Guild Wars 2

So I recently started playing GW2 again. On the first night that I was back in the game, I saw the Molten Alliance Pick on the store. Since it was a limited edition item, it really had me interested (I’m a sucker for that kind of thing). I was concerned about whether or not it was bound to account or bound to a single character, since it says both on the description. After asking in general chat, three separate players confirmed that it was indeed usable by all characters on an account. Here’s where my issues began:

At the time I was playing on a low level alt, and without thinking went ahead and purchased the pick. Later, I discovered that it was indeed soul bound to that character and I was unable to move it to my main, so I submitted a ticket. At first, I asked if it were possible to receive a refund since I bought it unknowing that it was for only a single character, and I was told that this wasn’t possible. Fair enough, since GW2 is a Buy-to-Play game I figured they made money on the store, and offering refunds would really cut into profits, this was perfectly acceptable. However, I politely said that I understood, and asked if I could at least get the pick transferred to my main character, as it’s completely useless sitting on a low level alt that never sees playing time. I was told repeatedly, that it was “impossible” to transfer it. So I asked if they could refund the gems under the sole condition that I spend them on the exact same item, but on my 80 Mesmer. Once again, repeatedly told that they wouldn’t do this.

I don’t get it. I bought the item not understanding that it was a single character item, which is fine – my mistake, I get that refunds aren’t always the best business option. But not allowing me to transfer it onto my main, instead of sitting on a low level character to see no use… that’s absurd. 10$ might not be a lot of money, but I wouldn’t throw a 10$ bill in the garbage either, and that’s essentially what has happened. I even proposed a few separate solutions, all of which involved Anet keeping my 10$, but the pick being moved to my main so I could actually use it, and was refused over and over. So my question is why? What makes it so difficult to take 5 minutes and accomodate customers, yeah it was my mistake but it doesn’t make sense that I have to waste the pick when a solution is so simple.

This is my last ditch effort, if I don’t get any help here, I cannot see myself spending a single cent more in the store. That may not be important to some of you, but it’s a really big deal to me.

I think the problem is more like ‘they can do it but will not’ because if they do it for you, then they should do it for all the 3 million other players. Imagine 2000 requests per minute for changing 1 item to an other character ?
It is indeed unfortunate that this happened to you. Maybe we can get some donations for you so you can buy the item again

I don’t get it though, isn’t that kinda their job? They restore items that people delete on accident, when people come in stumbling drunk at 3am and delete their character, that can get restored. But I can’t have the item that I paid real money for, simply transferred to the character that I actually play? Hell, limit each person to a single instance of this kind of fix if that’s what is needed – I’ll be more careful in the future. But I shouldn’t have 10$ essentially stolen because of a mistake.

I’ve not read about support restoring drunkenly-deleted characters, or items deleted by mistake. Except for very new users and the DDE items, I haven’t heard customer support replacing anything that was lost because of user error. This seems to be their policy, and except for account restoration (which utilizes the once-per-lifetime limit of which you speak), and which you probably do not qualify for, I am afraid you will have to live with this mistake. I feel for you; I just made a stupid mistake in-game last week, and lost an irreplaceable item. Oh, well, I will be more careful in the future.

The reason is that Arenanet cant change ingame items. It’s not that they are not willing to help you but they decided to not have the tools to help you. The only way to help you is to refund you the gems/money and destroying the pick. But like you said yourself, you made a mistake and that would go to far.

I also think the terms in the desciption are pretty solid.
a: Accountbound
b: Souldbound on use.

So when you buy it it is accountbound and when you equip it it is soulbound. You also get a warningmessage when you equip it the first time telling you it will become bound to your character and if you are sure.

So I have to agree with support that a refund is out of order.

Well, I appreciate your response but I hope that when/if an official one comes, it will carry a different tune. I’ve played most triple AAA MMO released for nearly the last decade, and this is the first and only time that I’ve heard of customer support not assisting customers with issues such as this. These kinds of things happen. If it were some exotic item or something similar, that would even be more understandable. But this is a premium item, that I spent real money on – Anet pays the bills based on these transactions. So to simply say “sorry, better luck next time” is an unacceptable outcome. It would take less time to help me out, than it would to type up a ticket response telling me that they can’t do it. And as for “sure we can do it for you, but we’re not going to”, that is absurd! There’s a reason every retail store in existence is happy to let you exchange an item if you have a legitimate reason, because it’s good business. I’m not naive enough to believe that losing me as a paying customer will have any effect whatsoever on Anet as a company, but I hope that someone sees this post and realizes that it would be a bad form of business to tell me to kitten off, all because I didn’t understand how the item worked. It can’t be any more obvious that it was a mistake, why would I buy an item on an alt instead of my main?

mercury ranique.2170:

The reason is that Arenanet cant change ingame items. It’s not that they are not willing to help you but they decided to not have the tools to help you. The only way to help you is to refund you the gems/money and destroying the pick. But like you said yourself, you made a mistake and that would go to far.

I also think the terms in the desciption are pretty solid.
a: Accountbound
b: Souldbound on use.

So when you buy it it is accountbound and when you equip it it is soulbound. You also get a warningmessage when you equip it the first time telling you it will become bound to your character and if you are sure.

So I have to agree with support that a refund is out of order.

I strongly hope that you don’t actually believe that they can’t help. You don’t make an MMO without having basic in-house tools to fix simple solutions such as this. And how is it “too far” to spend quite literally 5 minutes, to refund my gems, and watch me buy the pick on another character? You sir, are wrong.

1) I totally agree their customer support sucks and is the worst cs Ive ever had from a company. Considering I also use Steam, you can figure how bad Anet sucks concerning customer support.

2) About your problem, it was (is) clearly described: account bound / soulbound on use. I agree they should help you, it would be a good move on their side, but it was your mistake. Their support sucks? Completly (to be honest, the last time I needed the support I was satisfied, but it was the first time in years). But in this case you cant totally blame them.

Pyrok.1806:

mercury ranique.2170:

The reason is that Arenanet cant change ingame items. It’s not that they are not willing to help you but they decided to not have the tools to help you. The only way to help you is to refund you the gems/money and destroying the pick. But like you said yourself, you made a mistake and that would go to far.

I also think the terms in the desciption are pretty solid.
a: Accountbound
b: Souldbound on use.

So when you buy it it is accountbound and when you equip it it is soulbound. You also get a warningmessage when you equip it the first time telling you it will become bound to your character and if you are sure.

So I have to agree with support that a refund is out of order.

I strongly hope that you don’t actually believe that they can’t help. You don’t make an MMO without having basic in-house tools to fix simple solutions such as this. And how is it “too far” to spend quite literally 5 minutes, to refund my gems, and watch me buy the pick on another character? You sir, are wrong.

Firts of all pls don’t sir me. Second off all, Yes they have been saying over and over and over again they don’t have the tools. Wether that statement is given to prevent discussions with customers like you or is really the case is unknown. But Arenanet is stating they dont have the tools to change or create items in the game.

’ As much as we’d love to help, I’m afraid we don’t have any tools by which to undo what you’re saying occurred. We’re also not able to grant individual characters any items or currency.’

This what they are always saying.

That’s extremely unlikely in any case, but regardless – I don’t need an item granted to a character. I can simply have the pick removed and my gems refunded, with the stipulation that I can only spend them on another pick – simply on another character. Easy fix.

Although this is not exactly your case, the reply is official about purchasing errors: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Fused-Weapon-Merchant-issue/first#post1727802
Again, sorry for your loss.

Funcom (TSW) refunds you if you buy wrong stuff, but it is limited to once every 30 days. Blizzard also used to refund before they added the autorefund thing in WoW. But Anet never gived a kitten I dont think they will start caring now.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Although this is not exactly your case, the reply is official about purchasing errors: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Fused-Weapon-Merchant-issue/first#post1727802
Again, sorry for your loss.

I read the post, and followed up with the other post linked in that one. This was the outcome from the person who was requesting help.

Thanks ArenaNet! Very happy your team could help me with this situation!

Hopefully I can also get assistance. Thanks for linking that.

Edit:

Funcom (TSW) refunds you if you buy wrong stuff, but it is limited to once every 30 days. Blizzard also used to refund before they added the autorefund thing in WoW. But Anet never gived a kitten I dont think they will start caring now.

Yeah, Trion Worlds (Rift, Defiance) has the best customer support that I’ve seen. It took them 3 days to respond to my ticket, and since it took so long, they upgraded my account to receive every pre-order bonus possible for the game, as well as giving me a month free of game time. That should be the standard that every company strives to reach, but I don’t expect that from Anet. I’m simply hoping for a simple solution here.

Pyrok.1806:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Although this is not exactly your case, the reply is official about purchasing errors: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Fused-Weapon-Merchant-issue/first#post1727802
Again, sorry for your loss.

I read the post, and followed up with the other post linked in that one. This was the outcome from the person who was requesting help.

Thanks ArenaNet! Very happy your team could help me with this situation!

Hopefully I can also get assistance. Thanks for linking that.

The main difference is that unlike this person, you got a warning telling you it would become soulbound and you clicked equip in that message.

The thread we are talking bout was bout a vendor purchase where the person didn’t get a warning that the item wasn’t suitable for his professions and through that mistake he ended up with something he couldnt use.

You however got a warning (wich you ignored) and ended up with an item you can use.

I see a lot of debate here bout what people expect from support. and though I never played it, I suspect most are former blizzard-customers.

There are two really important differences.
a: within the blizzard businessmodel they want to keep you as an addcited and happy customer. They know you are addicted and are doing what they can to keep you addicted cause thats how they make money.
b: within the Arenanet businessmodel they only want you happy as long as it is proffitable. Where is the profit in giving you a refund?? what do they gain?

Bottom line is that despite two level’s of warnings you made a mistake. They dont have any reason to help you or to symphatise with you.

You keep on making arguments and refuse to face your own responsability.
Im not here to kitten you off, but im helping you by warning you that you have wrong and false expectations what support of a free to play game actually is willing to do for you.

Pyrok.1806:

So I recently started playing GW2 again. On the first night that I was back in the game, I saw the Molten Alliance Pick on the store. Since it was a limited edition item, it really had me interested (I’m a sucker for that kind of thing). I was concerned about whether or not it was bound to account or bound to a single character, since it says both on the description. After asking in general chat, three separate players confirmed that it was indeed usable by all characters on an account. Here’s where my issues began:

At the time I was playing on a low level alt, and without thinking went ahead and purchased the pick. Later, I discovered that it was indeed soul bound to that character and I was unable to move it to my main, so I submitted a ticket. At first, I asked if it were possible to receive a refund since I bought it unknowing that it was for only a single character, and I was told that this wasn’t possible. Fair enough, since GW2 is a Buy-to-Play game I figured they made money on the store, and offering refunds would really cut into profits, this was perfectly acceptable. However, I politely said that I understood, and asked if I could at least get the pick transferred to my main character, as it’s completely useless sitting on a low level alt that never sees playing time. I was told repeatedly, that it was “impossible” to transfer it. So I asked if they could refund the gems under the sole condition that I spend them on the exact same item, but on my 80 Mesmer. Once again, repeatedly told that they wouldn’t do this.

I don’t get it. I bought the item not understanding that it was a single character item, which is fine – my mistake, I get that refunds aren’t always the best business option. But not allowing me to transfer it onto my main, instead of sitting on a low level character to see no use… that’s absurd. 10$ might not be a lot of money, but I wouldn’t throw a 10$ bill in the garbage either, and that’s essentially what has happened. I even proposed a few separate solutions, all of which involved Anet keeping my 10$, but the pick being moved to my main so I could actually use it, and was refused over and over. So my question is why? What makes it so difficult to take 5 minutes and accomodate customers, yeah it was my mistake but it doesn’t make sense that I have to waste the pick when a solution is so simple.

This is my last ditch effort, if I don’t get any help here, I cannot see myself spending a single cent more in the store. That may not be important to some of you, but it’s a really big deal to me.

Well, i’m just going to say, ignoring the 3 trolls (or maybe a misunderstanding on your part) the mine pick clearly says soulbound on use….

Btw, your title is misleading, it wasn’t bad customer support, it just didn’t do what you wanted them to do. Again, refunds or transfers are rarely offered by Anet unless it was a clear mistake on their part. This was obviously your fault for not taking a second to read the soulbound on use printed clearly on the mine pick description so the support is by no means obligated to help you.

mercury ranique.2170:

Pyrok.1806:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Although this is not exactly your case, the reply is official about purchasing errors: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Fused-Weapon-Merchant-issue/first#post1727802
Again, sorry for your loss.

I read the post, and followed up with the other post linked in that one. This was the outcome from the person who was requesting help.

Thanks ArenaNet! Very happy your team could help me with this situation!

Hopefully I can also get assistance. Thanks for linking that.

The main difference is that unlike this person, you got a warning telling you it would become soulbound and you clicked equip in that message.

The thread we are talking bout was bout a vendor purchase where the person didn’t get a warning that the item wasn’t suitable for his professions and through that mistake he ended up with something he couldnt use.

You however got a warning (wich you ignored) and ended up with an item you can use.

I see a lot of debate here bout what people expect from support. and though I never played it, I suspect most are former blizzard-customers.

There are two really important differences.
a: within the blizzard businessmodel they want to keep you as an addcited and happy customer. They know you are addicted and are doing what they can to keep you addicted cause thats how they make money.
b: within the Arenanet businessmodel they only want you happy as long as it is proffitable. Where is the profit in giving you a refund?? what do they gain?

Bottom line is that despite two level’s of warnings you made a mistake. They dont have any reason to help you or to symphatise with you.

You keep on making arguments and refuse to face your own responsability.
Im not here to kitten you off, but im helping you by warning you that you have wrong and false expectations what support of a free to play game actually is willing to do for you.

I wouldn’t say anet only helps those when it is profitable to them… After all, they did refund all the exploiters their account + gems when they were banned.. they just don’t refund user made errors since the system has many built up preventions to already stop these things. People who do usually make these errors are people who don’t take the second or two to read the warning text.

You say you are waiting for ‘official word’. Was not the several responses you received on your support tickets ‘official’ enough? You did contact ArenaNet support, did you not?

Either way, I am sure you will get the official response in this thread, soon, that you have requested and deserve. I hope it works out in the best possible way.

K.

b: within the Arenanet businessmodel they only want you happy as long as it is proffitable. Where is the profit in giving you a refund?? what do they gain?

This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. There is NO business in the entire world, that remains profitable with a strategy encompassed by “we only help our customers when it’s profitable for us”. Secondly, what they gain is a customer who will continue to spend money on their game, instead of one who won’t spend another dime. All for 5 minutes of some GM’s time. Btw, the game is Buy to play, not free to play. The difference is astronomical.

But I digress. Yes, I made a mistake and didn’t play close enough attention. I asked for help and haven’t yet received it. Is not helping me worth losing a paying customer over? We’ll see soon, I’d imagine. I’m not going to lose sleep over 10$, but the outcome will determine how many more 10$’s of mine go to Anet.

But being an kitten on the internet is fun, for whatever reason. So I won’t be responding to this anymore, unless an Anet person posts. For those of you trying to be helpful, thanks. To those of you who came here to say “you made a mistake, you shouldn’t get any help lololol” please remember this the next time you try to return something to the store.

I see a lot of debate here bout what people expect from support. and though I never played it, I suspect most are former blizzard-customers

Speaking as a longtime Blizzard customer, I much prefer ArenaNet’s support. I once had a Blizzard CS rep misspell my first name 3 different ways in the same email. My name is Jennifer.

@bluestocking…I had to smile when I read your post. =)

And i can’t talk about experience… Never had a problem so far in this game.
So for me the support is great :P

Pyrok.1806:

K.

b: within the Arenanet businessmodel they only want you happy as long as it is proffitable. Where is the profit in giving you a refund?? what do they gain?

This is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. There is NO business in the entire world, that remains profitable with a strategy encompassed by “we only help our customers when it’s profitable for us”. Secondly, what they gain is a customer who will continue to spend money on their game, instead of one who won’t spend another dime. All for 5 minutes of some GM’s time. Btw, the game is Buy to play, not free to play. The difference is astronomical.

But I digress. Yes, I made a mistake and didn’t play close enough attention. I asked for help and haven’t yet received it. Is not helping me worth losing a paying customer over? We’ll see soon, I’d imagine. I’m not going to lose sleep over 10$, but the outcome will determine how many more 10$’s of mine go to Anet.

But being an kitten on the internet is fun, for whatever reason. So I won’t be responding to this anymore, unless an Anet person posts. For those of you trying to be helpful, thanks. To those of you who came here to say “you made a mistake, you shouldn’t get any help lololol” please remember this the next time you try to return something to the store.

We have all been through issues and gone through support and have received similar messages of not being able to help. I personally have lost tokens and achievements because of mistakes Anet has made (mini server roll backs, server wide d/c issue) and support has said the same thing, we can’t do anything about it. At least with YOUR problem, you had control over it and you were careless. Others like us just learn to live and move on. Sure, anet should have a GM system which they should use to compensate users who have lost items due to their mistakes but they don’t. But your issue here is clearly because of your carelessness and if you went to support and they said no, you shouldn’t blame the bad customer support because they didn’t fix your mess.

This is exactly why I don’t play guild wars when I’m drunk.

I always treat transactions as serious business. I also never assume and don’t rely on 2nd hand information.

Consider yourself lucky. I cant even play the game while waiting for customer support and i was hacked which wasnt even my fault considering i havent touched any emails or given any information out. Probably be another week before they get around to rolling my account back