How To Say Nothing In Many Words

(I’d previously pre-ordered ‘Thief 4’ from Amazon, but switched to a competitor when I found out that they were offering a 10% discount on PS4 preorders. However, when I checked my pre-order a few days later, I found that their page (and my order) were listing the release date as a whole month later than everyone else. After confirming that the release date hadn’t changed, and was the same on every other website, I call them.)

Me: “The general release date is at the end of February, which several sources, including other retailers and the publisher’s website, confirm. However, the page and the order details say that my copy won’t be dispatched until the end of March. Is this an error of some sort?”

Employee: “Thank you for getting in touch with us about your pre-order. We send all pre-ordered items out as soon as we receive them into our warehouse from the manufacturers. We always endeavour to have pre-orders delivered to our customers on, if not before, the release date. If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.”

Me: “Thank you. However, that didn’t answer my question. Every other website, and the game’s publisher as well as PSN and Steam, state that the game will be released on the 28th February, but my order and the page give the release date as over a month later on the 31st March. Is that actually when my order will be shipped and, if so, why will it take a month longer than its official release date?”

Employee: “We update the webpage with the date we are given by the manufacturer. I will follow this up with our trading team and as soon as I have received a reply I will be in touch. If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.”

(Sure enough, a few hours later…)

Employee: “It’s been confirmed that the release we have currently on site is correct from the manufacturer. If there is anything else that we can do, then please do not hesitate to get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to help.”

(After checking once again that the game was still out on the 28th February  – including searching for news on a change of release date – I gave up and cancelled my preorder.)