Optional Items paid for by real money and predatory practices

[Benesato]

I took a break starting in November 2024, and came back last month. One of the 7.1 changes was "outfits" in glamour. While going through this, I came across the Peacock set. Missing the shoes, I began to search for them. I had additional retainers, and the game doesn't search these inventories without them being active. I repurchased all 3, so I could search through these inventories, found nothing. $6.00 down, not that much, still a bit sad that the inventory couldn't be searched without the cost and I had no plans to reinstate them.

Time to submit ticket. I can go online to SE store and see the purchase. Ticket received, message back, please add in additional information. Did so, adding "I have no idea when the item was lost". Today I received my answer, can not restore due to "Item being lost longer then one week" and "GM can not find any log of item loss". WHAT?

How does this make sense in a digital item setting? This is not an item found, seasonal event, tradeable or sellable. This is something I purchased with additional fees, and there is a receipt on their website that proves the purchase. Yet the GM responding "Found no log of item loss". This item is a digital entity. It does not require physical materials, does not require additional time for an employee to respond with as the GM still has to respond regardless and chose to deny it. And in order to turn this set into it's intended "outfit", I need to purchase a second set?

I can understand if the item had a high value exchange, was tradable, can be earned again, or had a player available reclaim option in place. No, this is a bit higher in the form of disrespect to a paying customer base.

Personally, this is predatory business practices, and having known prior to purchase, I would of chosen not to. I do know that I will never use the store again, and am atm considering not resubbing. It's not the item itself, but the lack of resolve. The morals of the matter over the cost. There should be two things that would keep these systems from being predatory. One is that even if we can't obtain the item, all retainers within the player's database should be searchable regardless of subscription. Second, if the item requires real money (outside of dyes and items that have use counts) there should be a reclaim button on the site incase of loss, as the verification of purchase exists and shouldn't require a 3rd party to safeguard against untradeable/unsellable items.

Why is this set up this way?

[wulfy66]

I mean the online store is the only profit that is 100% Yoshi P's and the devs guaranteed by squeenix, whilst the sub money is taken by approx 70% for other games. Our sub money brought us such flops like Forespoken, and funded 16.

[USAFJerrySo]

I mean the online store is the only profit that is 100% Yoshi P's and the devs guaranteed by squeenix, whilst the sub money is taken by approx 70% for other games. Our sub money brought us such flops like Forespoken, and funded 16.

Don't forget Life is Strange 3 & NFT's

[Iscah]

Firstly, you cannot simply be "missing" the shoes. Either they're in an obscure inventory or you threw them out.

More importantly though, you don't want to be putting them in the dresser anyway because paid outfits can be put in the armoire and it's a better deal all round. (I'm not sure why they even bothered adding the outfit option for them.) It doesn't cost prisms, doesn't take up any dresser slots, and – most relevant for you right now – they are inserted as individual pieces so it doesn't matter that you don't have the shoes.

[ConantSivrha]

Firstly, you cannot simply be "missing" the shoes. Either they're in an obscure inventory or you threw them out.

Buying a cosmetic in a video game for real money, discarding it (accidentally, it would seem, since OP has no memory of doing this), and not being able to get it back without repurchasing the entire set isn't an ideal situation no matter how you slice it. These items can't be traded and give no advantage outside of the way they look. There's no good reason why people like OP shouldn't be able to get a replacement set from the Calamity Salvager or some such if they've already purchased the set for the character before. But they can't, and that's the result of either pure laziness, or a choice to exploit these situations for a few more dollars.

[Kuroka]

Honestly? if you bought/got ANY set and trashed pieces due lack of space and they added the feature now, you should be able to claim the missing pieces for free to make a set full... they didnt even tease theyre working on it for so many years, so ofc i trashed that far eastern headpiece i dont like... but that now stops me from making it a set and saving 4 slots >_>

[Iscah]

...so ofc i trashed that far eastern headpiece i dont like... but that now stops me from making it a set and saving 4 slots >_>

Again – stick it in the armoire, not the dresser. You don't need the missing piece and it will take up zero dresser slots instead of one.

[ServerCollaps]

i think se has anything but predatory practices...
Other games like eso have hairstyles change your haircolor when "equipping" them and you have to buy a 15€ character rework to change it back to a color that you like. This is predatory.. or selling ingame houses for 100+ € (also eso)

ff14 has one of the cheapest cash shops that i can think of, across many many popular games

the only "predatory" thing is gating emotes behind 200€ statues, haha

[Benesato]

Again – stick it in the armoire, not the dresser. You don't need the missing piece and it will take up zero dresser slots instead of one.

I think you're missing the point. While it is possible that they could of been deleted, there are other possibilities too. Coding isn't perfect, and yes when updating item databases or moving items around there is still a small chance of an issue. Or are you claiming bugs do not exist and errors can not happen in computer software? I already know and actively use the Armoire whenever I can. It's actually another frustration as there is plenty of items that should be in the Armoire that are not, and go into the glam dresser. Those obscure inventories you spoke of validates my point that they do not allow you to search retainer inventory without it being active, which is in my opinion predatory. I repurchased them, but I didn't want to in the first place. Secondly, like I said before, there is ZERO way to reclaim something you paid money for, regardless of the reason it is missing. If the item has zero economic value, has no counted usage, and is locked down to an account then why is there no automated reclaim? I appreciate you sticking up for SE, but I've been on MMOs for 25 years, and I've seen online markets in all genres of gaming. As well as the fact you claiming "I don't need the missing piece to make the set, drop it in the armoire" while functionally is true, overlooks the fact that I purchased it and the item is now gone. I've seen errors, I've made mistakes, I've seen and read of others mistakes, as well as game devs explaining why some bug wiped out something or why some server crash or error at one given moment cause something to not write to memory. All this was taken into account as I tried to find and retrieve this item. With well over 800 items in Armoire and Dresser plus what's in the Choco Saddle and 5 retainers.. it is possible to not notice when something was missing. I also know there are devs who are rushing through tickets, and devs who do not have all the tools required to handle a ticket. That's probably why when I responded to their answer, I received communication that is has been sent to someone else (most likely higher in the chain) and now being investigated and it will take more time to do so then the normal ticket.

But the biggest point of frustration you're not mentioning is SE's response when I did reach out initially, and refusing to help on a cash item that could easily be searched for both in inventory and in proof of purchase. Their response was insulting to my intelligence. "GM can not find any log of item loss", yet in 15 seconds I can pull up the transaction on their own website, and in less time item search for it in game and see zero. Logic should step in at this point, and it did not. Had I of left it at that the loss would be absolute. What is your defense for them on this?