The bad news: the GameStop where Ambyr went to buy a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops for her husband only had enough copies of the game to fill pre-orders. The good news: In GameStop’s universe, to “pre-order” means that you leave the store that just refused to sell you a game, order that game online, and then return fifteen minutes later. Bad for logic, good for Ambyr.
To my dearest Consumerist. I thought you might find this amusing… seeing as how you love GameStop and their wily ways.
Today, Call of Duty: Black Ops came out. My husband is a big fan, and I (who did not preorder it), wanted to have it for him by the time he got home.
I checked online at Gamestop.com to find that the store closest to me does have it in stock. I left work on my lunch break and went over right away. Upon walking up to the counter, I see a few dozen copies of the game, in PS3, right behind the cashier. Credit Card already in hand, I asked for a copy. He asked if I had Pre-Ordered, to which I said I had not. “I’m all out, except for pre-orders”. He told me.
Seeing how many are behind him, I know that they very well could have all been preordered. HOWEVER, if the online system says that he has them in stock, I have to assume that either he’s wrong, or it is. One of them is not correct, and I decided to test it out, and see which one it was.
I walked out of that establishment, and into the building next door (Jimmy John’s sub shop, mmm). While eating my tuna sub, I went online to Gamestop.com, clicked on the front page button that says Pickup@store, put in my information… and was told that I could go get my game. I waited for my email confirmation to come in to my email. Once it showed up, threw away my lunch trash, and headed back inside Gamestop.
When I got inside, the cashier recognized me. With a slight tilt of his head, he asked me if he could help me. I told him “I’m preordered now.” And showed him my phone. He asked what I had done, and I told him exactly how I had done this as he confirmed in his system that I have a copy waiting for me. He gave me my Call Of Duty after I paid… and I was on my way.
So why is it that when I just want to buy a copy of the game, there are none… but if I go on my phone and “preorder” one, I can have it minutes later?
This is also a useful trick at other retailers: use it to escape Best Buy’s “optimization” upsells, for example.
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I don’t like to pre-order games, but will normally stop by game stop (which is outside of Wal-mart) to pick up a game that just came out…. since normally for a brand new game, the price is the same in Game Stop & Wal-mart (just less lines)
EVERY SINGLE TIME I will get the game stop employee telling me “Oh man, i don’t know if we have any extra copies – we usually just get enough in to fill the pre-orders – you should really think about pre-ordering games before the release date…. but let me go in the back to see if there are any extra’s left”…. in which 1 minute later they return with the “You are so lucky we happen to have an extra left…. do you want to pre-order XXXXX game that will be out soon to guarentee that it will be in?”
…. in which my reply is “no, if it’s not here – I’ll just go into Wal-Mart and pick it up.
I did something similar to rent a car. I flew into LAX, but my girlfriend was unable to get out of work to pick me up. I walked in to a car rental place, waited on line forever, only to be told they didn’t have any cars to give me. I walked outside, made a phone call, got a reservation number, walked back in, cut to the front of the line, and walked out with car keys.
Gamestop’s in-store pickup is a fucking joke. I’ve tried to order shit online for in-store pickup only to get an e-mail hours later informing me that they couldn’t find the item at the location I chose. The store is on the way home, so I’d pop in and every single time without fail I’d find the game sitting right there on the shelf. I’m assuming the system falls apart because the clerks are just too fucking lazy to walk over to the shelf and look for whatever it is that I’ve ordered.