Me or Customer Services, who is right?

Gmax101

Am currently involved in an open issue with CS

Now, this is not a question as to whether buying HP is a sensible act or not. I was happy to spend the money.

Except that I was carrying out the transaction early in the morning before work, and I was in a bit of a rush.

So I carried out the transaction and did not pay much attention to the alerts. I did check that I was being charged the correct amount for my intended purchase, but did not read the exact nature of the purchase.

Only when I logged in to the game did I notice that I had mistakenly clicked ISO rather than HP.

I confess to having bought iso in my first couple of weeks playing the game many months ago, before I found the forums and knew better, but not since then. I do on occasion buy HP, but I am comfortable with my spend to entertainment return... before anyone comes on here and starts trying to tell me how I should or should not spend my money.

So I raised the CS ticket asking to get the ISO removed and the equivalent amount of HP added. Seemed like a reasonably straight forward request. I have not spent the ISO, and both amounts are easily identified.

This is when I got told that they do not offer compensation for errors made will carrying out in game purchases.

Thing is, I agree with them in some circumstances. People might often make a purchase and then ask to get a refund or get it backed out because they decided they shouldn't have done it. And in that situation, I can see why having the policy makes sense.

However, I am not trying to get my money back. I don't want compensation. I simply want the in-game resource I intended.

Now if the quantity of ISO was in anyway a reasonable return on investment then I might well have just chalked it up to experience and left it alone. Ie, if there was a tangible impact on my roster. But the ISO bundles are so unbelievably poor value that it is not something I am willing to swallow. After all, I only noticed due the fact that my HP had changed rather than my ISO... when you have 150,000 saved up from events, a small increase from a grossly over-priced purchase is unlikely to even register.

Thing is, the stock response has only succeeded in putting me in the kind of mood that means I will not spend any further money on the game. Which seems like an odd position to take, given that I am a steady, if not excessive purchaser....

Am I out of line expecting CS to resolve this, or is their stock answer as annoying as I think it is?

Ramble2

I would keep pressing them on this. It might take more back and forth than it should, but I think it's a really reasonable request.

doomette

Swapping the ISO for HP seems like the sort of nice gesture that wouldn't be terribly detrimental to their bottom line but would generate good will and customer loyalty, but who knows.

Smudge

As an outside observer who has worked numerous retail and IT customer service positions before, I think allowing an even exchange is more than fair.

Seems straightforward enough to me. I don't know why they wouldn't do it. Maybe try PMing David with your ticket number to see if he can help them see reason.

Like I said, it's an even exchange.

JVReal

I have never purchased in game, but my initial thoughts are this:

You accidentally purchased the wrong product. Inquire if they will allow you to switch the purchase from a Mother Lode to a Stark (or whatever the equivalent is).

Ask nicely, if the initial response is No, ask for it to be escalated as it will definitely taint your desire to purchase again in the future.

If they escalate it, give the next person an honest answer on what your intentions were, and request that they make this a one-time exception.

This is where the least resistant method ends.

If they refuse to budge, then you have the next line of recourse available which I have also never tried, but in previous games I've played, others have had success. You could go to Google, or Apple and ask for the refund from them and let them know you have attempted to seek resolution from the company and they refused. Sometimes they grant refunds.

Absolutely last course of action is to decline the charge to the credit card company, but that would piss off Google or Apple on top of D3.

simonsez

Gmax101 wrote:

Me or Customer Services, who is right?

The customer is always right, no?

Jarvind

simonsez wrote:

Gmax101 wrote:

Me or Customer Services, who is right?

The customer is always right, no?

Clearly you've never worked in the restaurant or retail business.

madsalad

I'm sure you got the stock template email response from them and if you pushed the issue a little harder saying you do not want compensation or a refund, just to simply swap one $100 purchase for another, they may come around to actually realize what you want.

Then, if they still say no, ask to have it escalated.

Kojubat

Considering the roundabout ways they usually resolve cover and reward issues, I think Customer Service only has the ability to add to an account, not remove from it. Every cover-based resolution I have ever read involves the user selling the cover instead of someone going in and making a change to the database. From a security/liability perspective it makes sense, at the expense of first contact customer satisfaction.

That isn't to say it could never be done, but would probably require going through a few rounds of escalation and avoiding someone taking a hard line on "user error is the user's problem".

Gmax101

simonsez wrote:

Gmax101 wrote:

Me or Customer Services, who is right?

The customer is always right, no?

Having a fair amount of experience working in both retail and as a service provider to businesses....

No, they are not

obviously in this case they are

Magic

Keep going at CS and meanwhile try contacting red names on the forum with PM to help on the matter. The request you are making seems straightforwad and logical. I guess you just got a CS guys bad day.

Jam_Adams

I would also add that you should remain polite and humble throughout the process regardless of what CS says. maybe even self-deprecate a little.
this probably goes without saying, but I thought I would mention it.

after all, honey catches more flies than vinegar

BigRussian

Jam_Adams wrote:

after all, honey catches more flies than vinegar

Unless you're trying to catch fruit flies. Apple Cider Vinegar and dish soap for the win.

jobob

You are right. This should certainly be something that CS can take care of... that's what they are for, after all.

As others have mentioned, remain polite... but absolutely do not take no for an answer.

udonomefoo

I agree that they SHOULD do it. I also agree though that they seem to have an inability to remove things from accounts, only add to them. Other than that one time they rolled back some accounts for token rerolling.

From their perspective, if they can't remove the iso, then they just give you the hp and you got both for $100. When people find out you can do that, they will have a lot more "mistakes" on their hands.

Good luck.

Phumade

I suspect the real problem is that they don't have a good way to take away the iso.

In all the CS cases that I've seen or read about, I've never seen a situation where they can actually take away a cover or a resource. Typically, they've always said sell the cover and keep the iso for the inconvience.

I think in your situation, your absolutely right, but they don't have a way to remove the iso and credit you the hp without basically giving you the iso.

Maybe ask for 2 50percent off discount couppons. They might be able to address the situation in that manner.

658

Polite but firm.

Gmax101

The fact that they might not be able to remove the ISO is a concern...

especially if this is the stumbling block in sorting out the issue. As mentioned above, the last thing they will want to do (or that I want if honest*) is for them to have to give me the ISO as well as the HP... that is certainly unfair and open to exploit.

I will be keeping on at them, but I do try to remain polite at all times, as I said above I've worked in service industries, so sympathise with CS operatives who are often just doing their job.




* yes, extra ISO would be nice, but it would be unfair for me to get it. After all I made the mis-key.

Nightglider1

simonsez wrote:

Gmax101 wrote:

Me or Customer Services, who is right?

The customer is always right, no?

Nope. The customer may not always be right, but he's always the customer. Do what can be done to make the customer happy, within reason.

JVReal

I think if they let the double claimers from the Shield Rank fiasco keep it because it was not intentional, they should let you keep the tiny 78K iso.

udonomefoo

Gmax101 wrote:

The fact that they might not be able to remove the ISO is a concern...

especially if this is the stumbling block in sorting out the issue. As mentioned above, the last thing they will want to do (or that I want if honest*) is for them to have to give me the ISO as well as the HP... that is certainly unfair and open to exploit.

I will be keeping on at them, but I do try to remain polite at all times, as I said above I've worked in service industries, so sympathise with CS operatives who are often just doing their job.

* yes, extra ISO would be nice, but it would be unfair for me to get it. After all I made the mis-key.

I just thought of a complicated, but possible solution you could propose if this is the roadblock. Take a character you have covers in, but few or no levels. You put 120k iso into the character and sell it for 20k (just numbers from a hat, but you get the idea). CS gives you back the covers you had for the character you sold, plus the HP you were trying to get in the first place, but no iso.

Complicated, but the correct end result.