GameStop Canceled My Wii Order

on what i meant...

i know you don't NEED to have a phone or internet to play.

what i meant, was, if they cannot navigate a phone, or the internet
to complain to the company themselves, how are they expected to play
the Wii? my mom can use the phone and the internet decently, but the
one time i tried to get her to play the Wii, she couldn't.

so it led me to wonder if the OP was using their parents card to
order $600 worth of product for themselves.

OK got it! Try Wii Bowling. Your mom will love that one. Funny
thing about the Wii, one of the reasons they are so hard to find, is
when ever they are in the stores, they are snatched up by Hospitals
and Nursing Homes. The doctors/nurses have found that they are great
physical therapy. And the people in the care homes can still play
"sports". They have found that the places that have the Wii, the
patients heal faster that play the games then those that don't. I
find that really funny!

When I was working in optical, we would get patients who would provide
a fax number and when their order or if the Dr. needed to speak to
them we had no way of contacting them. It would infuriate us to no
end.Or if they made an appt. and no showed we would call and get that
annoying beeping/static thing.

Gamestop figured it wasn't a legit order if they couldn't reach anyone
by phone, they don't want to get screwed out of $600. I'm sure by
giving them a regular phone number that they would never contact you.

Christy...just on a want to know basis...when you purchased another
system/bundle package was the price the same as git was at Gamestop?

that Gamestop has the common sense to cancel an order in which someone
provide's a FAX number where a contact telephone number is called for.
That is standard fraud prevention.

Free game? Free shipping? I think totally not. Witnesses to what?
Attempts to bully the company reps into compromising standard policy?

and not TTY or something else -- and I agree with them that it's
common sense that they want a number at which they can easily reach
you during the day, not your mom's fax machine, and reach you
immediately for an order with second-day shipping -- you wouldn't have
been there to respond immediately.

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking. People who pay extra to get items
in two days do not tend to appreciate it taking an extra day or two
for the items to ship because there's a question they need answered or
a problem they need solved (and I agree that it may have been as
simple as wanting to reduce the chances that you were a scammer hoping
the item would ship before they caught on).

I can absolutely see why, when they were unable to reach you using the
contact information you provided they canceled the order. If you had
a way to respond quickly to calls to the fax number -- if your mom had
Caller ID and was ready to check and call you ASAP if GameStop showed
up on it, for example -- you could always get it straightened out and
place the order again in time for the Wii to shop.

I can absolutely see why they wouldn't offer you free shipping, if for
no other reason than that it would cost them money once word got
around that by making it impossible for them to reach customers who
make expensive last-minute orders with small errors that need to be
corrected customers could force them into free shipping. That's the
downside of the internet when it comes to customer service: companies
have to keep in mind that today's "just-this-once courtesy" can be
tomorrow's established precedent, and I don't know what the profit was
on that Wii console, games, and fit bundle, but I bet it wouldn't take
too many customers getting free shipping to cancel it out -- even if
you only meant standard shipping, not two-day or next-day.

There is a very good reason that you are asked for both a bill to
address and phone number when you place an order online. An extremely
common method to verify orders against fraud it matching this address
and phone number against the information your credit card company has
on file for you. If they do not match the order will get canceled.

Now onto you situation, for larger orders many fraud departments will
take the additional step of calling the verified phone number to speak
with (hopefully) the cardholder to verify they are aware of this order
(guards against things like kids using parent's credit card without
permission).

Having a fax number on file with your bank is FOOLISH, you might has
well have given them a fake number. If someone was every to use your
card fraudulently the bank would have no way to contact you besides
through the mail. This number is not used to market to you, its used
to protect you. By not having a valid contact number you open yourself
up to fraud.

You'd probably be even more mad if someone using your card info made
and order and Game stop shipped it. You can't have it both ways as far
as canceling your order for not being able to contact the cardholder
they were right.

The rep you spoke to didn't explain the situation properly at all.

THE FOLLOWING IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Phone numbers and fax numbers are two different things.

That is all.

First off, yes, you should have provided a working number. Maybe the
number to your office?

However, I do know where you are coming from with Game Stop being
rude. I have all but stoped shopping there. Their loss seeing as hubby
and I both are HUGE gammers and go though games like TP.

I get so tired of the whole "*snort* you are buying THAT game"
Attitude.

Sorry we are not as cool as you Game Stop employee. You know, cool in
the way of living with our parents, working at a game store and
spending your nights playing D&D with your buddies.

I have no solution, just wanted to rant with you.

I am assuming you ordered online. Perhaps they called to verify and
your mothers fax machine was beeping doing its thing. Why not give
them a home phone number or cell number, not a fax line number. Seems
a bit odd to me.

Furthermore why cant you just walk into the store and order one there?


I am not sure if those are still in high demand or not. I know the
toy guitar game is quite popular for some reason. Strumming a toy
guitar, seems quite childish to me, but whatever.


Good Day

You can use a fax number but you have to tell them it is a fax number.
If you did this then yes, Gamestop was wrong to not forward a faxed
message to you regarding this order. However, if you failed to mention
or write down that this was a fax number I am sure if they tried to
reach you they got that dang high pitched noise which is horrible to
have to hear.

On a lighter note...you are lucky they cancelled this order. You can
(as a previosu poster wrote) probably get this on Ebay for 1/2 the
price...and that is for the complete system you were ordering.
Maybe saving $300 doesn't matter much to you but if you do decide to
buy this system on Ebay for 1/2 the price you were going to pay at
Gamestop, please forward me your savings...I will gladly put the money
to good use.

If you paid that much for a Wii with the Fit bundle, even with
expedited shipping, you should be grateful they 86'ed your order!
That was a rip off! Even 2 years ago when the system was brand new
and people were clawing the shelves for them, they only went for that
much on eBay!

Secondly, you (or your mother, or whoever placed the order) used a
credit card if this was placed online. It stands to reason that in
the anonymous, faceless online world, that they would need some way to
reach the cardholder. It's a safety precaution, not a marketing ploy
and I don't blame them for rejecting a fax machine. If no one answers
that phone but the machine, it's considered invalid.

If you claim they don't care, you bought the system elsewhere and they
treated you so rudely, what reason would they have to give you a free
game or free shipping or free anything?

They asked for a valid phone number. You did not furnish that. They
canceled the order. I don't see how this is Gamestop's fault.

Companies request telephone numbers in case they need to speak with
you. I'm guessing that due to the high price of the item purchased -
and perhaps it was your mother's name on the credit card and your name
as the shipping address - the order was flagged as a potential
security issue. They tried to contact you to verify that it was a
legitimate order, and couldn't reach you because you provided a fax
number instead of a telephone number.

I'm sorry you won't get your Wii, but I don't think the company did
anything wrong. In fact, I find it reassuring that they take such
measures to prevent credit card fraud.

You have to see it from their point of view. Someone places an order
for a large ticket item and request expedited shipping. Gamestop
attempts to contact the customer at the number provided and that
number is no good. For all they know someone is trying to run a scam
or it is a fraudulent purchase. A fax number may have been fine for
other companies, but then maybe they didn't try to get in touch with
you.

It is not okay if the representative was rude, but you can't be upset
that they tried to protect themselves from possibly being scammed.

They asked you for a telephone number. A fax number is NOT a
telephone number it's a fax number. If you chose not to provide it
that's up to you but they are perfectly whithin their right to cancel
your order.

Also, something tells me that you were not all that polite either.
That crap about the customer is always right is just that, crap.

I think not accepting a fax number is a perfectly acceptable policy.
The reason you provide a number is so they can contact you if they
have any questions or perhaps have issues with your credit card. What
are they supposed to do, send you a fax?

Don't worry, I realize getting a free Wii game is unrealistic, just
thought I'd throw it out there!