Yesterday we reported that Sony were selling Resistance: Burning Skies on the US PSN Store digitally for the full RRP of the game – $40. Here’s the original story.
Shortly (very shortly) after that post, Sony dropped the price, down $4 to $35.99. That’s better, but still a poor show given the massively reduced manufacturing costs of the digital version.
Although the time period that the game was ‘full price’ was short, naturally people bought the game, but according to one customer service rep, Sony aren’t giving out refunds for the difference.
There’s a post here on GAF apparently detailing an email reply regarding the $4 difference.
“Unfortunately, we cannot offer a credit due to the price decrease. I know how frustrating this is for you and I sincerely apologize,” says the rep.
The email then goes on to remind the gamer about a warrantee…
nouveller
This isn’t cool. I thought with the Vita, new slate and all; things would be done right.
But alas.
bigbaldwolf
He does go on to say “Shaking my f******g head. I was skimming through comments on the PS Blog and it seems they plan on making things right, but this response is such b******t that I had to share it.”
Maybe they are going to do the right thing after all
bmg_123
Yes Sony! Drive away the few customers you already have on the Vita with more moves like this, please!
tactical20
Doubt the kind of people who bought it for $40 are gonna miss $4 tbh.
KeRaSh
They probably won’t miss the 4$ but it just shows how much Sony really cares…
TSBonyman
It’s not a huge drop, might be a bit annoying for some i guess.
Jakster123x
Sony why? This is not helpful.
Omac_brother
To be fair, lets face it, we have all bought a game for one amount to find it drastically reduced in price the day after.
I bought Enslaved for £35 at release, only to see it drop to £25 the very next day and then down to £15 the week after.
Did I have a right to ask for a refund of the difference?
I can see why this is annoying, because I imagine that the $40 price tag was an error, but if you were happy to buy it at that price in the first place, dont moan when it gets reduced.
Tuffcub
*frantically clicks LIKE button*
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
Just more entitlement issues by gamers.
The price was clear. They bought at that price. The vendor has the right to change the price at any time. The vendor also has the right to compensate early purchasers or not.
This is basic economics.
Amphlett
Totally agree. Even the merest thought that someone should get a refund on the original price smacks of the ‘me, me, me’ attitude.
Your last sentence sums up my thoughts exactly.
JoshHood
Completely agree. People are so entitled sometimes. If something says $40, you buy it at $40, and get charged $40, you have no ‘right’ to demand it cheaper.
PoorPaddy89
I bought my Vita for £220. Not even a week later it became available – admittedly elsewhere – for about £200, perhaps less. I sighed. I got over it.
A lot of gamers, amongst other types of consumers, seem to have a crazy amount of self-entitlement now.
teflon
I find this subtly different, though, in two regards. Firstly, Sony have previously stated that there would be a 10% discount from RRP on PSN versions of full retail, so that this has now been revealed to be a misprice, those that bought in good faith should have those $4 restored to their accounts as a gesture of good will from Sony.
Secondly, it’s yet another in a huge catalogue of mistakes from Sony that has muddied the water from their PR teams. A similar thing happened with the release of the first GT5 DLC. In the EU, it was released on a Tuesday for a global release, and I bought on day one. The very next day it then has a discount applied for PS+ users, which was not mentioned previously. Quite rightly, I felt like I’d been tricked by Sony, but they realised that they’d messed up and so refunded the difference to all those caught out by this.
So whilst I agree that there is a huge amount of lame moaning about certain things, I don’t see this to be one of them. Sony need to get their act together and stop all these little slip ups occurring on a weekly basis, and then people won’t constantly feel so aggrieved.
teflon
Additionally, a lot of companies give you grace periods so that you can avoid being caught out like this. Apple have a no quibble 14 day return policy, so that if they release something new, or drop price you can switch up.
Amazon too will often automatically refund the difference if you paid at one price point, and then they lower the price very soon after.
There have even been a few examples of people contacting Blizzard, simply saying that they don’t think they really get on with Diablo 3, and would like a refund, and these have been granted.
Of course, all of this is off the back of that very odd email reply. So very disjointed and in evasive customer support mode. I fully expect that Sony will actually give a refund to those caught out by this, and the comments on the PS blog seem to suggest that this will be happening.
KeRaSh
It just shows that companies that actually care about their customers are willing to go the extra mile to strengthen that bond. I bought a Kindle for my girlfriend and two days later they dropped the price drastically and I got refunded the difference, no questions asked. Sony on the other hand makes an honest mistake by breaking their RRP -10% promise and tells their customers to deal with it.
4$ is not much but Sony should definitely work on its customer relationship. They are not doing that well from a financial standpoint. Pissing off loyal customers is not the way to handle such a situation…
KeRaSh
Oh, another example. I bought Borderlands on Steam and didn’t see the “cut content” label. After I found out that the game didn’t feature any gore I asked the Steam support if there was a way to convert my game to an uncut version but that wasn’t possible. I then asked for a refund and got my money back. No problem at all. Why is Sony trying so hard to be a dick?
Omac_brother
Agreed to a point. The $40 price tag was a mistake on Sonys part, $4 is $4 at the end of the day and I would feel aggrivated if I had bought it only to see it reduce in line with Sony’s previous 10% off digital statment.
But unless people vote with their wallets and dont buy games that are mispriced, Sony arnt going to take notice.
I know for a fact that I can get R:BS from a shop in Stoke market today for £35. I am going there as soon as I have finished work. I am spending the £4 on bus fares to get there, just because im not willing to buy R:BS for the PSN store price whih is excatly the same as RRP when Sony said they would price them 10% cheaper. They will still get a sale, but not digitally like Ive bought evey other Vita game I own until they sort the pricing out.
teflon
Just have to repeat that the blog manager has been replying and saying that they’re working to rectify the situation, which means that this really was just customer support not being clued in on the matter…
Emperor Rosko
Pfff, I honestly, and i mean honestly dont know why people swallow Sony/Microsoft bullshit week after week! Get online order some PC parts and build a gaming PC and enjoy the freedom of being able to buy digital games at stupidly low prices! Steam is the greatest platform developed in gaming! For instance, while you pay these prices for dumbed down console tripe, I pre purchased Max Payne 3 on Steam and recieved free copies of Max Payne 1, Max Payne 2 & LA Noire!!! When do Sony or Microsoft look after their consumers like that??
Sympozium
$4 lost… $4 that could’ve been spent on avatars.. themes.. and beer?
Its not really a big deal but the game alone should be cheaper than the retail counterpart.
Lymmusic
pricing whinge? Must be weds and ps store update day :) A day where the internets usage of the words epic and fail drastically increase. Not many whine about xbox lives absurd digital pricing model in uk, even though its the same as psn.. £50 for cod indeed…