Frontier Games fucked me, a Vet.

So, I bought the game Elite: Dangerous, and some real life stuff came up that made it so I couldn't actually afford the game. I need medicine to make life somewhat more bearable each month. I politely asked them how I go about getting a refund. Apparently they don't give two shits, they have my money, that's all they care about. Not only that, but a mod has been harassing me as well. After removing my thread from the forums, he messaged me saying it wasn't the proper forum, so I asked HIM how I go about doing it, and here is his reply:

Re: Regarding your post on the Forum in the ED support thread
Hello,

Being a moderator on the Forum does not mean that a person works for that company as well as the only responsibility of the moderator is to ensure that the Forum members do not violate the Forum rules.

I strongly suggest you to change your tone as I find it rude to say the least and as I have stated in my previous Private message it alienates most of the people who might offer you help.

I have provided the information that is easily found on the ED's store page and the link to Frontier's customer support. Take into account that you did not provide any information about, which version of the game you have bought in your first post so it was possible to assume that you had only a Full version, which is not released yet and hence is refundable.

I have also provided you with the link to the customer support and advised to contact them after it became clear that you have bought the version of the game that was already released:
https://support.zaonce.net/

Best regards,
Aleksej.

Strongly suggest? Change my tone? First off, this message lacks any semblance of customer service, second, I'm pretty sure he meant to make it sound as much like a threat as it does.

So if you guys agree with me that this isn't right, to refuse me a refund on an unreleased, unfinished product, kindly tweet and post everywhere you can about how @Frontierdev doesn't care about its customers, only its bottom line.

I don't believe they're required to give you a refund, no matter who you are to them. It makes them look like more of an asshole, however it's their company.

Regarding the forum mod's response:

I don't know what your post said, but I've honestly got little reason to believe he'd tell you to change your tone if you were really being polite and simply inquiring how to ask for a refund. As a forum moderator, he's not necessarily an employee of the company. Often times gaming companies let good standing members of the forums become moderators to help keep order. So, as a non-employee, he isn't required at all to give you good costumer service.


The mod's response also states that you have a version of the game that has already been released, yet you claim you have a version that hasn't been released. So which is it, and why would the mod claim you have the one that's already been released?

I moderate a few forums (they're animal rescue community rather than customer service oriented, but still...) and tone doesn't really translate in text. I usually try to give participants the benefit of the doubt when their language could be interpreted as inflammatory unless there's blatant use of accusatory phrases in combination with foul language. People rarely read the forum guidelines (I'm guilty of this as well...) and posts that don't conform to community standards are fair game for removal. That being said, I can certainly express disappointment that they're not concerned with customer satisfaction. Their game won't be around long if that's their attitude. The best games (many of my favorites) are very player oriented and even allow us to participate in add-ons for the game. My submission for naming the Carrier was "Noot Sack", e.g. I'm really sorry you're having to deal with that. Do you think you can resell the game and at least try to break even?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AOD_Rainbow Dash

I don't believe they're required to give you a refund, no matter who you are to them. It makes them look like more of an asshole, however it's their company.

Regarding the forum mod's response:

I don't know what your post said, but I've honestly got little reason to believe he'd tell you to change your tone if you were really being polite and simply inquiring how to ask for a refund. As a forum moderator, he's not necessarily an employee of the company. Often times gaming companies let good standing members of the forums become moderators to help keep order. So, as a non-employee, he isn't required at all to give you good costumer service.


The mod's response also states that you have a version of the game that has already been released, yet you claim you have a version that hasn't been released. So which is it, and why would the mod claim you have the one that's already been released?

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The game is in "beta" right now, which means it's playab;e, but there's nothing to do and it's buggy to all hell. Granted, when I asked them for the refund the second time, I went out of my way to word it as "either they care about their customers, or they don't care about us, just their bottom line." Outside of all that, I'm entitled to a refund based on my countries laws.

As for selling it, one guy offered to buy my account for like, 60$, which leaves me $20 short of affording what I need, but at this point, it's more of the principle of the matter that they could care less so long as they have my money. There's no physical copy I have to give up, all they have to do is put the money back in my account, and cancel my access to the game. I don't see what's so hard about that, especially considering $75 for 10% of a final product is a bit ridiculous to defend not refunding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AOD_Goodyear420

The game is in "beta" right now, which means it's playab;e, but there's nothing to do and it's buggy to all hell. Granted, when I asked them for the refund the second time, I went out of my way to word it as "either they care about their customers, or they don't care about us, just their bottom line." Outside of all that, I'm entitled to a refund based on my countries laws.

As for selling it, one guy offered to buy my account for like, 60$, which leaves me $20 short of affording what I need, but at this point, it's more of the principle of the matter that they could care less so long as they have my money. There's no physical copy I have to give up, all they have to do is put the money back in my account, and cancel my access to the game. I don't see what's so hard about that, especially considering $75 for 10% of a final product is a bit ridiculous to defend not refunding.

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Did you actually email their customer support or did you insist on flaming them in public on their website? If it's the latter, don't expect to ever get anywhere. Any time I have ever seen people bitching on forums calling a company greedy or anything else, it has never ended well for them. Most people just see them as a butthurt troll and move on.


If their company has a phone number, call them.

The thing about betas is your not buying a game or buying what may or may not be promised. You are funding a project because you like the idea or what they have done so far. This is why issues with certain country's laws (I know Australia for certain) is making devs not release betas or do crowd funding projects. The only way I have seen refunds from early access games is when the developer abandons the game or doesn't work on it anymore.


Sent from my brain to your eyes

Problems kind of solved, I just sold the account online