Dan’s son is learning an important consumer life lesson, which is that sometimes companies promise really fun things that just don’t happen. GameStop sent out a promotional e-mail about a really cool contest involving Backyard Baseball ’10. Except the contest isn’t working, and no one knows who can help Dan straighten it out.

I got an e-mail from GameStop a few weeks ago saying that people who played Backyard Baseball ’10 on the “hard” level would get a code at the end of each season played and could then be entered into a contest to win a $1000 gift card to GameStop and a signed David Ortiz baseball. My 8-year-old son is into baseball after playing on his little league team this spring and I thought it would be something for him to do over the summer months (with some help from me).

We finally finished our first season a couple of weeks ago but we didn’t get a code. I thought that was weird and searched through every possible menu item to find the code the GameStop and Atari web sites talked about. Unfortunately, there was nothing available. So I e-mailed their customer support address and waited a few days. I didn’t hear anything. I found another e-mail address and tried that but still haven’t heard back after a week. I tried calling their contact number for “media inquiries” just to see who I could talk to but no one answered.

I’m sure it could be a simple mistake my son and I are making so we can’t get the code but I have searched the internets to no avail and Backyard Sports won’t contact me back. I also called GameStop but they told me they had nothing to do with it and would have to contact Atari and Backyard Sports.

So GameStop has nothing to do with the contest that they e-mailed their customers about. Fine, that happens. Why don’t they have any information on who to contact when things aren’t working as they should?

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