How GAME.co.uk screwed me over

A while back when the FFXIII-2 Crystal Edition was announced, I preordered my copy off the GAME.co.uk online website, who were offering pretty nice preorder bonuses. Big mistake.

Here’s my original preorder, from 25th October 2011.

 

Dear YJ

Thank you for shopping at GAME.co.uk. This email acknowledges that your preorder has been placed and will be processed in time to be despatch for the release date.

When your order is ready to be despatched we will email you again to let you know. In the meantime, if you have any questions about your order please contact our Customer Services team using the Online Contact Form or by phone on 0871 200 1221.

Order Number:151960244 Order Date:25 October 2011

Delivery Address:<address deleted> Delivery Method:Overseas DeliveryContact number: XXXXXXXXXXXX

Items Qty Unit Price Total PS3 FIN FANTASY XIII2 CRYE (PlayStation 3) Pre-order Available: TBD 1 £79.99 £79.99 Total cost of products: £79.99 Delivery charge: £4.95 VAT included: £14.16 Order Total: £84.94

Track your order

BILLING ADDRESS PAYMENT METHOD <address deleted> Card Type : MasterCard Card Number XXXXXXXXXXXXX Amount: £84.94 Separate Terms and Conditions apply for products ordered in-store or online. You can view these on www.GAME.co.uk, or ask for a copy in-store.Online Purchases:Thank you for your purchase, any Reward Points earned will appear on your account shortly Your preferred payment method will be charged prior to despatch of your order. In-store Orders: Thank you for your in-store payment, any Reward Points earned will appear on your account shortly. Once your order leaves our warehouse, we will send a despatch note to your specified email address.

Thank you for shopping at GAME.co.uk!The Customer Service Team GAME.co.ukPlease note: This email does not constitute confirmation of contract. Acceptance of your order and the formation of a contract between you and Us will take place when We send you an email confirming that the products you have ordered are being despatched to you, unless We have notified you that We do not accept your order or you have already cancelled it.

 

25th October…well before the game was going to be released in Feb 2012. All was good right? Well February 3rd came and went, and I started to get a little suspicious as to why my order hadn’t shipped yet. So I sent a “Where’s my order?” enquiry via their online customer form. This is what I got back.

 

Dear Customer

Many thanks for getting in touch.

Here at GAME we pride ourselves on our customer service and hope to resolve your query within 48 hours. Unfortunately however, we are currently in our busiest period and this has regrettably impacted on our average response times. Please bear with us as we are working hard to reduce response time, whilst maintaining the high level of customer support you expect from us.

We do have information about the more common queries on our website. Please feel free to check these out, as they may be able to answer your query:

Our full help section:
http://www.game.co.uk/en/info/Help

For questions about which countries we deliver to:
http://www.game.co.uk/en/info/Countries

Lost password?:
http://www.game.co.uk/en/info/Logging-In

You can track orders here:
http://www.game.co.uk/en/info/Order-Tracking

Don’t worry if these don’t answer your query, we will respond to your question or request as soon as we can.

Thank you for shopping at game.co.uk

All the best

David McGreevy
Head of Customer Service
http://www.game.co.uk

 

Yep, generic auto reply bullshit. What’s worse is that shortly after I got this generic email, my order was cancelled by GAME:

 

Dear {firstName}

This email confirms the cancellation of the following items:

Your recent order has been cancelled, if you have made a cancellation request please accept this email as confirmation of your request.If you have not cancelled your order there may be a problem with the payment for your order, please contact Customer Services using the Online Contact Formor by phone on 0871 200 1221 who will be able to advise you further.Your order may have been cancelled if the product you have ordered has become unavailable, please check GAME.co.uk for availability.

Order Number:151960244Order Date: 25 October 2011

Cancelled Items Qty Unit Price Total PS3 FIN FANTASY XIII2 CRYE (PlayStation 3) 1 £79.99 £79.99 New total cost of products: £0.00 New total discounts applied: £0.00 New delivery charge: £0.00 New VAT included: £0.00 New Order Total: £0.00

BILLING ADDRESS	PAYMENT METHOD
<address deleted>		Card Type : MasterCard Card Number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
		New Order Total: £0.00

Refund Amount:
We have not debited this payment method – MasterCard – XXXXXXXXXXX

Refunds issued to a payment card will take a few working days to appear in your account.

Thank you for shopping at GAME.co.uk!The Customer Service Team GAME.co.uk

 

What, the, fuck. Again, I send another enquiry via their online form asking them why my order was cancelled.

 

Hi YJ,

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to hear of the problems with your order.

I understand that the product you ordered was showing as being in stock when you placed your order, but after processing it was found that the product was out of stock and your order was cancelled. We have recently made some changes to our website to improve our service for customers, but unfortunately this has caused some minor problems which we are working to resolve.

I apologise for any frustration this may cause and would like to assure you that we will be back to normal service as soon as possible.

Regards,

Andy M

The Team at GAME

What a load of crap! Given that I ordered soon after the CE appeared on their site, I’d have to say it’s pretty unlikely that they ‘ran out of stock’ and more likely that they just screwed up.

Given the Crystal Edition itself seems to be doing rather well, selling out everywhere and fetching nice prices on eBay, I’m pretty pissed off that I’ve missed out.

TLDR, if you’re looking to order from a UK based retailer online, don’t use GAME.co.uk.  Their website and service is plain rubbish, and their customer enquries are answered by bots. Take your business to Zavvi instead!

If you’ve been burned by GAME.co.uk before, or find this helpful, please retweet and spread the word so more people don’t make the same mistake!