"Account Wide Purchases" is False advertising

Lapin_Logic · April 2019

If My £20 PC ESO account comprises of 15 character slots on EU and 15 character slots on NA, If I Buy 21000 Crowns, it shows up Account wide, on my EU And NA characters, BUT I spend £50 on an in game house, £200 on Crown Crates, and Crown crafting motifs at 5k crowns (£29 each x 5 = £149)..... but they are only available to my EU characters... How is that in any way "Account Wide" it is false advertising and infringing on the trades descriptions act, this is just splitting my account in 2, Please can we have a unification of our account purchases as it is inconvenient to have purchased all the mundus stones to decorate my EU house only to have EU offline and my NA toons looking like 778 CP paupers residing in Mara's Kiss.

Ertosi · April 2019

Real money purchases (i.e. buying a crown pack or the base game) are available across your entire account. That's why you're seeing the same crowns available for use on either server.

However, anything you spend crowns on will only be available on the individual server you use those crowns on. That's exactly how everything is advertised; that's exactly how it's supposed to work.

Why on earth would you think you could spend those same crowns more than once? The way you are asking things to be would be the equivalent of charging your debit card once, buying something in an individual store with that debit card (ex. a coffee at a Starbucks), then walking into a different store and thinking you get another copy of your previous purchase waiting for you for free (ex. another coffee at the new Starbucks just because you bought one at the other place).

No, no, no. What we have here isn't their failure of advertising, it's your lack of realism for how purchases work.

idk · April 2019

^^^^^

And it is pretty common that cash shop currency will show up on all servers in a game if you have characters on those servers. However, purchases are not shared. Each game does work the sharing a little different but ESO probably has the best situation.

In the end, this just seems to be a case of inexperience and misunderstanding. If crown store purchases you made were recent Zos may be able to offer a refund, and take the purchase back. Hopefully, or it is an expensive lesson learned.

Otherwise lawyer up and expect to lose as that is your only other option.

bluebird · April 2019

Ertosi wrote: »

Real money purchases (i.e. buying a crown pack or the base game) are available across your entire account. That's why you're seeing the same crowns available for use on either server.

However, anything you spend crowns on will only be available on the individual server you use those crowns on. That's exactly how everything is advertised; that's exactly how it's supposed to work.

Why on earth would you think you could spend those same crowns more than once? The way you are asking things to be would be the equivalent of charging your debit card once, buying something in an individual store with that debit card (ex. a coffee at a Starbucks), then walking into a different store and thinking you get another copy of your previous purchase waiting for you for free (ex. another coffee at the new Starbucks just because you bought one at the other place).

No, no, no. What we have here isn't their failure of advertising, it's your lack of realism for how purchases work.

OP has a point though, so your analogies don't work (at least for some CS items).

Sure, it would be weird if he tried to buy refreshing crown drinks on his EU toon and refreshing crown drinks on his NA toon, expecting it to be the same purchase, with two characters drinking it for the price of one.

But there's no good reason for collection unlocks to work that way. You buy a dress on one character, and you can use it on all characters. Same with mounts, houses, cosmetics, etc, that are account-wide... except they are only region-wide. For... some reason... even though they're not a limited scarce physical purchase, but an eternally unlocked upgrade. That's like paying for English language classes so you learn the skill, but if you travel to America, you'll have to pay the same price again to unlock the skill you already got and that worked for you back in Europe... what, why?

shaielzafine · April 2019

You have a good point, OP. On FFXIV "account wide" unlocks from the store are all account wide, if you make a new toon on another server it's there. If I went to EU or JP server, it will be unlocked. Items that aren't account wide specifically will say it's only for one character. IDK why ZOS does it their way, I'm sure it's in their TOS or something, but you get your crowns for both platforms. What you spend it on, however won't be on both platforms. That's probably not going to change and you probably have no recourse because it's their store. It wouldn't hurt them to just make it available on both platforms for everyone. But they would make more money keeping it the way that it is. I don't think you would win if you tried to sue them or anything. You could probably report somewhere but IDK how laws are where you live.

Aarlur · April 2019

The other thread was closed, so I write the same thing here:
They say it have technical reasons. Fine! In that case if I buy something on one server I should not loose any crown on the other one. Example: if I have 5000 crowns and I spend 2000 on EU I should have still 5000 on US server. Or this is impossible to do either?

Danikat · April 2019

I admit I've not played many other MMOs but I've never heard of one where "account wide" purchases are only available on the server you're logged into at the time.

That does seem to be the limitation here however. Things you buy outside of the game will be applied to your whole account, but if you buy them from the crown store they're only available on the one server. I assume it has something to do with how the game stores the information - for whatever reason ZOS aren't capable of using the same code other games do to copy the information across.

It's been catching people out since the crown store was first launched, and that was years ago. (A lot of people who had previously played on both servers had to pick just 1 to focus on.) It seems highly unlikely they'll change it now, so the best you can do is request a refund for any useless purchases.

Lapin_Logic · April 2019

We must remember also that even a loading screen tip states "Mounts are available Account Wide" not region or server wide

Also, My "Rahd-Mathra" and the blood shadow horse is Available on Both server from buying Elsweyr etc, it only follows that any mount should

Elsonso · April 2019

Lapin_Logic wrote: »

How is that in any way "Account Wide" it is false advertising and infringing on the trades descriptions act, this is just splitting my account in 2, Please can we have a unification of our account purchases as it is inconvenient to have purchased all the mundus stones to decorate my EU house only to have EU offline and my NA toons looking like 778 CP paupers residing in Mara's Kiss.

While I would like to see Crown Store purchases span geographies (NA-EU), the term "account wide" is not really false advertising, in my opinion. There is a clear path to understanding that anything purchased while in the game will be account wide, but scoped to that megaserver. This is how numerous account wide features work while in the game.

JKorr · April 2019

Aarlur wrote: »

The other thread was closed, so I write the same thing here:
They say it have technical reasons. Fine! In that case if I buy something on one server I should not loose any crown on the other one. Example: if I have 5000 crowns and I spend 2000 on EU I should have still 5000 on US server. Or this is impossible to do either?

You have 5000 crowns account wide.

You spend 2000 crowns on the EU server. Those crowns are gone. You spent them. You have the items you bought with them.

How would you still have 5000 crowns on the US server? You can't spend the same crowns you already spent.

You would have 3000 crowns left to buy items on the US server, not 5000. The crowns are account wide, the items you purchase with them are server specific.

Aarlur · April 2019

JKorr wrote: »

Aarlur wrote: »

The other thread was closed, so I write the same thing here:
They say it have technical reasons. Fine! In that case if I buy something on one server I should not loose any crown on the other one. Example: if I have 5000 crowns and I spend 2000 on EU I should have still 5000 on US server. Or this is impossible to do either?

You have 5000 crowns account wide.

You spend 2000 crowns on the EU server. Those crowns are gone. You spent them. You have the items you bought with them.

How would you still have 5000 crowns on the US server? You can't spend the same crowns you already spent.

You would have 3000 crowns left to buy items on the US server, not 5000. The crowns are account wide, the items you purchase with them are server specific.

Yes, I understand the current rules, what I am saying is they are wrong. If the purchase is server specific than the spent crowns should be the same.

Delpi · April 2019

If you buy an upgrade outside the game, (for example a chapter and redeem the code on the website, it will be available in all the account: NA/EU) But if you buy it online, it will only be available in the server you're playing. I think this is a system they did wrong from the beggining and doesn't care to fix now.

The thing is... Why on earth should I buy a DLC TWO TIMES to have it in EU/NA ???? That is crazy.

Elsonso · April 2019

Delpi wrote: »

If you buy an upgrade outside the game, (for example a chapter and redeem the code on the website, it will be available in all the account: NA/EU) But if you buy it online, it will only be available in the server you're playing. I think this is a system they did wrong from the beggining and doesn't care to fix now.

The thing is... Why on earth should I buy a DLC TWO TIMES to have it in EU/NA ???? That is crazy.

I agree. If nothing else, Chapters, ESO Plus, and DLC, should span geographies.

DeadlyRecluse · April 2019

I do think that most crown store purchases should be available on both servers. I suspect some technical hiccup makes them stick to their guns on this issue.

Jayne_Doe · May 2019

I can see it being confusing, but that is, unfortunately, the way ZOS has set it up. If you buy something outside the game, it's available on both servers, which is great. But, collectibles purchased or earned within the game are and have always been server-bound.

You know this from any in-game collectible you've ever earned. Or any achievements for that matter. Or account-wide currency such as Tel Var stones or transmute crystals. They are all region-locked. So, anything you buy from the in-game store follows those same rules.

I get that you want it to be different. But you already get to play on two servers and have 16 characters for the price of one purchased game. EDIT: ESO Plus perks are also available on both servers.