Golden Ticket Toy Shop - Any Luck?

[DoofenshmirtzH]

So I know this isn't really anything new, it's happened before. I had purchased Midnight Hollow thinking I had clicked on the Gold Version, but I clicked on the Standard Version. Of course you can't buy the Gold Ticket Toy Shop separately, so you have to pay full price for the Gold Version if you make this mistake.

I had seen in previous threads where people suggested contacting customer support to see if they would provide a refund. I tried that. No dice. I was told they can't give me a refund, and I mean I understand why. How do they know I'll buy the Gold Version after I get the refund? On the other hand, I'm not going to buy the Gold Version if I don't know I'll get a refund for the Standard Version afterwards. We're locked in a stalemate.

So my question is, has anybody successfully done that? Gotten a refund for the Standard Version in exchange for the Gold Version? If so, what did you do? Did you just get lucky enough to get a CSR that was willing to do it, or were there other steps involved? The CSR I spoke with was polite about everything, they were just to the point in that they can't do anything.

When I made the mistake, I didn't really care about the GTTS. I figured I'd be fine without it. But the more expansion packs I've bought and the more worlds I've bought, the more I want Midnight Hollow to be complete, plus I really want to use some of the items only available in the Gold Version to build/decorate my houses.

I'm not asking for it for free. I'm more than willing to pay for it. But I'm not willing to pay 165% of the purchase price by paying for the Standard Version twice just to get the Gold Version items once. I just find it very frustrating that EA won't come up with a resolution that works for both of us.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@DoofenshmirtzH  Unfortunately, there's no way to make this happen.  I thought that was the case, but I asked around just to be sure.  And it's just not something that can be done with the way the system is set up.

You might be able to save a few points, or more than a few, by using the Make Me an Offer machine.  It's completely random what you're offered, and how big a discount you get, but I've seen Midnight Hollow gold among my offers.  Additionally, SimPoint bundles are 50% off in Origin right now; the sale ends Friday (January 11) at 10 am PST/6 pm UTC.  So you would still have to pay, but not nearly as much as you would normally.

I know it's not the answer you want, and I'm sorry there isn't a way to make an exchange work.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@DoofenshmirtzH  Unfortunately, there's no way to make this happen.  I thought that was the case, but I asked around just to be sure.  And it's just not something that can be done with the way the system is set up.

You might be able to save a few points, or more than a few, by using the Make Me an Offer machine.  It's completely random what you're offered, and how big a discount you get, but I've seen Midnight Hollow gold among my offers.  Additionally, SimPoint bundles are 50% off in Origin right now; the sale ends Friday (January 11) at 10 am PST/6 pm UTC.  So you would still have to pay, but not nearly as much as you would normally.

I know it's not the answer you want, and I'm sorry there isn't a way to make an exchange work.

[DoofenshmirtzH]

Yeah, that's what I've been hoping for. Sunlit Tides Gold came up for me on Make Me An Offer a couple of months ago, with other stuff of course, and it was 50% off, so I grabbed that one. After I saw that, I figured that might be my only hope. Some of the other worlds have come up too, but those ones were only ever 11 - 13% off.

Like you say, it's so random; not just when a world will come up, but the discount.If it ever came up at 50% or more off, I'd snap it up no questions asked. 40% I'd consider it. 11% isn't even going to make me think twice about hitting the next button.

But no, in a strange way it kind of is the answer I was looking for. To be honest I was more interested in confirming what I figured I already knew. I hadn't seen a success story about this in all of the searches I've done either on here or elsewhere. I was pretty much expecting this, but didn't want to give up hope until I confirmed it.