Potential new sponsor, G2A - Yay or nay?

[Aniallation]

Uhh isn't that where all the hacked Ubi keys were sold?

"Hacked" no

 

Bootleg keys, yes. Purchased illegally or fraudulently. 

[AxelRantila]

They get the keys usually on steam sales or in humble bundles and stuff (or sometimes they're donated) and then sit on them until the price on them has gone up enough until they can make a profit. 

 

And in the OP he says they've been in talks for a lil while

Humble Bundle keys are only for personal use; it's clearly in their ToS

[acidydragon]

I used them once, and got double charged, tried to contact customer support, and had to spend around a month getting them to finally fix it.

[Lifeisataco]

Please no:(  G2a is pretty shady, And so far every other Sponsor has been helpful and unique.

[Feeron]

You're definitely correct in saying that it would be very useful in providing insight for the community, but based on this thread alone, the amount of backlash we would see from even having someone from the company on a show would be huge. I think in this situation the bad press outweighs the potential positives by far. Thanks for your feedback though.

 

I honestly don't think that the people here who don't support G2A being sponsored will have much disapproval in having a rep come to the WAN show. Although there are people who don't like G2A and people who do, I'd be very surprised if there isn't a majority of watchers who would be very interested in an interview with a G2A rep. There's no reason for them to be angry about having Linus and Luke asking a rep some questions, especially if the questions are regarding many of their concerns for the company's business practices, I assume the audience members will appreciate the interview. 

[Stanvard]

That's the issue... the "we're a marketplace, we just facilitate transactions" thing works for them, but if a viewer has a negative experience when we're vouching for them, it does put us in a weird spot. That's why I'm hoping to get some feedback about their customer support, as I think that's extremely pertinent to judging them as a potential sponsor...

That's what I was thinking. It could go well, or not so well. I haven't used G2A personally so I can't say which. But I would advise against jumping in with both testes first.

[Stanvard]

I used them once, and got double charged, tried to contact customer support, and had to spend around a month getting them to finally fix it.

Sucks.

[XxKINGxX40]

I understand completely if you proceed further with them as a sponsor, but their customer service is so terrible. So incredibly terrible. Let me give you a little story.

Last year, I bought Watch Dogs from them. I got a used key. No big deal, I get that sometimes mistakes happen. So I open a ticket with their support, and I send them the screenshots they request. After that, they told me to contact Ubisoft support and ask them when exactly the key was used. Ubisoft support told me they couldn't tell me that information. G2A basically says sorry, you're screwed there's nothing more we can do. I had to open a PayPal claim to get my money back.

I've bought from them about 10 times, and so far, that's the only problem I've had.

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

So, I take it anyone who said No to them being a sponsor, won't be buying from them if they became one? Yeah right.

Actually, yes, I wouldn't buy from them, even if they became a sponsor and gave me a AAA game for free. I boycott certain companies and brands and won't use their goods, even if they paid me to do so (another example being Ubisoft)

[MaxBunny]

Hey everyone!

I've been in initial discussions with G2A.com about potentially sponsoring LTT and our other shows. I've used them a few times in the past without issue, but a little Googling shows that public opinion about them is a little iffy...

So, before we move any further with this, I want your feedback. Should we explore this opportunity? Have you used G2A in the past? Was your experience positive or negative? Post your thoughts below.

 

Let me know down below. Would love to hear what you folks have to say.

Thanks!

Nick

NO!

 

They are unauthorized resellers. https://twitter.com/devolverdigital/status/466577590606520320  https://twitter.com/totalbiscuit/status/509467128328904704

They are in violation of several international laws, such as not guaranteeing a working product (even when they're the sellers) unless you pay extra for their insurance (which is a free right granted under trade laws). Using teamviewer to activate keys on your machine for you is NOT a legitimate business practice.

They're also a honeypot for stolen products. They're based in Hong Kong so their blackmarket is nearly untouchable. The amounts of violations they have against various companies is pretty crazy. In the US they'd have been shut down a long time ago.

 

I would strongly advise against taking money from companies like these. I know there's the "I got a key and it worked so stfu" crowd that doesn't care about the legalities of business or even their own rights (because supporting G2A means you're taking a crap on the laws that protect you as a customer), but you're better off ignoring them and staying legitimate.

[ofr057]

I would give it a miss.

As a company I wouldn't associate with a company with a dodgy background

[drok]

I wouldnt take the ubisoft hacked codes thing all that serious. The codes were probably from a cheap region eg. china etc. So when ubisoft saw the are losing moneys they quickly declared that it were hacked codes. You do need to activate codes afaik to make them work and getting them hacked and activated dunno sounds fishy but thats just my opinion.

 

About G2A i used them just once had to wait for my code for about 10 mins but at the end the game still works so no problem here.

[VladDragos]

Ive had a problem before when i was selling a game but the guys at CS where really fast and really nice! I love g2a!

[Paul567]

G2A does not have any verification that the keys they sell are legit, there have been cases where the keys sold on their site have been stolen. While G2A will protect the customer (refunds where they occur) they still allow people to purchase potentially stolen goods. This is not something I would want any part of.
 

Talk about G2A starts at 11:03
https://youtu.be/t-67CvWTQ0I?t=11m3s

[cyphon21]

Actually, yes, I wouldn't buy from them, even if they became a sponsor and gave me a AAA game for free. I boycott certain companies and brands and won't use their goods, even if they paid me to do so (another example being Ubisoft)

 

So when you buy your next GPU, feel free to send those free game codes my way! 

[Nowak]

Something else against G2A: they're spamming Gamespot.

 

 

I dunno about you guys but I wouldn't want a company that will willingly use spambots to advertise on gaming sites to sponsor LTT. That would reflect poorly on them, would it not?

[GzeroD]

Something else against G2A: they're spamming Gamespot.

 

I dunno about you guys but I wouldn't want a company that will willingly use spambots to advertise on gaming sites to sponsor LTT. That would reflect poorly on them, would it not?

You understand that that is probably someone selling that game through G2A spamming right.

 

as for all the people complaining about buying potentially stolen goods; I assume you take the exact same stand on craigslist, gumtree, ebay, and marketplace sellers on amazon?

[popy2308]

I've bought several games from them and haven't had any problems or need to go to support. I wouldn't mind having them as a sponsor but I can't comment on whether support is good or not.

[Curry]

I have actually used G2A to buy about 4 keys. They all worked perfectly, mind you that I did buy the G2A Shield with every purchase.

 

They really do strike me as a shady company. I dunno how much I trust their business practices as I have heard of Steam accounts being banned for using keys that were reported as stolen. I don't know if that claim is true, but at the same time... I'd hate to have any problems with my heavily invested Steam account. I think of G2A as a "Use at your own risk" sort of thing. It's not illegal, but very sketchy.

 

We all know about G2A. Some of us use them, but I wouldn't sponsor them. Keep LTT out of the fire. Last thing you want is someone to get scammed based upon a sponsor spot you guys agreed to.

[Jrx1216]

I've used them once, and while everything went smoothly, what I've heard about them since has made me weary of ever using them again

[RagnarokDel]

Uhh isn't that where all the hacked Ubi keys were sold?

yeah but they're not the ones who stole the keys. They're the market where the thief(s) laundered the keys.

 

 

 

I had to wait a week for Ubisoft support to confirm why i lost my FC4 key, then show G2A that information.

 

I wouldn't call that, "no questions asked"

Devil's advocate here. Or they literally had thousands if not 10s of thousand of support tickets because of it and they got to you a week later.

[K-Factor89]

This seems like a very touchy subject amongst the users here and a 50/50 ratio of good and bad responses. Having never used them in the past and reading the comments I would have to say no. Reason being, if it as spilt more 75/25 then yeah that seems like an "okay/good" ratio. But 50/50 is a bit low, too close to going into the negative for me. I read a few users said it took them a week or longer to get some troubles sorted out and were upset about that. However that timeframe seems reasonable to me, Amazon has taken that long for me before and I was perfectly fine with that. The company itself seems very promising, I would stick to my guns for now and say no but look back in a 6 months to a year and see if the companies reputation has gained some positive highway. Basically I would put them on a "Watch List". But hey that's just my opinion. 

[Juggernautilus]

Well, as long as they don't have annoying ads like on some twitch streams (ESL, faceittv) I am fine.

[maonayze]

I have used G2A about 4 or 5 times without any issues whatsoever. I buy from G2A though and not the third parties. Its usually a little bit more expensive (£2-£3) but I think its worth it as I am saving money anyway. I have never had any problems with keys etc..

 

There are a lot of people on this thread who are making allegations against G2A without any proof whatsoever. That's a bit unfair IMHO, when you have no evidence eitherway. However each to their own and everyone has their right to their own opinion and a right to choose whether to purchase or not.

 

Personally, I think that it's far worse that large corporate organisations spend thousands of dollars on "legal" ways of tax avoidance via loopholes. IMHO this is taking more food out of starving childrens mouths than anything G2A have done. I am not saying that selling illegal keys is right, it's certainly is not. However, I would like to say that the keys that G2A bought for FC4 could have been bought in good faith and that something like this can happen to anyone. If this site was illegal surely this practice would have been brought to its knees by a multitude of court orders and prosecutions by now? I really cant see EA or Microsoft letting anyone get away with it so blatantly.

 

I am also sure that thousands if not millions of people buy their games via G2A....It's far easier to find "Horror Stories" about anything that goes wrong than it is to find "Happy" stories about how easy it was to buy a product with great service, because we will hardly ever give credit to someone when everything works. It's human nature to have a whinge and a moan and slag off bad behavior or service than it is to slap someone on the back.

 

So I say that LTT has to make it's own mind up on this one. It's not really for us to do that. On the other hand they could well lose the faith of their 1.5 million subscribers and I dont want that either. They do a great job and I for one would like them to keep doing it. Hey Linus, any chance of the BenQ XL2730Z review soon. Cheers :-)

[Aaranu]

Ive used them a few times now to get around the Australia tax we have. Bought Hardline from them for 44 bucks, would have cost me 80 bucks if i bought from Origin. The game was not worth 80 bucks to me, so they got a sale from me, otherwise no way im paying full price for a very average game. Some money for Devs is better than no money.