Pre-Order "Guarantees"

R

rogre78

CAG Veteran
I have a question about EB/GS preorder policy. They always say "you should preorder it to guarantee a copy". Well what does that mean really?

What happens if they do accidently run out. Or don't get enough supply. Do they compensate you in any way?
 
I've also wonder about the question that you've posted as well for quite some time but never really fully gave it much thought. I would also be interested in the answer. My guess is some sort of compensation, well, hopefully.







And sorry to "threadcrap" but I also have a question regarding pre-orders on games.


Pre-order games question:

1. If a highly anticipated or any game is pre-ordered at store "X" (GS or EB)
2. Then you move to a different city 3 hours away (or even to a different state)
3. Can the pre-ordered game be "transferred" to the new GS or EB? In other words, can you pick up the game in the new city/state on the day of release instead of having to go back to store "X"?
 
That's why you preorder. If they have 65 preorders, they have at least 65 games, and they hold them for 48 hrs i believe.
 
If you preorder a game at a store, you MUST go to that same store to pick it up. So if that location closes, you are SOL.

I preordered Madden 05 at GameStop, recieved the call that it was in, so I drove to get it. Well, their truck was delayed so they never got it. All I got was an apology. I had put money down on it so I didn't go elsewhere.
 
If you preorder a game at a store, you MUST go to that same store to pick it up. So if that location closes, you are SOL.

I preordered Madden 05 at GameStop, recieved the call that it was in, so I drove to get it. Well, their truck was delayed so they never got it. All I got was an apology. I had put money down on it so I didn't go elsewhere.
 
I've seen them run out of games that people have pre-orders for. They were small titles, so it's rare, but it does happen.
I knew a manager who gave 10% off when the game was back in stock, as long as you still had money on it, but as far as I know that isn't policy.
 
[quote name='rogre78']I have a question about EB/GS preorder policy. They always say "you should preorder it to guarantee a copy". Well what does that mean really?[/quote]

That's just their way of getting your money. Only if they gave me a guarantee that included some sort of compensation would I consider pre-ordering anything from GS EVER AGAIN. Personally, I don't pre-order a game EVER anymore, due to picking up a couple real stinkers that I had pre ordered in times past(State Of Emergency for PS2 being one of them). But, if I did, they'd have to have one HELL of a bonus for PO'ing.

[quote name='rogre78']What happens if they do accidently run out. Or don't get enough supply. Do they compensate you in any way?[/quote]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Compensate you? Cmon now, this is Gamestop we're talking about here. This is the same company who tells its employees to get its suckers.....errrrrr.....customers to bring in trades, so they can be ass raped by the lowball values they give for games.

The only ways to kind of 'get even' with them for such low values is to A) wait for a 'trade 3, get $10 extra' and trade all games that you bought for $1-3 each which still get $2-5 per game BEFORE bonuses or B) check around and if they are the only ones offering anything for your games, give them to them, but make sure they are scratched to shit before trading.

If you have any mom and pop shops for games in your city, go to them for your gaming needs over Gamestop, as many will have lower prices than GS 80% of the time. Only time that may backfire is when you want a new release game RIGHT NOW, as most small shops don't order new games but rather wait until their customers bring in a copy once they're done with it.

Personally, if you don't have any mom n pop shops around you, check out secondspin.com for trade values for FYE, as most times the values are spot on. Even though FYE charges more for their games, their games are usually playable and not scratched to hell when you get them.
 
I've preordered large games (Super Mario Sunshine) and small (Raiden III), even systems PS3, and got screwed on release day. Hell, my local Gamestop didn't get Raiden III at all.

Gamestop makes millions on people forgetting about their preorders. They know, if you have money on a game, you will be more likely to pick up up, even when marginal reviews come out.
 
I NEVER pre-order...between the 6 walmarts, 3 circuit citys, 3 best buys, 4 malls, targets and kmarts in my local area the game can be found day one if I really want it...pre ordering is just pre-paying for the game at a specific location..there is no guarantee you will get it day one....
 
And if you do, Malik, then it may be like so many games recently and drop like a stone in price. I don't ever recall games dropping as quickly as I've seen some of them drop in the past year or so EVER before, but then again, about 2 years ago I was still paying FULL PRICE for games.
 
i preordered trauma center for wii at GS when it came out at launch last year. Only one other person did, so the store got two copies. They came in a day before the launch and one of the employees bought "mine." The other guy got his early, so on launch i didnt get one.

She even told me that she bought it, was sorry, but it was at her house. So preorders...meh...
 
Preorders at gamestop, for the most part, don't mean shit. Yeah, they'll hold it for you, unless they want to buy it, or their friends want to buy it, or some chick wants to buy it, or a customer they like wants to buy it, etc., etc. GS is shit. Why do people shop there?
 
so like ive been hunting for an assasins creed limited edition and calling around. most gs said, come in after 48 hours, which i think would mean friday morning but another store said limited editions are on hold for 7 days, which i find hard to believe.
 
[quote name='mietha']Preorders at gamestop, for the most part, don't mean shit. Yeah, they'll hold it for you, unless they want to buy it, or their friends want to buy it, or some chick wants to buy it, or a customer they like wants to buy it, etc., etc. GS is shit. Why do people shop there?[/quote]

Because people, in general, are fuckin stupid? Not ALL are though, let me clarify that, just the ones who go in and trade in 30 games and get $12 in credit and think they 'got a good price'.

Otherwise, I would hope people know they're being ripped off and to avoid that place like the plague.
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']I've preordered large games (Super Mario Sunshine) and small (Raiden III), even systems PS3, and got screwed on release day. Hell, my local Gamestop didn't get Raiden III at all.
[/quote]

Raiden III was never available for preorder.
 
With the exception of the XBOX 360 I preordered there I have had no problem with them and I preorder a lot of stuff with them.
 
[quote name='reibeatall']Raiden III was never available for preorder.[/QUOTE]

Wrong. I preordered it about 10 days before release from the Mission Hills, CAGamestop. As I recall it was even in their 'preorder' books.
 
Weird. I kept checking our system for both Raiden III and Red Star so I could preorder it and make sure my store actually got one. Neither ever showed up.
 
[quote name='monkeydeew']so like ive been hunting for an assasins creed limited edition and calling around. most gs said, come in after 48 hours, which i think would mean friday morning but another store said limited editions are on hold for 7 days, which i find hard to believe.[/quote]

i dont know about that but they were released in very limited quantities, you cant find a 360 LE anywhere, not even in small area's, and almost the same goes for the PS3 version (you could find a few online places yesterday that had it and maybe a CC, BB, or Target if you are lucky but GS's were sold out ahead of time it seems)

ex: my area isn't that big, it's not completely tiny but it's not huge, and the only place as of yesterday at opening that had any LE's was BB and they only had 2 for the PS3, and that number went down to one after I picked it up at opening yesterday


good luck finding one
 
[quote name='mietha']Preorders at gamestop, for the most part, don't mean shit. Yeah, they'll hold it for you, unless they want to buy it, or their friends want to buy it, or some chick wants to buy it, or a customer they like wants to buy it, etc., etc. GS is shit. Why do people shop there?[/QUOTE]


yea, i remember when the ds lites came out i was at a local gamestop which will go unnamed and i heard the employee sell 3 reserved ds lites to his 3 friends. then i overheard them asking , "what are you going to tell the customer when they try to pick it up?" he said "I will just tell them they didn't ship enough copies"

thats why i don't buy anything from those stores any longer. hail to frys and cheapassgamer ads.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Don't get me wrong. I REALLY don't like EB/GS. Being a CAG, I don't like paying full price for a game. But there is the rare occasion where really want a game that's hard to get. For example, I preordered a PS3 at release (and was one of the few who got it) and now I'm expecting to get rock band at release (knock on wood).

It really does annoy me that they use the term "guarantee" so loosely.
 
If you do preorder I would get there early on the day your item is ready for pickup (if they actually get it in on time that is....)

I think what they will do is they will hold your games, but if someone comes in with money to buy the game you had on hold, and its late in the day and you haven't come in yet to pick it up, I think they would sell it to the person with cash in hand. Or as another person mentioned, if their friends want to buy it, or if they want to buy it..etc

I would definitely say its NOT a guarantee.

The only games worth buying now at launch are Pokemon or Zelda games really for me (or other first party Nintendo handheld games that don't drop in price within 2 months of release...) Nintendo usually plans out these launches pretty good so there are enough copies to go around (it also depends on willingness of the manufacturer to provide enough copies), there were enough copies of Pokemon D/P in this city and over 100 people preordered at our Gamestop.. which was very unusual as previous Pokemon games only got 15 preorders.

Any other game I wait until it drops in price from now on so I don't feel stupid for paying full price... its not that I don't have enough games to play in the meantime..
 
[quote name='Callandor']The only problem I've had getting a preorder at release was the Gears of War shipment fiasco at GS.[/QUOTE]


sorry i might sounds like a n00b....but what exactly happened in that fiasco at gamestop.
 
[quote name='v00d00ppl']sorry i might sounds like a n00b....but what exactly happened in that fiasco at gamestop.[/quote]

When Gears launched, the stores got it early. They drove to the airport to pick it up.

Somebody in that region (East/north east) screwed up, and everybody who was supposed to be getting Gears got Viva Pinata instead.
 
[quote name='reibeatall']When Gears launched, the stores got it early. They drove to the airport to pick it up.

Somebody in that region (East/north east) screwed up, and everybody who was supposed to be getting Gears got Viva Pinata instead.[/QUOTE]

Uh, no, just that a lot of stores didn't receive all their copies of Gears, mostly the CE, due so some boxes being missed my FedEx. This led to many people waiting a day to get their preorders. Yet stores OTHER than GS/RB managed to get their copies in with no trouble whatsoever.

If I hadn't preordered using a bunch of trade-in credit, I would have gone elsewhere myself.

I never heard the Viva Pinata part of it before, are you sure that's right?
 
[quote name='reibeatall']Weird. I kept checking our system for both Raiden III and Red Star so I could preorder it and make sure my store actually got one. Neither ever showed up.[/QUOTE]

Red Star wasn't available for pre-order if I remember correctly; Gamestop usually doesn't take preorders for $20 games. But Raiden 3 came out at $29.99.
 
[quote name='Callandor']I never heard the Viva Pinata part of it before, are you sure that's right?[/quote]

Yeah, I'm 100% sure that this happened. It affected a bunch of stores, like two whole regions, I only assumed that's what you were talking about.
 
[quote name='Sc4rfac3']i got a off topic question about preorders
Can you cancel them after the game comes out?[/QUOTE]

Yes you can. You're not obligated to any purchase until, of course, you walk out the door with it and open the wrapper.

I did realize one benefit of preordering at GS today. If you preorder a title, they won't rip open the fuckin' new copies and put the "guts" on the shelf, leaving no sealed copy in the store. Luckily I was near another GS this afternoon while I was out, and they miraculously had sealed copies of UTIII.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I did realize one benefit of preordering at GS today. If you preorder a title, they won't rip open the fuckin' new copies and put the "guts" on the shelf, leaving no sealed copy in the store.[/quote] Maybe not. A few here claimed to receive gutted copies despite preordering.
 
No one has mentioned pre-ordering stuff from Amazon or any online retailers. I suppose they are much more efficient than gamestop
 
With all the online sites nowadays and all the stores in my area there is no need to preorder a game, so if I need a game on day 1 I can get it. Although I have been just waiting for price drops or reductions from amazon or another online site because like 90% of the games I want drop in a month or a couple weeks, then I feel silly for paying full price for a game when it drops in price so soon. Especially since I buy mostly DS and soon to be PSP games, which drop in price very fast.
 
[quote name='Allnatural']Maybe not. A few here claimed to receive gutted copies despite preordering.[/QUOTE]

Egads. I'm not one to mince words about guts, so I would personally take my fuckin' money elsewhere at that point. The world isn't really wanting for more GS stores, so I can't imagine but a few people really only have access to 1 store.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Egads. I'm not one to mince words about guts, so I would personally take my fuckin' money elsewhere at that point. The world isn't really wanting for more GS stores, so I can't imagine but a few people really only have access to 1 store.[/quote]

In my city there are literally four Gamestops on the same boulvard. They're each 1 minute apart from each other at most. There are actually two shopping centers directly across the street from each other, with a Gamestop at each.
 
[quote name='Rozz']In my city there are literally four Gamestops on the same boulvard. They're each 1 minute apart from each other at most. There are actually two shopping centers directly across the street from each other, with a Gamestop at each.[/quote]

Thank god for the internet. Otherwise, people in those cities would be fucked!
 
[quote name='Xevious']Thank god for the internet. Otherwise, people in those cities would be fucked![/quote]

I actually live in a very large metro area (over 5 million people), but unfortunately the only indie shops we have here are either shady pawn shops that you'll get shot at or crappy game speciality stores (the one here sells Guitar Hero 80's for $56.99 used and NBA Live 2K4 for $29.99 used :roll:)
 
[quote name='Rozz']In my city there are literally four Gamestops on the same boulvard. They're each 1 minute apart from each other at most. There are actually two shopping centers directly across the street from each other, with a Gamestop at each.[/QUOTE]

The GS I picked up UTIII at today was 200 feet away from a FuncoLand (same company, right?) and across the street from a shopping mall where - you guessed it - another GS is located.

There is also, I believe, a GS (unless it's still "EB Games") about 1.5 miles from those two. And none of those are the store that's 5 minutes from my house. :lol:
 
That sounds like my area, where there's 3 GS stores(2 of which were still EB Games stores, until they just recently changed the signage) within maybe a 2 minute drive of each other. Then, in another nearby town(20 miles away) there's 2 more GS stores(one in a mall, one in a strip mall).

Plus, they just recently opened a new GS at another newly opened shopping center(supposedly 'upscale') and I overheard from some of the former employees at the one EB that they're planning 2 or 3 more down the line from me.

I don't get how 3 GS stores could be doing well enough that there haven't been store closures yet, especially since one of the three by me have little to no real shoppers in there 70-80% of the time when I stop in.

Hopefully, with any luck the higher ups at GS keep all these stores going and stretch the company too thin and POOF, bye bye Gamestop.
 
Preorder guarantee means you're guaranteed to get the item when it comes out. Unless you order it online. Then it will get smashed and all bonus/promo items will be missing. Of course they'll still be listed as packed in the box even though they never were.

In the Milwaukee area we have 4 gamestop/EBs, a place called Mega Media Xchange which buys/sells dvds/cds/games for prices far superior to gamestop, and a Disc Go Round (which sucks but whatever) all within walking distance. It's kind of silly really. I'd mapquest the driving distances between each place and tell you but it's literally a minute or two between each place.
 
[quote name='Jeoff']Preorder guarantee means you're guaranteed to get the item when it comes out. Unless you order it online. Then it will get smashed and all bonus/promo items will be missing. Of course they'll still be listed as packed in the box even though they never were.
[/quote]

I've had times when I haven't gotten the game when I preordered and went the day shipments came. I've missed many preorder items in-store and I've had to bitch out god knows how many employees about it. Online preorder guarantee means jackshit, as I've literally had stuff not get shipped a month after release and I will have preordered it.
 
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