We all like special offers and bundle deals. I often snap up those Humble Indie Bundles for PC when they pop up and I’ve lost count of the number of game-and-DLC bundles I’ve bought for a pittance in a Steam sale. So when Sony started to run special offers and price reductions on the PSN Store, it was a welcome addition. When they bundle bits and pieces together for a reduced rate, all the better. This is something that the PSN Store has been doing really well with, whether it’s special offers or permanent price reductions, they’re clearly making an effort to be competitively priced – even without any competition.

Unfortunately, one of their bundle offers over the recent festive period has turned into a bit of a disaster for the customers who bought it.

As part of the package of special offers run on the store around Christmas, there was a Pick n Mix bundle of five PlayStation minis for the bargain price of just £3.19/€3.99/$5.60. You bought the Pick n Mix item and it allowed you to choose five minis from the Store’s ample selection of bite sized delights.

The problems arose when customers purchased and downloaded the item from the PSN Store via their PlayStation 3 and then tried to transfer the content to their PSP. It didn’t work. The latest terms of the End User License Agreement on the PlayStation Network reduced the number of machines you’re allowed to use your content on from five to the slightly more restrictive number of two. That’s two PlayStation 3s and two portable devices (PSP or Vita) though, so the transfer shouldn’t have been a problem. In fact, in order to record the issue, a user took a screengrab of the terms for this particular item and posted the image in the community forums. I’ve underlined the relevant portion in red.

The problem was first raised on the community boards on the 22nd of December and reported to the technical support teams by the ever-helpful community moderators. Six days later, on the 28th, a reply was left in that thread which indicated that the bundle was now made available via the PSP side of the PSN Store and if it was (re)purchased and downloaded from there, it would work. Essentially, there were now two versions of the bundle – one on the PSP store and one on the PS3 store which, contrary to most customer’s previous experience, wouldn’t allow transfer to a PSP after purchase.

This seems like a quick patch up that would limit, but not solve the issue in the future. The PS3 store bundle had the line added to its description to say that it was for the PS3 (judging by forum comments this seems to have happened on or around the first of January) but as most minis work on the PS3 as well as the PSP they’re made for, that measure is understandably unclear for many consumers.

If a consumer had bought the bundle on the PS3 store, and selected their five minis, those items became impossible to purchase via the PSP store. The store thinks you already own them and should, theoretically, be able to re-download from your download list. Unfortunately, consumers who managed to get items onto their PSPs were met with error messages explaining that they couldn’t activate on another device. It seems like every combination of available options has been tried, the PS3, PSP and Media Go stores all resulting in error codes and continued frustrations for existing purchasers.

Many users reported lengthy and fruitless calls to customer services, at further personal expense, and others allude to shady solutions which contravene the EULA or local laws. As things progressed past the three week mark, with the bundle still for sale under its new description, consumers did start to see voucher codes emailed to them. These codes would allow the download of five additional minis but if the consumer had already selected their minis and ‘purchased’ them when they first bought the Pick n Mix bundle then those minis remained impossible to select, even with Sony’s vouchers.

Several consumers suggest that they would have been happy with a refund and apology, resetting their purchase history to allow access to the minis they selected and the chance to re-buy them – even at full price. The voucher solution doesn’t seem to have found favour with anyone yet, although there is a slim chance that those who do approve of this peculiar compensation are busy playing their five second choice minis rather than complaining on the forums.

The thread on the community forums which highlights this issue is currently at 28 pages and gets progressively more irate as it goes on. Perhaps the most alarming thing is the tone and language of the Sony customers who are reporting it. They don’t seem particularly surprised, they don’t expect much of a solution and they seem resigned to their issues being swept under the carpet and ignored. Surely that’s a serious problem for Sony, that their engaged consumers are expectant of abysmal after sales support and dishonest cover ups?

I don’t think anyone would reasonably expect a store with as many items and as many customers as the PSN Store to exist without occasional problems arising. Mistakes are made, that’s perfectly understandable. It also seems that this could be a complicated issue to fix, the nature of the deal means that customers all selected different minis so individual item vouchers become very difficult to assign to the right people. But most of the frustration seems to be based around the lack of transparency. Customers seem to feel that Sony hasn’t been open or honest about this issue and has instead tried to cover it up and ignore them.

It might only be £3.19 that changed bank accounts but the subsequent inability to ever access certain content again and the lack of a rapid or open response from Sony has left many consumers feeling jaded. Surely that loss of faith is a much more valuable asset?