Still not received Rebate after AoD purchase

[extremaleee]

<p>Hi, I topped up my station cash & purchased AoD expansion from character screen on saturday.</p><p>I never received a rebate from this which I was expecting.</p><p>Petition in game hasnt worked for ages, how do I get the rebate?</p><p>Thanks</p>

[lostsandman]

<p>I don't think they were giving rebate on any of the expansions so you are not going to get anything back. The expansion wasn't marked with the rebate icon in game when I checked.</p><p>I also noticed that they were not giving rebate on any "useful" items <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[extremaleee]

<p>Hi, expansion was marked with Rebate thats only reason I bought it <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I logged in to character select went to Shop Now & bought it, have heard others in game saying exact same thing & still no rebabate.</p>

[lostsandman]

<p><p ><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Consolas; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">That's odd then. When I looked at it wasn't marked but other items were. When I purchased those items that were marked, I got instant rebate.</span></p></p>

[extremaleee]

<p>Maybe for some reason it wasnt marked in game as rebate but was at character select? I'm not sure on that I just know it was on Character select. There are screenshots floating about too  with it clearly marked. Scam or mistake lol?</p>

[extremaleee]

<p>Ahh just found someone else has posted the same thing previously. </p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=515087">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=515087</a></p>

[lostsandman]

<p><p>Ah that explains lot then. I didn't purchase anything on the first day since I heard there were bugs etc. I got stuff on the second day.</p><p>If they did not answer to your ticket, try to get hold of someone on live chat from the support web site. They are sometimes helpful.</p></p>

[smogfire]

<p>To the OP. Your options appear to be to open a petition, get a refund and give back the expansion or accept paying full price for it.</p><p>It doesn't appear that enough customers made this "mistake" to motivate SOE to honor the marked rebate.</p><p>Since we had to buy the SC, they already have our money.</p><p>Sad but I think it will become common in a world of virtual goods where a seller can change his mind if his expectations are not met.</p><p>Reminds me of dealing with Ebay newbs selling things for $.01 and then realizing they will lose money on shipping it.</p><p>Except this time it was not a newb,  but what I imagine will become a savvy virtual goods marketing machine.</p><p>They do need to pay for the recent office improvements in Freeport <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p>

[TJackal]

<p><cite>Slyt@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>To the OP. Your options appear to be to open a petition, get a refund and give back the expansion or accept paying full price for it.</p><p>It doesn't appear that enough customers made this "mistake" to motivate SOE to honor the marked rebate.</p><p>Since we had to buy the SC, they already have our money.</p><p>Sad but I think it will become common in a world of virtual goods where a seller can change his mind if his expectations are not met.</p><p>Reminds me of dealing with Ebay newbs selling things for $.01 and then realizing they will lose money on shipping it.</p><p>Except this time it was not a newb,  but what I imagine will become a savvy virtual goods marketing machine.</p><p>They do need to pay for the recent office improvements in Freeport <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>I didn't purchase the expansion with the rebate, but SOE MUST honor the rebate for anyone who purchased the expansion marked REBATE.  If SOE advertises something then they must honor that advertised price.  SOE specifically advertised the expansion with a REBATE marker on it.  SOE also specifically stated that anything marked as REBATE would receive at least a 50% rebate when an item is purchased.  Whether SOE mistakenly marked something as rebate or not is their problem, because they must honor it.  SOE cannot simply decide that they didn't mean to mark something as a rebate and charge a full price after the fact.  Additionally, SOE cannot refund money and remove the item (in this case the expansion) without the permission of the buyer - this would be stealing.  The buyer and the seller entered a contract at an advertised price for a specific item, and both parties must honor that contract.  SOE can certainly negotiate with the buyer, however both parties would have to agree on a new deal. </p><p>Fact of the matter is that SOE is gonna have to bite the bullet on anything they sold at the advertised price.  This would include the N/C Ebony furniture.  You can't sell something to someone for $1, then decide to charge them $20 later 'cause you decide that's how much you really wanted.  If that were the case then what would prevent any company from selling an item for $1, then simply charging you $100 more after you already bought the item and simply saying, "Oh, we messed up and decided the toothbrush you bought should have been sold for $100."</p>

[smogfire]

<p>When I was younger I also believed such things.</p><p>Experience has taught me otherwise.</p><p>The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that enforces advertising laws and regulations. According to their Mail, Internet, and Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, businesses have the option to cancel an order and send a full refund, as long as they promptly notify the customer and send their full refund.</p>

[Sandyfoot]

<p><cite>Slyt@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p> <blockquote><p>When I was younger I also believed such things.</p> <p>Experience has taught me otherwise.</p> <p>The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that enforces advertising laws and regulations. According to their Mail, Internet, and Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, businesses have the option to cancel an order and send a full refund, as long as they promptly notify the customer and send their full refund.</p></blockquote> <p> Is this before or after delivery of goods? If goods are delivered how can it be canceled? Do mail, internet and telephone merchandisers have the right to demand additional charges with threat of reposession <strong><em>after</em> </strong> delivery because a marketing error was made?</p> <p>When a product has already reached it's destination it cannot be canceled.</p> <p>I would think SOE would do the <strong><em>right thing</em> </strong> by honoring the rebates on <strong><em>goods delivered</em> </strong> and then do what is necessary to prevent this type of error from happening again.</p> <p>These types of marketing  "errors" can cause customers to loose confidence in the SC virtual marketplace and result in loss of revenue. </p>

[ronalmb]

<p>Hello,</p><p>TSR Matt has been gracious enough to answer my post to the best of his ability on this topic <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=515089" target="_blank">here</a></p><p>While I agree that they <em>should </em>honor the rebate (and I think it is short sighted of them not to), they have opted to refund not just the station cash but the actual money for the station cash IF it is clear that the money spent went directly towards the erroneously flagged rebate.</p><p>I'm not clear why giving all of the money back is better than just a portion of it. If it were a manufactured good with an actual monetary loss for honoring the rebate, I'd understand it a bit more. But given that within the next 6 months I'd expect to see a double or triple sony cash day anyways, I have a hard time fathoming this decision.</p><p>Definately contact customer support and insist upon an actual refund. After requesting to speak to management, the CS rep i interacted with informed me that I would be able to get my cash back. I haven't yet (the conversation occurred 24 hours ago) - but I imagine they have a lot of people to sort through so I'm sure it will come.</p><p>Good luck.</p>

[Onorem]

<p><cite>ronalmb wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>... they have opted to refund not just the station cash but the actual money for the station cash IF it is clear that the money spent went directly towards the erroneously flagged rebate...</blockquote><p>I am amazed and impressed. I would have bet quite a bit against them refunding actual cash instead of just 'store credit' over the mixup. Still a sad promotion both in theory and execution, but at least they are willing to go the distance to refund appropriately.</p>

[ronalmb]

<p>Well, keep in mind, this is as told to me by TSR Brandi M, after my insisting on speaking to a person in managerial position about 28 hours ago now. At this time, no refund has manifested, nor has the item been removed from my account. For now I am choosing to view the delay with optimism and assume they have a LOT of requests to sort through. Time will prove me right ... or wrong.</p><p>I do think that issues such as this get better attention and quicker replys from the Technical support forum then the general forums and would encourage folks to chime in there about the issue. I'll happily take PMs from free account holders with the same rebate problem (they can't post) but want their voices heard.</p>

[smogfire]

<p>I have a silver account (free?) and can post (perhaps because I have been a player since first year of EQ2).</p><p>Here is the response I got:</p><p>Thank you for contacting Sony Online Entertainment. During the rebate promotion, so items were labeled as part of the rebate that should not have been. Expansions were mislabeled. There are 2 options that we can go with. The first would be to remove the expansions from the account and refund the station cash. The second option would be to leave the expansions on the account and not refund the purchases. Let me know which option you would like.</p><p>I will be requesting a refund and will see what follows.</p>

[TJackal]

<p>I sent a simple email stating that I was erroneously charged for the N/C Ebony furniture.  Yesterday I received confirmation that they would be refunding my money, and I will be keeping the goods.  Keep in mind that I didn't go nuts buying a ton of free furniture - IU just purchased one of each (and wouldn't have known I was charged if I didn't see the worldwide message later in the afternoon saying I would be!)  Anyhow, kudos to SOE for doing the right thing.  It's not easy taking a financial hit.  In my case it was only 900SC, but I'm sure there were people out there buying tons and tons of the N/C Ebony furniture.  So, I'm impressed that SOE did the right thing, and I didn't have to fight for it or anything - just a simple email did the job.</p>

[smogfire]

<p>I just received my rebates on both expansions and got to keep them.</p><p>Well done SOE CS</p>