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BestBuy is charging people $20 for the Destiny2 BETA code if you cancel your preorder

neoemonk

Member
How about just not getting charged for it in the first place. Other retailers do it which is likely why this was stated to be an error from BB in the first place.

I agree with you, but given that some are defending the practice, I think this is a stretch to expect this.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I agree with you, but given that some are defending the practice, I think this is a stretch to expect this.

If a company labels something a test, there should never be a charge. Why should a person pay a company to test their product? Fuck that. This is a "beta test" and should be free since I'm testing something for a company.

Even a demo, unless outright stated as a paid to play demo where I accept the terms at the beginning with nothing being hidden from me at a very low price, fuck that too.

This was a system glitch which is entirely different, and isn't affecting everyone and should be judged that way. Glitches happen.
 

cakefoo

Member
From April, oddly enough.

m6HyslW.png
"Small number" my ass. A week before that he was defending it as policy.

Hko3DEN.jpg


I especially like the "not to worry" part.
 

jesterkap2

Neo Member
I'm glad this was pointed out in this thread. I cancelled my preorder a month ago and didn't notice they charged me 19.99. I called and they refunded me my money. It's a bit shady but I do understand that people are probably just ordering and cancelling in order to sell the beta key.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
"Small number" my ass. A week before that he was defending it as policy.

Hko3DEN.jpg


I especially like the "not to worry" part.

K, that's BS. I mean, I'm thinking there was no intent to charge for the item in the first place, but this person needs to refund the money for that reason. There was no charge for the item prior to purchase in the case of OP and myself. Getting a hidden charge after cancelling and upholding that would be just wrong, and I think the person handling the case should be corrected by management. They are just in the wrong there.
 
Why would you use BestBuy who charge you upfront?

Amazon doesn't charge you (yet) and can freely cancel pre-order.

They do? I don't think I've ever been charged till I pick up my item.

Yep, no sympathy at all.

My buddy accidentally preordered the digital copy and cancelled his order and placed one for the physical copy instead. Now he's paying $80 for the game. But I guess fuck him for making a simple mistake.
 

jacobeid

Banned
Yep, no sympathy at all.

OP canceled his preorder to buy it digitally. You think he should be charged $20 for that even though Best Buy clearly stated this is an error on their part?

Pre-ordering to get a beta code and then cancelling is a shitty move, but you can't be serious with this. Are you?

My buddy accidentally preordered the digital copy and cancelled his order and placed one for the physical copy instead. Now he's paying $80 for the game. But I guess fuck him for making a simple mistake.

Yeah, fuck your friend too for gaming the system smh.

Why would you use BestBuy who charge you upfront?

Amazon doesn't charge you (yet) and can freely cancel pre-order.

They only charge upfront if you use PayPal as far as I know.
 

Z_Y

Member
K, that's BS. I mean, I'm thinking there was no intent to charge for the item in the first place, but this person needs to refund the money for that reason. There was no charge for the item prior to purchase in the case of OP and myself. Getting a hidden charge after cancelling and upholding that would be just wrong, and I think the person handling the case should be corrected by management. They are just in the wrong there.

I may be being cynical but I think their intent was to do these partial refunds and only do full refund for those that complained. I hope that isn't the case but it sure seems that way. Somebody had to type in that $19.99 value.
 

TMC

Member
Thanks for posting this. I probably would never have realized it. Called them up and they issued me a refund.
 

Lee

Member
I'm glad this was pointed out in this thread. I cancelled my preorder a month ago and didn't notice they charged me 19.99. I called and they refunded me my money. It's a bit shady but I do understand that people are probably just ordering and cancelling in order to sell the beta key.

This is why I bothered to make the thread, and I'm glad you got a refund. I hope others see this and check their orders as well.

I also got a refund over the phone after a 12 minutes wait, which is great but annoying that I had to go through the trouble when they should be fixing this automatically after admitting it is in error.

That's right everyone. I got a refund, despite apparently deserving to pay $20 for having the audacity to cancel my sacred my preorder and buying the game digitally. How dare I.

Thanks for posting this. I probably would never have realized it. Called them up and they issued me a refund.

Nice. Glad it's helping people.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I may be being cynical but I think their intent was to do these partial refunds and only refund those that complained. I hope that isn't the case but it sure seems that way. Somebody had to type in that $19.99 value.

Well, yeah, it's possible, but I'll offer this.

I worked for Party City corporate for a while, and entered $ values in their database for store items as part of what I did working for them. There were manual adjustments all the time back and forth. We were working off paperwork and keying in the entries. It was reasonably easy to have my eyes jump to the next line item on the paper by accident and key in an incorrect $ value, or to miss-key a SKU # and enter a price I'm staring at as I went along. We're talking about a job where you are doing this for tons and tons of SKUs all day long and they tended to bleed together.

I could see it if this happened and many people jumped in to pre-order right away (myself included), and the correction was made after. They would then say it only affected a small number of people to minimize the situation which would be BS because with something like this, anyone interested in Destiny who are hardcore fans likely pre-ordered straight away.

Still, yeah.. you could be right as well. I do think many are over reacting. I think this was a mistake. For my point of view, this was not intentional. As for Mike from Best Buy, his initial support take is just stupid. He was corrected by the second support note where he was told by them, oops, we made a mistake and charged for this item and should not have.
 
Obviously Best Buy shouldn't do this, but I am curious what the "illegal" part is?

Probably the part about saying its free with no price breakdown when you order, then it's listed as a $20 charge after you cancel. No indication anywhere that this is the case before you order.

Pretty sure they charged me for my Metroid Amiibo, curious if it changes if you pick it up or delivery.

I have one 5 minutes from me so I always pick my orders up. Good point about delivery, but I think they've always charged me when it shipped. That could've changed though as it's been a long time since I've gotten something delivered.
 

Matt

Member
Probably the part about saying its free with no price breakdown when you order, then it's listed as a $20 charge after you cancel. No indication anywhere that this is the case before you order.
Eh. Considering they have no legal obligation to allow you to cancel the order at all, and the Beta code is a good that has been delivered and can be said to have a value, I am having trouble seeing the legal issue.

Again, nothing to do with the "right or wrong" of it. Of course it's wrong.
 
Why would you use BestBuy who charge you upfront?

Amazon doesn't charge you (yet) and can freely cancel pre-order.

I never get charged upfront for a best buy preorder.

Maybe you are thinking of a temporary authorization on the card? Which eventually goes away in a couple of days.

Other than that nothing gets paid for until it's shipped or picked up.
 

Matt

Member
Did you pass contracts or have any legal background?
This seems like a rather rude response for no reason. I think it's a genuinely interesting question, if you have something more to offer than a condescending attitude, please do so.

I'm not against the idea that it's illegal, I just don't think it is at this point. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
 
I have no problem with them doing this but it should absolutely be outlined BEFORE people preorder as terms of the purchase. If it's not, they should fuck off.
 

jacobeid

Banned
This seems like a rather rude response for no reason. I think it's a genuinely interesting question, if you have something more to offer than a condescending attitude, please do so.

I'm not against the idea that it's illegal, I just don't think it is at this point. I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Sorry. I realized it was rude and I deleted it. I would just hesitate to discuss legality unless you have that background.
 
Eh. Considering they have no legal obligation to allow you to cancel the order at all, and the Beta code is a good that has been delivered and can be said to have a value, I am having trouble seeing the legal issue.

Again, nothing to do with the "right or wrong" of it. Of course it's wrong.

Really? I don't know, something doesn't sound legal about being able to charge an arbitrary amount for something that's advertised as free without any kind of indication that you'll be charged. If there was an asterisk or some kind of heads up along the way before submitting the order then, while still shitty, that's fair enough I guess. But this just feels like they're baiting people.
 

Matt

Member
Sorry. I realized it was rude and I deleted it. I would just hesitate to discuss legality unless you have that background.
No worries. I have some legal education, though not a law degree. I'd be happy to listen to whatever you have to say though.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
This is my order. There is no charge for the item.
D2Beta.jpg


The $20 discount in the product at the top was me paying partial payment using Best Buy Rewards Certificates.

If they charge you after you cancel, it is likely either a mistake/glitch which Customer Service can correct the issue.
 

Aselith

Member
I mean is it shady? Preordering the game gets you an early access code. That's part of the package. Blame activision for that even being a thing

Is BBY being charged by Activision for the codes? They could decline to participate if they feel it's costing them too much to offer free protional items since this is not a thing actually being sold.
 

Matt

Member
Really? I don't know, something doesn't sound legal about being able to charge an arbitrary amount for something that's advertised as free without any kind of indication that you'll be charged. If there was an asterisk or some kind of heads up along the way before submitting the order then, while still shitty, that's fair enough I guess. But this just feels like they're baiting people.
It's advertised as a digital good that's part of a bundle. Best Buy does have clearly stated corporate policy about how digital goods cannot be returned, and how partial return of a bundle will mean a pro-rated return.

They just as easily could have not allowed cancellation, even though cancellations and returns are advertised, because part of the package that cannot be returned was delivered.
 
I understand what they're trying to accomplishment here but they should have mentioned this in their policy long ago if they were going to pull this crap.
I honestly don't have much sympathy for those that are pre ordering the game just for beta access.

Obviously there are exceptions here, like people wanting a different version of the game instead or maybe just not wanting the game anymore.

Either way, they should have it written in their policy or else that means they are screwing people over.
 

Aselith

Member
It's advertised as a digital good that's part of a bundle. Best Buy does have clearly stated corporate policy about how digital goods cannot be returned, and how partial return of a bundle will mean a pro-rated return.

They just as easily could have not allowed cancellation, even though cancellations and returns are advertised, because part of the package that cannot be returned was delivered.

The beta is a zero charge item so by charging $20 for cancelling, they are changing the price after delivery.
 
Everyone and their mother knows about the trick where you can preorder from Amazon, get your code for whatever, and immediately cancel right after. I'm assuming this is Best Buy saying if you're going to do this, do it on Amazon and leave us alone. Best Buy has to stock actual retail stores and probably don't want a bunch of extra preorder stock they won't sell because people ordered just to get the code and cancel so it makes sense for them. Amazon couldn't give less of a fuck which is why they have never cracked down on this practice.
 

Matt

Member
The beta is a zero charge item so by charging $20 for cancelling, they are changing the price after delivery.
I'm not sure that breakdown on the order page holds that level of weight legally. The Beta is an included item in the package, you can't purchase it on its own.
 
There really is a GAF defence force for everything huh? I mean ITT we have people siding with a well known megacorp that often leans on shitty practices trying to charge the third of the price of an order for a fucking code they pay nothing for. People who seem to think cancelling an order is 'gaming the system' seem to be completely unaware of the systems they're being gamed by.
 

anothertech

Member
It's also kinda twisted that they're charging YOU to test the game for THEM.
See I think this is just a very 'entitled' and immature way to look at it. They are letting you 'taste' the game as a reward for players preordering.

Preordering just for the code and cancelling right after is not the purpose of this particular 'early' beta. If you want to play the beta, you should just wait till they give you open access. Then you can decide.

So ya, the preorder/cancel method of getting keys is pretty much as shady as it gets. You're 'stealing' early access to the beta.
 

TransTrender

Gold Member
I'm 80% good idea and 20% bad idea.
Anyone know if they already do this for pre-order bonuses that ship or are delivered before the game arrives, or if you pre-order a game, pick it up, use the digital codes for DLC and related junk, then return the sealed game?
I'm OK with it as long as they make the policy clear ahead of time.
 

Caayn

Member
Considering you already got (and used) a part of the bundle you pre-ordered I can't blame Best Buy here. Blame Activision/Bungie for making this a pre-order bonus.
 

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I'm 80% good idea and 20% bad idea.
Anyone know if they already do this for pre-order bonuses that ship or are delivered before the game arrives, or if you pre-order a game, pick it up, use the digital codes for DLC and related junk, then return the sealed game?
I'm OK with it as long as they make the policy clear ahead of time.

Hell, I pre-ordered Mass Effect Andromeda. Right after I'd heard the reviews before release, I canceled the order. They added a Steel Book ($20 value) to people that had pre-orders already in after I canceled. They shipped me the Steel Book free, even after I canceled my pre-order(I'm guessing by accident), and never charged me. Sometimes these glitches work in your favor. Sometimes, they don't.
 
There really is a GAF defence force for everything huh? I mean ITT we have people siding with a well known megacorp that often leans on shitty practices trying to charge the third of the price of an order for a fucking code they pay nothing for. People who seem to think cancelling an order is 'gaming the system' seem to be completely unaware of the systems they're being gamed by.

I'm literally at work at a Best Buy store right now and nobody I've shown this thread to has defended it.

Great job, apologists.
 
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