Topic: Nintendo's answer regarding problem with SSB promotion

I've looked around and I'm sill not sure if this is the correct place to post it but I will do it anyway since I want people to hear this.
You might have heard about the Super Smash promotion for Platinum members of Club Nintendo. This consisted on the following: if you were Platinum last year and you opted in for the notifications sent by Club Nintendo, then you were eligible to get the exclusive demo of Super Smash.
Nintendo went ahead with this promotion without any kind of warning before, in other words, if you are a loyal customer and got to Platinum last year, but you don't want to receive Nintendo's spam emails, then you will absolutely not get the demo.
This happened to me, I got to Platinum last year and I opted out of the notifications. Just to clarify, in the Club Nintendo page there is a small description on what the notifications are, which is:

Keep this box checked to receive information about Nintendo products, services, and other related news. Uncheck the box if you no longer wish to receive such information from Nintendo.

Nintendo clearly states that the notifications are strictly reduced to information regarding their games, there isn't anything regarding promotions nor codes giveaways.
When I found out this I sent an email to Nintendo's support which was replied by an automatic email which said:

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED REPLY

Hello,

We are currently experiencing heavy email volumes. As a result, we have not been able to respond directly to your email. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. In an effort to reach out we are sending this message that addresses some of the more common Club Nintendo-related issues we see. Please check the list below to hopefully find yours.

If this message does not address the reason you originally contacted us, please respond to this email and your reply will be given top priority. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

FAQs:
You must complete the survey to get the Coins for having registered your product. You'll find the survey link in your To-Do list. If you don't see it there, log out of Club Nintendo and back in again. Be aware that registration surveys have an expiration date of seven days from the time that the PIN was registered.

You must register the PIN code to generate a survey. The PIN code is found on a special card that should be with your owner's manual. It is not the same thing as the serial number or UPC code.

PIN codes will accompany retail copies of Nintendo-published games. You can also find PIN codes in some games that come from other publishers (like Square-Enix, Namco, or Ubisoft), but most are not eligible to be registered at Club Nintendo. Games bought used are not eligible to be registered unless the PIN code is still in the packaging and has never been used by the previous owner.

There is no PIN code for a Wii U console. To register a Wii U you must link your Nintendo eShop account with your Club Nintendo account.

Did you lose your PIN code? Please call 1-800-255-3700.

Do you have issues with ordering Rewards? Please call 1-800-255-3700.

Can I have a Club Nintendo account if I don't reside in the United States or Canada? For a variety of reasons we can only allow U.S. and Canadian residents to participate in our Club Nintendo program. There are Club Nintendo programs available for residents of other countries, however. Here's a direct link to our global site:

http://www.nintendo.com/countryselector

If you downloaded software from the Nintendo eShop, Wii Shop, or Nintendo DSi Shop without first linking your account to your Club Nintendo account, it will not be registered to Club Nintendo. Please call 1-800-255-3700 to have us manually register them.

If you qualified for and ordered a physical Elite Gift and are wondering where it is, you should know that they will ship sometime later this year but before December 31st.

If you qualified for and ordered a digital reward (including Elite Gifts) and are wondering where it is, you will find the download code in either the confirmation email that was sent to you. You can also log into your Club Nintendo account and view your code in the "Order Inquiries" list under "Account & Coins."

Do you need to update your mailing address? Log into your Club Nintendo account and select "Account and Coins," then click "Change" next to where it lists your primary address. Don't forget to save your changes! This will work for anyone changing their address while waiting for their Elite Gift to ship.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.

For the people who won't read the email, the important thing to notice is that the email doesn't give any kind of answer to my problem, actually most people who got to Platinum last year problem.
When I read this, I got quite mad, but since I understood their situation I sent another email a couple days after, to wait for their support situation to normalize. My mail was the following:

This mail is regarding the Super Smash event. Last Nintendo year I got the platinum status but I had the notifications option off. Naturally I didn't receive the code but this is something which is quite unfair since I never opted out of receiving free codes or promotions. The notifications tab in the account settings of Club Nintendo says the following, and I quote: "Keep this box checked to receive information about Nintendo products, services, and other related news. Uncheck the box if you no longer wish to receive such information from Nintendo.". The details on the notifications box clearly says I opted out on information regarding Nintendo products, not codes nor exclusive access to demos of upcoming games. This is very unfair, had the details section of the tab have said that I would get any kind of promotions I would have never declined that. Futhermore, I sent you a mail about this, but I only got an automatized response, not helping me at all and making me waste my time.

To which I was replied:

Hello Derek,

Thank you for contacting us. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't receive a code for the Club Nintendo Super Smash Bros. Demo. I want to assure you that we can certainly understand your thoughts on this matter and want you to know how much we appreciate you sending them to us. I also want to assure you that your comments will be added to our records for the Club Nintendo Super Smash Bros. Demo and will be made available for other departments at the company to review and thoughtfully consider.
In addition, I need to explain that, since the Club Nintendo members who received this demo were randomly selected from a list that met all of the criteria, we aren't able to extend this offer to you. I know this isn't what you were hoping to hear and your understanding in this matter is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.
Tasha Greene

This response didn't help me at all, they never acknowledged any fault nor tried to reach a hand to those affected, again I'm not talking just for myself, this is for all people affected.
With this email in hand, I decided to send another one, stating that I wanted an actual answer, not just "we will not send you a code and we just passed this problem to another sector"
My third email:

I'm astonished by your attitude, I sent an e-mail regarding the Super Smash promotion for Platinum members and first I get and automatized e-mail as a response. I have to waste time rewriting the e-mail again and I get not answer regarding my issue. Not only the response didn't answer my question, but the support ticket is marked as "closed", without my consent. I'm not writing again my issue because I'm fed up with that, but I'll leave the question reference for you to look up: "140924-002504". To be clear, I want an answer other than: "I also want to assure you that your comments will be added to our records for the Club Nintendo Super Smash Bros. Demo and will be made available for other departments at the company to review and thoughtfully consider.". I've been treated unfairly thanks to the wrongly written description on your page and I merely got an answer.

Nintendo's response:

Hello Derek,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your feedback regarding the special Club Nintendo demo promotion. I will be happy to share your feelings with other departments. I can certainly understand why you would be upset about not receiving the promotional download code for the new Super Smash Bros. demo. These codes were provided in limited quantities to Club Nintendo users who met the qualifications at random. These codes also expired on 9/18/14. Since the nature of the promotion was limited, we are unable to offer you a download code. Please keep in mind that the demo is now available on the Nintendo eShop at this time.
As our answer is not going to change, any further emails regarding this topic may not be responded to.

Sincerely,

Nintendo of America Inc.
Laura Knotts

I never asked for a code, I sent the email for Nintendo to realize their problem and tend to their faithful community as they should, instead I get an answer defending their position by saying that the codes were sent in a random fashion. I'm complaining about their criteria of who entered the list and who didn't! I frankly don't care about getting a code, I want an honest answer, not a pat on the back.
I'm sorry if the post is too long but if you read it all I appreciate it and hope to find people who think like me. I ran out of options since support won't answer back. "As our answer is not going to change, any further emails regarding this topic may not be responded to." and I think a large community like Nintendo's fan can relate to me.
Thanks for reading!

....Is it really that biug of a deal? Demo isn't worth it anyways.

The platinum demo was lot better than the one available now. I know it might not sound like a big deal, but the thing is I was left out because I chose not to receive their spam email. It's their criteria which I find problematic, not their reward. On another note, the gold/platinum rewards were not good at all this year, all digital downloads. They are not taking care of the people who buy their stuff as well as Microsoft or Sony, specially Microsoft with the games with gold.

I can actually see your problem with this. They should have had multiple checkboxes for e-mails you want or do not want to receive from Nintendo, one for information about games and another for promotions like this. Sadly it seems the helpdesk isn't picking up on that, maybe because they've received so much e-mails complaining about not receiving codes that they aren't really reading them anymore.

(I've not thoroughly read through all of your post, so maybe I've misinterpreted some of it. )

Wouwter you got the gist of the post lol, yeah that's my thought exactly, but they were very uncooperative

I understand why you are frustrated but at the same time this isn't that big of a deal. the only difference between the normal Demo and the Special Demo is the number of uses. I don't think you will run into an issue of running out of uses on the normal Demo. The game comes out next week. I'm sorry you feel cheated but you are still able to download and play the demo. Maybe check mark that box in case something like this happens again.

Still my post isn't because I didn't get the special demo, my post is because Nintendo way of rewarding people who accept their spam plus their negative attitude. I'm angry because of how they acted, not what they gave away.

How do you know you didn't receive a code because you opted out for the email Newsletter? You act as if Nintendo said you'd receive the codes, only to not send them. Apparently, you simply weren't among the RANDOMLY selected members. Not too hard to get, right? And while the replies from Nintendo were long-winded, they stated just that. The criteria Nintendo used to narrow down the choices are none of your business, and needing to subscribe to the Nintendo Newsletter is more than likely just one of them.
I don't even understand what you're complaining about. This is neither unfair treatment nor is it bad support. Besides, your point is pretty much going nowhere. You were complaining about something you didn't even know much about, were you expecting them to let you in on their selection methods? You even got personal answers to your emails, what more could you possibly ask for?

Well I am not going to read all of your huge first post. So you don't like how they acted when you e-mailed them about how unfair it was that you didn't get a code? They have probably gotten thousands of e-mails requesting codes and your e-mail probably got lumped into a category of code request e-mails.

I consider the special Smash Bros. demo a Nintendo product, which falls into the categories listed.

/thread

The problem is that you're assuming you were intentionally left out of the demo promotion because you left that box unchecked when they're trying to explain that it was chosen randomly. Even if you had checked the box, you were not guaranteed a code after having reached Platinum status last year. It's the luck of the draw, and as they've also explained, the public demo is now available and any unredeemed codes are no longer good. I'm not sure what you want from them at this point, and I can easily see why they've deemed this 'closed'.

I'm guessing this'll be locked

as a representative on another company (xbox) I can see why you sent that e-mail
but at the same time I can tell you, there are more important things at hand...
the automated e-mails are that, automated, sometimes the agents don't even get to see customer's emails since they already got a response, yes, all emails must be verified, but it takes a lot of time (now consider the fact that thousands of people sent emails just because they did not receive the demo code)

by the response of the agent, I don't think they have the authority to send demo codes

and about the issue with the "rude response from Nintendo and only rewarding those who accept their spam" you need to understand something, nor Nintendo, nor any other company have powers to verify if you decided to accept or decline any kind of publicity, everything is automated, so it's a pretty standard program, maybe it was sent to you, but your specifications declined it, and so it got lost

one thing I can tell you, every email is verified, but we also (at least here: xbox) categorize emails via spam or important issues

what is important" e-labels, prepaid codes, repair orders,
what is spam? people requesting info regarding certain game (not created by Microsoft), people complaining in general about certain feature

it is impossible to answer every single e-,mail (that is why the automated service comes at hand) but when we receive more than 2 or 3 e-mails, we are forced to verify them, even so, they still might be spam...

now, "As our answer is not going to change, any further emails regarding this topic may not be responded to.", THIS, is pretty much something EVERY company does, you just took it personal.... it is a measure we have to take in order to avoid spammers or time waste, since there are more important factors.

You need to remember, this was something free, was a promotion, you did not pay for this, you did not purchase it, and a lot of people took it personal, even so, the demo was going to be released a week after... obviously every single e-mail regarding "i did not receive my code" was gonna be treated with an automated service

I honestly believe this was such a huge issue and such a huge thing regarding a small situation... oh and btw: "I'm astonished by your attitude".. believe me, they were astonished by how personal you took this situation...

It is JUST a demo. No more. No less. They said it was a random few that received the code. I didn't get one and I fit the criteria to have received one. So instead, at the time, I trolled around to find a code and found someone that was being generous and received a code from them. It was REALLY nice of the guy to send it to me but I wouldn't have been mad at Nintendo either way. TBH, I made a gaming friend from this and couldn't be happier. I GOT LUCKY! ......psst..... guys...... I'm NEVER lucky........ =)

Sorry that your upset about this. Hope your day gets better bro.

That's not the point though, because he didn't want to receive newsletters he didn't even have the chance to get a demo code. His complaint is valid, it's not that strange to not want an e-mail about everything Nintendo related but not want to miss out on these opportunities.

PS: Eleyson, a solution on your end might be to receive the newsletters, but mark them as spam. When you hear they send out demo codes or anything like it you can just check the spam box for the e-mail.

It's not like this is the first time they use this exact same system to deliver a special demo code.

You should've known by now that you must agree to receive their (very uncommon, if its like the main nintendo's and gamefreak's newsletters) promotional emails to receive your promotional codes.

@Wouwter: where in their official reply e-mail was it said that the OP had to have that box checked? i've been through it three times now and i can't seem to find it.

Nintendo said that to be eligible for the code giveaway, you had to have the notifications on. If you were platinum and you had opted off that, then you weren't eligible.
I'll say this again, I'm not angry because I never got code, I'm angry cause how they chose to distribute the codes!
Theblackdragon That's what I've already done.

so... then... if you cannot receive notifications... how did you wanted to receive the codes??

do you really believe every e mail is sent manually?

Nowhere in their reply, they've stated that elsewhere though.

They can have two seperate automated e-mail services, one for their news and one for their promotions (demo codes etc.).