Amazon Says Mass Effect 3 Refunds Aren’t Unique

yeah, Amazon is really cool

@fritzon: they sell it back as used for 42$ (current price on their website) but those 42$ are 100% theirs which is probably more money then their normal "New Game" sale share

But is it the right thing to do..........

This whole thing is getting really old. Haters love to shit on everything.

@gla55jAw said:

Amazon is really great with their customer service, my sister just bought a DVD and it didn't work in her player for some reason, they gave her a full refund and she didn't have to ship it back.

I've also had items damaged due to shipping/packaging, and they sent me a replacement next day air. They're the best.

Yep. Being a bad customer now will only hurt the consumer, later.

i don't know what the ending is but I'm just going to ASSUME its not a super happy perfect ending, and that you can just use an FAQ to make it a happy perfect ending like everyone did in mass effect 2... the whole idea of the game is to have consequences for what you did. hence the name, yet the fans just use FAQs to stop anything bad from happening in their playthroughs.

on an unrelated note. color coded choices bore me after how great dragon age origins was with their system. .. then they dumbed it down mass effect style in dragon age 2.... i hate when they take features that require thinking just so games will appeal to dumb people more...

The ending is terrible and makes ME3 disappointing, but I'd never want to return it. It's still incredibly ambitious and actually pretty great. Though ending still does suck :/

@fritzon: Amazon also takes trade-ins just like retail stores. Very likely that unwrapped returns end up in their previously played inventory, wherever that goes. I wouldn't be surprised if the trade-in program began with an excess of returns that would otherwise be junkpiled. Can't imagine a publisher taking them back; not after the 80s... ;)

Really dumb...i hate people that do that kind of thing. Like the people that see a movie all the way through and then go ask for a refund. Terrible. You played the game to the end; you shouldn't be able to return it. Trade it in for a lesser value; that's fine.

Ill keep this in mind for Operation Raccoon City

Hmmm... I don't know. If a game has a disappointing ending then I would just re sell it or something. Refunds just seems a bit much.

So now if I want my money back all I need to do is complain I wasn't totally satisfied with something. Great PR Move by Amazon.

Anybody who would return Mass Effect 3 just because of the ending didn't really like Mass Effect in the first place, because apparently the entire rest of the game was barely good enough to keep.

So what you are saying patrick is that this is a pointless story.

Effectively you just wrote a news story telling us all about amazons return policy...... Thanks i guess!

buncha numpties

Still havent completed ME3 so I dont know what everyone is whining about, but surely the quality of the rest of the game makes up for however shitty the ending is. Trading it in, especially considering how good alot of the ME2 dlc was, seems stupid to me.

But yeah, this isnt really news, I recently sent back a monitor because I wasnt satisfyed with it and got a full refund. My only gripe is I had to pay for delivery but that's not really worth complaining about.

@AxleFGK: That's the thing though, ME3's ending, you can't, it's a pretty bad ending, even if you do it "perfectly". It also doesn't take into account any of the choices you've made through the past three games, and is just a slap in the face of the entire series.

That said, the rest of the game is pretty great, and returning it because you didn't like the ending is pretty scummy.

I doubt the ending is that bad but I'm not surprised the internet is kinda overreacting.

@mewstu

Yeah, and your profile pic is an IGN stars page. Get into it!

Good lord, people are out of their damn minds.

so basically I can beat a game and claim I didnt like it and always get a refund? thats kinda messed up....

Why doesn't Gamestop do this? I would "buy" all my games there.

Now I really want to get a copy of this just to see what the hell people are complaining out. So tempted just to go read about it.

i <3 amazon.

Wait, people are returning the game because of the ending? I hope these people understand that they're making themselves look incredibly foolish.

Didn't know amazon has gotten into the rental business. Gamefly better watch out!

That's pretty crazy that Amazon has a standing policy like that. I'm happy with most of my game purchases, but I would have totally returned Dragon Age II after sitting through its incredibly shitty ending, if I knew about this.

@buckybit said:

I am 20 hours in - enjoying the game mostly.

People are crazy?!

Despite what the internet and Jeff would lead you to believe, I think it is the best game of the series.

The ending wasn't worth all this mess. It wasn't great but endings are hard. People are crazy.

Amazon <3

@RichieJohn said:

The ending wasn't worth all this mess. It wasn't great but endings are hard. People are crazy.

Smartest word spoken in the past few weeks.

I returned Street Fighter x Tekken to Amazon last week because I couldn't stand the sound bug and shitty lobby system. They took it no questions asked.

I wonder if the people who are doing this used the Online Pass, or if that matters. This is starting to get really weird though, the maelstrom of internet hate around everything Mass Effect 3 related is kind of ridiculous. I can think of much much much worse sequels.

Wait, I dont understand why this is news then.

The ending (or endings, rather) was terrible, but come on. The 20 something hours leading to it were pretty solid, with some very high points. I would just accept the game for what it is, enjoy the experience and be done with it.

PS: Seriously, all three endings were shit. I don't care if you think I'm stupid for not liking them, but they were utter crap.

@paulwade1984: It's a quick, informative story. This whole return thing through Amazon has been getting some serious attention (has been the most popular post on N4G recently). Not a pointless story, but you did write a pointless comment. Congrats!

So, people cheating Amazon out of money. Good to know.

Ending sucks, makes the series worthless. Nuff said

This is exactly why companies like Amazon are so successful. The majority would not return ME3, I wont. But the key to their success is if, for whatever reason, you are unhappy, they will accept and refund, regardless of product type. Customer service is so key to retaining clients. Great service, great return policy for all products, financially overall it makes sense. And those customers, like myself, will keep on buying. I only wish all companies had realised this, for the items you cannot buy on Amazon.

I'm just going to say that, despite the crappy ending, I think it's the best game in the series. Haters gonna hate etc.

@phrosnite said:

No. People are stupid.

P.S. - I didn't say that. I just quoted K from Men in Black.

I'm going to "well, actually" you here:

Agent K never said anyone was stupid, the quote is:

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

Now if could all just continue pretending the second movie never existed.

I can confirm that this isn't new with Amazon. They care about satisfying their customers, period. That's why I've happily shopped with them as often as possible for over a decade.

One specific example is when the MMO Anarchy Online launched, in 2001. It was so miserably broken at launch. Legitimately unplayable. If you were lucky enough to connect to a server, you would just sit there. At the best of times, you would get a whopping 3fps for the few minutes until you were disconnected. This was the experience on launch day. For all of Launch week. In fact, for at least all of the launch month. I eventually got tired of the inability to play the game and because they were not making any progress and were not very forthcoming with players about the future (this is Funcom, by the way), I just wanted to return the game and get my money back.

So, knowing Amazon's policy was stated to be that they don't accept returns of opened media (DVDs, movies, games, etc), I emailed customer service and explained the situation and said that "as an Amazon.com customer who has done a lot of business with Amazon and intends to do a great deal more in the future, I would be satisfied with one of the following resolutions" -- and listed a full refund (or amazon credit) as one of the options.

Within 24hrs, I got this reply back and a refund in full was issued. It was an unexpected experience that has resulted in a dedicated Amazon customer ever since (I've probably spent $35,000 at Amazon in the last ten years if not much more):

Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 07:43:12 -0700
Message-Id: <HAA17797.200107111443@cs-ohio.amazon.com>
To: [redacted]
Subject: Your Amazon.com Order (#104-0805350-0137564)
Greetings from Amazon.com.
I'm sorry to hear of the situation that has occurred with the software title, "Anarchy Online." Because
CDs, DVDs, videos, software, and video games cannot be resold after they have been opened, we
cannot accept the return of opened items for a refund (unless, of course, they are defective or damaged).
However, because of the circumstances surrounding your order, I have made an exception in this case.
Please visit our online Returns Center for a shipping label and packing instructions:
http://www.amazon.com/returns/ When the returned package arrives at our distribution center, we
will issue your refund within 7-14 days of receiving your package. We will send you an e-mail when the
refund is complete to confirm the amount.
I hope this solution is satisfactory. Thank you again for shopping at Amazon.com.
Best regards,
Since then, I've returned items that arrived broken and even returned items that I broke. For example, I bought a $200 Antec chassis a couple years ago and for some reason, I could not figure out how to remove the front panel. The instructions were poor and I eventually concluded that it was just like the front of my last CoolerMaster chassis. So, I pulled on it. And . . SNAP. Oh, shit. That wasn't the way to do it! I emailed Amazon's support group and told them it was my fault and that I would be grateful if they could help, but understand if I was out of luck. I received an email reply that night stating that they would send me a label to slap on the box to return the chassis and that they had already sent me a replacement by overnight FedEx. In fact, it arrived by 10am the next morning. Maybe 12hrs after they emailed me and 18hrs after I first asked them for help. Say what you will about Amazon. They (and Zappos.com) are incredible about customer service.

@Ravenlight said:

@phrosnite said:

No. People are stupid.

P.S. - I didn't say that. I just quoted K from Men in Black.

I'm going to "well, actually" you here:

Agent K never said anyone was stupid, the quote is:

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

Now if could all just continue pretending the second movie never existed.

I KNOW what the quote is. Jesus. The first part of it just didn't fit so I skipped it.

Простотията ходи по хората, хората са по интернет.

@Branthog said:

I can confirm that this isn't new with Amazon. They care about satisfying their customers, period. That's why I've happily shopped with them as often as possible for over a decade.

One specific example is when the MMO Anarchy Online launched, in 2001. It was so miserably broken at launch. Legitimately unplayable. If you were lucky enough to connect to a server, you would just sit there. At the best of times, you would get a whopping 3fps for the few minutes until you were disconnected. This was the experience on launch day. For all of Launch week. In fact, for at least all of the launch month. I eventually got tired of the inability to play the game and because they were not making any progress and were not very forthcoming with players about the future (this is Funcom, by the way), I just wanted to return the game and get my money back.

So, knowing Amazon's policy was stated to be that they don't accept returns of opened media (DVDs, movies, games, etc), I emailed customer service and explained the situation and said that "as an Amazon.com customer who has done a lot of business with Amazon and intends to do a great deal more in the future, I would be satisfied with one of the following resolutions" -- and listed a full refund (or amazon credit) as one of the options.

Within 24hrs, I got this reply back and a refund in full was issued. It was an unexpected experience that has resulted in a dedicated Amazon customer ever since (I've probably spent $35,000 at Amazon in the last ten years if not much more):

Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 07:43:12 -0700
Message-Id: <HAA17797.200107111443@cs-ohio.amazon.com>
To: [redacted]
Subject: Your Amazon.com Order (#104-0805350-0137564)
Greetings from Amazon.com.
I'm sorry to hear of the situation that has occurred with the software title, "Anarchy Online." Because CDs, DVDs, videos, software, and video games cannot be resold after they have been opened, we cannot accept the return of opened items for a refund (unless, of course, they are defective or damaged).
However, because of the circumstances surrounding your order, I have made an exception in this case. Please visit our online Returns Center for a shipping label and packing instructions: http://www.amazon.com/returns/ When the returned package arrives at our distribution center, we will
issue your refund within 7-14 days of receiving your package. We will send you an e-mail when the refund is complete to confirm the amount.
I hope this solution is satisfactory. Thank you again for shopping at Amazon.com.
Best regards,
Since then, I've returned items that arrived broken and even returned items that I broke. For example, I bought a $200 Antec chassis a couple years ago and for some reason, I could not figure out how to remove the front panel. The instructions were poor and I eventually concluded that it was just like the front of my last CoolerMaster chassis. So, I pulled on it. And . . SNAP. Oh, shit. That wasn't the way to do it! I emailed Amazon's support group and told them it was my fault and that I would be grateful if they could help, but understand if I was out of luck. I received an email reply that night stating that they would send me a label to slap on the box to return the chassis and that they had already sent me a replacement by overnight FedEx. In fact, it arrived by 10am the next morning. Maybe 12hrs after they emailed me and 18hrs after I first asked them for help. Say what you will about Amazon. They (and Zappos.com) are incredible about customer service.

they care about their american customers u mean lol

being in canada amazon is basically off limits i have never had a good experience with them not a SINGLE time

@AxleFGK said:

i don't know what the ending is but I'm just going to ASSUME its not a super happy perfect ending, and that you can just use an FAQ to make it a happy perfect ending like everyone did in mass effect 2... the whole idea of the game is to have consequences for what you did. hence the name, yet the fans just use FAQs to stop anything bad from happening in their playthroughs.

Nothing to do with that. Every single ending is legitimately terrible. The writing is awful, characters are OOC, and there are gaping plotholes the size of Australia. It is bad, okay? Anyone who makes comments like "Well, I haven't seen the endings yet myself, BUT..." really needs to stop making assumptions and look before they think themselves capable of judging.

More on topic, Amazon's service has always been fantastic. I've never regretted a single transaction I've made with them.

Yea Amazons return policy has been pretty nice and fair. But returning a game because you didn't like the ending is beyond dumb to me. These people ARE CRAZY!!

@unstoptheday said:

I can't be the only person who thinks this Mass Effect 3 stuff has gotten way out of hand. Right?

It has but let's be honest, it would have always gotten this out of hand regardless of quality.

I dunno how it is for you yanks, but retail EB Games stores have had that policy in place since I can remember. Within 7 days, you can return your opened game for a full refund.

I remember (not sure if it was this site or somewhere else) people giving eb games so much hate about this policy, due to the reasoning that eb will be selling opened copies of games etc etc.

...... In this case i'd very much assume Amazon would be doing the very exact same thing with these returned copies?

@depecheload said:

I think some of the things fans are doing regarding ME3 are going overboard, but I'm still happy about it.

Think about it, EA/BioWare decided that the THIRD game in a TRILOGY would be a great game to try to mainstream and simplify for a mainstream audience. They crammed in a mulitplayer mode no fans were really clamoring for, and they stripped out elements from the original main story and then shoveled them onto overpriced day one DLC.

So I'm sorry, my sympathy for EA/BioWare is zero. Everything they've done with ME3 has been for them and their profits, nothing to benefit the consumer. When you do that, it always comes back to get you. They're getting what they deserve.

That DLC thing where they ripped out content from the main game expressly for the DLC didn't happen.

Does a webchat with a support guy constitute a credible source?