Refund Accidently Purchased Commendation Gear

[Blotter]

Very true but I'm all for an easy fix to a silly problem that doesn't really impact any other player.

 

 

I have a simple question, why would you care if someone did that? I wouldn't, that wouldn't impact me in the least.

 

 

I personally wouldn't think of that extreme example as an exploit. We do disagree, I wouldn't use the mechanic as such but I wouldn't care if someone else did. It simply wouldn't impact my enjoyment of the game at ALL if someone wanted to number crunch with their personal combat log, once it gets introduced, by doing that. I don't see how that's easy mode, and I won't pretend to know what the developers felt about that. In my mind they recieved a lot of flack and critcism for being a WoW clone, maybe they didn't put in a commendation buy back option to avoid being critisized some more?

 

It has nothing to do with "how it would effect me personally" or whatever. It has only to do with the purpose and intent of having commendation rewards as BW defines them. What you are essentially saying is that BW should just get rid of commendation rewards and let you buy the items with money because there would be absolutely ZERO opint in having commendatiosn versus using credits if commendation rewards were all exchangeable infinitely as you're suggesting they should be. The developers clearly decided they wanted commendation rewards to be special and unique and give them more meaning by making them less fungible than gear obtained simply by shelling out cash. Otherwise, there's no opint to having the commendations in the first place and the commendations were designed to be an added bonus, an extra carrot, add some flavor to the game and leveling process, etc.

 

Besides, waiting a couple days for the exchange to take place after opening a ticket is no big deal.

[amantheil]

Let me again state that I do believe it is the OP's own fault. I'm not saying "awe unfair! Help the OP!".

 

I'm saying, the fix exists in the form of a ticket. BW WILL refund your commendations already.

 

Why not take it one step further (since we're already halfway down that path) and just make it an automated buy back system, JUST LIKE EXISTS FOR CREDITS ON ITEMS YOU PURCHASE (hell even have a penalty, so if you buy it for 4 you only get half back or something stupid). I just don't think CS Tickets should be tied up dealing with this kind of thing.

 

 

I agree. Yes, the OP messed up. Twice, and it's his fault. That doesn't mean you can't have some way of selling back the item to the vendor within a timeframe of 15-30 minutes or whatever. I know other MMOs do so (I'm thinking of WoW).

 

Good customer service is about making sure customers are happy, within reasonable limits, even if the customer messed up.

 

Let me put it this way. Suppose you walk into a store and you purchase a XL sized T-shirt instead of L. Or you grabbed the pants that had a 30 inch waist instead of a 32 instead waist by mistake. If you noticed, returned to the store with your receipts and the clothes still in good condition (not dirty, torn, etc). the store would refund your money or give you the correct item without question. They wouldn't say "Sorry noob, you should have looked at the item on the rack and when you were at the cash register" It doesn't even need to be the wrong size - you may just decide you want a different color. Any decent retail store (or online store) would process the return/exchange without batting an eye.

 

In the 'real world' that is just basic customer service anyone one of us would expect. Yet when people extend the same idea to an in-game transaction, everyone here thinks it's the end of the world and catering to horrible people.

Edited March 8, 2012 by amantheil

[Ozzone]

Hey,

 

I have now twice managed to buy things with my Columi Commendations which I didnt need, Now I want to know why cant we get that refunded back for 30 mins after purchase as commendations rather than the paltry 10-11k credits you get back. I believe this is a minor thing they could fix very quickly and dont understand why it was not in the game already. Has anyone else had this problem and would you like a fix like ive suggested??

 

So let me get this straight, you did it TWICE?

 

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Arkangelxj]

i totally agree , games like this shouldnt be so cheap , if you accidentally buy a wrong stated item , whether from lag a glitchy mouse or internet connection , or just your own oversite , or WHATEVER , you should be able to return it & get the right desired item , its friggin PIXELS , it doesnt cost the game ANYTHING to make , they should take one of warcrafts better ideas into consideration

[Vincynt]

It has nothing to do with "how it would effect me personally" or whatever. It has only to do with the purpose and intent of having commendation rewards as BW defines them.

If it has nothing to do with how it would effect you I don't get why you care one way or the other. How do you know the purpose and intent of having commendation rewards as BW defines them? BW clearly thinks it's not a big deal or else they wouldn't manually refund you your commendations via a ticket. Clearly other business see the benefit of offering self serve options to decrease their overhead costs to offer products cheaper and be more efficent with their own time. Pay at the Pump Self Serve gas stations come to mind, as does the new trend of self serve express checkouts at grocery stores and other retailers. Hell the PIN less no swipe IR Debit Cards come to mind!

 

What you are essentially saying is that BW should just get rid of commendation rewards and let you buy the items with money because there would be absolutely ZERO opint in having commendatiosn versus using credits if commendation rewards were all exchangeable infinitely as you're suggesting they should be.

Absolutely not, you're so far off the mark it's ridiclious. I like commendations because it forces you to PvP to get PvP gear, to do specific levels of Operations to get specific PvE gear, etc. It rewards you with the item type that fits your play style. It also forces you to invest more time into the game (thereby upping BW's profit dollars from subscriptions) if you want to do multiple things like PvP and PvE. I'm also not suggesting you can "infinitely" exchange commendation gear. I'm sure they could use a tracking database and prevent you from being able to exchange the same pieces again and again. And I'm also in favour of it having a time limit of say 12 to 24hrs. Once the pieces has been in your inventory longer then that, too bad.

 

The developers clearly decided they wanted commendation rewards to be special and unique and give them more meaning by making them less fungible than gear obtained simply by shelling out cash.

And that's why there are vendors on the planets that sell gear that's almost exactly the same quality for cash... Ok there...

 

Otherwise, there's no opint to having the commendations in the first place and the commendations were designed to be an added bonus, an extra carrot, add some flavor to the game and leveling process, etc.

Finally you're getting what they really are! A time sink on BWs part, especially the end game ones. Want to have BIS PvP gear? Earn commendations. Want to also have BIS PvE gear? Guess what, go grind more commendations... Again I DON'T think they should remove this, nor do I think you should be able to trade one for the other, NOR do I think you should be able to "get a refund" indefinately or infinately. I just think if you bought something and were unhappy with it or made a mistake you should be able to return it...

 

Besides, waiting a couple days for the exchange to take place after opening a ticket is no big deal.

It's really not a big deal. But if BW is going to do it anyway why not make it automatic to save them from dealing with people like the OP in the first place? Why not focus on more important things like helping people who's quests are broken?

[Nostramas]

People make mistakes. I agree an easier method should be more easily available.

 

Getting the people to agree with you that would rather see you suffer is an exercise in insanity.

[Slither]

I think the ability to return commendation items after purchase would be a benefit to everyone. Mainly to reduce support requests to have them returned. There by increasing response times to more important issues (if even slightly). However, I think once you equip the item, you have now past the point of no return.

 

To swing the other way, it could be argued to remove the "item return" option from the support system altogether.

 

I think returning the item before you equip it would have more benefits for players and support people than to just eliminate any option to correct the players mistake.

 

The reality is; if only 0.005% of the 2 million players made this mistake in a day and every one contacted support about it. That would result in 100 support tickets that could of been avoided. Support people are happier, players are happier, everyone wins.

[Elkirus]

If only an MMO at some point in history had instituted a short grace period one purchases that were made with tokens. you know, just in case a brief freeze or lag spike landed the wrong thing in your bag.

 

If only...

 

Oh well it's nice to dream.

 

LOL ^ This is something i dont understand... if someone invents the wheel and it works why do you keep using squares?

[Slither]

LOL ^ This is something i dont understand... if someone invents the wheel and it works why do you keep using squares?

 

I think he was making a sarcastic reference to a similar system in WoW.

[Kerelic]

I agree with the guy saying that they should be exchangeable on a timer. But for god sake, make the timer like 15 minutes or something. With 12-24 hours, someone could buy a ton of healing items, use them for an op, respec and then go back and rebuy a full set of gear for the new spec in 12-24 hours.

 

The problem is people accidentally buying gear they didn't mean to buy, or making a mistake in picking out gear for their spec? Then give them a grace period, but don't give them an abuse-able opportunity to play a spec for a day for raids and then respec to something different and still have a full set of spec-useful gear with no work involved.

 

To everyone who's raging at the people who make these mistakes: **** happens, deal with it. You can't say you've never made mistakes. Yes, people are stupid and yes people make stupid mistakes, but there's nothing you can do about it.

[Slither]

I think once you equip the item, you have now past the point of no return.

 

The above with x hours/minutes to return even if you don't equip it.

[Neotrail]

I would like to have the option to have a refund for wrongly bought gear for say about 30min after purchase.

I have bought wrong gear some times esp. when I just changed to play on a different char with different heavy, medium armour etc. and end up bought gear for the previous char instead.

[bewareofcrazies]

I'm sure they have a nice backlog of tickets dealing with other issues as well....or people just opening tickets to rant at them for some reason they're angry about.

 

The problem with what you suggest though, is that people could buy something, try it out, bring it back, get their commendations back and then buy something else for commendations, which generally isn't the intent with things that are earned rewards as opposed to something you simply buy at a vendor with whatever monetary system is in the game. People could buy a head piece and then return it if something better drops, get a different commnedation reward with the returned commnendations, and so forth, then sell it all back at some point to buy the purple thingy with their commnedations. It needs a gatekeeper function or it would get exploited. We can disagree on whether people should be able to do that round-robin I just described, but clearly the developers felt that was too much easy mode and not the intent of the special commendation items.

 

That is beyond silly. There are simple ways to stop this from happening if you're that paranoid. Make it so that if you equip or change the mods in the gear, it cannot be refunded. Problem solved. Happy, now?

 

Back in WoW, I had it happen that in one day I went from being a main dps raider, to losing my raid spot, to being picked up by another raid team as a healer... And I was lucky enough to be able to refund some gear I had bought earlier so that I could switch it to the heal gear for the new guild I was in.

 

Another situation comes in when the stats are exactly the same but... crap, it's the wrong set bonuses. I've dealt with this on many occasions as well. I'm super excited about having the currency to buy the next piece of gear for my tier... Only to get the wrong set piece. Other MMO's understand that people aren't machines and make sometimes silly mistakes... It's not a stretch to ask TOR to do the same.

[RobCivicCRX]

Yeah. Sugar coat it all you want.

 

There is no law preventing the separation of an idiot and their credits/commendations.

 

Let the buyer beware.

 

If Columi is so sensitive, click with care.

 

BioWare shouldn't have to put stuff in game to keep you from hurting yourself.

 

Maybe, after you regrind the needed coms you will take them a little more seriously at purchase time.

 

Well said.