TL;DR version: If you buy Gem cards or Gems off of Amazon and are a Steam player you are allowing Arena Net to steal your money.
As there is zero distinction to a normal person approaching a gem purchase on Amazon that "Guild Wars 2" and "Guild Wars 2 that was downloaded from Steam" have incompatible redemption flows for gem codes, I was literally just scammed out of money.
The Amazon listing for Gems says (in total) : "Note: After purchase, you can access the item in Your Orders.
By placing your order, you agree to our Games and Software Terms of Use.
This product is non-returnable and non-refundable.
Note: Currently, this item is available only to customers located in the United States."
Note that there is nothing indicating that this offering is limited to non-Steam members. To anyone, it would appear the only requirement was that I was in the US (which I am.)
I purchased the gems and proceeded to try to redeem the code, following the information in the purchase on Amazon.
I found out the code was unable to be redeemed when I received an error regarding the formatting of the code.
I then stumbled across the “gems don’t work for Steam users” in the support site. Note, at no point during the purchase flow was I presented with this.
I reached out to support and was told that the Steam version was unable to accept the code that I had just paid for.
I responded to Guild Wars support by stating that because of policy, Amazon was unable to process a refund for game code sales and asked them to credit my Guild Wars account with the gems.
They refused and told me it was my fault for not reading the FAQ before purchasing the gems. Seriously?
As there is no distinction between retail Guild Wars 2 and the Steam version anywhere outside of the FAQ and at no point in the purchase flow is this limitation expressed, this is a deceptive listing.
4 emails with support later and a morning spent on chat with Amazon I am still out my money, and I’m sure I’m not alone.
Support told me to contact Amazon and Amazon told me to contact Guild Wars support who in turn told me to contact Amazon.
The incompatibility between systems is not something a consumer knows about unless they need to look for it, and to all outward appearances, buying in game currency for a game that is called the same thing as the game you are playing should just work. In other words, the problem is on the backend, not the consumer's head.
In short, until this “not available for Steam users” is added to the product description on Amazon or a brand distinction is made between the retail and Steam version we have a fraudulent product listing.
The fact that support is unwilling to remedy this by crediting gems for anyone on Steam that hits this issue while keeping their money is theft.
I paid for a thing in good faith, received something that should have worked based on the product listing, it didn't, and have zero way to get a refund. That is textbook theft and fraud.
As someone who has ran game studios, this baffles my mind. It literally costs the company nothing to work around the incompatible systems by taking a code, checking the validity, burning it, then crediting the customer's Steam account manually. Instead, support is encouraged to perpetrate theft and gaslight customers. Seriously, it's virtual goods. Why would anyone choose theft over something that costs nothing?
Here's to hoping that one or more of the following happens:
The product listing gets updated on Amazon to indicate that Steam users are ineligible.
Any cards in the wild make this distinction as well
The Steam product page for Guild Wars 2 contains something descriptive or a link to limitations
Until then, you have stolen from me and other's like me who would never think to read an FAQ before making a purchase for ingame currency on Amazon.
Note: Support also encouraged me to post this to the forums. Sorry for the negative post, but this is really bad.
As a new player who has not been inundated by FAQs and leveraging that pretty much every game that sells in game currency ubiquitously, no, the fact that this information appears zero places in the purchase flow nor at game outlets needs fixed. It's a backend limitation and the burden of knowing this is not on the consumer. Unless a differentiation between "Guild Wars 2" and "Guild wars 2 Steam edition" surfaces as part of any purchase flow, this is confusing and unintentionally illegal as it perpetrates false advertising. A single sentence in the product listing on Amazon would alleviate this.
