GAME is the biggest high street game specialist remaining in the UK, though it has a nasty habit of falling foul of loyal customers with some pre-orders. It's not always the retailer's fault, such as when Splatoon special edition pre-orders were stolen, but it's made a pretty poor error with Super Mario Maker pre-orders.
The retailer has accidentally charged pre-order customers up to five times for the same product, which in some cases is totalling nearly £235 (about $360). Your humble writer has fallen foul of this - five notification emails were received across around two hours. Having assumed it was a simple email system error, a total of five orders have subsequently been charged.
GAME has stated that it's dealing with the issue promptly, planning to refund exessive orders in the next 24 hours.
It's frustrating that GAME is yet to email customers directly around this issue, and hopefully refunds will be processed promptly.
Have you been affected by this or a similar issue in the past? Let us know.
Comments 83
I stopped using GAME for preorders a long time ago (unless in store) as they quite often mucked up. Days after release, cancelling, lorries going missing etc.
Wow that sucks,Glad I went with Amazon.
Hmm, my order said it was canceled due to payment problems (but i my account) , I ordered another. That said it was cancelled too and now both have been dispatched :/ I only went with GAME for the preorder bonus
@ianolivia
glad to see that amazing contribution :/
I've pre-ordered from GAME for Super Mario Maker and have received five emails. Am a bit worried now looking at the comments above
I won't be using them in future now.
I only got stung 1 extra time, thankfully it's early in the month. If it happened next week there wouldn't be enough in my account.
I stopped using them after the Splatoon disaster
Shame GameStation sold up those idiots, I used to enjoy having that option on the highstreet.
Oh God I am really worried about the pre-order for Project Zero (aka Perfect Dark) which is only available in Game. I hope they don't mess that up.
@FragRed Project Zero I ordered on the Nintendo store.
I got 4 emails and checked my credit card to find 4 transactions going through so I called them. During the 40 minutes I was on hold I got charged again. The lady on the other end of the phone was too nice to have abuse yelled at her. She promised me that it would be refunded soon. Feel sorry for those that have been stung with bank charges. Hopefully they will offer those compensation.
i am so glad i havent pre ordered from game in a while and started using ninendo offical store
How does something like that happen?
Got hit 5 times not a happy customer.
only got hit one time, on hold for 15 mins and on chat option online for 30 mins before speaking to someone, who confirmed i had been charged twice, only realised after checking my bank, ive found games customer service to be very lacking and i wont be using them in the future, only wanted it for the pre order bonus.
Wondered what was going on I saw money had been taken from my bank (only had the money for one) then got four emailssaying my pre-orders had been cancelled and one saying it was on it's way XD
Charged twice. Not happy
Welp, there goes the last of their Nintendo customers xD
I try to stick to the smaller companies nowadays. In the UK, Graingergames and thegamecollection are both cheap and reliable.
@NintendoLee Unfortunately they've been out of stock since the initial batch sold out and doesn't look like they're getting any more anytime soon. However if they do restock I'll stop my Game order and go to Nintendo.
A big blow to GAME, people must want those Badges
Well that's...unfortunate.
I got the full whack of five, so I'm not a happy bunny.
The thing is, I like supporting GAME as one of the last dedicated game retailers in the UK. It's the same reason I'll occasionally pay a few pounds more for a book at my local Waterstones store rather than buy from Amazon. I don't always take that route, but sometimes I opt to support businesses employing local people in shops etc.
They sure make it difficult to be loyal though, they've screwed up quite a few of my orders now.
They had better be prepared to hand out some loyalty points/gift certificates. I'd imagine quite a few people will probably suffer an overdraft fee from their bank...
I've been hit with this & am not happy. Got a cancellation email then an email saying it's been shipped then another cancellation email so I don't no if it's coming or not. Think I've only been charged 3 times so far. Hope they refund everyone really quickly as my dad isn't happy either.
Banks will pay back charges if you can prove the activity was not meant to happen.
In the past, I had 3 orders lost from GAME! Two of them were Pokemon X and Splatoon!
I wanted to order my Super Mario Maker + Artbook + amiibo from Nintendo UK Store as I wanted that nice yellow T-Shirt but unfortunately I was too slow so I got it from ShopTo.Net (this is were I usually get my games from!)
@ThomasBW84 About buying from GAME in-store... Yeah, I see your point but I really cannot justify spending £10, £5 or even more from GAME so that's why I buy all my games online, most from ShopTo.Net. I'm 16 and I don't have a lot of money, just about enough to get the games I want.
I know £5 more is not a big difference... BUT! Here's an example. If I buy 4 games from GAME, each costing £5 more, I could have saved £20!
@123akis Exactly I'm 15 and I have similar issues!
Whoops. I accidentally ordered this game twice. This meant I got 10 emails from them. I don't often get preorders from GAME, but I also suffered from the Splatoon truck getting stolen. From now on, I'm only preordering from Nintendo's UK store, ShopTo or Amazon.
@FragRed you propably mean Fatal Frame? If there was new Perfect Dark released i'd be more than happy to pre-order it.
Glad I cancelled my order with GAME and pre-ordered from Nintendo Store to get the t-shirt. After losing out on my squid amiibo when I pre-ordered Splatoon from them, I think I'll be giving GAME a miss in the future!
@ThomasBW84 I got the whole 5 taken too!
I told them I expect a PS4 for my troubles
Just wait when you find out that five copies have been shipped to coincide with the five charges.
I know this is a Nintendo zone but think of people pre ordering the insanely priced Uncharted 4 special edition for £99 Just for an extra steel book and a art book. If that screws up its £500. Got my pre order from Nintendo too with the tshirt. Not a big fan of GAME these days. Seem to be the UK version of USA's Gamestop in terms of reputation from customers
I've had a refund, then 4 cancellation emails, then a dispatch email. So...? Absolutely no idea whether the game is arriving or not though looks like there was only one charge as I used Paypal as my payment method, thankfully. I have to wonder how they can get things quite so wrong. I'll wait to see how this pans out, but go with another retailer if the game does not arrive. GAME over.
...5 times...I can tolerate the premium prices, the limited support for minor releases, the stench of BO and the appalling product knowledge, but through all my experiences shopping at GAME, this takes the biscuit. If i'm down £200 when i reach my bank tomorrow morning, with my MOT booked 9am, I am going to blow a gasket...
Haven't used game in years, I flip between Amazon, Shop to, the game collection and Very sometimes have good deals, for instance the mario maker and amiibo bundle is £45
Ouch... Hope all those affected get sorted quickly. I've a family and a mortgage and this would seriously hurt me if it happened, I know they'll refund and I'm sure any charges incurred will be reversed but in the short term? Like I said, ouch
@ThomasBW84 - I'm with you on that, supporting local stores rather than awful corporate companies like Amazon that seem to suck the life out of everything else. That being said, there are much better independant gaming stores out there than Game. Game is pretty poor and well over priced, especially in-store.
This makes me glad that I cancelled my GAME pre-order and went with the official Nintendo store! First Splatoon, now this... I'm still going to check my bank account to make sure nothing's been charged though.
GAME is an awful company. I've had soooo many problems with them. I hope they go out of business.
GAME for a laugh
@123akis Oh yeah, I totally understand, I typically use GAME's website more than store anyway, but I certainly don't always go for the local store option.
@MarvinTheMartian Indeed, though GAME is the only show in my town in terms of game retailers, no indies or competitors.
They sent me 3 cancellation emails, I was about to reorder then received a shipping email. They haven't taken payment so I have no idea if it is coming.
Ouch. Hope that everyone who got hit with this gets compensated accordingly.
@MarvinTheMartian GAME are not independent, they are a multinational chain who are just as guilty of squeezing the life out the high street as the likes of Amazon.
£235? How badly do they need to screw up?
That's got to suck for people who use debit cards. I actually did have it pre-ordered, but canceled it, as I'm going to get this game at a later date. Glad I did that.
I stopped using Game as soon as Nintendo Store UK came, as I've found that for new and upcoming games for preorder, it simply has better offers, and deals (+ more collectibles). Was luckily able to grab the Super Mario Maker t-shirt, amiibo, everything bundle before it sold out on Nintendo Store. I will say though, Nintendo Store struggles severely with the issue of scalpers.
Though I had to use Game for the Splatoon amiibo bundles (but they disappointed me with that too, with their whole lorry truck being ransacked and all that)
As for general ordering, I've found Amazon and the gamecollection to have better prices and better delivery options than Game.
Why are people even paying beforehand? I pay my pre orders when I pick them up at the store.
Damn, I'm really sorry for all those that had problems, hope it is solved soon! That amount of money is nothing to laugh at!
I suppose they'll reimburse people's overdraft charges to their bank accounts too...
GAME's online store is a joke. I have had too many failed orders with them that I no longer use them, unless it is a GAME exclusive. Having no high street competition has led to them becoming lazy.
Isn't GAME notorous for this kind of crap happening? Also... why are pre-orders taking money now? Canada, they charge you when the item is shipped or if it is in store (EB Games, not all stores are like this) you pay like a min of $5 for them to hold your copy and then you pay the rest when you pick it up.
@RadioShadow
That's what I am wondering about, especially if someone has a hefty overdraw fee.
Why are people waiting for Game to settle this? So they don't lose the one actual preorder? It should be relatively simple to contact your credit card company to fix such an obvious error. I've done it in the past though I am in Canada.
I wondered why had weird emails from them yesterday (Monday) I personally think that my pre-order has been cancelled, I can't log on to my account. Its saying my password is wrong, so I got a reminder to reset it and now that don't work either. I just hope whatever happens Nintendo Store UK don't mess this up as I might be left with no game on release day.....
I pre-ordered from game and Nintendo store as I wanted to keep one sealed.
Oh and if anyone pre-ordered from game can they please post on here when they get an emal from them saying it's been dispatched. Thank You,
I've just looked at my emails from earlier and I got five from them saying that the order was being processed!!
Did anyone get this on their emails as well?
"The store has encountered a problem processing the last request. Try again later. If the problem persists, contact your site administrator"
Looks like they are at it again. They took payment again this morning. That's 6 payments they have taken now. This is getting ridiculous especially as they are aware of the issue.
What the heck i received two of these, and emailed them but received no response, so im still getting the game then?
As i just ordered another elsewhere as my email said they had cancelled my order??
@Pj1 I had exactly the same
@Enigk Same
I just got another one through this morning as well. I suspect we'll have trouble contacting anyone at GAME HQ this morning while there is a champagne breakfast rolled out.
I've had 7 Emails, Totalling £328.93 so far.
I'm assuming I will get more today.
This is the first time I've had a Problem with GAME.
I just got a second one through this morning now, I received 5 yesterday so I have had 7 now
@Rhodrage Same
Did mine with Paypal. I got a cancellation email, then another saying congratulations order is complete but strangely in huge bold letters this email said it had a problem blah also. Went to game website and said my order is shipped. Only one payment has gone, I guess Im one of the lucky ones, feel sorry for all those that are stung right now.
I'm up to 7 now. What a bunch of jokers. There'd better be some nice compensation for this. I'm gonna struggle to pay bills if they clean out my account!
The next shock will be that they oversold the Amiibo bundle and can't fulfil all the orders
@Nintenjoe64 If that happens the proverbial brown stuff will final smash the fan.
I got an "order being processed" email then 3 cancellations then a shipped email. I paid by PayPal so dont quite know what's going on since cancellations said it was a problem with payment.
I've had two more "order processing" emails this morning which takes the total number of "authotised transactions" on my account to £328.93. NOT HAPPY.
@Pj1
I did.
I've had a mixture of emails from them. I had one last week telling me that because the launch was so bi, that they would be taking the money on Monday the 7th, and I would receive the game on launch day as planned. fair enough I thought.
I strangely got 3 of those emails, then I got 2 emails straight after cancelling my order for Project Cars on Wii U (to be fair I've been waiting for that one for a while now), and then I got 2 more emails saying that my order for 4 games that I already bought and received like Splatoon and Kirby are being processsed and ready for dispatch, and then another 2 telling me that they were cancelled!!!!
Totally messed up. Tried logging into my account last night after seeing this article, but it wouldn't let me, and now it's blocked me.
At the moment, I haven't been charged anything from them yet, but it is only Tuesday, so I have no idea whether I'm gonna receive the game or not now. I placed the order on March 9th too!!!
I'm slightly more fortunate than others, with GAME "only" taking four payments from myself, though two of those came to "surprise" me this morning; which makes me think the refunds have been postponed. Still only received two emails for some reason, mind you.
They just charged me another two times, that's 7 times now totaling £329...
@RadioShadow My debit card can overdraw actually (despite the whole point of debit cards being they can't) at a mere £15 per transaction. I discovered this ironically enough due to the Nintendo eShop (it has a daily spend limit but it still makes a pending charge if you try to spend beyond this, as a result I went below 0 on pending charges, since my actual account balance was never below zero I was able to contest the overdraft fees).
Of course had I ordered from GAME (I did not due to them not allowing gift cards to be used on pre-orders) it sounds like it would be harder to contest.
Charged twice more this morning, that's seven additional times now. I was on hold to customer support for over an hour just for them to say were sorry please be parient. A joke now at this stage for a major retailer.
@KMX85
I was on hold for 46 minutes, and was told "I'm afraid I'm not allowed to discuss it at this point".
However, with me being me, I persisted, got her to reactivate my account after they had suspended it as they are experiencing more problems with account logins and let me change my password, got her to confirm that my game had been shipped yesterday, and, because I was not sent an automated email to say to it had been shipped as per usual, I got her to write an email directly to me, confirming that they had shipped it so that I have something in writing now. She also said that she can confirm that they have requested the money from my account, to which I responded "yes, but how much, £33.99 or £333.99?". She said that the overcharge problems should be rectified now, and that I should only be charged the £33.99. Just have to wait and see now I guess.
Thankfully I had only 2 charges yesterday but they said there was a "problem". Frankly, I can't be bothered chasing it up so I'll just wait for it to be sorted out. If I end up with no game, well so be it. I mainly bought it on a whim and for the pin badges. If I loose out on them, c'est la vie. I'll just order a copy from my local indie retailer and request full refunds from GAME.
@GuruOfGreatness ah you had a lot better luck with them than I did, I can still access my account and my order says unshipped, at this point I'm not even bothered about the game, its the hole in my bank account that's causing me stress.
It's gotten worse, some people are getting charged for even more copies of the game.
@KMX85
Mine says shipped in my account, but, judging from the total mess that's going on right now, I still wanted something in writing from a member of staff saying that my copy had definitely been dispatched.
So glad that Game went under in Australia. They seem to want to make EA look like angels.
EB could just expand into the UK and make like bandits and clean up the market. Nobody seems to care about the gaming market, and Game least of all.
I've been charged 7 times!! I also setup an account for my wife to use, I wanted one to use and one to keep sealed. I was gonna cancel the second one but I noticed it came with the badge set, so I didn't bother.
I only really pre-order in store nowaways, the only things i pre-order now if any, are from amazon.
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