BfA Refund Policy

[pyro989898]

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






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.




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.




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.

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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).

So u are saying about pro-rated refund . Pro-rated refund works very well in case of newspaper/magazine subscription cancellation . You used service for 6 month out of 1 year. so 50% refund simple.
But in case of a game as such WOW it is very difficult to apply pro rate refund system. Issue i see is :-
1.what is the life of a product. who know's BFA could be blizz last expansion(may be company go bust or no interest in developing wow anymore ... )
2.what is the play time, some play 12 hr/day, some 3hr/day , some 3hr/week.
3.Wow is a product that tries to fulfill needs of various segments of player. Each segment will see the value of features present in wow in different manner.
from the point of view of "what they DID consume" suppose some player used character boost , some will say character boost cost in their opinion is 10$, some will say 20$, some will say 2$. and blizz has set the rule that if u used character boost 40$(price for character boost in-shop is 60$) will not be refunded , some guy will start a post complaining about it . Some guy played allied race for 1 hr , and blizz states to player that he/she will get 20$ , well 40$ for 1 hr of game play or even 20$ for 1 hr game play , players will definitely start complaining about it . Some people have bought BFA , because wow is their life , apart from wow their in nothing important for them to do. Unlike newspapers BFA doesn't come in fixed and equal number of installment throughout the year.
My point is their is too much subjective view about the price of different feature provided in a game like wow. I don't give any importance to any micro holiday event ,timewalking , transmong, will quest only as way to level character. But their are many player base who play wow for quest , some for transmong, some for RP features and so on .Even if blizz choose to do it , it will only starts chaos. Hence a simple rule ,want full refund , don't use 2 this feature and ur money will be returned criteria is simple and hassle free.

[SirCowdog]

But in case of a game as such WOW it is very difficult to apply pro rate refund system. Issue i see is :

1.what is the life of a product. who know's BFA could be blizz last expansion(may be company go bust or no interest in developing wow anymore ... )

Absolutely irrelevant to a case of pre-purchasing. We are not discussing the subscription fee once BfA becomes fully accessible, only the paid access to a very specific part of the game's content(BfA) during the pre-purchase window before launch. And besides which, even if BfA is the last expansion, access to it would remain for many years.

2.what is the play time, some play 12 hr/day, some 3hr/day , some 3hr/week.

Again, irrelevant. How much a person uses a product has no impact on the set price of the original sale. It would be like arguing that I should have to pay more for my car than the next guy because I drive more miles. Even if this was relevant, it would be covered under the subscription fee, which is not being disputed.

3.Wow is a product that tries to fulfill needs of various segments of player. Each segment will see the value of features present in wow in different manner.

from the point of view of "what they DID consume" suppose some player used character boost , some will say character boost cost in their opinion is 10$, some will say 20$, some will say 2$. and blizz has set the rule that if u used character boost 40$(price for character boost in-shop is 60$) will not be refunded , some guy will start a post complaining about it . Some guy played allied race for 1 hr , and blizz states to player that he/she will get 20$ , well 40$ for 1 hr of game play or even 20$ for 1 hr game play , players will definitely start complaining about it .

The value of the character boost is largely irrelevant when Blizzard could simply lock the character in question at the time of the refund. At the same time, they would lock access to any other characters made using an allied race, and lock access to any quests/scenarios involved with allied races(BfA content).

What that leaves is what the customer did with their allied race or boosted character while they had it. But what they can use those characters on is Legion content, and not covered under any refund dispute about BfA. I suppose you could make an argument about a player who, before the pre-purchase was available, LITERALLY had no 110 characters. But then they'd also be losing access to their 110 when it was locked, so I'd call that a wash.

But I get the point you're making: It's a pain for Blizzard to have to review each individual refund and try to determine how much of a refund to give. In this case, despite what I said earlier about pro-rating, I'd say it would probably be more cost-effective to just lock all BfA-related material and give a full refund through an automated process.

Could that somehow be abused or exploited? Maybe? Whatever losses were incurred by such a thing would more than be made up for in good will and approval by the rest of the Playerbase. People ARE fairly reasonable about recognizing consumer-friendly practices.

[Bryntrollian]

all the more reason not to pre-order

[pyro989898]

1.what is the life of a product. who know's BFA could be blizz last expansion(may be company go bust or no interest in developing wow anymore ... )

Absolutely irrelevant to a case of pre-purchasing. We are not discussing the subscription fee once BfA becomes fully accessible, only the paid access to a very specific part of the game's content(BfA) during the pre-purchase window before launch. And besides which, even if BfA is the last expansion, access to it would remain for many years.

2.what is the play time, some play 12 hr/day, some 3hr/day , some 3hr/week.

Again, irrelevant. How much a person uses a product has no impact on the set price of the original sale. It would be like arguing that I should have to pay more for my car than the next guy because I drive more miles. Even if this was relevant, it would be covered under the subscription fee, which is not being disputed.





The value of the character boost is largely irrelevant when Blizzard could simply lock the character in question at the time of the refund. At the same time, they would lock access to any other characters made using an allied race, and lock access to any quests/scenarios involved with allied races(BfA content).

What that leaves is what the customer did with their allied race or boosted character while they had it. But what they can use those characters on is Legion content, and not covered under any refund dispute about BfA. I suppose you could make an argument about a player who, before the pre-purchase was available, LITERALLY had no 110 characters. But then they'd also be losing access to their 110 when it was locked, so I'd call that a wash.

But I get the point you're making: It's a pain for Blizzard to have to review each individual refund and try to determine how much of a refund to give. In this case, despite what I said earlier about pro-rating, I'd say it would probably be more cost-effective to just lock all BfA-related material and give a full refund through an automated process.

Could that somehow be abused or exploited? Maybe? Whatever losses were incurred by such a thing would more than be made up for in good will and approval by the rest of the Playerbase. People ARE fairly reasonable about recognizing consumer-friendly practices.

Life of product is not irrelavant as when using pro rated refund ,determining life of a product is important . In case of pre purchase u have used some portion of game and calculating what % of product u have used life of a product is important .Allied race is feature of BFA so allied race does have a cost associated with 60$(not sure about actual pre purchase cost, as i have not pre purchased it). How do you come up with pro data refund when a newspaper subscription is cancelled ? If the value of denominator cannot be determined pro rate refund cannot be calculated

If a person used something of a product he/she are supposed to pay for the service/entertainment provided by product unless the product is free. This is a basic rule in market.
Suppose a person pre purchase BFA , didn't like it ,player even used boost and allied character , contacted blizz for refund , they locked the player character (pre pruchase boosted + allied character) and refunded by full money. But wait the player used a product that was not free , player liked it or not it was the risk player took, so player is obliged to pay back blizz for the service provided by blizz even if he/she like it or not(exculding extreme condition like locked account by blizz without any reason .., where blizz is at fault). So how do you calculate the % of product used ?

Aliied race is not legion content ,it is BFA content.It is player choice what they want to do with their Allied character ,they can even do quest in MOP region with their allied raceforever and stay their forever. or play allied race when bfa releases.