So..
I get off work at 4:30, make it to the GS I pre-ordered Fragile Dreams at by 5. I wait in line, behind 1 customer and one friend of the clerk. The clerk, Antwon, seemed like a nice guy. Sounded friendly, poked fun at his friend for owning a PS3.. hell when I finally got to the counter and was asked my phone number (he noticed my receipt in hand and knew what I was there for.. he's got MAD skillz) and saw I pre-ordered a Wii game, his friend was like "whats that? i never heard of it" and the dude replied something like "that's cuz it's not a whack PS3 game like the one you be playin' haha"
After some banter with his coworker, Jasmine I believe (I called the store prior to my departure from work to ensure it'd be there and not waste my time if it wasn't), I overheard that there were only 4 copies total in the store; 3 preordered (assuming) and one he mentioned was going to be "gutted", which I'm sure means it'll be the open display box game, the martyr of GS games.
I proceed to pay, he gives me back my change and highlights the "
www.tellgamestop.com" part of my receipt and tells me to have a good day. I'm missing something. I decide to play stupid and say "Isn't there a soundtrack that's supposed to come with this, because I pre-ordered?" and he promptly replies "No, not that I'm aware of". I follow with "hm.. funny, I could have sworn there was a pre-order bonus for this game.." to which he answers "well, here let me give you the store number so can call us up and find out.." I interrupt with "oh, I should have the store number on my receipt.. don't worry about it" and walk away.
Once outside, I call up my friend Carlos, the inside man I have at GS to vent to as well as try to find out if he knows if they ever received the soundtrack (we had a conversation about it a few weeks ago when he tried to make me pre-order Monster Hunter Tri just to get the demo...) AND find out when the manager would be in to call and vent to him too. He wasn't much help, but did say he'd be working the night shift and if he saw anything he'd lemme know. Good man, when he wants to be.
I get back to my car, call up another nearby GS that I've never really had a problem with and a young kid answers, unfortunately I didn't catch his name. I ask him if he knows anything about a pre-order bonus for Fragile Dreams, and guess what he does.. HE CHECKS HIS FUCKING COMPUTER OMGOSH! "Yeah, looks like there's a soundtrack, 'Moonlight Tracks', that comes with the game if you pre-order" Thank you. That's all I needed to hear. I did ask him if it'd be possible for him to supply me the number to a district manager (general manager woulda been too far?) and the poor kid sounded so nervous and confused. I reassured him I didn't want to complain, about him or his store and told him straight up "..it's the store in White Plains I have a problem with, you guys are fine. You gave me the info I needed and I don't think I've ever had a problem with your store". He sounded relieved, put me on hold and came back with an 800 number.. bah, Customer Service number of course. I knew I wouldn't get a direct number, but that just proves this kid knew how to do his job; if a customer wants a district/general manager phone number chances are its bad and if you give it out, your store manager will KILL YOU.
I call up the number given to me [800.883.8895 for future reference] and within a minute I reach a woman by the name of Tammy, nice gal. To sum up our conversation, she took down (what I'm assuming is the store # from my receipt) and some other information, of mine, and told me she'd pass everything along to their Promotional dept and they'd try to mail me a copy of the "physical" pre-order item but due to limited quanities I might not get one, they might send coupons or some crap in the mail. Before ending the call, I made sure to reiterate my initial problem for the call;
it wasn't that I didn't receive the soundtrack essentially promised* to me, it was the fact that when questioning the store employee about it he:
A. (Claimed) He didn't know what I was talking about.
B. Had a snarky tone.
C. Didn't bother verifying the information.
Especially when I call up another franchise of theirs not even a mile away and the employee I reached there took initiative and looked it up on his work terminal and was also helpful with an out of the blue request for their district managers phone number when he knows he did nothing wrong.
After that summary, I made sure to give kudos to the GS that was helpful and if possible to pass that along to their higher-ups. Now I'm home, with an unopened copy of Fragile Dreams that I will return should this issue not be resolved. I should hear something via email in 24-48 hours, according to Tammy, and have 30 days to return this unopened product. We'll see what happens..
*I'm sorry, I don't buy into the whole "while supplies last" bullshit. I remember when there used to be limits on pre-ordering games and if a pre-order gift was announced, you were garaunteed to get it as long as you picked it up within the timeframe alotted for the store to hold your pre-order before putting it on the shelf for anyone else to nab, that is unless an asshole employee took it for themselves before day 1 (like what happened to me back when I pre-ordred OoT and didn't receive my; tshirt, callendar, poster..).
I pre-ordered this fucking game 13 days before it was released, I shouldn't be allowed to do that ESPECIALLY if a gift is promised. Pre orders are supposed to give retailers data on how many copies of a game to orderso they can have X amount for the people that pre-order and X amount for shelf space. Once you have that data, and know X amount of people have already put $X on a game you pass that along to the game publisher who can manufacture X amount of the bonus, its not that fucking hard is it?
Instead of a gift offer being used as an incentive for a gauranteed sale (assuming that if you're interested enough in a game to pre-order it, you're definately gonna buy it), GS (at least, I've never heard of bonus offers from other retailers) use it to dupe customers. Thats my opinion anyway, because as a former manager of a retail chain myself I know the importance of customer service/satisfaction and making your entire staff aware of any and all promotions that drive up business. Instead of someone walking in to GS and suggesting a pre-order to a game with a gift to entice them, they outright HARASS you in to pre-ordering, ANY new game with or without a bonus gift, and the customer isn't aware a gift even exist either because the management did a shitty job in informing their employees, or the employee themself is too stupid to remember, or even worse - they think if they seal a pre-order without informing of the bonus, they can take it for themselves and sell it on eBay down the line.
Oh and the fact that GS uses their pre-order data to bea cheap and only order a minimum of games is bullshit too. I'd be really surprised if there were 2 other people in my area that pre-ordered this game, and the remaining three copies were all they ordered to fill their shelves. Though at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if they really did only get ONE shelf copy in, open it to put the box on display and sell the disc as "new" even though their employees are allowed to take the game home and play it, because any time I go in to a gamestop I see the (relatively) good games all on the Used shelf, while all the ones marked "new" are things like Imagine; Babiez Party..
/rant
Topic: So nobody likes GameStop? (Read 242747 times)
