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After granting a customer a refund for Pillars of Eternity on the basis that some content within it was offensive, a GOG.com CSR decided to argue with the customer about it, which caused a bit of trouble for GOG.

We have already reported on the fan reactions to #ObsidianCaves, but as we said, some people who bought Pillars of Eternity were offended by the controversial memorial, in this case a post went up on a subreddit dedicated to social justice in gaming where the OP explains how he/she was granted a refund by GOG.com on the grounds that the content on the game was offensive.

After being granted a refund, the CSR decided to give his unsolicited opinions about the whole controversy and this turned the whole situation even worse, the customer in question took it to social media to denounce this lack of professionalism by the GOG employee.

Recently I’ve been in contact with GOG and I’ve been informed via email that the company has apologized to the customer and took measures to ensure this never happens again, upon further Inquiry if the CSR was reprimanded or fired the company spoke person refused to give further information on the details

GOG does indeed have a refund policy. But that’s something which they rather not discuss publicly.

The Customer is always right.

Opinion time. It goes without saying that the CSR was at fault for trying to argue or give unsolicited personal opinions to the customer, his job is to assist the customers not argue with them, we have already seen Community Managers embarrassing their companies by saying wildly outrageous things on social media, employees need to be more objective in their roles, check their personal politics at the door and don’t try to be an hero.

Being offended makes you eligible to a refund?

The GOG spoke person told me that according to their policy the customer was eligible for a refund, when I tried to ask what policy was that, he said it was an internal policy that he wouldn’t discuss it publicly, if simply the fact that you’re offended can get you a refund this could be exploited and put digital distributors and game studios in trouble, but, we’re speculating.

Removing the memorial didn’t work.

Obsidian tried to take a middle ground, remove the memorial but give the backer the chance to submit a new, snarky memorial in its place, still Obsidian fans and critics were pretty upset and in this case they asked for a refund even when Obsidian reacted almost immediately to their complaints.

From what I reported it seems a lot of people on both sides of this controversy are still upset at Obsidian and what was the release of one of the most awaited cRPGs was somewhat ruined by this whole fiasco, game companies still have some things to learn about PR, maybe take some inspiration from the fitness industry?

Jack Davis
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround