I want my money back!

Smidlee said:
Actually that has change in the last year which is why it's hard to find any CRT monitors on BestBuy shelves anymore. The response time of LCD has greatly improve without the flickering of the CRT which is easyer on your eyes. So "ghosting" isn't a problem with most up-to-date LCDs as it was in the past.
Click to expand...

It's not just ghosting though. Yes, top end LCD's have minimized ghosting issues. But those are stand alone LCD's, designed to go with Desktops...not laptop monitors.

And even then, Color Purity and Constrast are still superior on top end, less expensive CRT's.

The best items, and what Best Buy sells...two very different things.
 
While CRT still have few advantages over LCD yet for me the biggest advantage LCD has can be felt after playing Civ4 5-6 hours straight. I would recommand any serious civ4 gamer to spend the extra cash getting a descent LCD as IMO a LCD advantage outweights it's disadvantages when it comes to gaming. Your eyes will thank you.
 
Back to original topic:
After reading the (mostly) helpful comments on this thread, I took my copy #2 of Civ IV back to Best Buy.
Short version: after firmly discussing my problem with two layers of management, they would not give a refund, but they did agree to install copy #3 on a machine in-store so I could be sure it worked.
It installed without a hitch in the store - and installed perfectly on my machine at home.
Conclusions:
1) The problems with copies #1 and 2 were in the discs, not in my hardward.
2) If you get the Catastrophic Failure on install, make the store check the replacement discs before you take them home
3) Exercise caution before you buy this game anywhere that you cannot return it easily (ie, a store 2 hours away, Amazon)
4) Exercise extreme caution buying it on e-bay, where exchange is not an option
5) Read several months of the on-line forum for a new game before buying it - I would have waited on buying this if I had realized the sorts of trouble people were having.

So, no money back, but I at least have a game that works.
 
read this thread during the last week and was tempted to make some quips (i say quips but really smartass comments) but held me tongue- 2 bad disks? what are the odds? Glad u finally prevailed- what a pain- admire ur perseverance there and tolerance of some replys on here. Hope it did not completely sour u to the game-it is a great game (for me) but if i had gone thru all that i think i may have cursed the stupid thing and withdrawn from this forum after slighting a few posters- good for u
(i was wondering how this was gonna come out....)
 
Kayigo, I reinstalled the game to install 1.09 patch since I was one who happen to load up the pre-1.09. My first disk wouldn't install the game anymore. I looked for a scratch and could only see one extremely small one.( I didn't believe this would stop it from installing) Thanks to the Disk Doctor I was able to save my copy although now it looks more scratched up than before. Sometimes even the slightest scratch on a disk can keep it from loading.
So far the disk doctor has repaired 4 of my games and one movie.
By the way I was very careful of not scratching my Civ4 disk which mostly stays in my pc second DVD drive. Still somehow it got scratched.
 
Good to hear the game works now.

The quality and release of Civ IV had "rush" written all over it. I bought the game (from Finland) and got an English manual with a tech map in Spanish! Also the first version (1.0) was clearly a unfinished product with some nasty bugs in it. I have a high end PC, but because of memory leaks in both versions 1.0 and 1.09 I experienced crashes and load times were counted in minutes. The game was almost unplayable.

I was going to get a refund too (we have a 14-day return right from the purchase day here) but then they released version 1.52 which has worked fine for me. Anyhow, I was not satisfied with this product. I paid €48 (about $60) for it and expected it to work properly. Next time when I'm buying a 2K/Firaxis product, I'll wait for user comments and patches before doing so.
 
Kayigo said:
Back to original topic:
After reading the (mostly) helpful comments on this thread, I took my copy #2 of Civ IV back to Best Buy.
Short version: after firmly discussing my problem with two layers of management, they would not give a refund, but they did agree to install copy #3 on a machine in-store so I could be sure it worked.
It installed without a hitch in the store - and installed perfectly on my machine at home.
Conclusions:
1) The problems with copies #1 and 2 were in the discs, not in my hardward.
2) If you get the Catastrophic Failure on install, make the store check the replacement discs before you take them home
3) Exercise caution before you buy this game anywhere that you cannot return it easily (ie, a store 2 hours away, Amazon)
4) Exercise extreme caution buying it on e-bay, where exchange is not an option
5) Read several months of the on-line forum for a new game before buying it - I would have waited on buying this if I had realized the sorts of trouble people were having.

So, no money back, but I at least have a game that works.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear it works for you now! I hope you haven't been soured on Civ4 because of this hassle you had to go through, it truly is a wonderful game! I would like to add one to you're conclusions.

6. Always play a demo of a game before you spend you're $50 on it!...;)
 
That was my course of action as well. :D

I waited until a couple of patches came out before my purchase. Version 1.52 has worked beautifully on my computer and I therefore avoided the frustration of the initial bugs.

I am VERY happy with cIV! The game has a more complete strategy element, etc.

Glad to hear that you got the game installed and patched. Enjoy! :goodjob:
 
Yes congratulations! It really is wrong to release products that have not been fully tested and then force people to read countless tech support threads, make repeat trips to the store, etc. A $50 game should at least install smoothly and be playable. (Note I didn't say "perfect" or without the occasional bug but "playable")

I would encourage all LEGAL owners of the game who are having these sort of problems to do what Kayigo did or perhaps search for a no-cd patch.

And yes, it is a great game when you actually get it to work properly.
 
Kayigo said:
Let me start by saying
1) I love civ iii
2) my computer meets the minimum specs for the game
3) my husband is a Ph.D computer scientist who writes software for a living
4) I reallly, really want to like this game

However, we have owned this game for 10 days now,
and we have returned it to the retailer once (Best Buy in California)
and we have written to tech support
and we have worked with the tech support in this forum

AND WE CANT EVEN GET THE STUPID THING TO INSTALL!

From reading the comments on this forum and at other sites, I observe two problems:
1) there appears to be a large run of faulty discs, which results in consumers having to exchange the discs, sometimes more than once (I am up to my second time, and by report there was someone who had to return their discs six! times.)
2) even when the discs DO work, the game has problems in the program itself that are not resolved by the most current patch

As a consumer, I find this poor quality unacceptable.

My retailer (Best Buy) has an exchanges-only policy on software.
At this point, I dont want an exchange. I want my money back.

For $50, we deserve a product that works. Not one that sort of works after two exchanges if you replace your graphics card, and may still crash in the late stages of the game.

Has anyone tried to obtain a refund on this game, from the company or the retailer? Did it work? How did you do it?

I have started by writing Firaxis customer service. I will post the results.

I have also posted a blistering review on Amazon, and I have started this thread.

I would be very interested in your experiences.
Click to expand...

The average computer user an this country does not know what a driver is let alone how to install one,plus also most consumers do not know the name an part No of the card. One other thing about video card drivers. I believe this is a song and dance by game mfg, you will find video drivers newer than than the release date of the game , but not the most recent for the mfg of the drivers, but the game technical support will say install the latest driver.
A game should work if the computer meet the minimum specs. The marketing of software an this country is really shameful. If this was any other product, the state attorney generals would have them an court on consumer fraud charges.
 
I'll just felt like I needed to mention this:

a) The game installs and runs on my desktop.
b) The game installs and runs on my other desktop.
c) The game installs and runs on my old laptop, which doesn't even met the min specs - can't play anything but tiny maps though
d) They game installs and run on 100% of my friends who purchased the game, 8 different computers.



The problem you're encountering isn't that common, nor is the fault of Firaxis. I don't know what to do in your situation - I've never had a game that wouldn't install, other than damaged discs.
 
I'm glad to hear you sorted it out, but shocked that you couldn't get a refund. In the UK (Europe generally, I think) you are entitled to return anything not 'fit for purpose' for a full refund, under law - and in particular if you buy online you can return within 7 days for a refund even if the game was working perfectly, no questions asked. I'm fast losing count of how often these laws have been of use to me.
 
Indeed - I've never had a problem returning anything in the UK (including computer games).

Once or twice I've had the attendant say to me "there's no returns on this" and I've said "Sure, but if it doesn't work I want my money back" - which I have done on a couple of occasions.

Also, don't want to gloat, but I (and I assume a lot of UK players) bought this from a well known online strore for only £17.99 ($31.33) :D :D
 
megabrainz said:
I'm glad to hear you sorted it out, but shocked that you couldn't get a refund. In the UK (Europe generally, I think) you are entitled to return anything not 'fit for purpose' for a full refund, under law - and in particular if you buy online you can return within 7 days for a refund even if the game was working perfectly, no questions asked. I'm fast losing count of how often these laws have been of use to me.
Click to expand...
And while you are returning faulty merchandise thousands of other cheap people are buying the game, copying the CDs (or using other methods that would allow them to put the originals back in the box) and returning the game for a full refund. That is why it can't be done in the US. Too many people able to cheat their way into using a game.
 
I didn't read all the posts so I apologize if this was mentioned already...

If it is an installation problem, it sounds like a Windows problem to me. Especially if you have tried multiple time to install. Check and delete the contents of your Windows temp folder and your recycle bin. Most installation problems I have had with alot of different programs were solved this way.
 
meisen said:
It's an attitude. In the USA, the corporation rules. Whether it be with a customer or worker, it's the corporate wishes that count. Consumer and worker protections are considered invasive and "leftist" or "subversive". And it is getting worse by the year.
Click to expand...

Hear Hear. I would give you the thumbs up smiley but there's really nothing to smile about.
 
Yes the cd disk i got for civ4 seemed ultra sensitive. My primary cd rom drive could not read the disk. This drive has never failed to read any disks until civ4
Anyway my brand new LG drive did manage to read the disk after some struggle. Then the game was difficult to install after that.
I think the whole problem stems from the fact that Microsoft want to make it hard to crack their programs. But in doing so, they have sacrificed reliability to the point where ligitimate customers like you and me are suffering
 
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