D2D announced Price matching

http://support.direct2drive.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=3091&task=knowledge&questionID=2890
from Stardock Forums



Our Price Matching is only valid for digital game downloads on
Direct2Drive.com

Proof of purchase from Direct2Drive required. Only
completed purchases from Direct2Drive.com will be considered for price
match.
Program valid November 17 thru December 31, 2010
You must find a
price lower than ours for the same product on one of the Authorized Internet
Retailer* sites listed below as of midnight (12:00 a.m. PST) on your date of
purchase.
Refunds/rebates are not offered.
Approved price matches will
receive a Direct2Drive store credit of the difference in price.
You must have
a valid Direct2Drive account to which we can apply your Direct2Drive store
credit for valid price matches.
Our Price Matching only applies to digital
game downloads and does not apply to physical goods (such as cdroms), used or
resold keys, or items that are not currently offered on Direct2Drive.
You
must provide evidence of the currently offered lower price by providing us with
a link to the live offer (see details below on how to submit a link). All
requests are subject to verification by Direct2Drive in accordance with the
price matching criteria set forth in these terms.
Our Price Matching is valid
only against the pricing of an Authorized Internet Retailer* and applies only to
prices both advertised and available to the general public residing in the
United States and purchasing from the United States website.
The Authorized
Internet Retailer* must have the identical product currently available and
priced accurately. Direct2Drive will not honor any request that it believes, in
its sole discretion, is the result of a printing or other error or is made
fraudulently or in bad faith.
The advertisement must not require a separate
purchase or bundled purchase in order to receive the advertised price
match.
Offer not valid on coupons, rebates, promotional offerings,
percent-off advertisements or membership pricing for other
sites.
Direct2Drive reserves the right in its sole discretion to modify or
discontinue the Price Matching, at any time, for any or no reason, and without
prior notice or liability to you. The terms that are in effect at the time of
your purchase will determine your eligibility under the Price Matching. The
failure by Direct2Drive to enforce any provision of these Terms & Conditions
shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.
Price comparisons solely
include the product price and do not include sales tax. Pricing differences may
exist due to sales tax.
48,763 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Nowhere does it say it is valid only for those who live in the US, only that the price must be what US gets, and seen from the US website.

How is D2D today? The last time I purchased stuff there, there was a limited time only that I could download my purchase, and a limited amount of times I could do it.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, too many conditions that make it basically useless. The only times prices really differ is during sales, and those are ruled out. In the vast majority of cases, for US users the prices tend to be the same across all the sales platforms.

@Heavenfall: Those limits don't exist anymore, and haven't since I started using the service (sparingly, but still) a few years ago. I didn't even know it did that. It's nothing special of a service, I haven't bought anything from them recently to know if they still attach their own "unlock" for their downloads.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

How is D2D today? The last time I purchased stuff there, there was a limited time only that I could download my purchase, and a limited amount of times I could do it.

Same - I've bought a game or 2 from them in the past.  You download the full game as a zip or exe if I remember right and I remember it being a limited amount of downloads or timeframe.  Very happy to hear if I am wrong, though.

because they wont match any sales

Yeah - that's the only thing that could maybe make this appealing (but really just for direct2drive customers).  And even then, I'd prefer to keep my games on steam and impulse... all they would be doing is matching a price I can get somewhere else - not actually saving me any money. Then having to take the time to contact their support and hope they'll give me the discount (in store credit, so I'm actually spending the "savings" from the start).  Still not sure what the benefit is though.  This would work in the magical scenario where direct2drive is charging $60 for a game and I find it on steam for $50 even though its not on sale... which I'd assume is impossible - anything other than the retail price is on sale, right?  I guess the real challenge is to find any single game where this offer would apply.  I can't think of any examples...

At any rate, fire their useless marketing/legal department. 

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 1
Nowhere does it say it is valid only for those who live in the US, only that the price must be what US gets, and seen from the US website.

In their conditions: ....applies only to ...residing in the United States... - so most likely unless you are buying from US IP adress you wont be able to use it.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

... what? You can't just cut out significant parts of the quote like that, since it changes the meaning.

Our Price Matching is valid
only against the pricing of an Authorized Internet Retailer* and applies only to
prices both advertised and available to the general public residing in the
United States and purchasing from the United States website.

NOWHERE does it say you have to live there, or buy from a US ip adress. It is possible you have to, but it doesn't say so there.

All it says is the price they will match is the one available to the US public on US websites. They won't match any other price.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 5
NOWHERE does it say you have to live there, or buy from a US ip adress. It is possible you have to, but it doesn't say so there.

All it says is the price they will match is the one available to the US public on US websites. They won't match any other price.

general public residing in the United States and purchasing from the United States website? o_O  I have never used their service. I wasn't going to start today. :P

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Christ... read the full sentence and stop quoting out of context.

It doesn't say anything about where you have to purchase from, only what price they will match their own to.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Still trying to figure out what you folks are on about.  Again, this deal gets you absolutely nothing, right?  Eg it can't be applied to any game, right?

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

D2D using the only thing they got that can keep anyone around- cost-cutting.

 

 

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Alstein, reply 9
D2D using the only thing they got that can keep anyone around- cost-cutting.

But the terms of their offer seem to exclude them actually cutting costs...

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

I am not sure how this is much of a price match policy. I mean without a promo or percent off, all the digi stores pretty much sell the same game for the same price. Maybe some competitor will do a PM policy with actual teeth though.