Gaming Support

[Pudgyboy2]

This has been a nightmare. All I wanted to do was pre-order Rayman Origins and get the free pre-order slap bag for my son. Easy enough. I go to the store. I hand them my bank card and I am finished..... I wish! This is where the fun begins.

I walk into the store and explain to them everything I want to do in detail:

1)I want to put the$5 down and use a $10 Reward Zone certificate when the game arrived.
2)I wanted to use my bank card not my BB card to purchase it.
3)I wanted to pick it up at the store and not have it shipped to my home on release date.
4)I wanted to receive the promised Rayman Slap Bag

1) They charged me the full $64 up front and didn't use the Reward Zone certificate. (they told me when the game came in to come back to the store and they would give me $10 cash instead.)
2) Even though I give them a bank card they charge it to my BB card.
3) After they ordered it, they told me they could not ship it to the store
4) I have my fingers crossed

Now I get an email that the game is back-ordered. How do you back-order a pre-ordered game the day it is released? They have 8 copies in the store I pre-ordered it at and another 5 at the second closest store. I end up having to call the 888 number 3 times. The first lady tells me when you pre-order a game, that only guarantees you will receive the game sometime in the future. There is no specific time you will receive it. This means any person can walk in off the street and buy the game faster than a person who pre-orders it 2 weeks ahead of time. If this is true, there is no reason to pre-order it. I saw this in a Seinfeld episode  - "You know how to take a reservation, you just don't know how to keep a reservation"

After the second call, I finally talked to a supervisor. She says the SKU number shows that the stores do not have any in stock and the warehouse did not have any either. I told her I did not believe that and bet if I got in my car I could find 5 games in the store nearest me. I was wrong there were 8. After 1 hour on the phone, she realizes that both stores nearest me have the game in stock (5 in one 8 in the other.) So she switches the game to store pickup ( which the store told me was impossible).

I go to the store to pick up the game and tell them once again I have a $10 Reward Zone certificate. Can you guess what happened? They did not use the $10 reward. The guy says that is fine, all he has to do is cancel the order and reenter it with the $10. I said, "wouldn't that stop me from getting the slap bag?" He said yes it would. I told him that was the only reason I was pre-ordering it in the first place. In stead of just giving me $10 of the $64 I just spent, he told me just to go back home and come back when I receive the slap back - then they would refund my money and sell me the same game again giving me the $10 back. I told him it would cost more than $10 in gas to do that. Needless to say BB does not care. He wouldn't even call a store manager over to set things straight. He said he called a store manager to ask what they can do, but he would not do it in front of me. He went to a the back room to call. Needless to say, he was probably faking the call just to shut me up and send me on my way and did not want me to hear what was being said if he was talking to someone.

It is better for them to act as if they are superior to the customer than to try and help. It wasn't like I was asking for something that was not promised. I don't see how wearing a blue Izod shirt in a retail appliance store adds IQ points. They think "CHUCK" is the real world and there is a spy headquarters in the basement.

I know I saw this in an Abbott and Costello movie before but it isn't as funny when you have spent 2 hours in the store twice and 3 hours on the phone and then are asked to come back later.

In the end - here I sit with the Raymon game, an unused $10 certificate, and waiting to receive a slap bag so that I can go back to the store to get my $10.

Before I go, I think I will use the slap bag to release my aggression But it is not Rayman's fault !!

[Mariel-BBY Retired: Community Connector]

Hi Pudgyboy2,

Thank you for sharing your situations with preordering  Rayman Origins. I must admit, this is definitely a complicated situation that should've been a smooth transition to begin with. It sounds like, rather than preordering the game in store, they placed an order for you, which caused you to have the charge authorized right away. I see that your Best Buy card got involved for some reason, but that the correct card was charged in the end. The store should've added that certificate to your order, but it sounds like there was some miscommunication, or lack of communication at all, to you and how your preorder was being processed.

Typically, when you place a preorder, we only ask for the $5 down and then when the game is released, the $5 is used toward the purchase of the game and you are free to use whatever tender you like (RZ certs/Giftcards/CC/Cash). This is probably how you envisioned the transaction to go, and for whatever reason, it went strangely awry.

Since the store made an order for you for shipping, your game was going to come from our Bestbuy.com warehouse and I see that even now, the game is still backordered. However, I also did a search using my zipcode to show that the game is available to pick up at the store down the street. Most of the time, our inventory checkers are pretty accurate, but sometimes with new releases of products, the system doesn't accurately reflect the inventory that the store has. Preorders are usually set aside and you would have up to 5 days after the game releases to pick it up before the store could release it back for non-preorder people to buy.

When you picked up your game, you were fulfilling an instore pickup from an order, and the store would normally not be able to manipulate or change the tender at that point. Had they cancelled the order, you are correct that it could've potentially messed up your slap bag. But, the store should've been able to place the order correctly from the beginning to include the certificate, as it cannot be added after the order is ready for pick up.

It's disheartening to hear that the store might've not been willing to help you. It does sound like you might be able to get the the $10 back, even though it would cost you another trip to the store. I see that your slap bag has shipped, and hopefully you will be getting it soon. I truly apologize for all the hassle that you may have been put through. Please know that I have enough information to inform the appropriate parties about what happened so we can be sure that your experiences are better for you and all our customers. If I've misunderstood anything or if you have any other concerns, please don't hesitate to post them or send me a private message. I will do my best to address them.

Thank you again and I appreciate all your comments.

Warm regards,

[Paybizzy01]

WTH??