Customer Rights

Does anyone know if as customers we have the right to expect a certain standard from games. A game in particular I've noticed has the most pathetic single player mode (poorly programmed AI etc...) and the online mode doesnt work 95% fo the time. From not being able to locate any players or just simply glitching or freezing the xbox. I wondered if there is a gaming trading standard almost that specifies the action the developer must take to fix these issues if it makes the game unplayable?

Nope this is not a joke. No more than your reply. You must have nothing to do considering you bothered to reply with such a contribution.

Paying for a game that claims online, you expect it to have a online part of the game. Especially when the single playing is this bad, and online doesnt work. For example if the Xbox 360 was release and a problem on microsofts end meant the 95% fo the ppl who just paid for an xbox coudlnt connect to xbox live, surley then something would be done about it.

Nope this is not a joke. No more than your reply. You must have nothing to do considering you bothered to reply with such a contribution.

Paying for a game that claims online, you expect it to have a online part of the game. Especially when the single playing is this bad, and online doesnt work. For example if the Xbox 360 was release and a problem on microsofts end meant the 95% fo the ppl who just paid for an xbox coudlnt connect to xbox live, surley then something would be done about it.

hotrod118

Does anyone know if as customers we have the right to expect a certain standard from games. A game in particular I've noticed has the most pathetic single player mode (poorly programmed AI etc...) and the online mode doesnt work 95% fo the time. From not being able to locate any players or just simply glitching or freezing the xbox. I wondered if there is a gaming trading standard almost that specifies the action the developer must take to fix these issues if it makes the game unplayable?

hotrod118

[QUOTE="hotrod118"]

Nope this is not a joke. No more than your reply. You must have nothing to do considering you bothered to reply with such a contribution.

Paying for a game that claims online, you expect it to have a online part of the game. Especially when the single playing is this bad, and online doesnt work. For example if the Xbox 360 was release and a problem on microsofts end meant the 95% fo the ppl who just paid for an xbox coudlnt connect to xbox live, surley then something would be done about it.

chaoscougar1

[QUOTE="chaoscougar1"][QUOTE="hotrod118"]

Nope this is not a joke. No more than your reply. You must have nothing to do considering you bothered to reply with such a contribution.

Paying for a game that claims online, you expect it to have a online part of the game. Especially when the single playing is this bad, and online doesnt work. For example if the Xbox 360 was release and a problem on microsofts end meant the 95% fo the ppl who just paid for an xbox coudlnt connect to xbox live, surley then something would be done about it.

heath005

clearly a joke thread, at least a primary school child thread.

no one forced u to buy these games, and no one forced u to check the countless media outlets to source a areview on said game.

what? this is a joke thread...if u don't like the game, then return it

you should go to a gaming website like www.gamespot.com since they talk bout features of the games...gamespot also have a community forum where people discuss bout certain games...these type of resources helps you determine if a certain game u want to play is worth it or not

Well, I guess there's the Better Business Bureau.

Not really fair to tell him to return the game, since more retailers don't take back opened games unless he just wants to exchange it for another copy, which doesn't really help any.

Does anyone know if as customers we have the right to expect a certain standard from games. A game in particular I've noticed has the most pathetic single player mode (poorly programmed AI etc...) and the online mode doesnt work 95% fo the time. From not being able to locate any players or just simply glitching or freezing the xbox. I wondered if there is a gaming trading standard almost that specifies the action the developer must take to fix these issues if it makes the game unplayable?

hotrod118

Well, you have no rights, really. There are bugs, but those are to be expected. And multiplayer not working 95% of the time certainly wouldn't win you a lawsuit, because multiplayer isn't 100% needed in order to play the game. By purchasing the game, and playing it, you agree to a form of contract. Read the terms in your manual.

--EDIT--

And you certainly can't get your money back for, "not liking it".

Well, you have no rights, really. There are bugs, but those are to be expected. And multiplayer not working 95% of the time certainly wouldn't win you a lawsuit, because multiplayer isn't 100% needed in order to play the game. By purchasing the game, and playing it, you agree to a form of contract. Read the terms in your manual.

--EDIT--

And you certainly can't get your money back for, "not liking it".

yx2vy

first RENT games

AND IF the online is broken AND many other people (including gamespot) have stated the online is broken

THEN DONT buy it. There are few games out there that get good reviews and actually have broken online. (95% of the time not working would be considered broken)

it has nothing to do with customer rights. if you think the 1player mode sucks, thats your OPINION. and if online doesnt work sometimes (im sure 95% is an exaggeration) then thats a flaw with the game. but its not like you can prove to a store that a game is crap and they should let you return it. In many cases, if a game is OPEN its yours and the best you can do is trade it in to gamestop (which wont give you much $ if the game is in fact lame).

so please, RENT games. There are MANY bad games out there, u gotta be carefull. its like a minefield.

edit:

oh yeah and there are Patches for when there are glitches in games. that's how companies try to make the customer happy. they RARELY actually refund money.

this is a joke right?chaoscougar1

its not a case of I dont like the game, I want to return it. Its the game is actually so buggy and broke its hardly playable. 95% is not an exageration im afriad. In the last 3 weeks I've tried most days for around about 30minutes each day to play online. Only being able to once join a game. Once in 3 weeks of contant trying is a joke. As for the comments read reviews, I certainly did and yet non of them picked up on how bad online is. Guess review sites don't really take that much time in testing (like the publisher themselves). The game in my case is Mx Reflex. It never finds players to race online, half the time it crashes. (its the only xbox game to crash my xbox and its done it about 8/9 times now)

I've tried the route of contacting the publisher and they stated they were doing a fix, this 'fix' has been implemented but nothing changed. Its now 5 months since the game was out and I am wondering if all the users that are in teh same boat as me actually have any kind of rights. Especially as for the last 2 months all the publisher can say about the issues are they cannot comment on anything.

Some of you are being kind of rude about this thread, and it's really not stupid at all.

Any other product or service you pay for, there is usually an outlet you can report to when the product does not perform as it was advertised, such as the BBB. Yes, you should research the product you are buying, but I think companies should be held accountable for selling games that they claim are in working condition and obviously aren't.

its not a case of I dont like the game, I want to return it. Its the game is actually so buggy and broke its hardly playable. 95% is not an exageration im afriad. In the last 3 weeks I've tried most days for around about 30minutes each day to play online. Only being able to once join a game. Once in 3 weeks of contant trying is a joke. As for the comments read reviews, I certainly did and yet non of them picked up on how bad online is. Guess review sites don't really take that much time in testing (like the publisher themselves). The game in my case is Mx Reflex. It never finds players to race online, half the time it crashes. (its the only xbox game to crash my xbox and its done it about 8/9 times now)

I've tried the route of contacting the publisher and they stated they were doing a fix, this 'fix' has been implemented but nothing changed. Its now 5 months since the game was out and I am wondering if all the users that are in teh same boat as me actually have any kind of rights. Especially as for the last 2 months all the publisher can say about the issues are they cannot comment on anything.

hotrod118

thats because there are no players online

you cannot sue a game company because it has glitches, otherwise every single game in history could have been taken to court. and some crashes are player specific, some people may experience freezes that others dont due to their hardware or a save. try googling for other people in the same boat as you before thinking you can sue an entire company because your not happy with their product....cause i would hate to see what would happen to big rigs...

[QUOTE="wwervin"]I take it most of the people posting here have no higher education whatsoever? Don't you guys know anything about marketing? All I keep reading is "research games, read reviews, blah blah blah" well as a consumer you don't have to research anything. If you walk into a store and see a game advertised with online play and your game won't actually allow you to play online, you shouldn't have to take the loss. This is why the Better Business Burea exists.. We're not in the middle ages here we don't need to take the seller's word for something. If you get screwed over, you have a right to return the product and get your money back. It's quite unbelievable how people these days expect to be screwed over and have no say in anything they've spent hard earned money on, so they come into threads like these asking if it's a joke. Well joke's on you guys.Canvas_Of_Flesh

Well something like that would fall under the false advertising umbrella, but you wouldn't have alot of luck trying to prove it. A video game is a case of expectations and subjective response. Someone could advertise their game as the greatest ever and then say they really thought it was the greatest game ever and Bill and Sue over here also thought it was the best game ever. Even though you bought it under the guise that it was the best game ever and it didn't live up to that, that's where that whole subjective response comes in. The company cant be blamed if you didn't experience the game the way you wanted to, they cant even be blamed for glitches because I'm sure "This game is technically flawless" was not part of the advertisement campaign.

The only way you would have a case against them is if they were guilty of blatant false advertisement. Like say you buy a disc or download a game and there is nothing there, or you went to buy MW2 and on the disc is a Hello Kitty flash game. Outside of that, you have no case because your response and everyone else's is subjective.

[QUOTE="wwervin"]I take it most of the people posting here have no higher education whatsoever? Don't you guys know anything about marketing? All I keep reading is "research games, read reviews, blah blah blah" well as a consumer you don't have to research anything. If you walk into a store and see a game advertised with online play and your game won't actually allow you to play online, you shouldn't have to take the loss. This is why the Better Business Burea exists.. We're not in the middle ages here we don't need to take the seller's word for something. If you get screwed over, you have a right to return the product and get your money back. It's quite unbelievable how people these days expect to be screwed over and have no say in anything they've spent hard earned money on, so they come into threads like these asking if it's a joke. Well joke's on you guys.chaoscougar1

If anything I think the best you can hope for is to speak to a manager at the shop where you bought the game and hope that he/she is an understanding person. It's actually happened before to people in my family where they had money refunded despite a game being opened.

The only response I can think of to situations like this is to simply not pay for the product and avoid playing it until it is playable. And if you do play it and find these faults than point them out in a constructive manner. Certain fanboys might not like seeing their favorite game score less than a 9 from anyone but if enough folks see it they will understand to avoid the game.

Otherwise, I doubt we have much in the way of customer rights.

[QUOTE="hotrod118"]

Nope this is not a joke. No more than your reply. You must have nothing to do considering you bothered to reply with such a contribution.

Paying for a game that claims online, you expect it to have a online part of the game. Especially when the single playing is this bad, and online doesnt work. For example if the Xbox 360 was release and a problem on microsofts end meant the 95% fo the ppl who just paid for an xbox coudlnt connect to xbox live, surley then something would be done about it.

chaoscougar1

Gears of War 2 and Modern Warfare 2 had crap online when I played them. And MW2's online might be worse on the PS3 version than the 360 version at that.

Modern Warfare 2 also has a terrible campaign with uneven level design and a tacked on co-op mode. I didn't pay for the game myself so I can't demand money back on it, but compared to Call of Duty 4 it's a colossal disappointment. You talk about getting split from your party, booted from matches, glitching and a buttload of lag. This was supposed to be the premiere shooter experience of 2009, instead it barely turns on.

Meanwhile, Gears 2 (I have no idea if it's fixed now) wouldn't even let us start matches. There would be like 30 minute waits. So I think he has a point he mentions customer rights. If a game is advertised as complete than it should be complete when given to the consumer.

Now, I can't say for certain that any developers/publishers uphold that any more. Going into a broader range, Nintendo for instance dropped the Official Seal of Quality letting anything pass on their system. How MS and Sony operate is beyond me, but if stuff like Gears 2 and MW2 are deemed complete than they aren't much better.

[QUOTE="Canvas_Of_Flesh"][QUOTE="wwervin"]I take it most of the people posting here have no higher education whatsoever? Don't you guys know anything about marketing? All I keep reading is "research games, read reviews, blah blah blah" well as a consumer you don't have to research anything. If you walk into a store and see a game advertised with online play and your game won't actually allow you to play online, you shouldn't have to take the loss. This is why the Better Business Burea exists.. We're not in the middle ages here we don't need to take the seller's word for something. If you get screwed over, you have a right to return the product and get your money back. It's quite unbelievable how people these days expect to be screwed over and have no say in anything they've spent hard earned money on, so they come into threads like these asking if it's a joke. Well joke's on you guys.chaoscougar1

[QUOTE="chaoscougar1"]

[QUOTE="Canvas_Of_Flesh"] Exactly. For some reason people think that video games are different from other products and services, and the maker's can't be held accountable for pushing out a shoddily produced product. I can understand if you just don't like it. That's wouldn't be the producer's problem. If the product doesn't actually work as advertised, though, then that producer should be held accountable. Researching doesn't always help either. I read quite a few reviews before I purchase a game, and most of the time the review doesn't mention if the game is a glitchy mess or not. The bottom line is: games are as much a product as anything else and should be held to the same standards.Canvas_Of_Flesh

[QUOTE="Canvas_Of_Flesh"][QUOTE="wwervin"]I take it most of the people posting here have no higher education whatsoever? Don't you guys know anything about marketing? All I keep reading is "research games, read reviews, blah blah blah" well as a consumer you don't have to research anything. If you walk into a store and see a game advertised with online play and your game won't actually allow you to play online, you shouldn't have to take the loss. This is why the Better Business Burea exists.. We're not in the middle ages here we don't need to take the seller's word for something. If you get screwed over, you have a right to return the product and get your money back. It's quite unbelievable how people these days expect to be screwed over and have no say in anything they've spent hard earned money on, so they come into threads like these asking if it's a joke. Well joke's on you guys.chaoscougar1

Fallout 3 and Gears 2 still run fine as a whole. When a company releases a feature that doesn't work at all, they should be held accountable for it.

[QUOTE="heath005"][QUOTE="chaoscougar1"] care to give a specific example of a game where the online 'doesnt work'chaoscougar1

I don't think it's a right. They are just there to make money, they don't care if it rips you off.

I don't think it's a right. They are just there to make money, they don't care if it rips you off.

Snipes_2

No, but we do have the right to expect quality hardware, which Microsoft does not fulfil. My back USB port has now broke from a Last.fm update so i have to use my wireless stick in one of the front. USB's. Both of my controllers have buttons that you have to press down really hard for anything to happen. I'm getting fed up with it to them. Don't get me wrong i love Xbox, i just hate Microsoft.

(5 minutes later "NevecLP has been suspended, reason; for expressing his own opinions on gamespot")

No, but we do have the right to expect quality hardware, which Microsoft does not fulfil. My back USB port has now broke from a Last.fm update so i have to use my wireless stick in one of the front. USB's. Both of my controllers have buttons that you have to press down really hard for anything to happen. I'm getting fed up with it to them. Don't get me wrong i love Xbox, i just hate Microsoft.

(5 minutes later "NevecLP has been suspended, reason; for expressing his own opinions on gamespot")

NevecLP

microsoft products such as controllers and mice/keyboards retain a one year replacement warranty in australia. the otehr trick is to buy a new one, clean up ur old one and peel off the serial numbers for good measure from teh package of the new one. return ur old one under the guise of the new one being DOA, they should replace it or offer credit (technically they should offer a refund, but u shouldn't push for one or they may investigate the product further). i suggest asking for something else instead (unless u nedd another controller/mouse/whatever). this is kinda fraud, so please don't try this at home.