Encyclopaedia Eorzea Vol2 - NA Store shipments

[Rufalus]

I too preordered on the first day they opened orders a few months ago. Still stuck in limbo. Despite them not honoring preorders they still take new orders and dispatch some of those immediately so it doesn't seem to be a supply issue, they have books for people who waited longer to order and people who get lucky at random.

Some people reported cancelling their orders and reordering and it made them get unstuck and dispatched right away, but others are unable to cancel due to dispatching "soon" status. Somebody said they ordered two books on different dates, one for self and one as gift for a friend... the one they ordered two months ago is stuck in limbo; the one they ordered two weeks ago has been dispatched already, same location.

They know about the issue because people keep sending them angry emails but they don't seem to know how to resolve it or want to. Their story has changed now from manufacturing issue to logistics issue. On the last day of November they were still sending back copypaste replies saying they expect to send out books by late November, so the estimate couldn't possibly be accurate at that point.

Nobody has received detailed information to adequately explain how all of these mistakes are possible. What keeps delaying things furthers than their estimates, for specific people only, while other people in the same countries are getting their books without issue even if they ordered theirs very late. I haven't seen problems like this from an online retailer before.

edit: Mine just arrived the morning of Dec 5th without warning. They were supposed to send a dispatch email with tracking information. At least I have it now lol

[Vespar]

Yep, Im still waiting as well despite having contacted them earlier. Still in validated status, with no shipping info or any other change.

Contacted them again. Waiting on a response. Will update if I hear anything back. (also creating a second order to see what happens...)
It would be great if we could get a Square Enix representative to investigate the issue and get back to us....

[Lissandra]

Mine arrived today. No issues with my bonus code either when I registered it.

[jpmeyer]

I have preordered the book on 9/17 and they took my money and have sent me nothing. My friends have received the book or tracking numbers even though we all preordered at the exact time. Multiple customer service emails telling me that there "was an issue and it's been resolved and your book should ship soon"...however when I try to cancel my order it says its in "shipping process and cannot be cancelled". Nobody at CS knows anything, I saw people on reddit mention that they bought the book normally from the store and the copy is already shipping. I feel completely ripped off and this is utterly the last time I am EVER ordering from this store. Horrible customer service.

[JunseiKei]

Got my book yesterday and the code was fine. Friend in UK says the last thing he heard was that his hasn't been shipped yet. D:

[SannaR]

Preordered day one and got mine today with no problem with the code.

[Brill_]

Mine is on it's way, supposed to be here thursday. Was out of town when preorder started, so didn't order until a week or so later.

[Silve]

The issues im having with it is that i ordered 2 of them, one for my birthday an another from my friends birthday. An both are birthdays are coming up super close which sucks cause i was hoping to have these books already here by then. Though i guess that isnt the case. Not only that i havent gotten an email for the best of ffxiv soundtrack. Honestly the whole thing is very much a big mess an honestly any update on what's going on. An when can we expect our product that we ordered an paid for to be here would be nice if anything instead of just silence or us literally having to contact them just for them to get the problem addressed if that.

[MeowingKittens]

I, frankly, am absolutely disgusted with the silence and the lack of support with the constant run around.

I'm curious to know how my consumer rights are not already in violation, having not been notified of delays in a timely manner, and long after the FTC 30 day rule (which kicks in upon payment if no shipping window is clearly defined).

SE, you have taken my money and not provided me the service I have paid you for. And I do mean YOU. It's not scalefast my statement was charged to; it's Square Enix.

[Zohnax]

Honestly, I think a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission is in order. This is highly deceptive and dubious business practices with taking pre-orders, taking full payments for those pre-orders before the release date which according to the support section of the NA Square Enix Store concerning pre-orders:

When will my pre-order ship?

Our intention is to always ship all pre-orders out before the actual release date in order to arrive on time. You will receive a tracking number as soon as it leaves the warehouse.

But this did not happen as there was as a "delay" for many who pre-ordered because of an unidentified problem which consumers had to send a request in to be notified of the delay. (As a side note: if the delays were because item codes not working, they really could have made that up after sending out the books to e-mails of people with "Validated" purchases with a one-time use code.)

Speaking of being, "Validated," it would be realistic if the Square Enix Store website actually had different statuses other than "Pre-Order" or "Validated" especially concerning the object on the webpage under "My Account" linking to "Your Orders" sub-states:

Track or return your orders, access to your order history.

In addition to complaints about "Your Orders," when you look under a "Manage" for an order, there's four options. Personally, I'm at a point where it changed to two options this week leaving just "Cancel Order" or "Open Support Request."
If you attempt at this point to "Cancel Order" you get:

Unfortunately, we are unable to cancel your order at this stage, as it's on its way to you.

Given the circumstances we would recommend you to reject the package on delivery attempt so it returns to sender - Once it reaches our warehouse, we will refund the order in full.

You think this would imply everything is going well finally, right? Who knows though because several days after this change, personally, I still haven't seen tracking number e-mail sent to me. There has been several dozens of reports from consumers stating their orders showed up without warning, which is terrible during the holiday season, especially in parts of North America having problems with "porch pirates" stealing any kind of package left unattended within streetview of a porch or doorstep.

While I have used "personally" a couple times now, as I have gleaned from reddit and here, consumers from NA to EU are having similar problems and the customer service response has been abysmal. Meanwhile, there are also stories of people ordering after the book went on sale officially and there being no problems with the orders and some of them even already arriving at those people's doorsteps. This is almost like Showclix crashing for the first people in line for NA Fanfest 2018 tickets and screwing over players.

Addendum: It's also not as if I have not reached out to the support using the "Open Support Request" either. Once the weekend following when the product was supposed to arrive to be informed, there's been a delay, we expect to ship by the end of November. Then again on Nov. 30th when I still had not heard anything via e-mail in regards to a follow-up or tracking information to get the response a day later, the problem has been fixed and copies should be starting to get sent out. Once I noticed the change of options regarding my order and the inability to cancel it due to it allegedly being "on it's way" I sent another support request on Dec. 3rd to inform that allegedly my product is shipping but have not received any tracking information yet, as instructed on the support of the website under SQUARE ENIX US STORE SUPPORT > ORDER > SHIPPING ISSUES :

You will then need to check the status of your order. Once it has shipped, we will automatically send you an email with the tracking number as soon as it leaves our warehouse.

If your order has shipped and you have not received a tracking number, feel free to contact us and we will resend you it.

But despite this, I have had dead silence in response from the Square Enix Store Customer Support Team every day since then. It's a shame it seems that only "Stan" and "Sabrina" handle the e-mails for both NA and the EU and can only seem to respond to problems if it's a blanket copy/paste response.

To surmise, it's been 80 days since the pre-orders began, I noticed I was able to "Debit Now" and did so 34 days ago, the products were supposed to have been shipped out to arrive on the release date 12 days ago, and honestly, the "delay" cannot be legitimately counted as part of this because of the failure to notify the consumers without the consumers having to ask about the delay. We need answers, accountability, and a solution if the Square Enix Store is going to be a reliable retailer going forward.