When customer service is so bad it's good

I'm currently playing Deus EX: Human Revolution (awesome game), and since I'm in a blogging mood I thought I'd share the tale of how I ended up getting it for free courtesy of Gametap.

Most of you are probably thinking "What the heck is Gametap?" or "Why are you even shopping there"? Well, it's very simple. I'm stuck in Norway (btw I love Norway and I used the word "stuck" just to express my frustration with the outrageous prices), Europe's most expensive country without the benefit of Europe's highest salary, and the digital stores I know (Steam, Gamersgate, Impulse) are priced in Euros/Pounds/Kroner, which means they tend to be considerably more expensive than their U.S dollars counterparts. Happily, I stumbled upon Gametap, where games are priced in U.S dollars even in Europe.

Some time ago they had Deus EX on sale for $17 while Steam still had it for €50, and I jumped at the chance. It even activated on Steam as well, so it was a no-brainer. I bought it, but instead of getting the CD Key I got just the confirmation and the promise I'd get the key as soon as they validated my order.

The next day I get an e-mail from them telling me I need to fill out a form confirming some information so they can verify it and validate the order. I do it, and about 10 hours later I get the CD key, activate it on Steam, and my purchase is finally complete.

Much to my surprise, the next day I get an e-mail from them saying that they are unable to process my order unless I reply to the e-mail confirming some of my Pay Pal information "for my own security". I reply, somewhat bemused, that I my order had already been processed, I'd already gotten the key and it worked just fine.

Now comes the best part: several hours later another e-mail tells me that, since they couldn't verify my order, it had been canceled and my credit card refunded and if I wanted to make further purchases with them I needed to fill out yet another form. Surely the "refunded" part was a mistake, right? Well, it turns out that my credit card statement did indeed grace me with the refund and I ended up paying nothing for the game.

So there you have it. Gametap has such bad customer service they may refund you even if you tell them that they have already delivered your purchase!