I live in a non EU country at Europe. Since it was first introduced, I used my BattleNet account as Euro, since they didn’t have currency of my country available. Which was fine, I loaded money as Euro, than I spent as Euro.
Last week, without my knowledge, they converted my money to my local currency. If this currency was a stable one, maybe that wouldn’t be a problem, but it is very VERY unstable. So now in just one week, my money has lost 10% of it’s value. Even though I had loaded quite a sum over the years as Euro, now I can’t keep or spend as Euro. They basically stole that money. My BattleNet account had around 145 Euro last week (this may seem low to some but in my country this is about the average monthly income of an entire family), now around 130 and it will continue to go down in value.
To prevent this, I asked what should I do. They said “move to another country”. That was the answer of the GM, like a joke. Any blizzard employee can review that interaction from this ticket number btw: EU81932996
So, being a US and EU based company, blizzard is basically saying, we will steal your money through using currency rates as scape goats. Even though, I purchased BattleNet balance as Euro now it will drop in worth, price of an entire token every week, because they converted it to a unstable currency without my ok or knowledge…
Edit: Link to email sent Blizzard stole my money - #16 by Daedralord-draenor
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They didn’t steal it, inflation did that.
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I loaded as Euro, they should have kept as Euro, or at least informed me and offered a gift card as Euro before converting it, WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE. They know the currency they converted to is not stable already. By taking this action, they basically sold 145 euro worth of service but giving back 130 euro if I purchase now, even less if I use that balance later.
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It’s not their fault your country has mega inflation. People have been asking to be able to pay in their local currency for a long time.
You will have gotten an email about it, maybe your spam filter ate it.
On a secondary point, why did you put that much money into your Blizzard balance?
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On a secondary point, why did you put that much money into your Blizzard balance?
Does it matter really? Is that the point, Why change the topic, defend blizzard so hard like a white knight. What do you know about effects of inflation on people ffs…
Point is they sold 145 Euro worth of service, now giving back 130 Euro worth now, or les and less if I used that money later…
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More than most, but I won’t go into that.
Actually you are wrong about this, they are giving whatever the conversion rate was at the time they changed currencies.
I think your anger is misplaced and should be directed at the source of the problem, the inflation in your country.
If they only converted 130€ and took the rest then you would have grounds for complaint.
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Actually you are wrong about this, they are giving whatever the conversion rate was at the time they changed currencies.
Literally 1 sec after they converted to new currency, it was worth less than 1 sec ago… Conversion rate they are using is meaningless if it just a number on the page and not the equality of the services provided before and after the conversion. They are not morons, they are greedy smart bastards and they know what they are doing, they know the new current has high inflation rate so they can provide less service for the money loaded by the player.
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I can see your point but it is directed in the wrong direction.
Also did you think the new rate won’t be linked to inflation so the cost won’t go up as it would if you paid in Euros?
I don’t get it, do the store prices change every day because of your inflation or something?
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No, if you convert from Lira to Euros then the current conversion cost changes. The OP is complaining about the prices set now means the converted money is worth less than if they still had Euros.
I cannot confirm anything as I cannot view the price of a service in Lira compared to a Euro price.
To make it more clear for you:
I had loaded enough money to blizzard account to purchase 2 copies of diablo 4 when it comes out for sale, one for myself and one for my gf. That money was loaded as Euro. Since Euro keeps its value, loading it now and later did not matter.
Now that they converted to unstable currency, by the time it comes out, I will be lucky to buy 1 copy, because by that time, it will be worth a lot less.
If I was informed at start that my money could be converted later. I wouldn’t load it on BattleNet account and waste it. I would have spent it now, when it is worth more than it would be worth later…
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I don’t know if prices change every day but for sure, they don’t stay same. So even though I had enough money to buy 2 copies of diablo 4 a week ago, it is already a lot lower. By the time diablo 4 comes out, it will be worth whatever the equivalent of 70 Euro is with my local currency but at this rate, that 145 Euro that I loaded won’t be even worth 70 Euro by the time they come out…
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That’s if it’s tied to inflation. Have the prices changed since the currency was converted? Did it say in the email that it would?
Are you assuming it will be, lets say 20 Euro for diablo 4 in my country when it comes out while 70 Euro in Europe? Does that really make sense to you. I can’t find any email but really some common sense dude…
I’m not assuming anything. I’m asking if you know if it will be.
Found the email at last, it was in junk folder. Change happened 10 days ago, this email came few days before that:
This is it. Nothing is said about auto converting existing balance to new currency !!!. No option to opt-out is given, no option to convert to gift card with Euro was given. Does this seem like some good faith action to you?
Edit: If you look at the currencies, you will see these currencies was intentionally chosen to be high inflation rate currencies. There is no good intentions here or anywhere near it. It was their intention to steal all along…
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No. All except Turkey were to enable players to keep playing as they were previously paying in rubles which Blizzard can’t legally receive any more.
Does that change the fact that Blizzard is actually making money of inflation rates? No, just no. They could have converted to Euro for those countries that used Rubles and if they can’t receive Euro from any of those countries, they could have send the existing amount as gift card, before forcefully changing currencies WITHOUT INFORMING USERS.
Extra Info, now token loads only 150 TRY to account, around 9 Euros. Same server, same costs, same incomes, but token gives ALOT less money. Good guy racist blizzard.
With the greatest of respect you took a gamble and lost. You hedged, in full knowledge that your currency would devalue, and Blizzard, who probably had a lot of people doing that, decided to act (which is well within the terms if you’d bothered to read them). You can’t expect a company to make a loss to make up for a whole country’s currency issues when its market cap is in the tens of billions of dollars versus a currency with trillions.
While it’s fair to say you didn’t know what Blizzard would do at the time you made the balance purchase, you didn’t actually buy Euros, you bought a game currency notionally denominated in Euros. The difference being if you’d had the Euros you could have freely swapped them or withdrawn them. But your battle.net balance has no cash value. Battle.net isn’t a bank.
If you’d not loaded the money onto your battle.net balance, then when Diablo came out you’d still have had to have paid more in your own currency to buy it at that time than at some earlier point if the currency devalues in the interim. You knew that, hence why you bought the balance when you did.
Could Blizzard have given more notice, or handled it better sure, but in forex you wouldn’t expect to get the same back as you spent if the relative values changed in between so why would you expect Blizzard to?
As an active Account holder, you may participate in the Battle.net Balance service (“Battle.net Balance”). Battle.net Balance can only be used to obtain certain products and services offered by Blizzard; it has no cash value. Blizzard grants you a limited license to acquire, use, and redeem Battle.net Balance pursuant to the terms of this Agreement. Regardless of how it is acquired, Battle.net Balance is non-transferable to another person or Account, does not accrue interest, is not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and, unless otherwise required by law or permitted by this Agreement, is not redeemable or refundable for any sum of money, monetary value, or anything of value, from Blizzard at any time. The Battle.net Balance does not have an equivalent value in real currency and does not act as a substitute for real currency. You acknowledge and agree that we may revise or take action that impacts the perceived value or purchase price of the Battle.net Balance at any time except as prohibited by applicable law. The Battle.net Balance may terminate in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, when we cease providing the Software, or this Agreement is otherwise terminated. Battle.net Balance does not constitute or confer upon you any personal property right. Battle.net Balance is not a bank account. And, while you can register and play on multiple Accounts, you are not allowed to have more than three (3) Accounts with Battle.net Balance.
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