Ok, SO, I purchased a copy of WOW like 9 months ago, did the recruit a friend thing to myself. The game was only 19.95. Plus you had to pay for a full month of game time $14.95. I was thinking I was gonna start duel-boxing. Well, I changed my mind after I had already registered the account. So, I called Blizzard and asked if there was a way I could get a refund. What they said was YES, I just had to send Blizzard the original box, copy of receipt, and a brief paper with the reason why I didn't want to play anymore with a return address.
After doing this I got a full refund(including tax) back in the mail in the form of a check, for both game time and the actual game. I had totally forgot about it. It took about 3 weeks. BUT, I was messing around in my "account management" and noticed that under the "recruit a friend" tab it still said I had 1 reward, which of course was the zhevra mount. I had always assumed I wouldn't be able to get it because the account was never actually logged into and was completely refunded.
YES, I know I should've made screenshots, but I am in a hurry between classes atm, and my point is, you can probably go buy the game, activate the account, then send it back to blizzard saying you got the wrong game and you can't return it now because it's been activated and you would like a refund, to which they will do.
This may be more effort than many people are willing to do, but I got my Zhevra mount at the only cost of shipping a small package back to blizzard(like$4). Worth it, imo, for 3 weeks of waiting.