O.K. This is becoming a nightmare...(I will keep this as short as possible)

End of last week ESO sent me an email with a key for the weekend...

Sunday night I said, what the hell, and decided to buy it. Of course no way I am going to get the standard edition,(I'm 46 not 16, do not have money issues) so I planned on the Imperial Edition.

I was on ESO's website at the buy page, when I remembered someone in game said that Gamefly had a 20% off coupon...

So I went to Gamefly and bought the Imperial Edition for only $65(with the coupon it was only $5 more then the Standard Edition, the code is "FEB20OFF")

I get an email from Gamefly with the retail key...

I went to the account.elederscrollsonline and entered the key. It had said "Beta Access", after I entered the key it also said "Early Access", BUT it did not say which edition the key was good for. I was a little confused as I have been playing MMO's for years and it always says which version you paid for when you enter the key. Since this is Bethesda's first MMO, I thought nothing of it...

A little while later I got an email from ESO, basically thanking me for buying the game and telling me I got the explorers pack with the scuttle pet...

WHAT THE HELL? The scuttle pet is for the standard edition, there is NO mention of the horse and no mention of the Imperial race... I am supposed to get the damn mudcrab for a pet!

So the key was bad? I sent an email to the ESO support, I saw on the page it said one business day...

After one day I filled out the support form for them to call me... The individual that called me was professional and courteous, however English was not his first language...

He tried to explain to me that everything was fine and that the retailer would probably send another key later for the additional content. WHAT!@!

So I just emailed support for Gamefly asking them if they gave me the right key and if an additional key was coming...

I guess I will update this post after I get a response from Gamefly, however NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE.(Glad I kept all the emails and my receipt, would post them here but can't seem to "paste" here, I see the button for it but can't get it to actually paste the text in the emails)

Yup , those of us that bought Imperial Addition from Green Man are getting emails congratulating us on Explorer packs

I guess they are good with throwing our money around, this, subs, initial pay fees.

Starting to get a bit turned off

Madness. I'm just waiting for the game to come out so I can spend 3 hours designing my character.

What did support tell you?

I went through all of this with ESO Support and GameFly, last week. Only difference was, it was 25% at the time. However, it comes down to this, after several emails between the two companies.

GF sent out an Early Access key. Basically, the Standard Edition. Your confirmation receipt shows that you purchased the IE and GF will be sending out the Imperial keys later. When that is exactly is unknown as they await the Imperial keys to be sent from ESO. They should be emailed to the players before the Early Access begins.

Green Man has nothing to do with the sub fee ...

If you buy the game from a retailer the code that you are given is for the preorder bonus, AKA the explorers pack. This appears on your account at elderscrollsonline.com as "early access" Your key for the Imperial content will be added at a later time. For me, who went physical copy, it will be when I pick up the box and activate it with the code provided at that time.

None of the Imperial edition content is available until 4/4/14. So that is why you are getting confirmation of the preorder bonus, rather than confirmation of the Imperial Edition.

If you purchase the digital version of the IE from the ESO site, you are set to have access to the Imperial race and the any-race-any-alliance feature during the Early Access. The other bells and whistles like pets, mounts and rings will be sent via in-game mail after the official release (4-4-14). Should the retailers get the IE keys out to the players in time, then the Imperials will be available to them during the Early Access as well.

and if they dont send the codes out in time i want a refund!!!

i do not want to pay for imperial, and not be able to play imperial in head start!

Well, if you have already used the first key then I'm afraid that a refund is out of play. Once the Early Access key has been implemented you can't get one. I feel confident that ESO will send them out in plenty of time for the retailers to get them to the players.

It was a comment to the first comment under the OPs statement.

I preordered mine this morning through GameFly and didn't have any problems. When I did register the code from the email, it was described as an Explorer's Pack also but from my understanding, the Imperial Edition code will come before the early access date.

I would hope so or people are going to be dumping Bethesda games and swagg into Boston Harbor - I have defiantly seen some gamers frothing at the mouth during a release phase

Yeah, GMG has nothing to do with sub fees at all.

And the same thing happened with me and GMG, I only got the pre-order key, but after talking with a nice guy over at GMG on the phone he said the keys would be going out later but to not expect them this month.

wait a minute. i thought the explorers pack was the pre-order bonus? every activated account right now should get that right. i would not worry about it.

It is a pre-order bonus for both editions of the game, if you pre-order. The OP is wrong in mentioning that the Explorer's pack is just for the standard edition.

The problem is you purchased from a 3rd party to save a few bucks. What will happen (which has) you will get an EA key that will let you get in the early access and then the day of release you should (if they are not slow like gamestop) will get a key for the game you purchased. Its a common issue if you dont purchase from the manufacture. If you had purchased from beth you would have the key auto to your account and no issues.

I have found out that if you purchase a box kit then the best is to get it from amazon, over the years they have proved to be the best at getting items to you on time.

You cant put this one on zen, it was your choice to save a few bucks that caused you the grief. In the long run it will work out for you just need to be patient.

Its amazing that you come here screaming foul when it had nothing to do with zen or beth it had to do with you choosing to purchase it other then from beth.

I purchased the physical Imperial edition from my local Gamestop for full price, and after redeeming my code from the receipt, my account on their website just shows the standard version.

I have been hearing that they will send me codes for the imperial edition later on... but it just seems really odd the way they are doing this.

I have to say, I am worried. The support email I got from Bethesda didn't help either, I don't think even they know what is going on.

It has nothing to do with beth, its gamestops mo, they dont send the key till the day of launch or a day later if you are lucky.

File a lawsuit against GameStop for Denial of services renderd and false advertisemant and then hit me up if you need a lawyer

Oh and in all seriousness ordering from a so called "third" party should not effect anything. Zenimax gets there reach around every time a customer walks into a store and eso posters are hanging all over the wall and In your face..trust me they get a hefty kickback from GameStop so I don't understand what you mean when you act like ordering directly from them or GameStop should make a diffrence

Zen supplies the product the 3rd party IE gamestop can deliver the codes anytime they choose to mr lawyer man. As long as the product is delivered by the launch day they are doing what they promise to do. There is no denial of service since the game is not launched yet and the customers have the early access keys now. I have ran into issues where gamestop did not produce the keys by the correct time and the game company had to extend the access for people that had gamestop purchases.

Gamestop is a bad company to use for mmo purchases. The perfect setup, which is pricey, purchase the regular digital from the company and if you must have a box set purchase it seperate and then once the hard box comes you will have a key to add and get your goodies in game. I have done this before and it works just cost more to be safe.

thats what i was getting at, he should receive that bonus and should only be worried if he didnt

Some times you gotta go into GameStop ...flailing your arms and knocking things off the counter whilst screaming you have aids.. Never been denied services this way

For those of us who did digital imperial orders there will be no excuse to not have these keys during early release