About the EU campaign for maid outfit and fat chocobo

Seems my post has been removed. So I will just say in a more civil manner that this Campaign, is bad and quite insulting to EU fanbase. JP cheap and instant, US cheap and instant, EU more expensive and 3 month waiting. :(
Who in this day and age buys and reads a gaming magazine?

Expensive price on magazines, looong wait time to receive the items aka 3 months, and photo for authentication

Please just put them on the MOGshop and be done with it, please.

We already got stiffed by not being able to buy the physical collectors edition, I collect dragons so I was really disappointing. A total farce.....

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Originally Posted by Altera

JP cheap and instant.

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How much the EU costing total? Cause the JP promo did not look cheap.

It may not have been cheap but the availability is definitely an issue for the UK promo.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

How much the EU costing total? Cause the JP promo did not look cheap.

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Seems like you're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Seems like you're missing everyone's point :P

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Originally Posted by XenobiaExe

Seems like you're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Seems like you're missing everyone's point :P

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No cause I keep seeing that as some people's arguments, "it cost us more then the other promos" so it a valid question.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

How much the EU costing total? Cause the JP promo did not look cheap.

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Ok, disregard price. Take usefulness etc. 7/11, getting something useful, Amazon US getting something useful. EU getting a dying old gaming magazine which I have never even heard of. I have never bothered with reading gaming magazines since Amiga and Nintendo Power :P
GameStop stores im pretty certain are in every country, and that would have been a much better choice.

If the promo is coming to the Nordic countries, I hope it is at least from CDon.com or something.

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Originally Posted by XenobiaExe

Seems like you're arguing for the sake of arguing now. Seems like you're missing everyone's point :P

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If the argument being made is that it's more costly for the EU than JP, then it's perfectly valid to ask just how much you had to spend at 7/11 in JP to obtain the codes.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

It a lose-lose situation for SE, they lose this way and if they came out and said sorry we can't make it work so can't do the promo for EU then people would of got mad for that also.

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There is nothing stopping them putting the items in the mogstation so people could obtain them directly from SE.

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Originally Posted by Lexia

No cause I keep seeing that as some people's arguments, "it cost us more then the other promos" so it a valid question.

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I believe they are coming from the point that if the price they spent was converted to £££ it should be cheaper. But the conversion has kept the same. Not to mention for those who have to import the magazines, the cost is also a lot more because shipping would be expensive, especially when all it's for is a magazine. In some causes it feels expensive because it is just a magazine instead of something we would like like drinks or games, etc etc.

As far as I understand, they won’t add this promotions items to the Mogstation because it would be deemed unfair to those that went out and legitimately bought things (ie: those that bought the drinks and legitimate amazon purchases). In my opinion, Square messed up the moment that they introduced this campaign in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Snugglebutt

There is nothing stopping them putting the items in the mogstation so people could obtain them directly from SE.

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Like all the other promo items?
Oh wait.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Like all the other promo items?
Oh wait.

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Nothing is forcing them to keep it 'promotion' limited. All they would need to do is charge the same price that people were expected to pay from their promoted partnerships and that way no-one else can whine about how they paid more just because they spent that same amount on another site/product to get the same items. Your snide comment about "like all the other promo items?" is no better than saying it is what it is because that is what it is. It holds no water because it does not have to be that way, if put on mogstation for the same amount the promo partnership costs then the people who got theirs from the promotional period instead of mogstation have bugger all to whine about since they would of got more products+same items for the same price as just the items from mogstation.

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Originally Posted by Snugglebutt

Nothing is forcing them to keep it 'promotion' limited. All they would need to do is charge the same price that people were expected to pay from their promoted partnerships and that way no-one else can whine about how they paid more just because they spent that same amount on another site/product to get the same items. Your snide comment about "like all the other promo items?" is no better than saying it is what it is because that is what it is. It holds no water because it does not have to be that way.

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But there have still be a time limit to be fair.

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Originally Posted by Snugglebutt

Nothing is forcing them to keep it 'promotion' limited. All the would need to do is charge the same price that people were expected to pay from their promoted partnerships and that way no-one else can whine about how they paid more just because they spent that same amount on another site/product to get the same items.

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I'm willing to shell out £25 for all of the items if it is on Mogstation, what I am not willing to spend is a ridiculous amount for items I might not even get. Also, just to add, UK post is awful. I have a 1 in 3 chance of having my mail lost, being an individual living on the UK islands. To add further, GameMaster has done some shady things in the past, including the Driv3r scandal. Are you telling us EU folk to trust in a company that has shown to not be trustworthy?

This is seriously hindering, unfair and the devs need to do something. Please 14 team, actually respond with an answer. Not some generic response, an actual answer. Are you seriously going to continue this promotion or are you going to change something so that it is fair for people? I have suggestions, I think it's fair to include the digital version for the sake of people who have physical post issues (like myself) and also the limited number of magazines that will be printed.

I'm not gonna add anything special to the discussions, but I just want to add my voice to other people's. I'm not happy with how this promotion thing has been handled so far. It feels like we, the EU players, aren't as valued as NA or especially JP. It's a sad feeling.

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Originally Posted by Facade

I believe they are coming from the point that if the price they spent was converted to £££ it should be cheaper. But the conversion has kept the same. Not to mention for those who have to import the magazines, the cost is also a lot more because shipping would be expensive, especially when all it's for is a magazine. In some causes it feels expensive because it is just a magazine instead of something we would like like drinks or games, etc etc.

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Given how expensive items such as DVDs and BluRays are in JP, it seems unlikely that there is a cost argument to be made here.

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Originally Posted by BARDS_ARROW

As far as I understand, they won’t add this promotions items to the Mogstation because it would be deemed unfair to those that went out and legitimately bought things (ie: those that bought the drinks and legitimate amazon purchases). In my opinion, Square messed up the moment that they introduced this campaign in the first place.

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If your view is that SE messed up by creating promotional items for a promotional campaign, then you better be prepared for no other promotional campaigns in the future. It's pretty glib to simply state that just by having this promotional campaign SE messed up.

The biggest issue was when they listened to the NA/EU fans about bringing the promotional items to other regions. Since the JP fans had had a campaign and the items were not simply given to everyone, that requires that other regions similarly have a promotional campaign. But with the EU and Asia regions in particular there are dozens of countries involved and finding a single partner to cover them all is difficult. So the US got an Amazon based promo, which was an easy task to cover a huge number of players, but arranging multiple promotions and finding the partners required to cover all the countries in EU and elsewhere is a very non-trivial task.

SE would have been better off riding it out and not giving the items at all at this point. No matter what they do, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

At this point I think they should just drop the entire promo thing and put the items into the MogStation as a Summer Special package available through the end of August and then removed (permanently). Charge the normal cost of a mount for the package. Job done.

After seeing this thread and reading about the promotion...
I can only come to the conclusion this is horrible.

I feel sorry for all those that have to deal with it.

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Originally Posted by Ryuusama

inb4 this thread disappears when ppl are not happy about the epic-this-is-the-best-EU-campaign-ever :^)

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You're too late!
It already dissapeared earlier for some cleaning...

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Originally Posted by Enkrateia

Greetings, all!

I briefly took this thread down to clean up some of the comments within it. While I am certainly not requiring a positive or negative response to this thread or promotion, the tone itself should remain civil. The use of inappropriate or insulting language is a violation of the rules of the forum, which can result in actions taken against those particular users, or the permanent removal of the thread if this continued unabated. Please keep this in mind when expressing your opinions, since the use of language of that type does not strengthen your opinion. It's only purpose would be to remove it from the thread due to a violation of the rules.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to this thread, and keep in mind tone and language moving forward with this discussion.

LGM Enkrateia

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The sudden dissapearance of the thread seemed to have caused some 'confusion' with some of the community.

I'm not aware of how the forum works behind the scenes...
But perhaps locking it temporarily, after posting that you will be doing so to clean it up, rather than hiding it would have been a better idea?

Then the thread doesn't suddenly dissapear, and there's a visible mod post stating that it is getting cleaned up and will be unlocked afterward.

Nice to see that my response is still there ^^b. Still not sure why some of those post where deleted because they were not that offensive. :/

About the price for the JP promotion: On reddit someone posted that they needed to buy 28 bottles to get everything and 100 Yen for each one. So 2800 Yen for the full set (no idea if this is true or not)
That would make around 24 € or 26$ right now. So it cost a little more than the amazon deal but still cheaper than someone that has to import it from UK and you could buy water that you needed anyway. With this we have to buy a magazine we dont even want to read. And we cant even be sure if they have enough copies.

Really looked forward to having a amazon deal too. :( Not sure why they didn't do one for EU since it would be way better as a promotion tool than such a small magazine company and way easier for the fans to buy from.
But oh well like I said in my other post, this helped me decide not to buy the fan fest ticket for germany and maybe not to buy anything from the SE store again. :)

And if the german deal is not better well than goodbye maid outfit. Not gonna spend my money on such a promotion. :(

@Kosmos: I am no expert about EU regulations with promotions but I just cant see what would have stood against another amazon deal, maybe even having a deal for EU and NA at the same time. Amazon is shipping to so many countries so it would have reached way more people than this deal ever will. Heck even a lot of UK players will be left out thanks to the small printing number of this magazine. [I mean its not only the FF14 that will buy the magazine but some of those own fans do too so even less copies left] And the rest of the EU will now wait again till we have more information about the promotions for the listed countries, while all of those that were not named will get nothing at all..that must hurt even more. :(

And wasn't it already in the liveletter that these items will come later to our side before the people even complained about it? And as a worldwide game its just doesn't feel right to only promote something for one part of your playerbase. (Would still feel the same if they had a special EU promotion and JP and NA would be locked out from it) Either do something for all or do nothing..They are a business and we are their customers. You should never do something that would anger one part of your customers even if they are small because this could lead to quite the bad reputation, especially in the age of the world wide web. As a company they should have known that people would not accept such a region locked campaign especially since glamour is quite important in this game.

They wont be able to change this promotion because they are in a contract but maybe just maybe they will take this feedback and try to make another one where its not so unfair in many ways..maybe even trying to get another amazon deal.

This is a slap in the face to EU players. Do I need to send away for items I don't want or need. To pay shipping and conversion fees. Take a selfie so the magazine can use it for their personal agendas? This seems like a punishment to us.

We are not valued as the JP and NA players.

That is the reality.

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Originally Posted by Niskie

This is a slap in the face to EU players. Do I need to send away for items I don't want or need. To pay shipping and conversion fees. Take a selfie so the magazine can use it for their personal agendas? This seems like a punishment to us.

We are not valued as the JP and NA players.

That is the reality.

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The reality is you are being given an OPTION. Not mandatory, OPTIONAL. The value is exactly the same, the method is not. Otherwise no one in EU would have had the opportunity to get the rewards.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Really looked forward to having a amazon deal too. :( Not sure why they didn't do one for EU since it would be way better as a promotion tool than such a small magazine company and way easier for the fans to buy from.

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Mostly because they were afraid of people again cancelling their orders after getting the code. That alone could have been prevented by physically shipping the code with the product, but that would have restricted eligible goods to items sold by amazon itself.
Plus, one could simply return the good without naming a reason within a week or two, not accounting for guarantees.
That in turn could be prevented by requiring buyers to formally resign from that right, either directly when buying, which would put the buyers at the mercy of amazon, or any time after receiving the goods, in which case the code would have to be given out with a delay.

In any case, I'm sure there are much better ways to handle it.

I usually do not come to the official forums BUT this is just ridiculous! Honestly I haven't seen this magazine in years, scared that if I do decide to be stupid enough to pay what could be 35 euros for this 3 issues that they could refuse to send the White Chocobo code because I'm not a resident of the UK.... also the whole privacy thing of it!

I would rather throw the money directly at SE but unfortunately they do not want it :(

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Given how expensive items such as DVDs and BluRays are in JP, it seems unlikely that there is a cost argument to be made here.

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While I was not the one who was moaning about price, but just mentioned why people were doing so, I would have to say that yes it does. People are willing to shell out more for something that they want so comparing a magazine being expensive to dvds and such that people would actually WANT from Japan is a silly comparison to make.

I was more then happy to shell out for a good game I wanted if it was through amazon, so price wasn't an issue as long as it's for something people wanted.

Of course, I agree with the fact that in order to avoid all this, they should of just plopped the whole thing into Mogstation like they will be doing with the chinese(?) outfits. Especially if it was going to be this stressful to get something for everybody, something you HAVE to be prepared for if you are releasing a game world wide.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

The value is exactly the same

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The total cost to make sure you get at least the third volume for the most important code, plus the other two codes is £25

http://puu.sh/pZzqZ/8548041064.png

It is not the same, assuming that you live in the UK and get free postage as a result...as well as implying you even get the magazine because UK postage is that bad.

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Originally Posted by ErryK

The reality is you are being given an OPTION. Not mandatory, OPTIONAL. The value is exactly the same, the method is not. Otherwise no one in EU would have had the opportunity to get the rewards.

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Yes, but not the OPTION to buy something we would actually use. Or actually want.

We are being given the OPTION to sell our personal image for something the NA and JP players got for going through less humiliation.

WARNING: ⚠

I ordered a Gamesmaster subscription as soon as it was announced (before the issues started) because the website *CLEARLY* stated that it would begin with the next issue (which would be August - 306). Once I got my account access I checked & it said it would begin with the September issue - 307. Obviously I was annoyed & emailed them & still await a response.

At 23:15 BST I received an email from Gamesmaster stating my subscription begins with the OCTOBER issue (308). I'm fuming. I have been misled right through the process from being told by the website I'd receive the next available issue right through to now being told I'll only get one of the three required.

There's going to be repercussions to this, especially as they offer no easy way to reject the purchase as required by EU & UK law. They really poked the Ked's nest by messing with me.

@Culfinrandir all you have to do is phone them and cancel the subscription, it was really quick and easy to do.

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Originally Posted by ElsaOkidim

@Culfinrandir all you have to do is phone them and cancel the subscription, it was really quick and easy to do.

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But also something that shouldn't be required under law. I should be able to cancel via the same method I bought it - electronically. Yes it's semantics but, for example, I can't use the telephone so that method is out for me.

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Originally Posted by Culfinrandir

But also something that shouldn't be required under law. I should be able to cancel via the same method I bought it - electronically. Yes it's semantics but, for example, I can't use the telephone so that method is out for me.

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This whole campaign feels very dodgy, I wish they chose a better partner.

So we have to buy 3 magazines that cost more than what NA/JP had to pay.
We have to send a photo of ourselves with all 3 magazines to get a mount.
Wait 3 months to get everything when NA/JP got theirs instantly.

This is quite ridiculous, who thought this was a good idea?

This campaign is ridiculous. My best friend lives in the UK and all she wants is the maid outfit and chocobo, but now she has to buy 3 magazines (and she said, like others, she's never even heard of this magazine) and provide a picture of herself to get the two things she wants. Oh, and wait 3 months.

I do wonder if they didn't go with the Amazon promotion because so many people here would just preorder for the codes, and then cancel their order the minute they redeemed them. That, or if maybe because the EU has different Amazons for each country and they couldn't reach an agreement with them. Either way, it's dumb.

I know people frown upon putting exclusives and stuff in the Cash Shop, but I've honestly never seen the problem with it. They should have just put them in the CS. Would have probably made more money that way in the long run.

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Originally Posted by Zojha

Mostly because they were afraid of people again cancelling their orders after getting the code. That alone could have been prevented by physically shipping the code with the product, but that would have restricted eligible goods to items sold by amazon itself.
In any case, I'm sure there are much better ways to handle it.

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I am still sad that people exploited this to get it for free but I still believe that the majority purchased it the right way. So imo SE still got way more as a promotion as they would ever get with this magazine deal. The promotion is not for us but for trying to get more players so everyone that bought a game that had the code with it got the promotion and maybe some of those started to play the game. Now with this magazine you have not much copies that are sold. Some said that they dont even have that one in stock in bigger cities. So not a lot of people that never played FF14 will see it and you make your own fanbase angry.

I just cant see how this was the best deal they would get. :( There is no real win win situation (imo) which should be a important factor in a promotion. And having one complete deal for whole EU is probably way more efficient than having to do so many smaller promotions. As a outsider its really difficult to understand this decision and why exactly they choose such a small magazine, which even has some bad reputation.

[This is no critic on your post :) just using it as a quote]

@ErryK: This is not truly an option for us. :( JP players could at least choose from different kind of drinks so they could buy something that would be truly useful for them. And the NA players were able to choose even more what they want. So if you already wanted to buy the game anyway and it had the promotion items you would get them for free. And if you did not plan to buy something before that you would at least get a game with your virtual goods..in EU at least with the UK promotion, we are forced to buy those magazines..If it would be a big publisher were we could choose different kinds of magazines than we would have an option. But either we get those magazines that nobody really wants and probably throw away or we will not get the items...and to make it even better we have to send a picture of us too..and its quite limited too thanks to being a small company..heck the people cant even subscribe for two of those three magazines now..because that period seems to be already over so they need to hope that there will be enough in stock on the release day or be lucky to find some of those in a supermarket..I am sorry but this is way worse than the deal for NA and JP. :(

So I take it the areas where this magazine is not available are going to have to wait over another three months before we get our turn? I can only hope that we don't get such a ridiculous, overpriced and convoluted method to get our codes.

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Originally Posted by Mix

So I take it the areas where this magazine is not available are going to have to wait over another three months before we get our turn? I can only hope that we don't get such a ridiculous, overpriced and convoluted method to get our codes.

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If they are smart enough to put the most valued items on the final month, then they most likely won't open it up for other countries until the third issue has been released. They must know that UK players would choose any other method instead of going for a terrible, out of date magazine service, if they release another method elsewhere in EU then people would just use that.

Leave it to SE to make a giveaway that was extremely simple and efficient the last two times a complete and utter mess the third time.

Over 30 pages in, still no proper response. Can you not hear the outrage?

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Originally Posted by Spethah

Over 30 pages in, still no proper response. Can you not hear the outrage?

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What was worse than what would've been no response is an automated response, cut and paste with information from their announcement :mad:

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Originally Posted by Spethah

Over 30 pages in, still no proper response. Can you not hear the outrage?

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What sort of "response" do you expect? The deal's been done, the codes have probably already been printed. The first magazine is out in a matter of hours.

They're not going to pull back and not do the deal anymore. This is the crappy decision they've made and we can vote with our wallets and show them we're not dolts that will fall for crap like this. I don't care enough about some crappy glamour stuff.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Note: Separate campaigns offering the same in-game items are currently being planned for those residing in: France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Nordic territories. Further details on these campaigns will be posted at a later date.

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I actually posted that on the first page... in my post you quoted, I was talking that IF SE used something like this for here (or other parts of the world)... not that it was going to be used again... hopefully

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Originally Posted by Pineconette

We already got stiffed by not being able to buy the physical collectors edition, I collect dragons so I was really disappointing. A total farce.....

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I know... I have a nice collection of assorted dragons as well and then that debacle happened... how that was handled here in Australia... ugh...

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Originally Posted by Culfinrandir

WARNING: ⚠

I ordered a Gamesmaster subscription as soon as it was announced (before the issues started) because the website *CLEARLY* stated that it would begin with the next issue (which would be August - 306). Once I got my account access I checked & it said it would begin with the September issue - 307. Obviously I was annoyed & emailed them & still await a response.

At 23:15 BST I received an email from Gamesmaster stating my subscription begins with the OCTOBER issue (308). I'm fuming. I have been misled right through the process from being told by the website I'd receive the next available issue right through to now being told I'll only get one of the three required.

There's going to be repercussions to this, especially as they offer no easy way to reject the purchase as required by EU & UK law. They really poked the Ked's nest by messing with me.

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Yeah, I had a feeling this company was bad news, even before I looked them up (and posted about them earlier in this thread). Very shady company imo.