Old Promotional Codes

Recently my friend was cleaning out his house and found an old copy of the League of Legends Colectors Edition CD. He never got around to playing and knew I played so he gave the package to me as a gift. I was very appreciative to have such an old piece of Riot Games history and noticed that there was a promotional code still inside. I went to enter the code in and it said it had expired. This was very dissapointing and I am looking to have something done about it.

I went to Riot support to try and get this issue resolved and was given very timely and helpful feedback from the support team. They directed me here to talk about my thoughts and perhaps get something worked out. I read up and saw that old promotional codes were discontinued and were never going to be allowed back. The main reason behind this action was because people were acquiring skin codes illegitimately and selling them, or people were just scamming people out of money by not providing skins.

My main point would be that the code I have was accuired legitimately and I have proof that I own it. I personally believe anyone who can prove that they have their merchandise that goes with the code such as the card or Collectors Edition box should be able to redeem their code. To me in my situation it just seems like I am being cheated out of what was offered on the card. The purpose of the collectors edition was to provide $10 in RP, 4 Runes, and a skin. It doesn't make sense to me why I should now be unable to receive what was offered on the card. Had my friend found this before the deadline than there would be no problem, so why should there be any issue now?

I assume that the code is still acknowledged because the client was able to tell that the code was expired. Because of this it seems like there could be some way to allow the code to be used again or just put the content onto an account. It is just frustrating that the contents of the colectors edition code are being denied to me because I wasn't able to accuired the code before a deadline. I am sure that there are very few people in my position so maybe there could be some sort of system to approve or deny people codes who try to give their case about their promotional codes. It just doesn't seem fair to people in my position that we cannot submit our codes and gain what was offered. I hope something can be worked out or revised in the way codes are redeemed to make it fairer for people like me.