I went to bestbuy and had them match it.  now I have a best buy gift card. oh well.  I will be paying full price for next weeks buy 2 get one free sale at tru.   TRU even told me when I called that they did not get there shipments other then preorders but there should be another delivery this week and I can get it then but Best buy is matching if I bring the ad so I could get it today still.

I was happy.

was this chicago? happened to my gf in very similar way today

@Bod,

How hard would it have been for the TRU manager to make a call list? Its not like the game is going to be released every week and he could have only put people on the list who specifically asked to be put on the list.

To the point is that if he was at customer service their job is to find an agreeable way to make the customer satisfied without putting the company in a disposition. I think a phone call would have been a fair compromise.

With that said I agree it wasn't the managers fault and the girl was probably just repeating what was told to her and she had no reason to suspect it was bad info.

@Superchunk,

Hmm, if it is all week then good on TRU...but they will be sold out at most stores before the end of the week =)

Anyways, I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to get it and I am glad I didn't. I have no problem paying $25 to play the game 24 hours earlier.

ok bod, I think you are missing my point.

1. The one who answered the phone told me it would be in stock at opening. That is the whole issue here. That is why I was/am irritated and who I blame. If I had been told that is SHOULD be here at open OR it is not in stock yet but will be delivered to our store by 5pm. I would not be mad at all. I would have said Damn DHL and asked if they could call me when it came in. If they said no I would have said ok and just called throughout the day like I did anyways.

2. Not once was I rude or did I have rude tone with the manager or sales person in the game section. My 'quotes' above are just paraphrase for what was said. I worked well over 10 years in retail while I was in high school and getting my degree at the university. I know how much it sucks to be yelled at for shit that is completely out of your control. I also know that I usually tried harder to please upset customers who acted with patience and were not abusive or rude. So no matter how upset I am about a situation I always talk calmly and simple ask various questions to try to prod for what they may be able to do for me.

3. Before I went into that store I had not even looked at the ad. That is why I called on Monday night, so I could get all of the details about the deal. Obviously, I didn't get all of the details because when the manager said "We have until 5pm to have it in the store", I was completely taken back. I then asked "oh, I didn't know that. Can I see the ad?" He then in a smug attitude walked over grabbed the ad, turned it over and said "See, right there, by 5pm". So, the entire time he was very defensive and was clearly just waiting for me to leave. He didn't even try to actually resolve the problem.

4. Then my saga continued...I came back to the store at 4pm. One hour before the printed deadline. Guess what still no stock. Now, they were saying by 6pm the truck should be there. Hahahaha. I said ok, can I talk to a manager. I told her that I was told yesterday it was in stock and available by open, I had come in at open, had called throughout the day to see if stock had arrived, and now came back for the "by 5pm" advertisement that a previous manager had so eloquently pointed out. I told her that while I fully understand that you have no control over DHL, I would appreciate a rain check so I don't have to spend anymore time waiting in the store. She said that she could not due that because the ad said no rain checks. I reminded her that it also said by 5pm. She said, if I could please be patient and wait until she had more info.

5. 6:05p rolls around a line of people for new + pre orders are irritated for waiting upto 2 hours or so just to told "we don't know". I'm sitting there bs'ing with a friend just waiting in front of the line. Then that same manager comes out and of all things is holding rain checks. (The same rain checks I first asked for at 9:05am) She said she had got contacted by corporate and that the shipment would not arrive today. She gave each person a rain check and we all left.

After that I said f this. Called Circuit City. They said their stock was going to be ready tomorrow, but they would match the deal. So I will go to CC tomorrow and buy it. Best Buy had them in stock, but I hate their return policies and customer service, so I refuse to shop there. Other people in line called them and they would also match the deal.

All in all, I don't have a game. I got the same rain check I asked for at open because I was never told that it could arrive anytime by 5pm and felt that it was let down by TRU. So I wasted over 3 hours of my day when I could have been spared if the girl who answered the phone actually gave me all of the info.

Here you guys go.

Okay. In case you guys could not tell, this hit a nerve. First, let me apologize for losing my cool.

While I still have feelings about this (and do feel like I have a point), I really don't want to discuss this anymore, for a specific reason: this is actually a fairly subtle point. The quality of customer service depends rather greatly on what tone of voice and the specific words used by the customer service representative. Simple things like saying "please" and "thank you" have a dramatic effect on how good the service is. Since I don't know precisely what these people said -- I only have a general gist -- it makes it more difficult for me to judge whether these employees are to blame or not.

Questions like: did they offer to call you back? Did they offer to give you a discount? Did they even apologize? Did they offer alternative solutions to your problem (did the TRU across the city get it in? That's a solution I often recommend, for example). If they did not do any of these things, then that is a problem, but if their sole crime is assuming a game would arrive on time and then not having that game arrive on time via deficiencies that are entirely out of their control, then the problem isn't theirs. 

Hopefully that's a resolution everyone can agree with, because I really didn't feel like fighting about this. Sorry again, just a pet peeve ><

Bod, does the coupon above look like it's fine at TRU?

 Yep. I'd up my percentage chance to 98 percent likelihood. 

@Bodhesatva: Let's see who's to blame and for what:
The girl on the phone: for giving misinformation for the games arrival (although it's possible that she was misinformed).
The "fat fuck" manager: for being rude and not to take Superchuncks number and calling him.
Toys R Us: for fucking up supplying their retailers.
The only one i see who did as should was the lady manager, she atleast finally did something to try to please the customers.

Is customer service usually that shitty in the US?

I also feel your pain. Customer service, EVERYWHERE, is pretty much out the window. People are so detached from their jobs, and their workplace, that they really could care less if you have a good experience or not. They know you are going to buy it anyway, and even if you don't, there are thousands of people who will. Employers demand so much from these people and treat them like dirt, and then don't pay them anything so it's hard to blame the employees.