Why is the 2017 Steam Winter Sale Over?

[FORGOTTEN_VCR]

http://store.steampowered.com/news/35783/

The above link states that the sale does not end until 10PM TONIGHT, however, it has ended eight hours early. Is this a mistake or is this common?

[Ogami]

Nope, it ended right when it was supposed to. It always ends when the Steam Store updates worldwide on that day, here in Germany that was 7 PM, in the US it was 10 AM PACIFIC TIME.
Your link also shows, "ends 10 AM Pacific Time, January 4th".
That was 80 minutes ago.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Typo at the bottom of the announcement page.

[RLithgow]

In my professional opinion as an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois, Steam is legally bound to honor the sales price until 10pm Pacific and, were a court called upon to do so, it would award money damages to disappointed customers who in good-faith tried to accept the offer stated in the advertisement between 10am and before 10pm PST on January 4th, the money damages being equal to the full price of the games they sought to purchase less the discounted purchase price. See Lefkowitz v. Great Minneapolis Surplus Store, Inc 86 NW 2d 689 (Minn, 1957). A layman's description may be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefkowitz_v._Great_Minneapolis_Surplus_Store,_Inc

The case cited above is so famous it's familiar to virtually every law school student in the country (there are only a few contract casebooks, and this case is in all of them), and to most lawyers who remember much of anything from the contract law cases they read in school.

What about the two different times stated in the ad? That's an ambiguity, as it means the terms of the offer regarding when the offer expires have two possible, mutually exclusive meanings and which of the meanings is correct cannot be ascertained by looking at the four corners of the ad. And, especially when the customer reasonably and in fact only noticed the language specifying 10pm, the Master of the Offer Rule would cause a court to interpret the posted advertisement/offer in the light more favorable to the customer since Steam, and not the customer drafted the advertisement. The rule is meant to deter the party drafting the offer from deliberately crafting an ambiguity in the contract that induces the non-drafting party to act mistakenly, and to encourage he who drafts contract language to be careful in doing so.

I've looked around online a little, and I'm now feeling it's at least quite plausible that Steam deliberately misstates when their sales end--something that I now see has happened year after year, and the time and dates have been announced in other ways that have understandably and foreseeably misled customers, and a few of those customers mentioned purchasing the games anyway, at full price, when the sale ended sooner than they'd expected. I'd have t look at it more closely, think on it a bit, and probably read up on Washington's own Deceptive Trade Practice Act, but likely consumer protection statutes could come into play if the scheme could be correctly articulated to the courts or the state attorney generals office, in which case a law suit would conceivably entail attorney fees and punitive damages. That means, collectively, there'd be real money in it for local Washington attorneys even though each customer's case is small, since they'd surely have high volume once word got out among gamers and the attorney's fees would all ultimately come out of Steams own pocket at the conclusion of each case. They're in Bellevue and Kirkland, not far from where my parents now live. Hmm.... maybe I should move out there and hang out a shingle.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Publicado originalmente por RLithgow:

In my professional opinion as an attorney licensed to practice law in Illinois, Steam is legally bound to honor the sales price until 10pm Pacific and, were a court called upon to do so, it would award money damages to disappointed customers who in good-faith tried to accept the offer stated in the advertisement between 10am and before 10pm PST on January 4th, the money damages being equal to the full price of the games they sought to purchase less the discounted purchase price. See Lefkowitz v. Great Minneapolis Surplus Store, Inc 86 NW 2d 689 (Minn, 1957). A layman's description may be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefkowitz_v._Great_Minneapolis_Surplus_Store,_Inc

The case cited above is so famous it's familiar to virtually every law school student in the country (there are only a few contract casebooks, and this case is in all of them), and to most lawyers who remember much of anything from the contract law cases they read in school.

What about the two different times stated in the ad? That's an ambiguity, as it means the terms of the offer regarding when the offer expires have two possible, mutually exclusive meanings and which of the meanings is correct cannot be ascertained by looking at the four corners of the ad. And, especially when the customer reasonably and in fact only noticed the language specifying 10pm, the Master of the Offer Rule would cause a court to interpret the posted advertisement/offer in the light more favorable to the customer since Steam, and not the customer drafted the advertisement. The rule is meant to deter the party drafting the offer from deliberately crafting an ambiguity in the contract that induces the non-drafting party to act mistakenly, and to encourage he who drafts contract language to be careful in doing so.

I've looked around online a little, and I'm now feeling it's at least quite plausible that Steam deliberately misstates when their sales end--something that I now see has happened year after year, and the time and dates have been announced in other ways that have understandably and foreseeably misled customers, and a few of those customers mentioned purchasing the games anyway, at full price, when the sale ended sooner than they'd expected. I'd have t look at it more closely, think on it a bit, and probably read up on Washington's own Deceptive Trade Practice Act, but likely consumer protection statutes could come into play if the scheme could be correctly articulated to the courts or the state attorney generals office, in which case a law suit would conceivably entail attorney fees and punitive damages. That means, collectively, there'd be real money in it for local Washington attorneys even though each customer's case is small, since they'd surely have high volume once word got out among gamers and the attorney's fees would all ultimately come out of Steams own pocket at the conclusion of each case. They're in Bellevue and Kirkland, not far from where my parents now live. Hmm.... maybe I should move out there and hang out a shingle.

Or
People are just stupid when it comes to time zones.

[RLithgow]

I’m not sure who you’re pointing to as stupid, nor am I sure what your point is. The problem isn’t a matter of time zones. It’s the difference between stating that a sale ends at 10pm versus 10am. In some sales I’ve also seen 6pm GMT identified as the end time.

Perhaps you mean that in Europe no one bothers indicating am or pm because they employ a 24 hour rather than a 12 hour clock, such that someone in Europe seeing 10 O’Clock would invairably understand that meant 10:00 and not 22:00h, but that’s unhelpful given that these were Americans who were misled (innocently or not) and January 4th at 10am PST/PDT equals 18:00 GMT in London on the same day (and in some countries it wouldn’t even be the same day). So, even if you’re judging me by a European point of view, the I’m guessing you are trying to make doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. Time zone didn’t play a role here, unless you’re confused. The original poster and I knew precisely what time it was. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the time stated in the advertisement was 12 hours after Steam apparently ended the sale.

As for me, I understand the time zone difference between the Chicago suburbs where I live and the time zone in which Valve’s offices are located because my parents have been living in a town very near those offices for the last several years. I’m on the phone with them at least every other day bragging to them about my 3 year old. So no, the difference in time zone caused me no confusion at all.

I also just received a report that another customer began buying games in the closing hours of the sale, but after purchasing six titles Steam refused to allow him to purchase anything further stating they viewed the volume of his purchases as a fraudulent sale. That’s tortious interference by the offering party this waiving their possible objection that he didn’t accept the offer in time. From the sound of it, Steam would have refused to let me purchase the ten titles I wanted (this included bundles and DLC) at the sale price even if I had attempted to do so days earlier. I’m curious now whether Steam will permit that same customer to purchase more than six titles now that the sale is over and he would have to pay full-price.

There’s plenty of room to believe it’s all in error and no one was meant to be confused. But it still hurt people, and malintent isn’t an element in the action. And if they benefitted from the deception, even inadvertently and perhaps unknowingly, a windfall is still a windfall and equity would intervene on the side of the consumer.

I’m beginning to think one of the industry journalists might need to take a much closer look at this, and Steam needs to be a lot more cautious in the future. Why don’t they stick a count down timer right on te item in your cart? Microsoft did during their 2017 countdown sale. It was clear and conspicuous, as it should be. It told you precisely how many hours were left.

[The Giving One]

Publicado originalmente por RLithgow:

Why don’t they stick a count down timer right on te item in your cart? Microsoft did during their 2017 countdown sale. It was clear and conspicuous, as it should be. It told you precisely how many hours were left.

I think if you go to the actual store page for the game, there is a timer, or there is when the end of the sale is close. I am not sure if that works the same way on every game but thought it did.

EDIT...

Publicado originalmente por RLithgow:

I also just received a report that another customer began buying games in the closing hours of the sale, but after purchasing six titles Steam refused to allow him to purchase anything further stating they viewed the volume of his purchases as a fraudulent sale. That’s tortious interference by the offering party this waiving their possible objection that he didn’t accept the offer in time. From the sound of it, Steam would have refused to let me purchase the ten titles I wanted (this included bundles and DLC) at the sale price even if I had attempted to do so days earlier. I’m curious now whether Steam will permit that same customer to purchase more than six titles now that the sale is over and he would have to pay full-price.

There is a difference in making 10 sale transactions seperately, and making one sale transaction once for 10 games. Making 10 different ones looks possibly suspicious. It's like when a certain history of your credit card is used and looks suspicious, that may throw up red flags. It is there to protect the user against possible fraudulent actions, just like with a credit card.

That happens when there is not a sale going on also, and is nothing new. It's been that way for a long time.

What advantage would they have in advertising the content on sale, and then malicously preventing that user from buying it then, as compared to how you said you would be curious if that worked the same way after the sale was over since the user would have to pay full price ?

Valve does not set the prices for the games anyway, as the publishers do that.