RotHC Refunds for APAC players

[winterau]

After being sold a Ferrari (<20ms ping) and being delivered a Reliant Robin (200+ms ping) now that the APAC servers are being shut down, can APAC players who no longer wish to purchase RIse of the Hutt Cartel given the bait and switch that Bioware is performing get a refund?

 

Generally when companies alter the terms of a service agreement in such a drastic way consumers are allowed to back out of any contract.

 

Given this dramatic reduction in quality of service, I'd really like to see a refund come my way as I have absolutely zero interest in playing on a North American server and had Bioware told me of their plans to shut down the APAC servers I would never have purchased the expansion.

[Illyean]

seems perfectly fair for you guys to be refunded, they are not preventing you from playing but they are no longer offering the same level of service that you were led to expect when you purchased, you should be able to cancel RotHC imo.

[Arvig]

A bait and switch implies that they knew they would be shutting down the APAC servers when they started the pre-order offer on the expansion. Obviously they didn't.

 

I understand very well why people are upset, but there is no "good" solution as to what can be done with the APAC servers. I'll admit I'm not on them, so maybe I'd feel more strongly over this if I was, but even so what solution could they pick that wouldn't alienate a good percentage of the APAC server community? IMO this is a lesser of two evils solution, the only thing I would change is to allow the APAC community to also move to EU servers if they want, not just North American.

 

As an aside, for whatever reasons plenty of people in the APAC region, both before and after the APAC server launch play on North American servers already. I don't know if they actually do hit ping rates like you describe or not, but that to me is somewhat telling. It can't be THAT bad if they didn't move to the APAC servers when they had the chance, or rolled up on them if they joined after any transfer to them was open.

 

I'm not trying to troll you, and I'm not even saying I'm fully against a refund per-se, but I guess I am trying to say "Okay, fine...what IS the good solution then?" since I can't see where any solution would be a "good" one. It's a lesser of two evils choice IMO.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Arvig

[Slurmez]

A bait and switch implies that they knew they would be shutting down the APAC servers when they started the pre-order offer on the expansion. Obviously they didn't.

 

I understand very well why people are upset, but there is no "good" solution as to what can be done with the APAC servers. I'll admit I'm not on them, so maybe I'd feel more strongly over this if I was, but even so what solution could they pick that wouldn't alienate a good percentage of the APAC server community? IMO this is a lesser of two evils solution, the only thing I would change is to allow the APAC community to also move to EU servers if they want, not just North American.

 

As an aside, for whatever reasons plenty of people in the APAC region, both before and after the APAC server launch play on North American servers already. I don't know if they actually do hit ping rates like you describe or not, but that to me is somewhat telling. It can't be THAT bad if they didn't move to the APAC servers when they had the chance, or rolled up on them if they joined after any transfer to them was open.

 

I'm not trying to troll you, and I'm not even saying I'm fully against a refund per-se, but I guess I am trying to say "Okay, fine...what IS the good solution then?" since I can't see where any solution would be a "good" one. It's a lesser of two evils choice IMO.

 

Shutting down servers is not usually decided over a lunchtime drink and then acted upon, Im sure they have had the plan in motion for a significant amount of time.

[Yndras]

After being sold a Ferrari (<20ms ping) and being delivered a Reliant Robin (200+ms ping) now that the APAC servers are being shut down, can APAC players who no longer wish to purchase RIse of the Hutt Cartel given the bait and switch that Bioware is performing get a refund?

 

Generally when companies alter the terms of a service agreement in such a drastic way consumers are allowed to back out of any contract.

 

Given this dramatic reduction in quality of service, I'd really like to see a refund come my way as I have absolutely zero interest in playing on a North American server and had Bioware told me of their plans to shut down the APAC servers I would never have purchased the expansion.

 

I am also seeking a refund for ROTHC. I will not play this on an American server with the latency they have. This is not what I ordered, and I will not accept it in its proposed state.

 

I will also not accept it if it is to open on APAC servers with plans to move shortly after ROTHC is released. Its either you keep it the way it is/merge the servers to APAC location or nothing.

[Arvig]

Shutting down servers is not usually decided over a lunchtime drink and then acted upon, Im sure they have had the plan in motion for a significant amount of time.

 

I didn't say that they DID just decide it on the fly over some drinks at lunch. Oh thank you for implying something I didn't say.

 

ALL I did say is I don't think they had decided the fate of the APAC servers at the same time the expansion was offered for pre-order. To imply more is to put proverbial words into my mouth.

 

That and if you read my post that I'm not against refunds per-se, that part of my intent was to say that I don't see any solution for the APAC servers as being the "good" one.

 

Oh well, I guess some people like to read between the lines, even when nothing is THERE to read.

[Icestar]

They should give you guys a free month to try it out.

 

Then you can decide if it is playable or not.

[PseudoScience]

I didn't say that they DID just decide it on the fly over some drinks at lunch. Oh thank you for implying something I didn't say.

 

ALL I did say is I don't think they had decided the fate of the APAC servers at the same time the expansion was offered for pre-order. To imply more is to put proverbial words into my mouth.

 

That and if you read my post that I'm not against refunds per-se, that part of my intent was to say that I don't see any solution for the APAC servers as being the "good" one.

 

Oh well, I guess some people like to read between the lines, even when nothing is THERE to read.

 

Your statement is implying that they didn't know, so I guess it works both ways.

Edited March 26, 2013 by PseudoScience

[Fols]

Since the product has not yet been delivered and they have taken money, we are under most of the western worlds consumer laws entitled to a refund.

 

No matter if they close the APAC servers or not.

[winterau]

A bait and switch implies that they knew they would be shutting down the APAC servers when they started the pre-order offer on the expansion. Obviously they didn't.

 

This is pretty much the only point that I disagree with you on. The APAC issue has been on the radar for a good 7 months, and I highly suspect that they knew that they wanted to shut them down, but left it as late as possible to let us know about it.

 

Regardless, it is still a significant switch and they should offer people the chance to take up the expansion now that they know the whole situation or back out and not purchase it.

 

I understand very well why people are upset, but there is no "good" solution as to what can be done with the APAC servers. I'll admit I'm not on them, so maybe I'd feel more strongly over this if I was, but even so what solution could they pick that wouldn't alienate a good percentage of the APAC server community? IMO this is a lesser of two evils solution, the only thing I would change is to allow the APAC community to also move to EU servers if they want, not just North American.

 

As an aside, for whatever reasons plenty of people in the APAC region, both before and after the APAC server launch play on North American servers already. I don't know if they actually do hit ping rates like you describe or not, but that to me is somewhat telling. It can't be THAT bad if they didn't move to the APAC servers when they had the chance, or rolled up on them if they joined after any transfer to them was open.

 

I'm not trying to troll you, and I'm not even saying I'm fully against a refund per-se, but I guess I am trying to say "Okay, fine...what IS the good solution then?" since I can't see where any solution would be a "good" one. It's a lesser of two evils choice IMO.

 

I'm not trying to come up with a solution. Bioware are free to make whatever decision they like about their game.

 

What they should however do, and what I am asking for, is to allow people to make the decision about buying the expansion or not based on all the information.

 

As I said originally, I would never have purchased the expansion had they told me that they were shutting down the APAC servers. I only purchased the expansion on the understanding that Bioware would continue to support the APAC servers which was an advertised selling point of the game. Now that Bioware are no longer offering the service that I purchased, I want to cancel the purchase and we can go our separate ways.

[JimG]

A bait and switch implies that they knew they would be shutting down the APAC servers when they started the pre-order offer on the expansion. Obviously they didn't.

 

And people knew there was a decent chance that their solution to the APAC/Oceanic servers would be to shut them down and merge people to the other servers. Let's face it, there were basically two options...merge them all into 1 APAC/Oceanic server or merge them into the other servers. Since it took them awhile to decide what to do, it was obviously a decent likelihood of either option. So why would anyone pre-order the expansion if they were uncertain whether they would continue playing the game depending on the outcome of that issue? There's no false advertising there....just a premature, unwise purchase.

[Discoteck]

Would like one of these myself and i have put a ticket in.

[Lasica]

If you don't know by now that you should never preorder anything... well then I can't help you.

 

I will just point out that it is unlikely that the servers will not be shut down prior to the release of RotHC isn't it. So you should get some time at least at the lower ping.

 

Also, every other MMO in existence has US based servers and we have played for years on them with no difficulties. While it would be nice to maintain one Australia based server, we can't really expect EA to spend addition $ to keep one running with a ever dwindling Australian player base using it.

 

I imagine the real reason the servers are being shut down is a lot of Australians have already made the move back to US servers (I know I did 2 months ago) and there are just not enough people on the Australian servers to keep them running. Even in peak times the Australian servers had around 1/4 or less what was on a US server in offpeak (US night) times. That's not sustainable.

[Antispiral]

A bait and switch implies that they knew they would be shutting down the APAC servers when they started the pre-order offer on the expansion. Obviously they didn't.

 

I understand very well why people are upset, but there is no "good" solution as to what can be done with the APAC servers. I'll admit I'm not on them, so maybe I'd feel more strongly over this if I was, but even so what solution could they pick that wouldn't alienate a good percentage of the APAC server community? IMO this is a lesser of two evils solution, the only thing I would change is to allow the APAC community to also move to EU servers if they want, not just North American.

 

As an aside, for whatever reasons plenty of people in the APAC region, both before and after the APAC server launch play on North American servers already. I don't know if they actually do hit ping rates like you describe or not, but that to me is somewhat telling. It can't be THAT bad if they didn't move to the APAC servers when they had the chance, or rolled up on them if they joined after any transfer to them was open.

 

I'm not trying to troll you, and I'm not even saying I'm fully against a refund per-se, but I guess I am trying to say "Okay, fine...what IS the good solution then?" since I can't see where any solution would be a "good" one. It's a lesser of two evils choice IMO.

 

There is a good solution, one that literally everyone I've talked to and everyone that's talked to people that I've talked to and otherwise the vast majority of players WANTED to happen - merge the 3 APAC servers into one. It's FAR better than this abysmal solution they've come up with.

 

And for reference, you have no evidence to substantiate that Bioware/EA did not know they would opt to go for shutting down the APAC servers, hence claiming that they "obviously" didn't know if false. However, claiming that it appears like a bait and switch is quite valid, as these recent actions and past actions can very easily be construed as being just that. Not saying they were, but it can easily be seen as such (and given EA's past record with telling the truth, far more likely).