Tell me when you purchase a new car, and the next model comes out with say air-conditioning. Do you then contact the dealer saying thats not fair?

Your comparison is illogical.
There is no 'new model' in this situation. Same ships that were in the c-store a week ago. And in your situation, at least you could trade in your current model towards the purchase of the one with A/C.
This would be more like purchasing a new mower from home depot, and the next week they are offering free leaf blowers with the purchase of the exact same mower. This happened to me about a month ago, I took my receipt into the store and they were happy to give me a new leaf blower without problems.

If that's how you get by woot!

There are many places(departments stores especially) that will give you an adjustment on an item that you may buy, then goes on sale shortly after. There have been many times over the years I have done that at more than one department store, don't want to say the names of the retailers cause I don't know if it would be some sort of cryptic/atari violation. Usually the policy is within 30 days after you purchase the item and it goes on sale you can get the difference refunded as long as you have a reciept. Your arguement about a car is not a reasonable comparison, to the topic at hand. Also, there has been a solution to retrieving the pet for those of us who have acquired all federation ships.

Amazon does this too. There's precedent.

I don't think people who buy a ship on sale should get the discount refunded to them if it goes on sale the following week as that could lead to all sorts of accounting issues, but the implementation of this was just poor. Had they said you get the pet if you've purchased any Federation subcraft now or in the past, that would have made more sense than just locking out the folks who already paid.

That's very nice of them, but can it really be expected?

The way I see it - if you bought something a week or a month before the big sale, you already had it a week or a month longer. That means you already got more out of whatever you bought then the person that buys it afterwards.

A lawn mower or a car will probably eventually break down. On average, the time until you have to give it up is the same for whenever you buy it.

But for game items - the only time they can no longer be used is if the last game server is wound down. And t hat means if you bought something earlier, you'll get to use and keep it longer than anyone coming afterwards.

For myself, the lesson learned is - if you don't need it now, wait for the sale. It will inevitably come. And if I don't want to wait and buy it now, I'll have to accept that there will be a sale that would have allowed a better deal.

When making your decision to buy or not buy something, don't think about Cryptic's bottom line. Don't "support the C-Store". Cryptic's bottom line is their responsiblity. Their challenge is to offer us items that we are willing to pay for. And if that requires sales for some people and others are willing to pay for them even without the sale, then no one should complain about the sale. Both people got what they wanted for the price they were willing to pay for it.

It is not as if Cryptic's policy is unclear here - stuff can be offered for sale. There will be no refunds if
you bought it a month or an hour before the sale. Knowing that, I decide whether I am willing to pay full price or not.

And for stuff that's not just "on sale" but special promitions like this - if it was part of a promition once, it will be part of a promotion again.