HMV are being very evasive about the preorders for CE now :/

[XenX]

I just gave HMV a quick ring to see about changing which store my preorder is delivered to, they said they cant do that but thats not what got me worried.

the guy at HMV was being extremely jittery and evasive about it.
kept saying, Hmm hang on, hmm, well, see, were not sure what date its comming in, so i said its comming on the 18th, and he said yeh hmm but, see, dates can change, hmm, were not supposed to be preordering this, well, see hmm, yeh the dates might change im not sure, hang on, hmmm.

after a lot of that i decided it was best not to try and mess with it lol, ill go to the original store to get it, but whats with them being so evasive about it ?

 

[Chronictank]

they oversold their quota so got told to pull their stock from the shelves

 

[XenX]

they should just cancel all the preorders that they did wrong in my opinion, and honor what they were supposed to, ie, the preorder boxes..

 

[Legean]

Just sounds like some new guy who doesn't know what hes doing so doesn't sound that condident.

As they gain experience they still dont know what they're doing but at least the sound confident when they tell you .

 

[XenX]

iv just had a thought, lets say i use my CE headstart and OB codes on my account, but due to the fact that i doubt i can get to the HMV in york on thurs 18th as im at work for 11 hours, what if i cant get a copy of the CE,

am i allowed to buy a standard edition off the shelves and just use that to carry on, or do you have to use a CE cd key, if you have used the CE preorder codes on your account..

 

[Dervish]

To keep the CE account alive you need the CE game code as far as we know. I've not seen anywhere that says whether SE game will do this but I suspect not. Regarding honouring the pre-order box holders, that IS what they oversold. That is all they had to sell as pre-order items.

 

[XenX]

HMV head office have told me that they will be getting enough copies of the CE to match the amount of preorder boxes, but they have also been preordering for people without selling them the preorder box, from their website and such.

so they will be getting enough CE's to cover all the preorder boxes, but have been doing preorders from their website too..

thats why there is a problem, not because they have sold too many preorder boxes,

At least thats what HMV head office have said in their email to me.

oh and thats really bad, so i cant collect the CE from my local store, i cant go to york on the 18th as im at work thur fri, HMV wont reserve me a copy as its first come first served, and i cant continue with the headstart unless i get a copy..

 

[Dervish]

Yes ofc it makes sense. There was a big warning earlier in the year that the CE on their website was CE only and not the pre-order program. Pity then the poor sods who took that route then, they'll be getting a very disappointing email around about now then.

 

[XenX]

Yes ofc it makes sense. There was a big warning earlier in the year that the CE on their website was CE only and not the pre-order program. Pity then the poor sods who took that route then, they'll be getting a very disappointing email around about now then.

its not that they wont be getting the codes, as you say it says that plain as day on the website, its the fact that how are they gonna supply all the preorders for the CE from the website when they arent even getting any in stock.

HMV have said they are getting the same amount of CE's as they had preorder boxes. not enough for preorder boxes AND the website, AND the in store preorders done without selling the box.

i am worried now, iv just emailed HMV head office again and if they say i cant collect the CE preorder from my local store, there is no way in hell the HMV in york will still have any by the weekend ..

seeing as they have already said its first come first served for preorders, im totally skrewed, as is anyone else who dont make it to the store in time..

 

[Legean]

Theres a grace period of a few days so if you can get to York on the 19th to say 22nd (made up dates) and get your box then you are fine.

 

[XenX]

no i know that, im saying that HMV have said that its first come first served for preorders, they are not actually reserving copies, Lets say you have a preorder box from HMV right ?

and i go into HMV first thing on the 18th with a few other people and they run out of CE's there isnt one reserved with your name on, HMV arent reserving them Individually, if i get your copy, your buggered,

they are just gonna give them all out they arent reserving them with your details on from the preorders.

 

[Dervish]

That's what I mean. All those people who ordered the CE either online or in a shop without buying the pre-order box are gonna be disappointed cos they are gonna be told they're not getting a CE. That assumes that they will be strictly giving CE boxes ONLY to people who produce a receipt for the pre-order box. That is what they SHOULD do but as you said before if they only get enough CE boxes to cover the number of pre-order boxes they sold but give them out on a free for all that would be very, very bad.

 

[XenX]

thats what they have said they are gonna do, hang on heres the email

I have been told by our games department that EA will supply copies of the 'Collector's Edition' in direct relation to the number of Beta packs, but we have had to remove them as a precaution due to confusion about the customer ordering protocol at store level. Please note that customer allocation of the 'Collector's Edition' will be on a first come first served basis. As with any order we cannot 100% guarantee that all customers will receive their copy

 

[Javai]

Theres a grace period of a few days so if you can get to York on the 19th to say 22nd (made up dates) and get your box then you are fine.

But the point is HMV won't have any left by then.

At the very least HMV would have to refund you the price of the pre-order (which admitedly is very little help to you). I would have thought they were on dodgy legal ground given that you actually paid for the pre-order box which states it guarantees various things. Unlike orders from play.com which aren't charged at all until the CE ships HMV have actually sold you a product.

The only solution I can think of (which is a rubbish one I admit!) is to demand a refund from HMV and place an SE order with one of the preferred sellers to get the headstart access. Alternatively give trading standards a ring and find out where you stand in legal terms.

 

[Javai]

thats what they have said they are gonna do, hang on heres the email

it might be worth pointing out to them that's it's not like any other order as you actually bought a product.

 

[XenX]

iv emailed them again about what happens as i cant get into york on the release date, ill see what their reply is first

 

[Dervish]

Yeah I read that when you posted it the other day. I can't believe they would do that. It would be so easy to demand a proof of purchase of the pre-order before selling a CE. Just mark the receipt somehow to avoid naughtiness etc. Can't see HMV coming out of this very well.

TBH if I was in that position I would stalk my local branch manger or camp outside the shop or beforehand I would tip off a staff member with a crisp fiver to hold you a copy with another fiver on delivery. Or all 3.

 

[Apollyn]

I went into Newcastle HMV to ask about this today. I bought my preorder months ago and didnt get ym details taken down at the time of purchase.

Explained this to the guy and he said receipt isnt vital but you need to have given your details in to get a CE. He also said that HMV in Newcastle is gonna struggle to honour its preorder sales with actual CE boxes. Kinda frustrating :S, cos I was never asked to give my details but there we go, sure it wont marr my experience forever (I've gone SE off EA site)

 

[XenX]

all i really want to know is what exactly happens about having used collectors edition preorder codes if i cant actually get the CE when the day comes, cant i keep my characters, do i need to make a new account? what ?

(characters from headstart that is)

i want the CE so i dont particularly want to cancel my preorder, just in case i can get it..

 

[tommyboyo]

Are they actually going to get the CE boxes into the store on the day of the 18th? or maybe a day or two before and only release them on the 18th?

I'm trying to figure out if it's worth getting down there about 30 mins before they open on the 18th to make sure I'm first through the door and able to pick up my copy. I don't want to get there first thing and for them to tell me "oh, our delivery doesn't come in until 11am". What do you guys think?

 

[XenX]

i would if i could but ill be at work /cry

heres a question, what the hell is the point in preordering anything from HMV if they dont save you a copy, isnt that the entire point in preordering

 

[Perf]

Are they actually going to get the CE boxes into the store on the day of the 18th? or maybe a day or two before and only release them on the 18th?

I'm trying to figure out if it's worth getting down there about 30 mins before they open on the 18th to make sure I'm first through the door and able to pick up my copy. I don't want to get there first thing and for them to tell me "oh, our delivery doesn't come in until 11am". What do you guys think?

go and ask them on the 17th when they normally recieve there deliveries.

 

[Legean]

They will recieve it before the 18th just not allowed to release it until its officially launched. If this isn't how it works, well thats just stupid.

 

[Dervish]

Somewhere Mythic said that they would ultimately deal with problems of this nature but it was a while ago and I don't remember where. My bet is that if you can't get a CE box but you can prove to Mythic (or maybe GOA) that you did get a pre-order box but HMV let you down that they will activate the account so you can keep your headstart characters if you can also prove you have subsequently purchased an SE copy. Of course I would still like to know if an SE code would be ebough to keep your CE headstart characters as that would solve a lot of peoples problems. I'll ask again in the Q&A thread.

 

[Aada]

Here is the important thing as far as i am concerned.

Can we get our freaking £10 note back? if not i will not be happy.

 

[Dervish]

Here is the important thing as far as i am concerned.

Can we get our freaking £10 note back? if not i will not be happy.

I would think you need to do that before OB starts or they'll just say you have started to benefit from the product.

 

[DocWolfe]

I was told the 12th... for CE from HMV.

 

[XenX]

i got a reply to my email to them today

I do apologise as it seems that I was unclear in my last message to you. By 'first come first served' I did not mean that the first people to go into the store on release date would get a 'Warhammer Collector's Edition' regardless of whether they had placed a pre-order at that store. What I meant to explain was that the pre-orders were entered into the system on a first come first served basis, i.e. pre-orders would be supplied in the order that they were put on the system. If, for example, the store receives 20 copies on their first delivery of the item the first 20 customers on the list would receive their order. Therefore, due the problems as outlined in my previous email we cannot 100% guarantee all orders placed after stores were instructed to remove the 'Beta Pack' from sale. It still stands that stores should receive the same number of 'Collector's Editions' as they did 'Beta Packs' but we can only supply the number that EA send to us.

Unfortunately, you will need to get to the store where you placed your pre-order to collect the full copy of the game as each store will be allocated enough to cover their pre-orders. I would suggest calling our York store on 01904 640218 to advise them that you will not be there until the weekend after release to collect it. They will be able to hold it until you can get to the store to pick it up.

I sincerely hope that EA can send enough copies to cover all of our pre-orders, but their decision is entirely out of my hands. Should the worst happen and the store is unable to supply you with a 'Collector's Edition' there will be measures that we will take to rectify this. However, at present we do not know what these measures will be.

I hope that we will eventually be able to meet your expectations on this and I do appreciate your patience on this matter.

It would seem that now HMV are saying that they are only honoring preorder box orders, and that they are worried that EA (i thought it was GOA distributing) wont sent them enough copies of the CE.

i dont really understand why she has said about if they get the first 20 copies they will go to the first 20 customers and all that stuff, surely they will get all their copies delivered to the stores on release day..

also i just got the day off on the 18th to go down to the store when it opens, but i take it this means that if their arent enough copies in the store i cant collect mine till the next delivery :/ as i doubt im anywhere near the top of the queue as they only had 2 left

why cant they just get a list of how many preorder boxes each store sold in total, and send each store that many CE's
i cant imagine EA wont send them enough, surely EA supplied them with the preorder boxes in the first place no ?

 

[Flimgoblin]

The way I think it's happened is:

EA have sent HMV a number of preorder boxes (call this A)

HMV have pre-sold a number of collectors editions, not all of them have been with preorder boxes. Not all pre-order box sales have also been registered as a pre-order for the collectors edition in the HMV system.

They've pulled the remaining preorder boxes from the shelves in order to hopefully make up for this disparity, but it's not definite that the number of preorders <= number of preorder boxes.

They have people with names down, a CE preorder box, turning up to collect their game (and get £10 off) - from your last email XenX it sounds like these people should be guaranteed to definitely get their CE (they're on the preorder list and they have a box). - (this number is B)
They also have a number of people turning up without CE preorder boxes but with their names down for a pre-order of a collectors edition. (this number is C)
On top of that they have an unknown number of people turning up with CE preorder boxes who haven't had their details taken down, expecting to get a CE with £10 off. (this number is D)

EA will be supplying a number of collectors editions to HMV, this will be the same as the number of preorder boxes (i.e. A)

presumably B+C is still less than A at present (though they probably don't know who is a B and who is a C...) but if you throw in D as well it's maybe not entirely clear...

With luck it'll all work out, if not the chap in that email said something will be done (I'm guessing refunds of the £10 boxes but that's far from ideal)

Just make sure your name is on your list at your local HMV and that they are reserving a copy for you. If you have any friends in the area get them to go pick it up for you (assuming the extra level of chinese whispers isn't going to add even more problems).

 

[XenX]

with any luck iv managed to get the 18th off, so im gonna go down to hmv when they open and hopefully get a copy, assuming they get enough for everyone at that store, either that or i ring them before i leave but then itll be 2 hours after opening by the time i get there, pleanty of time for everyone else to go in and get their copy hehe, so i think ill just risk it and turn up at opening.

at least for now thats the plan.

i hope that we hear some more info before the due date, about whether every store is getting all their preorders fulfilled or what, hopefully ea or goa could tell us if they are supplying hmv with all the copies they have asked for or whether there is gonna be a shortage, that way at least we will know before hand.