Below is a copy of the chat transcript I had today when trying to submit another brand new retail box key failed.
@darkwilow: On Saturday I tried to enter a retail box key that I picked up recently, as my renewal date is tomorrow and when I entered it the website gave me back a response saying "You have already activated Star Trek Online - Collector's Edition on this account.." I have 2 of the boxes and will need a bit of help getting the month out of them
You are now speaking with Luis G. of Account and Billing.
@darkwilow: I can give you the codes when you're ready
Luis G.: In this case if you have 2 boxes and want to add them to your account you only get the free 30 days of game play from 1 of the boxes.
@darkwilow: why? I've bought mutliple retail boxes before and they all counted so why is it different now?
@darkwilow: my account global handle is
@darkwilow so you can look it up and see all the box codes i've activated on my acct
Luis G.: I am sorry if in the past you were getting the free time of multiple boxes,
I assure you that was a mistake and should of not been granted to you, i will report this to my supervisor in order to have this taken a look.
@darkwilow: Excuse me?
@darkwilow: Where does it say on any website documentation that you can buy only 1 retail box and get credit for only 1.
@darkwilow: Every retail box says you get 30 days of game play with the box.
@darkwilow: Are you still there?
Luis G.: One minute please.
@darkwilow: I find this all very odd since you guys advertised on your website that Amazon had a sale on retail boxes a few months back and there was nothing in that STO website posting that it was limited 1 to a customer. I'm no lawyer but that sounds sorta like bait and switch. At the least it's deceptive marketing.
@darkwilow: All I'm looking for here is to get the 2 months of time credit for the 2 codes I have yet to input into my acct.
Luis G.: I am sorry you feel this way I will be glade to add a note with your opinion, but unfortunately that is not going to be possible,
you can only redeem the free 30 days of game play from one product key, the rest of them only give you the special items that are linked to them.@darkwilow: That would be incorrect as I've gotten the 30 days from EVERY other retail box I've bought.
@darkwilow: And in fact from every other MMO I've played as well it's been the same buy a box get 30 days
Luis G.:
Then as I already told you that was an error and you were lucky to get the free 30 days unfortunately that is not the way it should be working, I will escalate this issue to my supervisor to have it taken a look.
@darkwilow: Please do so
Luis G.: Anything else I can assist you with?
@darkwilow: Will I be speaking with your supervisor now?
Luis G.: No I will escalate this issue to him.
Luis G.: Not the chat.
@darkwilow: When will I be hearing from him?
Luis G.: You will not be contacted by him, this information is in order to have this issue investigated, the outcome will not affect the information I have provided you.
Luis G.: Is there anything else I can assist you with?
@darkwilow: Well then I'm done chatting with you and will be watching my credit card to make sure I'm not billed for past time as that's kind of what you're implying by escalating this to your supervisor.
Luis G.: No.
Luis G.: That is not what I am implying.
Luis G.: I will escalate this information in order to have this error fixed.
Luis G.: If you already received the free 30 days in the past there is nothing that we can do.
So my question is WTF???? Since when and why isn't this stated ANYWHERE.
Comments
i can understand that it was never meant to have happened in the first place (as you can now buy the box for cheaper than the sub itself) but it was never clear that was the case or that it was a bug. i can understand why the would have to fix it but they really should have made this known that they where going to correct what was an error to begin with a little advanced warning even if it was only very short notice.
not cool if people buy multiple copies having already done it in the past being led to believe that's how it works.
i dont believe serial killers buy their victims from legally designated retail outlets though.
or maybe they do. i would't know.....
*looks around nervously*
.
Walmart. Its behind the baby section.
Anything above one key in each category wouldn't work.
Was I mistaken?
I am fairly sure you could add as many boxes as you liked so you could collect all of the pre-order items (as that was the ONLY way, then) - and I am pretty sure that all of the game time was allowed to be accrued as well.
Since the multiple boxes was an INTENTIONAL promotion tactic, I fear Luis G from Billing was misinformed.
What is more likely, at some point in the past year they DID change the rules regarding this (because the box prices fell well below the monthly sub fee a lot of the time) and they simply never disclosed the change. Which isn't too out of character for marketing and/or billing, as this is hardly the 1st time they've had... issues.
I don't know about the time added because of having a lifetime sub
I didn't either but that's because I bought a lifetime sub right away and it became irrelevant.
I've seen people buying multiple boxes and was dubious if any of the free time stacked. It doesn't sound a plausible way of trying to work the system to me. I agree with some of the others above about how free time from different editions of the game can stack, because those show up as separate things under your account page.
But two of the same thing? I don't think you can add to your account, e.g. two deluxe versions wouldn't work.
http://www.startrekonline.com/preorder-faq
Of note, these 2 entries:
So... there's that.
I don't think it should stack either, still fill his pain. I got 90 days of free game play I can never use. I bought the Amazon.com collectors edition the D2D digital deluxe and the Walmart box copy.
I've bought three versions of the game two retail (Walmart in March - $29.99 & Target in Nov. - $9.99) and the Digital Deluxe Version (Amazon in Dec. - $5.00)...
I got my three months of included game time no problem.
I don't have to pay again now till mid-Febuary.
I see that the Deluxe Digital Version on Amazon is no longer on sale... now it's $19.99
I was pre-order lifetime account.
Wow! I guess that proves it. They should change that but I believe it should be fair game until they do!
Read the entire quote
Since it does say.. twice.. that time stacks, and it ALSO says "If you purchase from Walmart twice" instead of "You CANNOT purchase from Walmart twice.." that the intentions, at least when this was written is pretty clear, and in conflict with the Billing Rep's statements.
Reading it like a technical or legal document, the free time would be construed as a bonus, thus it does not stack. It does not, anywhere state "exclusive bonuses." While it does go on to use an exclusive bonus in the example, it is not implicate that the free time is not included in the bonus, and thus must be assumed as a part of the bonus.
I can't believe they're willing to lose a customer over this issue but as it stands with me it's the straw that breaks the camel's back and I won't be renewing my subscription because of it.
Which is really too bad because I've supported this game completely by buying every different retail box for the pre-orders, brought in people via referral and bought practically everything in the c-store. Nice to know my devotion to the game wasn't returned even a little bit.
Thats fine, but they explicitly stated TWICE that the game time stacks.
In fact, the 2nd time deals strictly with game time and not bonus items, and it says "IF YOU BUY MULTIPLE COPIES OF THE GAME"
Not multiple versions. It doesn't say they must be from different retailers or different "versions"
Its still posted right there on their own website, and we've never seen anything that contradicts it posted (to my knowledge) and nothing is stated here about it: http://www.atari.com/support/startrekonline (There is a Product Key FAQ in the 'Most Asked' section)
All I know is, when I read the reply from Luis G, I immediately felt is conflicted with what we "know" commonly due to the launch period, when they actually PROMOTED people buying multiple game copies with the FAQ I linked above (and its related FAQ showing the different rewards from various vendors)
So while they are well within their rights to change the policy due to the low price of boxes, they must do so in the proper manner, and since the info published on the website directly contradicts the answer from Luis G, then they must honor the "previous" arrangement with the OP and update their website and officially let us know.
The normal retail box from target didn't say anything on it and i didn't get the tsr gun. There was also a thread around before were a few people had said that they had started to see some boxes at walmart that didn't give the store bonus and didn't mention it either. I'm thinking that atari may have updated stos box copies in their newer production batches. The codes in the new ones may not tie into any particular retailer. if that is the case then the registration system wouldn't be able to check against both the retailer and the box version of the game you have. it would just check if the code was valid and reference it against the type of box. I could be completely wrong on this Im just guessing.
it would be nice if a dev chimed in and said this is what I found after asking a few questions in regards to how the codes work. There have been a lot of threads about them in general. Ive been wanting to go out and look for a target box with the exclusive gun but I dont know if it will take or not if Im right it should but if I'm not then it wont.
In short, marketing strikes again.
It's perfectly legal. If you buy multiple copies of WoW, or many other MMOs, the additional keys cant be applied to the same account. Also, if you read the box, it does say a subscription is required.
As for the quoted FAQ, keep in mind that is for Pre-order, which is not relevant today.
That said, one of my friends tested out the free 30 days thing, he says it seems to work so long as te boxes are 'different'. IE, a preorder Walmart box, giving item 1, can be combined with a non preorder Amazon box, and combined further with preorder Amazon box. But if you bought 2 preorder Amazon boxes, only one of those 30 days would be applied
Also, they probably dont care about loosing you, since they probably werent making any money from you (they wont get much from those $2.50 Amazon purchases). Just saying...
Not sure if this is still correct, it was a few months ago.
It was obviously a mistake from the beginning. Heck, I've seen mods here mention specifically that you only get 1 free 30 days max. However, due to an error this wasn't true. Again, it was an error. An obvious error too. I mean when you could buy the game for $2.50 and get a free month instead of paying $15 for a month... that's obviously an error.
Just because you got lucky and had that error (as lots of people did until Cryptic apparently caught it) doesn't mean you should have the right to expect that error again and to never be fixed. :P