Wishbone: Sadly, I didn't read this thread before buying the bundle, so I had no idea that all you got for your money was Steam keys,
because they don't mention that fucking fact anywhere on the page! I have now written back to them and asked for a refund, since I consider that omission to be false advertising.
So... I wrote their support:
I just bought the Epic Gala Bundle, just to be presented with a bunch of Steam keys, rather than downloadable installers. I just checked the page thoroughly to see if I missed a big sign saying "Steam only", but it seems that I didn't. I see no mention of Steam whatsoever anywhere on the page.
As you probably know, many people dislike Steam immensely. It is a completely unnecessary extra layer between myself and my games, and I never EVER buy Steam games, except Valve's own (and only retail at that). Since it's their platform, they can tie their own games to it, but for other developers to tie their games into a mandatory 3rd party DRM client is just ridiculous.
Long story short, I consider it false advertising not to mention that all the "games" you sell are just Steam keys. If you can't give me standalone installers for the games, then I think I must insist on a refund.
This got me the following reply:
Sorry. this is written in the popup "redeem it on steam".
Also we can't issue a refund for this motivation.
You had exactly what you paid. Games + albums.
being DRM free or cross platform is not mandatory for a game. ( they wouldn't sell console games at all in the malls then )
Also, if you click on every game popup there is the text "REDEEM IT ON STEAM"
So, we understand you want to see it more clearly written and we will add text also in the main page on the website ( it is just the second day of sale, forgive us some imperfection ) but we can't issue a refund "because games are not DRM free"
To which I replied:
Thanks a lot, smartass.
I never said I wanted the games to be DRM free, nor cross-platform. I said that when I buy a game from a digital distributor, I expect to be able to download a standalone installer, unless anything else is clearly said on the page. And why would I click the popups for each game? I know half of them already, why would I want to read about them? As for the rest of them, this is a bundle, and as such I expect to get some stuff I've never heard of, but I don't necessarily need to read about it beforehand.
If you were a physical game store, this is the equivalent situation:
I walk into your store and say I'd like to buy a game. You say certainly, that'll be such-and-such an amount of money. I pay you, and say "Can I have my game now?" You say "Oh, we don't carry games here. You have to pick up the game at this completely unrelated store on the other side of town". Then when I say I feel you should have told me that before you took my money (which you then refuse to give back, even though you haven't given me the product you led me to believe I'd receive), you act all arrogant and start putting words into my mouth.
Quite frankly, it sounds like you're butt-hurt that your product is inferior to most of the other indie bundles out there (since you specifically mention all their core features, which I didn't). Your notion of customer care also leaves a lot to be desired. Rest assured that I shall warn all the online communities I frequent to stay away from your site in the future.
I admit, it was probably childish of me, but I was angry as hell.
So that's the wonderful customer service of IndieGala.