The GrubHub promo problems

[ConcernedPerson]

update: spouse & I still have not received our emote codes for our 2 separate orders.

I've been thinking about accountability. How do you hold companies accountable when they exploit or con so many customers in a campaign like this?

Some ideas, for after the 2-week mark from Grubhub... A full-page crowd sourced ad run in major newspapers, like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, that basically says "Shame on you Grubhub & Square Enix. You told players that if they ordered $15 worth of food from Grubhub before fees between these dates, you would deliver an in-game item code. You did not do that. You screwed over hundreds/thousands of players.

Considering the number of people scammed by this, it actually would probably be easy to crowd-source.

Another idea. I'm going to assume that a lot of the players who were screwed over are college students, many of whom may live or commute to college campuses and who are part of various clubs/organizations/etc. College students could go around campus to bulletin boards, etc., posting flyers saying basically the same as above.

Another idea. Go to popular game reviewers on YouTube who cover Final Fantasy, particularly any that mentioned the pizza emote (e.g. Meoni), and flood the comments section, identifying yourself as one of the players conned by Grubhub & Square Enix.

Another idea. The next time Square Enix does a livestream event where there's commenting, e.g. on YouTube, flood the comments, referencing how you never received the pizza emote that you properly paid for by participating in the campaign.

Obviously these things require time, energy, and sustained anger. Is it worth it? IDK. Do I have it in myself? IDK. Part of me just wants to say screw it and walk away. But, I also know that's what Square Enix and Grubhub want. The thing is, guys, they really have the upper hand. We fell for their false promotion & they have our cash already in hand. Screwing over hundreds or thousands of players ... it's a drop in a bucket. Even if every single one of us never participated in another crossover campaign again, there will still be thousands of others who will (and potentially get screwed over, too). But as long as there is money to be made, what do they care?

I actually made a macro in game so that any time someone uses their pizza emote, I respond with a custom emote saying that I scowl, remembering how SE and Grubhub conned me with false advertising, and I reaffirm to myself my commitment to never take part in another crossover campaign for digital items again. I figure that at least this will warn other players who may not have heard about this rip-off and might make them think twice about participating in a future one. This may potentially be another way to hold Square Enix accountable for its end in this, particularly since they did not mention anywhere on the Lodestone that this was actually a raffle/lottery.

[Yahallo]

update: spouse & I still have not received our emote codes for our 2 separate orders.

I've been thinking about accountability. How do you hold companies accountable when they exploit or con so many customers in a campaign like this?

Some ideas, for after the 2-week mark from Grubhub... A full-page crowd sourced ad run in major newspapers, like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, that basically says "Shame on you Grubhub & Square Enix. You told players that if they ordered $15 worth of food from Grubhub before fees between these dates, you would deliver an in-game item code. You did not do that. You screwed over hundreds/thousands of players.

Considering the number of people scammed by this, it actually would probably be easy to crowd-source.

Another idea. I'm going to assume that a lot of the players who were screwed over are college students, many of whom may live or commute to college campuses and who are part of various clubs/organizations/etc. College students could go around campus to bulletin boards, etc., posting flyers saying basically the same as above.

Another idea. Go to popular game reviewers on YouTube who cover Final Fantasy, particularly any that mentioned the pizza emote (e.g. Meoni), and flood the comments section, identifying yourself as one of the players conned by Grubhub & Square Enix.

Another idea. The next time Square Enix does a livestream event where there's commenting, e.g. on YouTube, flood the comments, referencing how you never received the pizza emote that you properly paid for by participating in the campaign.

Obviously these things require time, energy, and sustained anger. Is it worth it? IDK. Do I have it in myself? IDK. Part of me just wants to say screw it and walk away. But, I also know that's what Square Enix and Grubhub want. The thing is, guys, they really have the upper hand. We fell for their false promotion & they have our cash already in hand. Screwing over hundreds or thousands of players ... it's a drop in a bucket. Even if every single one of us never participated in another crossover campaign again, there will still be thousands of others who will (and potentially get screwed over, too). But as long as there is money to be made, what do they care?

I actually made a macro in game so that any time someone uses their pizza emote, I respond with a custom emote saying that I scowl, remembering how SE and Grubhub conned me with false advertising, and I reaffirm to myself my commitment to never take part in another crossover campaign for digital items again. I figure that at least this will warn other players who may not have heard about this rip-off and might make them think twice about participating in a future one. This may potentially be another way to hold Square Enix accountable for its end in this, particularly since they did not mention anywhere on the Lodestone that this was actually a raffle/lottery.

I kind of wonder what would happen if those hundreds/thousands of players filed a chargeback against Grubhub. I feel like with that amount of people even just threatening Grubhub with a chargeback would put a lot of pressure on them and make them at the very least refund entire orders. They have a lot more to lose if a large number of chargebacks were submitted against them for the same reason.

[Raoabolic]

Chiming in to say that I'm another one that didn't get a code. Needless to say after reading the comments I won't be using grubhub and probably not bother with any cross promotions anymore. Grubhub CS gave me the run around and I spent around an hour for them to basically say "Bother SE about it." Oh well, serves me right for assuming things like this would go smoothly.

[Krotoan]

So.. while I agree that this entire promo is a circus.. I'm not so sure a full blown smear propaganda campaign is the right solution. For right now I'm hoping that showing SE what GH is doing and saying as well as vice versa will result in at least some sort of standard recourse for anyone involved (such as refunds or emotes being awarded for following a claim process).

Yes I did get my emote... I would like everyone else to get theirs as well and give SE the chance to do the right thing and show GH how to not scam people for a quick buck.

C'mon SE... show us some good faith back.

[Angiris]

https://lp.grubhub.com/game-awards-p...nd-conditions/


It's literally in their terms and conditions and any half-decent dispute analyst can just pull that page up, read the first 2 sentences, and then deny the claim under said terms and conditions, and even if they did go the chargeback route all Grubhub has to do is copy and paste that little exerpt I cut out and they'll be able to deny the claim for the same reason.

It sucks but it's something that SE needs to deal with, and something that needs to be brought up to them

One problem with this is it wasn't first come first serve, sure some people who ordered on Friday got their code, but there are people who literally ordered at the final hour of the promo that got their code, and yet people in between haven't. Second problem, these codes can be generated at a rate of infinity, there is no magical cap on how many codes that can be produced. When looking at the promotion put out by Square the code was limited to the first 20,000 for free delivery, no mention of the pizza code itself being limited in quantity and certainly not a first come first serve.

Second problem is the amount of mixed information coming from Grubhub, it's all over Reddit if you wish to track it down yourself and several posts made in here where there is conflicting information even against their promotion. Hell I've even been told that I'll receive a code just wait 2 weeks =) =) =) =) from their "elevated support team." The same team that said they couldn't tell if I actually applied the code or not but if I didn't get an error then it must have worked!1!1!!

[TMW001]

One problem with this is it wasn't first come first serve, sure some people who ordered on Friday got their code, but there are people who literally ordered at the final hour of the promo that got their code, and yet people in between haven't. Second problem, these codes can be generated at a rate of infinity, there is no magical cap on how many codes that can be produced. When looking at the promotion put out by Square the code was limited to the first 20,000 for free delivery, no mention of the pizza code itself being limited in quantity and certainly not a first come first serve.

Second problem is the amount of mixed information coming from Grubhub, it's all over Reddit if you wish to track it down yourself and several posts made in here where there is conflicting information even against their promotion. Hell I've even been told that I'll receive a code just wait 2 weeks =) =) =) =) from their "elevated support team." The same team that said they couldn't tell if I actually applied the code or not but if I didn't get an error then it must have worked!1!1!!

Exactly this whole thing feels like Grubhub wanted to get some orders in but lied through their teeth about how it is truly earned and if everyone could get it I still feel SE should compensate people who qualified but didn't get the code things like this can lead you in the current position Blizzard, EA and many other known sloppy third party companies are in. While XIV team has done many good on their part for the fans like giving paying players 3 weeks of playtime free due to the servers but this was something I paid another company more than its worth and got nothing folks will probably skip on their next big collab promo due to this.

[Dogempire]

One problem with this is it wasn't first come first serve, sure some people who ordered on Friday got their code, but there are people who literally ordered at the final hour of the promo that got their code, and yet people in between haven't. Second problem, these codes can be generated at a rate of infinity, there is no magical cap on how many codes that can be produced. When looking at the promotion put out by Square the code was limited to the first 20,000 for free delivery, no mention of the pizza code itself being limited in quantity and certainly not a first come first serve.

Second problem is the amount of mixed information coming from Grubhub, it's all over Reddit if you wish to track it down yourself and several posts made in here where there is conflicting information even against their promotion. Hell I've even been told that I'll receive a code just wait 2 weeks =) =) =) =) from their "elevated support team." The same team that said they couldn't tell if I actually applied the code or not but if I didn't get an error then it must have worked!1!1!!

They're literally allowed to change the promotion without notice, if you actually bothered to read the full terms of use then you would see it

[Prettse]

I got the emote, my wife didn't but we both had to speak with Grubhub support. The weird thing is, they kept telling her that the deadline was the 16th for any issues yet the codes weren't delivered.

I messaged them for her as well and they kept replying with a copy paste that the promotion had ended and to look forward to more promotions. So I told them to stop replying with copy pastes and they would keep replying with copy paste replies!

Eventually I got a reply saying that I myself wasn't eligible for the promotion and would not be receiving a code, even though I had already gotten one. Proof that no one, or at least whoever was talking with me didn't even bother to look at anything. So I told them straight up they're just lying to me at this point and again, got another copy paste reply that the promotion has ended and to look forward to more promotions.

Absolute trash company, Grubhub is. I hope SE does something about this. Just release the damn emote to all paying subscribers at this point, regardless if they attempted to use the promotion or not.

[Yahallo]

They're literally allowed to change the promotion without notice, if you actually bothered to read the full terms of use then you would see it

But they haven't yet as it still states the same conditions at the present time. There is essentially no risk to the customer in performing a chargeback as even if they lose the dispute and Grubhub would still pay the chargeback fee (not the customer) and likely suffer additional consequences if many people chargeback for the same reason. The threat of a chargeback is very real. Simply put, winning the dispute costs Grubhub more than just refunding.

Popeyes has similar wording in their promotions/discounts, and they caved immediately when I mentioned the possibility of a chargeback when the discount did not properly apply.

If everyone that got screwed over chargebacked, Grubhub would not get out unscathed. The threat of chargebacks is also really our only option other than taking the L if Grubhub doesn't give a refund when asked.

[SnowVix]

I kind of wonder what would happen if those hundreds/thousands of players filed a chargeback against Grubhub. I feel like with that amount of people even just threatening Grubhub with a chargeback would put a lot of pressure on them and make them at the very least refund entire orders. They have a lot more to lose if a large number of chargebacks were submitted against them for the same reason.

You would be committing fraud if you did this, because you received the item you paid for (the food).