The GrubHub promo problems

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Originally Posted by ShiroeTengoku

Went to customer service and made sure to ask a few select questions, just to make sure they actually know what's going on, even at service level. They do apparently.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...54314/GHp1.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...40138/GHp2.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...94320/GHp3.png

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Careful, you'll get yelled at by the white knights on this form for being 'mean to customer service.' I did.

I called Grubhub on Monday because I haven't received mine yet. Customer Service looked at my account and said they do see it on my account and the actual order I used it on and that I should get it, but that it hasn't been sent out yet. She said there was a glitch on Grubhub's side and not all codes have been sent out yet and I should get within two weeks. I guess we'll see if I get it or not.

This is one of the worst promos I've ever seen a video game do lol

edit: also the customer service thing, it isn't really a big deal I work in CS
you are 100% justified in getting angry at a company because they didn't give you something you payed for.

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

Careful, you'll get yelled at by the white knights on this form for being 'mean to customer service.' I did.

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They weren't mean to customer service though. They were upset and let them know that they won't use them anymore, but that's just lodging a complaint to the representative. I've done that before. I do say "hey I know this isn't your fault" and I thank them for their time, but I will still let them know if I won't be using the service. The rep isn't going to personally care nor do I expect them to, but most companies have their customer service log that info somewhere.

So now that it's happening to everybody it's okay to be pissed, but when I dared to be mean to CS I got chewed out on here ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...B-BE-DAMNED%21)

Still waiting on SE to make this right....

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

So now that it's happening to everybody it's okay to be pissed, but when I dared to be mean to CS I got chewed out on here ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...B-BE-DAMNED%21)

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That...that did kinda hurt to read.
You have the right to be angry but you kinda chewed that person out.

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Originally Posted by CactusBlossom

That...that did kinda hurt to read.
You have the right to be angry but you kinda chewed that person out.

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Well you're another one here for my growing ignore list.

Regarding how many players this screwed over, here are some links. I invite people to start counting if they're curious to see how quickly it adds up:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/searc...nsfw=&sort=new

https://twitter.com/search?q=grubhub...d_query&f=live

https://twitter.com/search?q=grubhub...d_query&f=live


Regarding gamer blog coverage of this entire incident, from what I've discovered so far:

https://mmos.com/news/final-fantasy-...d-quite-a-stir

https://gamerant.com/final-fantasy-1...za-emote-code/

https://gamactica.com/portals/2021/1...otion-blunder/

https://massivelyop.com/2021/12/20/f...y-random-draw/

Regarding my personal desire to see companies held accountable when they're dishonest or deceptive (particularly in response to Krotoan):
Certainly there are people out there who do not have the time, energy, money, skills, and/or assertiveness to speak out or act out when they've been taken advantage of; quite frankly, that is all of us at some point or another. There are also those who have been taken advantage of so rarely and/or in such small, brief ways that when it does happen, they just don't care. They don't have much emotional investment in it because, in their experience, it's just a one-off. A random, rare happenstance. I am obviously not one of those people. I have witnessed and experienced a lot, which has seriously made me fed up. It does make me more reactive. I acknowledge it. There's a reason the phrase "the straw that broke the camel's back" exists.

I have the right to expect companies to honor their side of business/financial transactions. I have the right to stand up for myself. I have the right to consider or pursue various legal means to do so, however "extreme" or "silly" or "dumb" or "overdone" those means may seem according to various bystanders' judgments. You have the right not to care about any company's dishonesty in any particular circumstance, whether it has impacted you or not. You have the right to your opinions about how people who are screwed over should or should not choose to react or handle it. No one is saying you have to take part in any activism of any kind, nor that you have to approve of any efforts to hold companies accountable. You do you.

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

So now that it's happening to everybody it's okay to be pissed, but when I dared to be mean to CS I got chewed out on here ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...B-BE-DAMNED%21)

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You didn't quote me so I don't know if you are referring to my post about the customer service? I didn't see your post before (I'm not in the forums all the time). I actually didn't call Grubhub until Monday when I realized others in my FC were getting the codes and I hadn't (I'm not the only one in my FC who haven't gotten it though) and then I looked on Reddit and saw others had also not gotten theirs like me and a couple other FC mates. So I called Grubhub.

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

So now that it's happening to everybody it's okay to be pissed, but when I dared to be mean to CS I got chewed out on here ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...B-BE-DAMNED%21)

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Nah it's still not okay. You're bitching at the wrong people, take it up with SE, not some employee from GH who's probably never played or even heard of FF14.

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Originally Posted by Yahallo

Ask for a refund if the only reason why you made the order to begin with was for the emote. Tell them that you feel cheated and scammed, and if you are certain you properly applied the promocode, tell them that the advertisement for the promo was incredibly deceptive.

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They would not refund me

Square Enix just tweeted this regarding the grubhub situation:
https://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status...946427904?s=20

Let's see what happens next then.

I am in chat with Grubhub now, and it is not going well.

The Tweeted update from Square Enix approximately one hour ago and the updated Grubhub info page do not seem to be making any difference.

The customer service rep I'm experiencing right now has said:
"Upon checking, the terms and conditions states to wait 2 weeks to redeem the emote starting 12/17."

Meanwhile, Grubhub's own recently updated web page says, "Grubhub did not use a lottery system to select promo code recipients; all qualifying orders during the promotional period received their FINAL FANTASY® XIV Online Endwalker Eat Pizza emote on 12/17/2021 via email from email@a.grubhub.com. If you did not receive your FINAL FANTASY® XIV Online Endwalker Eat Pizza emote code, please reach out to the Grubhub CARE team. Please have your order number and email address associated with your Grubhub account ready."

Bold is my emphasis.

The saga continues.

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Originally Posted by Nekaru_Infitima

So now that it's happening to everybody it's okay to be pissed, but when I dared to be mean to CS I got chewed out on here ( https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...B-BE-DAMNED%21)

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Your example shows you being rude and abusive AT the rep. Their example shows them expressing their anger at the company but not the rep. Giant difference.

A further update: After the rep said about the 2 weeks, I said I'd like to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor, Valeria P., came and said:

TP - Valeria P.
I apologize for the inconvenience and I fully understand how you feel, I can see the promotion was not applied in your order correctly, it was applied manually by an agent and not by you at the checkout of your order, that´s why the email was not sent and it won´t be sent.
However, I do want to make it up to you, so in this case, I can gladly offer to fully refund the order as an apology for the inconvenience. Would this work for you?

I reiterated that, when I look at my grubhub orders page, it still shows the ENDWALKER code there. I also quoted the chat rep from the night I ordered and experienced troubles with the site, who said, "TP - Ezequiel C: Sorry for the inconvenience that this causes, the email of the emote will reach you this in process."

In response, Valeria P said:

Your order doesn´t have the code applied in the system , we completely apologize for the whole situation and for the bad experience.

In the end, I decided to take the full refund. It's apparent to me that neither Grubhub nor Square Enix are going to go back and properly pass out emotes to participants in the campaign. They must have run the numbers and decided it was cheaper for them to refund people in full for their orders rather than spend the man power individually fixing the situation with mailed codes.

I still wonder whether the whole thing was, in fact, a secret lottery. If it was, we are not likely to get a confession at this point. I no longer care. This is me, signing out, ya'll. Well, I will be signing out. I will actually go into my spouse's grubhub now and handle it there. I will post the results here shortly.

Just got off customer support and can echo. The rep offered a discount code to me, not even a refund. I might send the spouse to go and escalate it further because that was an expensive order that didn't need to be delivered.

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Originally Posted by mcpolecat

Just got off customer support and can echo. The rep offered a discount code to me, not even a refund. I might send the spouse to go and escalate it further because that was an expensive order that didn't need to be delivered.

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No, you should be getting a refund. Did you say you'd like to speak to a supervisor? Use the chat contact on their web site and immediately say you'd like to speak to a supervisor. I say immediately only because you've already had a recent discussion with a rep.

My spouse's order was just refunded in full as well. I will post updates.

I received a notice from SE and they said it's not them that issues the codes and to contact GH. I contacted GH and they said they are sorry and it shouldn't be that way and that I should contact again later because GH SHOULD take care of this mess. Yes, it was basically like that with those words used, though paraphrased. We'll see what happens but the person on the other side was really nice and very sorry compared to the first person i asked last week.

I just messaged them via chat and gave them my order numbers and they told me:

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Thank you for waiting. My apologies. This problem was already reported. One of our specialists is working right now to find out why most of our customers didn't receive that code, but they are going to do their best to resend the promo code via email. Unfortunately, they didn't provide a time frame but as soon as they provide a time frame I will let you know via email.

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"Most of our customers" yikes

A brief recap of my earlier posts:

Square Enix finally acknowledges this promo disaster
https://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status...946427904?s=20
edit: old link stopped working. This one does work: https://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN/status...62764946427904

Grubhub identifies codes went out on 12/17 & claims it was not a lottery
(scroll down on page to FAQ)
https://lp.grubhub.com/gameawards/

I contacted Grubhub about my order
As mentioned in an earlier post about 20 mins ago, a supervisor told me that because my code was manually applied by a rep due to a technological error on their end, I will not be receiving the pizza emote. She offered to refund me in full. I took the refund.

Spouse contacted Grubhub about their order, approx 15 mins ago
This conversation was stranger than mine.

AT - Andrea R. GC
No, the information provided [from Valeria P to wife] is correct, we are unable to fix it, since we are unable to issue the code. Yet we suggest allowing the time frame for the system to generate the code and be sent.
We can proceed either way.

Reminder, Valeria P told me 30 minutes ago:

I apologize for the inconvenience and I fully understand how you feel, I can see the promotion was not applied in your order correctly, it was applied manually by an agent and not by you at the checkout of your order, that´s why the email was not sent and it won´t be sent.

If you are paying attention, dear reader, you can see that the two reps both gave conflicting versions about what would happen moving forward.

My spouse did not want to end up with the pizza emote after this whole ordeal, seeing as I would never get one from my order. He requested the full refund and it was immediately applied. Better to have the cash back in the bank. If mogstore ever adds the emote, maybe we will both buy it then since we got all of our money back from this fiasco. Then again, IDK if either of us want the emote anymore considering it makes us both think of this entire scam/fiasco/incident/you-pick-the-word.


continued...

Suggested next steps
But hey, you do you.

1. Go to Grubhub Chat, quote their FAQ section, identify your order # and email. Listen to whatever random reason/excuse/explanation the rep gives you. Then, politely but firmly just say that you'd like to speak to a supervisor. Reiterate all of the above to the supervisor. Wait for them to offer you the refund. They likely will. If they don't, then simply state you'd like a full refund.
   
   (FAQ Quote: "All qualifying orders ($15 minimum order total before taxes, tip and fees during the promotional period) received the FINAL FANTASY® XIV Online Endwalker Eat Pizza emote via the email address associated with their Grubhub account on 12/17/2021. Please check spam and junk folders. If you did not receive your emote code, please reach out to the Grubhub CARE team and have your order number and email address associated with your Grubhub account ready.")
   
   
2. Get your full refund. Check the orders page and your email to confirm that the refund was processed. Keep an eye out for your bank statement to confirm that it goes through.
   
3. Post here about your experience/success. Keep the thread high up in the forums so that others see it and also are encouraged to take action rather than just throwing up their hands in exasperation.
   
   
4. Consider not supporting Grubhub again in the future
   
   
5. Really pause before considering taking part in a future crossover campaign for any in-game digital items since Square Enix will not fix it -- and apparently SE requires A LOT of negative forum posts & blog articles before they will acknowledge the situation. I wrote SE customer service approximately 7 times and each time got a canned PR response telling me to speak with Grubhub. (But, hey, again, you do you. You want to gamble with your cash, go for it. I won't judge you. Each to their own.)

At this point, I'm out ya'll. I've been enough of a "rager," right? ;)

Stick up for yourself. If you're struggling with assertiveness, see this brief guide:
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/ass...echniques.html

If you want an in-depth guide, I highly recommend "When I Say No, I Feel Guilty" by Manuel Smith. Horrible cover design and cheesy title. Book itself is worth its weight in gold even if some of the example situations are dated.

Anyway, on that web site brief guide, particularly look at the section on broken record / stuck record. This is all you need to do. No need for name calling, etc. Just keep repeating I'd like to speak to a supervisor. I would like a full refund.

Take care ya'll o/

Just got out of my 4th chat with GrubHub CS. Ended up getting a full refund as they now claim the code was never applied.

Which was weird because it was applied the first 3 times I contacted and I "just needed to wait".

Whatever. At least I got my money back, so free pizza basically.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ConcernedPerson

Suggested next steps
But hey, you do you.

1. Go to Grubhub Chat, quote their FAQ section, identify your order # and email. Listen to whatever random reason/excuse/explanation the rep gives you. Then, politely but firmly just say that you'd like to speak to a supervisor. Reiterate all of the above to the supervisor. Wait for them to offer you the refund. They likely will. If they don't, then simply state you'd like a full refund.
   
   (FAQ Quote: "All qualifying orders ($15 minimum order total before taxes, tip and fees during the promotional period) received the FINAL FANTASY® XIV Online Endwalker Eat Pizza emote via the email address associated with their Grubhub account on 12/17/2021. Please check spam and junk folders. If you did not receive your emote code, please reach out to the Grubhub CARE team and have your order number and email address associated with your Grubhub account ready.")
   
   
2. Get your full refund. Check the orders page and your email to confirm that the refund was processed. Keep an eye out for your bank statement to confirm that it goes through.
   
3. Post here about your experience/success. Keep the thread high up in the forums so that others see it and also are encouraged to take action rather than just throwing up their hands in exasperation.
   
4. Consider not supporting Grubhub again in the future
   
   
5. Really pause before considering taking part in a future crossover campaign for any in-game digital items since Square Enix will not fix it -- and apparently SE requires A LOT of negative forum posts & blog articles before they will acknowledge the situation. I wrote SE customer service approximately 7 times and each time got a canned PR response telling me to speak with Grubhub. (But, hey, again, you do you. You want to gamble with your cash, go for it. I won't judge you. Each to their own.)

At this point, I'm out ya'll. I've been enough of a "rager," right? ;)

Stick up for yourself. If you're struggling with assertiveness, see this brief guide:
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/ass...echniques.html

If you want an in-depth guide, I highly recommend "When I Say No, I Feel Guilty" by Manuel Smith. Horrible cover design and cheesy title. Book itself is worth its weight in gold even if some of the example situations are dated.

Anyway, on that web site brief guide, particularly look at the section on broken record / stuck record. This is all you need to do. No need for name calling, etc. Just keep repeating I'd like to speak to a supervisor. I would like a full refund.

Take care ya'll o/

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Glad you're at least back where you were before the whole thing. I agree with your suggested course of action here.

I can contribute that over every cross-promotion I've ever participated in with SE they seem to hand over all distribution and dispute resolution to whomever they partner with. Depending on the partner the promotion either goes well or horribly. Amazon went well, Butterfinger had problems but was quick to get people resolved. Grubhub has been one of the worst so far. SE isn't completely clean in this, but they've at least been consistent and their claims have not changed.

Honestly, their promos have been fine, and sure there is usually a wrinkle from large demand, which is to be expected. The butterfingers one was brutal for some, but they were honored to my knowledge. This has been the worst of them all, and I'm really hoping as I stated earlier SE wises up from this experience. They've proven to be capable of it from base, to ARR, to all expansions after, so I have faith they will. Regardless, we know that it was Grubhub trying to make business on the heels of Shadowbringers success, and the fumbling of this has probably cost them business rather than create. Only time will tell.

Edit: Finished with CS, screenies:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...81074/GHp4.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...32872/GHp5.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...52892/GHp6.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...64842/GHp7.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...07646/GHp8.png

Just tried chat with the FAQ in hand.

First guy hung up on me. Second gave the 'just wait longer' suggestion.

https://i.imgur.com/B5sbauA.png

https://i.imgur.com/xef8bds.png

8 days later, still no code.

Would a lawyer even look at this as a possible class-action lawsuit against GrubHub?

After all, their FAQ contradicts their "while supplies last" T&C by stating "There was no limit to the number of customers who could receive the Eat Pizza emote during the promo period of 7:30pm ET on December 9 to 11:59pm ET on December 15."

I just finished talking to grubhub cs and it seems they're still honoring codes that were applied:
(Grubhub CS) Sorry for making you wait! I've seen that the promo code has been successfully applied to that order and went through our system with no problems. Promo codes for the emote are still being sent through this week! They are having some issues because of the large quantities of requests but you should receive your code throughout the next few days! :)

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Originally Posted by HaffenManaheart

8 days later, still no code.

Would a lawyer even look at this as a possible class-action lawsuit against GrubHub?

After all, their FAQ contradicts their "while supplies last" T&C by stating "There was no limit to the number of customers who could receive the Eat Pizza emote during the promo period of 7:30pm ET on December 9 to 11:59pm ET on December 15."

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They wouldn't because their ToS states they can change their promo at any time for any reason

Well just had a chat with a CS, claimed the 2 weeks wait started on Dec. 17th so told me to wait until at least the end of the month. They confirmed the code was applied to my order so I guess I'll wait for a little longer... This is truly a mess, they knew they would have high demand yet did not prepare accordingly.

I placed my order with GrubHub the day the promotion ended (about four hours before) and got my code for the emote on the 17th as advertised. So it seems like people not getting their codes is either a technical glitch or it really was random -- I ordered so late that if they did "run out" there's no way I would have gotten one.

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Originally Posted by Kyrj

Nah it's still not okay. You're bitching at the wrong people, take it up with SE, not some employee from GH who's probably never played or even heard of FF14.

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SE told us to take it up with GH. So your suggestion comes from ignorance and I really don't care about your opinion. They deserved it. Piece of scam company.

The company does, absolutely. But the base level employees there have no control on this, and they're the ones suffering along with us. Being angry is totally justified, but it really isn't their fault, and yelling at them is just causing undue stress on the wrong people. Run a flame campaign on Twitter or Facebook and ping the company itself, but the poor sods on the other side of our screens/phones are trapped in between.

So I just got done chatting with Grubhub... again. They told me that A ) The promo code WAS applied to my order. (I was told this a few times already.) B ) That you should get your item code within 2 weeks OF YOUR ORDER DATE. I placed my order on Friday the 10th, so supposedly I should have my pizza emote not later than end of day tomorrow... We'll see.

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Originally Posted by OracleLunaFaye

So I just got done chatting with Grubhub... again. They told me that A ) The promo code WAS applied to my order. (I was told this a few times already.) B ) That you should get your item code within 2 weeks OF YOUR ORDER DATE. I placed my order on Friday the 10th, so supposedly I should have my pizza emote not later than end of day tomorrow... We'll see.

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I know this is what they have told a lot of people, but the CS person I talked to told me the countdown on the wait was from the 17th, not from the order date. And I think that makes more sense in this context. It is stupid they decided to wait until the 17th because it was obvious it was going to snowball, they should have started delivering the codes as they were getting the orders. I think we'll have to wait until at least the end of the year.

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Originally Posted by Aethen

I know this is what they have told a lot of people, but the CS person I talked to told me the countdown on the wait was from the 17th, not from the order date. And I think that makes more sense in this context. It is stupid they decided to wait until the 17th because it was obvious it was going to snowball, they should have started delivering the codes as they were getting the orders. I think we'll have to wait until at least the end of the year.

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Yeah I really wish they would at least give out the same info. I'm aware that lots of people are saying they were told 2 weeks from the 17th witch would be Dec 31st. So when I chatted with the rep this morning I specifically asked if the 2 weeks was from my order date, the end of the promo period, or the beginning of the code deliveries. They told me 2 weeks from my order date. :/

TBH at this point I'll be really surprised if I get the emote code at all.

SE really should get to the bottom of this it will make them look bad due to association.

Just adding my experience to this:

The Grubhub site glitched when I entered my order and didn't register the code.

When I reached out to support about it after I found out that was a thing, the person I spoke to was able to apply the promo code and claimed I would still get the item code emailed to me.

As of today, still no email with an item code. Reached out to support today and now they're claiming there was a limited number of codes and they ran out.

I have transcripts of both conversations if SE needs me to provide transcripts.

This was a super frustrating and unfortunate experience for me. My wife and I made an order during the appropriate time. Her and I use the group order system so we can order on our individual devices, which helps to avoid order anxiety. It's really quite handy, all in all. Unfortunately, as it turns out, doing a group order disqualifies you from the promotion. This doesn't really make sense to me though, as even though it's technically a group order, there's only one Grubhub user filling out the order (we both log in with the same Grubhub account). We didn't expect to get more than one code, and we're even Grubhub+ customers for free delivery, so the free delivery aspect of the promotion didn't really matter to us. My wife and I both play FFXIV, but she was willing to let me have the emote, since I'd been having a rough time. Now, as it seems, no one got the code, and Grubhub support's only words of advise are "but hey, keep an eye out for future promotions!" Right, because after this kind of experience, I'm truly incentivized to trust their end of the bargain again.

The Grubhub promotion page's terms and conditions were in 10 point font at the bottom of the page. They're not out anything because they got my money for the order, and the terms and conditions indemnify from them from any repercussions. By all technicality, my order is in the wrong. By the spirit of the promotion, I ordered food for two, expecting one code for a neat emote, and won't get it because we use a feature of Grubhub's website to avoid some anxiety and have a pleasant ordering experience.

I don't really expect to get a code at this point. Not really the point of this, I guess. I implore SE to avoid working with Grubhub for promotions like this in the future. The way Grubhub support treated my case was truly disheartening, and had the condition of not using the group order feature been in something clearer than 10 point font on the order page all the way at the bottom, we would have worked around the situation. Instead, I'm left empty handed.

At least the burger was good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HaffenManaheart

8 days later, still no code.

Would a lawyer even look at this as a possible class-action lawsuit against GrubHub?

After all, their FAQ contradicts their "while supplies last" T&C by stating "There was no limit to the number of customers who could receive the Eat Pizza emote during the promo period of 7:30pm ET on December 9 to 11:59pm ET on December 15."

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You might have something if you go the false advertisement route, but I am not sure how high of a chance you would have. I wouldn't be too optimistic about that. Rather, the best thing to do is just get a refund like a bunch of others have been suggesting. If they repeatedly refuse to offer a refund, then threaten them with a chargeback, failing that actually do the chargeback (as by this point, you have made the good faith effort to resolve it with Grubhub). Chances are though, you'll get the refund and essentially got a free meal on Grubhub for their incompetence.