Blizzard Subscription Refund Policy and Customer Rights: A Call for Fairness

Community General Discussion
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Hello everyone,

I’d like to share my experience with Blizzard’s subscription refund policy, which I believe raises serious concerns about fairness and transparency. I think it’s important that other members of this community are aware of how this situation unfolded.

Summary of My Experience:

I subscribed to Blizzard’s service a couple of months ago, and I had to request a refund shortly after. Two months later, I decided to resubscribe, only to request a refund again. However, when I attempted to issue a refund, the system automatically rejected my request, stating that this product had been refunded before.

This automatic rejection of a refund based on previous purchases seems extremely unfair. It feels like the system is designed to punish customers for requesting refunds, even though the service was not satisfactory or needed anymore. It’s frustrating to feel like I’m being denied my basic consumer rights because I had requested a refund for a legitimate reason earlier.

Legal Rights and Fairness:

In accordance with consumer protection laws in many countries, including Turkey, there’s typically a right to cancel a digital product or service within a certain period. While it’s true that the cancellation or refund request may no longer be valid once the service is used, this does not justify the systematic refusal of refunds for any future purchases simply because of previous requests.

Blizzard’s system essentially penalizes customers for having requested a refund in the past, without considering the nature of the individual request. This policy prevents customers from experiencing a service fairly and then deciding if they want to keep it or not, which is a basic consumer right.

Ethical Concerns with Blizzard’s Approach:

I believe this approach is ethically questionable. A subscription service should offer users the chance to try the service out and decide whether it’s right for them, without fear of being penalized for trying to make use of consumer rights. Denying refunds in such an automatic and blanket fashion is unfair and shows a lack of respect for players and customers.

Moreover, this policy doesn’t provide clear transparency. If you try to refund a service after a certain period, there’s no real explanation about why it’s being rejected, and no human oversight or support to resolve the issue. The system just automatically rejects you based on previous refunds, which seems unjust and frustrating.

A Call for Transparency and Fairness:

I’m sharing this experience with the community in the hope that Blizzard will reconsider these practices and adopt a more transparent and fair refund policy. As consumers, we deserve to have our rights respected and should not be penalized for asking for a refund in good faith. It’s crucial that companies like Blizzard take into account individual circumstances rather than applying blanket restrictions based on past actions.

Community Support:

If any of you have faced similar issues with Blizzard’s refund policies or felt that your consumer rights were not being respected, I encourage you to share your experiences as well. The more we raise awareness about such practices, the better chance we have to bring about change and ensure that customers are treated fairly.

Let’s come together and make sure our voices are heard!

Thanks for reading, and I hope Blizzard takes note of this!

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Have you tried to open a ticket?

https://eu.support.blizzard.com/en/help/product/wow/166/1152/solution
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If you don’t want to play the game… don’t subscribe.

If you think they are breaking any sort of consumer rules (almost certainly not) report them through your country’s channels and they will investigate on your behalf.

If you want to push for a refund, open a ticket.

Idk what else you are looking for here, the community isn’t going to rally behind Billy’s AI call to arms for a £10 refund.

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I would say that, in terms of automatic policy, automatically granting the first request and automatically rejecting subsequent requests for the same product doesn’t seem unreasonable.

There are certainly ways to try and get a non-automated request by calling customer request.

So if you were twice run over by a car the morning after subscribing to wow and ended up with both hands in a cask each time, Blizzard will surely understand.

If it is simply that you twice decided you don’t like the game after all, then likely you are not getting a refund and are unlikely to prevail in any kind of legal dispute.

Since you are asking for other players’ experience, I asked a refund of the epic TWW edition 18 months ago, a day or two after buying, when I realized the release date would mean I am not able to enjoy the 3 day early access (due to personal reasons). I got a refund with no issue, but I was very aware that if I changed my mind again it would be much more difficult to get a second refund.

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Lastly if your point is that a customer can cancel a subscription at any time and get a refund each time, any number of times, then you are missing the point of subscriptions.

When Blizzard offers 6 months or 12 months subscriptions with a reduced price and in-game rewards (I assume you are complaining about such a large sum subscription and not a one month subscription) I’m sure they do factor in that some players may sometimes not be in the mood / able to play the game for extended periods during the subscription and may end up spending more than if they had taken the monthly sub, but that is part of the deal.

In your case the lesson I would retain is that if you have the urge to play Wow again after your current subscription is cancelled or ends naturally, you should remember both episodes and only go for a monthly sub rather than the longer ones.

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Subscriptions

We’ll refund any unused World of Warcraft subscription within 14 days of the purchase.

Before you make the purchase, you were informed of this part:

“By clicking “Pay Now,” you represent that you are an authorized user of this payment method, you agree to the Blizzard End User License Agreement , Blizzard’s Terms of Sale , and to the immediate delivery of your order. You will lose the right to withdraw your order once the delivery process has started.”

You were aware that that a refund request can indeed be refused if a digital product is used.

Your complaint then boils down to that you want them to repeatedly make an exception for your “circumstances” which are “I don’t need it after all because I’m dissatisfied with the product” which is not a reason they need to honor (repeatedly).

There is no basic consumer right to “demo” or “taste” products or people would just enter a supermarket and grab a random chips bag and open it up and say “ugh I didn’t like bolognese after all” after eating a handful. Supermarkets may offer a demo taster but they are not obliged to, and you are not obliged to taste the demo either.

At Blizzard there exists a Trial Edition if you feel like trying out the game leisurely. There are many streamers who play the game which you can watch to see current content. Videos, many reviewers, etc etc.

It’s never the same as playing it yourself for sure, we all got our own playstyles and thoughts about the game. But your rights weren’t disrespected in the slightest, if anything, it looks like a proper automated refusal.

Why didn’t you complain when they granted it automatically the first time?

Do try the ticket refund option if you want to get it manually checked out however.

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Your last option is to contact your bank or credit card provider and ask that they chargeback the amount you paid Blizzard. Before doing that you should understand that Blizzard most likely won’t ever want to deal with you again. Your account may be closed forever and your credit card blocked.

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Refund is given as an exception .you already used one of your exception .you look like a habitual refunder .maybe learn to control self restraint .blizzard is not entitled to give you a refund

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Lol, granting unlimited refunding for services purchased is somehow a basic consumer right. :dracthyr_hehe_animated:

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