I hope you included this information in your report to the ACCC
Yup, the email chain was included in the complaint. Blizzard were kind enough to provide their legal address in the ticket when I informed them that I was unsatisfied and would be looking to exercise my consumer rights.
They seem to be offering canned responses these day…
My complaint after being told that all digital sales are final:
A complaint has been submitted to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission regarding the fact that the Shadowlands expansion was released on Oceanic servers without being fit for purpose. Oceanic servers have been unfit for sustained use since the BFA expansion and this is reflected not only in my personal experience, but also in the hundreds of unanswered complaints on the OCE General forums. Latency, authentication issues, disconnections, constant bugs, unacceptable wait times for service are just a few examples of why the game is essentially defective. Given the fact that at no stage since the release of Shadowlands has the game been free of major issue, I am within my rights under Australian Consumer Law to a refund since a fix is not forthcoming (as proven by the issue being ignored through the extent of BFA), and an exchange is pointless for digital goods on the same faulty infrastructure. This request has also been logged with the ACCC. The law stipulates: If a product or service you buy fails to meet a consumer guarantee, you have the right to ask for a repair, replacement or refund under the Australian Consumer Law. The remedy you’re entitled to will depend on whether the issue is major or minor. If you have a minor problem with a product or service, the business can choose to give you a free repair instead of a replacement or refund. When you have a major problem with a product, you have the right to ask for your choice of a replacement or refund. For a major problem with a service, you can choose to receive compensation for the drop in value below the price paid, or a refund.
There are existing precedents against Valve and Sony in Australia for digital
purchases.
I then went on to copy paste consumer rights info from the ACCC site.
The reply:
Greetings Apollo,
My name is Game Master Zynglebop and I have been taking a look at this for you.
Unfortunately Blizzard Customer Support is not in a position to answer this query, as we are not in a position to answer questions of a legal matter. I hope you will understand that we must ask you to contact our legal department, in order to avoid any possible misunderstandings. Please find the necessary address below:
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.,
16215 Alton Parkway,
Irvine, CA 92618,
Attn.: General Counsel.
Should you have any questions related to your account, technical issues, or in-game questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again. In the meantime I wish you a great weekend and looooads of fun in our games~♪♫
To which I replied:
This is a simple refund request where I cited they fact that in my country I am entitled to a refund. A complaint has been put forward to the appropriate governing body here in Australia. It is not reasonable to expect me, who lives in Australia, to write to your legal department in Irvine US when T1 (essentially Blizzard Service Desk) are capable of processing or forwarding refund requests.
It doesn’t provide enough value to put up with a sub increase one week before a new expansion and during a pandemic. Feels good that I didn’t pre-order Shadowlands and no longer have to put up with these scummy tactics. Won’t be returning ever.
It doesn’t provide enough value to put up with a sub increase one week before a new expansion and during a pandemic. Feels good that I didn’t pre-order Shadowlands and no longer have to put up with these scummy tactics. Won’t be returning ever.
The worst part is, for whatever reason a bunch of us didn’t get notified of the change by email until yesterday - well after the preorder cancellation window closed. I’m a casual player (2-3 hours a week) and don’t watch the blizzard website like a hawk. I think your ‘scummy tactics’ comment sums it up nicely.
yeah i only got notified yesterday too, It pisses me off after returning to the game after a year and the servers being still trashy which made me quit after 10 years of subscription. Maybe blizzard has been getting advice on how to make a game and sales advice from Bethesda Softworks
I managed to get a refund but that was because I did it BEFORE shadowlands came out (I could see the writing on the wall). So glad I did.
I hope this gets sorted. Even though I have nothing to refund I have put in a complaint to the ACCC as well (maybe I could get the remaining game time I have refunded)
When you do that can you bill us locally also instead of billing in AUD from France? My bank charges me a fee for an international transaction every month!
France is in the EU, so isn’t your only option to pay in Euros? Or are you on an EU server but you reside in Australia (in which case I think you’re out of luck and will have to pay AUD).
I have never seen this. For me it is always a $16.50 per month AUD Paypal transaction only.
This happened to me paying in AUD to an Australian account. I payed with paypal using my credit card which charged a foreign transaction fee despite me paying and liviing in Australia. I called and technically WOW is a foreign company.
Since then I changed to a different debit card and pay through paypal the same way and it is fine.
didnt ask mate
I am disappointed, to say the least.
Given you have a cash shop as well as a subscription model is cheeky at best, but I can look past that (even though it is technically Pay to Win with char boosts and gold).
Increasing by 33% to $20 monthly is, as many here have put it, scummy.
The content we are playing now is the expansion we have paid for ranging from $60 - $130. There is nothing else that has been added in or offered specifically for Oce players to warrant such a price hike.
Essentially Blizzard has alienated its Australian market. Perhaps not immediately, but eventually after June 2021 people who missed the memo will catch on they got hit with the $4 dollar increase.
AU was paying $11USD a month, now you pay $14.56 USD a month like the US and EU. Timing is terrible, but it seems a likely justification as it does bring the pricing inline with the other two regions.
Cool. I can’t wait for out cost of living to be brought inline with EU and US. Also our health care. Would be really understandable if our health care model was the same as the US. People would totally get it. Maybe our tax system should be too. It would be cool if the cost of a BMW was the same here as it was in Germany. I think it’s great that after 15 years it has suddenly become important that we pay the same as the US. Blizzard are struggling after all. Little Bobby needs a new yacht.
How the Hell can you jusitify a price hike after all these years?
We’re already given you BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars.
The game isn’t even really worth the 16.50 a month! I mean come on, you can’t even give us Servers that bloody work! You should start to Pay US for playing your game.
lol its hardly worth the sub price as it is…
No support
Servers are rubbish
Pandemic everyone’s short
yeah nah lets put prices up 200$+ a year to play
wake up to yourself blzzard
Hey blizz just did the same things to the Canadians in the general forums, as much as I feel for them cause we’re in the same boat now I’m pretty sure there was a Canadian in here laughing at us so… hehe backfire!
Except, their sub cost hasn’t gone up, its just the conversion between in game gold and sub-token.
Feels good.
Already had one complete tossbag try and do a “BUT THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW”.
This is justice. Feel it.
It’s an injustice to all that they didn’t wait until well after Covid inoculations were distributed and some sense of new-normal appears in the workforce. I’ve said before that the price hikes (subs, token conversions, etc.) are justified, but the timing is terrible. Neither was the timing critical since ActivisionBlizzard is having a banner year on earnings–they could have waited.