EB Games Head Office on late Tuesday April 14th 2009 received a shipment from MadKatz containing:
Qty: ~300 PS3 TE Sticks
Qty: ~100 X360 TE Sticks
Sticks were shipped out to the individual stores in quantities of 2, filling the pre-orders in chronological order by a COUNTRY WIDE basis.
Call your local EB Games store and check with them whether or not your order was successfully filled.
There is no word from MadKatz on when the next shipment will be and/or how many quantities it will contain. SO DON’T ASK!
I know it can be tough but just be patient everyone. Your sticks will get here with due time!
I will continue to follow up with my contact @ EB Games Customer Service on a weekly basis to report back any news that I find.
Thanks!
Okay. So here’s what’s going on. I’m sure all of you are getting sick and tired of waiting just like me. Unfortunately not good news. (My information comes from the Customer Service Head Rep @ EB Games head office)
First of all, please understand that EB Games is not the one to blame for the delay. They are simply the retailer, providing the public/us (the consumer) with an outlet to purchase a product (TE Stick) from the supplier (Madkatz).
Here is what the most current update from Madkatz to EB Games contained:
(I can not reproduce it verbatim as this statement was read to me from an internal email over the phone, which can not be sent out externally)
As of today, EB Games has currently stopped taking pre-orders on all TE sticks - until at least the current requests are filled. Probably a good idea since the receivement date is still up in the air.
Btw: I was told that EB Games took about 1400+ preorders for TE sticks (i’m assuming combined x360 and ps3). The pre-orders will be filled based on the order of which they were filled (date/time) by a COUNTRY WIDE basis.
For example: I am Preorder #1 at the Dixie Outlet Mall EB in Mississauga ON. But overall, I’m #150 out of 1400+. Let’s say say on the first shipment, EB games only received 50 TE sticks from Madkatz. My store and subsequently me both don’t receive the TE stick as we are too far down the list.
If you want to find out what # your are on the preorder list, you can call the head office and ask to speak with Customer Service and I’m sure he will be glad to help you.
1-905-790-9262. Office hours are M-F, 8:30 to 5:30.
If you want someone to complain to in this case, it would be Madkatz. Here is their toll free number 1-800-831-1442 (they are based on the west coast so please remember time zones)
There are 2 conflicting reports of launch dates. I would assume the head office is right.
Sorry right before I was going to post this yesterday, SRK crashed (again, sigh)
Alright. As of 11:30AM EST on Thursday January 22nd, it was confirmed by the EB Games Head Office that ** both the Regular and TE Sticks for PS3 and X360 are listed as ACTIVE in the inventory, thus are available for pre-order.**
As for why some stores are giving you the run around and others are not, I can not give you an answer.
What I suggest is go into the store (or call ahead!) and ask them to lookup (using the SKU’s) of the stick which you want to pre-order. Tell them that you know from head office that:
- the stick is listed as available and
- you were told to go to your local EB so that you could pre-order it.
If the store is still being difficult (and depending on how far you are willing to go), you can call customer service and file a complaint. Do this at the store, infront of the employee for best results. lol.
1-905-790-9262 and ask to speak with customer service. **Office hours are M-F, 8:30 to 5:30. **
The 1-800-883-8895 number listed on the EB Games Canada site is actually the US call center. I’m not sure how helpful they will be in this matter. (They use different SKU’s and their entire inventory system is separate from Canada’s)
There is really no reason to let EB Games to continue to dick you guys around. Good luck and post your results!
**
Go To Your Local EB and Place Your Pre-Order! The Tournament Edition Fight Sticks are now AVAILABLE!
Canadian Retail Price is $189.99!
SKU’s are as follows:
$189.99 PS3 TE Stick = 6162317
$189.99 X360 TE Stick = 6162291
**
If you find a store that is still not sure what you are referring to, give them the SKU and ask them to look it up in the system. Don’t let them feed you the bullshit of why they can’t take pre-orders because “Oh it isn’t in the system” or “It’s listed as unavailable” etc. The SKU is the best way to look up a product as there has been a lot of confusion surrounding these SF4 accessories.
Not everyone is as hardcore as us SRK’ers so please do your best to forgive them 
If that doesn’t work, call head office and file a complaint against that store. =\
The Following is Confirmed with the EB Games Head Office:
- Both X360 + PS3 TE Fight Stick’s are now available for pre-order.
- Shipment for the sticks is estimated to be Mid - End of March 2009
- Canadian Retail Price: $189.99
- Exact number of TE Fight Sticks to be supplied in the first shipment still TBD. Meaning that the pre-order doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a stick right away. If there are not enough sticks in the first shipment then you will obviously have to wait for future shipments to fill your order.
I would assume that the pre-orders would be filled on a first come, first serve basis.
With that in mind, I’ve already pre-ordered my 2 PS3 TE Fight Stick’s. Why pay for rent when you gotta play SF4!!!
I got sick and tired of listening to the same old crap from the EB stores. It didn’t make sense to me that their information was inconsistent with what the MadCatz rep was reporting.
I called the EB Games head office and FINALLY found somebody (Andrea) who was able to help. The good news is that, YES EB GAMES will carry the TE Sticks! The bad news is that they will not have them for the launch of SF4.
In fact, I was told that the very earliest that the TE Sticks will be made available for pre-order will be March 2009. Please understand that this does not mean on March 1st, pre-ordering will commence. This is to say that pre-ordering will not happen before this date.
I was told the reason Canada was being delayed was due to the unexpected demand. EB Games / Gamestop have a common supplier which made the decision to fill and process all of the US preorders first before accepting any Canadian preorders.
Here are the EB Games’ SKU’s for the TE Sticks. Take them back to the EB stores that told you “Oh we don’t have this stick in our system. The SKU isn’t listed” and laugh in their face. (Note: Gamestop and EB Games use different SKU’s for their products)
**$149.99 PS3 TE Stick = 6162317
$149.99 X360 TE Stick = 6162291 **
The PS3 TE Stick is listed as “Discontinued” or “Inactive”. Preorders can not be processed for items under this status.
The X360 TE Stick is listed as “Available”. This means that the stick CAN be preordered. I found this to be strange as to why one stick was available and the other wasn’t. Andrea dug around found out that this was a system error :annoy:. Both sticks should be listed as “Discontinued” and it will be corrected ASAP.
If you are reading this post and manage to get to an EB with the X360 SKU before the status is changed, I’m not sure it will make a difference as their supplier doesn’t have any units to ship out either way.
In short, for the time being all we can do is patiently wait. Canada will get the TE Sticks, just not in time for the SF4 launch.
I suggest calling your local EB games with the SKU every few days and just ask them to check the status of the stick. And of course as soon as you find an active status, POST IN THIS THREAD AND LET EVERYONE ELSE KNOW!
Thanks!
Well as you all may or may not have known, (other than online retailers) locating a store to pre-order one of these TE sticks has been pretty much impossible. The most popular Canadian video game retailer (EB Games), wasn’t taking preorders for any of the SF4 accessories (I was told because they “didn’t have the SKU” in their system 
).
However, recently the SKUs have been made available albeit only for the Regular Edition Fight Stick and Fight Pad. The TE Stick is still no where to be found.
Either way, that is all water under the bridge now as pre-order for the sticks have been officially “sold out”. See the news link below:
From that very same post, in the discussion log below the news story Mr. Alex Verrey himself replied:
With a little Google’ing, I pulled his e-mail from a similar type of post where he was promoting the new rockband “controllers”.
So what I propose is to have us fellow Canadian SRK’ers write to Mr. Verrey himself and inform him of the current situation (mainly the lack of Canadian retailers. How did the Canadian EB’s get the shaft anyways?).
I am sure he is aware of the situation but I feel if he can see how many people this is effecting then a remedy will soon follow (I like to stay optimistic). We Canadians need our TE sticks too!
Hopefully he will be able to provide an ETA!
Thanks!
Looking forward to see everyone’s letters and hopefully responses as well!