Or is it not?
I, for once, am convinced that the above statement is 100,01% true.
Take a deep breath, read my story and tell me if I am wrong...
I've been buying games online from Game.co.uk for a very long time. Until recently I've never had any problem with them.
On Bank Holiday I spotted on their spring sale MadWorld for £14.98. I really wanted this game and at such a price it was a hell of a bargain.
So I tried to order it along with a few other games, but at the final step of the site's checkout process I was unable to place the order. I thought that their system was down because of the day and I said to myself never mind, I'll order it tomorrow. The next day I tried once more to order the game, but I was still unable to place my order. After many attempts, I sent the following email to their customer support:
"Hello,
I am writing to you because the site does not let me place any orders. As of 20/03/2009 I was able to order anything without having any problem. Please note that since then I have not changed any of my account information (payment cards, delivery addresses, etc.).
Yesterday I tried to place two orders, but everytime I clicked the "Place Order" button at checkout step 3 ("Review & Confirm"
, I was brought back to step 2 ("Delivery & Payment" and got the following message:
"Unfortunately we have not been able to complete your order online in this instance. For your protection, we have a series of comprehensive anti-fraud and safety measures. However, these can sometimes be triggered for wholly innocent reasons. Please contact our Customer Services Team on 0871 200 1221 to complete placing your order on this occasion."
After many attempts I thought that the site was not taking any orders because of the Bank Holiday and so I let it go...
Today I tried once again to place an order believing everything would be alright, but guess what? I still get the same annoying message...
After some brainstorming I had the idea to place an order for a single game, instead of two, as I usually do. And voila, my order was finally accepted!
Problem solved? Well, it seems not: An hour or so after I had successfully placed my two orders, I receive two emails with subject "A problem with your order". I go to "Your Orders" list to see what the hell went wrong and in the "Order Status Log" i see the following message: "Sorry, your order has failed authorisation – call 0871 200 1221 for assistance."...
Call 0871 200 1221 for assistance? I am living in Greece and doing so will cost me an arm and a leg. I hope you can find a way sort out this annoying situation and let me know what is going wrong, because it's really starting getting on my nerves...
Best Regards,
[My Name]"
Five minutes later I receive an email from a chick at their customer support asking me a ton of bullshit questions, like what browser and OS am I using, if I was logged in while placing my order, what error message was I getting ( :S ), at what step the problem occurred ( :S ), if I had changed my personal details ( :S ) and other shit like that.
I realized that I had to deal with a brainless creature (a zombie or something), so I deleted her email response and I sent another email to GAME's customer service.
And here is the point the epic saga of me trying to figure out what the hell was wrong begins:
Me
Hello,
I am getting in touch with you because THE SITE DOES NOT LET ME PLACE ANY ORDERS.
My account worked fine for over a year since its creation. The last time I placed an order was at the end of March 2009. Four days ago I placed an order for two games, but during the checkout, on step 3 'Review & Confirm', when I was supposed to proceed to step 4, the system threw me back to step 2 'Delivery & Payment'. Then I tried to place an order for a single game and this time I was able to proceed to step 4 and successfully place my order. But after a while my order was rejected for
reasons unknown (and totally unrelated to credit issues)...
Since that day I've been trying on a daily basis to place an order, but
all of my attempts were unsuccessful.
Today I created a new account, thinking that there was an issue with the
account I've been using since 01/12/2007. So I tried to place another
order, and guess what, I once more faced the same problem:
'Unfortunately we have not been able to complete your order online in
this instance. For your protection, we have a series of comprehensive
anti-fraud and safety measures. However, these can sometimes be
triggered for wholly innocent reasons.'
By the way, I am also experiencing the same problem with my
Gamestation.co.uk account...
THE PROBLEM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OS, MY BROWSER, MY CREDIT CARD, MY BILLING ADDRESS ETC...
FOR SOME REASON I CANNOT UNDERSTAND, YOUR SYSTEM HAS BANNED ME FROM PLACING NEW ORDERS TO BOTH GAME.CO.UK & GAMESTATION.CO.UK.
IS THIS THE WAY GAMEPLAY LTD. IS REWARDING A CUSTOMER WHO HAS SPENT OVER £2,400 BUYING PRODUCTS FROM ITS ONLINE STORES???
Waiting for your response,
[My Name]
GAME Customer Service Response
Hi [My Name],
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately you are being blocked from our website for security reasons.
I apologise for any disappointment.
Regards,
Craig L
The Team at GAME
Me
Hi Craig,
Seems that you (I'm referring to your company, not yourself personally) don't want me as a customer anymore.
That's fine with me. Thank God that Amazon.co.uk, Play.com and HMV.com exist.
Having being a loyal customer to your company, one who has spent over £2,400 ordering goods from Game.co.uk, I DEMAND to know the exact "security reasons" that blocked me from placing orders to your website.
Please take into consideration that the whole content of this email, plus your answer, is going to be posted at various gaming forums, so it would be wise to provide a very detailed answer about those "security reasons".
Also, please let your superiors know that as an editor to the
best-selling gaming magazine in Greece, as well as a person with power in the two most populated greek online gaming communities, I will do my best to convince as many greek gamers as possible to stop ordering from Game.co.uk, Gamestation.co.uk and Gameplay.co.uk.
My Warmest Regards,
[My Name]
GAME Customer Service Response
Hi [My Name],
Thank you for your email.
I have looked into your account further and can see that I may have confused your details with a customer of the same name. Please forward me a previous order number that you have had from us so I can find out why you are being blocked from our site.
I apologise for any inconvenience.
Regards,
Craig L
The Team at GAME
Me
Hi Craig,
I currently have 3 accounts at Game.co.uk and 1 account at Gamestation.co.uk.
All of them are registered under the same name: [My Name].
My 1st account at Game.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. I created this account a few days ago, because I believed that my previous account was corrupted. This account doesn't have any orders, as I am being blocked from placing any.
My 2nd account at Game.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. This was the account I used for almost a year and a half. The last despatched order's number is "047xxxxx/1", while the last rejected order's number is "049xxxxx/1". I am being blocked from placing orders from this account too.
My 3rd account at Game.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. This account was last used on October 29th 2007. The last order's number is "016xxxxx/1".
My account at Gamestation.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. The last despatched order's number is "041xxxxx/1", while the last rejected order's number is "048xxxxx/1". I am also being blocked from placing orders from this account.
Waiting for your response,
[My Name]
GAME Customer Service Response
Hi [My Name],
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately I can only advise as my colleague has previously and state that you are unable to place orders with us for security reasons. I apologise for any disappointment caused regarding this matter.
Regards,
Lucy J
The Team at GAME
My last email was sent almost a week ago and I received Lucy's response today...
I, for once, am convinced that the above statement is 100,01% true.
Take a deep breath, read my story and tell me if I am wrong...
I've been buying games online from Game.co.uk for a very long time. Until recently I've never had any problem with them.
On Bank Holiday I spotted on their spring sale MadWorld for £14.98. I really wanted this game and at such a price it was a hell of a bargain.
So I tried to order it along with a few other games, but at the final step of the site's checkout process I was unable to place the order. I thought that their system was down because of the day and I said to myself never mind, I'll order it tomorrow. The next day I tried once more to order the game, but I was still unable to place my order. After many attempts, I sent the following email to their customer support:
"Hello,
I am writing to you because the site does not let me place any orders. As of 20/03/2009 I was able to order anything without having any problem. Please note that since then I have not changed any of my account information (payment cards, delivery addresses, etc.).
Yesterday I tried to place two orders, but everytime I clicked the "Place Order" button at checkout step 3 ("Review & Confirm"
, I was brought back to step 2 ("Delivery & Payment" and got the following message:"Unfortunately we have not been able to complete your order online in this instance. For your protection, we have a series of comprehensive anti-fraud and safety measures. However, these can sometimes be triggered for wholly innocent reasons. Please contact our Customer Services Team on 0871 200 1221 to complete placing your order on this occasion."
After many attempts I thought that the site was not taking any orders because of the Bank Holiday and so I let it go...
Today I tried once again to place an order believing everything would be alright, but guess what? I still get the same annoying message...
After some brainstorming I had the idea to place an order for a single game, instead of two, as I usually do. And voila, my order was finally accepted!
Problem solved? Well, it seems not: An hour or so after I had successfully placed my two orders, I receive two emails with subject "A problem with your order". I go to "Your Orders" list to see what the hell went wrong and in the "Order Status Log" i see the following message: "Sorry, your order has failed authorisation – call 0871 200 1221 for assistance."...
Call 0871 200 1221 for assistance? I am living in Greece and doing so will cost me an arm and a leg. I hope you can find a way sort out this annoying situation and let me know what is going wrong, because it's really starting getting on my nerves...
Best Regards,
[My Name]"
Five minutes later I receive an email from a chick at their customer support asking me a ton of bullshit questions, like what browser and OS am I using, if I was logged in while placing my order, what error message was I getting ( :S ), at what step the problem occurred ( :S ), if I had changed my personal details ( :S ) and other shit like that.
I realized that I had to deal with a brainless creature (a zombie or something), so I deleted her email response and I sent another email to GAME's customer service.
And here is the point the epic saga of me trying to figure out what the hell was wrong begins:
Me
Hello,
I am getting in touch with you because THE SITE DOES NOT LET ME PLACE ANY ORDERS.
My account worked fine for over a year since its creation. The last time I placed an order was at the end of March 2009. Four days ago I placed an order for two games, but during the checkout, on step 3 'Review & Confirm', when I was supposed to proceed to step 4, the system threw me back to step 2 'Delivery & Payment'. Then I tried to place an order for a single game and this time I was able to proceed to step 4 and successfully place my order. But after a while my order was rejected for
reasons unknown (and totally unrelated to credit issues)...
Since that day I've been trying on a daily basis to place an order, but
all of my attempts were unsuccessful.
Today I created a new account, thinking that there was an issue with the
account I've been using since 01/12/2007. So I tried to place another
order, and guess what, I once more faced the same problem:
'Unfortunately we have not been able to complete your order online in
this instance. For your protection, we have a series of comprehensive
anti-fraud and safety measures. However, these can sometimes be
triggered for wholly innocent reasons.'
By the way, I am also experiencing the same problem with my
Gamestation.co.uk account...
THE PROBLEM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY OS, MY BROWSER, MY CREDIT CARD, MY BILLING ADDRESS ETC...
FOR SOME REASON I CANNOT UNDERSTAND, YOUR SYSTEM HAS BANNED ME FROM PLACING NEW ORDERS TO BOTH GAME.CO.UK & GAMESTATION.CO.UK.
IS THIS THE WAY GAMEPLAY LTD. IS REWARDING A CUSTOMER WHO HAS SPENT OVER £2,400 BUYING PRODUCTS FROM ITS ONLINE STORES???
Waiting for your response,
[My Name]
GAME Customer Service Response
Hi [My Name],
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately you are being blocked from our website for security reasons.
I apologise for any disappointment.
Regards,
Craig L
The Team at GAME
Me
Hi Craig,
Seems that you (I'm referring to your company, not yourself personally) don't want me as a customer anymore.
That's fine with me. Thank God that Amazon.co.uk, Play.com and HMV.com exist.
Having being a loyal customer to your company, one who has spent over £2,400 ordering goods from Game.co.uk, I DEMAND to know the exact "security reasons" that blocked me from placing orders to your website.
Please take into consideration that the whole content of this email, plus your answer, is going to be posted at various gaming forums, so it would be wise to provide a very detailed answer about those "security reasons".
Also, please let your superiors know that as an editor to the
best-selling gaming magazine in Greece, as well as a person with power in the two most populated greek online gaming communities, I will do my best to convince as many greek gamers as possible to stop ordering from Game.co.uk, Gamestation.co.uk and Gameplay.co.uk.
My Warmest Regards,
[My Name]
GAME Customer Service Response
Hi [My Name],
Thank you for your email.
I have looked into your account further and can see that I may have confused your details with a customer of the same name. Please forward me a previous order number that you have had from us so I can find out why you are being blocked from our site.
I apologise for any inconvenience.
Regards,
Craig L
The Team at GAME
Me
Hi Craig,
I currently have 3 accounts at Game.co.uk and 1 account at Gamestation.co.uk.
All of them are registered under the same name: [My Name].
My 1st account at Game.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. I created this account a few days ago, because I believed that my previous account was corrupted. This account doesn't have any orders, as I am being blocked from placing any.
My 2nd account at Game.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. This was the account I used for almost a year and a half. The last despatched order's number is "047xxxxx/1", while the last rejected order's number is "049xxxxx/1". I am being blocked from placing orders from this account too.
My 3rd account at Game.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. This account was last used on October 29th 2007. The last order's number is "016xxxxx/1".
My account at Gamestation.co.uk is registered with "email@email.gr" as the email address. The last despatched order's number is "041xxxxx/1", while the last rejected order's number is "048xxxxx/1". I am also being blocked from placing orders from this account.
Waiting for your response,
[My Name]
GAME Customer Service Response
Hi [My Name],
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately I can only advise as my colleague has previously and state that you are unable to place orders with us for security reasons. I apologise for any disappointment caused regarding this matter.
Regards,
Lucy J
The Team at GAME
My last email was sent almost a week ago and I received Lucy's response today...
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