New and used game retailer GameStop is well-known for its culture of encouraging pre-sales. Employees convince customers to reserve copies of future products by paying all or part of the balance in advance, pleasing their corporate overlords. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, and in rare cases customers can get stiffed.

Blonde Nerd (warning: there’s a bit of salty language in the post) tells one such harrowing story. She pre-ordered the guide to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but when it came time to pick up the purchase at the store, was told GameStop was out of stock because it hadn’t ordered enough copies. A clerk took down her information and promised a call if more guides came in.

After several days passed, she checked back in and was told the store didn’t have her pre-order registered in its computer, even though she still had the receipt that proved she placed the order. After she was told GameStop wouldn’t be receiving any more copies of the guide, she gave up and ordered it on Amazon. Rubbing salt into a wound thought healed, she later found that the GameStop at which she placed the pre-order had the second edition of the guide in stock.

While this is by no means the norm at GameStop, the outcome is not at all impossible, and something to keep in mind when considering pre-ordering items there or anywhere else that doesn’t have your full trust.

Dammit, GameStop. [Blonde Nerd]

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