According to a post on the Best Buy forum, consumers who think twice about their pre-order for the upcoming Destiny 2 will be hit with a $20 fee for access to the early access beta, regardless of whether or not the beta has been accessed at the time of cancellation.

Titled "Got charged $20 extra for something that is supposed to be free", user MlxRezZ noted that they had been charged for access to the "free" beta, despite their cancellation of their Destiny 2 Digital Deluxe version. Another user, sohjsolwin also took up arms, complaining that they had also been hit with the $20 fee after cancelling a pre-order placed for collection at the wrong Best Buy location.

Michael-BBY, a Best Buy representative, confirmed that the charge had been levied in recompense for the early access code that had already been emailed to the both of them before the cancellation had been confirmed. Since the Best Buy terms and conditions do not allow returns of digital goods, the value of the early access beta was charged to the customer's cards. In this case, $20 - or 33% of the standard edition of Destiny 2.

As called out in the Bundle or Promotional Discount Items section of our Return and Exchange Promise “If you return an item bought as part of a bundle or with a promotional discount and you do not return everything - not to worry. We will reimburse you for what you do return, minus the value of the discount or freebie.” In this case the Beta Access code is a digital item, which is final sale and nonreturnable [sic] under our policy.

Following further questions about the value of the beta access and which company (Bungie or Best Buy) had valued it at $20, Michael refused to go into any details regarding "any potential vendor agreements or internal business decisions."

As mentioned by sohjsolwin later in the same post, there was no mention of the apparent value of the beta access on the page at time or purchase, and nor has there been any change to the value on the page at the time of writing. The access to the beta is still listed as "free", with no mention being made of a partial refund following cancellation. At this time, the majority of the ire towards Best Buy is not aimed towards the policy itself, which most users seem to regard as fair - it is instead the non-refundable value of the early access beta that was not noted in any of the pre-purchase information.

At the time of writing, there have been no replies from a Best Buy representative since the 4th of April. TechRaptor have reached out to Best Buy and Bungie for comment.

Quick Take

Well this is a pickle and no mistake. While I - seemingly like the fellows in the original thread - have no issue with the idea of no refunds for digital content that has already been sent, the seemingly arbitrary choice to value the early access beta access at $20 is baffling. As noted in the original forum post, that's over a third of the total cost of Destiny 2.