Bought a timecard from my local Walmart, it’s a Canadian region card just in French, my account is Canadian but I get the Sorry, you’re not eligible to add World of Warcraft® Game Time to your account. error message when I try to add it to my account.
The french cards in Canada are usually imported from the EU region, by the retailer. Your account is in the US region. Technically you can have multiple regions in one bnet/blizzard account, but since wow subs are region specific, your card is indicating this. Sorry.
To be more specific, look on the back of the card, it will say which region it belongs to.
6 Likes
Thank you Kozzae. In extremely fine and hard to read print on the bottom of the card it does say for european servers.
I feel they could really stand to make that more clear. I assumed a card sold in Canada for Canadian funds would work on North American servers. I literally had to use my phone’s camera to magnify the text enough to read it.
I am sorry to hear that, Redhound. Most gaming products also have ratings boxes on them. Those may be a little easier to see.
For EU it’s PEGI
US it will say ESRB
I know that may not be helpful in this situation, but something to keep in mind given your location going forward.
2 Likes
For some reason, Walmart seems horrible with mmo products. My local one had a copy of CoH for sale years after the game went offline, and ignored me when I told them. Some poor kid likely got it as a present.
2 Likes
I think part of the confusion comes from the EU region cards sold in French areas of Canada also have the ESRB rating (vs. the PEGI one).
Looking back at a thread from last month where this same issue arose – those cards also showed ESRB – even though they said for EU region only.
Link: Gametime cards sold in Canadian mall for CAD$ cannot be used in Canada - #8 by Wog-aegwynn
Screenshot link from thread: https://imgur.com/a/wFFgOk0
4 Likes
The card has the rated T for teen ESRB rating on it, not the PEGI one. The instructions on the back say go to Blizzard.com/code to redeem it. There is literally nothing on the card except for “For use on European servers” written less than a millimeter tall in cream text on a light brown background on the front and an even harder to read french translation on the back in pale blue text on a dark blue background.
I know you have no control over this and can’t do anything about it but it really feels as if this is intentional to trick people since most stores won’t refund scratched off cards.
1 Like
Eeesh - I am so sorry. But yes, if there is French on it, that would indeed be EU, the US doesn’t support French as a language.
4 Likes
Lol, had the same thing happen at mine. Every time I’d walk by it i’d chuckle. I’ve seen more than a few defunct online PC games still for sale long after their servers shut down. Not an online game but up until a few months ago they still had a copy of the Aeon Flux movie tie in game for the original Xbox on the shelf with its full $49 price tag. The thing was more than 15 years old for a game system that hadn’t been sold on more than a decade and no one seemed to notice until they rearranged everything for the Series X games.
2 Likes
Isn’t that a question your should ask the store from which you bought the card?
To add context as to why you can’t get NA server cards in Quebec, as Quebec retailers are required by law to have french language on all items sold and the NA region cards are not available with french on them it limits what can be purchased to strictly the EU version.
More specifically the law states :
" Products and Packaging
Anything written on a product sold in Quebec, or on its package, or in documents included with the product (for example, instructions for using the product and warranties) must be in French. Translations in one or more other languages can be included with the French."
In Canada generally most stuff produced here just automatically has both French and English on it, as the cards are produced outside Canada the only ones where they have French on them (as it’s not supported in NA region) are EU therefore the only ones they can legally sell are the EU ones.
6 Likes
It’s always Quebec. ::shakes head::
The card did have english on it and the price that is actually printed on the card is in Canadian dollars. This is a card made specifically for Canada, not just a European card that was imported. Checking on other retailer’s websites they also state that the card can only be used on Canadian based accounts but for European servers.
It’s not the card specifically that is the restriction here, but the service. If Blizz wants to sell a physical card in Quebec that card has to be linked to a service that offers french. So they made a unique card specifically for Quebec that could only be used for European servers and then printed that fact on the card in both French and English in the smallest, most illegible text they could. And then sold it in Canada outside of Quebec. I’m in Ontario.
Blizzard didn’t sell the card outside of Quebec, the retailer did. Your beef is with the store that sold you the card.
12 Likes