GameStop tries to Make it Right with "Coupon-Gate" Customers

Not even a week has passed since some heavy controversy surrounding GameStop and "Coupon-Gate" and they're already aiming to patch things up with customers with a coupon and a gift card – nice of them, yes? It was less than a week ago that Gamestop discovered one of the PC games they'd been carrying, "Deus Ex: Human Revolution", had inside its box a coupon for OnLive, one of GameStop's newest competitors. What ensued was a series of actions that, in the end, (or at least we hope this is the end,) had GameStop apologizing to their customers and offering them both a $50 gift card and a Buy Two, Get One Free used game purchase coupon. Will this be enough?

What happened was that when GameStop discovered the OnLive coupon in the boxes for the PC game in question, they ordered employees to open all boxes and remove the coupon before they were sold. OnLive is a service that'll soon be competing with GameStop's own similar streaming gaming project. This resulted in a sort of gamer uproar amongst those who'd purchased the game and would have loved to have used the coupon. The developers of the Deus Ex game took some of the responsibility for not having told GameStop that they'd be including this competitor's coupon in their game's boxes, agreeing to take back unsold copies to remove coupons (then re-ship them back re-sealed, we can only assume.)

Now comes the next step, a move which GameStop hopes will help users gain back any trust they lost in the company during this whole evil affair. In this email (text included below) you'll find the coupon information – note that it is customers that purchased the game via the online GameStop store as well as those who are members of the chain's Power Up Rewards card program.

Dear GameStop customer,

Earlier this week, GameStop removed a competitor's coupon from standard edition PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a recent release by Square Enix. We were not aware that the product box would contain this competitor's offer. We regret the events surrounding this title release and that our customers were put in the middle of this issue between GameStop and Square Enix, the publisher of this game. And for this, we are truly sorry.

For your inconvenience, we would like to offer you a free $50 GameStop gift card and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free pre-owned purchase. We want to earn back your trust and confidence in the GameStop experience. Please bring in this email and your store receipt or order confirmation from GameStop.com and present it to a Game Advisor.

Sincerely,
Paul Raines
CEO, GameStop

We can only assume that this offer will be good for anyone who purchased the standard edition of the game, but only a visit to the store you purchased the game from with the receipt from the game will let you know for sure.