Sale weapons "unavailable"

psijaka · 2012-12-06, 04:49 PM

Copy of support ticket just submitted to SoE.

"I decided to buy some station cash for the first time as the left arm Burster is available today at 50% off for 350SC. Spent £4 and got 500SC, only to find that the Burster is now listed as "unavailable", with over 2 hours until the deal expires.

Feeling a bit cheated right now, and disinclined to spend any more money on SC unless this is sorted. Please advise how I can get the Burster for the 350SC that it was offered at."

Anyone else experience this?

Juryrig · 2012-12-06, 06:08 PM

No, but so far I and several others have had pretty good experiences with SOE customer services. Fingers crossed they get it sorted out for you.

MonthOLDpickle · 2012-12-06, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by psijaka

Copy of support ticket just submitted to SoE.

"I decided to buy some station cash for the first time as the left arm Burster is available today at 50% off for 350SC. Spent £4 and got 500SC, only to find that the Burster is now listed as "unavailable", with over 2 hours until the deal expires.

Feeling a bit cheated right now, and disinclined to spend any more money on SC unless this is sorted. Please advise how I can get the Burster for the 350SC that it was offered at."

Anyone else experience this?

Its a semi bug. I had this happen and the reason WHY it happens is this.

Lets say the weapon normally costs 700 SC but is on sale for 350 SC. If you have 550 SC it will show unavailable, why? Because you need to have the base cost for it to be purchasable. Which means I need 150 more SC to have 700 in-order for the item to become unlock-able for 350 SC.

Basically you need the enough SC to meet the original cost before the sale.

Rivenshield · 2012-12-06, 09:03 PM

I'm in the same boat as OP. All I did was ask, hey, I know this is a known issue, but could I get the Burster at sale price later...? I got the same copypasted response as everyone else, telling me yes we're aware of the problem and we're working on it and appreciate your patience.

My ticket is now marked 'solved'.

Fuck the Sony Station Store. Fuck it in the ear. I spent five bucks to no good end that I can't get back.

psijaka · 2012-12-07, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by MonthOLDpickle

Its a semi bug. I had this happen and the reason WHY it happens is this.

Lets say the weapon normally costs 700 SC but is on sale for 350 SC. If you have 550 SC it will show unavailable, why? Because you need to have the base cost for it to be purchasable. Which means I need 150 more SC to have 700 in-order for the item to become unlock-able for 350 SC.

Basically you need the enough SC to meet the original cost before the sale.

Well I decided that, as I am in this game for the long haul, I would spend some more money and get some more station cash as this "solution" has been posted on the SoE forums. And you are right; now that I have funds sufficient to buy the burster at the full price, it is available at the discount price. Still not very happy about this but I have my left arm Burster. Not a good start with SoE microtransactions!

Here's the "holding" email that I received from SoE customer support:

Greetings!

Operative Endina here to assist you today! We understand that you're having some trouble purchasing the Daily Item. Currently some players are seeing the Daily Item as "Unavailable", even though they don't have it and do have enough Station Cash. This is definitely one of our top priorities, and we are looking at getting it fixed as soon as possible. Unfortunately we don't have an estimated time of when it will be fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know!

Safe Travels,
Operative Endina
Sony Online Entertainment LLC

Elgareth · 2012-12-07, 08:02 AM

As a programmer myself, that makes me laugh and cry at the same time

I always wonder how a big company can fail at such easy tasks... it's as simple as using the same variable for the Availability/Price Check and the actual Price... properly programmed, a change like this is nothing more than approx. 5 pushed buttons o_O And instantly guarantees, that whenever someone can pay the shown price, he can also buy the item, AND that the correct number of SC is deducted from his account... Who on earth would do it in another, more complicated way?

How can changing that last more than 5 Minutes?... Especially since the Daily Sale mechanic was probably planned beforehand, so there are systems in place to quickly change prices...

psijaka · 2012-12-07, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by Elgareth

As a programmer myself, that makes me laugh and cry at the same time

I always wonder how a big company can fail at such easy tasks... it's as simple as using the same variable for the Availability/Price Check and the actual Price... properly programmed, a change like this is nothing more than approx. 5 pushed buttons o_O And instantly guarantees, that whenever someone can pay the shown price, he can also buy the item, AND that the correct number of SC is deducted from his account... Who on earth would do it in another, more complicated way?

How can changing that last more than 5 Minutes?... Especially since the Daily Sale mechanic was probably planned beforehand, so there are systems in place to quickly change prices...

Beggars belief, doesn't it?