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?