Update:
Eurogamer has shared an update on this stock situation, with GAME's press office seemingly denying it was an issue while staff sources have stated that stock is gradually becoming available again (from today) in stores around the country.
Original Article:
It's easy to hit the wrong button with damaging consequences. Not so long ago your humble writer accidentally tapped a 'select all' button on a well known social media / career networking site and distributed over 300 automated messages - a "do you want to do this?" prompt before it happened would have been welcome.
It seems a store manager for GAME in the UK made a similar error with far worse consequences, inadvertently placing an order for the retailer's entire stock of Gift Cards. Amazingly this went through, so now there's a nationwide shortage as they've all gone to one location; the company is apparently now working to redistribute them nationwide. Until that happens some customers are being told they can't buy gift cards or trade in other games for store credit.
What's notable is not only the scale of the error but how it was interpreted - with good reason - online. When the company had financial issues and went into administration back in 2012 an early indication of its problems was in its withdrawal of gift cards; naturally some thought that was happening again.
Looking in from the outside GAME seems to be in reasonable health at present, and can presumably afford to ship thousands of gift cards back around the UK to its stores.
Still, be careful what buttons you click, ok?
[source eurogamer.net, via neogaf.com]
Comments 23
I work in a pharmacy and I had one coworker accidentally order 100 boxes of a particular drug. Cost us over $27,000 and we didn't know it happened until it came in. Fortunately we were able to send most of it back.
Slow news day then.
GAME sure are doing a lot better since they went into administration, even with some of their recent issues such as the Splatoon amiibo theft or the Super Mario Maker order errors.
I love GAME.
What's ridiculous is they let them order that much. There needs to be fail safes in place to not let that happen. A red flag should go up when a store orders an odd amount of anything. If I did that at my store I would be getting a call asking if it was an error.
I can't help but find this funny. I remember at work I ordered 500 lever arch files instead of 50 once. Good job it didn't happen nearer to Christmas.
If I order more than 9 of anything, ie go in to double digits, I'll get a prompt asking me to confirm.
"Sir, one of our stores just ordered our entire stock of gift cards?"
"I see no issue here, carry on."
I mean, surely someone should have looked at it and thought "that can't be right…" Somewhere down the line? Or is their process just that completely automated?
Ahaha that explains the out-of-the-blue invitation I got from you, Tom. Don't feel bad, though, I did the exact same thing about 3 months ago!
@617Sqn Cry me a river
I worked for a logistics company and sadly, stuff like that happened on an almost daily basis. Most business software is so freaking basic, that they rarely think about safeties like that.
No order should create a stock shortage without sending a warning or requireing a confirmation from a higher up.
In my opinion, its more embarassing that the order went through then the store manager slipping up. What kind of logistics partner do they have that happily send out the entire stock without giving them a call first and asking if this order might be false ?
Game, you're a card aren't you?
Ok, this is hilarious. It's a shame if any customer wanted to trade games for store credit, but otherwise I can't help but laugh.
Shame Game are having these issues. I just ordered Zelda: Triforce Heroes from their website, and it arrived today with no issues.
Of course I'll be careful when clicking on things.
[clicks on "Reply"]
... wait, when did I order 7600 suppositories?!
@AlexSora89 First, you'll doubt why you ordered so many. Then, you regret spending so much money in the first place. Out of morbid curiosity and because you can't return them, you try them out. Then, you blissfully celebrate that you ordered so many as you enjoy them. Finally, you regret you didn't order so many because you ran out.
You then accidentally order 500 dragon dildos.
@TheWPCTraveler
Well, that escalated quickly.
Oh well, these dragons won't find their cave themselves--okay, it started as an off-color joke, but now we're going off-topic.
Game's reputation is at an all time low, the company is laughable including there prices
I hate to be THAT guy, but high street game shopping was so much better before Game swallowed their competition and went to heck.
Heck I tells ya!
@Spoony_Tech
Used to work for this company when they took Gamestation over, GS's failsafe was everything was done via credit notes in real time on the till system, Game Retail Group? Their failsafe was/is you'd lose your job.
@ThomasBW84 you invited me on Linkedin! Is that what you'e talking about? Lol
I once accidentally ordered 3 pens at work instead of 2. That was 14 years ago, and we still laugh about it today. Good times.
People who buy gift cards need to suffer anyway.
@Dezzy why?
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