A good price for Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition!
On June 17th, Steam had an advertisement of Oblivion: Game of the Year Editon with 20% off. The price was at $16.79. An excellent deal! I clicked on that advertisement that took me to the game page. In that page there was also an option to buy a package of Oblivion + Morrowind, but nothing else. I then purchased the Oblivion GOTY, which has the Shivering Isles expansion and the Knights of the Nine add-on.
But wait... there was a DELUXE edition?!?
After I made the purchase, I downloaded it and played a bit. I eventually went to Steam's game tab and noticed that there was also a DELUXE edition, with the expansion and all of the 9 official add-ons at $19.99. This was one BIG WTF moment. Only 3 dollars difference? What a mess of an advertisement!
I went to Steam's game forum and see people complaining that, like me, they wanted the Deluxe instead, and others even that wanted the GOTY instead because that version has more languages than just English (the Deluxe is only in English). What a mess of things!
I then proceeded to contact Steam's support to try and change from GOTY to Deluxe (I asked for the possibility of an upgrade), since that would be a better purchase in my view. I noticed that other customers got a refund and were quick to change versions, but were asked first if they wanted the refund.
What...? What happened to the prices?!?
Somewhere on June 18th, the base price suddenly increases (still with the 20% discount). No justification, no community communication whatsoever, no nothing. From $16.79 and $19.99, for the GOTY and Deluxe respectively, they're suddenly at $23.99 and $27.99. WTF?!?!? Another slew of complaints ensued in the forum. Whatever reason for that decision, it was a greedy one...
But wait! Here comes support... to... the... rescue...?
It's now June 20th, Saturday morning, after an exhausting work week. I open my email and got the following answer from support:
Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
Unfortunately we are unable to charge you the difference for a different package, as such we have processed a refund to your account where you will now be able to repurchase the game, this time the deluxe version.
Third and final WTF moment... They didn't even ask me if I wanted the refund or not.
I first payed $16.79 for the GOTY and the Deluxe is now $27.99. With a price difference of $11.20, that's a lot more then the initial 3 dollars I was willing to pay. Did they really expect me to go buy the other version now with such a steep price difference? Under the circumstances, of course I would have preferred to keep the game I had if I would be given the choice.
I complained in the same support ticket about the unilateral "generosity", but I know that I lost the game I purchased. Hey, at least I got my money back. Unless something extraordinary happens, it will be a pleasure to take my business elsewhere...
Though my overall luck with digital distribution platforms hasn't been going that well lately, Stardock has something really good going: communication. No matter the rant or the misunderstanding that whatever is said may bring, I think it's a lot better than the rather autistic treatment people get from other places. I don't want to be treated as a brainless meat with money, any more than the next guy.