Amazon Pre Order Problems - Dawn of War 2

[SegaAges]

Has anybody else that has pre-ordered their Dawn of War 2 from Amazon gotten it yet?

I got no e-mail or anything that they got backordered on pre-orders, and now the estimated time for this is March 6th for its arrival.

They didn't notify me or anything, they actually waited until I noticed that I didn't get it, e-mailed them and complained, that they told me that their automated system must have some problems, and that is why I didn't get notified on a pre-order.

Wow, I never pre-ordered something and had that pre-order put on backorder, and especially from Amazon. Their e-mail back to me basically says, "Well you can cancel your order, or you can wait longer"

If it wasn't for the pre-order stuff I was getting I would drive to Best Buy right now and pick it up since apparently Amazon can't make a phone call to the distributor and say, "Hey, we have 125,000 preorders (or whatever), are you guys going to be sending us that many?"

Has anybody else ever had this problem with pre-ordering from Amazon?
I will be honest, that is the crappiest thing I have ever had happen from am Amazon order, as they are always on the ball, even with pre-orders (I have pre-ordered some pretty AAA titles from them and gotten them fast).

Makes me not even want to shop at Amazon anymore dudes. It sucks just because I am a web programmer, and I have code implemented in my online store that is not even up yet that informs customers if something goes into back order. I had to wait until the day after the item was supposed to arrive, e-mail them asking where my game was, and actually e-mail them twice, to get them to even tell me that the game was on back order because they took more pre-orders than copies of the game they were getting.

Now, I can see a pre-order hitting back order, which is fine. I can see people getting so many pre-orders that they need to fullfill them as a first come first serve basis, but what sucks is the fact that I am actually working to get them to even tell me where the hell my game is, which is on back order, and it took me 2 e-mails to them in order for them to even tell me that is was on back order.

The worst part was that it was just sitting in processing status until my first e-mail. Strangly enough, after that e-mail (a day later than expected arrival time), I got e-mailed back, and then it went into "getting ready for shipping" status. I e-mailed them again because the ship date got pushed back by 2 WEEKS, and then asked them what the hell the deal was. If it is getting ready to get shipped, that means you are getting ready to ship it, not you are changing the status on a backorder so I will stop e-mailing you. Then, I e-mailed them again, and that is when it took them literally 3 4ths of an e-mail down to tell me that it was backordered.

Yeah, they can e-mail me pretty fast when I actually e-mail them (that day), but no automated backorder e-mail from one of the biggest retailers online? Total weak sauce.

Just in case anybody else is in the same boat, you might as well cancel your amazon order and walk into any best buy since they have it (unless u want the pre-order stuff like I do).

Wow, I guess that ends my shopping with Amazon, that was horrible that it took me e-mailing them twice for them to even say it was backordered, but on their site, it says in stock.

[unwinddesign]

Amazon is pretty slow for new release games. Unless it explicitly states it will be delivered on release date, you could get it any time within the next few weeks. If you have Prime, you could still be waiting that long. They just suck with that shit, for whatever reason.

If the game is in stock and the same price, just cancel your pre-order and re-order it from the game's page...it'll be shipped soon thereafter, most likely. They probably don't have your preorder bonuses -- they almost always send them out late. I got my Gears of War 2/Fable 2 $10 off gift cards like three weeks after I got the game. BS. Why this is, I don't know. Amazon has to fix this shit, especially given how big the video game market is getting.

I should say that Amazon is great with everything else. The video game peeps be sleeping on the job, methinks...

[SegaAges]

Yeah, the only reason why I havent cancelled my order is because of the pre-order stuff.

Also, now I have shipped stuff personally and gotten things sent to me through USPS, which is what they sent it through.

I finally got a confirmation 2 days ago with a tracking number, but it has yet to even be scanned for it being shipped.

I did not realize that if you already have a tracking number, that it will take more than 2 days after they have the tracking number to even send it.

Honestly, I have no clue how long I am going to have to wait, and if I had not e-mailed them, I probably would still be waiting for it to even ship (or have them claim to ship it, when in fact it has not shipped at all).

It is pretty ridiculous that in order to get Amazon to send me stuff, I need to complain 3 times in 1 day, and even then, they still don't send it when they say they are going to.

I have no clue who else pre-orders from there, but apparently I learned my lesson, and that is that Amazon is incredibly horrible for pre orders on games and nobody should ever get a pre order from them.

[Nesmaster]

Tell me about it. I preordered Sonic's UGC for the 360 on Feb 2nd. The release date was what, Feb 13th? They just now got around to shipping it yesterday. Terrible. Ended up costing $22.31 or something which is better than the $39.99 everywhere is asking in Canada, otherwise I'd have cancelled and just bought it locally.

Oh, and apparently the microsoft points card I ordered was "delivered" to me Feb 20th, but I have yet to see that come in my mailbox...

[SegaAges]

EDIT: now for the juicy information. Time for some e-mail QnA. Let's see what they say, shall we:

Here is the response from the first e-mail I sent (I did not keep my first one I sent on record):


Hello from Amazon.com.

We're sorry for the delay in shipping the order you placed on February 02 2009 11:54 PST (Order# ...). We have good news -- the order is now being shipped! You should receive a shipping notification shortly, within the next business day, for the following item(s):

"Warhammer Dawn of War II"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018KM6GM

The shipping notification will include an updated estimated delivery date and tracking information if it's available.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this delay.


Cool. They are shipping it. They are shipping it a day after it is supposed to arrive, but it is getting shipped.

Readup up kiddies. Remember, not even a mention of backorder yet. Maybe I should say something to them so that I can at least ensure it is because of backorder, and not some messed up fluke.

This is what I sent them:



I am sorry for being upset, but I assumed that pre-ordering meant that I would not have to worry about my items hitting a back order, which is obviously what happened since it has not even shipped yet, and the estimated ship date was yesterday (2/23/09).

This is very upsetting to me, as I have pre-ordered items in the past without a hitch. I have purchased items before (I ordered a new power supply to go along with this game), and now I see that this has not shipped.

This is not cool. Where is my game and why is it on backorder?
There is no other reason to explain why this game has not even shipped yet outside of it being on backorder.

Honestly, I hate to be upset, but I chose to pre-order this game to ensure that I would get a copy, not worry about it going on backorder (the point of pre-ordering is to get it without worrying about backorder).

I am sorry, but I need assurance that I am getting my game soon, as this is seriously unacceptable. I have not even gotten an e-mail telling me why the item has not shipped. I have not gotten an e-mail saying why this game has hit backorder. I had to check to see why it is a day later than the estimated ship date, and then I see it has not even been shipped yet. Seriously. If there is a problem with the order, you need to inform me, because now I feel hustled.

I have to actually contact you guys to ask you why my pre-ordered game has not even shipped yet. That should say something in and of itself about why I am upset.


Here is there response:


Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.

We are very sorry for the delay in completing your order.

I have reviewed your account and can see that this experience has been far less than positive. We strive for convenience and efficiency at Amazon.com, but in this instance we have fallen short of our goal. I'm truly sorry that your impression of doing business with Amazon.com has been so negative.

I can assure you that we are working hard to obtain this item for you and we will ship it as soon as we are able to obtain it. This means that we will ship the item as soon as we receive it from our suppliers even if the estimated ship date has still not arrived.

Please allow me to explain that sometimes unexpected fluctuations in supply can add time to our original availability estimate. We have learned that "Warhammer Dawn of War II " is now back-ordered, and our supplier has not been able to let us know exactly when they expect to have more in stock.

Normally what ever changes happen regarding the order, we will notify everything to the customer. But in this case due to some technical error, you were not notified of this change in availability. I really apologize for this inconvenience.

However please note that upon checking your order and can confirm that we are currently preparing it for shipment.

If you have not received a shipment confirmation by February 26, please contact us again by visiting the URL below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/contact-us/wheres-my-stuff.html/

Further please note that since it is a pre-order item,you were expecting the arrival of this item at the earlieast to your address. Please allow me to explain that as a retailer, we depend on manufacturer for the item price and inventory.

Since this item is on great demand, we have received many numbers of orders and once we contact the manufacturer, they ran out of supply with this item.

Also note that when you placed your order, we believed we had access to more copies and we accepted all of our customers orders. However after this item has been released, all of our distributors and manufacturer have rapidly sold out of this title.

Major distributors have thousands of copies on order from the publisher, awaiting the next print run. As soon as more copies become available, we'll be able to fulfill outstanding orders.

I apologize for any inconvenience caused to you in this regard.

Also note that our ordering procedure will work on "First Come First Served" basics. As a result of this as soon as we start receiving inventory from out manufacturer, we will be able to fulfill your order at the earliest.

If the above mentioned solution is not acceptable and if you'd rather cancel your order, I understand. To cancel your order, go to the URL below and click the "Need to cancel an item?" button:

...

If you have further questions, feel free to visit our online Help pages:

http://www.amazon.com/help

In addition to a wide selection of items, one of our aims at Amazon.com is to provide a convenient and efficient service; in this case, we have not met that standard.

Again, I am truly sorry that we were not able to fulfill your expectations for this level of service. I hope that you will give us another opportunity to prove the quality of our service to you.


Ok. Halfway through the e-mail they say that it is on backorder because of an unknown "fluctuation". What type of fluctuation could happen when they know the amount of pre-orders. A simple call to their supplier to ensure they have this would have worked. Also note that they were like, "Oops, my bad, we don't have it, oh well, guess you need to wait longer, but in the meantime, go ahead and keep shopping with us"

Now, the third and final e-mail I sent to them that day (yeah, I was pretty pissed):



The only reason I am even keeping this on file is because of the pre-order "goodies".

Wow, a pre-order that is going to take 2 extra weeks.

I have never had worse service. All I get are appologize. I pre-ordered well enough into the past so that Amazon could have at least made a phone call or 2 in order to ensure that had enough.

Since it is a pre-order, I still get to wait. I have never had service this bad in my entire dealings with Amazon.

You know, at least some overnight shipping since it is coming from you guys would be nice since this is a pre-order, but instead, I get a nice "well, you can either cancel your order, or just wait longer" e-mail.

I have not been given a reason to even stay a loyal amazon customer anymore, and when you say you strive to give us good support, I have not seen it outside of some copied and pasted stuff from the e-mail rep.


Here is the response I was given for that:


I have checked your order ... for the item, 'Warhammer Dawn of War II' and confirm that your order has entered into shipping process.

Once the carrier is assigned to your package we will notify you the same via e-mail. You should receive this e-mail shortly.

Therefore, I can confirm you that you will receive your order in 5 to 7 business days after shipping out.

The estimated delivery dates listed on your order is Mar 2, 2009 - Mar 6, 2009.

I'd have definitely upgraded the shipping on your order to One day shipping, as you have requested however since this package has entered into shipping process, I am not able to do so.

However, I have contacted our fulfillment center regarding shipping your order soon by leaving a high priority note on your order.

I hope the information is helpful and clarifies the matter. Please be assured that we are here to make things easier for you.


Cool, so now I have a game on the way. Well, I got the shipping confirmation, and here is a small snippet from that:


Amazon.com items (Sold by Amazon.com, LLC):

1 Warhammer Dawn of War II $46.99 1 $46.99

Shipped via USPS


Cool. It is on the way. A day later than expected shipping date, but at least it is on the way. I checked today (2-26-09), and there is nothing at USPS about this order. Nothing at all. Well, where is my game? Did they send it, or just simply forget, what is the deal. One final e-mail until I get it for now (maybe another to poke the bear), but here it is:



According to the e-mail I got 2 days ago (2-24-06) and my records on my account, the item shipped 2 days ago, but USPS and your own tracking system has no record of this happening.

That was 2 days ago.

When you send out e-mails saying an item is shipping and provide a tracking number, is there still a whole 2 day process that happens on your end?

I am just curious, because 2 days for handling when you have a tracking number is a very long time. I am curious about it because we both know that there is no way to control how long USPS takes to send a package regardless of an estimate, but they are still pretty good about scanning stuff early enough in the day even if shipping takes a month (exaggerating, but even still).

Yeah, so is there normally a 2 day waiting period of handling on your end after you already have a tracking number?


and their response:


I have reviewed our previous correspondence with you, and I offer my sincere apologies for any misunderstanding thus far.

I understand that the tracking information on the USPS website shows that "There is no record of this item".

However, please note that your package was shipped by FedEx, due to heavy volumes of packages, the FedEx has signed agreement with USPS where the final delivery is made by USPS and I am sorry that this was not communicated in our last correspondence.

You may track the details of the shipping on the FedEx website, where you will find that order ship date and updated tracking information;

http://fedex.com/Tracking
Track #

Here is the updated tracking information of your package;

Date Activity Location
Feb 26, 2009 Arrived at FedEx Location BROOKLYN PARK, MN.

Because your shipment was first received by the FedEx the tracking information from the date your package was picked will be available on FedEx website and as the USPS received your package on Mar 4, 2009 the tracking will be updated on U.S.P.S website.

Further, I see that your order is in transit and is estimated to be delivered on time as per your order confirmation email on Mar 4, 2009.


Uh...

Wow, thanks for telling me that 2 days ago.

Also note, all of these e-mails (except for the last one that happened today) all got sent 2 days ago. It went from, "Sorry, it is taking longer than expected" to "It is backordered and we have no control over it" to "Yeah, it is getting shipped today"

So, they had it that day, but it was also backordered. So they got a shipment of them either Monday or Tuesday this week? Why wait until I say something to even ship it?

Here are the pics I took (in the forms of url's cuz they are big). Note that I purposefully kept most of the screenshot to include the time and date I toko the screen shots:

This was right before the first e-mail I sent them:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3301/dow2instock.jpg
and this one
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9902/dow2ordermade.jpg

This is after the last e-mail I sent them for that day:
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3734/dow2ordernowshipping.jpg

Sorry about the insanely long post, but hopefully my mis-adventures with Amazon's pre-orders on games will open others eyes so that they pre-order from somewhere else and never have to deal with this crappy level of service.