At-least the viral marketing is holding up. | Source: REUTERS/Simon Dawson
- Sony’s PS5 launched in the UK today.
- Delivery woes, order confusion, and accusation of theft have resulted in a nothing short of disastrous launch.
- Delivery van theft led to the cancellation of post in one area.
Forecast as a day of excitement for would-be PS5 owners, today’s UK launch quickly turned sour. Delivery chaos, online launch day stock order confusion, and alleged instances of theft – today’s gone anything but smoothly.
After launching in the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea on Nov. 12, the PS5 releases today to the rest of the world, including the UK.
Fresh PS5 Stock Woes
On the order front, limited stock sold out within minutes with most retailers, while others completely botched launch day sales.
In particular, retailer Curry’s PC World launched pre-orders ahead of the scheduled 9 am start, prompting it to close pre-orders and cancel all those that got through. After initially pushing back the launch, the retailer abandoned pre-orders for today , leaving many empty-handed as stocks had long been snapped up elsewhere.
Much like the initial pre-orders in September, retailers like Argos, Tesco, John Lewis, and GAME suffered technical issues on their respective websites with pages failing to load and users sitting in queues for hours only to encounter a ‘out of stock’ message.
GAME and Yodel Buck Heads
For those with confirmed pre-orders excitedly awaiting a knock on the door, the situation proved just as testing. Notably, in the case of GAME customers. The retailer sent out an email yesterday warning of potential delays to orders expected for delivery on launch day. GAME blamed courier service Yodel, limited stock, and the size of the console. This sparked a tit for tat exchange between the two companies.
“For reasons beyond the control of GAME, Yodel have informed us today that not all orders due to be delivered by them will be delivered on release day. This is due to capacity issues in their delivery network.”
Yodel published a statement shortly afterward , rejecting the claim and throwing the blame on GAME and its fulfillment partner GFS:
“Yodel does not work directly with GAME. Our client is GFS, a fulfillment business who work in partnership with GAME. We have been consistently clear on the order volumes we are able to carry for them and it is deeply disappointing that Yodel’s name has been incorrectly used in an email to customers on the status of orders. There are currently no delays within our network, and any issues regarding delivery capacity is a matter for GFS and not Yodel.”
Theft
Many receiving their PS5 through Yodel note a tracking update reading ”We’re sorry but your parcel has been reported to us as missing. Please contact your sender for your next steps.” This has led to accusations of theft involving Yodel staff .
According to one Twitter user , multiple delivery van thefts have led to the cancellation of post rounds in their area.
As you’d imagine, many expected retailers to have learned from last week’s Xbox Series X/S launch and made the necessary arrangements, both for pre-orders and deliveries, to ensure everything went smoothly. This clearly isn’t the case.
