Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I literally spent $100 buying gems on Nov. 28. You can imagine how that makes me feel with the latest announcement about buying gems and getting rewards.

Given the lack of notice that such a sale was coming, would you kindly make it so that gem purchases made as of Nov 25 or so could also count for the promotion? That would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

I don’t think they will ever give an advance notice that says: Don’t buy gems until we give you freebies for doing so.

It just doesn’t seem plausible, to me.

That’s true, Inculpatus. Still, I’m in the same boat as the OP, and it is very disappointing to have missed out on getting the reward just by 2 days (I bought on the 29th). Especially considering we both bought twice the amount of gems to qualify.

I’ve actually opened a ticket with Support to see if an exception could be made for our cases (perhaps anyone who bought gems in response to the Black Friday weekend sales is also eligible). If not, my next move is to ask if they can refund my gem purchase, only for me to buy them again just to qualify. :P They’d be saving their own time by just making us eligible.

same to me

I got a response back from Support this morning. Unfortunately the policy of gem purchases only between 1st Dec – 31st Dec stands; any purchases before that will not count towards the promotion. Worse still, because I’d already spent part of the 8000 gems purchase, they aren’t able to perform the refund, so I’m SOL.

Unless the amazing Gaile can help? If you read this, Gaile, is there anything you can do to help?

One thing that also isn’t clear. Where do people who bought gems before the 1st, but their bank transaction didn’t go through till 1st Dec or later, fit in? Are they eligible?

I would guess the Black Friday sales have something to do with that. I hope things go well for everyone, ArenaNet included. =)

Thanks for the reply, Gaile. I understand your position completely, of course, but it does feel somewhat irritating considering a lot of people would have bought gems for the Black Friday sale, and those who did so for Friday/Saturday missed out (as I did), but those who bought on Sunday/Monday made it in.

Maybe the deadline could be extended to the start of the Black Friday sales period? (Or whenever the announcement was made that there would be a sale on.) Would that be an acceptable compromise? I did actually submit a ticket about this earlier; should I submit another ticket with this suggestion?

Will do! Um, when you say “update your ticket”, do you mean reply to the e-mail the Support staff have sent me? Because I’m looking at the Support section of this website and I don’t see a place where we can view our existing tickets.

Where can you see the exact date of purchasing gems? I’m think I’m in the same boat as these guys. I purchased gems recently and I think I just missed the time period but want to check to be sure.

It might be a good idea to take a clue from certain big software companies, that give redemption codes or offer a free upgrade to customers who bought their software right before an upgrade announcement. i.e. You announce on the date 1st of dec that from that date you’ll reward gem purchases with a gift, then it’s a nice gesture to also include purchases from 3 days before this announcement. (the grace period should be set based upon your marginal gains and purchase volumes of the previous days, e.g. how many customers are you likely to upset by not including them).

With these announcements it’s better to have them a week prior to the actual date of inception so that customers are aware of it. Especially since it is a medium term promotion (a flash sale or incentive is justified in its own right, and is a risk customers take when buying at ordinary price).

I believe adding a grace period here would be best for the customers and you. It was a mistake though to have brought up the duration of a grace period as now someone will feel left out no matter.

Chobiko.9182:

It might be a good idea to take a clue from certain big software companies, that give redemption codes or offer a free upgrade to customers who bought their software right before an upgrade announcement. i.e. You announce on the date 1st of dec that from that date you’ll reward gem purchases with a gift, then it’s a nice gesture to also include purchases from 3 days before this announcement. (the grace period should be set based upon your marginal gains and purchase volumes of the previous days, e.g. how many customers are you likely to upset by not including them).

With these announcements it’s better to have them a week prior to the actual date of inception so that customers are aware of it. Especially since it is a medium term promotion (a flash sale or incentive is justified in its own right, and is a risk customers take when buying at ordinary price).

I believe adding a grace period here would be best for the customers and you. It was a mistake though to have brought up the duration of a grace period as now someone will feel left out no matter.

The problem there is that you then have people who bought it 3.5 days before and people who bought it 4 days before (etc) wanting the vouchers.

This could be avoided by announcing these kinds of promotions a week in advance. Most stores put out sales fliers in that kind of timeframe.

Also I’d like to respectfully disagree with you on the “you won’t get that at your local retailer” comment, Gaile. If I buy a product at a store, and open it that day, then the next day it goes on sale, I have three options. One I live with it. Two, many stores have ‘price guarantee’ where they will credit you the difference between the sale and regular price if you bought it within X days of the sale (usually a week to a month, I believe, but this is something that is set in advance and you agree to with the purchase, etc). Three, if the store does not offer such a service, I return to the store, buy another copy of the item at sale price, and then return it using the first receipt. I believe it is this last practice that spurred stores to offer price matching, as it cuts down on the work for them (one visit to customer service vs someone having to check you out, then the cs visit, then restocking).

I think it would be nice if ArenaNet considered a ‘bonus offer’ guarantee window for future purchases. The issue with this particular promotion is that a LOT of people are going to be put out by the two days of black friday sales which took place right before the promotion started. If it were just regular sales, you would have far fewer unhappy customers, but the fact that there were sales actively encouraging gem purchases increases that pool by a bit.

I bought gems both before and after the deadline during the black friday event, so while I’d like them to count, realistically it doesn’t matter much for me. It’s just the principle of the thing.

Just wondering if there’s been any update from your side, Gaile? Support is basically sticking to their position, which is fine. Once I know where I stand, I can decide whether or not to purchase more gems by December’s end, but I’d just like to know if there’s any plans on ANet’s side to change the requirements before I do.