Charged for the game 15 days early, never purchased 1.0, screwed by CS. (livechat)

[Felis]

From the perspective of a lowly CSR, maybe this is correct.

But from a marketing perspective, this is not "free" stuff; this is a relatively small loss in the interest of retention, and to prevent posts like this from popping up over the internet. For comparison's sake, just see google results of "Square Enix Support" vs. "Nordstrom Returns."

And to be fair, the OP did purchase a new copy of ARR with a 30-day trial;

Which the OP can't have used already, because you can't register the same platform version twice to the same service account.

I'm sure he registered only his preorder key, got EA, 14 days "welcome back" and 7 days because servers hiccup and that was it.

OP, have you bought the box or digital download? If the box, then the card with the real gamekey should be look like the left one:

[Zenaku]

The problem I see is that you used the 1.0 Buddy Pass which were gifted free full accounts of the game because it was doing so poorly. So even though you didn't like the game and didn't use the game, you still owned the game thus you are a 1.0 account holder.

Buddy pass was not giving out because the game was doing poorly it was part of the CE.

[MattReaver]

Sorry to hear. Definitely sucks. Not sure why that is in the user agreement.

SE should change this to allow the redemption of that key on your account. If it redeemed in the first place under that account and gave you 30 days you probably wouldn't have called.

The supervisor seems like he had his hands tied too cuz of the agreemnt.

[Gourry]

All i have to say is, i work in web chat customer support and if i responded to a customer in some of the ways that CSR did and then I told HIM that basically kk were done with you then disconnected the chat like that id be fired in moments.
that's not helping the customer that's fighting with them "winning"
whether the OP was right or not is really irrelevant at this time, it is incredible to me that a customer service department chose to make an unhappy and angry customer and save a pathetically small amount of money.
never fall into the trap of thinking customer supports hands are tied lol that's complete shit there is always something they can do, give free codes or add time extend things and refund, all they had to do was refund tiny bit of money and that would of solved it all, customer service dept unable to give refunds? lol i think not.
But that all being said, Welcome to Square Enix Customer Support. It has never been good, helpful or even slightly easy to find its a shame, a real shame if they were any other line of business their customer support would of shut them down long ago.

[Besbeset]

I feel sorry that this guy from SE customer support had to deal with your "good manners".
I bet you have never worked as a customer support, but you really should try it out at least once so you can see by your own how does it feels when people talks to you in the way you did.

He gave you an answer, and the correct one for what I read. It was clearly stated by 1.0 launch that those codes worked like a full 1.0 version of the game (no a collector's neither a trial version).
You don't liked the response, but that isn't that persons fault.

Manners please. Behave like adults. Saying things like "you are stealing my money and my time" aren't gonna help anyone, it just turns people upset.

[Fenrisen]

SE's customer service is shit. bought ARR collectors edition from their store using a visa debit, they charged it like a credit card and I ended up not getting refunded for the pre order hold charge. I have essentially paid twice for the game, when I phoned Digital River they told me it isn't their problem (It is) and that it's my banks job to refund my money now (It isn't). The CSR was completely wrong, not helpful at all, and has made a small matter of refunding my money into a giant hassle that my bank has to investigate.. They've promised that I'll get my money back, but how many other people paid online with visa debit cards and won't notice their money missing? It's ridiculous.

[Alhanelem]

Digital River != SE.

SE's customer service is not shit, it's gotten a lot better over the years and I have never had a bad experience. The CSR in this thread did exactly what I would have done, and gave out correct information, was completely helpful and truthful, it was the customer not willing to accept the help, rather than help not being given.

They've promised that I'll get my money back, but how many other people paid online with visa debit cards and won't notice their money missing? It's ridiculous.

I paid with a visa debit card and had no issues. I had a $1 hold, like everyone, not just debit card users, would have, and everything was fine. In fact, generally debit cards should be run as credit for safety reasons, unless you are at a grocery store or other similar place and want cash back (as you can't get cash back if it's run as credit).

Just because you had one experience that didn't go your way, doesn't mean that their CS is "shit" all the time, and most of the time it in fact isn't. People just complain very loudly.

[tort]

Is there any reason you came off as an asshole right out of the box? Being courteous will get people to bend the rules for you. It isn't Square's fault that you were a nub and bought the game when you didn't need to.

Is there a reason you didn't read the original post, and see that I didn't come out as an asshole right out of the box, and was for the most part not upset during the entire conversation?

Should I have opened with "Hi I like fluffy kittens and rainbows, porkchops and apple pie and all things nice and sweet." or should I have done as I did, and got straight to the point and explain my issue to the CSR, instead of beating around the bush.

[Alhanelem]

Should I have opened with "Hi I like fluffy kittens and rainbows, porkchops and apple pie and all things nice and sweet." or should I have done as I did, and got straight to the point and explain my issue to the CSR, instead of beating around the bush.

Your mistake was you didn't accept what the CSR was telling you as truth, when it in fact was the truth. The last CSR ended the conversation after telling you the only thing he could tell you, and you were being angry about it.

[ZohnoReecho]

As they said your service code is still valid. Why don't you "sell" it to a friend? You could ask him to pay the 15 days you lost and play the game together