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The Zero Time Dilemma Pre-Order Debacle (months wait for broken watches)

http://kotaku.com/the-zero-time-dilemma-pre-order-disaster-1786627477

“Aksys Games understands that some customers have faced difficulties with retailers, and we are confident that retailers will do all they can to assist customers to bring about swift resolution,” the publisher told me in an e-mail. When I pressed for more details, a representative for Aksys didn’t respond.

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/09/1...e-dilemma-watches-arriving-customers-damaged/

If any of you pre-ordered the Limited Edition of Zero Time Dilemma back when it first announced, a bonus watch styled after those worn by the characters in-game was included in the offer. However, when those first sets of Limited Editions first shipped, the watches were damaged in transit and had to be returned to the factory. Aksys Games worked to remedy this, saying that they would receive a replacement shipment of watches and send them out to fans who had preordered as soon as they were able to.
Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2016/09/1...riving-customers-damaged/#ZpuYF0pOJmcPmJZ9.99

quotes from this thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1238838


Guys. Guys. So I got my Same Day Shipping watch.

Except it was packed in a padded enveloped and there are a couple giant cracks on the box. Collector's item my ass.
Code:
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/xQxdWoAl.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/M6qW5QBl.jpg[/IMG]

What do I do now? Talk to customer service? Ughhhhhh

Mine also has a crack. They probably all had one in the warehouse before it was shipped.

Here's mine:
Code:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/nHGKnf6.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/uqW3fKc.jpg[/IMG]

One came today

Tz9iEU5.jpg




post pics, tweet it at them.
Maybe Schreier will do another post about this on Kotaku

Just got my watch

TWxLunA.jpg


As you can see, the watch buckle came off loose (Thankfully that was an easy fix). On the other side, you can clearly see where the watch was supposed to be attached to the game.

The date on my watch says 7/23

miT7l5N.jpg


Left one is from Gamestop. The other two are for Vita and 3DS order from Amazon.

Check out the center one with the left dial loose. All cases are broken.

I am in agreement with everyone that this is the original batch that was damaged.

I'd bet new clean pristine versions will show up on aksys store or be sold exclusively in conventions in coming months.

H0WBDHL.jpg


How's this for imagery?

For anybody questioning if the cracked cases are Amazon's shipping fault, I can definitively confirm that it (mine at least) was damaged like this prior to shipping. The watch was sealed inside of a plastic bag, which didn't seem abnormal to me at the time, but upon opening it I realized that it was done because the giant missing piece caused the black bottom cover to come off.
And because of the seal, I know that the missing piece of plastic was never in the package to begin with, nor was the bottom cover, nor was the missing metal clasp or B button which had all fallen out before being re-sealed.



It's a cool, functional watch! Just with a bad strap. Mine is missing the display stand anyways. Any reason not to, besides value?

I got mine in the mail today. The case didn't have any cracks, only a few scuff marks. The watch itself looks fine except for the fact that the "mirrored" display overlay fell off and is in 5 pieces...so close.

UBmdB0p.jpg


Sure.


4n7MOfw.jpg

SKb0rt1.jpg

YZCkNZR.jpg



Oh hey, look at that nice damage free watch and booklet compared to what we got.

Yeah, at this point there's no doubt in my mind that Aksys just said fuck it and sent out the old waches.


Basically Aksys is a terrible company that threw in the towel and shipped out broken watches anyway.
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Pleased this is getting mainstream attention. The whole thing has been a giant mess.
 
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.
 
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.

This post literally makes no sense.
 
Aksys should have never offered such an incentive.

Gamers shouldn't expect a company that has little to no experience offering physical incentives to offer them in any sufficient quality.

The exact same incentive (physical watches) were offered by the same company for both previous games in the series, so experience is not really the issue here.
 

Regiruler

Member
Are the watches non-functional and the case being broken ruins all its value? Or is both the case and the watch itself broken?
 
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.
Are you seriously blaming the consumer here? Companies (including Aksys) ship physical collector's items all the time without issue. They promised the item, people paid for it, they should've delivered the product in good condition. It's not complicated.
 
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.
wtf

I've gotten plenty of "physical objects" from game companies in proper condition.
 

Iceberg

Member
Aksys should have never offered such an incentive.

Gamers shouldn't expect a company that has little to no experience offering physical incentives to offer them in any sufficient quality.

My 999 (from 2010) and VLR (from 2012) preorder watches beg to differ...
 

Varshes

Member
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.

Aksys-san, that you?
 
Aksys should have never offered such an incentive.

Gamers shouldn't expect a company that has little to no experience offering physical incentives to offer them in any sufficient quality.

What? Your post still makes no sense. And it also isn't the norm. Other companies besides Nintendo arent sending out broken physical goods all the time. It is still clearly the exception, not the norm. Even this series itself had 2 perfectly fine physical watch bonuses.

This is clearly just a case of Aksys recieving borked watches, they delayed it, and upon discovery that itd be more difficult/expensive to get everyone replacement ones from the original manufacturer, they said fuck it and sent out the shitty ones in a misguided attempt to try to salvage the bonus somewhat.

McDonalds isnt a toy company but they dont give out broken shit for Happy Meals, don't act like its some herculian task for them to provide a non-broken product to customers they promised them too.
 

Ridley327

Member
I definitely lucked out with the two watches I got in (just some minor scuffs), but yeah, Aksys handled this situation about as poorly as anyone could have feared. The worst part about it is how much goodwill they got in the first place for helping out on making this game a reality, only for this situation to crop up and demolish most of it.

I really wouldn't be surprised if the launch of ZTD winds up with a fair few FOTY votes, even as the winner of that is a foregone conclusion.
 

Regiruler

Member
I definitely lucked out with the two watches I got in (just some minor scuffs), but yeah, Aksys handled this situation about as poorly as anyone could have feared. The worst part about it is how much goodwill they got in the first place for helping out on making this game a reality, only for this situation to crop up and demolish most of it.

I really wouldn't be surprised if the launch of ZTD winds up with a fair few FOTY votes, even as the winner of that is a foregone conclusion.
What's the foregone conclusion this year? NMS? Fed Force? Gamergate round 3?
 

Ridley327

Member
What's the foregone conclusion this year? NMS? Fed Force? Gamergate round 3?

I don't think anything stands a chance next to NMS. The only potential contenders are if either FFXV or TLG are absolutely terrible, and even then, I don't think that would be enough.
 

Zero315

Banned
Are the watches non-functional and the case being broken ruins all its value? Or is both the case and the watch itself broken?

The left button on my watch is loose and keeps falling off, it was completely off and rattling around the case when it arrived and there's no way it was caused by the shipping. Aksys is just sending out the old broken watches that still have the adhesive on them from when they took them off the games, after selling a buch of perfect condition watches at a convention.

“Aksys Games understands that some customers have faced difficulties with retailers, and we are confident that retailers will do all they can to assist customers to bring about swift resolution,” the publisher told me in an e-mail. When I pressed for more details, a representative for Aksys didn’t respond.

Like I said in the other thread, Aksys can fuck off. I'm done supporting this garbage company. No response after pressing for more details pretty much confirms there's some shady shit going on.
 
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.

Generally, when one purchases a new product they expect it to be in new condition.

Also, when a company offers something in exchange for currency, you generally expect to get it.
 

Yasumi

Banned
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.

Aksys should have never offered such an incentive.

Gamers shouldn't expect a company that has little to no experience offering physical incentives to offer them in any sufficient quality.
These are certainly randomengine posts. Holy shit.
 

Hero

Member
Fuck akysys now and forever. I will never support them in the future because of this whole debacle. I understand shit happens but the communication (lack thereof) was terrible and we're still having these issues.
 

SoulUnison

Banned
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.

Even if this wasn't an idiotic opinion, they made collector's watches for the the 2 games in the series before this one, so you'd think they'd actually have this exact kind of experience to draw upon twice over.
 

Wazzy

Banned
I'm tired of this mess. I still can't even put the watch through because of the $70 import fee's and amazon is sending automated emails that keep talking about the game being on back order when I've already received the game. Now even if I do finish it, I'll probably receive a broken watch.
 
Kind of glad I canceled this and just went with the standard version after seeing a lot of these photos. Getting a busted bonus item would have pissed me off
 

Wanderer5

Member
I am ever so glad that I had cancelled my watch edition order and just went with the PC version, especially since in the end I greatly dislike the game itself, so dealing with this fiasco would had made it even worse. What a crapfest this has been.
 
I've already had to pay $90 of import fees that I can hardly afford to get this watch, and now it has been stuck somewhere in Columbus for the last few days, but I can't claim back my import fee until the damn thing actually arrives. And of course there is a 99% chance it's going to turn up broken in some way, the case at best and the watch at worse. This whole thing has a been a shitshow from start to finish, and I didn't even like the game in the end. If it weren't for already having the other two watches I've have just said screw it and not bothered.
 
If you think that's disappointing, wait for the actual game.

Truest goddamn post in the whole thread lmao.

...
...
...
;_;
Why Uchi, why...

Also, for me there was no option whatsoever to even order the watch the second time around- said it cannot ship to my address. (Got extra credit from Amazon though, so I'm fine on a personal level). At least that wasn't an issue for anybody else.
 
If you think that's disappointing, wait for the actual game.
OOoooooooooof.


I feel kind of bad for Aksys, because I would definitely take their word that the first batch was universally broken during transport from whatever overseas manufacturing plant they were made at. Some of these pics (including the one I got) were probably further damaged in domestic shipping.

Aside from the couple of watches that all-out disintegrated, going with that specific type of hard plastic case really did them no favors whatsoever. I don't know what necessitated a change in the fabrication of the first two watches they did, but what a mutually sad situation.

At least I got a digital artbook out of it from amazon.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
I don't understand why we expect pristine physical objects from companies that make video game software. Maybe video game companies (other than Nintendo) should just stop offering such incentives. Nintendo has experience and infrastructure making physical objects, so they are one of the few that are exempt from this recommendation.

what in the blithering hell are you talking about??
 
A few weeks after launch, Amazon managed to send out copies of the game sans watch, but the pre-order bonus was nowhere to be found.

Ehhhh, not so fast, article. Forget the watch, I still haven't even received the game.
 
Mine came on Monday and the case has a crack on the front and a two smaller ones on the right front edge, but it's still intact. I guess I should actually open the case.

Are they all supposed to have the same scuffed pattern on the face?
 
My 999 (from 2010) and VLR (from 2012) preorder watches beg to differ...

Exactly. It's wild that they're having all this difficulties on their third time around. It's not like this is their first watch bonus

Although, yes, the quality has dropped from the first watch to VLRs, and now this.
 
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