BfA Refund Policy

[Tech614]

Dont pre-order games fullstop.

That said the "character boost" makes your refund invalid is kinda sneaky but these are tricks you need to be aware of in the modern age. Just always double check everything with businesses that engage those kinda practises. Blizzard/activision im very dubious of

It's not really sneaky. It should be common sense if you use part of of a purchase you might not be able to refund it. That is literally the case with almost anything.

If the alternate was true and the boost wasn't part of buying the xpac and instead the only way to get a boost was to pay the high fee people would complain blizzard was greedy.

Blizzard is definitely out to get their money, but they aren't being sneaky about it in the least. Things like the boost and allied races are there to secure your money and keep you playing during a content drought, not to void refunds. That tin foil hat theory is pretty funny.

[xcitng]

Dont pre-order games fullstop.

That said the "character boost" makes your refund invalid is kinda sneaky but these are tricks you need to be aware of in the modern age. Just always double check everything with businesses that engage those kinda practises. Blizzard/activision im very dubious of

Yeah I'm always watching out for the dodgy icecream van man, I once bought an icecream, ate the icecream but left the cone, I wanted a refund AND HE SAID NO WHAT THE HELL

very dubious

[SirCowdog]

Yeah I'm always watching out for the dodgy icecream van man, I once bought an icecream, ate the icecream but left the cone, I wanted a refund AND HE SAID NO WHAT THE HELL

very dubious

..and then I went and called my bank and issued a chargeback for that ice cream, because fuck that dude and his van (and oh I was kinda having a tight month, so I actually shouldn't have bought the icecream anyway. But I wanted it. Life is so hard. But it's totally that dude's fault - why bring the van near my house in the first place? I'm glad I showed him.)

I really wish people would stop using physical product examples. It's not even remotely accurate to how digital sales work. :/

[xcitng]

I really wish people would stop using physical product examples. It's not even remotely accurate to how digital sales work. :/

Really wish people would read before making threads and complaining about "dodgy, sneaky, tricks" blizzard use to make refunds invalid

[Nnyco]

Dont pre-order games fullstop.

That said the "character boost" makes your refund invalid is kinda sneaky but these are tricks you need to be aware of in the modern age. Just always double check everything with businesses that engage those kinda practises. Blizzard/activision im very dubious of

how dare this backery not refund my money for the half eaten cake!

[SirCowdog]

Really wish people would read before making threads and complaining about "dodgy, sneaky, tricks" blizzard use to make refunds invalid

Honestly, if you'd followed your own advice you'd see that there was some fairly decent discussion that happened as a result.

Just a funny jab, I think everything that needs to be said, has been said

Pretty much. Although it's a valid point. Digital sales and policies should NOT be compared to real world, physical sales and policies. They're VERY different in some pretty fundamental ways. And as long as people and businesses keep thinking of them in terms of physical goods we'll never get anywhere. It's why the laws surrounding digital sales and transfers of information are still so damn primitive and limited.

- - - Updated - - -

how dare this backery not refund my money for the half eaten cake!

We literally just went over this. :/

Do you see what I mean, @TelefonoGatewood?

[Tech614]

I really wish people would stop using physical product examples. It's not even remotely accurate to how digital sales work. :/

Except it is how they work or this thread wouldn't even exist.

Every company dictates the terms on how they handle refunds, physical or digital product is irrelevant. The only way you can take issue with it is if it violates your local laws, and even then good luck doing anything about it. It would cost you far more then the price of a game.

[SirCowdog]

physical or digital product is irrelevant.

Lets take a look at all the ways that digital products are different from physical ones.

There's no physical product that can spoil or be damaged.
No limit on supply.
No restocking fee because there's nothing to stock.
No wear and tear.
No warehouse space needed to store it, only servers.
No package that's been opened.
No shipping or handling costs, only bandwidth.

And on top of all that the product can be edited, replaced, locked, updated, or removed with relative ease. All things which, generally speaking, can not be done easily with a physical product without either replacing the item entirely, or having a fair amount of cost involved for rehandling/reshipping the product.


It is simply NOT the same as trying to return a physical item with an open package, or food which has been partially opened, or any other similar example. Refunding a digital product which has had MAYBE 1% of it's total content experienced shouldn't even be blinked at. The reasons behind having very harsh and restrictive return policies for physical items simply don't apply to a digital product of this nature, with the sole exception of attempting to prevent or mitigate the loss of a sale.

[xcitng]

Honestly, if you'd followed your own advice you'd see that there was some fairly decent discussion that happened as a result.

Read it all, what I quoted was posted 6 hours ago..

[pyro989898]

I really wish people would stop using physical product examples. It's not even remotely accurate to how digital sales work. :/

Blizz states that for refund one should not have used below two :-
1.Used the included Level 110 Boost.
2.Fully unlocked the ability to create an Allied Race character.
Well ur correct about almost no spoilage of digital product unlike in physical product.But the reason i think blizz will not refund money even if one states that they used only 1% of digital product because of difference in opinion about worth of product already used by a player. Even if blizz stats the cost associated with above 2 points mentioned , some people will surely argue against the cost mentioned by blizz. Next some people will say i have played allied race for just 1 hr and didn't like , so please refund back some money. This kind of cost estimation depending on a digital product usage is complex and based on subjective opinion. By subjective opinion i mean one may say character boost should cost 10$,other 5$ ,other 3$ and so on.Even if bliz tomorrow states that if a player has used character boost only 60% of money will be refunded some guy will think it should not cost so much and will start a thread or complain about it.
Hence simply mention a strict rule so that their will be no fuse between blizz and customer regarding what should be refund value when some one used some percentage of a digital product.

[tikcol]

Not buying it until classic drops

[OreoLover]

...there should just be a "Refund Policy" megathread, with how these spiral for days...

[SirCowdog]

Blizz states that for refund one should not have used below two :-
1.Used the included Level 110 Boost.
2.Fully unlocked the ability to create an Allied Race character.
Well ur correct about almost no spoilage of digital product unlike in physical product.But the reason i think blizz will not refund money even if one states that they used only 1% of digital product because of difference in opinion about worth of product already used by a player. Even if blizz stats the cost associated with above 2 points mentioned , some people will surely argue against the cost mentioned by blizz. Next some people will say i have played allied race for just 1 hr and didn't like , so please refund back some money. This kind of cost estimation depending on a digital product usage is complex and based on subjective opinion. By subjective opinion i mean one may say character boost should cost 10$,other 5$ ,other 3$ and so on.Even if bliz tomorrow states that if a player has used character boost only 60% of money will be refunded some guy will think it should not cost so much and will start a thread or complain about it.
Hence simply mention a strict rule so that their will be no fuse between blizz and customer regarding what should be refund value when some one used some percentage of a digital product.

Except that it should be a simple matter to lock any characters which are allied races, or lock the boosted character until such a time as BfA is once again purchased. At which point the boosted character and allied races would once again become available for use. You don't even have to go into the arguments about the value of the product. You simply turn off access to it until you pay again.

This is the advantage of a digital product, ESPECIALLY a subscription/service-based digital product. It can be manipulated in these ways with relative, almost negligible ease, given that Blizzard's underlying account architecture isn't a complete and total garbage heap.

[pyro989898]

Except that it should be a simple matter to lock any characters which are allied races, or lock the boosted character until such a time as BfA is once again purchased. At which point the boosted character and allied races would once again become available for use. You don't even have to go into the arguments about the value of the product. You simply turn off access to it until you pay again.

This is the advantage of a digital product, ESPECIALLY a subscription/service-based digital product. It can be manipulated in these ways with relative, almost negligible ease, given that Blizzard's underlying account architecture isn't a complete and total garbage heap.

i am not getting as what you want to convey.
As such under what condition "allied character+boosted character" be locked ?
locked character should be locked until bfa is purchased again.why would some one who pre purchased game would purchase again ?

[SirCowdog]

i am not getting as what you want to convey.
As such under what condition "allied character+boosted character" be locked ?
locked character should be locked until bfa is purchased again.why would some one who pre purchased game would purchase again ?

When someone does a refund because they needed the money, but later on can afford to once again buy the game.

[pyro989898]

When someone does a refund because they needed the money, but later on can afford to once again buy the game.

and whats the guarantee that the player will come back and buy the game again ?

[SirCowdog]

and whats the guarantee that the player will come back and buy the game again ?

Why does there need to be a guarantee. On the scale of millions of players, Blizzard knows that many of them will constantly come and go. People quit and return to wow all the time.

I'm really not sure what you're getting at here.

[Phookah]

Imagine if Blizzard took responsibility for their poor game design and 20k people didn't want to refund in the first place?

This game can be played both ways. At the scale of MILLIONS of players paying them $15 every month on top of $50 for the expansion, I'm sure they can afford to come up with a way to handle a mere 20k people wanting to refund that's better than "Too bad so sad."

Reading comprehension, that is all.

Literally no one who knows how to read and understand what they read has had a problem with refunds. Stupid people shouldn't have their hands held, maybe next time they'll try to understand what they're doing before doing it. Good life lesson all and all, for only $60.

I really wish people would stop using physical product examples. It's not even remotely accurate to how digital sales work. :/

A good is a good, digital or physical. You bought something and used part of it and then want to return it, full stop. It doesn't matter if the entire product is still there when you return it because its digital, you consumed part of the product itself by the very act of using it. Thats why is can be compared to physical examples. If you can't get a refund, it means you unlocked some of the new races (in other words, you did the questlines and experienced PAID FOR CONTENT that -CAN'T- be returned)

What if all I really cared about with the pre-purchase was seeing the new races in the customizer and the quest lines, and then decide I want to return it? You can't tell the difference between someone trying to scam, and someone who suddenly decided they didn't like it after all. Hence why there is CLEARLY marked guidelines that should be read and followed BEFORE purchase to ensure YOU don't get screwed out of $60.

It costs blizzard time and money to have CMs/GMs go through accounts and lock/downgrade everyone manually + locking characters and whatever, not to mention just the action of returning something digitally costs them money to process the payment/refund. There absolutely is a "restocking fee" in that sense.

Literally 100% of this is prevented by people having higher than 6th grade reading comprehension and reasoning.

[pyro989898]

Why does there need to be a guarantee. On the scale of millions of players, Blizzard knows that many of them will constantly come and go. People quit and return to wow all the time.

I'm really not sure what you're getting at here.

So you are trying to say A person who pre purchase a game , plays a game for sometime then approach blizz for refund(reasons :- didn't like game or whatever) and the player should get back full refund.
Why ? The player has played some game , sure their is no quality degradation due to product use but if they go by this way literally blizz will make no money out of pre purchase.THis system can be abused very easily , a player will pre purchase a game play it for 1 day will get full refund , another player will do same thing and so on. By the way when u use a product which is not free u are supposed to plays for the service/entertainment provided by the product(physical or digital) so player shouldn't get full refund.

[SirCowdog]

Reading comprehension, that is all.

Literally no one who knows how to read and understand what they read has had a problem with refunds. Stupid people shouldn't have their hands held, maybe next time they'll try to understand what they're doing before doing it. Good life lesson all and all, for only $60.

Does the fact that people are making poor decisions absolve Blizzard from any and all criticism, or possibility of improving their product and policies?

A good is a good, digital or physical. You bought something and used part of it and then want to return it, full stop. It doesn't matter if the entire product is still there when you return it because its digital, you consumed part of the product itself by the very act of using it. Thats why is can be compared to physical examples. If you can't get a refund, it means you unlocked some of the new races (in other words, you did the questlines and experienced PAID FOR CONTENT that -CAN'T- be returned)

Read the later posts on the differences between a physical and digital product. They are absolutely not the same.

But here's a recap: You consumed and experienced MAYBE 1% of BfA's total content. There's no reason why Blizzard couldn't lock access to the allied race content and pro-rate a refund based on what you DID consume.

What if all I really cared about with the pre-purchase was seeing the new races in the customizer and the quest lines, and then decide I want to return it? You can't tell the difference between someone trying to scam, and someone who suddenly decided they didn't like it after all. Hence why there is CLEARLY marked guidelines that should be read and followed BEFORE purchase to ensure YOU don't get screwed out of $60.

Blizzard tracks behavior on the forums for players, flagging them for multiple offenses and handing out progressively more harsh penalties. They limit the number of times and how often you can activate a character or account restore for compromised accounts. Why is this different? They could just as easily track how often refund attempts are made.

Acti-Blizz is a multi-billion dollar corporation. I fail to believe they lack the capability to do this.

It costs blizzard time and money to have CMs/GMs go through accounts and lock/downgrade everyone manually + locking characters and whatever, not to mention just the action of returning something digitally costs them money to process the payment/refund. There absolutely is a "restocking fee" in that sense.

And those CSRs and GMs are going to be there regardless of the nature of the customer's problem. This just adds another checkbox, assuming the refund process isn't automated(which I point to Steam's refund process as a concrete example of that possibility).

Also, there is a known fee involved with a CHARGEBACK, but I'm not so sure about there being a transaction fee for a simple refund. I would like someone with more knowledge to cite some sources on this before I concede that point.

- - - Updated - - -

So you are trying to say A person who pre purchase a game , plays a game for sometime then approach blizz for refund(reasons :- didn't like game or whatever) and the player should get back full refund.
Why ? The player has played some game , sure their is no quality degradation due to product use but if they go by this way literally blizz will make no money out of pre purchase.THis system can be abused very easily , a player will pre purchase a game play it for 1 day will get full refund , another player will do same thing and so on. By the way when u use a product which is not free u are supposed to plays for the service/entertainment provided by the product(physical or digital) so player shouldn't get full refund.

I didn't actually say that. In fact, if you read my posts carefully, you'll see that I specifically and repeatedly mentioned a pro-rated refund based on what they DID consume.

I've also repeatedly mentioned the example of Steam's refund system, which is not only automated, but allows the person to play up to 2 hours and still get a FULL refund with NO questions asked. Does Blizzard's system need to perfectly mirror this? Obviously not, since there are some pretty different conditions between Steam(a market service for games) and WoW(a subscription service for a single game).