Amazon Says Mass Effect 3 Refunds Aren’t Unique

I got at least 25hours of good fun out of the game without the ending, so why I'd want to send it back, I've no idea.

so the next time i go to a movie and dont like the ending ill just ask for my money back... yeah.. right...

Every time someone posts up how "out of hand" a situation is, I'll just post this in reply:

@phrosnite said:

@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.

Internet pedantry, set to maximum! You can't call it a quote if you're actually just paraphrasing! Good day, citizen!

मैं गूगल में सामान लिखें अनुवाद भी कर सकते हैं

Hold the fuck on. There is a retailer that I can return games to? Adding that to the list of reasons never to shop at gamestop again.

@Branthog said:

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.

Man, I got so burned by Age of Conan.

Also, I love how Patrick lies to customer support to get the "scoops."

This is a story?...that you can return opened things?

Hey and I just noticed the footer, gamespot, giantbomb and comic vine. BUT I WANT ANOTHER SWIG!!

@buckybit: Now that we can agree on! I may have my issues with the way the ending was done but people are not helping their cause by being completely ridiculous and asinine. We should be critical and be voicing our concerns. There should be discussion and dialogue. But doing anything else beyond that is just stupid and pathetic.

@Tarsier said:

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

As a Canadian you can actually buy a ton of stuff from American Amazon, and thus get the amazing customer service. I ordered a watch from them and paid for fast shipping and got it within 14 hours of ordering it and that was from the US to Saskatchewan (I paid for 3 day shipping instead of standard and got it in half a day). It's also usually cheaper to buy from there even with duty in most cases. Especially headphones and some electronics. As long as it can ship to Canada you can buy it. I've had all good experiences with American Amazon. I've never bought anything on Amazon Canada because it is so much more expensive. For example, I bought a G-Shock watch from US Amazon for $40 with $5 duty and $5 shipping versus paying $60 for it on Canadian Amazon before tax and shipping.

@wookie912 said:

so the next time i go to a movie and dont like the ending ill just ask for my money back... yeah.. right...

I'm... pretty sure you can? Whether they honor it probably depends on the chain and the manager on duty, but it's not unheard of.

@Warchief said:

Hold the fuck on. There is a retailer that I can return games to? Adding that to the list of reasons never to shop at gamestop again.

They allow returns of used games for any reason at all. Yeah it sucks you can't return new games, but at least they have a better used policy than Best Buy, Gamefly, and everyone else (besides Amazon) that have used games.

This is not a news story, it is a confirmation of amazons return policy. Why is this here?

I'm willing to give the Mass Effect 3/Bioware complainers, the benefit of the doubt. Dragon Age 2 certainly showed that Bioware is very capable of sabotaging their games with lazy production values and lacklustre writeing. The instance with Talis image being a stock photo shows that cheap shortcuts were used in some instances.

I'm personally eagerly waiting for The Witcher 2's release,to show Bioware who seems to delight in watering down RPG elements in RPG's, how a real RPG should be made.

FYI, the open stuff that gets returned in a resellable condition gets resold on Amazon's Warehouse Deals site. They're not losing a ton on people returning games.

People are crazy. Even if you disagree with the ending the 20-30 hours before that is great.

I just hope that people don't abuse Amazon for being great at customer service. Once people abuse these things, the few ruin it for the many.

@Ben_H said:

@Tarsier said:

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

As a Canadian you can actually buy a ton of stuff from American Amazon, and thus get the amazing customer service. I ordered a watch from them and paid for fast shipping and got it within 14 hours of ordering it and that was from the US to Saskatchewan (I paid for 3 day shipping instead of standard and got it in half a day). It's also usually cheaper to buy from there even with duty in most cases. Especially headphones and some electronics. As long as it can ship to Canada you can buy it. I've had all good experiences with American Amazon. I've never bought anything on Amazon Canada because it is so much more expensive. For example, I bought a G-Shock watch from US Amazon for $40 with $5 duty and $5 shipping versus paying $60 for it on Canadian Amazon before tax and shipping.

ive found like 1 thing of my 100+ amazon sessions that was shippable to canada

@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.

Nope. That ain't what it was.

@Warchief said:

Hold the fuck on. There is a retailer that I can return games to? Adding that to the list of reasons never to shop at gamestop again.

But they have Nintendo-themed energy drinks at the counter!! Sure, they may taste rancid, but you have Super Mario Bros. power now, son.

I am 20 hours in - enjoying the game mostly.

People are crazy?!

@Nautilus1515 said:

Ending sucks, makes the series worthless. Nuff said

Maybe if you have one of those hardcore problems of beating Mass Effect 3 then ME1 and 2 and all the amazing stuff in ME3 up to the ending just disappear from the disc and your memories and can never be experienced again.

Quick! Call somebody a moron!

Wow! I'm in the process of returning ME3 and I thought this was a special exception. I'm already an amazon customer for life but I can't say enough good things about these guys. And thank you giant bomb for discovering this, you've earned my membership for another month!

@StoicForce: Not really, people are just entitled jerks. I think it's a total dick move.

If you're worried about the quality, rent, borrow or wait to buy the game so it's cheaper. You've got no write to decide for what was written. That's like saying "I don't like this book, the story is bad, I want my money back even though I've had it for a while and read the entire thing". It's called a library.

People are just scum.

Haven't played it yet, but I'm curious, is there only one ending no matter what choices you've made? Please no spoilers! A simple yes or no will suffice.

@Butano said:

Haven't played it yet, but I'm curious, is there only one ending no matter what choices you've made? Please no spoilers! A simple yes or no will suffice.

No. But the differences aren't very big.

Best summation I've seen yet of why Mass Effect 3's ending sucked, and how horribly Bioware lied: http://angryjoeshow.com/2012/03/top-10-reasons-we-hate-mass-effect-3s-ending/

Wow... is it too late for me to return Dead Rising 2 Off the Record?

@AlphaDormante said:

@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.

That's a load of crap. Post hoc rationalization at its worst. The endings are thematically valid. The writing is fine. The characterizations are fine. The crux of the issue is that people don't like where the galaxy ended up, so they are trying to assign blame and everything associated with the last 15 minutes will be colored in a negative light, even though it's beside the point and even though you could make the same sorts of arguments against other games that you did like. As each day passes, you will find more and more wrong with the game, because you want to believe that these things are objectively bad and that your feelings are justified.

It's the echo chamber of the internet. People were talking crap about ME2's ending -- the Collectors don't make sense, Sheperd would never have said that to the Illusive Man, Harbinger is a crappy villain, etc. It didn't gain traction, because Sheperd and all his buddies got to come out of it smelling like roses. And if that had been the case here, you wouldn't notice or care about the writing or the characterization. So just drop the spurious BS and admit to yourself why you really don't like the ending.

@Wandering_Idiot said:

@wookie912 said:

so the next time i go to a movie and dont like the ending ill just ask for my money back... yeah.. right...

I'm... pretty sure you can? Whether they honor it probably depends on the chain and the manager on duty, but it's not unheard of.

Not sure if this was meant to be sarcasm or not, but my gf and I see a TON of movies and we always get a refund if we walk out. We've done it at an AMC and some other fairly large chain.

@RazielCuts said:

This is a story?...that you can return opened things?

Hey and I just noticed the footer, gamespot, giantbomb and comic vine. BUT I WANT ANOTHER SWIG!!

No, that's the story on other sites. The story here is a response in that it isn't unique to Mass Effect 3.

@Bumpton So as bad as the KOTOR 2 ending then I'm guessing?

Damn...I wish I bought my launch 3DS on Amazon.

@Butano said:

Haven't played it yet, but I'm curious, is there only one ending no matter what choices you've made? Please no spoilers! A simple yes or no will suffice.

Essentially yes; colors and a few graphics are changed around. Bioware's claim for "16 endings" is not really any choice; just depends on how many War Assets you got when you're done.

The outrage reminds me of those stupid asshole customers that eat an entire steak/hamburger, and want a refund/whole new meal because the last bite was overcooked.

@Tumbler said:

Wow! I'm in the process of returning ME3 and I thought this was a special exception. I'm already an amazon customer for life but I can't say enough good things about these guys. And thank you giant bomb for discovering this, you've earned my membership for another month!

What could you possibly be returning it for? Total piece of shit game after you sunk 30 hours into it, right?

@Ulain said:

@Tumbler said:

Wow! I'm in the process of returning ME3 and I thought this was a special exception. I'm already an amazon customer for life but I can't say enough good things about these guys. And thank you giant bomb for discovering this, you've earned my membership for another month!

What could you possibly be returning it for? Total piece of shit game after you sunk 30 hours into it, right?

Some people beat a game only once and then sell it back to get some more money for new games.

I'm fully waiting for a Presidential debate about the ME3 ending.

It'd probably still be as fucking silly and stupid as any other discussion involving the series.

Nerds be like, mad entitled and shit.

@Ulain said:

@Tumbler said:

Wow! I'm in the process of returning ME3 and I thought this was a special exception. I'm already an amazon customer for life but I can't say enough good things about these guys. And thank you giant bomb for discovering this, you've earned my membership for another month!

What could you possibly be returning it for? Total piece of shit game after you sunk 30 hours into it, right?

Trust me, this guy is a douche everywhere he goes, most particularly on the Goozex forums. He does much worse than this and has admitted to illegal returns for games he acquired elsewhere than the store he is returning them to. He has zero morals, nor does he care about the ending. He just is trying to maximize his return.

@Everyones_A_Critic said:

Nerds be like, mad entitled and shit.

yeah, i hate capitalism too!

@pw2566ch said:

Every time someone posts up how "out of hand" a situation is, I'll just post this in reply:

I think when people are saying people take things to far, or at least when I do, they aren't talking about people who aren't happy with what they got. I hated the ending but overall loved the ME3 experience. I think we are talking about people who are saying that Amazon are doing this ONLY because ME3 had a terrible ending. The scrutiny and hate for BioWare and Mass Effect 3 since the release of the disappointing DA2 to the point where BioWare employees are being attacked by the internet and receiving death threats. People making huge leaps in logic over the development of a game because there is day one DLC. (Wether or not the day one DLC should have been free to everyone even though it was promised as a CE exclusive is a valid argument of course) But to say content was expressly ripped out of the main game so people can feel like they're justified in their hate is a little out of hand.

You can hate this game as much as you want and express your opinion in a calm and orderly fashion. The developers can use positive and negative criticism as long as it is constructive so they can do a better job later on. When people go all crazy and act like assholes about their opinions and shoving it down everyone's throats including other consumers and the developers is when things get out of hand. Admittedly it's a minority of people that do that but it's a loud one. I'm sure that most people are returning ME3 because they do that with a lot of games they buy instead of "Fuck the ending" which that minority is screaming.

@SmokePants said:

@AlphaDormante said:

@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.

That's a load of crap. Post hoc rationalization at its worst. The endings are thematically valid. The writing is fine. The characterizations are fine. The crux of the issue is that people don't like where the galaxy ended up, so they are trying to assign blame and everything associated with the last 15 minutes will be colored in a negative light, even though it's beside the point and even though you could make the same sorts of arguments against other games that you did like. As each day passes, you will find more and more wrong with the game, because you want to believe that these things are objectively bad and that your feelings are justified.

It's the echo chamber of the internet. People were talking crap about ME2's ending -- the Collectors don't make sense, Sheperd would never have said that to the Illusive Man, Harbinger is a crappy villain, etc. It didn't gain traction, because Sheperd and all his buddies got to come out of it smelling like roses. And if that had been the case here, you wouldn't notice or care about the writing or the characterization. So just drop the spurious BS and admit to yourself why you really don't like the ending.

How apt of you to decide for me what I dislike about the endings, but you're wrong. I'd be fine with a sad ending if it were written and explained in a manner that provides full closure. Instead we're left with questions such as:

And several others. My reasons are my own. If you honestly intend to shoot me into a pretty little pigeonhole, at least pretend you aren't being presumptuous.

@unstoptheday said:

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

No, It's a fucking awful ending. People that don't hate the ending must not understand what really happened and why all of your "choices" make no sense at all. I have not only spent 100's of hours on these games, I also have spent around $200 on them. I'm goddamned angry.

With that being said though I have no plans on trying to get a refund lol. Ending just fucking sucks. Have I already mentioned that?

@SmokePants said:

@AlphaDormante said:

@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.

That's a load of crap. Post hoc rationalization at its worst. The endings are thematically valid. The writing is fine. The characterizations are fine. The crux of the issue is that people don't like where the galaxy ended up, so they are trying to assign blame and everything associated with the last 15 minutes will be colored in a negative light, even though it's beside the point and even though you could make the same sorts of arguments against other games that you did like. As each day passes, you will find more and more wrong with the game, because you want to believe that these things are objectively bad and that your feelings are justified.

It's the echo chamber of the internet. People were talking crap about ME2's ending -- the Collectors don't make sense, Sheperd would never have said that to the Illusive Man, Harbinger is a crappy villain, etc. It didn't gain traction, because Sheperd and all his buddies got to come out of it smelling like roses. And if that had been the case here, you wouldn't notice or care about the writing or the characterization. So just drop the spurious BS and admit to yourself why you really don't like the ending.

People complaining is not the same as people complaining. Or put another way, not all things are the same just because they can be reductively described the same way. Because if we are talking complaints on ME2 a whole LOT more obvious and frequent especially on Bioware's boards were the changes it made to the gameplay in relation to ME1. The use of heatsinks, the loss of the Mako, replacement of exploration with scanning, inventory, combat, you name it. People complaining about the ending other than the Terminator final boss and perhaps Brad's argument about a perfect ending being possible without any in story explanation for the mechanics hardly ever occurred in comparison.

Sure some people might have griped specifically about the ending, but as you say it's the internet.

Now, maybe they were fine because they could have had a mega happy ending anyways, but I think that's dismissive and contextually blind. The ending of the second chapter in a trilogy is always going to be wonky and people recognize that consciously or not. The Empire Strikes Back is largely considered the best Star Wars film, yet the ending is kinda dysfunctional as a self contained narrative. The promise of ME3's clmax is not just bigger and badder as the third iteration, but the wrapup of the entire story. Stakes are higher, scrutiny is going to be that much higher.

@Ravenlight: People are allowed to missquote. Also the worst thing about people on the internet is that like to presume too much. Why would you think I didn't know the full quote? Ridiculous.

I bid you adieu.

@SeriouslyNow said:

@buckybit said:

I am 20 hours in - enjoying the game mostly.

People are crazy?!

I was to, then 31 hours into the game the ending happened. Let's just say I don't agree with the quote "It's the journey, notthe destination, that matters."

@buckybit said:

I am 20 hours in - enjoying the game mostly.

People are crazy?!

I enjoyed it a 20 hours in too. Then I finished it.

This is why I continue to do most of my shopping at Amazon. I've returned other things that didn't work out for whatever reason. However I'm sure if people abused it with games or movies repeatedly they would catch on.

But anyways, I finished ME3 and I'm not enraged so I guess I'm broken? I thought the game was excellent overall.

I'm at the ending now, but I've already seen my roommate do it. It's really bad, yeah, but it's pretty par for the course given how the rest of the game plays out. People that think that it's only the ending that's terrible about Mass Effect 3 and that that's the only part of the game that doesn't give a shit about your past choices clearly weren't playing renegade. Half my renegade decisions were either ignored or straight-up reversed over the course of this game.

I thought the ending was dope, not sure why everyone's panties are all bunched up. Oh wait yeah I do, it's the internet.

Wow I didn't know this was policy. This is good news for me, I thought I would have to keep or trade in my copy of SSX