Why is it so damn hard?!

I've played the game since EU release on PC and i haven't had an issue with purchasing an expansion pack. The main reason for this being it was always very clearly advertised on POL, as the expansion was just recently released.

Here's the reason for my initial statement: I just managed to convince a friend to start playing. Time passes and he now needs to purchase the Abyssea expansion packs. I said start with Heroes first, so he went to POL and clicked the purchase "Heroes of Abyssea" picture thingy. Sure enough it forwarded him to confirm purchase and within a short period, he had full access.

Today, he needed to purchase Visions of Abyssea and Scars of Abyssea expansions. So i said do exactly what you did before and then log back in and we'll goto abyssea. 10mins passed and i recieve a call, he couldn't figure it out. He lives nearby so i ran over the road to help him. I couldn't even figure it out for him. It was prompting us for a registration code for which we didn't have. 30mins passed and after a lot of frustration we finally found the correct path. We managed to figure out you had to buy a specific code and then you could use it to buy the expansion. I don't remember having to do this, i guess it is different when you download FFXI through Steam.

Anyways, it was just that bit too hard to purchase the expansion pack; especially as a new player. I had asked 12 people in the linkshell how to go about purchasing it. Whilst they knew how to buy the expansion pack, they weren't aware of needing to buy a code first.

Under Expanded Services it wouldn't be too much hassle to add and easy link "Purchase Expansion Packs". It's clear to read instead of clicking on links in that section at random hoping one of them is the one you want. The link can then run you through purchasing the code and then applying the code to the expansion you want.

Whilst i am aware, looking back on it, it is a simple process in order to obtain an expansion pack. However, we shouldn't have had to go through that frustration! I'm shocked it wasn't so straight forward.

Has anyone else had this issue when purchasing an expansion pack which isn't currently being advertised?

- Skinner