With a history as an engaged RPG gamer you might have predicted that I was really excited when I heard that during last week’s Cyber Monday sale, Square-Enix was offering Final Fantasy 7 for a ridiculously low price. In fact, Square put pretty much their entire collection on sale at prices that were 60% off. It was crazy!

But you might imagine my surprise when I tried to purchase a few downloadable versions of some classic Final Fantasy games only to be met with an error screen on the Square website. I tried to purchase those downloads for about an hour and a half and just couldn’t get past the error screen.

It was the most frustrating experience you could imagine.

Or at least it was the most frustrating experience you could imagine until I contacted Square’s help line to see if they could help me with problem I encountered. And lucky for you folks, I’ve saved the entire back and forth conversation for you to read and most likely be disgusted by as I was disgusted. Here’s how the e-mail conversation started:

I tried to purchase both Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 PC editions during your Cyber Monday sale, but the order form on the website kept coming up with an error message. Is it possible to still buy those two games and the Cyber Monday prices? I’m a long-time Square fan and I hope that you understand my frustration when I could have gotten these two games at a great price, but your website wouldn’t work for me. Thanks.

I think I was pretty rational and calm in that query. Here is Square’s first awful response:

Thank you for contacting the Square Enix online store. We apologize for the inconvenience. We show that the Cyber sale already ended. Please attempt a new order. To place a new order, go to: http://store.na.square-enix.com/store/sqenixus/en_US/ResetShoppingCart

Ugh… talk about a useless, non-response. If I owned Square-Enix and I saw that this was the response that one of my customer service people sent back to the question that I posed, I’d fire them for not being able to comprehend basic English or customer intent. Here is my response to Square:

It appears that you didn’t listen to my concern. The items that I wanted to buy were on sale during your Cyber Monday sale. Your website did not work during your Cyber Monday sale. I tried to purchase the items several times during your Cyber Monday sale and your website would not work. This is false advertising and is against the law in America.

I’m asking that you recognize that your website – not me or anything on my end – but your website failed during the period that your sale was active. And as an act of repentance for your website failing during your sale, I’ve asked that you offer me the two games that I was attempting to purchase for the price that they were offered during the failure of your website.

The response you provided doesn’t address any of those points. Please try again.

I mean – I can’t be any clearer in that response, can I? Well, get ready for more useless help from Square. This was their response:

Thank you for contacting the Square Enix online store. We apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused you.

Unfortunately, we are no longer able to place an order for the price on the Cyber Monday promotion. You may need to complete the order at the current price that is showing online. However, we can submit a request to match the promotional price once the order has been completed. Please be reminded that this request is not a guarantee the the price will be matched.

If you wanted to place an order, you may do so. Once it is completed, please provide the promotional offer information that details the price you are referring to.

That’s right, folks – Square’s response to my request was to tell me to buy the products at full price and then request that I be offered the promotional price… after I made the purchases! In what world does that make sense? Well, I attempted to explain this to the dopes at Square:

This isn’t an acceptable resolution to the problem. You certainly wouldn’t accept my “conditional” payment and forward me the software with the condition being that I’m only sending you the money if I get the discount that your broken website wouldn’t allow me to get on Cyber Monday. You’d be fools to give away your product on the hope that I was going to pay in full just like I’d be a fool to pay you in full with the hope that you’d live up to meeting the sale price (which, let’s be honest, you absolutely wouldn’t do).

So this has been a useless interaction for me. I look forward to sharing it with my fellow gamers and folks who have generally been disenfranchised by a once-great company.

They haven’t/didn’t respond to my last e-mail, but that’s okay. The steep decline in the popularity of their now-craptastic Final Fantasy series speaks volumes to how far this company has fallen. People used to line up outside of stores to get the latest Final Fantasy games. Now? Well, fan backlash was so strong against Final Fantasy 14 that it forced Square to take the game off of the market and totally recreate the product. When your company has fallen that far, it’s no wonder that your customer “service” team isn’t able to meet the type of simple request that I asked in my question.

Oh how the mighty have fallen…

What I’ve noticed in the last few Black Fridays is that there is a disconnect between the major retailers (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc) and the consumer-based desires of the middle class. Don’t get me wrong – these stores have the market cornered when it comes to mass producing somewhat inexpensive electronics and shoving them out the door to the masses. That’s great and I think that it is actually a service to many families in America. However, once you have that good or product, you’re not going to to go back and get another one – especially in the middle of a recession where each dollar is/should be scrutinized before it is spent.

I also think that the DVD and Blu-Ray DVD market is going to stay stagnant this Christmas season. Frankly, people don’t know whether or not they should start buying Blu-Ray discs in bulk or if this medium will be outdated in two or three years like the standard DVD. Plus, the cost of a Blu-Ray DVD is a bit out of range for the mass market. Not good for the electronics retailers.

I think that I’m going to become a Cyber Monday guy. There’s something about sitting in front of my computer to get the same exact sale price on an item that I could travel to the store to get (and that’s if there are enough items per that store and if I want to get to the store at the crack of dawn). Here’s hoping that your Black Friday adventures were more enjoyable and fruitful than mine were this year. If you have a good Black Friday 2009 story, I’d love to hear it in the comments section below!

1. Shop Earlier! By far, the best thing that you can do to lower your expenses during the holidays is to shop earlier. Yes, there are Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday deals, but if you want to save the big bucks, then you need to start shopping extra early. How early? Try the days following Christmas! After the holiday has come and gone, most retailers slash their prices up to 75% (and sometimes more) on holiday items. This is the perfect time to pick up next year’s holiday cards and decorations at bargain basement prices. You can even stock up on some smaller, generic items like gift tags and bows. If done right, you can spend a few bucks at the local Wal-Mart and come home with enough of these minor items to last a few years – eliminating these costs for the foreseeable future.
2. Shop Smart. We are blessed to live in the age of the internet – so use it to your advantage! While it is unnecessary to make all of your holiday purchases online, doing so might save you some cash. The real money-saving lure of the internet, though, is the ability to “shop around” from the comfort of your own home. Use the internet to create a shopping strategy and to compare prices. Check to see if the electronics super store can beat the wholesale club or the big box discount store for the digital camera that your brother wants. Once you’ve found the lowest prices on all of your gift list items, map out a strategy for your shopping day. Remember, saving money also means eliminating redundancy in your traveling. There’s no reason to spend more on gasoline because you didn’t pre-map your shopping excursion.
3. Make a list. And check it twice! One of the textbook strategies to reduce your expenses at the store is to make a list of what you want to pick up at the store and stick to it. If you are going to a store to buy a specific video game or DVD set, then retrieve the item, pay for it, and move on to the next store. The longer you stay in one store, the more likely you are to pick up an extra few items. As an additional point on lists – be sure to ask those who are on your gift list what they want the most this holiday season. There’s no use in buying Mom a new set of lamps for the living room when she really wants a new luxurious bathrobe and spa set from JC Penney.
4. Re-gift. I should have named this point “have no shame in your game” since that’s the core point. Remember the under the kitchen cabinet combination CD player and radio that you won at the office party? Since you’ll never have a use for such an item you may as well wrap it up and send it off to Aunt Tillie. The point here is that if you have unopened, unused items that you really don’t want and are worthy of being given as a gift, then you can save considerable amounts of money by using the art of re-gifting. Be careful, though. You need to keep your re-gifting worlds separate. Take items that you receive from co-workers and give them to family members and then use items from family members as gifts to friends, etc. When re-gifting, always be sure to maintain a separation between your various social groups.
5. Pay in cash. While the economy continues tying itself into knots, the major financial institutions are becoming more restrictive with their credit card policies. Some people are waking up and finding that their interest rate has jumped while their credit limit has been decreased. If you are paying for your gifts in cash or with a debit card, then you do not run the risk of having to pay an increased interest rate over the next few months while the market figures itself out. Part of being aware of which items you can pay for in cash is understanding that you may need to restrict your spending this holiday season. In these uncertain economic times, it is important to keep your financial house in order. Sometimes, to keep your own house in order you need to restrict your spending – even during the holiday season. If there is a silver lining in restricting your spending this year it is that there is a strong chance that the people who are buying you gifts are doing the same thing.

These are just a few of the many ways that you can save some money this holiday season. When all else fails, though, remember that this season really isn’t about fancy gifts or expensive trinkets. Family, friends, fellowship, and faith – those are the only things that most people need to enjoy the holiday season. And we’re in luck because they all come free of charge!