I have mentioned excitedly before what my plans were for the Wrath Launch
events, which was to go to the local EB Games and wait eagerly for my
Collector's Edition which I had paid for, $10 more than what I was told at pre
order, the Saturday before. The 5 hours at work that night were agonizing, as I
could mentally count down the hours in my head. At precisely 9 pm I left work,
though I spent a bit of time recruiting a new player to WoW, and headed out. I
stopped at home, trying to get my podcast and blog up, and then headed out to
walk the 4 blocks to the store.
When I walked up, there was 2 empty fold up chairs, and two guys sitting in their van out front of the store. I proceeded to move to the far side of them from the door, and the wait began. The minutes ticked by, and the line began to grow. By ones and twos the line eventually grew into 50 or more people, all enjoying the weather to get Wrath of the Lich King. Ner'zhul, Malygos, Draenor, Exodar; all these realms were mentioned for those in line close to me. Staff began to show up, and the numbers inside the store increased slowly.
As midnight grew closer we watched as they rolled up posters(giveaways) and chatted comfortably behind the glass. When midnight rolled around we all waited eagerly. As 12:05 came and went, we all grew impatient. 12:10 and people were getting mad since the 'staff' inside were clearly just chatting and stuff, not doing actual work. These folks stood around in a nice warm store and we shivered in the winter weather. Finally at 12:15 a staff member came and opened the door, advising us they couldn't start taking orders yet, cause their system wouldn't let them, but we could at least get in. We rushed in, the first 5 or 6 people, and were told to stay back from the registers.
Then aggravation turned to anger. The 'staff', or at least 5 of them, stepped up to the counter to pay for their own copies of the Wrath Collector's Edition. I watched, surprise on my face, as the realization that these were not staff, but friends of the staff, who got to bypass the line and get up first, and get out first, with their Collector's Editions. It made me wonder if these folks had to do anything by the 'rules' at that store. Once they were done, I stepped up and presented my receipt, knowing I would just sign a paper and walk out. The first sign of trouble was 'ok, so I am sorry to say but...'
That ended with the fact that, after raising the price on my 1 week before, they had raised it again. 'We only found it out a few seconds ago when our machines started taking orders' the staff member who originally took my $5 pre order back in September and who lamented then that the $70 price tag was pretty high. Interesting, I thought, that the registers were not live when we got in, and they didn't need to tell their friends that when they paid for their copies. What do I think? I think they knew, and tried to do a slow progression rise of the price, but I paid mine out too soon to launch, and that made me notice more.
I got mad, and asked them what they were doing, and after a few minutes the guy who took my 'final' payment a few days before looked at me and said, essentially, that's the price, if you don't like it, leave. I looked at him with anger, and told them that I would not be canceling my preorder yet. I stepped out of line, trying to think of who I could call at 12:20 AM to bring me $12, finding no one who was up, when one of those close to me in line, a guy by the name of Brian(server currently unknown) came back into the store and offered to use the last few bucks he had on his debit card to help me pay off my Collector's Edition.
I got my game, then I got his name and number, and have now made arrangements to pay him back. I came home, and recorded the Unboxing video you have likely seen if you read my blog, and began to install my game. The reactions and thoughts to my podcast rant have been overwhelmingly on my side. I thank everyone for their words of support. So where do I go from here? Well, once this is up, I will spend Monday ensuring that EB Games know of this bad PR, and that I will never be shopping at their places again. I have a new place to buy my Game Cards, and will happily give a more honest, upfront, less greedy, and more professional company. I hope that some, if not many of you all do the same. If this company is willing to screw people, then get mad when they react badly, being rude and unprofessional, well, then they don't deserve the business of any gamers who value these things. What do you all think?
When I walked up, there was 2 empty fold up chairs, and two guys sitting in their van out front of the store. I proceeded to move to the far side of them from the door, and the wait began. The minutes ticked by, and the line began to grow. By ones and twos the line eventually grew into 50 or more people, all enjoying the weather to get Wrath of the Lich King. Ner'zhul, Malygos, Draenor, Exodar; all these realms were mentioned for those in line close to me. Staff began to show up, and the numbers inside the store increased slowly.
As midnight grew closer we watched as they rolled up posters(giveaways) and chatted comfortably behind the glass. When midnight rolled around we all waited eagerly. As 12:05 came and went, we all grew impatient. 12:10 and people were getting mad since the 'staff' inside were clearly just chatting and stuff, not doing actual work. These folks stood around in a nice warm store and we shivered in the winter weather. Finally at 12:15 a staff member came and opened the door, advising us they couldn't start taking orders yet, cause their system wouldn't let them, but we could at least get in. We rushed in, the first 5 or 6 people, and were told to stay back from the registers.
Then aggravation turned to anger. The 'staff', or at least 5 of them, stepped up to the counter to pay for their own copies of the Wrath Collector's Edition. I watched, surprise on my face, as the realization that these were not staff, but friends of the staff, who got to bypass the line and get up first, and get out first, with their Collector's Editions. It made me wonder if these folks had to do anything by the 'rules' at that store. Once they were done, I stepped up and presented my receipt, knowing I would just sign a paper and walk out. The first sign of trouble was 'ok, so I am sorry to say but...'
That ended with the fact that, after raising the price on my 1 week before, they had raised it again. 'We only found it out a few seconds ago when our machines started taking orders' the staff member who originally took my $5 pre order back in September and who lamented then that the $70 price tag was pretty high. Interesting, I thought, that the registers were not live when we got in, and they didn't need to tell their friends that when they paid for their copies. What do I think? I think they knew, and tried to do a slow progression rise of the price, but I paid mine out too soon to launch, and that made me notice more.
I got mad, and asked them what they were doing, and after a few minutes the guy who took my 'final' payment a few days before looked at me and said, essentially, that's the price, if you don't like it, leave. I looked at him with anger, and told them that I would not be canceling my preorder yet. I stepped out of line, trying to think of who I could call at 12:20 AM to bring me $12, finding no one who was up, when one of those close to me in line, a guy by the name of Brian(server currently unknown) came back into the store and offered to use the last few bucks he had on his debit card to help me pay off my Collector's Edition.
I got my game, then I got his name and number, and have now made arrangements to pay him back. I came home, and recorded the Unboxing video you have likely seen if you read my blog, and began to install my game. The reactions and thoughts to my podcast rant have been overwhelmingly on my side. I thank everyone for their words of support. So where do I go from here? Well, once this is up, I will spend Monday ensuring that EB Games know of this bad PR, and that I will never be shopping at their places again. I have a new place to buy my Game Cards, and will happily give a more honest, upfront, less greedy, and more professional company. I hope that some, if not many of you all do the same. If this company is willing to screw people, then get mad when they react badly, being rude and unprofessional, well, then they don't deserve the business of any gamers who value these things. What do you all think?
I'm still waiting for the code off my Dad, myself. Hitting F5 gets tiresome after a while. /cry
OMG is that bad!
Haven't had the chance to listen to the rant on your podcast about this yet (but, believe me, I'm looking forward to it), but OMG is that bad customer service!
I gotta wonder if EB games failed to send out a memo, or something, to their workers, describing the right way and wrong way to handle this event. When my book store has had midnight sales of highly anticipated items, we were specifically told that workers, volunteers, and worker's friends could NOT purchase their stuff before the crowds. Totally not allowed! It was okay if friends and families of workers wanted to stand in line, like everyone else, and wait their turn, like everyone else, that was allowed. But, for EB games to go ahead and pre-select a "special" group that got the star treatment, and leave the actual customers out in the cold.. that's just wrong!
I also question why they did not know the price had jumped up. Again, was there no memo? This makes no sense to me. I cannot imagine that there was no one at EB games who knew that before the sale at midnight.
You might consider, (and by now, maybe you already have done this) calling their customer service line, and detailing your experience at this particular EB games. Let Corporate know about it. If Corporate sent out memos, and that EB games is ignoring them, then they will be in trouble about it (I imagine). On the other hand, if their Corporate knew about all that, and thought it was just fine.... doubt anything will change.
Either way... that just sucks.