"Horrific promotion." "Very disappointed." "Cheap marketing trick." "Lies!" Just some of the responses found online to Uber Eats' offer of a free Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 copy when purchasing fish and chips last Friday.

The highly-publicised promotion - which offered a free copy of COD when you ordered a £7.99 cod and chips from one of three participating Harry Ramsden's resturants while stocks lasted - seemed too good to be true. And indeed it was.

Stocks did not last, despite the promotion being advertised as available all weekend. Uber Eats customers hungry for a deal claim they refreshed their apps constantly only to find the offer marked as sold out or unavailable as soon as it was supposed to go live. Some who did manage to place an order report their purchases were later cancelled or not accepted by the resturants.

Responding to the issues on its Twitter the following morning, Harry Ramsden's stated:

"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 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"

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

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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

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I spoke to Harry Ramsden's customer support this morning and asked how exactly the matter had been resolved. The support rep I talked with advised me the deal was an Uber Eats promotion, and that anyone affected should contact Uber Eats instead.

However, I was told there were only 40 copies of the game made available in total - roughly 13 for each store. Where these actually ended up, the chain could not say.

Speaking to Uber Eats on the phone, a company representative advised me to contact the company again via its website. The firm has seemingly only provided customers with canned responses over what went wrong.

"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," an Uber spokesperson said in a statement provided to Eurogamer this morning. "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."

Looking on Twitter, plenty of people were hooked in by the scheme:

Hooray! Able to place order. Then 2 minutes later on website I get this message.... Looks like I wont be playing #CODwithcod from @UberEats @HarryRamsdensUK or @CallofDuty - phone app still says processing so here is hoping :) pic.twitter.com/EJjoGPBObA — muchorandom (@muchorandom) October 12, 2018

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Never mind, order just cancelled. Oh well. — Adib Khondkar (@adibdob) October 12, 2018

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@HarryRamsdensUK ive very disappointed in your cheap marketing scam with regards to your #codforcod campaign. You and @UberEats should be ashamed — qes (@tellmemoreg) October 12, 2018

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@Uber_Support Good job on the fake marketing campaign that #codforcod was. Waited around until @HarryRamsdensUK finally opened on UberEats at about 12:20, placed my order, waited another 20 mins just to have my order cancelled? Utter disgrace and building people?s hopes up. — Zeemex Customs (@ZeemexCustoms) October 12, 2018

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#CoDforCOD was supposed to be a weekend deal, but didn?t even last until the stores opened. How? Is anyone?s guess. — vhs dot exe (@VHS_exe) October 12, 2018

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@Uber_Support how was the #CodForCod in Manchester sold out long before the shop even opened when pre-ordering wasn't even an option? — Meyer (@James_MTM) October 12, 2018

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Some people, at least, kept their sense of humour about the whole fishuation:

@UberEats @HarryRamsdensUK You have no plaice to tell people they can get a deal and then not do it. You cod have just told us the truth. Im reely dissappointed. Im a pacifisht but you've got under my scales with this one. Load of pollocks! #codforCoD — Samuel (@samuel_thorley) October 12, 2018