Draconic scheming changes to buying game time!

Battle.net Shop Feedback
1

I am going to copy my recent contacts with Blizz over this issue as i don’t want to type everything out and miss anything again. In short the old way of buying game time for a month is gone, please read through and see what the “solutions” are…

NOT EVERYONE HAS 150K+ GOLD IN GAME…
NOT EVERYONE HAS A CREDIT CARD…
NOT EVERYONE HAS AN ACCOUNT WITH RETAIL INSTALLED TO BUY SAID TOKEN…

jason

13 hours ago

guys… this is getting ridiculous… so i sent him MORE money to buy a token… it says to do it in game… he goes to the character select screen and trys to buy the token… it says RESUBSCRIBE or pay with GOLD??? he’s a new player and doesnt have 152.000 gold… WHAT ABOUT THE MONEY I SENT HIM??? WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU GUYS TAKE AWAY THE 1 MONTH OPTION?? SERIOUSLY, how do we fix this… now you’ve had me give up money TWICE and we STILL cant get him in game??

SaiTorsi

11 hours ago

Greetings Jason, This is GM SaiTorsi to answer your summoning and I am happy to be your aid. (๑˃ᴗ˂) It seems that there are some missing contexts so I cannot get the whole issue in a very clear way. It is my understanding that you sent some gold to your friend for buying a WOW Token. I think the issue is that our system cannot count the gold in players’ mailbox so your friend have to take the gold out in order to purchase a WOW Token for game time. If your friend has a high-level character that cannot be entered without game time, we are able to offer a short-term access to that character so that he / she can take the gold out from the mails. We do not have a 30-day game time product anymore and the minimum unit of game time is 60 days now. This is not decided by Customer Support so to be honest I am unable to tell you the reason of that change. However, you can still purchase 30-day game time by a WOW Token (purchased by gold) and a 1-month subscription (you can cancel it right after the game time is successfully added) . I hope the above information can answer your concerns, but please feel free to contact us again if you have further questions. Thanks for contacting us and I hope you are doing well during the current crazy pandemic. Have a nice day! ٩(◕‿◕)۶ Best, GM SaiTorsi

This ticket has been marked as Answered.

11 hours ago

jason

4 hours ago

The issue is… I sent real money to him in Bnet balance, so he has 25$ in bnet, can’t buy 1 month gametime anymore… can’t buy a token with bnet balance???, Doesn’t have the gold to buy a token in game because he’s new… can’t do a subscription/cancel right away work around as he doesn’t have a credit card!! Quite ridiculous if you ask me. Please also pass this along to whatever powers be that handle customer satisfaction, this new system is terrible, IM TRYING TO HELP YOU GUYS GET A NEW PLAYER… whyever on earth would they make it so hard to gift 30 days?? I’ve been playing WoW since original release and was eagerly awaiting the upcoming TBC release, tbh if I can’t play with my friend now because of these changes to your system you’ll not only lose a new player… you’ll lose my subscription too.

Yaraheep

3 hours ago

Hey Jason, Game Master Yaraheep here. I just got the ticket here and it looks like there were still some concerns about your friend. I totally get the concern here and I was happy to take another look at it. After going over everything, it looks like there may be a couple of things going on here. I do see that you successfully sent them some Battle.net Balance (which is super cool of you to do!), but since the options have changed for standalone game time (1, 3, and 6-month options were removed and replaced with 2-months) it may not be enough. Keep in mind that there does need to be enough Balance to cover any taxes that may apply as well. Also, since the Balance was gifted, it can take some time to process and be delivered and usable. One other thing with Balance, is that it cannot be used to purchase a Subscription. This has always been the case because, by definition, Subscriptions are recurring. So, because the Balance is not a “reliable source of funds” (i.e. there is no way for the system to be sure that there will always be enough Balance there each month), it won’t be possible to use it for a Subscription. As for the Token, they should be able to purchase a Token with the Balance that they have, but that Token would be delivered in game and could only be sold on the Auction House for gold. They would not be able to redeem it for Game Time. For that, they would need to purchase a Token from the AH. And on that note, if you sent them some gold in the mail (which is also really awesome of you!), they can use that to purchase a Token either from the AH or from the Character Select screen if they are out of Game Time. However, that gold needs to be in their inventory. If it is still in the character’s mailbox, they will not be able to use or access it to purchase a Token. Hopefully that helps clear at least some of this up for you. I definitely get that this is all super complicated. If there is something any of this you’d like to see changed, we definitely want to hear that feedback. Keep in mind, though, that we GMs are not developers and cannot make changes to the game and how things work. The best way to do this is through the “Submit Suggestion” option from the in-game help menu. This will send your suggestion straight to the developers so they can consider it and work on adding it to the game. I would also recommend taking to the forums. If you can get a good discussion going about a change you’d like to see then they will take notice and get it added. I appreciate your patience with this and I’m glad that I could take a look and offer some additional information.

This ticket has been marked as Answered.

3 hours ago

jason

1 hour ago

The function to buy the token in the shop does not work… it says buy in game, I don’t have that much gold to send him as I don’t play retail.

jason

59 minutes ago

So let me get this straight… I can buy a token in the shop but can’t use it for gametime?? But I can buy a token in game for game time??? What if we can’t get in the game??? Or don’t have a credit card??? What kind of crazy scheme is this?? Ohh is Visa/MC transaction fee too much for your shareholders to manage out of the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS you make every year?

So in short for all that took the time to read through this far… i believe this is all about the almighty subscription, even if it’s cancelled right away it still counts when reporting to shareholders.
The only way this is going to change is to make it a discussion topic

1 Like
2

Yeah this is complete BS!!
Not only is a time of Covid and people cant afford as much as they use to , but making it only about subscription now …no way in, not even if a friend gifts you a balance. what if you dont have a credit card and my debit doesn’t work online.
I really hope they read this and re think their plan of greed

Cause of this i am unable to play …and if i cant play i cant get hooked …and if i dont get hooked they dont make money.
I will be sure to link to to reddit and plaster it all over mainstream game sites.
This needs to be heard and dealt with ASAP !

2 Likes
3

Correct.

The way WoW tokens work is as follows.

  • Real money = game token bound to your account that you SELL for gold. People use this option when they want to buy gold for their WoW account.
  • In game gold = 1 month game time OR $15 Bnet Balance. This is for people in game to use gold to buy game time. You need the gold to be in your inventory on one server to make this purchase, or have active game time.

You sent your friend Bnet balance (money). Your friend needs to apply that to the 2 month game time block in the store. Not to be mixed up with a subscription. They are different. If they don’t have enough to cover taxes and fees, a bit more may need to be added. As the GM said, it can take time for the gifted Bnet balance to transfer. Blizz waits until the CC/Paypal money actually gets there from the bank, not just when it is authorized.

You might have a point if they reported subscriptions anymore. They have not for years. They switched over to reporting player engagement as Monthly Active Users (MAUs) which means unique individuals playing X game during the month. That allows free games, or pay once games, to be compared to WoW for player activity.

Here is a chart to help explain the current game time methods and what currency/pay method they use. Please remember taxes and fees charged by various states or countries may increase the cost.

Description Cost (USD) CC PayPal Debit Bnet Bal WoW Token
:clock930: 1 Month Day reoccuring Subscription* $14.99 X X X
:clock11: 3 Month reoccuring Subscription* $41.97 X X X
:clock12: 6 Month Day reoccuring Subscription* $77.94 X X X
:flying_disc: WoW 30 day game time token (with gold) Gold
:credit_card: 60 day Game Time Card/Block $29.99 X X X X
:dollar: Battlenet Balance (your account)** Flex X X X X
:money_with_wings: Gifted Battlenet Balance Flex X X X

*If you don’t want your Subscription to automatically renew, wait for it to clear the payment (several days), then cancel the Sub on the account. You can do this every month if you like.
**Check the Bnet Balance article for Restrictions and use Blizzard Support - Battle.net Balance Restrictions

4

I am sorry Blasph3my, but that is incorrect (blasphemy even!).

Please see my post above that explains it. The game is not limited to re-occuring subscriptions.

5

So please explain how someone with out a credit card or debit card is able to play?
And why would they make it so battlenet currency cant buy subscription time ? its money and the same company ? do you not see flaws with this?

So i a brand new person and my friend sends me 30 dollars in battle net funds how do i play the game and get a subscription from that ?

Also i am unable to buy a wow token myself even with the 30 dollars bnet balance

6

A subscription is a automatically re-occuring payment. Bnet balance is a set amount of money so they don’t let you use it for an auto payment because you may run out of money there and the payment would fail.

That is why you can’t use Bnet balance to set up a Subscription - the auto payment part.

You CAN use it for the purchase of a single game time card/block. That is a one time payment. The current smallest option for that is 2 months as per the chart.

EDIT
Here is the link to the support article explaining how to buy the game time card (which is not a subscription).

7

It seems weird that they are limiting how a player can play…everything funnels back to the subscription … it doesnt make sense why they would have taken away the one month time purchase… its purely greed

8

29.99 United States Dollar equals

37.41 Canadian Dollar

Apr. 24, 6:49 p.m. UTC · Disclaimer

1.26 ‎Wed, 24 Mar

GST/HST calculator

Use this calculator to find out the amount of tax that applies to sales in Canada.
Province or territory

Amount
Amount entered is: Before taxes After taxes
GST (5%): $1.87
PST (0%): $0.00

Total after tax: $39.28

wheres the other $3+ billed coming from?

1 Like
9

Yeah i calculated it and Canadians are paying 43.99 for 60 days equivalent to 35.26 US and thats not including tax…
WOW really? SMH

10

No, it literally does not funnel back to the automatically re-occuring payment.

I am not Canadian so I honestly don’t know. Taxes on goods and services are required by law in some states, countries, and provinces. I wold check there first.

I also don’t think Blizz uses real time money conversions for Canadian purchases. I think they have a set Canadian price. At times that is a benefit, at times it is not. It just depends on the value of each currency on a given day.

Regardless, are you now aware of how much to send in Bnet Balance and is your friend aware of which game time option to use (the 2 month block/time card)?

Of course, if you don’t want to do that anymore, that is your right too. I just want to make sure you have all the info to make an informed decision.

11

The fact that you can only buy 60 days game time is the issue . You trying to skirt this is really a pathetic attempt at managing what people believe to be true .

You could buy 30 days in the shop with the blizzard balance now you can’t . That’s the person’s issue .

I personally used the 30 day quite a bit because if I decide not to play and my time lapsed it would not cost me the price of a 30.00 $ game to play again. you saying it’s not about Subs is complete misdirection . It definitely is because you don’t want people lapsing time and using the blizz balance to buy a single month the greed comes in because you have to buy 60 days for 30+ or spend real currency that you would prefer for 30 days .Just tell the truth and be done with it .we’re not ignorant children waiting for an allowance we work for the money we spend and it’s not always easy to let go of 15.00 $ let alone 30.00$ . SO stop making the guy look stupid and just agree because we all see it anyways .

2 Likes
12

so you’re options as a new player are either subscribe or pay for 2 whole months.
so basically its an attempt at maximizing the profits from people who don’t get hooked. when in reality it’s preventing the people who have less available money or no access to a credit card from being able to try the game out

2 Likes
13

blizzard really didn’t think this one through. if i was a new player and had never played the game there would be no way i could justify a two month subscription right off the hop like i know people who lose interest in games every week. this system really prevents a lot of sales

3 Likes
14

Exactly my point… some people cant afford 2 months but can afford one month. does that mean they shouldn’t be allowed to play and enjoy the game because they are tight on funds?

15

So changing the reporting structure over to MAUs i didn’t know (TY for correcting me!) …
But i do still have a point because now your most basic time block would count as x1 MAU for x2 months… which looks better than x1 month game time under the old scheme.