Like a million others I feel the need to complain. Fully expect this to get filed in the bin and not read or replied to, but here goes anyway. 
(I'll expect any lack of reply to be a shining example of your customer service?!)
 
Pre-ordered AoC back in April, from Play.com  - at the time their site advertised '3 day Early Access' as per most other retailers. No mention
of any limited availability whatsoever. In fact no mention of having to pay any extra for a download at all.  Waited patiently for my key to come
thru - finally arrived via the attached email - again NO mention of any limited availabilty, but at least mention of now having to pay for the 
download. Ah well, only a few quid, not going to break the bank....  I popped onto the Funcom website, registered my key, expecting some 
'click here to purchase headstart' only to get a small amount of info about my ingame items being available to /claim.  No pop up - no 'hurry
limited availability' message from yourselves. Couldn't see any obvious links to follow so maybe I thought I'll get an email closer to Early 
Access launch.   I then find out, by word of mouth, this morning, that its apparent 'limited availabilty' has ended/sold out. No mention of 
'only 24 hrs to register and download' anywhere that I could see.
 
I've read enough of the forums this evening to gather the principal that it is one horrid botched mess of misinformation and backtracking 
from both yourself/Eidos. People have posted links where there are announcements from yourselves about Early Access, with NO mention 
of any limited availability. I find it totally unacceptable that I have ordered something on a promise of a feature, advertised by both play.com 
and yourselves at various times, with NO mention of any finite availability, only to be denied on the grounds that I have missed some mythical 
'limited availabilty'  -  I've pre-ordered many times with early access from Play, and have NEVER, EVER had any issues till now, so refuse to 
point the finger of blame solely at them. And the fact that many other retailers have had the same outcome for their customers, naturally would
point the finger at the source of all this information.  I now find myself in a position where the regular group I play MMO's with, are, for the 
majority, going to be a week ahead now, and of course, as they've all paid legitimately for a headstart, asking them to wait for me is TOTALLY
out of the question.
 
Can you please explain how this has all come about. I'm now deliberating, despite enjoying the game so much, whether I want to hand over 
money to a company that can act, and treat, its potential customers, in this way.
 
regards
 
Tongeh

Hello,
 
The Early Access keys were "an option to purchase" we are aware of the
misunderstanding and lack of information provided to the players and
apologize fully for this. I am very sorry for any inconvenience this has
caused you and your fellow fans of Age of Conan.
 
 
Regards,
 
GM-Miao