Botched Online Services

[Freezeronias]

Hello everyone,

 

I shall try to check if I can find some flaws in my skepticism about my ongoing case with a missing DLC from a game from Ubi.

So to be precise, I will get a quick synopsis of the timeline of events to quickly summarize my case:
1. Got a key from an online service (NOT Ubisoft approved) for a GOLD Edition of Black Flag (14/3/2015).

2. Due to an overworked schedule from work, for at least 8 years in a row, which doesn't give me much time to game anymore... I decided to play the game from mid 2019 and ended the main story almost at the end of the year.
3. But when I tried to play the Freedom Cry DLC next, I was surprised that the DLC in question was non existent. P.S.> Everything else was present...
4. I tried then to get help from Ubisoft to check for my missing content but they sent me to the retailer.
5. Which by it's turn denied me any help, because they have a 2 year support obligation by law but no further.
6. Now, Ubisoft is just babbling around about online retailer which are approved by them only (to buy keys) and nothing more.

So, now... has I see it:
1. Why do I have to turn to the online service (not Ubisoft) which sold me a key, when the frakking Online Activation System (which was created, maintained and approved by Ubisoft to read the keys generated by, either the same system or a parallel one in Ubisoft) which should have granted me ALL of my DLCs by the time of the Activation...
2. And most importantly. why should I even bother to install a key and play it right away so that I would have the time to check that the activation checks out ? This is NOT a frakking car or a toaster! It's a frakking software with no date of peremption or any physical/material presence and most importantly STILL SOLD by the parent company...

P.S.> Sorry for my rant, but I had to vent and frankly, LTT is still looking back to me as one of the old dinosaur that I am (in terms of Computing ethics and matters...).

Cordially,
K.S.

[LogicalDrm]

1. Because store is responsible for content they sell, not Ubi. Ubi is publisher who sells or leases keys to stores or sell them in their own store. 2 year "warranty" is plenty for games in modern days. Its actually more than you get from buying physical or many other digital keys. It could be that key was from different package or something like that.

 

2. Because warranty/return period starts from the point of purchase. This goes with everything you buy. Doesn't matter if you buy phone now and use it 4 years later. The warranty period has started product is purchased, not when its taken into use or registered. With exception of online platforms such as Origin and Steam which have the 24-48h return-after-activation period besides the 2 weeks from purchase.

 

In the end, you got screwed, but since in digital era its easier for the stores to brush you off... There's little to none to do. I might seem bit cynical in here, but I've had couple of these in past. With Ubi too. I bought Anno 2070 in Steam sale. For one, at the time I started actually playing it required Ubi account and using Ubi launcher. Annoying, but fine. The more frustrating part is that game relys on constant server connection if you want to play it. And when I returned to it after few busy years, the servers were shutdown. I had same issue with one indie game. that too could have well been left offline mode by devs, but they didn't. So now I have 2 games I can't play since the servers are dead.

[Freezeronias]

I am sorry but I will to disagree (plenty) but not without explaining myself...

I am working under an ISO protocol, as a client service export manager (for a little more than 8 years now) and I will try to defend myself as such...

A lease or sell, is still a property (and most importantly, the rights but also the accountability for everything related to the damages or missing content) of the parent company which issued the keys (governing property).
When you get a car or a hi-fi, the parent company is still the one accountable (EVEN if you have [or not] to get by the intermediate which you bought the item in the first place). Just imagine a retailer, as physical barrier, between you and the parent company, which serve as rebound node for your every needed support and scamming process which will be applied to you.
Now... A key is shelved until bought and used. But when the online service that created and is still used online, then, I really don't see why I should pay for the mistakes of their system (IT IS NOT a frakking box with physical items in which you COULD lose, misuse or brake when placed. IT IS a single key which encompass everything.
The intermediate doesn't even have to be there, and is completely useless in each case. I redeem and I should get whatever I shall have... Period.

Now, do mind that I am not a very young man anymore (you can imagine that I started with an Amiga 500 and a MegaDrive, as a kid). The issue that I see there is quite easy to check on the newer generation... They don't know, what they should have and for myself, I don't what to contemplate an industry which is blooming on a capitalized world content which by the way, as you don't have any physical copy in hand (and in which, I would have a key for EVERY content), can tell you that the are going bankrupt and then shutdown the frakking services from one day to another.
 

If I accept, the screw over, THEN I shall stop using Humble Bundle (which after several years, I am still not going to play more than a third of my games) and any other service, and turn to piracy (which in turn will give me a piece of mind that I will NOT be screwed again in content). Capitalism (and my greediness for more than I can chew) is the very killer of the model itself...but the companies live (literally) from that.

So... Ubisoft is just braking their trust and in turn, I don't want to use their services anymore (nor I can sell, the frakking games that I "own" already, which is one more of the issues that was intended to be blocked by an e-store). It's quite a shame to lose (even) one person when it's for a content that should have been there in the first place.
EA store in turn (yeaaaah, I will say it...) was more than generous on the help provided but also their honesty when needed (and did even offer a coupon for the next buy in the store), as they know that (even if they are bad, very very bad in the corporate management), a satisfied client is a returning client.

To be clear... I am past the age to have the "need" to play a game and use the gaming only as a way out to steal some time for me (when not overworked as hell, or in need to take care of my physical world which is plenty of good surprises and beauty...). And to be frank, my rant has to do with their attitude and nothing else..., as the only thing that I want is to receive the content which is due (and not even play it...).

P.S.> Pardon my long post and any orthographic/grammatical mistakes, as English is not my native language (and not even second , to be frank).
And thanks for the listening/reading.

[LogicalDrm]

15 hours ago, Freezeronias said:

A lease or sell, is still a property (and most importantly, the rights but also the accountability for everything related to the damages or missing content) of the parent company which issued the keys (governing property).
When you get a car or a hi-fi, the parent company is still the one accountable (EVEN if you have [or not] to get by the intermediate which you bought the item in the first place). Just imagine a retailer, as physical barrier, between you and the parent company, which serve as rebound node for your every needed support and scamming process which will be applied to you.
Now... A key is shelved until bought and used. But when the online service that created and is still used online, then, I really don't see why I should pay for the mistakes of their system (IT IS NOT a frakking box with physical items in which you COULD lose, misuse or brake when placed. IT IS a single key which encompass everything.
The intermediate doesn't even have to be there, and is completely useless in each case. I redeem and I should get whatever I shall have... Period.

This is only part I have hard time agreeing. You, as someone who works in the industry, should still understand how warranty and responsibility of content goes. For some odd reason, seems like you either don't understand, or think that digital keys are somehow different than buying sealed copy of Metallica CD only to find out the disc is for One Direction. This is about consumer protection laws. Nothing more than that. The 2 years is plenty for digital content as I said. Its more than what stores have been given since CD copying became mainstream. You, as a customer, have both rights and responsibilities. Your right is to get what you have paid for. Your responsibility is to check that product you received is what you had paid for. If not, file complaint to store. If store is unable or unwilling to assist, take it to manufacturer/publisher. If they are unwilling to assist, take it to consumer protection agency. Thats how it goes here and most other EU countries. The digital era has some difficulties for finding the responsible party and getting justice, so to say. But doing so after stores or manufacturers part of the deal has ended, it really is a brick wall.

[Freezeronias]

LoL, sorry mate, but I can't take it as industry thing (please, don't take it as an insult, we are here to discuss a theme and I really like a good conversation). A conversation starts always by a disagreement and what should arise of it, will be the sum of all the opinions expressed (Agora 101). 

In the industry in which I work, we are actually still in obligation for each and every product (custom made for all the clients of our clients) for the lifetime of the product... And the lifetime can be very, very long... And the frakking client can give you shit for a non visible by the naked eye difference between 0,09mm and 0,13mm (which is a real claim by the way, that cost us more than Χ0.000 euros in damage). We are making products all over the world and for all the big sharks (sorry, I meant industries) of the world market...

But most importantly, we actually are in obligation to repair, modify or even change a product which is not compliant to the standard imposed between the 2 parties and in which the final client can maybe not even see it. And believe it or not, we are working on a micron scale... 

Anyway, there is no need to continue on this path. I can see that the consumerism is strong in the people and believe it or not, laws have to be modified to reflect just cause. Laws should not be taken as granted as long as there is no logic behind it or wasn't adapted to meet new standards, this is about evolution (or not in this case). But, if you want to actually be quite stiff, then laws are laws and your chain of action (which is still a chain of bureaucracy to remediate their problems) is valid. Jumping the chain is only done when people (of the high order, or scamming people as I use to say) get something between the blurred lines... And you don't "usually" make money without screwing a bunch of people...

If you think that 2 years are plenty, then as I said, I should stop to be a mass consumer and deny money to whatever business asks for my money. Ain't playing it, ain't buying it.

So, to be fair... This is not my loss but this is the actual loss of the industry in general which thrive upon bad business practices and consumerism as a trend. I shall stop be a polyvalent tool (which opens a bunch of paths to work on at the same time) and get back to the old human male standard: work it or use it until you fix it or break it, and nothing else until then.
And to be even more harsh on the bad habits, class action suit are the only effective way to get a wrong to turn right even after a law doesn't shield you upon the issue that is arising absolutely nothing else.