Warning! Do not buy the game from Direct2Drive

[kaworu83]

I saw the game was on sale on this site because of a notification from isthereanydeal.com and bought it.
I thought store listed in isthereanydeals were all legit key resellers, I was wrong.
Sadly the activation code isn't like anything I've ever seen on any retailer and guess what? It doesn't work.
The activation key format looks like this:
8BS4626H-S528-4KR8-3396-589SS384K6P3

I tried contacting their customer support and immediately got this automated reply:
"Dear Customer,
We understand that you are having trouble activating your legacy purchases from D2D (IGN) and GameFly and apologize for the service disruption due to the business transition of our solution partners.
Please be assured that we are currently working as quickly as possible to get the activation servers available to you and will inform you when your games can be activated again.
Thank you for your patience."

Wich probably mean I will not hear from them anytime soon, I hope Paypal will give me a refund.

To everyone looking to buy this game on sale, DO NOT buy it from D2D, you will get scammed!

[sepooq]

Same here. The price was heavily discounted. Should've known something's wrong.
Anyway, waiting for a response from support team.

[Mysterio]

Looks like the price was an error, since it's now back to $53.99[www.direct2drive.com] for me (the member price).

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

You can see the list of official resellers that Sega use here:
https://www.sega.com/sega-approved-partner-list - you can see D2D isn't on there.

I have to say, I've not heard the name D2D for a long time, I thought they went bust years ago. They are legit resellers though (just not for Sega), however regardless of whatever "offers" they have, I personally would have as little to do with them as possible.

[Dr.Robert]

Originally posted by Mysterio:

Looks like the price was an error, since it's now back to $53.99[www.direct2drive.com] for me (the member price).

Maybe but
they announced a big sega sale that was supposed to be 1 week long.
Pretty sure it will be back in a few hours. I guess it was supposed to be 24€ and not 4€ while Yakuza was supposed to be 13€ and not 3€

[kaworu83]

I don't care if they don't even know how to set their prices the right way.
Since customers already bought some, either give them a working key or a refund. I haven't got neither. Their customer support is all automated, haven't heard from anyone yet.

[Dr.Robert]

Originally posted by kaworu83:

I don't care if they don't even know how to set their prices the right way.
Since customers already bought some, either give them a working key or a refund. I haven't got neither. Their customer support is all automated, haven't heard from anyone yet.

Give them some time.
They got enough emails to notice it and took the sale down after all.

[Rinyuu]

Thanks for letting us know. I almost bought it as well, but i thought it was a good idea to check here first to see if anyone had issues with D2D. Didn't hear a lot of positive things about them.. I guess it WAS to good to be true.

I think it's really weird this site still is being listed on isthereanydeal, they might be technically legal, but man, they seem to be a sketchy bunch.
Hope you will get your money back!

[kaworu83]

Finally got a response (from someone? didn't even put a name in the email):

"We apologize for the technical glitch today which resulted in erroneous pricing and key delivery. We are working to correct these issues. We are looking into issuing refunds for all glitched purchases from our Sega promotion. Please stay tuned for more updates. We’ve also confirmed that only Sega titles are affected.
Thanks again for your patience. We are working hard to make this right."

Yeah sure technical glitch! All key deliveries on this kind of sites are an automated process and computer don't mess things up, people operating them do.
What if I want a working key instead of a refund?
The Term Of Use on their site talk about how all sales are final and there will be no refund. I'ts funny how those term don't apply whenever it suits them.
Also I replied to this email and still get the same immediate automated response in the OP. Worst customer experience ever! Never gonna buy from them again even if it's for a few bucks.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by kaworu83:

What if I want a working key instead of a refund?

Easy duh. You buy from someone else. lol.

[kaworu83]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Easy duh. You buy from someone else. lol.

I mean they made this mess they should own their mistakes, why should I buy the game from someone else?
If you make a trade with someone and that someone doesn't deliver, you go buy again the same thing from someone else? And so on and on until finally you get what you want?
Yeah sure it's a great way to lose money.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

It is, hence why they have a bad reputation already. And as D2D can't actually official generate steam keys for Sega games, you do have to wonder exactly where they are actually coming from.

Otherwise, remember - if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

[kaworu83]

Originally posted by the.jester:

It is, hence why they have a bad reputation already. And as D2D can't actually official generate steam keys for Sega games, you do have to wonder exactly where they are actually coming from.

Otherwise, remember - if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

I actually wrote directly to Sega customer support just to see what they would say.
They wrote that on their part they can't (or won't?) do anything, it's up to the store to give a working key or a refund. They didn't even say if the store was legit or not.
That means the game developers/publishers don't actually care about all those shady key resellers out there, if they did care they would hit them with DMCA or some kind of lawsuit.

[duftin]

Have you gotten your refund yet? I still haven't.

[kaworu83]

Originally posted by duftin:

Have you gotten your refund yet? I still haven't.

No haven't heard from them since last email.
They are working hard, didn't said fast lol
Even if they are legit resellers they have the worst customer support, it's impossible to actually get in contact with an human being, even those grey reseller have better support staff.

[duftin]

I've successfully purchased keys from them multiple times in the past and I've always done so assuming they were legit. I guess I'll just keep waiting. Thanks.