Can't upgrade my trial account.

[Tarthurionor]

Heya,

A friend was kind enough to buy me LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar Retail Box while we were out shopping today (yay for me), I tried to add my product key on the My Account page on Turbine's website and it says the product key is not valid for use, (say what?).

I did a bit of searching on the forums and found the following quote:

"You can also purchase a boxed copy of The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria at your local electronics retailer. NOTE: A copy of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will NOT work to upgrade your trial. The copy must include Mines of Moria in order to upgrade your trial account."

So, basically what happens is this: I am permitted to play the game for free, but when I spend my cash on actually buying it, I get the finger and told to start from scratch? Correct?

If correct, then why must I now start from scratch?! *sob story*


Edit: If I was at the point in the game where I need the expansion to venture into Moria, it wouldn't be a problem, but since I do NOT need it at this moment in time .. why should I be forced to buy it just to upgrade my account? *more sniffles*

Just a random complaint, nothing I can do about since retailers refuse to refund computer games due to piracy and such (but they are happy to refund XBOX and PS games because everybody knows *they* can't be pirated .. right? .. right? .. .. ).

Edit 2: Just found this on the support site. "[ERROR -30021]: The Product Key you entered is not valid for use. If you believe this is an error, please contact the business from whom you received the Product Key.

If you are receiving this error message during account creation process, your Product Key is either incorrect or has already been used. Please make sure that the Product Key is being entered correctly.

If this message continues to display, please contact the retailer from which you purchased the Product Key."
What exactly must the retailer do about this?

[Diggis]

That sucks. One thing to bear in mind, you didn't buy this in the EU did you? They changed recently from Codemasters to Turbine and no longer honour Codemaster box sets, but I can imagine that they are probably still being sold.

[Tarthurionor]

That sucks. One thing to bear in mind, you didn't buy this in the EU did you? They changed recently from Codemasters to Turbine and no longer honour Codemaster box sets, but I can imagine that they are probably still being sold.

Well, not the EU per say, South Africa to be exact, but South Africa is treated as part of the EU when it comes to Online Games (I.E: MMO's for EU servers are sold here, US MMO's must be ordered online.).

Right, so, essentially, I bought a game that tells me to register with the European servers but is not supported by the European host and which can't be played on the US servers because it's designed for EU? ... Turbine, you suck, seriously. I doubt very much that the retailer is going to give me my money back for this. :/

Edit: I bought the LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar Gold Edition, if that makes any difference.

[Diggis]

Hmm, check the box for a codemasters logo. This isn't really turbines fault, and is really the fault of the retailer selling a product that is no longer valid. Not sure of the laws etc there, but there is grounds for complaint with the retailer I would say.

Small bit of background, the game used to be managed (billing and servers etc) by codemasters in the EU and produced and managed by Turbine in the US. In June Turbine took the contract back from Codemasters and combined the servers. All codemasters game codes etc were invalidated after that point, which appears to be where you got caught.

[Tarthurionor]

I would say it's the fault of both the retailer and Turbine; they could have taken on all the current Codemaster users and all Product Keys yet to be activated and released their new codes with their new releases. But, anywho, I'm off to the store to have a rant.

Thanks

[Diggis]

Best of luck!

[Tarthurionor]

Thanks.

Well, after speaking to the girl in the store who called her regional manager who spoke to someone even higher they decided I can have a refund, ain't that nice? :P

Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to find a RBS of SoA or MoM and don't have a way to purchase online for at least two months - sucky!

[Diggis]

Thanks.

Well, after speaking to the girl in the store who called her regional manager who spoke to someone even higher they decided I can have a refund, ain't that nice? :P

Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to find a RBS of SoA or MoM and don't have a way to purchase online for at least two months - sucky!

Ahh, good news on the refund. Stink about not being able to purchase online yet. I doubt retail copies will be shipped out seeing as everything appears to be online only now.

[Aethniniel]

Shadows of Angmar is basically the same content as what is contained in Free-To-Play game download which is why the key doesn't validate any more. It used to give you all of the quest packs with SoA pre-FTP *with a paid sub*. If you get a paid sub with your free download now, you still get all of SoA content for free - it just requires you to unlock it if you are not paying a subscription.

The only thing that key might have given you would be special boxed set items that came with the Gold edition had it been a vaild key. I don't know if there was anything with that particular set though, so you probably didn't miss out on anything by returning it. As for it being a Codemasters key, it is possible that if you had contacted Turbine Account Support they might have honored it and added the items to your account if applicable. (Not 100% sure, but possible)

Mines of Moria content is not included in the initial free to play download except for the book quests. So if you had bought that upgrade box set you would have basically purchased the Mines of Moria quests and any account upgrades that came with it (level 50 - 60 content.) If you were not paying for the subscription, you would still have had to unlock the SoA quests with points to help you level from @ level 20 - 50. Once you purchase MoM, those level 50-60 quests are unlocked on your account whether you pay a sub or not.


Clear as mud, right? :S

[Diggis]

Shadows of Angmar is basically the same content as what is contained in Free-To-Play game download which is why the key doesn't validate any more. It used to give you all of the quest packs with SoA pre-FTP *with a paid sub*. If you get a paid sub with your free download now, you still get all of SoA content for free - it just requires you to unlock it if you are not paying a subscription.

But usually with a box you get a months free play, so why would that not be valid. You are paying real money (usually the equivilent of a months subscribtion or near enough) for the game so you should get the months free VIP from it, same as you would if you bought the MoM box set.

[Tarthurionor]

Shadows of Angmar is basically the same content as what is contained in Free-To-Play game download which is why the key doesn't validate any more. It used to give you all of the quest packs with SoA pre-FTP *with a paid sub*. If you get a paid sub with your free download now, you still get all of SoA content for free - it just requires you to unlock it if you are not paying a subscription.

The only thing that key might have given you would be special boxed set items that came with the Gold edition had it been a vaild key. I don't know if there was anything with that particular set though, so you probably didn't miss out on anything by returning it. As for it being a Codemasters key, it is possible that if you had contacted Turbine Account Support they might have honored it and added the items to your account if applicable. (Not 100% sure, but possible)

Mines of Moria content is not included in the initial free to play download except for the book quests. So if you had bought that upgrade box set you would have basically purchased the Mines of Moria quests and any account upgrades that came with it (level 50 - 60 content.) If you were not paying for the subscription, you would still have had to unlock the SoA quests with points to help you level from @ level 20 - 50. Once you purchase MoM, those level 50-60 quests are unlocked on your account whether you pay a sub or not.


Clear as mud, right? :S

Well, the Gold Edition does give you free stuff, but I would have liked the 45 Days Free (as a paid sub) and then the payments start, which is what I want since I can't set up a sub for at least that long (end of August).

Buying this copy would have made me happier as I would have been able to experience LOTRO as a paid subscriber.

Oh well, :P


Edit: I'm only taking the game back tomorrow for the refund, so if I get an email back from Turbine (I sent a ticket) and they can do as you say and be able to set me up as a sub then I'll obviously keep the game; but if they don't get back to me before tomorrow, then I just get the refund and wait until I can set up a sub.

Edit 2: What Diggis said, lol :P