After Netease and Blizzard officially announced their breakup, the refund channel for Blizzard games is now open.
According to NetEase’s previous announcement, players can apply for a refund through the WeChat public account “Blizzard Game Service Center” before June 30 this year. Players who do not apply for a refund within this period will be deemed to have given up their relevant rights.
The reporter's investigation found that the number of people queuing up for refunds has exceeded one million, and there are still many situations where refunds cannot be made, which has caused dissatisfaction among many players.
Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Jiang Tiansheng
Players complain: Refunds are slow and difficult
Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter learned that this refund service is limited to "recharged but not consumed virtual currency or game services that have not expired". The page also shows that there are currently more than one million players in Waiting in line for a refund.
On relevant game forums, some players said they had already received a refund, while others said that the refund was slow and expressed their dissatisfaction.
In addition to "slow refund", there is also "difficult refund".
Player Xiao Zhang told the Yangzi Evening News reporter that to log in to the refund interface, he needs to verify the secure mobile phone he used when registering on Battle.net, and his mobile phone has been disabled at present.
The customer service said, "If you encounter a situation where the security phone is unavailable and cannot be resolved temporarily, we regret that we cannot help you at the moment. You can leave your account number and contact information so that we can contact you in the future if necessary."
Because he couldn't remember the mobile phone number reserved at that time, Xiao Zhang couldn't even fill in the "leave a message" form.
The reporter learned that because Blizzard Battle.net was launched in China earlier (2010), mobile phones were not as popular as they are now, so there were cases of borrowing/losing secure mobile phone numbers. In this case, refunds cannot be made because they cannot log in .
"The system is still being debugged"
In addition to the problem of mobile phone numbers, there are many reasons why it is difficult for players to refund.
On relevant game forums, some players claimed that they borrowed or purchased accounts, so they could not pass the face recognition system, resulting in the inability to get a refund. They complained to 12315, and the complaint has been accepted.
Some players also said that they recharged through third-party channels (Taobao, Douyin), but they could not get a refund.
Another player said that he had just purchased a 1688 yuan game gift pack before closing the server, and the gift pack was not within the scope of refunds, so he also initiated a complaint...
Netease Blizzard broke up and caused the game to be removed from the shelves, and it was named by the China Consumers Association.
The China Consumers Association believes that the rights and interests of consumers cannot be "deleted as they want", and online game operators must respect consumers' wishes and choose a method acceptable to consumers when adjusting their business strategies.
Regulatory departments should urge enterprises to perform their duties well, consciously safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and punish illegal acts that infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in accordance with laws and regulations.
Relevant laws and regulations should also be continuously improved to build a solid protection wall for consumers' virtual property and better protect consumers' assured consumption.
Zhang Dong, head of Netease Blizzard games, responded by posting that the system is still being debugged, and the follow-up (refund) speed will be accelerated.