Preorder Expansions taken away then deleveled

You know, I'd venture to say that it hasn't "always been known" regarding previous expansions -- otherwise this thread would not exist. In fact, I'd also go so far as to say that no one would be complaining at all if it was simply stated somewhere very visible that this was the case (ie: the page where you pre-order , NOT the forums -- this is an awful place to state "policy" on such a matter)

Bit of a stretch to call confused players expoiters, wouldn't you think?

Yeah ... actually most of us complaining are not trying to exploit anything. In 10 years CoTF is my first pre-order (mostly due to timing.

I bought it for my FTP alt with no expectations. Logged in to check, saw I had 20/20 so started playing. NEVER did it occur to me that I should log in to the forums and research pre-order expansions mechanics to make sure I should be able to play VOA and ROF.

And yeah I'm mad and am now stuck with my alt account that is useless and $15 down the drain for a gold sub. Just typical SOE BS in the mistakes they make and how they treat subscribers in the aftermath.

It has always been known? Obviously not to ANY person I talked to in game prior to pre ordering CoF. It is not up to the user to hunt for information on a bug they didn't even know was a bug. The people that were purposely "exploiting" this means they would have known it was a bug and as such would NOT be the ones here complaining....

Having an unusable character until the expansion launches is UNACCEPTABLE.

This times 100.

I just wanted to say it would be my preference to be charged immediately after purchase. I haven't pre-ordered yet; been waiting on the release date announcement.

First of all, not everyone is up to date with Sony's policy on pre-ordering an expansion; There's quite a handful of new and returning players. Secondly, why are you insinuating that the population is purely out to exploit this disaster? I'd really expect more out of someone from Township Rebellion. This problem is only going to hurt EverQuest, and in return effect you as a player.

All in all this is pretty . The people who aren't aware of this policy, new and returning players, are the same members that SOE wants to keep in the fold. Yet, they make errors like this that puts off said players. For those of you getting crappy with people that didn't know this policy, it's not something that is readily available so stop preaching.

I say revert the accounts back to before the rollbacks and those that don't follow thru with the preorder treat them like silver members, in so far that they can't level past their current level and can't purchase any(more) RoF AA's etc.

Also, to those of you canceling your preorders. It will do nothing. In fact, it has proven to do nothing time and time again. Simply look up Leerah, and how many times this person has said that they are going to do x, y or z. If you want acknowledgement from SOE and get an actual response, flood the forums with threads until they are forced to respond.

There are only 2 raiding guilds on my server, and a number of new recruits from both guilds (that filled slots of people that have quit) have been lost due to this issue. This definitely effects other people beyond the ones that got screwed.

Greetings,

Nothing associated with a pre-order should have been delivered prior to the order being fulfilled. This has been our policy for years, and it's one that makes sense: you get your stuff when you pay for it. I was pretty surprised when I saw notes of players receiving part of the purchase on pre-order (note my previous response was negative about receiving the expansion early). I'll look into what was done and hopefully get you folks more information later today. I need to talk to some folks around the office before I make a more formal statement.

Generally, although this isn't a common occurrence, when a toon is deleveled for some reason due to expansions not being on the account the levels are returned once the expansions are re-enabled. That isn't a lot of comfort right now I know, but it should help when the expansion is released.

Thanks,

Hey, there's finally a response from a representative. Thanks for the information regarding this issue. You guys have quite a unique and bizarre policy on pre-ordering an expansion. Maybe you should make sure people actually realize they're not paying for it now. Anyway, I've cancelled my order and won't be renewing my subscription. Thanks for the week of fun boys!

Why don't you change policies on pre-orders then? Why not charge people at the time they pre-order the next expansion and give them access to all of the previous expansions immediately?

Many returning players like to get back into the groove a couple of months before an expansion hits. You're current policy discourages this.

It's something we've talked about several times. One of the things that has made us hesitate in this regard is the idea of charging for something before we deliver that something. There are ways we can do this but it's not been the policy for years. I'll bring the topic up again for future releases however.

So what are current, paying, subscribers to do if their character has been de-leveled and now cannot wear any of their gear, or use a chunk of their AAs through no fault of their own? Think it's time SOE bites the bullet on this one instead of the few consumers left, allow 19/20 expansions and charge for the preorder when its released.

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to this thread. I would simply ask that when discussing what to do about this mess up that you keep in mind there are people who cannot play their characters due to their gear being completely unusable, and people that will cancel their pre-orders (like myself) because they will not be able to reach 100 prior to its launch without spending an additional 40 dollars. I suggest that the pre-order be charged when pre-ordering like most other companies do. This is not a kickstarter project, we are not crowdfunding here. You don't need to worry about paypal freezing your account for selling something that doesn't exist yet.

I really don't want to have to look for another MMO again :/

Do you see the irony of this statement since we are going to a staggered content release...

Piestro I'm also glad you're at least reading these, and want to present this as yet other returning players see it.

After years my wife and I decided to try the game again. We simply preordered, went gold, and played. We simply played the game we thought we'd purchased, and based our decisions of how to spend time on what was delivered. We added extra gold accounts without preordering them, to support and level our mains.

We would NOT have spent the extra money if the policy was actually clear. We also don't understand why, if you planned to revert, you waited for weeks and drew in more people based on how it was working.

So - the preorder was working one way, there was no communication or clear way to know what was happening. All it would have taken was changing the MOTD immediately so everyone knew. Why didn't you?

It's not the policy, it's the lack of trust in the company after letting this go for weeks. It's like buying a new car in which the the manufacturer inadvertently put in too good a music system, and they show up and rip it out. It feels like bait and switch even though not meant that way.

My wife is livid and about to blow off all your games now, please use whatever influence you have to convince your management to just admit it was an error but one you can afford to eat for the weeks until release

Technically speaking, you are being charged at time of purchase, since the purchase doesn't occur until the content becomes available.

I know that you mean that you would prefer to be charged at the time you place your order, but that would place some legal obligations on SOE that they are probably not willing to accept. By accepting cash in advance SOE would be entering a contract with you to deliver the product by a specific date. There is an intended release date but doodoo happens. Under certain conditions, release dates get pushed back. If they have received payment and the release date gets pushed back, they would be in breach of contract in some jurisdictions. Accepting cash in advance could put SOE into a lose/lose situation if things don't go according to plan.

Did SOE screw up? Yes, they did. They unlocked and opened a door that should have not been unlocked and opened, yet.
Did the people that took advantage of it screw up? Yes, they did. They incorrectly assumed that an open door was an invitation.
Will SOE do anything about their mistake? Maybe, but understand they have no legal or moral obligation to do so.

I understand the rub now.

If a FTP player pre-orders the expansion - that gave them two weeks of buying/looting RoF gear.

Before the expansion comes out, they cancel the pre-order and continue FTP.

When the expansion comes out --- the FTP players now have access to lvl 95 and VoA, but they still have their RoF gear which they should NOT have.

Is that the crux of this witch hunt?

Will the FTP players be able to equip RoF gear even though they don't own the expansion?
Will SOE go thru and pluck all that RoF gear from all the FTP accounts? I think not

RoF gear is not locked to the expansion. I have a full set of 92 "RoF" gear that would be usable if I were simply level 92. I don't know of any sub 95 gear that you can get in RoF that is no trade.

what is the benefit in this if they cancel? they get rolled back to lvl/aa that is unlocked to them? or they get their entire AA line blocked? i dont see this as a win at all.