1. I caused an uproar cause I said not to threaten employees for something you have no right too?
2. You assuming it can be given out doesn't make it so. There are other factors the employee would have to look into. Preorders for one. Also, knowing full well that to qualify for the figure, you would need to buy the game, if you get told to pay $4 instead of $18, thats a win. Take it and run.
3. Its true that theres no way for them to know if they had it, sold it, threw them away, or anything. However, that does not entitle you to its ownership. You have no right to that item at all unless the employee wants you to have it. If he decides to sell it or give it away, its not your decision to make, its his.
4. The only thing in my oriignal post that was combative was me saying "stfu". The rest was simply saying that harassing a store employee over a $4 item, which should really cost you $18, is dumb.
You also claim you never told the guy "not to call the district manager" in your original post but thats not true at all. You post gives the impression he should call. "worst case he gets in trouble, best you get what you want". Thats what you said. How would he get in trouble unless the guy did call the district manager? Harassing the employee, is the best way to guarantee you never get anything "free" again, so unless he did something incredibly rude, don't be an ass.
I'm not gonna reply back to this. You can if you want. You want to handle things a certain way, fine. I don't agree with the approach. Especially when the employee, was really doing him a favor.