For those who were unaware, a few months ago, Best Buy was offering a free upgrade to the Collectors Edition of the game Dark Souls if your pre-ordered the game (See the article here: http://kotaku.com/5800063/the-dark-souls-collectors-edition-might-be-for-you-softer-players).
This seemed like a great deal, for the price of the game itself, I should have gotten a special metal case for the game, a game guide, a game art book, game soundtrack, and a bonus making of the game DVD.
After getting to the store, I waited 15 minutes as the customer service person dealt with someone who was in line ahead of me. Around this time, shortly after my arrival, another guy sort of stood outside of the line, but apparently was waiting too. After dealing with the one person ahead of me, she asked the person who should have been second to step up, where he corrected her saying I was next, and she refuted this claim saying he was next in line. Fine, ok, whatever, moving along. Now I said earlier I should have received the limited edition, because even though I placed this order, and with no warning of first come first serve, or advanced notice, I arrived today only to be handed a regular version of the game. Confused, I inquired as to if it was the special edition (which it plainly wasn’t) and she checked the game, and the order, and realized the mistake. After contacting the video game department, she could only tell me that they had no copies of the Collector’s Edition of the game, nor would they be receiving any copies. At this point I was slightly annoyed, and asked what we were going to do here. Her supervisor at the time showed her some paper that explained the situation, and she told me at this time she could offer me a $20 gift card.
Here’s where things just went from a slight downhill into a runaway train situation. Because I had placed the order online, she stopped short of giving me the gift card and told me I would need to call customer service in order to receive the card. So, getting angry, I went home and hoped to settle it over the phone. I get home, make the call, and begin the battle to get my gift card. After two transfers and around 20 minutes of “holding,” I was finally in touch with someone who explained that they had over-sold the pre-sale Collector’s Edition, and did not have any way of fulfilling the order. She said I should have been notified, and I explained that I received no phone calls, nor any emails aside from a confirmation of the sale, and an email saying my order was ready for pickup. She then told me I would be getting a $20 gift card, and an additional $10 for the troubles. I found it acceptable, slightly disappointed, but was happy to be getting half of what I spent back.
So I get transferred once again (what a surprise) and have to explain it all again to someone, who then places me on hold (again) to call the store location from which I picked up the copy to confirm this all. After 5 minutes or so, she confirmed this, and then told me I would be getting a $20 card, to which I replied I was promised a total of $30. She then stated she could not do that and would have to speak with her supervisor, and in turn said she could only give me a $25 gift card (because that extra $5 would have broken Best Buys bank). At this point I had been trying to get closure here, and as I was tired from trying to get this all done for 45 minutes, and had other things to take care of that night, agreed to take the $25 and leave it at that. Here’s where the last slap to the face came: I was told it would take a few weeks to receive the gift card. I abruptly ended the phone call, because at this point I was livid, and it was no fault of the Best Buy employee, and as unacceptable as the situation was, cursing out the employee wasn’t going to do me any favors.
Was it childish of me to get angry over this, I don’t know, I’m torn. It’s a small amount of money, but here’s the thing. I felt this was a legitimate Collector’s Edition. Having beaten Demon’s Souls (the spiritual prequel to Dark Souls), I had been eagerly anticipating this game. The deal from Best Buy was amazing, and was the only reason I bothered to order the pre-sale. For them to not notify me of the situation ahead of time, or to warn people that it was a first come first serve basis was a piss poor business decision. To not offer the money as a refund, and as a gift card is insulting. Not only did you fail to keep up your end of the bargain, you feel my compensation should be to get to spend $20 more at your store, that’s pretty shady if you ask me. This whole situation has cemented the fact that I will never place a pre-sale order with Best Buy again. In fact, I will choose to go to Game Stop for all my game sales now, and hell, I’ll go to Walmart before I go to Best Buy now.
Worse yet, this kind of put the damper on my eagerness to play the game. It’s left a bad taste in my mouth. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eventually pop that bad boy in and enjoy the hell out of that game. But for there to be announcements that pre-orders would be collectors editions, but with no announcements of limited quantities, that kind of sucks and puts a negative spin on this whole deal. If that had at least given me warning, I could have cancelled the order and tried to get the same deal elsewhere.
I sent Best Buy’s customer service a message online as I was tired of sitting on the phone last night, explaining this whole situation, and asking to be contacted to further discuss it all. As such, I’ll reserve to leave this here: If Best Buy redeems themselves, I’ll be sure to tell all of you. I’m not holding my breath though.
