Really weird behavior and loss of turbine points on my rogue

[Montrose]

Heya,

Ok, so I'm not sure what to do here. The loss of points was my fault, but it was my fault because I was operating under bad data from the game. So I'm not sure if asking for a refund is viable or what.

The details:
I logged on with my rogue (Gennot of Thelanis) and noticed that my attack speed was really high. I thought this was just a change to the game and was really excited. I mean, I was attacking FAST. It was pretty awesome.

So I do a quest, and I'm tearing things up. Playing my rogue has never been this fun before. Then I notice an oddity with my hitpoints. I only have like 200. I go to the character details tab and notice that all that is being counted is base + con bonus. Weird.

I take off and put on various pieces of equipment and my hitpoints go up. Ok, that's cool. But my toughness feat and enhancements still aren't being counted. Then I mouse over my stats and notice I have no inherent bonuses. Ok, well I don't play the character all that much so maybe I never bought a supreme tome. It's possible.

So I buy a supreme tome and eat it. Things are still weird (still not getting feat bonuses) so I log out and log back in. Now my hitpoints are correct (yay) but I noticed that my inherent bonuses are weird. My dex is +0 but my con is +3. I know I would have used at least a normal +2 dex tome on this guy. Well, whatever, I use my birthday cake (I told you I rarely play this character!) and do +2 dex tome. So I eat it.

Then I get to thinking... wait.. I just bought and ate a supreme tome a half hour ago... how could my dex have 0 inherent bonus? Wait... I *know* I've eaten a tome on this character previously. So I look through my purchase history and, sure enough, I had previously bought a supreme tome on that character.

I got bummed and considered putting in a support ticket, but really it's kind of my fault and kind of not. I mean, I *did* spend the points but I spent them because the game told me data that was not true.

What should I do? Can I reasonably expect a refund for this? I have been a VIP continuously since 2006 and I don't think I've asked for a refund on points before. I'm not trying to be scammy here (I have like 27000 points). I've bought the expansion. I've pretty much been a model customer.

I really like the expansion (graphics are amazing) and I'm not going to ragequit or anything if I don't get my points back, but I would really be happy if this was something y'all could help me out on.

Thanks,
Gennot of Thelanis

[Montrose]

Oh, by the way, my attack speed went back down to normal after I logged back in the first time. I was a sad panda.

But man, you should have seen me when I had that fast attack bug going. Wow.

[daVoyd]

For this particular issue, you may want to get a hold of Account Support. They can take a look and see what they can do for your purchase of the Supreme Tome. The information on how to contact them is in my signature. They will be happy to help you out the best they can

[Montrose]

Thanks, I will submit a ticket now using the information in your sig.

[Montrose]

Heya Folks,

Just thought I'd drop an update in here with a little bit of feedback as well.

I got a response from Turbine support which was less than optimal. The resolution of the issue is fine (no refund, oh well, it wasn't that big of a deal to me). The sub-optimal part is the email that I got explaining the resolution, which comes off as defensive and blame-the-victim.

The response, distilled down to it's base message, is an off-putting mix of "RTFM" and "Caveat Emptor". I get that there is a confirmation message. I know that I can see a description of what the item does. In my support request (which was just a copy/paste of the original post for this thread) I acknowledged that the points were spent freely and of my own accord.

What I would have preferred is some level of understanding of the reason the issue came about (servers reporting bad data about my character) and at least a small bit of empathy that this bad data caused a purchase I would not have made otherwise.

The response that I got was unsatisfactory, and the final sign off "powered by our fans" almost comes across as an extra little dig considering that I've been paying for this game since 2006.

At this point I am not looking for a refund and I'm not going to quit the game or rage further on the forums, but it is my sincere hope that someone with some authority takes this feedback to the customer support team and says "Hey Guys, telling our users that they are idiots is perhaps not the best approach to solving their issues."

Your customers are real people and our issues, while not important in the grand scheme of things, are meaningful to us.

Thanks for listening,
Gannot


Here it the response from Turbine, unedited except for the removal of my name:

/****************** BEGIN ************************/
Greetings [Me],

Thank you for your inquiry. We have reviewed your account in detail, and see that the previous purchase of the +2 Tome of Supreme ability was purchased on a different character. Please note that your point history is for the entire subscription, not a specific character.

We do apologize, but we are unable to provide refunds, returns or exchanges for any Store purchases. Descriptions of all items and services are available to be reviewed prior to the purchase, and the system does require multiple confirmations prior to completing the purchase and debiting the points from your account.

Additionally, the confirmation pages do warn that all sales are final. Again, we do apologize that we are unable to assist you with your request. We encourage you to always fully review any purchases prior to completing the transaction.

We do recommend you contact a GM in game if you encounter specific difficulties with your character.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please respond to this email and we will be happy to assist you. Please do not update the default subject line in your reply.

Thank You,
Turbine Customer Support
Turbine, powered by our fans.

/****************** END ************************/

[Montrose]

Last update, promise! :-)

In the interest of full disclosure, I sent roughly the same feedback as I posted here to the customer support alias. They apologized for the tone and issues a refund, which was great of them to do.

In case it's not clear, I am overall very happy with DDO and I won't let this one-off experience color my perception. I am happy to receive the apology and the points are just a bonus.

Thanks,
Gannot