It has been almost 2 weeks that blizzard added 4 new currencies to the Battle net store and I and others made numerous post complaining about the new prices, all of which were completely ignored.
So i just want to sum up everything into one post and try my best to get it out the the community for some attention hoping someone gives us a reason to why the priced look like someone bashed their head on a number pad.
Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Turkey got their currencies added to the Battle net store with extrema down sides. Keep in mind that this are developing countries(Turkey is debatable for some) and we have to pay the same for a WoW subscription then developed countries. When u look at the price in the store it is the same or a 10% less but it does not say that we have to pay for Double conversion and end up paying more then we should. For example 1month says 299 UAH but the blizzard is trying to charges 321.93 UAH from the bank. In GEL it goes from 34.99GEL to 37.54GEL. if this has a % increase then i don’t even want to know what 241GEL game will cost me, oh yeah and did i mention that this 241GEL game is 145GEL if I’m not signed into battle net, other games have a similar price change if signed in.
Now that this payment randomness is out of the way lets talk about how random and overpriced everything is. I went from paying around 20Gel per month to ~30(depending on RUB price) now to 35, that’s a 75% increase which is outrages. Games in general being expensive for us was never a new thing for us in Georgia, because not even a hand full of online stores support Lari. But Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Turkey didn’t have an easy time even thou other stores give them lower prices. Just going to mention some prices differences Starting with Turkey getting any were from -35% to 86%. Ukraine 10-50% and Kazakhstan 10-55%. Other subscription based games gives them no less then a 47% lower price including that one MMO that’s doing great right now(u know which one I’m talking about). and here’s blizzard giving us a 0-10% lower price + Double conversion problem. Just to point out how much 35Lari a month is that’s almost how much a gas bill for 2people is each month, its also more then my water bill in a house of 4 and a full game costs more then rent. average salary in Georgia is only 1200Lari (400USD/384EUR). This prices makes it impossible to get new player into the game and a lot of existing players have to stop because of this price change.
I hope Blizzard at least addresses this, finger crossed for a change. If other Game developers and publishers think that they can give us a 30% lower priced including the ones that are know to be extremely greedy gives lower prices, what does that make Blizzard then?
12 Likes
Fully agree.I am from Kazakhstan and a price changed from 3400 to 4900kzt.With an avg month payment which is ~200$.Its unaffordable for most here.
5 Likes
I think Activision Blizzard just don’t care. Like “you guys can pay for game unlike Russia what else you want?” Our CIS community is too small. We are not China region to make any difference. Hell just check their prices for CoD games in Kazakhstan. Even oldones in Steam.
Agree. Why price in Armenia is Gel and why call of duty mw 2019 is now so expensive.
Please fix.
Agree. I from Ukraine. And the problem of double conversion is on the side of the Battle.net store, not on the side of the bank. My bank did not let me make a purchase because it was double converted. And I had to enable double conversion on the card in order to renew my WOW subscription, and I paid 64 UAH more than it should be, which is equivalent to 2 USD.
Below I send answers from my banks. Answers in Ukrainian. I will translate the answers verbatim into Russian:
“The amount indicated on the site is UAH 839.0.
The amount that would be debited from your card is UAH 919.23.
The difference of UAH 80.23 arises from the double conversion between the rate of the bank servicing the store and the rate of the payment system.”
2 Likes
Good afternoon everyone.
Same agree with author! I’m Ukrainian.
I can say that - this is a big fundamental (and not only) problem, an attempt to write off a larger amount from the card than indicated in the Blizzard store. It’s not even about the price increase. The price must correspond to that indicated in the store and without any “double conversions”, which actually exist and this is a fact. I think many will stop buying a subscription precisely because of the double conversion, since the money just goes into the unknown. The amount (which, by the way, changes) given for the “double conversion” at the moment is 22.93 UAH. And this is almost 1/10 of the amount, and this is almost 1 USD!
It’s a pity that Blizzard Support doesn’t know about the “double conversion” and claims me and (possibly) other players who (possibly) contacted support about our problems with the bank (Fees, hidden fees, currency exchange, etc.) Personally, I am very familiar with the bank and I know that there is no double conversion, no commission, and other hidden fees (especially if 4 different banks inform me about withdrawing the amount more than indicated.)
I hope this issue will be heard and will be resolved soon! Thank you for your attention!
2 Likes
Hi 2023! We are here with the same issues. My currency is changed to Gel for no reason. Supports says what the problem is on their side. they confirmed I did not changed my currency ever and been registered as Armenian account. But he told he can not do anything about that as he is just a support and sugested to write a post to " reach authorized person ". And this problem not only for Armenians I’ve seen similar posts of people from Moldova, Cambodia and more as we can se in initial/first post. As I see your post is from May of 22 so seems noone interested in problems of these countries.
My specific problem is - I’ve tried to prepurchase Diablo 4 but there is a same Gel price. Till now Im waiting for anything towards solving this but as I see this is actuall for a months so I believe I will not get this issue fixed even after D4 release.
Asking 1199 TRY for a game while avg income is 8500 TRY… Blizzard should not forget gamers from regions of economical crisis, but no one replies to such posts.