Weeknote 20 (2023)

Here’s a short and strange story on how I got to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on launch day.

⏪ Rewind to February 2023

The game listing appeared on Amazon for pre-order, so I did. When you pre-order such things in advance… well… it’s done so you can get in the queue and get your copy the day of the launch. In the end, the launch date was already set months in advance. The day set was Friday, May 12th.

⏩ Fast-forward to the week of the launch

I check my Amazon order and says it be delivered on May 22nd (two weeks after the launch).

Must be a classic Amazon shipping calculation mistake. Surely you’ve seen this before, Amazon sometimes tells you a farther delivery date only to have it at your door the next day.

🎮 1 day before the launch

I check the game listing page and it says that if I buy it now I’ll get it on the 17th.

Now, this is strange. Let me get Amazon support on a chat… They tell me the game has high demand (well, not shit?) and that they’ll try to change my delivery time from the 22nd to the 17th.

I wouldn’t be mad if I didn’t know a friend of mine (who ordered it after me) had his game scheduled to be delivered on the launch day.

After the useless Amazon support chat, I purchase a 2nd copy of the game, in the hopes that at least I’ll have it on the 17th, five days after launch.

Disappointed but what can you do, it’s better than the original 22nd on my pre-order.

🚀 The day of the launch

I check, again, the product page and it says “Buy it now and get it tomorrow”.

Now I’m seriously pissed.

I get again Amazon support on chat and explain the absurd situation again. It seems they can’t do anything and can’t even cancel my orders as they are “in preparation” (not shipped yet).

They tell me I could buy it again and simply return, or not receive/pick up, the other orders.

Argh…

As stupid as it looks I order a 3rd copy of the game, in the hopes that now I will get it the next day of the launch, the 13th.

🤗 Friends to the rescue

While all this is going on I’m also talking to a friend, well rather ranting and he’s listening. At some point, he gets back to me and tells me he might have a solution for me.
Another friend is having the game delivered on launch day but won’t be able to play it for a week or two, and he’s willing to give me his copy in exchange for me (whenever that is)

My faith in the human race has been restored.

After work, I went to the friend’s friend house and got the game. There are good people in the world.

😌 Launch day +1

The day after the launch Amazon delivered all 3 of my game orders 🤦‍♂️

The third copy (not pictured) I did not unbox, so I could return it easily.

Ricard

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