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What Can I Do if I Purchased A Rift Before the Promo Sale?

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
A number of people will no doubt be feeling a little annoyed having previously paid $600 for the Oculus Rift+Touch combo before the price dropped to $399 in the Summer Promo.  There are several posts/discussions regarding this very topic (some more serious than others). Firstly, I think it's wrong to dismiss these concerns especially from those who purchased the Rift more recently. To be frank, it sucks. Why? Well although it's fair to suggest you can still enjoy the product you paid for, at the price you agreed at the time, the $200 difference isn't small change for a lot of people. Now obviously, if you purchased your Rift months ago then really you've got no real right to complain as you've had months of usage. However, if you have purchased more recently then it must be quite hard to take in. I think anyone with an ounce of compassion  can empathize with that especially as the sale came out of the blue (unlike Black Friday sales which are predetermined dates consumers can prepare for).  The amount of the price drop is also what is making it hard to take in no doubt (if it was only $50 then it wouldn't be so bad right?).

This is a general what to do post, but the reality is there are two types of consumer situations here.

1) You are happy with your Rift for the price you initially paid, have used it and want to keep it but feel disappointed the sale price came just after your purchase so are looking for some form of rebate as a good will gesture. 

2) You were happy with your Rift for the price you paid initially which you may or may not have used, but after seeing a new lower sale price rather than keep it, prefer to take advantage of a loophole in consumer law, send it back to the retailer (even though there is nothing wrong with the item), be refunded so you can repurchase the exact same item again at the new lower price and pocket the difference.

So, what can you do?

Firstly, if you purchased your Rift directly from Oculus, then be aware they are under no obligation to offer you anything if 30 days have passed since purchase. They are under no obligation to refund you difference either if you plan on keeping the item.  Now you could decide to return your Rift, if you are within the 30 day period from purchase and get a refund then buy it again from another retailer (or even Oculus if they allow) although you will incur shipping costs which are non refundable. You have the choice to do that even if it could be seen as taking advantage of your rights. However, if it has been extensively used or beyond 30 days since purchased then unless it's faulty, it's not so easy being able to just return it and hope for a full refund. Here is the Oculus returns policy. With regards to used items it's a bit of a grey area depending on what country you are from. In the EU for example for online sales only you can return items within 14 days from receipt used or otherwise. Up to 30 days you can return unused items for a full refund. After that period you have no return rights unless the item is faulty. If you have purchased from a store, then usually there is lesser time window for returns and they will not accept used returns although this will vary from each store.

How do I cancel or return my unused Oculus device for a refund?

Your Order Hasn’t Shipped:

If you pre-order an Oculus device that hasn’t been released yet or your order hasn’t shipped due to a payment problem, you can contact Oculus Support to cancel your order.

Your Order Has Shipped:

If you buy an Oculus device that’s currently available from the Oculus Store, you won’t be able to cancel your order once it ships. If you still don’t want your Oculus device after you receive it, you can contact Oculus Support to return it unused for a refund.

Keep the following things in mind if you return your unused Oculus device for a refund:

  • We’ll issue a refund for unused Oculus devices returned within 30 days from when your order shipped
  • You’ll receive a refund to your payment method once your Oculus device has been returned and inspected
  • Shipping fees are non-refundable
Note: If you bought your Oculus device from a retail store, you’ll need to visit the store you bought it from to request a refund.


What else can you do?

Well,customers being annoyed at price drops or sales after they have purchased an item is actually quite a common occurrence  in retail and companies are usually fully aware that customers feel a little upset, so it's not unusual for them to offer some form of compensation, especially if you want to keep the product. In this instance, what you should do is contact  Oculus support and raise a ticket or if you purchased from another retailer, email or contact them and ask (politely) if they would be willing to offer a refund of the difference. Depending on how much time has passed since purchase, some stores will be legally obliged to refund you if you are returning the product, if a longer period has passed or you're keeping the item then they might offer the difference or part of as a goodwill gesture. Others might refuse point blank if there is no legal obligation (but at least you tried). Oculus might possibly offer store credit (on a case-by-case basis) which is great for any future purchases, that more often than not you're likely to have spent cash on anyway.  For those asking after 30 days have passed if you don't ask, then you don't get and if you're refused then at least you have tried something. 

In the event that more than four weeks have passed prior to the Summer sale when you purchased the Rift it's highly unlikely you'll be offered anything. But, don't let that deter you, at least try as you have nothing to lose by asking. If you are persistent you could try escalating your case to a more senior member of staff by requesting to  have it looked at by a manager.  Some retailers might play ball or offer you something of lesser value depending on your circumstances.

The key point here though in any correspondence you have with a company in this scenario is to be polite and don't present yourself like they owe you (especially if you are outside any legal obligations).  As far as Oculus support is concerned, they are likely to be inundated with requests at the moment  which means their response times are slower than normal. So exercising some patience is key here.

Good Luck.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.
113 REPLIES 113

AlienMudcake
Protege
Bought mine 5 weeks ago, made a support ticket. What i got back was this:(

Hey "Name",

Thanks for connecting with us about the Oculus Rift + Touch Soft Bundle.

We've reviewed your order and we cannot provide any refunds or credit for your previous Rift and Touch purchase.

We appreciate your interest and continued support to VR.

Cordially,

"Oculus staff"
Oculus Support


Quite upset, well at least i got oculus a new costumer as i told my friend about the rift and that they had a sale. Only asked politly if there where anything they could do to show some good faith, but i got a standard answer. Dont really have good feeling about my prior purchase now:( Should had waited.

Shadowmask72
Honored Visionary
Thanks for posting.  I guess it depends on what your request was. If you asked for a full refund or even all of the difference then of course you're out of luck given the time past. There is no legal obligation for Oculus to offer you anything after 5 weeks. However, you could try and escalate this or appeal to their goodwill and request a lesser amount. But in all fairness it's a longshot.


System Specs: MSI NVIDIA RTX 4090 , i5 13700K CPU, 32GB DDR 4 RAM, Win 11 64 Bit OS.

AlienMudcake
Protege
Did not request anything. Just asked politly if there was anything they could do since i did not feel well with my prior purchase. Was not demanding anything, i had hoped they would at least just give a coupon of some percent off of something form the store or something. 5 weeks is not alot. Took me longer to finaly bite the bullet and buy it (was not easy to convince the wife:P)
I know i cant demand anything, just hope they could see it was not a very fun situation to be in. At least a "sorry, management wont let us do anything about your case" would had been nice.

Wont get anything, im sure of that, but at least i can went a bit here and hope someone else can get something, at least i know that someone can get through to them.:)

RautenVR
Explorer
So, bit of extra information, for anyone else in a similar situation to mine.
Context: Ordered early last week, arrived past Friday (July 7th), package opened, tinkered during the weekend. Opened ticket early Monday.

Support just added 200€ of credit to my account. As for the missing 59€, they offered this explanation:
The base price of Rift + Touch was dropped by €200.00 for this limited time promotion.
Additional taxes and fees may be added to that amount when going through checkout depending on your region.
As a result, it may appear that the price dropped by more than €200.00, but that price does not yet include the taxes and fees that you paid for your original order.

Not too happy with the resolution (still think they should offer partial refunds, like many other retailers have done) but also not too disgruntled.

Also still not too happy with Oculus support in general, but the explanation for the 59€ difference was certainly welcome.

@Kratuln: Hang in there, man; you have every right to a refund.

Kratuln
Explorer

RautenVR said:

So, bit of extra information, for anyone else in a similar situation to mine.
Context: Ordered early last week, arrived past Friday (July 7th), package opened, tinkered during the weekend. Opened ticket early Monday.

Support just added 200€ of credit to my account. As for the missing 59€, they offered this explanation:
The base price of Rift + Touch was dropped by €200.00 for this limited time promotion.
Additional taxes and fees may be added to that amount when going through checkout depending on your region.
As a result, it may appear that the price dropped by more than €200.00, but that price does not yet include the taxes and fees that you paid for your original order.

Not too happy with the resolution (still think they should offer partial refunds, like many other retailers have done) but also not too disgruntled.

Also still not too happy with Oculus support in general, but the explanation for the 59€ difference was certainly welcome.

@Kratuln: Hang in there, man; you have every right to a refund.


@RautenVR Ehm, yes it does. That price absolutely does reflect the price which includes taxes and fees. If this were the US, yes, that would mean taxes and additional fees were not included but this is Europe. All additional fees and all taxes must always be shown 100% of the time when selling a product. You'll also notice you were charged €708 and you'll also notice it's €449 when you add a new rift to your cart in Europe. This goes for both your last order and the current sale order.

They flat out lied to you, man. That or they have no fucking clue about EU protocal and flat out should not be acting as EU support.

You absolutely should have been given €259 if that's their reasoning for not giving you the full amount. You know the price difference in the US is $200, right? You also know they offer US customers $200? Funny little tid bit of information for all those in the US giving out about us Europeans complaining about store credit or the lack thereof.

RautenVR
Explorer

Kratuln said:

They flat out lied to you, man. That or they have no fucking clue about EU protocal and flat out should not be acting as EU support.


"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"; I'm leaning more towards they have no fucking clue.

And yes, I should've been given the full amount, but since I didn't just open the package, but also used it, I don't have nearly as much fighting ground; this is facebook we're talking about, if need be they could steamroll over me.

Kratuln
Explorer
It's utterly ridiculous. I seriously can not believe some of the crap I'm reading here. Like... I've never come across this. At this point I just want my price match or an RMA free of shipping costs(After being told to accept the package regardless) and wash my hands of this mess.

Anonymous
Not applicable
I purchased my Rift with Touch on May 19. I love it. That being said, a $250.00 reduction in price within 60 days is crazy. I don't want a refund. I emailed support to explain my frustration and to at least be on record asking what can be done, if anything, in my situation. As I said, I love Rift. But, $250.00 cheaper is a little hard to swallow, especially after buying all the games I have bought in the last month and a half. I honestly don't expect anything, but this is an opportunity for Oculus to show love to it's faithful early adopters, and you certainly won't get anything if you don't at least ask.

elboffor
Consultant
@Kratuln you are completely correct in regards to the distance selling regulations.
If oculus do not privide free return shipping after being advised to accept the package then they have misled you and you are entitled to a full refund and should cover return shipping to put this right as well as recompensing you for the effort you jave put in to resolve the issue.
The durarion of time that this takes however is not guaranteed so you will have to suck that up.
You cam request assitance from the uk trading standards who can open a case for you if needed.

Bitching about it on the forum wont help matters so i wouldnt waste my time if i were you, just my opinion. But your free to do as you wish.

To everyone else who has opened the package, not covered by this law or bought it too far in advance, sorry but you are shit out of luck.
Oculus are under no obligation to do anything, amd my personal feelings are if you have buyer remorse then unlucky, life aint fair.

Personally i spent about a grand all in for my oculus and associated hardware to make it work which would be loads cheaper now. I havent really used it that much either, i regret nothing.
This is my forum signature.
There are many others like it, but this is mine.

Lemming1970
Rising Star
Do people not know how sales work?
Can't believe how many people moan about this type of thing. It happens with everything. Jesus I picked up a PS4, second control and two games for £179.99 from Amazon two days ago, 4 days after a friend of mine paid full price for his console. Told him today, not one moan, Just "Wow that was a good deal" Now it's back up to £300+ for the same thing.
Get a grip people, Promotions happen all the time.

"show love to it's faithful early adopters" 

LOL, Early adopter. Things been out a year 🙂
 
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