When Super Mario Maker arrived on 11th September, some UK gamers that pre-ordered the title with GAME experienced serious issues. The major problem was that some were charged up to seven times for the order and saw hundreds of pounds deducted from their bank accounts; this took quite a few days to resolve fully.
It was undoubtedly a mess and shook a lot of consumer confidence, damaging the store's reputation among those affected and others sympathetic to the issues caused. The retailer has now issued a formal apology to those affected, with this writer and many others receiving letters with a £10 gift card. The letter reads as follows.
As you have been affected by some billing issues on Mario, we wanted to get in tough to say sorry and that we made a mistake. We know this was wrong and have been working to ensure things go smoothly in future.
We wanted to send you this goodwill voucher of £10 which you can redeem either in store or online. We know you love gaming or were buying Mario as a gift. We're sorry if we caused you any inconvenience and please accept our sincere apologies.
The letter is signed off by Catherine Wilson, Head of Customer Service and Dave Perry, Director of IT.
It's certainly welcome that the retailer has worked to rectify the issue with a goodwill gesture; it's easy to be critical - and rightly so - when major issues like this happen, but it's also fair to acknowledge when an effort is made to apologise and offer recompense.
Were you affected by this issue, and what are your thoughts on this gesture from GAME? Let us know.
Comments 30
Nice, while I am not one of those who pre-ordered Mario Maker I am happy for the people who get their apology card you could say :+).
Actually charged for seven of the things (at the time), and this is it? The last 4 transactions with them have been a nightmare, I'm done with Game.
A way to try and not lose customers, interesting scam,I mean scheme
I hope they also paid for/corrected any fees customers received due to the multiple charges as well
Well, mistakes can be made, but there were more issues with pre-orders for the last wave of amiibo too following the problems with the release of Mario Maker. Same deal with customers being overcharged for multiple orders, £1000 in one case that I know of. Last visible store on the highstreet near me, but not getting any more of my online orders from there. Ended up with a duplicate copy of Mario Maker which I tried to return only to be told that there was "no mechanism" to deal with it. I'm going to need much more persuasion that systems are stable and working before I ever trust GAME again.
@Gerbwmu Hopefully yeah, I imagine anyone that got bank charges etc needs to contact them about that if they haven't done so already.
... and the apology to all of those who lost out on Splatoon when the truck got stolen is where....??
@Dogmansp So, they corrected the error, apologized and gave out free money as compensation and you're still angry...? I guess some people are greedy.
@Xobulo It is not GAME who should be apologizing for that and they did apologize saying they wouldn't be able to fill the pre-orders in the e-mail. Overall, that truck being stolen was out of their control and not caused by them so they shouldn't need to give compensation for that.
Honestly I would be a bit upset if this was all I got. If I got charged two or three times this would be acceptable, but I would expect more for the people charged seven or more times. And that isn't even saying the overdraft fees I expect were paid.
I would say a £10 gift card per additional charge, but I may be a bit excessive here. Another problem is that the game came out 21 days ago. Did they send that through the slowest mail possible? It feels like an additional insult to bring it up again by now, then again are all the charges reverted and fees paid?
@Xobulo
I don't know GAME (I live in the US), but didn't they offer a reduction on Splatoon for those who were affected? That problem wasn't entirely their fault.
I got mine. They charged me like 7 times for the game but were very quick getting it refunded, so it wasn't too much bother. Grateful for the card though!
Also, is it just me, or do the references in the text neglect to include anything remotely Nintendo? Except screeching tyres which could be applied to Mario Kart, it's all football, shooting, fantasy/sci-fi, RTS, etc. All they needed was to reference block smashing or goomba stomping. It's nice to feel included in mainstream perceptions of what gaming involves, ya know?
Oh, I look forward to receiving this when I get home!
"Sorry we charged £150 to your credit card and put you into your overdraft 21 days ago, here's a £10 voucher you can only spend at our store where almost anything you want to buy costs at least £30"
After speaking to trading standards during the disaster that was this Mario marker repeat charging and taking over 10 days to return the money to me, I was informed they were under no legal obligation to compensate for anything other than additional bank charges incurred (which they will after reciving proof of these charges). With that said and i understand these kind of mistakes happen, I don't feel it is enough to keep my custom but I appreciate their voluntary gesture of good will.
I feel sorry for anyone that was out of pocket on this. Personally I was charged twice myself, but, as sometimes seems to happen with my bank, it took several days for that charge to actually clear and appear on my balance. By that time GAME had already issued the refund, which appeared in my account immediately. So for a couple of hours I was actually up on the deal. Therefore a gift card when I get home would be a nice bonus.
I was charged 7 times and it didn't cost me anything. Can't complain about the voucher but it won't get me much in the way of decent Wii U stuff.
Nice, I'm glad to see them offering compensation, though I'll still be less likely to preorder stuff from GAME after this.
If anyone was left out of pocket from this and incurred bank charges, then contact GAME support and they should compensate for that.
They'll only compensate if you could prove that you would not have incurred those bank charges had their error not have occured.
Since they overcharged customers 6 or 7 times in some instances, that shouldn't be too hard to prove. It's good to see them reaching out tho and not waiting for everyone to contact them.
Unexpected and personally I appreciate the gesture. I understand others were worse affected then me but as stated above, they were no obligation to do anything
I was fortunate not to incur any charges but it has made me think twice before I preorder from GAME again. Otherwise everything else I've had from them has been spot on and I'm happy to have received my £10 gift card today.
@ikki5 Far from greed, before making assumptions thanks. It comes down to a service they clearly aren't up to any more, like I said this is the forth and last time I'll be stung by them.
When you have bills and other commitments to contend with and are charged an extra half-dozen times for anything, ten quid that can only used within their store feels more than a little backhanded.
That was unexpected and am really happy with the gesture
Not sure if this would have been enough compensation after all that mess, but I suppose it's better than a simple apology.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention I made hopefully my last video on all of this haha
I've not had mine ;(, although when I do it'll be my last purchase from game
A hollow gesture. £10 won't buy you anything in GAME, so if you want to use it you'll have to spend MORE money in there, which you wouldn't be spending anyway as most people have sworn off them by this point. It's win/win for GAME.
I got my gift card today also. The way I figure it I'll just use it towards an Amiibo at a GAME store. Granted they charge over the top for Amiibo (£15 I think) but it means an Amiibo at half the price.
Really I wasn't expecting any kind of compensation so I'll give them that much.
>£10 gift card
ok game
@Bulbousaur except for some preowned games
I was one of those charged 7 times but I was refunded straight away, same day. I thought this was a nice enough gesture on Game's part personally. I've been playing a lot of Shadow Of Mordor recently (but have the original release, not the newer Game Of The Year Edition) so I used the £10 to get the Season Pass for half price.
So guilty, they want to get in tough instead of get in touch, hahha.
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