Recently there was a promo on the official Blizzard website regarding the “Gear Fest”:
Now I am aware that the shop was outsourced to Fanatics, so when I had a problem with the order for Gear Fest items I put in on November 4th (in that the order was confirmed and paid but never shipped), I contacted Fanatics customer support via the Gear Store site.
Their response was so abysmal and probably even problematic on a legal basis that I’d like to inform someone at Blizzard about this so they can review the influence on brand reception through this third party vendor.
Blizzard still uses terms like “we’ve launched” and “our wares” when talking about the Gear Store. To the blues herein, is there an address or recipient at Blizzard for these concerns?
Edit: after 2 days of no response from a blue poster, the answer, it appears, is “no”.
So my recommendation to whoever reads this, based on my own personal experience: do not order from the Blizzard Gear Store.
Despite what their ToS say, orders will not be split and sent out if a Gear Fest item becomes “unavailable” while others are in stock, you will not be informed about any delays to your order and emails to their customer service will be ignored entirely.
I paid my order in full on November 4th and a customer service representative from Fanatics told me in a customer service chat on December 14th (!) that, and I paraphrase, I “need to wait” (but would not tell me for how long) and that any sort of attempt at contact with Fanatics regarding an order paid in full would be a “waste of time” because I had “no leverage, nothing”. That part is verbatim.
So after the desaster of ordering via the Blizzard store before the switch to Fanatics, the Gear Store is again not keeping a delivery date, won’t tell you when things would be delivered, does not offer to split your order so you at least get the available items and there is literally nobody, neither at Fanatic nor at Blizzard, that seems to give a hoot.
Happy Holidays, y’all.