Skyrim product key revoked?

[Fremitus Borealis]

Today I received a message (while playing Skyrim) that my product key had been revoked by the publisher, and I have no other option than requesting a refund from the original seller.

I've browsed through the forums here already for similar issues, but it seems like when this happens to others, it's because they purchased the key from some shady 3rd party site; I got mine from Amazon.com (the actual website itself, too, not one of the re-sellers). I should mention that I find it quite suspicious that this happened 5 months to the day from when I purchased the game.

I just had a lovely time-consuming chat with an Amazon support person, who kindly informed me they wouldn't be of any help.

So.... do I have any other options here besides buying a brand new copy of an 8 year old game??

[Spawn of Totoro]

Escrito originalmente por Jerry:

As it appears, as if there are at least three cases of Bethesda games purchased through Amazon being removed today, I am pretty sure, someone in there messed up.

There are a lot of possibilities, that being one of them.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Escrito originalmente por Heeby-Jeeby:

Have you contacted Bethesda and asked them why they revoked the key?

As I said above, I'm currently waiting to hear back from them.

And to reiterate, I purchased the game/key directly from Amazon.com, not the marketplace.

[Apocraphyn]

Yeah, also contacted Bethesda now - also had to make an account to do so. Still no response from Amazon. (And to reiterate on behalf of those thinking otherwise - the key was bought from Amazon themselves, no resellers involved. Quite probable that Jerry above is right and that someone pulled the wrong lever somewhere.)

[Fremitus Borealis]

Well, I think I'm officially getting the runaround, now. Just received this response from Bethesda:

Greetings!

Thank you for contacting the Bethesda Customer Support Team about the problems with your game disappearing from Steam.

I appreciate you reaching out to us on this issue. We do not have the ability to take out games from your Steam Library, you may have to ask Steam for more information if possible. If you're unable to get an answer from Steam, you may also want to contact the Amazon from your Amazon Order History to see if you can check with them if anything happened.

Please also send us a screenshot of the error, if any.

Feel free to update us on this issue to see if we can further investigate the issue. Thank you for your continued interest and support!

So in other words, nobody is taking responsibility. Go figure. I've already tried reasoning with Amazon; Steam says there's nothing they can do, because it's the manufacturer who did it; and the manufacturer claims they're not even able to do what Steam says they did. Am I missing something here?

[Donna Pinciotti]

Escrito originalmente por Fremitus Borealis:

Well, I think I'm officially getting the runaround, now. Just received this response from Bethesda:

Greetings!

Thank you for contacting the Bethesda Customer Support Team about the problems with your game disappearing from Steam.

I appreciate you reaching out to us on this issue. We do not have the ability to take out games from your Steam Library, you may have to ask Steam for more information if possible. If you're unable to get an answer from Steam, you may also want to contact the Amazon from your Amazon Order History to see if you can check with them if anything happened.

Please also send us a screenshot of the error, if any.

Feel free to update us on this issue to see if we can further investigate the issue. Thank you for your continued interest and support!

So in other words, nobody is taking responsibility. Go figure. I've already tried reasoning with Amazon; Steam says there's nothing they can do, because it's the manufacturer who did it; and the manufacturer claims they're not even able to do what Steam says they did. Am I missing something here?

Well from what I have read, developers/publishers do have the ability, by revoking the key (basically what has happened in your case). But that really does suck, hope you get it sorted soon

[Donna Pinciotti]

Was having a look through posts that might help, seems like there has been a few issues https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1734336452585602175/

[Fremitus Borealis]

Escrito originalmente por Donna Pinciotti:

Was having a look through posts that might help, seems like there has been a few issues https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1734336452585602175/

Wow, go figure. On the one hand... at least it's not just me. On the other... what the hell is going on?

[Kargor]

Escrito originalmente por Fremitus Borealis:

So in other words, nobody is taking responsibility.

That's what a support team is trained to do. They are like special forces of denial.

I've already tried reasoning with Amazon;

Well, for Amazon to revoke a key, they would basically have to tell Bethesda. Presumably, this should only happen when you cancel payment.

Thus, if Amazon considers your purchase to be perfectly fine and they have no beef with you whatsoever, chances are that they did not ask Bethesda to revoke the key. And if they had an issue with your purchase, they would probably know and be able to tell you.

Steam says there's nothing they can do, because it's the manufacturer who did it;

That's correct too.

and the manufacturer claims they're not even able to do what Steam says they did.

To my knowledge, that's the most obvious bull.

In fact, as far as I know, the publisher is responsible for the keys, and thus the ONLY one able to revoke them...

[Donna Pinciotti]

The only thing I could think of that would cause the key to be revoked when you have made a legitimate purchase, would be if for some reason Bethesda did not recieve the money from Amazon, and therefor deemed the purchase to be fradulent.

[Jerry]

Escrito originalmente por Donna Pinciotti:

The only thing I could think of that would cause the key to be revoked when you have made a legitimate purchase, would be if for some reason Bethesda did not recieve the money from Amazon, and therefor deemed the purchase to be fradulent.

As shown in the linked thread, this issue seems to affect at least a dozen users, all having purchased their games directly through Amazon, some as far back as 3 years.

It is getting increasingly obvious, that Bethesda either did something very stupid or possibly illegal.

[Donna Pinciotti]

Escrito originalmente por Jerry:

Escrito originalmente por Donna Pinciotti:

The only thing I could think of that would cause the key to be revoked when you have made a legitimate purchase, would be if for some reason Bethesda did not recieve the money from Amazon, and therefor deemed the purchase to be fradulent.

As shown in the linked thread, this issue seems to affect at least a dozen users, all having purchased their games directly through Amazon, some as far back as 3 years.

It is getting increasingly obvious, that Bethesda either did something very stupid or possibly illegal.

Odd why it is just Amazon though, and not other legit sites like humble etc.

[Apocraphyn]

Right, received something of a development.

Steam: "Nothing to do with us, contact the publisher or the retailer."
Bethesda: "Nothing to do with us, contact the retailer."
Amazon: "The issue is known and has been forwarded to the technical department. We hope to have the issue resolved for you by September 1st, latest."

So, er...that's all for now, I suppose. At least they acknowledged something on my end...

[Fremitus Borealis]

Escrito originalmente por Apocraphyn:

Right, received something of a development.

Steam: "Nothing to do with us, contact the publisher or the retailer."
Bethesda: "Nothing to do with us, contact the retailer."
Amazon: "The issue is known and has been forwarded to the technical department. We hope to have the issue resolved for you by September 1st, latest."

So, er...that's all for now, I suppose. At least they acknowledged something on my end...

Heh, I just got another response from Bethesda saying that I have to contact Amazon again. Ye gods this is frustrating.

@Apocraphyn: Just out of curiosity, did you get that answer from Amazon via the chat function, or were you able to email with someone? I.e. is there a more productive avenue to try and get them to actually help than the usual "help" feature you get by clicking through?

[Apocraphyn]

Escrito originalmente por Fremitus Borealis:

@Apocraphyn: Just out of curiosity, did you get that answer from Amazon via the chat function, or were you able to email with someone? I.e. is there a more productive avenue to try and get them to actually help than the usual "help" feature you get by clicking through?

Of the options available to me, I chose to mail support, yeah. I was dealing with Amazon.de rather than Amazon.com though, so I'm not sure if that changes anything in particular in terms of how you'd go about contacting them. Could also be that customer rights are slightly better in the EU than in the US, so they'll go a little further to help out on my end rather than yours...but I certainly hope that isn't the case. I'll let you know if they respond again, anyway.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Ah, see, I don't even get the option for email; it's either "chat" or "phone", and based on my first experience with "chat", I can't imagine the "phone" option would be preferable.