SE customer "service" is likely the worst I've ever dealt with.

[Clyve]

SE's storefront is not the easiest to navigate. I'm not the only one that has had trouble with this, and their customer service (if it can even be called service) is even worse. The short of it is that I mistakenly purchased a Mac key instead of a PC key, not realizing that a game would have different keys for expansions based on OS even though they connect to the same servers.

One would think that because of this disparity in exact keys (no other MMO I've played has done this), they would be a little more separated on the store, and certainly wouldn't expect the Mac version to be listed first. Anyway, I digress...

Their support took 2 weeks to get back to me only to tell me that the store has a separate customer service. They took another week or so to get back and "Stan S." had this to say:

Thank you for contacting the Square Enix Store Support.
We inform you that once an activation key has been unlocked and its code made visible on the confirmation page, we are sadly not able to grant the client a refund. In your specific case, the code has indeed been already unlocked, which makes it impossible for us to grant you a refund on this purchase.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Regards, Stan
The Square Enix Store Team

I responded saying I don't want a refund, just an exchange for a key that I can actually use and the Mac key hadn't been activated yet. The response:

Should the code be unlocked under the confirmation page, we cannot issue you a refund. Please pardon any inconviniences that this may have caused you.

Best, Stan
The Square Enix Store Team

Again I responded, saying I don't want a refund and I'm certain it doesn't cost them anything to exchange an unused key and I'd like the matter to be escalated to someone with power to make actual decisions, to which I was met with:

sadly we cannot issue you a refund in this case. Pardon possible inconviniences!

Best, Stan
The Square Enix Store Team

No Stan, you are not Best. Basically refusing to escalate without even acknowledging my request to do so, I've since been ignored. This is some of the worst customer service I'd ever had. It's not lost on me that I clicked and bought the wrong thing, but I'm not an idiot and their store is not the most well laid out. In addition to this, it costs them NOTHING to simply burn the key I purchased by mistake and issue me a PC key in its stead.

I also bought the full game/SB for my GF and had it not been for the confirmation page asking for the delivery address, I wouldn't have realized that I was about to buy a physical edition and had to go back and correct that as well. This also happened to a friend of mine who purchased SB, almost buying the physical copy and had to correct his purchase as well.

Long story now longer, Square Enix customer "support" is complete garbage and I was wondering if there is anyone that needs SB for Mac that would like to exchange a PC key for it? It's pretty ridiculous that I have to come here and ask this kind of thing this day in age. Customer service teams should be smarter than this. I wish I knew some folks at media outlets to forward this kind of thing to.

[Lambdafish]

I'm sorry that SE couldn't help you with this, they are usually quite good to me with similar issues (I mistakenly bought FFXI seekers of adoulin, thinking that FFXI would come with it, and they gave me a refund so I could buy the complete edition that came with SoA). However, considering how easy the store page is to read, I would call this major negligence on your part, so SE isn't obligated to give you anything.



This is the FFXIV mac store page that you presumably bought from. On no less than 3 occasions does it tell you its the mac version.

[Clyve]

Yeah, silly me for not thinking that there would be different keys for different OS on an expansion for a game that connects to the same server anyway. Further silly me that the different OS versions aren't in separate sections, and that the Mac (least commonly used) version is listed first.

Point still stands that it costs them nothing to burn the Mac key and exchange a PC key, and it's ridiculous that they won't do this.

[Vaer]

Hmm, I'm guessing their policy is set up that way to prevent fraud, but they could just deactivate that key if it hasn't been applied to an account and exchange it. I think the store is run by a different company, maybe they can't actually check if the key has been used or not? They just assume if you have revealed the key it has been used.

You could try contacting SE directly instead of the store.

[SenorPatty]

Hmm, I'm guessing their policy is set up that way to prevent fraud, but they could just deactivate that key if it hasn't been applied to an account and exchange it. I think the store is run by a different company, maybe they can't actually check if the key has been used or not? They just assume if you have revealed the key it has been used.

You could try contacting SE directly instead of the store.

They told him to contact the store, which in itself is super stupid we're dealing with code activation, not the actual product in itself.

[ElazulHP]

Nope not the worst. You actually got a response. EA Customer Support is a black hole from whence nothing returns.

[VertoIncantation]

When ever i contact their support i get good service, but afterwards, i think they might sell my email to 3rd parties, cause in the following weeks i get about 5 spam emails a day.

[Vaer]

They told him to contact the store, which in itself is super stupid we're dealing with code activation, not the actual product in itself.

Oh, missed that. Yeah that's kind of odd. Maybe they could try using phone/chat support instead of what I assume was email since it took 2 weeks.

[Claviusnex]

You can always try small claims court. They can't use attorneys and the appropriate company officer has to appear before the court else you get a default judgement.

[Clyve]

You can always try small claims court. They can't use attorneys and the appropriate company officer has to appear before the court else you get a default judgement.

Haha, I imagine they'd ban my account at that point since you have to enter your SE account ID when you submit a ticket.

Honestly, I just want to play the expansion that I paid for (albeit an errantly purchased Mac key), in a game that I've been subscribed to for nearly a couple years. Their "go to hell if you don't like it" attitude because they figure people will just put up with their shit because they "need" to play their game is ridiculous. That I should have to try and find someone that needs but has not yet bought the expansion on Mac to trade them for a PC key when SE could simply deactivate my unused key and replace it is ridiculous. With behavior like this they are almost begging people to purchase digital games from key resellers just to make sure they don't get money.

And yeah, as someone mentioned earlier in the thread, I guess it's not the WORST customer service since they did respond, even though it took them two weeks to begin with. I guess that's better than nothing, making them almost the worst.