So long story short, I pre-ordered Donkey Kong Bananza for the Switch 2 in late june because the launch date was 17/7 2025 The game was packed and apparently sent 15/7 and 17/7 went and came and no game came, that was one weekend down the drain. This thursday 24/7 I got a text saying the game was on the way and on friday 25/7 I could finally pick up the game. However when I opened the package, well I let the images speak for themselves. The plastic seal have been half ripped open, the case have been damaged and bent and the cover inlay is also damaged. What the hell is going on? The game cost 849 Swedish kr (around 89-90$) and this is what I got? Not only was the game delayed beyond belief but also damaged which is unacceptable for a brand new game. I have contacted the store in which I bought it from but since it's weekend and I have to send it back I have still not been able to play the game. Things didn't used to be as bad like this in the past and it looks like with how slow things are moving with the return and getting a new game I still will not be able to play the game next weekend. Should have just bought the game at a physical store. Online shopping sucks these days.
The problem is that there are orders of magnitude more packages underway at any given time than in the past. Thus, less and less time and care is dedicated to individual packages, and capacities are maxed with some force.
I guess so, but still if you pre-order you should at least get it at release date and you shouldn't get a damaged, man handeled game that seemed stomped on. I see no reason to pre-order anything again.
Note that in most cases, except for the very few big players like AMZN, merchants actually have no influence whatsoever on how the parcel services work. Many customers just assume that merchants control the whole delivery process, but that is not the case at all. And you can be sure that merchants have no interest in sending out damaged goods nor in having them damaged in the delivery. Processing rétoures is extra effort and lost money for them. On the other hand, parcel services make extra money from rétoures, so, they might not take special care intentionally. But hey, that's just a theory...
Well I have been in contact with the store and while I can return it without any problems they claim that the game should more or less function just fine despite the damages. I don't doubt them but it's the principle, you don't buy a sportscar for 100.000k and it's delivered with damages. Sure it might run just fine but you just don't pay for a product that is damaged. I ended up byuing the game at another place that I use sometimes, I'm expecting a refund for the damaged game and I will resign as a customer at the store that thinks damaged games is just fine.
Things like this are not only happening with online purchases , it's happening across tons of other industries too. It's happened to me also before, I no longer make expensive online purchases anymore. You can blame the shipping companies all you want but I had received boxes in the past in pristine condition at my door only to open them and my purchase look like someone took a baseball bat to it. I am gonna catch some flack for this, but honestly, this is what DEI initiatives has gotten us. When companies stopped hiring for experience and the best possible person for the job and started hiring based solely on race, gender and inclusion, things like this started happening exponentially , not that it hasn't happened before but it was a far less occurrence pre-COVID. These days you have people working in plants that just don't care, they want that big fat paycheck but they could care less about the quality of what they are making, packaging and sending out. Watching TikTok and face timing while they work is far more important than the quality of your purchase. I work for a Japanese owned major automotive parts manufacturer here in the U.S. that implemented DEI initiatives some years ago and I am here to tell you that when that happened , quality, workmanship and the experience of those hired to manufacture the parts we make went down severely because they sacrificed the previous superior quality by hiring the best possible person for the job for now race based or gender based hirings , all the while costs related to things like scrap and customer complaints or concerns went through the roof. The quality of the smaller parts and material we use to manufacture our parts that we receive from vendors that also employ DEI initiatives has severely declined also. Seeing what I have seen personally over the last four years with DEI at work, I will never buy a Ford, Honda or Nissan vehicle, at least not ones manufactured post COVID. So to answer your question, these days if your going to lay out a chunk of your hard earned money , it's best to go to a brick and mortar store and make your purchase in person so that you can inspect what you are buying before putting your cash on the counter because Jeff Bezos could care less what winds up on your doorstep and what condition it is in because he already has your money and is working on buying an even bigger yacht with it. At least if you do that and you find there is something wrong with your purchase you can take it back in person and get your refund or exchange on the spot instead of having to mail it back and then HOPE you can get your refund within two weeks or so or even longer to get a replacement.
Not even them. Ordered two seasons of Rowan & Martins Laughin 2 yrs ago and one of the packages was pretty broken up. You could here the discs moving around! Fortunately they were playable enough to rip to a HDD
Well, today is august 11th and I'm still waiting for my refund for the game. I know the game have returned and made it back because they used the same s**tty shipping company for the return as for when they send it to me, Bring (aka s**t company) so I could track it. I bought another copy soon after this from another company and have recieved it long ago and it was mint condition! If I had waited for all the administration, shipping etc. and for them to send me a new game, I would still not have played it to this day almost a month after release. At this point I'm just waiting for the refund to go through so I can terminate my account.