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Microsoft Mistakenly Sold Fallout 4 For Free On Xbox (polygon.com)
On Thursday the $110 Deluxe Edition Bundle of Fallout 4 appeared in the Xbox store priced at $0.00. The Escapist reports that "The mistake went viral, and there's no telling how people were able to take advantage before the error was corrected..." An anonymous reader shares their report:
If you grabbed Fallout 4 for free on Xbox One, it will be disappearing from your account... Microsoft has confirmed that any copies obtained due to the error will have their license revoked, and the games will disappear from the user's Xbox One library.
Now Microsoft is telling affected users that "your free download will no longer work. For the inconvenience we will deposit $10 by the end of June in your Microsoft Account."
Now Microsoft is telling affected users that "your free download will no longer work. For the inconvenience we will deposit $10 by the end of June in your Microsoft Account."
Hem...When Origin did something similar a couple of years back, they said they let those who picked up games keep them and tha's it. It's how iI got my copy of DA2, an don't regret it. On top of that they made more money off of me.
Om, nomnomnom...
A long, long time ago I had to install Windows 95 for a friend so I purchased a copy on floppies because at the time he had no CD reader. To keep the story short when installing the 15thof 25 disks the install would fail. I went back to the store and they replaced it. Again at the 15th disk it failed. I returned to the store and they tested another one of their sets on a system in the store. It failed at the 15th disk. Since it was software it was not refundable and I would have to wait until a new batch came in.
Another time at a different store I purchased Myst on a CD or DVD. The game failed after a couple of day at a specific place. The disc was in perfect condition and in was within the first week. I tried to get a replacement at the store and was told that since it was opened that there is nothing they could do.
On another occasion I bought a game for a console. The packaging was in English with one little note in fine print on the back of the bock that this was the French version. The store would not accept an exchange since the package was opened. I was standing behind a French client who bought an English version which he assumed contained the French language as well. I tried to explain that it was not clearly indicated on the packaging nor in the in-store advertising. I exchanged my copy with the other client and left.
I have other examples where it was my tough luck.
Now we have an "error" on the clients side and we are told that the license will be revoked? The clients paid the advertised price for their license it should be their license to keep. Was the free Windows 10 upgrade a mistake too? Will this be revoked?
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
Regardless of whether it's a loss or not it would set a precedent that if MS sold something and decided later they wanted to charge more then they could theoretically get away with removing said software or billing you the difference between what you paid and how much more they think you should pay.
Any company could get away with it actually. There's no contractual information that says they can't come back to you for more money later.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
I often laugh at the logic as well. I've never paid a penny towards buying music (nor do I pirate it) but the idea that if I downloaded a song the music industry somehow suffered a loss is laughable at best. Hollywood style math I guess. Sort of like hooker math.
I've also have never spent a penny on music -the Pepsi bottle top free music downloads of many years ago, I gave the "winners" to others; and have never pirated a single song/album.
Yet have quite the collection.
Purchased a used hard drive at a place similar to Goodwill, checking to see if it contained anything; found just about any song title you can think of covering cRap, rock, country, and the rest. Damn!
And the pr0n, gigabytes of videos featuring women with big (huge) rear ends, nothing else. I lol'd and then deleted them.
Have I harmed the music industry? I sure hope so, this DRM is getting out of hand.
Pricing errors are NOT bait and switch.
Correct. Pricing errors are not bait and switch.
In a brick and mortar environment; the store can cancel the purchase or dishonor the advertised price Up to and until the customer completes the transaction.
After the customer has left with the item, the store cannot come back and decide they want to change the price, Or the price displayed on the shelf and the register was a mistake, and the customer needs to pay the difference.
The store would definitely lose that one. The store is liable if their employees priced an item incorrectly.
The only way the customer is liable to pay more or return is if the error that was made was in the processing of the payment ---- the correct price was advertised, or the customer agreed to a higher price than they paid, and the cashier told the customer the correct price, but they made the check out for a lower amount, etc.
Customer is not responsible if the store made a bad deal with them, only if there was a bonafide mistake in the handling of their transaction where they paid less than the agreed upon price.
Now.... Microsoft's store is a little different, because they have technical control of the product even after you leave the store