Sunday, January 27, 2013

[UPDATE] Is WarGaming EU "stealing" gold from their players?


This is about a recent bug that was discovered, bug that reloads premium ammo for gold even if the player has specifically selected Cr.

This isn't the old bug that charged gold when the gun was changed on the tank, this is an entirely new bug confirmed a few days ago.

User(s) affected by this have created tickets to support but WarGaming refuses to reimburse their gold, to some.

So far, WarGaming Europe has made no official announcement regarding this new bug, neither on their main portal nor via in game announcements. People that do not visit the forums regularly are completely unaware by the existence of this bug.

I am not a lawyer and I have no connections to the law, but according to law dictionaries this is called embezzlement.
Let it be clear - I do not accuse WarGaming of theft!
What they do and how they behave it's in not any shape or form OK. It's not only unfair to their customers, it's borderline illegal.

Let's look at this another way. those few premium shells worth about 5 Euro-cents, 0.05€. Not all players have gold on their account, but let's assume 50000 players do. 0.05*50000=2500€. Hello thousands of Euros ...

I'm quite amazed by the fact WarGaming has done nothing in regard of this bug. They did not make an official announcement, they did not hot-fixed the issue or, because of it's gravity, disable premium ammo until the issue is solved.


[Update]
Here is quote /conversation with support from a user (DashingPanache) who was denied by support a refund

Ticket ID GLH-556-46913
Category
    World of Tanks
Subcategory:
    In-Game Goods
I set up my tanks such that they are auto repaired, consumables restored and ammo restored after each match.
I also make sure that the premium ammo, if selected, if paid for by credits, not gold.I note that, very, very wrongly on your part, that sometimes when you open the game for the first time some tanks reset to using gold for their ammo replenishment despite always being set to use credits.
After a game today using my Tiger P at 20:50 local time, I was auto charged gold for 2 ammo rounds for a total of 20 gold.
I never ever authorised the game to do this and for this reason I must insist that the amount is credited back to my account. I appreciate that in value terms we are talking about very little money, but the simple fact is that is money you have taken from me without my consent and I refuse to allow this.
I look forward to your confirmation of same.
    George Lecross Yesterday at 12:47
    Hello Commander,
    Thank you for contacting us with this issue.
    Unfortunately we are not able to refund you these 20 gold.
    Please make sure to always change on credits in a method of payment for premium ammo- this will prevent the issue from happening again.
    Kind Regards,
    George Lecross
    CS Wargaming Europe
    DashingPanache Yesterday at 18:48
    Dear George,
    That is an unacceptable answer. As I clearly stated, I am careful to check each time I load up that credits not gold are selected for ammo.
    In addition, the very fact that the game keeps trying to change it to gold rather than credits despite my direction otherwise is, given that you are in effect taking money, illegal and at best negligent on your behalf, at worst extremely sharp practice.
    You have received well over €100 from me so it is not as if I am counting the pennies, but there is an important point of principle here that I will not back down from. If you cannot repay the value you have, against my specific and frequent direction, taken illegally I will expect you to put me in touch with the relevant manager as I will pursue any and all means to redress this wholly illegal move on your part that is the result of negligence or sharp practice in your programming that amounts to theft.
    Maciej Zawada Today at 08:42
    Dear Tank Commander,
    Thank you for your reply.
    We would like to assure you, that we're not trying to steal anything from you.
    For the future, we can only advise that while using premium ammunition for credits, you keep the auto resupply option off.
    Also, if you wish to submit a formal complaint to our managers, please write it in English and send to us and we will forward it to them immediately.
    Kind regards,
    Maciej Zawada
    Customer Service Europe
    https://support.worldoftanks.eu
    DashingPanache Today at 18:07
    Dear Sirs,
    Please pass on to me the e-mail address of the appropriate person so that i can communicate with them directly.
    I appreciate that your position is that you are not trying to steal from customers, but the law does not care for your intent in that regard, only your desire to permanently withhold what is rightfully mine from me.
    Once it is clear, as here, that you have been notified that a flaw in your programming has led to a value being wrongly taken from me by you and you then refuse to refund that value, you are stealing whether that was your original intent or not.
    I do believe that the flaw in your programming is negligent and I do believe that if you have been aware of this for some time and done nothing about it you are straying to willful (sharp practice) or gross negligence. I would sincerely hope that this is not the image of Wargaming that you want to promote.
    As I have stated repeatedly, I took all reasonable precautions against the flaw in your programming by ensuring that each time I start the game I check that all of the tanks are using credits rather than gold to replenish ammo. What happened here is that between launching a battle and returning to the garage, the game switched my choice from using credits to using gold against my express instructions.
    You are thus wholly in the wrong here and it is deeply worrying that you so refuse to address the problem correctly in both law and equity. As I have said, I have spent well over €100 in the last 6 weeks from when I started playing. If you wish for me to understand that you can deduct money value from my account whenever it suits you and not return what is rightfully mine then I wish for you to understand that I will not spend any more money with you and will go out of my way to address your attitude appropriately.

1 comment:

  1. WG EU is probably the worst of all Community Teams, always the last to post news, always the most dodgy when asked questions and ofc the most stubborn and power maniac of all...

    ReplyDelete