BFA content is determined by Blizzard, not you me or anyone else. And since they've ruled that doing the quest to obtain an allied race means you're a satisfied BFA purchaser, I'd say they've made their position clear.

[Onikaroshi]

I mean, this whole thing is blown out of proportion, it would be a negative if they didn't SAY their policy had changed, but they are more than allowed to change their policy and state it clearly before you pre-purchase, which they did.

It's like when they changed the policy of pre-purchase and then purchasing the physical CE, you don't have to like it, but it's their right to.

[bigbleach]

Just a friendly heads up for anyone that has yet to preorder Battle for Azeroth. I attempted to refund today as I found myself a bit short on cash due to unforeseen circumstances (intending to repurchase it again next month), and was told that as I had used my boost and had unlocked the allied races I would therefore not be able to receive a refund.

Their policy was listed on the purchase page as I had found out and is as follows:

"You can contact us for a refund of the Battle for Azeroth prepurchase any time before the expansion launches as long as you have not:

- Used the included Level 110 Boost

- Fully unlocked the ability to create an Allied Race character

It may take several days for funds to be credited back to the original payment method."

I'll have to make do in this circumstance as it seems there's nothing I can do, but just wanted to put this reminder out for people who are still considering preordering.

Edited language in the post as people seem to be misunderstanding my intentions in this post.

Yeaaaaah buddy, sorry if you weren't trying to game them. People were doing this with the 1 year wow sub and getting to keep their copy of d3. Did ya think it was just going to grey the character out? And the achievements? Best of luck homie

[Deleted]

Did ya think it was just going to grey the character out?

this was the case for legion preorders

[Onikaroshi]

this was the case for legion preorders

They changed their policy, stated it clearly, they're doing everything right. There's no subterfuge, you agree to it when you pre-purchase.

[Cedon]

You're blending together two separate points I'm trying to make. I used the copyright comment to state that Blizzard has the right to control their own property.

No, you didn't make a point. You tried to tell me an Apple from a tree is like an Apple Computer. The sale is governed by retail law. Period. End of discussion.

After this happened he used his bank to steal Blizzard's money from them. Personally I don't understand how banks can be allowed to do that.

Because they want to keep their customers. Not to mention that there are a host of other laws in play. He might have also discussed the situation with his bank and they sided with him.

The reason Blizzard locks accounts and such is because Visa and co can charge anywhere from $15 to $50 per chargeback.

"Hey, I just bought something but I decided I didn't like it. The company wouldn't give me a refund in accordance with their policy. Take my money back from them anyway. Kthxbai." Sounds like theft to me.

Go back and re-read the guy's post..... He attempted a refund twice with automated responses denying his refund on the grounds he used his Boost when in fact he had not. After the second denial, he used it, and a human got back to him and said the same thing the automated e-mail replies had said. So in this, Blizzard initially screwed up. And, again, what did he steal? What does he still have that he did not have before his initial purchase? If he had actual ownership of the account, he could potentially go after Blizzard.

And one last thing. Whether the allied races and such are Legion content or BFA content is determined by Blizzard, not you me or anyone else. And since they've ruled that doing the quest to obtain an allied race means you're a satisfied BFA purchaser, I'd say they've made their position clear.

No, it just is gated behind a pre-purchase. BFA Content starts when 8.0 hits the servers. 7.x is 100% Pure Legion Content.

[cparle87]

No, you didn't make a point. You tried to tell me an Apple from a tree is like an Apple Computer. The sale is governed by retail law. Period. End of discussion.

Because they want to keep their customers. Not to mention that there are a host of other laws in play. He might have also discussed the situation with his bank and they sided with him.

The reason Blizzard locks accounts and such is because Visa and co can charge anywhere from $15 to $50 per chargeback.


Go back and re-read the guy's post..... He attempted a refund twice with automated responses denying his refund on the grounds he used his Boost when in fact he had not. After the second denial, he used it, and a human got back to him and said the same thing the automated e-mail replies had said. So in this, Blizzard initially screwed up. And, again, what did he steal? What does he still have that he did not have before his initial purchase? If he had actual ownership of the account, he could potentially go after Blizzard.

No, it just is gated behind a pre-purchase. BFA Content starts when 8.0 hits the servers. 7.x is 100% Pure Legion Content.

1. And any rights not covered by retail law belong to Blizzard.

2. Ahh. "Go steal my money back for me after I made a valid purchase or I'll choose another bank more unscrupulous than you to do it for me." Very classy.

3. So he tried a refund twice. Computer told him no. Tried a third time, got a person, who also told him no because he had, as he admitted did the questline to unlock allied raced. Blizz said using the boost or unlocking allied races would nullify a refund. He stole money that belongs to Blizzard. If you don't seem to get that I'm not sure how I can help you.

4. Again. Blizz decides what content is what. Since they decided that doing the questlines to unlock allied races was considered doing BFA stuff and therefore invalidates the refund that's the end of the matter. See #1.

[Laqweeta]

This is a stupid amount of work to get a new account for a game you obviously don't really care for if you're so cavalier about having accounts permabanned.

Lol k characters

[Bugg]

I did not learn the 'video games pre-order lesson' after No man's sky so I pre-ordered Destiny 2.
But since then I know better.
And I won't forget the lessons of the past.