That is some BS. I've always despised the "the system won't let me help you" line. As I've spent 7 years doing both consumer and enterprise tech support, I understand that computer-based sales and service tools can be limited, but the bottom line is that anyone who really wants to help you _CAN_, with a little effort. Companies need to treat their employees like assets and empower them to make decisions outside "the system."

I think Zach will find that Blizzard is better than that, if he can reach the right person. How many other companies do you know of that actually *remove* copy/play protection on aging games? (FYI: patch 1.12 removes the requirement to have the Diablo II (or the expansion) CD in the drive to play the game, for those of us schmoes who still play our original optical copies!)

I have never really used the Blizzard store after receiving my copy of Diablo II with a missing Key. This also included the expansion: Lord of Destruction. As for the game servers now Blizzard has left D2 to practically rot on servers with some times extreme lag. I wish you good endeavors on Battle net with Diablo II.

I have a similar situation occur recently with McAffee anti-virus. I bought a downloaded version of the software for about $30 last year, and then paid $2.99 for another license for my wife's computer. This month they hit me with a $84.99 renewal fee for software that can easily be purchased online for about a 1/3 or less of that. Now they say they can't refund me since I already downloaded updates after the renewal period. I'm getting with my credit card company to have them charged back.

At least you have documented proof that you tried to resolve this with a CSR.

2 months ago I had a similar issue with Quicken - I purchased a digital product only to realize it did not have the full functionality I required. 30 minutes after installing I tested the product and realized the gap existed. A quick call to a CSR and a promise of a refund within 4 to 6 weeks. Quicken's solution was to have a digital sign-in each time the product was used that was returned/refunded products ceased to work.

As the purchaser of a digital product, you should not be handcuffed if something goes wrong with, in this case, Blizzard's provisioning system. A company needs to build a system to solve problems off the "happy path". I believe Quicken had an ideal solution. This should be a standard practice for companies offering digital versions of their software.

I hope that this get resolved swiftly for you.

Weird, I had issues downloading an antivirus (stupid dial-up) e-mailed the company they sent me a link - I downloaded it at work (yay! wireless) and installed it at home no problem.

Fast and friendly, no dupe charges. It can be done.

@dakotad555: They do this to me EVERY YEAR!!!

No amount of going through their cancellation process stops them; thre years in a row I have had this charge, and disputed it through AMEX. I don't even OWN McAssfee software anymore.

Wait wait so lemme get this straight...

He bought the game. Transaction goes through...

He got the serial key and download link...

Did the download link not work? Or did the downloader you download from it not work?

Part of the problem that some people may not be aware of if they're not familiar with Blizzard and how Battle.net works, is that in order to use the Battle.Net services, you need to have a unique game key that your game was installed with. This is their way of preventing piracy - sure you can put the game on a bazillion computers, or download it on the internet, but only the game using a legit CD Key (and only one instance of it at a time) can get online functionality.

So for them, the problem is probably the two CD Keys that Joshua may or may not have access to (and it seems like they were "claimed"), which is possibly what the hold up is here.

@rrrebo: or those of us who registered our optical copies on the store for the download cause heaven only knows where my play disc is...

Blizzard's generally good about stuff like this..

CHARGEBACK!

They *can* cancel the CD keys. They just don't feel incentivized to do so. Maybe when your bank yanks the money back they'll figure out how to work their own computer system and cover this not-uncommon eventuality in the future.

There is also the "noob" factor. Sometimes you deal with a new CSR that doesn't know quite what they're doing. Just call Blizzard on the phone, tell them your story, make sure you have transaction numbers and CD-Keys on hand, and see if they can help you that way.

Call your bank or credit card company and dispute the 2 additional charges. Mention that you've already spoke with Blizz about this, and they were unable or incapable of resolving the issue.
Good luck!

@Ajh: In my experience with blizzard, you don't download the file directly from a link on their site. It gives you a downloader app that in turn downloads the file. Sounds like the downloader app didn't work.

@spazztastic:
Brutal. Their Indian call center is a joke.

And people wonder why cracks are around?

You can still buy Diablo II in store for 10~15 bucks. 30~40 for the battle chest. If you have the key, pirate a version and just use your legit key.

"Computer says nooooo...."

Hate to sound old fashioned, but I love having a hard copy of software on a CD. Yea, I'll do the digital download business but if there's no difference in cost I'll take the copy in hand version. I've just had fewer problems with store bought, in box software.

Good luck to this guy though. But from what I've heard Blizzard should treat him right once he gets ahold of the right set of ears.

(Is it possible for them to void the other two license keys? That seems like the sane, quick answer for Blizzard to feel comfortable in sending back this guy's money.)

@junip: Blizzard uses the Bit Torrent protocol to distribute their online commerce. (A good thing to keep in mind for those cable customers out there whose ISP tell them that Bit Torrent = evil)

@Ajh: Blizzard uses this odd variant of bit torrent for it's downloads, which is very buggy, but doesn't usually tell customers why it failed when it fails. The torrent usually works eventually, but may take days to accomplish what a single direct download could do in 20 minutes. The downloader app they use keeps trying until it gets all of the download. But only if you leave it open until it does.

Sometimes it fails to load at all; Again, it rarely says why.

From what the OP said, I'd guess that the downloader app failed to load on his computer for whatever reason. Without the downloader app, the real download was available but never started.

The problems start when Blizzard considers their software brilliant and foolproof; It's not, but Blizzard doesn't agree.

I've been a Blizzard customer for a long time (Warcraft 1, 2, 3; Starcraft; World of Warcraft), and in my experience, while everything eventually works sooner or later, trying to tell Blizzard it doesn't work is a lost cause. They want to help, but their internal rules for handling customers requires that they follow a script and that script may not always fit the problem.

MMORPG servers are the final arbiter of game data; If the client program and server disagree, the client loses -- Always. This is to prevent hackers from being able to give themselves loot for free, among other things. I once reported a bug with the way the server was updating client data; The client was not querying the server about object location until the player tried to interact, then the item would jump up to 5 yards as the server finally updated the client. The content area this was happening was reset and reloaded every 30 minutes or so and was wholly a server-side problem. The CSR I talked to wanted me to delete my cache and preferences files; The object placements that were jumping refreshed each time they occurred -- Cache has no effect on that. Doing as the CSR script demanded would have no effect on the problem (I used to work with servers, I know) and would require me to redo all of my preferences and customized settings. But because I wasn't obeying the CSR and following the script, the CSR hung up on me. They aren't allowed to deviate from the script, even if it's obvious the script doesn't apply.

Any why hasn't this been cross-linked to Kotaku yet? Does Blizzard/Vivendi advertise on there?

@rrrebo: Agreed! I was so awesomely stoked when they released 1.12. Now I can do other things while I play Diablo 2, because, yes, I still play that game ALL the time. :)

I think Zach just got unlucky and spoke to a couple of incompetent reps. On the rare occasion that I have had problems with Blizzard products, it was quick and easy to get a solution from their CS department.

@dakotad555: That's a situation that's not unique to McAfee from what I hear. I've had lots of friends that have had similar problems with overcharging or double-charging. The sad thing is, all of them throw out the "We *can't* help you" line of BS. I recently switched over to OneCare and have had no problems when I've contacted customer support.

@silver-bolt: It takes up to a day sometimes.

The news story isn't that this didn't work.
The news story is really:
"Breaking News: Someone Actually Still Wants To Play Diablo II"

@junip: Yeah I know about the downloader app. I'm trying to figure out whether that was where the problem was or not, because if it was then I'm confused why they would put an online order for another copy, as the download app doesn't care if you own the software(Someone sent me the starcraft download so I could download it while I was hunting down my cd keys)

@Trai_Dep: And every time we have a major patch in WoW I call comcast and ask them why they're screwing my download of my legally purchased game. Every time..they deny it.

@Difdi: Trying to tell them their game doesn't work = Lost cause. Trying to tell them their store is broke, I've had success with that before.

I know exactly how blizzard does their downloads... When I CAN I go for patch mirrors to back up the larger patches, because comcast hates bittorrent. It must be illegal to update WoW or download Diablo II?

@weakdome: I'm actually playing my way back through the ORIGINAL right now, and plan to play DII afterwards. Mostly to get back in the mood for three.

Though I'll tell you going back to the first game now? Utterly painful.

@weakdome: Actually I played through D2 a few weeks ago, was still fun.

@coren: if they're generating unique keys for each user, i don't see why it would be impossible to revoke the keys. somewhere those keys are housed in a database & somewhere there's an operator who knows how to query & edit that database, right?

Blizzard absolutely "can" refund Josh's money, in that it is a fairly simple procedure to transfer currency between parties in our modern society.

What Blizzard means to say is that it "won't" refund Josh's money, because the reps he has been speaking with do not have the authority to do so, and are unwilling (or are not empowered) to escalate his case to someone who has that ability.

Currently Blizzard is in violation of the law, in that they have taken payment for a good or service that has not been delivered, and their refusal to rectify the situation even though they show agreement that the good or service was not provided makes this a pretty open and shut case.

Josh: Give them one more chance by calling up and getting (politely) escalated to someone who can refund your money. Failing that, call your credit card company, who will most likely take your side in this.

I have 1.12 but I still have to put my disc in to play. Am I supposed to do something to correct this? It would be nice to take the disc out and still be able to play.@rrrebo:

@Meiran: They walk so slow!

My question is how did the download fail? Is there a timelimit or is there something else?

Also if these "keys" they gave you are actual cd keys then you can just pick your favorite torrent site, download a cd image, burn it, then install using said keys. If they are actual CD keys it does not make them any less legit if they where installed this way.

sadly, I think I've bought this game about 3 times since its release because of losing the cd keys so many times

@crimfresh: You might not have all the .MPQ files on your computer, causing the game to require the disc. It looks like you might need to do a full install (REMEMBER TO BACK UP CHAR SAVES!!!).

"Patch 1.12

Downloadable Installer Support

- If all required Diablo 2 '.MPQ' files are installed on the hard drive, the game will no longer require the CD to play.

For users that originally performed a 'Full Installation' and wish to run without the CD, all '.MPQ' files should be copied from the Diablo 2 CDs to the Diablo 2 directory.
Most users will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the Diablo 2 Play CD and/or D2xMusic.mpq from the Lord of Destruction CD. Mac users will need to copy these music files and rename them to 'Diablo II Music' and 'Diablo II Expansion Music' respectively.

Anyone who did not perform a 'Full Installation' will need to re-install from CD again to ultimately play without the CD.
In this case, a 'Full Installation' is required, followed by file copy step noted above." - [www.gameupdates.org]

@Phantom_Photon: Technically their claim is that the CD-Keys have been redeemed. Their system shows one thing, the end customer says something else.

The end result, the OP should take his documentation to his bank or call his CC and say that he's not been able to get the goods he purchased and the company who sold him them can't/won't provide a refund.

It'd be interesting to see what might happen, if Blizz will charge him again after a reversal.

I just stopped working for Blizzard a few months ago. At the time they literally had no way to do the refund. Not even a manager could do it. Seems to still be the case. I actually know Sam but there is more than one Joshua. Blizzard has this big problem of releasing rad games and then figuring out how to support them.

Those charges may be on hold from the bank. Meaning that Blizzard nor Zach currently have those funds. If that is the case those fees will eventually be returned.

The other scenario is that there could be coming wrong with Zach's comp causing downloading issues. Try installing on another computer and see if that works.

I had the same issue with BF2: Amored Fury and Euro Forces, after a year of having them downloaded and installed, they stopped working and would receive a message to buy the add-ons, which would show up on my account. I tried to get them to refund the purchase price but they refused to do so...

This same thing happened to me with AT&T. They agreed they needed to give me a refund but couldn't figure out how to do it in the "system". I called my bank (wells fargo) and they were useless. They said they had to convince visa and that visa needed more proof than a receipt....uhh what else can you get other than a receipt?

As somebody familiar with the blizzard digital distribution process I am really confused. Once the product is purchased, you have unlimited downloads from their services. My guess is that the user bought the game, and the download failed. There was a miscommunication and he created another account and bought the game again. The problem most likely lies in his computer and he owns 3 copies of Diablo 2, he just needs to find a way to download them.

It DOES suck though that Blizzard doesn't have a system for refunds, because chances are you bought 2 extra copies when there truely wasn't anything wrong with the first one.

Blizzard told the same thing to me and my brother when we tried to download DII. Neither of us could get it to download and they said they don't have "refunds in place yet". Which is either just sheer laziness or a total fucking scam. Either way it's pathetic for a company of their stature.

I haven't seen any one else mention this and I think it is an important point: NEVER EVER use your debit card or anything else attached to your checking or savings account when making an online purchase.

It's too easy for things like this to happen or be charged an erroneous amount which will mess up any other transactions you try to make.

I have my own mildly amusing story about Blizzard. At one time I decided to renew my WoW subscription. A few hours later it's canceled for "potential fraud." They send me an email saying that this can't be solved via email and I need to call them, where I'm promptly told that the issue can't be solved via phone so I need to handle it via email.

I have a feeling this will be resolved shortly.

I worked for a company selling games online and I can attest that this sort of thing can happen. My team built the ecommerce system, but the tools for the CSRs to do refunds and such were a secondary consideration. It was certainly possible at one point that the CSRs didn't have the tools to do a refund. It wasn't impossible - maybe 3 people in the company (me included) had access to do it - but there was no process for it.

As others have said, issue a chargeback through your bank and you'll get refunded no problem.

That's unfortunate. I had a really easy time with them. I bought a WoW battlechest, and after I installed WoW I accidentally did the digital upgrade to TBC (stupid, I know, but it was one click in the wrong direction), and obviously I already had a hard copy of it, so I didn't want to pay for it twice. I called the support number on my way to the gas station down the street, was resolved and refunded before I got home.