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FREE Replacement Guitar Hero III disc for the Wii

post #1 of 164
2/16/08 at 11:34am
Thread Starter 
For anyone that has Guitar Hero III for the Nintendo Wii, Activision is offering a FREE replacement disc for it because of an audio issue with the disc. The issue is that the disc is only outputting MONO sound, and not STEREO Surround Sound.

This will also be good, if your disc is a little scratched up, due to young ones mishandling the disc.

Here is the info from Activision's website for the replacement:

We wanted to provide you with an update regarding the status of the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wii replacement discs. As you know, some consumers have not been able to enjoy the full audio output of Dolby Pro Logic II on the Wii version of Guitar Hero III. Activision has worked with Nintendo to improve the audio experience and has re-mastered the game. We are offering Wii consumers who have Dolby capabilities or audio issues free replacement discs.

Customers based in North America that want to register for a free replacement disc can call (866) 780-8286 from 8:00am-8:00pm EST, Monday-Friday, or register online at the following website:

Activision Game Exchange.

If you have already registered for a replacement disc and would like to check the status of your exchange, please Click Here.

We thank all of our customers for their support and patience. Should you have any further inquiries, please contact Activision customer support .

In order to be notified by email as the information on this page is updated, please click the 'Notify Me by Email if this Answer is Updated' button. Please note- you must have an account with us to use this feature. If you do not have an account yet, you can create one by clicking the My Stuff tab and then 'Create a New Account'
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post #2 of 164
2/16/08 at 10:30pm
Yep, I signed up for my replacement kit about a month ago and got it yesterday. I'll send off the disc within the next few days. It says you'll have to allow 3-4 weeks to receive the replacement after receipt of the original disc is confirmed. You'll be able to check its status on Activision's rebate status site. You need to have your package postmarked no later than August 31, 2008. Otherwise you won't get a replacement or your original disc returned!
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post #3 of 164
2/17/08 at 3:55am
You don't have to send anything other than the disc do you? Or maybe you do? I doubt I even have a receipt if they ask for that.

I still haven't got my packaging sent.

I guess I will try to play the game until I feel like I can deal with a 3-4 week break, so I wont send it in for a few weeks I guess. It really sucks they would wait this long to offer the new disc and then even take weeks to get the disc back out. They are obviously trying everything possible to convince owners to not "waste their time" sending in the faulty disc so they won't have to replace as many. I wish someone else was suing them. I wonder what happened the last time they were sued a month or two ago.
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post #4 of 164
2/17/08 at 7:44am
Nope, there's a postage-paid disk mailer for you to put your disc in. They tell you not to send any packaging, just the game disc. No receipt is needed. Good point about the time period. I guess they really are trying not to give away these discs!
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post #5 of 164
2/17/08 at 8:23am
i signed up a few weeks ago.. and nothing yet...
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post #6 of 164
2/18/08 at 8:25am
3-4 weeks, are you f**** kidding me? Yes, it's good they came through with replacement discs, but a solution that robs me of my game for a MONTH is pretty unacceptable. They could at least fork out for overnight shipping both ways.
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post #7 of 164
2/18/08 at 11:23pm
Complain about it somewhere becuase they keep getting away with these bad decisions.
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post #8 of 164
2/19/08 at 11:26am
Yeah, bully for Activision (I guess) for even sending out replacements, but in my opinion they really should be eating the loss here on their own ridiculous mistake and get people their replacements quicker. 3-4 weeks' wait is pretty absurd.
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post #9 of 164
2/21/08 at 8:27am
If you signed up but still haven't got anything, go to http://activision.rebatestatus.com and check to see if they already mailed your prepaid disc mailer out.
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post #10 of 164
2/21/08 at 2:12pm
Activision is also doing full refunds if you want to go that route. http://www.activisiongameexchange.co...efundoffer.pdf
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post #11 of 164
2/21/08 at 7:55pm
Mailed my disc out a week and a half ago, they received my disc today and are processing the replacement for shipping, I'll keep you updated on how long the process takes.
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post #12 of 164
2/21/08 at 11:05pm
I wonder if the refund offer means the game will never be sold separately from guitars. If they werre sold separately, someone could keep thr guitar, send in the disc, get the full refund, then buy a disc sold separately and end up with the guitar and proper disc for $40 less. And I definitely would not feel like it's cheating someone who took this long to even offer anything at all to people who had the mono disc for so long.

I also wonder if the replacement offer extends until the end of August, just as the refund offer does. If so then I could keep this game until June when the aerosmith one comes out, thus I wouldn't care that I have to be without the disc for a month.
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post #13 of 164
2/22/08 at 7:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BASHERS33 View Post

I also wonder if the replacement offer extends until the end of August, just as the refund offer does. If so then I could keep this game until June when the aerosmith one comes out, thus I wouldn't care that I have to be without the disc for a month.

Yes, your disc must be mailed no later than August 31, 2008 to get a replacement... as I stated in the second post.
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post #14 of 164
2/23/08 at 7:51am
So I jumped through the hoops that Activision put out, got my disc mailer, and promptly returned it with disc and claim form. Then, I got my first notice that they had received my claim and were processing it. A couple of days later I got a second email say "Unfortunately, we were unable to honor your request" b/c I did not return an original GH III disc with my claim form. I bought the bundle from Target, so I'm pretty sure it's authentic. My disc was certainly in the mailer when it left my house. Guess I'm going to try and call Activision and try to get some answers. Any advice???
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post #15 of 164
2/23/08 at 10:57am
No advice, but I hope someone in the mail service didn't swiped your disc out of the mailer. I mean, what stops an unscrupulous mailman from just taking the disc out and chucking the mailer anyway? The mailing label says Guitar Hero on it. I wish they didn't do that. Good luck... to all of us!
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post #16 of 164
2/23/08 at 5:51pm
I received that e-mail as well.

"Unfortunately, we were unable to honor your request for the following reason: We did not receive an original Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for Wii game disc with your request. The original game disc is required."

I wonder how many people this has happened to. Is this going to turn out to be Activision screwing something else up, or the postal service ripping us off like the Netflix incident a while back?
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post #17 of 164
2/23/08 at 11:26pm
hahaha I wish someone would sue the **** out of Activision. They are beyond ridiculous. Waiting this long and then finding yet another way to cheat people.
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post #18 of 164
2/25/08 at 7:49pm
I just received the disc return package today and I am a little hesitant about sending my disc in. The return mailer makes it pretty obvious that there is a guitar hero disc inside, and would hate for some sticky fingered postal employee to help themselves and have to go through a "no disc received" nightmare. 3-4 weeks wait for a return is bad enough, I can't imagine how long it would end up taking if you had to fight with Activision trying to prove that you actually sent the disc. I will probably wait awhile and see how many horror stories surface. I might just live with the mono sound.
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post #19 of 164
2/26/08 at 5:43am
It's really as if Activision sat down and purposely thought of the worst possible way to implement this fix. Labeling the return mailer with a giant "CONTAINS GUITAR HERO DISC INSIDE!" sign is just...idiotic. I was gonna mail in for the replacement disc just 'cause it's free, as I haven't even played GHIII in months, but now, I may not even bother. My receiver can fake stereo sound well enough for the odd occasion I do play the game, anyway.
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post #20 of 164
2/26/08 at 7:19am
Exactly. They DID sit down and purposely do that just as I';ve been saying the whole time. I know it probably sounded like I was being paranoid, but it is beyond obvious they are trying every tactic to save themselves money.

1. They wait more than THREE.MONTHS. to even offer an exchange.
2. Some people say their guitars are faulty.
3. They didn't even take the product off the shelf when learning they illegally were selling something with false advertising on the box. Thus why they even got sued. I don't know what happened with that, but they DEFINITELY should have got into trouble for knowingly misleading for months like this.
4. This stupid setup for the exchange system.

I am going to wait until June when the aerosmith game is out and THEN maybe send in for the refund and then repurchase this that way I would have 2 guitars and the good sound version of the game for the price of the game and one guitar. It's their OWN policy so if someone thinks it's ripping them off, then oh well. I really wish they would get punished in some big way.

They purposely are tryinhg to make people act exactly like several of you are where you think it's not worth the bother. They should seriously get in trouble over that. I AM THE SAME, I don't want to risk their stupid exchange program that has already taken months to start up and then they do this BS where they cause even MORE issues.
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post #21 of 164
2/26/08 at 2:26pm
Got a message that my replacement disc was mailed the 25th of February and that it could take up to 15 days to arrive, so I think that the 3-4 week period is slightly overstated.
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post #22 of 164
2/26/08 at 3:15pm
Regardless though if it's a crap shoot whether they give you a disc back, that is bad.
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post #23 of 164
2/26/08 at 8:53pm
So the score so far is:

People ripped off: 2
People getting a disc: 1
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post #24 of 164
2/26/08 at 9:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BASHERS33 View Post

I am going to wait until June when the aerosmith game is out and THEN maybe send in for the refund and then repurchase this that way I would have 2 guitars and the good sound version of the game for the price of the game and one guitar.

BASHERS - How's that going to work? Don't you have to send back both the disk and the guitar to get the refund?

Am I missing something here?
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post #25 of 164
2/26/08 at 10:20pm
I am just assuming they will only ask for the disc like with the other trade-in. But I am sure you're right that they are too smart at preventing that sicne they were smart enough to come up with 100 ways to save tyhemselves money already. lol
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post #26 of 164
2/27/08 at 5:39am
Here on the avsfourm, we have a unique situation, we are an audience that is very concerned with audio and visual quality. Things that we care and obsess about are not of much concern to most of the population that buys a Wii. Both the graphics and audio on the Wii are sub par to its competition, no digital audio out or HD output. The majority of people that buy a Wii probably use the speakers in the TV for sound. They would not notice the difference between stereo and mono sound on the TV on the TV speakers anyway. I know someone that has guitar hero for his Wii, and when I asked him about the bug, he had to think about it for abit, and he told me it had to do with pro logic surround sound not working. Said it did not bother him...

Red Octane is going to concentrate their resources where it will benefit the majority of the customers... On new versions of the game, like Aerosmith. It may seem like everyone on here is upset and complaining about this, but in reality we make up a very small percentage of the gamers that play GH3, especially on the Wii. We are the minorities here... Red Octane is not going to bend over backwards to please us, we probably make up less than 5% of their customer base. Especially if you factor in the PS and Xbox consoles.

Having said all that, I just recently bought a copy of GH3 for my Wii, and I hope its in stereo. If not, I will be returning it. Hope this sheds some light on our situation.
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post #27 of 164
2/27/08 at 6:44am
That's a healthy "big picture" perspective you have there (how unusual for avsforum), and I salute you for it. In fact, of the three people I know who have it -- who decidedly are NOT AV nerds, unlike me -- none of them even noticed the sound problem. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop irrationally and unproductively bitching on a messageboard about it.

That being said, I do think Activision has a responsibility to address the lack of an advertised feature, even if only a miniscule chunk of their audience notices its absence. And if we really are such a small part of their customer base, then well, it won't cost them that much to treat so few people right. Plus, the mono issue, in conjunction with other boners they've pulled with this game (lack of co-op quickplay, high price, no standalone guitars available), adds up to a general feeling of incompetent cashing-in on the part of Activision that leads customers to feeling they got fleeced. No, they have no responsibility to bend over backward for us, but their image could certainly stand the boost from doing so.
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post #28 of 164
2/27/08 at 9:53am
Does anyone know or can confirm if the current crop of GH3 for the Wii has the Dolby sound fixed? It would make sense to me that the releases now are fixed?
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post #29 of 164
2/27/08 at 11:26am
Nothing with Red Octane makes sense so I wouldn't assume they are all fine now.

By the way I actually use tv audio, but mono would be a problem even for that really.
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post #30 of 164
2/27/08 at 1:53pm
I received the disc today, only 2 or 3 days after they received the original. Nothing added but the audio fix.
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