This is a Request for Compensation Prior to a Formal Dispute

Bug Report
1

I have exhausted all my tickets on this issue with customer service, although I will attempt one last time to dispute through them in light of me finding a thread on this forum where a bug with the same symptoms I experienced is detailed. That said, I have previously asked to be refunded on this forum, at the direction of a GM, however another GM later stated I wasn’t told that, and instead I need to ask for compensation, even though the previous GM clearly stated “refund”. So this is a formal request for compensation for a purchased duel run freezing on my opponents turn, where I could still move the mouse and access the game menu, but nothing was happening, and the failure of the system to reconnect me to the match when relaunching hearthstone, resulting in an automatic loss.

As I paid $1.99 + tax for that run, of up to 3 losses, I would accept compensation of equal value to 1/3 of the price I paid. Should such compensation not materialize I will proceed with my pending chargeback and submit a formal dispute with Blizzard’s legal counsel.

I have been told multiple times by GM’s that every post on this forum is read, and this is where this type of issue is handled, so I am sure you will be able to quickly identify the issue, and resolve it. Thank you for your time.

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Just note, a chargeback will lock your account until the dispute is resolved.

Disconnections aren’t actionable, as Blizzard can’t control them.

And finally; this is the bug report forum. For technical issues, visit the Technical Support forum, or to speak with Customer Support, click the Support link found top right of the page.
No-one here can help you.

4 Likes
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How is it you have over 1000 posts, and so little reading comprehension?

I said the game froze, not that it was disconnected. It is Blizzard’s customer service position that because they are not provided the tools to do so, they can not verify that it is a problem with the game, so therefore it is not Blizzard’s fault, and must be a disconnect or a problem with my hardware, not their game.

I think I said at least twice in the post you responded to that this forum is where a customer service GM has directed me to receive compensation and/or a refund. I am quite well aware how absurd that sounds, but those aren’t my words, that is literally what I was told by customer service, in fact here is the GM quote.

"The only person that may be able to issue compensation would be the Devs, which was why this issue should be brought to the bug report forum for more attention.

The Devs/QAs will investigate, and provide recovery should they see fit after the review is completed.

GMs will not be providing refunds for this case. If you wish to reach those that may do so, forum post is the go-to place."

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No need to be rude. And speaking of reading, you should do a little yourself and check out the stickied threads of popular issues -

There most definitely was some sort of connection issue.

1 Like
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And it is not rude to respond to a post without having all the facts, and make assumptions that directly conflict to what one is responding to?

Alright I will play along. First of all. Blizzard is not automatically exempt from liability because of disconnects. They are only exempt if the disconnect occurs outside of their control. For example, if the server drops the connection, they are still liable because it is their server, and it is reasonable to assume they would ensure the performance of their own hardware.

Secondly, it is not clear if it was a disconnect or not. It is entirely possible it was, but because there was no reconnect attempt by the system at all, even though I relaunched within 45 seconds or so from the moment the freeze appeared to occur, it is likely any disconnect would be a symptom of a underlying problem. For example the host crashing, resulting in client side disconnect, which could possibly exhibit the symptoms I did, and leave no game to reconnect to. It is still a disconnect, but it is triggered from the game crashing on the server.

Also, every freeze is not a disconnect. For example, I played a game where the other player tried to play a card as their turn timer ran out, and the card ended up frozen face down over the play area, for my entire turn, but I was able to play my turn normally, and when the other player’s turn started the card returned to his hand. This is likely caused by the way commands are processed and server/client delay. Basically the command to play the card occurred within a fraction of a second of the turn ending, so it started the animation, but then the server decided there was not time to play the card, so it never played and the animation was halted, but because it already had started the animation on my client, it remained frozen there until the start of the other player’s turn when the game likely realized there was a conflict when getting a fresh status update from the other player’s client when drawing a card.

Not to mention in this specific instance, other players have reported the same symptoms I had when a certain interaction occurred. I can’t honestly recall that was the interaction that occurred in my case, but it is likely that given the same thing happened to me it was also caused by the same card interaction, or another card interacting in the same way. Even if it was a disconnect, if it is occurring because of a card interaction, Blizzard is still liable. One could say they are particularly liable as it is literally a forced disconnect because of a game bug.

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you are clearly mixing up the answer you got and making your own comprehension of it. as you have been told: this is a bug report forum. QA staff reads the posts and forwards info about potential bugs to the devs. The devs cant help you with your demanded refund, its not their area, its the customer services area to handle that and from what you are saying it sounds like they have already made a decision and denied your refund multiple times.

(its like yelling at your mailman and demand that he pays you compensation because the postal service lost your letter and you want compensation for the stamp)

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I literally quoted what I was told, when I specifically asked who could refund me. You tell me how else this is supposed to be interpreted.

"The only person that may be able to issue compensation would be the Devs, which was why this issue should be brought to the bug report forum for more attention.

The Devs/QAs will investigate, and provide recovery should they see fit after the review is completed.

GMs will not be providing refunds for this case. If you wish to reach those that may do so, forum post is the go-to place"

As I stated, customer service told me they could not credit for this type of issue because they don’t have access to information or tools that indicate the problem was on their end. When questioning them about it more, they told me that they have no way to tell if the game had an issue or I disconnected, and because of that they could not refund. They then implied this was the proper channel to request compensation, and later, as quoted specifically stated such. Here are some quotes, that actually relevant and not some of the weird responses I received:

“First of all, we are unable to verify a disconnection was caused by game crashing itself or you simply disconnected. In addition, a game crashing can be caused by various reasons (including hardware and software problems on your end) . The connection requirement of using a web browser is very different from playing a game. Our will only consider compensation if there is a large-scale disconnection or confirmed game client bug.”

“As for the tavern ticket, since that you have been able to access the game but was frozen in the middle. From our perspectives, it was related to the connection issue and the ticket was used for what is paid for.”

“As that said, I cannot help to refund or grant any reward for you since we cannot verify the original reason why your game was froze, if it is from our end, we should have informed as early as possible to our players. Nevertheless, I don’t actually find out any post for it.”

“But as we have previously stated, it all boils down to not being able to verify the original reason why your game froze or disconnected. Therefore we can’t really give you a refund or help we any way”

These are all different customer service GM’s all saying they can’t verify whether it was a disconnect or not, therefore they will not refund.

As to the idea that this is the wrong spot to take this issue, of course it is, but as you can see from the again directly quoted GM response, this is where I was told to go. I am not really sure what other interpretation there is, but, again, if you have one, please share it.

No, it is like an insured package being delivered to the wrong location, going to the post office and being told they can’t verify if the package was lost by them or not so presumably I had the wrong address on the package and the only people that can compensate me or refund me for the problem is the mailman.

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“As I paid $1.99 + tax for that run, of up to 3 losses, I would accept compensation of equal value to 1/3 of the price I paid.”

I know it’s 4 months later, but just curious: Did you get your roughly 0.66 ¢ents + tax back or no?

-Valas

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Yes and no. Blizzard refused to refund me even after I found other people were experiencing the same issue and linked the post from the bug report forum.

The chargeback processed through right away on my end, and I was refunded, but apparently Blizzard had 30 days to respond to it before paypal took the money from them, but choose not to. They automatically locked my account when that occurred and so I contacted them to remove the lock as the chargeback was valid since they failed to deliver the product as described. They refused to remove the account lock so I asked who I needed to contact regarding a legal dispute, and was directed to a page that had a slightly different address then I had found previously when reading through their TOS documents, so asked them to verify that it was the correct address, as well as to verify the linked instructions for the procedure were correct. At that point a supervisor stepped in once again and reversed the account lock warning me if I ever had another chargeback my account would be permanently locked.

Luckily that will never happen because I will never buy another Blizzard product. I don’t give money to companies that deliver a terrible customer experience, and I certainly won’t spend money on a product that is not guaranteed, in violation of the companies own TOS saying it is.

I think Blizzard fanboys will deride this as me making a big deal over less than $1, but the reverse is also true. Blizzard refused to credit less than $1 on an account with a decade + of purchase history and the only prior refund request being for WC3 Reforged. Think about that. Blizzard refused a 66 cent credit out of hand because they didn’t have the tools to determine if the problem was on their end or not, and then stood by that decision even after I linked them the post of other people reporting the same issue.

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I agree that the quality of customer service Blizzard provides has declined considerably over the years. Sorry for your troubles and best to you!

-Valas