Remember all of those commercials at the beginning of the NFL season, offering a free copy of Madden 10 on the console of your choice, with a 28 week paid subscription to Sports Illustrated?  Sounded like a great deal, right?

As reported by The Consumerist at the end of August, it would take 2-3 weeks to get your copy of the game.  That sounded pretty reasonable, so we took the bait and placed our order.

Well…

My brother took part in this offer 6 weeks ago.  We’ve gotten many issues of Sports Illustrated, as well as a copy of the sure to be crappy Madden: Road to Canton DVD.  However, we have still not gotten a copy of the Madden 10 video game.

 

Upon finally calling customer service this morning, my brother was told that it will be a few months before he receives his game, as they ‘ran out’ of copies.  How do you run out of a game that is wildly available in thousands of retail stores?  Weak excuse, SI.

 

From a customer service standpoint, they should honor their word as best they can, spend whatever extra they have to spend to fill the orders, apologize to those who still haven’t received their game, and make sure to plan properly for future offers like this.

 

In the end, his subscription is being canceled, and we’ll go get our own copy of the game from the local Game Stop.  I know a lot of people got their copy of the game 4-6 weeks after placing their order (which in the internet age, is ridiculous).  But we got nothing.

The lesson?  Don’t fall for any of SI’s subscription offers.  You might get what they’re promising, or you might get hosed.