Uber’s ‘Cod For COD’ Promo Turned Out To Be A Load Of Carp

Turns out that the Uber Eats promo at the end of last week, to give away copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 for free alongside deliveries of cod and chips was a bit too good to be true. It go an awful lot of coverage (from ourselves as well, because the story tickled me) but left people disappointed as the handful of copies of the game that were available disappeared within moments.

In fact, after reaching out to Harry Ramsden and Uber Eats customer support Eurogamer were told that just forty copies of Black Ops 4 were available, split evenly between the three locations. The promotion was advertised as running all weekend, but had absolutely no hope of doing so.

UBER-EATS/COD;
The anticipation and enthusiasm for the new COD game were demonstrated in the speed at which the promotion sold out in our London and Manchester stores.

Due to an unfortunately timed technical issue in our Birmingham outlet…(part 1/2)

— Harry Ramsden's (@HarryRamsdensUK) October 13, 2018

Part 2/2
….a small number of gaming enthusiasts were initially left disappointed.

As soon as we were made aware of the issue, the matter was shared with the team at UberEats and swiftly resolved. #CodForCod #COD (part 2/2) pic.twitter.com/9x2zWOdPXP

— Harry Ramsden's (@HarryRamsdensUK) October 13, 2018

Update: Uber Eats have also released a statement in response to the palaver:

To celebrate the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Uber Eats offered customers a copy of the game for no extra cost when ordering portions of cod and chips – while stocks lasted. The Cod for CoD Bundle (priced at £7.99) was available in three participating Harry Ramsden restaurants; London (Victoria), Manchester (Castlemore), Birmingham (Barclaycard Arena). The demand from the public was overwhelming and the bundle sold out within minutes.

We are aware of some customer complaints which we are investigating and will update those customers accordingly.

Obviously this means that, though I’m at pains to admit it, Tuffcub was right and it sold out in moments. However, there’s a good dozen ways that this could have been a more honest publicity stunt for the two companies. Here’s a few:

• Uber get a hundred or more copies of the game and properly label it as being very, very limited in number, instead of implying it could last all weekend.
• Uber, a company not known for turning much of a profit, throw money at it and buy over 1000 copies to give away, staggering their release across the weekend
• Uber charge a more representative price of £40-45, making the cod and chips the freebie and allowing the PR budget to stretch much, much further.

There you go Uber. Those ideas are free for when you run a horse burger promo for Red Dead Redemption 2.

On the whole, it’s still a much better idea than the whole “Wee for Wii” competition that was run years ago and ended up in someone dying.

Source: Eurogamer