Oh this is rich!!! Look out Canada, Europe, etc.!!!

[pipisongo]

After waiting one full week for my replacement guitar to shipped I finally get this message:



Thank you for contacting EA Support.

I regret to inform you that we do not honor warranty replacements to Puerto Rico. We only honor warranty replacements to the continuous 48 United States.

I suggest if you have a family member that lives in the 48 continuous United States, please have them start the RMA procedure for you and you will need to send your defective product to them and they will have the replacement sent to them and they can send it to you once it arrives. We have cancelled the RMA.

Please feel free to contact us back again or visit our help site at help.ea.com

Sincerely,

Elysia
Customer Support Representative III
Electronic Arts
So let me see, the game was released in Puerto Rico alongside with the US but we get no warranty. Makes perfect sense. And to all those Canadians who think they can get their replacement when the game ships in their country. Sorry!


And it is probably too late to take it back to the store now. This is what I get for not taking the game back to GameStop like I should have. Is it even legal to sell a defective product, one that does not work as advertised, and not offer a replacement or refund? I don’t think it is.

[Mercy]

First off, U be Pwned !


if you are Canadian, and went to the states, to grab it (or got it from ebay)... Then nope your sh1t out of luck....

When my pre-order comes in on the 17-18 of dec , to which is the current release date in Canada, then i will and everyother waiting Canadian will in deed have the warrenty..... And untill then you are out of luck, you might maby might get away with the warrenty after the release date in CA, but it aint looking so good for you.. and others......

[AVC808]

That email disturbs me. It mentions they only honor warranties for the mainland. note that the correct word is contiguous not continuous. someone should let that employee know.
but that's pretty messed up that they would exclude two states that are part of the USA from the warranty. luckily i already received my replacement.

id suggest calling and speaking with a manager. as a US territory and if the game was officially released there, i would think EA would make things right by offering you a replacement.

[Lucent Beam]

note that the correct word is contiguous not continuous. someone should let that employee know.

That's pretty funny.

But also very lame that they don't honor warranties because of location within the US.

[pipisongo]

I called. Supposedly there was no supervisor on shift. Does anyone from HMX/EA read this forum? Let me summarize:

Puerto Rico is a US territory. As such, this game was released here on Nov. 20th. I bought it from a local GameStop. The guitar stopped working after a few hours, and instead of taking it back to the store I did what the pink paper told me to do. Use the manufacturer’s warranty to get a replacement. So I went online and filled the forms to get a warranty replacement on Nov. 29. Finally today (Dec. 6) after several calls and emails later, and with $125.00 held in my credit card account, an EA support specialist has the nerve to write me and tell me they will not honor my warranty because I do not live in the 48 contiguous states.

And now it is too late for me to return the game to the store because I waited to long to return the game.

This has been by far the most ridiculously bad customer support I’ve had in my lifetime. This is an outright fraud.

[Zanaflex]

hahahaha, god EA is full of a bunch of morons. Seriously you need to talk to a manager.
For you its simple, you bought it from a store where you live correct? Then your warranty is valid. Simple as that. You could always take it back to that store with a print out of that email, and they would have to return it etc (A retailer cannot sell something without a warranty unless it is made clear that item is sold "As Is")....

I seriously cannot believe people are actually believing emails like this. Does it say ANYWHERE on the OUTSIDE of the package that the warranty is only valid in the Lower 48? (I will get to "lower 48" in a second). Didn't think so.

ALSO people in Canada's warranty is valid. Again now here does it say on the box, in the box that if you go to a different country with RockBand you lose your warranty. Which would just be a moronic statement anyways. If you get EA your item they MUST honor the warranty. I say this because (and even tho not stated, its more common sense). You may have to pay for all shipping charges to and from them. Being in Canada you will be fine. The only thing they could void your warranty on, might be if you were in say the UK and running 220. They could make some excuse to why the equipment broke (which would be valid).

Now about the "lower 48" part. Guess where I am from? Yup, Alaska. And you best believe my warranty is valid. Between myself and my bro we have purchased 3 Rockband bundles (one for myself, one for him, and one for his daughter for christmas). All from different stores, one from Gamestop, one from Bestbuy (which had about 90 bundles at 2pm on launch day), and one from Fred Meyers (west coast "everything store", actually got it for $140.00 from there because of a BF coupon). What kind of company would not honor a warranty in a location they sold that item at? I can see where they try to get away from the Canadians. But it really sounds like Elysia didn't graduate high school.

[Zanaflex]

Pip if you dont want to read my super long post;) Yes you can return it to the store (even tho it is BS, because it is not Gamestops fault). Explain to them what happened, show them the email. They HAVE to return it. I would see if maybe your GS can get some calls into EA, who knows, might roll some heads.

[pipisongo]

Definitely will try it but just to clarify: Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean. It has nothing to do with Canada. I was just trying to warn the Canadian consumers of this crap. You know, the fact that they will probably not have their warranties honored even AFTER the game is released in Canada. What the pink slip is complete bull unless you live in the US mainland.

[Zanaflex]

Definitely will try it but just to clarify: Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean. It has nothing to do with Canada. I was just trying to warn the Canadian consumers of this crap. You know, the fact that they will probably not have their warranties honored even AFTER the game is released in Canada. What the pink slip is complete bull unless you live in the US mainland.

Oh I know, there is just alot of hate going around for the Canadians.

But you are covered for sure. I would first just wait till tomorrow and talk to a manager. I am sure they will take care of it.

[CrazyChihuahua]

Hmm, sorry to hear that OP.

As for Canadians being shafted of the warranty: I'm in Canada and got my copy early, and understand that they wouldn't honour warranties to Canadian consumers yet as it's not released here, and I don't expect it. Even though it doesn't state Canada is not covered, I still don't expect they'd do it, as they haven't.

However, I don't believe that they'd shaft Canadians on or after the Canadian release date that's within the warranty time. That wouldn't make sense. The person bought the game, it's under warranty, and they're taking Canadian orders for new equipment. I don't see how they wouldn't, really.

Maybe it's common sense, or maybe I'm dreaming. Either way, they better take my faulty drum-set back :P

[hmxsean]

I called. Supposedly there was no supervisor on shift. Does anyone from HMX/EA read this forum? Let me summarize:

Puerto Rico is a US territory. As such, this game was released here on Nov. 20th. I bought it from a local GameStop. The guitar stopped working after a few hours, and instead of taking it back to the store I did what the pink paper told me to do. Use the manufacturer’s warranty to get a replacement. So I went online and filled the forms to get a warranty replacement on Nov. 29. Finally today (Dec. 6) after several calls and emails later, and with $125.00 held in my credit card account, an EA support specialist has the nerve to write me and tell me they will not honor my warranty because I do not live in the 48 contiguous states.

And now it is too late for me to return the game to the store because I waited to long to return the game.

This has been by far the most ridiculously bad customer support I’ve had in my lifetime. This is an outright fraud.

Looking into this now and bringing it to higher-up attention.

[RavagerX]

Looking into this now and bringing it to higher-up attention.

See? Things aren't all bad, you can always count on HMX to set things right. :)

[Zanaflex]

You know, this is the feeling that I get from all this horrible warranty stuff going on.

This is my first HMX game. But before putting down $340.00 for 2 games (and like I said in my previous post, my bro bought one in addition to those two, but he has been playing sense GH1 days). I heard NOTHING but good things about HMX. And they really seem like a bunch of rockin nerds (I say this with nothing but respect), and really want to take care of thier customers.

They team up with a HUGE company EA. Sounds like EA just wants thier name on one of the best games ever made. That is it. They probably agreed to handle warranty services, but now that they have what they want. They don't care anymore. While they are obligated to repair/replace items under warranty, it really seems like any excuse they can make to not cover (like your situation). They will take. But in your case, I have a gut feeling it is more along the lines of the customer service rep not really know what she is talking about.

[Jaacar]

Heh, I already contacted a lawyer (previous posts, won't get into it again) and decided to not go forward with anything against EA due to the Canadian release date being right around the corner and not really wanting to go to 'war' over a plastic guitar.

Let me tell you something, I'm not the richest guy in the world but if EA pulls THAT crap after the Canadian release date I'll spend every penny I have to ensure that they take care of ALL customers who purchased the game, regardless of world location. Take that as a threat all you want EA, it's the truth.

That letter is totally shocking. You now have all of the proof you need for a lawsuit should you want one. You are right, you live in a US territory and nowhere in their warranty does it state that you aren't covered. Wow.

Hmxsean, seriously this had better be a mis-communication somewhere. If it isn't and EA sticks to their guns...well lets just say I'd hope you have enough pull in Harmonix to remove EA from any future projects if this is how they are going to treat your products.

Eaxviolet, any comment on this situation? I don't like the Canadian 'version' of this story either, but I'll live/deal with it. This guy IS in a US Territory. Whats the deal?

[Jaacar]

Bump for the edit (asking for comments from Hmxsean and Eaxviolet).

[Zanaflex]

Remember Jaacar, according to that email not only are US Territories not covered but also 2 US States (Alaska and Hawaii).

[Jaacar]

Remember Jaacar, according to that email not only are US Territories not covered but also 2 US States (Alaska and Hawaii).

Indeed. Thank you for the correction.

[Schreibs21]

wow, that's a pthetic situation, hopefully EA man's up and covers the warranty for all US states and territories. Like it's been said, if it doesn't say otherwise in the warranty you're covered

[EAxViolet]

After waiting one full week for my replacement guitar to shipped I finally get this message:

So let me see, the game was released in Puerto Rico alongside with the US but we get no warranty. Makes perfect sense. And to all those Canadians who think they can get their replacement when the game ships in their country. Sorry!

And it is probably too late to take it back to the store now. This is what I get for not taking the game back to GameStop like I should have. Is it even legal to sell a defective product, one that does not work as advertised, and not offer a replacement or refund? I don?t think it is.

I would just like to clarify some of this since some of the information you got was not correct, or at least not current. Although we can provide warranty support to all 50 states in the US, it is true that we do not currently have warranty service fully setup for Puerto Rico. We are, however, actively working to get that straightened out and hope to have a proper warranty service in place as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you can try to exchange your faulty 'band in a box' for a new one via your local retailer.

As with Canada, we will post more information once these are closer to being setup for you. I do apologize for the inconvenience and frustration.

~Violet

[Zanaflex]

I would just like to clarify some of this since some of the information you got was not correct, or at least not current. Although we can provide warranty support to all 50 states in the US, it is true that we do not currently have warranty service fully setup for Puerto Rico. We are, however, actively working to get that straightened out and hope to have a proper warranty service in place as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you can try to exchange your faulty 'band in a box' for a new one via your local retailer.

As with Canada, we will post more information once these are closer to being setup for you. I do apologize for the inconvenience and frustration.

~Violet

Uh Violet..... How in the world can the company you work for sell something with out a warranty? Because that is what you just said. Ok lets forget about the Canadian part. But Puerto Rico?! He went into a local (but national) retailer and purchased it. Even tho it is not Gamestops fault, they should return it. So now you are putting more burden on a major game retailer (I am not pro Gamestop by any means) but still. Like most of the US, his Gamestop is probably sold out. Instead of making excuses, what you need to do is tell this particular customer, the OP.... "No problem, we will take care of you right now". Not "I know you purchased the game locally, at a major retailer we shipped our product to for you to buy, but regardless of that, we currently cannot honor your warranty, because we do not want to pay any extra money to ship it to you".....

[pipisongo]

The EA specialist I spoke on the phone with told my he would have a supervisor talk to me today. Well the day went by and I have not been contacted by phone or email. I do appreciate the support from the community though.

Isn’t it mind boggling how companies try to pull-off stunts like these without concern for a class action? I mean seriously, any person with common sense can see that it would be cheaper for HMX/EA to comply with good business practices than to handle a lawsuit.

After so many phone calls, emails, checking the support page, my sole conclusion is that I paid $170.00 for a huge problem I did not need. I think I will take a break from this madness and ponder ways to damage HMX/EA’ s reputations instead. This is the internet after all and with the proper connections this case can spread like wildfire. I have already come up with an idea that might work.

[TuRDMaN]

Don't be afraid to share your idea on here, there are plenty of disgruntled customers who would like to join you :D

[pipisongo]

Ok so here's the idea: It seems to me the volume of disgruntled customers for this game is huge. What if we all join together and buy an advertisement space in a high profile website or magazine. And I mean a place that the average soccer mom and stock-buying dad would read. Not a gaming site or magazine. The advertisement could simply be a line of text that reads something in the lines of:


The new video game Rock Band has made history as the most unreliable consumer product of 2007.

The text was something just off the top of my head but that is the general idea. We would need quotes from different sites and have a very large number of disgruntled customers to spread the costs thin. You can bet that this would hit EA/HMX/MTV where it hurts. Their bottom line.

The idea is to focus on their potential customers because they sure as hell don't give a crap about their current customers.

jl_molinari@yahoo.com

[luisrodl]

Well pipisongo I am from Puerto Rico too so thanks for bringing this piece of information because a few minutes ago I just requested that EA sent me the box for returning the guitar. I see no reason of why EA can't give the warranty here because Puerto Rico IS a territory of the US. And is highly doubtfull that Gamestop will let me return the game just because the overdrive on the guitar doesn't work without pushing the button. This just proves that EA customer support is not only a piece of crap, but I think that racists too because they have no reason whatsoever to not give the warranty to Puerto Rico.

[pipisongo]

Yeah you’re out of luck for the time being. Some higher-up at EA felt like trying to walk a fine line versus profits and a class action. So did Microsoft with the 360 and now they paid 1 billion in warranties and are getting sued anyway. But what can I say, apparently EA has some brave executives. I wish them luck (not really).

There is another alternative however. When a big retailer like Wal-Mart or CompUSA gets the bundle in stock again, buy another bundle. Replace your non-working instruments with good ones from the new bundle and the next day take it back to the store and ask for your money back because the product was defective. Let’s combat fraud with fraud.

Finally, though I agree that EA/HMX definitely doesn’t give a crap about us Puerto Ricans, I wouldn’t call them racists for it. I just don’t like the notion that whatever bad happens to Hispanics or African Americans is because of racism. Maybe I’m an idealist, but I like to believe that only a minority of persons are racists. Racism exists, no doubt; but I’ve also seen the minorities many times blow things of proportion in the name of racism.

[Wilson12466]

After waiting one full week for my replacement guitar to shipped I finally get this message:



So let me see, the game was released in Puerto Rico alongside with the US but we get no warranty. Makes perfect sense. And to all those Canadians who think they can get their replacement when the game ships in their country. Sorry!


And it is probably too late to take it back to the store now. This is what I get for not taking the game back to GameStop like I should have. Is it even legal to sell a defective product, one that does not work as advertised, and not offer a replacement or refund? I don’t think it is.



Ahh man, that must stink stink stink. I feel quite sorry for you.

[StiffEdub]

Asking to speak to a MGR at EA......


It's like asking to speak to the "Head Taco Maker" at TacoBell

You get incompetence and further more arrogance.....As seen by the previous posting by pipisongo and his form EA email.

[AddictedtoKaos]

No sweat to anyone outside the US who purchased Rockband already. I got this email from their support...
-------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting EA. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience that you have experienced with Rock Band. I will assure you that I will try my best to have your issue resolved immediately.

At this time, Warranty support for Rock Band applies only to residents of the United States as we are only able to ship to valid street addresses within the United States and its territories.

Once Rock Band has been released in other countries, our Warranty process will be extended to cover those locations.

------------------------------------------

So to whoever says customers outside US will not be able to get the warranty... put a sock in it until you grow a brain and know what you are talking about....

[Jaacar]

No sweat to anyone outside the US who purchased Rockband already. I got this email from their support...
-------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting EA. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience that you have experienced with Rock Band. I will assure you that I will try my best to have your issue resolved immediately.

At this time, Warranty support for Rock Band applies only to residents of the United States as we are only able to ship to valid street addresses within the United States and its territories.

Once Rock Band has been released in other countries, our Warranty process will be extended to cover those locations.

------------------------------------------

So to whoever says customers outside US will not be able to get the warranty... put a sock in it until you grow a brain and know what you are talking about....

Funny enough I got the same thing. And now it's been delayed yet again in Canada. Yah, I get to wait for my warranty replacement for longer now! Ah well, at least the GH2 guitars work and my drums aren't broken (yet).

[jojo311]

Just wondering if anyone from Puerto Rico or other US territories have had any luck actually getting a replacement guitar. I live on Guam (US territory), and I've put in an RMA over a week ago but the guitar hasn't shipped yet. I'll call again on Monday to see if its been updated, but I'm a bit worried based on what I've read in this thread. The Gamestop I purchased it from said that I needed to go through EA for replacements so we'll see...

[Ryder35]

Funny enough I got the same thing. And now it's been delayed yet again in Canada. Yah, I get to wait for my warranty replacement for longer now! Ah well, at least the GH2 guitars work and my drums aren't broken (yet).

Off topic, but how did you get the PS2 guitars to work?

[Huitzilopochtli]

I am also in Puerto Rico.
I filled the online form to get a replacement guitar about a week ago but haven't yet received any email. Still, it's quite disturbing just entertaining the thought of not getting the replacement at all.
Here's hoping some higher-up is wise enough to fix this mess of overlooking US territories.

[Jaacar]

Off topic, but how did you get the PS2 guitars to work?

xbox360, sorry to get your hopes up :(

[HMXJohnlok]

We actually forwarded this issue on to the appropriate people HMX-side. We are looking into it. In the meantime, this thread turned into utter ridiculousness, so locked.