All Argos Sonic Colours pre-orders please read

[Detective Shadzter]

Seems their staff are saying different things to different people. I remember someone else said they were told Friday or Saturday that they're sending the figures out separately, while others were told they're not getting anything. If it was a system error, they surely should have picked up on it way before now and contacted people regarding their order. They say they tried to contact people yesterday, yet it appears no-one received a call or e-mail yesterday.

They really aren't very good at this, are they?

[jennytablina]

Seems their staff are saying different things to different people. I remember someone else said they were told Friday or Saturday that they're sending the figures out separately, while others were told they're not getting anything. If it was a system error, they surely should have picked up on it way before now and contacted people regarding their order. They say they tried to contact people yesterday, yet it appears no-one received a call or e-mail yesterday.

They really aren't very good at this, are they?

The lass on the phone seemed pretty sure of what she was saying (and very polite and attentive too), so I think her word is better than whoever Gnasher got. She sounded pretty apologetic and exasperated too after finding she couldn't get in touch with entertainment, not sure what the odds are of getting a callback though :/

Basically they planned out a pretty grand preorder bonus, and someone or something ballsed it up pretty good. This excuse sounds pretty plausible as NOBODY seems to have gotten the figure (unless they bothered to buy it), it's a big enough SNAFU for them to need to send staff a memo too. Though you'll always have a few bad apples that don't check their emails and notices

[Detective Shadzter]

That's good to hear, jennytablina. Looks like BudokaZ in the TSS comments has been told nearly everything you've been told, too:

RIGHT. Haven’t seen this mentioned, but I just rang Argos After Sales, and they told me that they were ringing people up regarding the figurines, which they started yesterday.

What the phone call will be about I have no idea, but if they’re going alphabetically then I will be the damn last person they call.

Hope this helps/is relevant

http://www.sonicstadium.org/news/2010/11/fury-as-argos-doesnt-deliver-on-sonic-colours-pre-order-offer/comment-page-1/#comment-50165

So, it seems everyone at Argos is on the same page now, thankfully.

[Blue Blood]

I just got off the phone with them. As soon as I mentioned that I'd ordered a game and hadn't received the pre-order bonus the guy actually knew what I was talking about. He said there'd been a problem with the orders and the quickest thing to do would be to go down to a store and pick it up from there. The only other option would be to send the game back to them and they'll send you a new copy with the figurine. Balls, eh?

[jennytablina]

I just got off the phone with them. As soon as I mentioned that I'd ordered a game and hadn't received the pre-order bonus the guy actually knew what I was talking about. He said there'd been a problem with the orders and the quickest thing to do would be to go down to a store and pick it up from there. The only other option would be to send the game back to them and they'll send you a new copy with the figurine. Balls, eh?

Wait? Did the guy give details on how you can claim it from a store? I sort of suspect if I went to a store and said "Hey I preordered this game from your dumb online shop and they didn't give me the figure, gimmie one for FREE" they will likely claim the store and online service are 2 separate things so they wouldn't be obligated to give it away anyhoo.

But I'm sure the lass on the phone said they were gonna try and get them sent out separate, though it seems they are keen contact people in order or something silly like that, has anyone had Argos call them voluntarily yet?

[Detective Shadzter]

From BlastedPinata in the TSS comments:

Okay this has been resolved for me, the woman on the phone placed a reservation for the £15 Sonic figure for me and has paid it for me via Argos. I just need to go down to my local store and pick it up using my reservation number. What a hassle!

http://www.sonicstadium.org/news/2010/11/fury-as-argos-doesnt-deliver-on-sonic-colours-pre-order-offer/#comments

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'd love to know who people have been speaking to in order to get in-store reservation numbers. I just called and for me this is not resolved at all, not by a long way.

I got the same story again that they knew little about the problem, and then suddenly they had all this new information, like "Oh we'll call you back in a few days" when asked "Is that to arrange a delivery time" there was a pause follwed by "Oh... erm... yes."

They will be getting another call from me tomorrow.

This is the first and last time I shall ever order anything from this pathetic excuse for a company.

Edited November 16, 2010 by Gnasher

[jennytablina]

I'd love to know who people have been speaking to in order to get in-store reservation numbers. I just called and for me this is not resolved at all, not by a long way.

I got the same story again that they knew little about the problem, and then suddenly they had all this new information, like "Oh we'll call you back in a few days" when asked "Is that to arrange a delivery time" there was a pause follwed by "Oh... erm... yes."

They will be getting another call from me tomorrow.

This is the first and last time I shall ever order anything from this pathetic excuse for a company.

In vague defense of Argos, video games is not exactly their forte. They are a lot better with Home Tech and Furniture, though their customer service can be kind of questionable (in part because they are one of the chains that hire pretty young and hiring process is pretty weird, my brother did one "interview" there which was a sort of team-building exercise evening but I digress)

Like I said, it sounds like customer services had a specific internal email addressing this issue (its not an uncommon practice, at Tesco we get notices about specific issues, offers, things we need to work on ect.) but it's down to the employee to pay attention to the memos. I'm guessing you got unlucky and got 2 employees that didn't pay attention to their corporate email accounts.

The first lass didn't call back but I half expected that anyway, it's very rare for a customer service line to follow up of their own will. But they told me that my figure was mailed as of yesterday. So its simply a case of waiting till Friday at the latest for it to show up. Though I would assume everyone should have this done for their orders too? I don't know why some are offering in-store pick up?

[Yong]

Well I wish everyone luck with this problem. I did have something similar here in the US with the Gamestop I preordered from, which ran out of the Sonic hats. They apparently didn't get enough to fufill all the preorders and they ran out earlier this morning. They took down my name and said they would call me if they get any more. And as a consolation they gave me a Naruto baseball cap, which looks really cool and was very nice of them.

[Detective Shadzter]

From nuzamaki90 in the TSS comments:

same thing happened to me but the lady i called said that there was no such offer on the website so i told her off, showed my pictures to her(through email) and she said that tricks will get me nowhere and hung up

http://www.sonicstadium.org/news/2010/11/fury-as-argos-doesnt-deliver-on-sonic-colours-pre-order-offer/#comments

That's the worst one yet. If that really happened, then damn

[empires]

I'd love to know who people have been speaking to in order to get in-store reservation numbers. I just called and for me this is not resolved at all, not by a long way.

I got the same story again that they knew little about the problem, and then suddenly they had all this new information, like "Oh we'll call you back in a few days" when asked "Is that to arrange a delivery time" there was a pause follwed by "Oh... erm... yes."

They will be getting another call from me tomorrow.

This is the first and last time I shall ever order anything from this pathetic excuse for a company.

Yep, this is still where I am. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

Everytime I phone them, I keep getting the "We'll phone you back later today." or "We'll phone you back first thing tomorrow morning." excuse and everytime I e-mail them a complaint, their e-mail "stops working".

I know it's just a silly little figure but that's beside the point. We were all promised a free figure as a bonus with preordering with Argos and some of us still don't have said figure. Now Argos think they can throw obstacles in the way and even accuse some of us of lying about it! So much for the customer always being right

[Tomnomnom0607]

Well I just got a call from Argos. The person said that they can either send me the figure itself, or £15 worth of Argos vouchers. I took the figure of course! They said I should get it in 5-7 working days.

Looks like they have indeed sorted it out. Hopefully they'll get in contact with the rest of you shortly!

[jennytablina]

Argos called me, and they offered the figure but all the local stores are out of stock. I took the £15 gift voucher instead, because I simply don't believe the figure is worth the price Argos is trying to shell it for (and mentally it makes Colours £16 in my head, automatically making it an absolute steal instead of a total rip off)

It's a bit of a shame because I would kind of liked to have had the figure but eh, maybe it'll be on ebay sometime

[JonoD]

Same story with me.

Called this evening and they offered me the choice of Voucher or pick up from a store. I took the voucher this time around so fingers crossed that arrives!

Whilst Argos made a huge mess up with this, it is courteous of them to take care of things so well after all the fuss. Granted I won't be preordering with them again... but glad to hear there is a resolution on the way.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I might also have some magic happening my way too. I had to call them for a third time, but I might be getting some kind of resolution...

Someone draw us a picture of Robotnik inside Argos yelling "SCRATCH GROUNDER! GET THE HEDGEHOG!"

[Badnik Mechanic]

Well it took 3 nights, 3 argos customer service advisors and 3 phone calls... but finally I have my figure.

I also claimed to be a member of staff at the Sonic Stadium at one point in order to get through to them that we'd been inundated with people saying that their orders had not arrived so I knew it wasn't a stock issue or that they had run out of figures.

I got a redemption code to my email and phone. Took it into my store and got the figure.

I don't think it's worth 15p let alone £15 (if you buy it seperately), it should be free and nothing more! It's such a poor figure that even the Argos staff in the shop wanted to check they'd gotten the right one.. to quote one of their staff "It looks like it should come free in Corn Flakes..."

My advice... try to get a redemption code from their call centre and go pick one up in the store. I suppose it's good if you wish to keep it in the packaging, but certainly DO NOT BUY it seperately, it's not worth it at all!

Yes this is the £15 price, it doesn't come in a classic Jazzwares style box, it is just a 'bagged' figure, regardless as to if you buy colours or not.

[Marcello]

Wow, that's some cheap packaging.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Double post! Ohnos!

Well now... this is an interesting discovery, just noticed this on the packaging, look at the second picture I posted... See what it says in red text? "Not to be sold seperately"

But... argos are selling them seperately... for £15 each...

WHAT BLOODY PLANET ARE THEY ON!? (Insert Sonic colours planet joke). Is Sega aware/cares about what Argos is doing? Did they authroise Argos to sell these as a promotion? Only this is has been a complete and utter bloody fiasco from start to finish.

Wow, that's some cheap packaging.

It's the same as the Resident Evil 5 promotional figures that Game and Gamestation gave away with copies of the game when that came out... only they didn't charge people £15 for it if you wanted just the figure.

Edited November 18, 2010 by Gnasher

[Guest Jordan4K6]

£15? Seriously? I would pay £4 for it at the most. Very cheap packaging, I could do a better job with a empty ice cream tub.

[Buntar0]

Dear god, his arms have always looked way too long in offical PR pictures but the second photo really takes the cake.

I wish the figure looked only half as good as say... the Kotobukiya Rockman or Roll figures.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

The Jazwares figures are a lot better than this one. I'm guessing Tomy made this one themselves, given there's no actual Jazwares mention on either packaging.

Edited November 29, 2010 by chaoscontrol14

[Marcello]

For a moment I thought Sonic's head was on backwards in the second pic, but then I noticed his chest. There's something odd about it, that makes his front side look like a back side.

Edited November 18, 2010 by MarcelloF

[Detective Shadzter]

The Jazwares figures are a lot better than this one. I'm guessing Tomy made this one themselves, give there's no actual Jazwares mention on either packaging.

Jazwares did make this. Tomy just have the distribution rights in the UK. The figure looks the exact same in Australia and Europe. The U.S. is also getting this figure for sale, only it's a bit cheaper over there.

http://www.toyglobe.com/SonicColors.php

No pic there at the moment, but it's the same figure.

Glad you got this sorted in the end, Gnasher, but damn that's atrocious that they're selling these promotional figures, but wouldn't give them as the gift they're supposed to be.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Actually, I have a theory that there are actually two versions of the Colors figure. I posted this theory in the Jazwares topic. Here's the post:

I have a theory as to why this figure is so radically different. I'm thinking maybe Tomy created their own version of a mold created by Jazwares. Why do I think this? Check out these pics:

This is a pic of the final product sold in the Special Edition pack. However.....

This is a pic of what looks to be Jazwares' normal 5 Inch Sonic figure with the Wisps. I'm unsure where this pic originated from, but it is puzzling. There are even more variations between the two than just the Sonic, too! Both Sonic and The Wisps in the second pic are made of a material similar to Jazwares' other figures, rather than the shiny plastic Tomy chose for the SE Pack. Also, look at the White Wisps in both pics. There are some obvious variations between the two. The second one looks to have a smaller pupil, for example. It's possible that the NA version of the Sonic Colors figure could be very different from the SE Pack one sold internationally. Tomy could have made their own version for the SE Pack seperate from Jazwares' upcoming NA release. That may be why we haven't heard much about the Colors figure releasing in NA. Very interesting.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Tomy or Jazzwares... that is the question.

Well... on the one I have, the only maker mark is on the sole of Sonic's shoe, and it says TOMY. There is no Jazzwares logo which is very strange. Theres no makers mark on the packaging, but the Sonic has Tomy written on it as well as the date, no mention of Jazzwares.

It might look odd because it's a lot larger than typical Jazzwares figures.