Writ Voucher Merchant Items Scam

aegisfire1975 · March 2017

Since Eso has neglected to inform the community about the items that appear to be gold furnishing plans for creating crafting stations, I feel like I have to write my first post in the forum to discuss this issue. My hope is that no one else will be scammed by these misleading items. You would think that the gold plans that cost 125 writ vouchers and are labeled furnishing workshop would give you the ability to create crafting stations. They do not. Please do not be mislead and waste your awarded writ vouchers on these stupid items.

The poison makers cabinet, tool case, skinning podium and these other plans labeled workshop are not plans to create crafting stations, they are purely decorative. I finally received a large writ voucher award and was excited to finally make this purchase only to be awarded a stupid block of wood with tools in it that I can do nothing with. I am sure that you can understand my extreme disappointment considering I thought that I was going to be able to create woodworking crafting stations with this plan.

I am currently in a dispute with eso regarding this misrepresentation and they are refusing to refund my writ voucher and materials for this item. Don't waste your writ voucher points on these items. I am so disappointed in the deception and lack of customer service that I have received. Don't make the same mistake that I did. If this matter is not resolved to my satisfaction I will not spend any more money on this game and will find anyway that I can to shout to the rooftops. I will not go away and will not be dissuaded.

Watch out ESO community apparently the customer service and support is not what it used to be. It also seems that a precedent of misleading and misrepresented items has now been set and dismissal of your disappointment is now the norm.

Zaldan · March 2017

Play dirty, get away clean.

Not just the Thieves Guild DLC advertising moto

redspecter23 · March 2017

I was never under the impression that those recipes were for crafting stations. The actual crafting stations and attunable versions are clearly labeled on the list. The others are cosmetic furnishing items and labeled as such. If you were to take a poll asking the playerbase if they thought these cosmetic items were actually crafting stations I think you'd find yourself in an extremely small minority.

Soella · March 2017

AFAIK, you are the first one who was mislead. At least I don't remember any posts about it. As for me, they are labeled pretty clear.

Nerouyn · March 2017

aegisfire1979 wrote: »

f this matter is not resolved to my satisfaction I will not spend any more money on this game and will find anyway that I can to shout to the rooftops. I will not go away and will not be dissuaded.

I reckon this is definitely an uphill battle for you but I sympathise and this information might help you.

A Dutch court ruled that digital items in an online game are your property and enjoy the same protection against theft as your real world property.

The Australian High Court ruled that by doing business in Australia, Steam is subject to Australian consumer law despite any disclaimers they have in their Terms of Service to the contrary.

If digital items are real for the purpose of anti-theft laws then they should be equally real for the purpose of consumer protection law. Most countries have consumer protection laws which cover refunds. Find out what those protections are where you live - because you are probably protected by those laws in accordance with the Australian ruling - and what would be involved in your making a complaint about this... should ZO continue to deny you a writ refund.

I can understand why Zenimax might not want to open the door for such refunds. It could create a lot of work for CS staff. But they're really bad at labelling some things, eg. the banker and merchant assistants. So many times I've read people complaining about buying them not realising they lack the full functionality of NPC bankers and merchants. Because that information isn't in their description.

Better Business Bureau may also be able to help as a non-official third party mediator. They're a non-profit who attempt to mediate complaints between businesses and consumers. Because this is in a bit of a grey area I'm not sure that they would be able to help you resolve this to your satisfaction but they may be worth trying and it costs you nothing but a bit of time.

Soella wrote: »

AFAIK, you are the first one who was mislead. At least I don't remember any posts about it. As for me, they are labeled pretty clear.

I wasn't mislead but only because I'd read ahead of Homestead's launch about the crafting stations being bought as items rather than recipes. So I assumed that all the other 'gold' items at those vendors were also items.

Though a player could be forgiven for thinking they might be legendary house crafting recipes. There are legendary food recipes. We do craft housing items. The vendors sell motifs (i.e. crafting recipes). So I have some sympathy for the OP.

STEVIL · March 2017

I must say that as others have said - it appeared quite obvious and clear to me which was which.

in the run-up to release a number of threads appeared about some furnishings that had an appearance of being similar to crafting stations but only served as furnishings. So the idea that both kinds of items existed was fairly well known among those on the forums i believe.

i know before i lay out any payment of significant expense or on any gold item, i take a bit of extra time to make sure i am getting what I think i am.

i currently have all seven basic crafting stations fully functional and an attuned smithing station and had no issue with figuring out what to pay and where to click and when as i made each and every one of those purchases. They now sit in my primary residence so my guildies can benefit from them all.

So for me the process seems to have worked out well enough.

Beardimus · March 2017

It does suck for you fella but it's pretty clear in the patch notes that they are called attunable crafting stations which are listed in the same place just at the bottom.

I appreciate that doesn't help you, and awesome if ZOS do a thing for you, however id be very surprised in this case as you just bought the wrong thing

the naming convention is completely different to every where else in the game crafting is done.

All big purchases are worth checking out, both Crown or Gold.

Reorx_Holybeard · March 2017

Note that all recipes since homestead have a name that starts with "Recipe: ...", "Blueprint:...", "Design:...", "Praxis:...", etc... Anything that doesn't have a name like this is a not a recipe.

aegisfire1975 · March 2017

All I wanted was for people to know. I know others that do not have this information. I also did research my purchase online and was unable to find any clarification about those items, just the names. Being clearly labeled workshop is misleading in my opinion. I had already purchased all the other workshops and figured that I was progressing to the next step. I figured something that cost 125 writ vouchers must be pretty good. I could have purchase 12 purple furnishing plans with those writ vouchers, instead I got a stupid piece of wood that I can do nothing with. I would not have figured that ESO would be that way. You would think there would be SOME benefit to spending 125 vouchers. Regardless if some had already know because they spend time on the forums, the general community does not. I had many people who thanked me for this information because they were under the same impression. I'm still feeling very cheated.

Jayne_Doe · March 2017

I guess I can see where you thought they might be the next "step" in creating crafting stations, but there is no precedent in the game for it. All crafting stations are labeled as "crafting stations" - alchemy crafting station, enchanting crafting station, etc. The crafting stations you can purchase for 35 WV are labeled as such. If there existed plans to be able to craft your own, they would be labeled "Blueprint: Woodworking Crafting Station." It would not be labeled anything else.

It may not be entirely obvious to some people that these are purely decorative furnishings, and I understand that you are upset about spending your vouchers on something you didn't really know what it was. But...to then claim that ZOS is PURPOSELY being misleading and deceptive is ridiculous. Anything that is a functioning crafting station is CLEARLY LABELED AS SUCH. Therefore, anything else is purely cosmetic. That you didn't know this doesn't mean they are purposely misleading. It seems to me that their intent was to clearly label anything that was a functioning crafting station as such and thus everything else is just decorative.

Perhaps they can be more clear in the descriptions, but I don't believe they were being purposely deceptive in this case. Besides which, you only spent in-game currency on this - not actual Crowns, so I doubt they'd actually refund you the virtual currency.

aegisfire1975 · March 2017

If you saw the tools case you would understand.

AyeshaBelladonna · March 2017

If you have paid attention to the categories in which blueprints you learn are set in, workshops is one such category. In workshop go anything that would be a workshop decoration. Ex: Common hatchet, cage, forge tongs, forge hammer. That does not mean its is a crafting station. that mean that is the category in which you will find it when you go to make the item. they do this to help prevent folks from 'losing' where something goes once learned and complaining that their diagram 'disappeared'. I feel for you on this, i get how the misunderstanding could've occurred, but there are many many many items in that category per type of crafting item (wood, blacksmith, enchanting, oct) and if they didn't categorize them you'd spend ages looking through that growing list when trying to find that 'cool new thing you just learned and now have to make one of'.