The Australian retailer EB Games has issued an apology to customers overnight after it announced it erroneously listed and accepted pre-orders for the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Master Edition bundle, even though the bundle will not be coming to Australia.
When Nintendo announced the price of the Switch late Friday evening, they also unveiled two special bundles: the Limited Edition Bundle, and a Limited Collectable Bundle. The former was available at retail stores (including EB Games), while the latter was to be sold exclusively through Nintendo Australia’s eBay store.
But there was a third edition of Zelda available: The Master (or Masters) Edition. Along with a statue of the Master Sword, it comes with a collectible coin, soundtrack, A3 map, the game and a special Sheikah carry case. The carry case was not part of the Limited Collectable Bundle or Limited Edition bundles in Australia according to Nintendo’s original release, and the Master Edition wasn’t being made available here either.
Naturally, when EB Games listed the Master Edition bundle on their website, demand was palpable.
A cached version of the Master Edition listing on the EB Games website.
Users pre-ordered the game, receiving receipts with “Master Edition” on them, as one gamer at Syndicate of Gamers did. The following morning, however, they noticed their pre-order had been changed to the Limited Edition without notification.
EB notified users later in the day that their pre-orders had been switched over, with users posting the email on social media.
“We have moved your existing pre-order over to the Limited Edition to ensure you have the opportunity to get one,” the email reads.
It’s a huge disappointment for customers, since the special carrying case was one of the huge drawcards. It meant they could get the special edition of a game they were going to get anyway with a cool looking accessory that they would have probably bought at some stage.
But the sticking point here isn’t the incorrect listing, but the part where pre-orders were automatically converted over to another product. I asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission whether EB should have refunded all pre-orders beforehand, or whether an email should have been sent out before the pre-orders were switched over, and I put the same questions to EB as well.
In a response via email, EB said the Master Edition “was never coming to Australia” and the image posted online was an honest error. “Based on our current information, this region will only be receiving the standard edition and the limited edition which is now presold out at EB Games.”
“All pre-orders on the incorrectly posted Master Edition have been transferred to the limited edition, prior to it selling out. This ensured that no customer that pre-ordered the incorrect edition missed out. However, if any customer does not wish to keep their order, they are more than welcome to a full refund.”
When pressed on why they switched customers over automatically, EB said they did so “due to the speed that popular editions like this can presell out”. “If we had waited for customers to respond with their preference then many would have missed out entirely,” their representative added.
The competition regulator also told me that retailers were able to rectify errors in advertising or listings “if they ensure they offer the consumer a refund or alternative product” for sale. “Mistakes can be rectified in this method,” an ACCC spokesperson explained.
And that’s the most apt description: a genuine mistake. EB were super proactive during the Nintendo presentation, with pre-orders for games and accessories going live minutes after they were announced. And switching the pre-orders over isn’t an attempt to screw consumers, but an opportunity to make sure people don’t have to scramble a second time to make sure they get a special edition of Zelda.
But sometimes you can move a little too quickly, which created the situation that unfolded above. Kotaku Australia understands that Limited Edition bundles of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are available at other retailers; JB Hi-Fi has stock right now.
Comments
44 responses to “EB Accidentally Took Pre-Orders For A Zelda Bundle That Isn’t Coming To Australia”
v. disappointed the Switch Case didn’t make it to Australia. It means it’s basically $100 for a plastic statue, a coin, a map and a CD. No sale for me.
yeah, i might remove my order as the case is the main draw point.
There are Zelda cases coming.
There needs to be a little bit more clarification on the CD itself as well. The Masters edition says Soundtrack, and the Limited edition says Sound Selection. and the cover and disc art are both different
Interesting point! This is bothersome also.
I want my Sheikah slate case!
WHERE’S MY ELEPHANT
Hey, they’re playing the Elephant song!
I want some taquitos.
Time and again, for years now.
Across multiple different Nintendo products.
Australian games retail simply fucks up royally.
How this is always an issue is absolutely staggering.
Yes, ‘mistakes were made’ is an apt description and in this particular case it’s been discovered as simply that, a mistake.
It’s the cumulative effect which is galling. Nintendo products always seem go on sale in this country with some sort of issue.
To say nothing of the pre-order fiascos in general. This country isn’t America, so I accept pre-orders are a viable solution to video-game stock management.
I’m guessing EB merely jumped the gun and assumed they were getting the same master edition before being told they are getting a different one.
And many wanted the $100 extra pack for more than a $30 case and they would have been upset if the error meant they had to miss out.
Well at least they didn’t cancel all the orders like they did for the botched Arkham knight batmobile collectors editon – they switched them over to the other edition and gave them the option to cancel – at least that way they don’t miss out.
When they cancelled the Arkham knight batmobile edition everyone who pre-ordered that version missed out on any collectors edition, despite them selling the other collectors editons still after the fact.
Yep as one of those who got screwed with Arkham I agree.
Was thinking the same. The complaints would have been tenfold if they simply cancelled the orders, denying these fans even any collectible.
Mistake was made, at least they didnt multiply it like they would have in the past.
I was so pissed off about that, but that wasn’t EBs fault but WB.
Well it was kind of EB’s fault because they didn’t offer the pre-order customers the choice of the other collectors edition – even though they still had plenty of them left to sell after
And Nintendo continues the disappointment train.
This happened to me. I rarely go for special editions, but this caught me eye and I jumped on board.
Then I went on the site the following day to browse some other stuff and noticed that the inclusions had changed without any notification!
The shifty loss of value prompted me to bail on it all together. The regular edition, from another retailer, will do me just fine.
Uh did everyone miss the point that the Switch is region free. So feel free to grab an overseas copy, job done great job.
by the time we realised this had happened, the master edition was sold out
Yep that certainly sux sorry to hear.
Unless I’m missing somewhere (and not including places like Ebay), by the time EB told anyone they’d fixed the problem, the Master Edition was already sold out worldwide
I was so happy when I pre-ordered what I thought was the Master Edition with the included Switch case being the best part of the pack. I probably won’t cancel it because I’m a sucker for special editions in general but this is a huge disappointment. I’m at least hoping that a Zelda Switch case will be released for launch otherwise I will have to get that plain black one.
There is one I’ve seen on Amazon or somewhere. Not the exact same design but a similar idea.
It’s important to note that they did not immediately notify customers to the change. They did it overnight in secret, and only let customers know 3 days after the fact, which was far too late to give them the opportunity to source the correct edition from overseas. I was dissapointed by the edition change, but in the end it’s not that big of a deal.
The real problem here was their lack of communication and the way they handled it. For me, all they had to do was offer customers an immediate notification to the change, and a sincere apology as soon as it had happened. Any reasonable person would be okay with giving them a few days to work tings out before giving further information. But unfortunately that’s not how they went about it. Even with the batman arkham knight collectors edition debacle, I think they did everything within their power to help customers by offering a discount to the RRP of the special edition. It was far from ideal, but they made an effort.
In this case there was a literal downgrade, done in secret with late notification, no offer of a discount and no added substitute for the removed items. It may not be illegal, but it is certainly disrespectful to customers to keep them in the dark for 3 days before saying there is nothing they can do.
I some how feel that they should include a preorder bonus similar switch case as reparations for the botched job.
Not the same thing, but goes a long way.
That’s a great idea. I would be happy with this. Please EB, include the standard switch case for people who pre ordered it while it was listed as the Master Edition.
You’ll also note there is no offer or notice whatsoever in the email that the customer is entitled to a full refund if they did not want the limited edition instead. And I know from experience that cancelling an online order with EB without some sort of written offer prior is like getting teeth pulled >.
@alexwalker I’ve yet to see an email notification on my order change. as it stands the only emails i have from EB Games are my order confirmation for master edition, a couple of promotional emails, and an unrelated preorder confirmation.
my issue isnt that they changed me over to the limited by default, im glad they did, but its the fact that they didnt even notify me about it that i have an issue with.
I raised that with them and put the question to the ACCC as well. I didn’t get an answer from either on that point, which is to say it’s not illegal but (imo) it’s certainly not the best way to treat customers either.
I got my email at 5:39pm yesterday. It says the sender is Websales though, so you might have missed it.
Ahh… Ok got it. Missed it coming from Websales, blended in nicely with all the other spam…
@alexwalker , looks like i got it but missed it because of the sended being websales. Received at 5:35pm 16th Jan
im willing to bet the apology only came as a result of them getting flamed over twitter yesterday morning
Still nothing here.
Yeah I’ll be heading in store to cancel my preorder of the now limited edition. I only went for the master edition for the carrying case, I have enough trinkets and plastic on my shelf from games.
Along with some other people it seems, yeah still haven’t received that email. It’s honestly real crap that we aren’t getting that case though… it was the best part of the bundle. Come on Nintendo…
+1. I honestly would have preferred to have the overseas Limited Edition, with the case and no statue. Big stupid thing that’s just gonna take up space and probably not even look that nice. But I jumped on the Master Edition because oh well it’s all we’re getting.
Didn’t even know about the Limited Collection thing, though some places don’t say it has the map while others say it does. And it still has the stupid statue. And nothing about price. And then there’s the thing about the soundtrack vs the “sound selection” mentioned above.
Nintendo why are you making it so easy to hate you.
They should at least drop the price to reflect what we are actually getting.
We weren’t even notified same day, we were notified the Monday after the orders went live on Friday.
I think EB Games definitely made the right call here. Let people decide if they still want the limited edition after the change. I would have been pissed if I my order was cancelled just because i ordered too early and then didn’t have the opportunity to get the Limited Edition. The only ones to blame in this situation is Nintendo Australia/ Europe for not giving us the Master Edition that we all wanted in the first place.
Exactly twice I’ve pre-ordered with EB, and twice they’ve fucked up royally. Never again.
Good move EB, at least there refund if there dissatisfication
why is nobody mentioning that the bundle still costs $189? which is roughly the exchange for $129 usd plus tax?
so not only did we get completely ripped off by preordering a product that we aren’t getting, but we are also getting completely ripped off by the price! i have run out of reasons to defend nintendo. this is absolute trash.
edit: i also still haven’t gotten an email yet mentioning any of this. i found out on my own a few days ago when i went to the site to show my gf the bundle and noticed the case was missing. unreal.
$469.95 + $189.95 = $659.90 thats alot of a console and one game. If im not mistaken you have to pay to play online like Live and PS Plus. i just dont see the value in the product. I have had every Nintendo console from the snes to the Wii. The Wii got a few plays then the gimmick wore off games i wanted to play are few and far between.
You can just get 469.95 + $89.95 if you are not going to get the limited edition. No one is forcing you get get it. 🙂