UK Retailer Cancels Customer's PS4 Preorder Over Twitter Comments

UK retailer Shopto, winner of the MCV Specialist Retailer of the Year 2012, has apparently cancelled a customer’s PS4 preorder based on a Tweet he made to a friend.

[black0o]

those uk's retailers are sure A-wholes

[Thegamer41]

Wow...Iv preordered my PS4 from Shopto and this is the kind of people they have working there? As much as I love their fast deliveries, I dont think I would be buying my PS4 games from them since their prices do seems to be higher this gen compared to amazon and other places.
So many typos as well, You would think their customer service would proof read their messages before sending.

[Welshy]

i wouldn't read too much into and wait for some kind of official statement.

I've used ShopTo since 2009 and they are awesome. Pricing is fair and depending how early you preorder I've had 90% of my orders a day before release.

The GAME retailer site is the biggest offender of being terrible in my opinion!

[stavrami]

tbh although a uk company that looks like instant chat not sure how it works at shopto but reading the comments carefully there is a spelling mistake and slight misunderstanding on answers from shopto's side i have a feeling u go through to an indian/pakistan q&a switchboard and thats where this has taken place

[FamilyGuy]

Why would e even give his account info/order number to them on twitter? Seems obvious that they were intending to delete him.

Funnier is that they were stalking his twitter post, lol. Crazy how twitter gets so many people in trouble.

[thekhurg]

The guy got a FREE PS4 out of the whole thing. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.

[hakeem0996]

I APPLAUD THEM FOR FOR NOT PUTTING WITH THE CUSTOMERS BULLSHIT . I WISH ALL THE STORES DID THE SAME THING. THAT WOULD TEACH YOU MORONS HOW TO TALK TO PEOPLE. BRAVO

[nukeitall]

This guy seems like a complete @ss. Too bad he a got a free PS4 out of the whole ordeal.

It is kind of sh!tty that consumers can freely abuse the retailer, with almost no recourse.

You wouldn't blink an eye if a retailer refused to serve a drunk disordely customer, because it affects you.

Because this doesn't affect you, you give them a free pass?

[Wintersun616]

You did mean to say "that particular Shopto employee was an A-hole", right? Generalizations are bad m'kay?

[pogayoga1]

Here's the story.

Amazon.co.uk had dropped the price of the PS4 Mega Bundle by £20 to £430, but the price was still £450 on Shopto, the location where this person ordered it. He tweeted Shopto, curious as to whether they would be dropping it too. They privately messaged him saying that no, they wouldn't. He didn't want to cancel his preorder because he wouldn't be guaranteed his purchase day 1. He then had a conversation on Twitter with one of his friends, which lead to this comment.

"@TheRocketMind Had games preordered at Shopto but switching them all to Amazon to say fuck you :)"

This tweet lead to Shopto closing his account and canceling his preorder.

For more: www.neogaf.com/forum/showthrea d.php?t=696508

[Campy da Camper]

I have to side with the retailer. If I owned a business and saw a customer saying "f#$k them" on Twitter I would tell him to keep his money, don't need it that bad.

[pogayoga1]

@Campy da Camper
He never tweeted that comment the retailer.
The whole thing was to a friend. Also, their customer service was shit.

[Baka-akaB]

I dont get how the hell can you even side with the retailer there . The guy has the right to discuss things with his friends , even if its to whine , without having to s*ck up to the retailer out of fear of not getting his orders .

What the hell are they even doing monitoring his tweets in the first place , when not directed to them ?

[nukeitall]

It shouldn't matter if it is to his friend, when everyone can see the message.

Does it matter he said 'f you' to a friend when he said it over a loudspeaker?

[matgrowcott]

@Baka

You can set up keywords for the whole of Twitter. If you tweet something including a brand name or celebrity name, it'll be read by the person/brand you're talking about.

What's more surprising here is the amount of people that didn't realize this.

[Baka-akaB]

I can't stand twitter personally . And even so , you do see who's mentioning you and can choose to ignore those pointless messages . I still say it's stalker behaviour .

Besides even if a public message , as long as it wasnt diffamation and a smear campaign , it's not their business what the customer think and says .

[JetsFool3500]

Id take a retailer being an A-whole to me if I knew id be gettin a free ps4

[Cloudyday71]

The customer was upset because the big Sony PS4 bundle in UK is priced at £429 and professional retailers like Amazon.co.uk are selling it for £429. But Shopto (a suspicious internet only Brit company) are charging preorder customers an extra £450 and if they don't pay it they will cancel the order. Shopto were angry that he raised the question and tried to silence him - but they can't silence the internet. I wish the police could shut down crooked companies .

[Luthiens1]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/bus...

How does that sit with the " crooked company" shit

[falviousuk]

What a load of Bollocks you are talking, try doing some research before spouting that load of bull just just typed up.

[SonyPS360]

Convert those prices to dollars and see how badly Sony is screwing UK customrs.

[Dasteru]

They replied back and admitted they f'd up, they had thought his comment was being made directly to them and that is why they canned the account. After they realised he was talking to a friend and not them, they reopened his account and are now giving him a PS4 for free. They have more than made up for the mistake.

[black0o]

lucky Ba#$5 now he can use all that money to buy GAMESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSs

[Beastforlifenoob]

I like the twitter icon on this page (Drooling)

[Clunkyd]

Hey Shopto. Go fuck yourself!

Now do something about it bitch.

[Eamon]

lol they're giving the guy a free PS4 now. I say that's an amazing apology.

[Clunkyd]

well that's nice

[Silly Mammo]

@Clunkyd- Better hope there aren't any Shopto employees on this website. They might cancel your pre-order.

[TheTwelve]

Haha, I love when internet trash-talkers pay for their careless words. Happens far too rarely.

[mydyingparadiselost]

You mean his careless words to his friend about possible intentions to move orders because of prices?

[abc1233]

You've never complained about a company? Like, ever?

[TheTwelve]

I don't publicly say F-U to a company, no.

[SonyPS360]

@TheTwelve

It was said to a friend, and was none of their concern, so no.

[awi5951]

i bet he talks about microsoft every day this is N4g.

[TekoIie]

"As a way to make this up to the customer we have offered to restore his account and provide his PS4 free of charge."

His "careless words" got him a free PS4. He's going to be the luckiest guy at release if anything!

[TheTwelve]

Touche'

[SonyPS360]

They gave him a free Ps4. He sure paid for it alright..

[blackberty]

Their customer service is shit. I questioned them on twitter about their claim to be cheapest in Uk and they instantly replied via dm very hostile. This doesn't surprise me. I only asked nicely out of curiosity :s

[maximus1985]

why is your name blackberty? is that supposed to be some racists idea of humor? and the nude profile pic needs to go clown

[blackberty]

Sorry, have I offended you? Maybe you're a ShopTo employee ;)

[Goro]

Wow, that ShopTo employee was an unprofessional dick.

[Jihaad_cpt]

well yes, but this guy was a rude idiot first. Also I think British consumers are entitled brats

[SonyPS360]

You have an asshole name.

[Volkama]

They've gone mad with power. If I was a retailer stocking launch day PS4s I'd pull all kinds of nonsense like this :-) Fortunately I'm not.

[mcsm]

Stopped using these wankers a while back for some bullshit, hopefully this picks up and they get the full wrath of the internet.

[Mikelarry]

boy the uk retailers are sure showing thier true colours.

i also preordered with them and noticed they never even offered me the mega bundle

[BadlyPackedKeebab]

From the chats I have had with them they only list what they have. i.e. when you do a bundle swap you will only see bundles that are available to you on the same date as your current order (launch). It may be when you looked that the particular bundle was out of stock for launch. They wouldnt want people swapping their launch pre-order to a bundle that couldnt be delivered at launch would they?

[Mikelarry]

ah right thanks for the info

[PirateThom]

Meanwhile, I pre-ordered with Zavvi and had a lovely chat with a rep who confirmed my pre-order will be sent out to ensure delivery for release day, if not before, and they're sorry I couldn't pay in advance.

[BadlyPackedKeebab]

I have to put my two pence in for shopto here. Their service has never been anything short of stella to me. Have raised a few tickets recently and they have always been answered efficiently and with knowledge within half an hour or there abouts. I suspect there may be more to this story than we are seeing in the news but certainly if you have not used them before do not take this as any kind of representation of what they are like.

[iDadio]

100% Agree with this, used them for years with not a single issue with any tickets I raised. Seems to maybe someone having a bad day

[BadlyPackedKeebab]

Ill add though that service level is important. I used to use GAME online exclusively. Remember when they had that site revamp and literally nothing worked for months? that was enough to make me stop using them. Thats why PR, and trust is gold to these retailers.

[RosweeSon]

Shopto have been boycotted by me ever since the Launch of Wii U, fair enough smaller retailers normally charge a little more than say Tesco or other big chains, however after buying games on launch to see them dropped to the same price as everyone else (as they prob weren't selling ) too many times I had enough, I stuck with them as yes they practically always break street date, 99% of times my games were here on a Thursday if not a Wednesday and their points scheme was pretty good for gold member, however they don't even reward you any points for purchases on consoles and yet a normally £10 more at least than most other retailers.
After reading this article I just had to post as I'm glad it's not just me they have shafted in the past, I bought a Star Wars 360 bundle from them a nintendo 3ds on launch and a wii u however when it came to ordering the wii u console went through fine, my mario went through full price (I wanted to use the reward points Id earnt, doh!) so I though well got a good £20 on my rewards card so though hey why not get a cheap copy of nintendo land, now through absolutely no fault of my own they decide to send me 2 copies of nintendo land cos I really wanted 2, however kindly allowed me to use my near £20 worth of rewards points twice so I got 2 copies for barely £40 well I didn't ask for em, when I asked for my money to be returned as I couldn't afford it ( having just bought a wii u) I needed my last £20 back in my bank, was told I had to wait to post it back at my expense and then wait for them to pr

[mixelon]

Meh, he deserves it. Shopto's claim that Amazon avoid paying taxes is completely true. Smaller retailers shouldn't be expected to price match them as they'd go out of business. I have no problem supporting them even if theres a small price difference. Usually shoptos prices are good.

They wouldn't choose not to compete on price, and such an important part of their inventory will have had thought put into its pricing.

[Realplaya]

To be honest he got what he deserves. In this day and age words can hurt a business and yes he was negative. They explained to him why they couldn't do it and he should have said ok cancel my order and refund me then took his business elsewhere. No he decided to run on social media and bash. To anyone who thinks this company was wrong put yourselves in their shoes. You make money buy good word of mouth or you lose it due to bashing. I like the companies response. F me no f u.

[PsylentKiller]

If he was in their store, then fine. Kick him out, refund his preorder, and refuse his membership. However, he was not in their store and he was not speaking to their representatives. Even if he was speaking to them, over twitter, they should have stopped conversing with him all together or at least warned him of the repercussions. Instead, they added fuel to the fire by calling him out on his tweets to a friend when he was in fact apologizing for his behavior. This behavior on the part of shopto is unacceptable in any business. The customer is wrong if acting this way towards a representative but once that employee engages in the fight instead of deflecting to a manager or walking away the employee becomes the one at fault for contributing to the argument. How hard is it to say politely " I'm sorry, but we are not in the position to lower our price. We would like it very much if you purchased your console through us. But if you would like to buy it through someone else, we understand. I can refund you your money if you would like to do that now. "

[LordDhampire]

I hope all you people don't actually believe the bull you guys are actually saying? Are you guys just all brainwashed feom the UK? Yeah people have freedom to say what they want, why shouldn't a retailer react how they want? Yeah do I say **** you to companys all the time yes, but I say it incprivate...in no way is twitter private...twitter is not a text, not a IM its public broadcast system to all your follows be it directed at someone or not everyone can read it. We need to hold people accountable for their actions, he acted childish and insulted a conpany in public, he might as well wrote it in stone and waved it around

[PsylentKiller]

@LordDhampire

So people aren't allowed to post negative reviews if they don't like something. Googbye game journalists. Unless you have something positive to say keep your mouth shut. If you buy a video game don't ever think about posting a comment about it unless it is glowing with praise. Don't like a game, too bad. Whisper what you think about it to yourself and don't even dare to tell your friends or post it on a forum. I guess your telling me that you've loved everything you've ever bought and every company you have ever dealt with has been angelic? And if you didn't like it you never told a soul about your experience?
You've got to be kidding me?

[RosweeSon]

... Wait for them to process the whole refund (could of taken days) well as I'd paid barely £20 took it into GAME and got cash for it ;) I even told shopto I wasn't happy at all this was no fault of my own and that I was going to sell the game and re coup my money that way, their response was that if the game wasn't returned my rewards balance would continue to show minus £20 and that they had no way of amending this until my game was returned, well as I explained I will not be held to ransom over something that I had no power over, I've used them countless times and they basically tell me any further games I purchased would recieve no reward points, well I would but they would pay off my overdrawn rewards balance, I swiftly cancelled all orders and told them to whistle, I understand all companies have procedures and things but if your not even willing to be helpful and then are gonna get all snotty nasty and treat you like crap I'd rather keep my money and shop elsewhere. Long story short, shopto while great when it works it can be awful when it goes wrong, and after emailing them so many times that their website just doesn't work doesn't load things and has more spelling mistakes that a 4 year olds English book I'm not interested, i loved red dead redemption. But I don't do business with cowboys, sorry about the rant but had to do it, Shopto can whistle!!

[Gunnzie]

Shopto cancelled my account after I politely complained about an order that was never delivered. No abuse, no bad language. They just cancelled the whole account and banned my email address from re-registering. 100% genuine true story. They are crooked. Fact.

[maximus1985]

you should keep proof of this like the guy in the article so that they can pretencd to apologise and then give you a free ps4 to save face

[MaximusPrime_]

http://www.shopto.net/news/...

Apology statement from Shopto. They misunderstood who the swear word was directed to. Reinstated his account and offered PS4 Free of charge

[Gunnzie]

Damage control only because it got posted on the internet. They would have done nothing otherwise. Plenty of other people complaining about Shopto's dodgy practices. Perhaps they should post on news sites too ;)

[BG11579]

Whoa, that is a good way to loose costumers.
Don't they know, costumers are king?

[Black-Helghast]

Okay, never buying from these dudes again. c:

[RosweeSon]

As for simply games telling people you gotta buy a game or your order is cancelled, jog on!! We're your customers not guinea pigs/test subjects/toilet cleaners. Have a bit of a respect for your customers who keep you in business. I.e like Microsoft haven't been doing for there loyal launch fans who have had to re purchase the same console every year, I have no bias towards any company and I love all games an consoles but it's hard to ignore sony's ps4 with the level of services it's offering amount of free content and nintendo is just nintendo, wii u sucks , yeah see you in 12 months eating your hat, I bought 3Ds on launch day and endured 12 months or so of the same crap articles about how it was doomed... Yeah ok then just outsold wii in japan, wasn't the wii's biggest fan but it was cheap and it worked (my launch day model still works) my Super Nintendo still works for Christ sake, does my Xbox no I'm on at least my 4th console and yet they've barely scrapped to 75-80 million consoles worldwide, well I hope they enjoyed it as I can't see in a million years Microsoft will be that successful again, only really happened as Sony went and did a Kanye, went power mad and listened to their ego, now they are back in reality (something Microsoft wouldn't have a clue about) I seriously think Somy has got a real winner on its hands with the ps4, fanboys bring it on, I have a 360, ps3, wii u, 3Ds and vita (amongst others) I have no bias towards any but after a reasonably good 7 years on Xbox and serious lack of brand loyalty ( they couldn't give a rats about me or anyone as long as you give them you money) .but with new forza and dead rising being their big games it looks like a grim time to go buying a new Xbox same old same old, yawn!! I'm sure they'll pay for some exclusive awesome game but until this point halo cod assassins FIFA and all the bland things associated with an Xbox can jog on ;) and yeah I love a bit of FIFA, but not FIFA 14's roster update just play last years it's cheaper ;)

Went a bit off topic and on a bit of a rant but after weeks of reading Xbox vs ps4 and all the utter tripe I was reading just had to get it off my chest.
On failure rates Xbox wins hands down, by a country mile omission a white a black ( even sent one in for repair, dodgy disc drive for it to come back and red ring on me a week later... And that's apparently them fixing the console) think ill sit Microsoft out for a year or 2 initial they start throwing the cash at me, over £100 knocked off the original Xbox within 6 months on the market in the u.k might not be as big a price drop but if they don't sell this year early next, it goes without saying kinect will come out and prices will get dropped... Will that happen on a ps4 doubtful when it's £349 to start compared to the ps3's £425 launch price, yes I was down tesco on launchn;( doh!!! Haha.
End!

[RosweeSon]

That's brilliant for the chap maybe he can order his games from shopto as not paying for the console but too little too late, can they not read the message wasn't even sent to shopto as he sent it to his friend in a private conversation, I'm sorry but shopto can and have offered a great service numerous times but they use the worse couriers ever and if you ask them something not in their rule book they have a meltdown close your account or hold your loyalty points to ransom due to the shoddy website and technical issues their end, think ill just stick to the professionals and not no rip-off cowboys!!

[RosweeSon]

Yeah avoid amazon at all costs unless you get in their early and preorder something much cheaper than it is gonna be sold for... Zelda limited edition strategy guide box set rrp £119.99 preordered for £57 go on then! ;) they can afford it haha, didn't it with god of war ascension collectors edition as well £55 instead of £70+, suck on that amazon, pay your taxes you robbing c***s

[mhunterjr]

I don't know why the guy would want to say 'fuck you' to shop to. If they don't have the stock, they don't have the stock.

If you walk into a store and say that to a customer service rep, i wouldn't be surprised if they stopped doing business with you... I guess this is the online equivalent...

[VGscene]

Shopto as issued an apology and our original article has been updated with details.

[MaXsPoT]

You know, you can update the story here.

[joeyisback]

now he gets his account and his PS4 for free if u read the update

[Nicolee]

omg lol shopto please close my account too then.

[isa_scout]

They were in the wrong, and apologized along with reinstating his account and giving him a PS4 free of charge. Bet he's glad this all happened now...Wish someone would give me a free PS4.

[maximus1985]

imagine if amazon cancelled your account for a bad review? yeah FUCK shopto.

[JuniorCE]

http://www.shopto.net/news/...

Lucky bastard... Now he is getting the PS4 for free LoL

[WarThunder]

http://cdn.highwebmedia.com...

Really!

[llMurcielagoll]

This is quite unusual from a retailer to be this rude and screws over a customer's account.

[Daves]

But is not a 'retailer' reply per say. Just an idiot employee who'll be in HR first thing Monday morning.

But, fine line between employee and retailer. So I agree.

[Soldierone]

Every business I've learned about has always taught customer is king. As long as the customer is paying your business, you kiss their butt. Even the snobby ones that need a good punch in the face, you sit there and take their money.

Sure if he was bad mouthing the company constantly, that would lead to bad rep, but he wasn't. He was unhappy that the price wasn't matched, but kept the order there. If he had cancelled the order, then yeah they could have stepped in, but even then it would be to fix it and get his money back. How many people are selling a PS4, he could easily take his 400 dollars elsewhere, and future money elsewhere.

[Daves]

Stupid overzealous employee, wields his banstick and shopto pay for it. Never used them but I know a lot of mates who do and get really good service.

Glad he's getting a free console though. He wasn't rude when replying to shopto.

[ovnipc]

Get that pscrap for free sell it to a drone and get a real console. X1.

[jp_footy2]

Laughing my fucking playstation 4 pre-order off the planet!

[KingKevo]

And that's how you get yourself a free PS$ :d

But seriously, the was a misunderstanding and they kind of overreacted, but I think that they are not to really blame here. It was a misunderstanding and they realized it and made up for what they have done. That's all and it's ok.

[Super_ike]

this dude is getting his ps4 for free now, lucky bastard

[ICANPLAYGAMES2]

Seemed like a simple misunderstanding to me, and Shopto has even offered to make amends, and the nothing seemed abusive in the exchanges made between the customer and Shopto. Again, it's just one of those things where it pays to be careful of what you say and where you say it, as misunderstandings can and do occur. At least it worked out in the end.

[OmegaShen]

At least the person got a heads up, a person that worked at are Gamestop screw up everyone's orders. You say you want to preorder the game for PS3 and it has you preorder it for 360 an same go's for those that preorder for 360.

He end up getting moved to another store and is a manager -_- so far it sounds like they store is doing alittle better but not much as he is the manager.

I hate it when this stuff happens, I'll be even more mad if it was on a console I preorder.

[LordDhampire]

Yeah I wouldn't of canceled it...but I do support shopto, I dont know about the uk but in the US and private company has the right to refuse service to anyone, and the second he said to say **** you, he lose all credibility, anything said after that doesn't matter because its just someone trying to cover their ass because they know they got caught.

[LoveSpuds]

Have to say I have been using Shopto for many many years and have always had a brilliant service from them. I reckon I must have around 200 completed orders from them by now.

Pre Orders almost always arrive a day before the street date and their loyalty scheme is second to none.

I remember as a joke buddy of mine tweeted that Shopto should give him a free game due to all the business he had sent their way through recommendations to pals. They saw the tweet and the jammy bastard got a free game! I wouldnt have minded but it was me who recommended them to him!!!! :)

I have only had cause to contact their customer support a few times but each time they have responded really quickly and were always helpful.

I dont use twitter but my understanding is that anyone can see that tweet? If so then if he is publicly swearing about them then shouldn't they have the right to refuse to serve him? Like I said, I don't use Twitter so don't know.

[yellowgerbil]

gamestop you F'ing suck (said to a friend)
hopefully now I can get a free PS4 too

[Vip3r]

I've never used shopto since KZ2 was released. Upon preordering that from them, myself and hundreds of other people had their bank accounts comprimised and I had £1000 stolen. I did get it back though but never bought anything from them since then.

They did also have the cheek to say it wasn't their fault either. Bellends.

[kingPoS]

Ahh! Twitter... where everyone takes it personally.

[SynestheticRoar]

That's mess up. Tweet sorry.

[MikeNike310]

That's not right

[MGRogue2017]

A free PS4 console for him after ShopTo cancelling his account, apologizing & then reopening his account. Don't you think that's a little too much as a 'sorry' gift?

Its a PlayStation 4, ya know.. not a £30 gift voucher lol. What a joke, The customer does not that console at all.

But then again.. This makes him happy & will want to purchase his games/consoles from them more. Articles about this incident will get people talking about this situation too thus more attention/exposure for ShopTo = great success.

[Tidybrutes]

They've recitfed the mistake and now he is getting a free PS4 as an applogy, I buy everything from shopto, they are by FAR the best games retailer in the uk.

[Jack_Reacher]

Maybe that employee is about to discover he himself is actually paying for the guys PS4. That would be a killer. Not that that would ever happen of course.

To add I have never had an issue with Shopto so far. Bought plenty from them. Dont think there prices are as competitive as they use to be. For anyone in the u.k, I have often found ASDA to be good at discounting games, for all consoles.

[Jack-Wolf21]

Don't think that Twitter is the best way to communicate with a customer now is it. Sort your self out!

[UnHoly_One]

I can scarcely believe the number of people that are taking the side of this spoiled punk kid.

I'm disappointed that the store switched their stance and caved, now the brat will always think he can get away with this crap.

Seriously guys, WTF is wrong with you? The kid was being an asshole and deserved to be punished for it.

Shopto did nothing wrong by canceling his order, I applaud them for it.